Around the Farm Table

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Hi, welcome to the farm. A midsummer fest is the second most popular Scandinavian celebration and it always happens around June 20th and that's this time of the year so I've invited my friends and neighbors over for a midsummer fest. For the ingredients, I'm going to be fishin' for some trout, and then, it's off to Tower Rock Farmstead Bakery for a delicious loaf of bread. And then I'll be gathering some peonies to make the table look beautiful. But first, I'm going to meet with Kathy. She grew up on my farm and I want to find out what life was like back in those days. So gather with us Around the Farm Table. I'm your host Inga Witscher. Good morning, girls! I'm Inga and I love everything about farming.

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Midwestern farms are a bounty of good food made by good people. I love being able to travel, to search out good ingredients. Cooking is all about what's seasonal, what's fresh. Every day can be filled with good food, good friends and a beautiful herd of cows. Welcome to the farm.

affectionately to cow

Good girl! Around the Farm Table is funded in part by Wisconsin Farmers Union, united to grow family agriculture, Heartland Credit Union and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television. Rhubarb marks the beginning of spring here on the farm. I purchased this farm from Marvin and Helen Thompson years ago and before they owned it they purchased it from Helen's parents. It's been a dairy farm for quite a few generations. Although I'm not a Thompson I like to think that I'm still carrying on the Thompson tradition of milking cows here at the farm. One thing that Marvin and Helen taught me about rhubarb before they left is how to harvest it. You want to pull that stalk right out of the ground and then cut off that leaf. Don't ever feed the leaf to any cows or any animals 'cause it's poisonous to them. But what you do want to do with it is place it right back down on the patch and that's going to compost down over time and it's also going to help suppress the weeds. I've got so much rhubarb that I've invited Marvin and Helen's daughter, Kathy, out to pick some with me and reminisce a little bit about her time on the farm. So, Kathy, did your mom plant this rhubarb patch? 'Cause this is kind of the community rhubarb patch here on County Road E. I believe my parents did when they moved here and that would have been in '60, 1961, when they moved here. - Okay. And this was your grandparents' before it was your parents'. My grandparents owned this farm at the time that my parents got married and they were married here on this farm. Right under the ridge in the living room, right? Yes. And my sister got married there, too, after, when they came back here again. What was it like being here? Oh, a beautiful farm and my parents were so excited when they moved back here. You know, that's where you got married and you move back there and it was the first farm that they owned themself. We had rented before that and so-- And you milked cows here? Yes, yeah. You're the oldest so you had to go out and milk cows. Yes, definitely. I was my dad's hired man, there's no doubt. My brother is 13 years younger than I, my sister three years younger and so I was the hired man. And rhubarb was something that was, it's always been the start of spring here I know. I met my neighbor Bonnie for the first time when she came down to get rhubarb here and she said, I've been getting rhubarb from this patch for 40 years. Yes, everybody did. Everybody knew that mom had that much rhubarb so they'd come and say, "Well, can we get some rhubarb?" "Well, sure, go help yourselves." So I think I'm going to take some of the rhubarb and turn it into a delicious drink for my little midsummer fest I'm having later. Oh, that sounds good. Well, I'm going to finish up with the rhubarb here and then I'm going to head down to the trout stream to gather a few trout for our celebration.

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I love the little valley that we live in. One of the best parts about it is that we have a stream that runs through and it runs all year long. I'm down here at my neighbor Tom's where he's done some stream restoration to bring back some healthy populations of fish. I want to check in on my husband, Chance, and our nephews to see if they've had any luck catching fish yet. Hi, boys! - Oh, hi, Inga. Help me down here, honey. - I will. Are you guys having a good day fishing? We're having a great day fishin', no fish yet, though.

