What Is Honest Food?

Honest Food is food grown using sustainable farming methods. Since not everyone knows what that is I tell customers that we raise on the farm is grown pretty much the same way our grandparents grew their food. In other words, without synthetic chemicals and with a lot of composted horse manure. We regularly rotate crops, and plant cover crops of clover and buckwheat once something is turned over to add nitrogen and organic matter to the soil. This creates the healthiest and richest soil for crops and the customers say, the most delicious food they’ve tasted.

We also plant flowers and herbs in between rows of vegetables to attract beneficial insects and we concentrate on those crops that we can grow successfully using organic methods and organic approved products (not eggplants!).  These are common organic practices but its something that my grandparents did as well in between the rows of beans and corn.

We’re in transition to becoming certified organic but I’m torn about what the label has become. Organic food has gotten highly industrialized — mostly the processed foods but also the large scale organic vegetable and fruit industry.  There is far too much processed food — including TV dinners and junk food — with the certified organic label. I mean when there’s organic Ragu and Rice Krispies I don’t feel like  my prize beets should be in the same category but there you have it.

So I mostly stick to talking about "honest food"  with customers and the importance of local food and creating local food systems.  When I worked as a food editor for the late Organic Style magazine, people seemed to have a mixed reaction to the term ‘organic.’ For some, there was this blind belief that anything called organic was automatically healthier and better for them, no matter how much it cost. For others, organic food was akin to bad tasting hippie macrobiotic cuisine (if that’s the right word for grains, greens, legumes, and sprouts) and probably vegetarian. Not everything organic is good for you unless it’s fresh of course. And my shopping list for organic, humanely raised protein is far from vegetarian.

I started the nonprofit farm and the blog to talk to people about good, honest food raised by small farmers in a way that sustains the land.

I’ve gone whole-hog in the opposite direction from when I worked as an editor for fancy magazines. Traded in my Prada boots for rubber garden clogs and rolled up my sleeves. Instead of magazine test kitchens I work outdoors. There are less dishes to wash, thank god. And less recipes to obsess over.

I enjoy cooking the food I grow but the recipes are a lot more simple and to me, a lot more delicious because of the blood, sweat and love that went into it. Now it’s about keeping it honest.