Inga

Oh, I was kinda' hoping I could stay and fish with you guys, but-- - No, it's for boys only today. That's what I thought you're going to say.

chuckling

Inga

So tell me a little bit about what Tom's doing down here. All winter long they were just, what do you do to restore the stream? They really did a lot of work. They removed a lot of trees and replaced with native grasses. They put down rocks to stabilize the substrate so that it's not so much muck and dirt floating through the water. Is that good for the trout?

Chance

Well, exactly, yeah. It makes for healthier living conditions for the trout

and better fishing for us. - Inga

Good, well I'm glad you're teaching our nephews how to fish.

Chance

Oh, it's been a lot of fun. They're teaching me as well. Well, I'm going to go and finish collecting things for our party today, but if you guys don't get any trout today can I get some out of your smoker? Yeah, sure. All right, gimme a smooch.

mwah

I love you. - Chance

Love you. Well why don't you guys meet me over at Tower Rock Bakery where we're going to pick up some bread for our Smorgastrada? Good luck,

guys. - Chance

Thank you.

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guys. - Chance

I'm here at Tower Rock Farmstead Bakery. It's a working dairy farm and also a bakery. It's exciting to see how other farmers are diversifying to be able to stay on the land. Let's go say hi to Alma and check out the bakery. Hi, Alma!

Hi. - Inga

How are you doing? I'm great. - Good. I came to check out the bakery. I just finished baking and I'll be out shortly. Okay, I'll wait in the front yard for 'ya. Thank you.

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birds singing

Hi. - Inga

This is such a peaceful valley that you live in. I love being on your farm here. It's a dairy farm, but you also have a bakery here. You are doing a little bit of everything. Tell me a little bit about the farm. Well, the farm has been in my husband's family since the 1800s. Wow. His great-grandfather emigrated from Switzerland and he actually named it Tower Rock Farm after the rock that he named "Tower Rock."

Inga

Yeah, I saw the rock as we were pulling in. It's a beautiful landmark.

Alma

It is. So this farm's been milkin' cows forever and how did you get into the growing of the wheat side of it? Well, actually, his great-grandfather grew it in the 1800s.

Inga

Okay. And he would load up his wheat and take it with ox team to Milwaukee. They grew it for a number of years and then it got disease so they stopped growing wheat. But about 10 or 11 years ago my husband started growing some small fields of wheat to help with our crop rotation and also to have a field empty in July that they could haul manure on. - Sure. And you scaled up from a home baker to a bakery. It must be lovely to be able to work in a place where you have these beautiful smells, it just, it smells so welcoming inside the bakery. And you have a wonderful crew that helps you.

Alma

Oh, I sure do! I couldn't do it without my employees. They're wonderful. What kind of products do you do? 'cause you have a variety of different breads here. Is it mostly breads, do you do a little bit of everything? A little of everything. We have a variety of breads, variety of cookies, cupcakes. We have granola. It's very popular. And caramel corn made with some popcorn that we raise on the farm. Well, I'm interested in how you're growing the wheat so I saw that William and Dean are out in the field and I'd love to go and talk with them a little bit about the growing of the wheat. But I'm definitely going to stop back by for some delicious bread before I go. Okay.

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Inga

Hi, guys. Hi. - Hi. Nice to see you. - Hi, I'm William. Nice to see you. - Hey, nice to see you too. Say, I think I'm going to head back to the barn. All right, well I'll keep your dad busy out here. What are you growing in this field? This is soft red winter wheat. Okay. And this for the food grade? This is food grade, yeah. This was formerly an alfalfa field and then in, when we take the last crop of alfalfa then we plant this wheat in in September or early October. And when do you harvest it?

William

Probably end of July or first part of August. Okay, all right. What's the difference between a food grade crop and, say, the wheat I feed to my cows? Generally it's just the quality of the wheat and then the variety sometimes. This soft wheat is used mostly for pastry flour. Okay. - And cookies, cakes-- So this is where cookies start, is in this field. Yes. Is Wisconsin a good place for growing wheat? There are some varieties that are developed for our climate here that work pretty well. And you guys, you're not certified organic, but you do a lot of things naturally. Is that difficult when growing crops? We probably sacrifice a little yield on the wheat, not spraying it with fungicides and herbicides, but-- It probably feels better knowing that-- Our customer base appreciates it. Yeah, yeah, for sure. What do you see as the future? Do you see this farm as something you're going to pass down to your boys, or? Hopefully, I've got two of 'em, at least, that are very interested in it, so. Good. Did you ever think when you took over the family farm and started dairy farming that you'd be growing wheat for your own bakery? No, no. Nah, I guess it helped marrying a wife from the western states, that-- Who's a great baker? Great baker and likes wheat too, so. Well, I'm going to go pick up some of that bread and then it's off to Marion to pick some of my favorite flowers which are peonies.

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William

I'm here in Marion at Oh My Peonies. Sue and her brother Leroy started this beautiful patch of peonies. He retired from dairy farming, got right back into it with growing peonies. And now they sell root stock. People are already here, milling about, checking out the different varieties and choosing their favorites to be planted this fall. I'm going to go and find Sue and see if I can't find my favorite too. Hi, Sue! - Inga, hi! Nice to see you. - Nice to see you. Yeah, thanks for having me over. This is,

it's beautiful here. - Sue

Oh, isn't it gorgeous? Yeah! - Yeah, we love it. It's just a sea of colors. I've never seen so many different kinds of peonies. How many different kinds do you have here? We have about 160 varieties here at the farm. How did you guys get started here? This is actually my brother's farm and he actually saw this peony, red charm, in my sister's garden, It's beautiful. And he fell in love with it. And so every year after that we would ask my brother what he'd like for Christmas gifts and he'd say, "I want a peony certificate." So, we would give him peony gift certificates for him to purchase. And so it started as a hobby and he just on kept on planting more and more different varieties and peonies and so it's turned into this. Wow. Well, this is beautiful. Can we go across the street and check out some of these varieties over here. Oh, I'd love to. This is something special, being able to sit out here in a field of peonies. I feel so lucky. - Isn't it great? To sit out here in a couple of chairs and just relax and... I have a question for you. I've heard a lot, I think this might be folklore, but people say that ants will open up the peonies and let them bloom. Is that right? Yeah, people are always concerned about the ants, you know? And ants are naturally attracted to the natural nectar that occurs at the top of a peony. Oh, okay. So they're not magically making them blossom, they're just there for the good stuff? No, I don't think they're making them blossom. Yeah, I'll have to ask them some time. But no, when they're in this state you're not really going to see ants attracted to that because the nectar really hasn't developed on that, on that stem yet, it's when the peonies get to that open stage, that attracts the ants. Yeah, I love cutting peonies to bring inside the house, but I always bring an anthill in at the same time. Yeah, yeah, well, there's something you can do about that. You know you can actually try shaking the ants, if you do have some on your peonies, and they might shake off, you know. Or you could spray just a mist of water onto those peonies and then shake them.

Inga

Yeah, get 'em off. The blooms'll be fine. What is the trick to having blooms longer? I love peonies, but it seems like it's such a short season for peonies. Is there any tricks that you could teach me? Yeah, there sure is, Inga. What I love to do is we actually cut some of our peonies when they're, like, in this marshmallow stage, like this. And if you kind of feel that you can kind of tell it's starting to open, but it feels like a marshmallow, it's fluffy. If you cut them at this stage you actually can put them in a water vase and out them in your refrigerator and keep them refrigerated. Refrigeration will stop the growing process and so they're not really growing any further and then you can bring them out periodically and put them on your kitchen counter or wherever your peonies look nice in the house, wherever you want to smell them and they will open. It might take a couple of days for them to open, but you'll have blooms for a long period of time. And another way of doing it is I like to dry pack them. What is dry packing? Well, what I do is I take off as many leaves as I can, like I take the bottom leaves off and just leave a couple leaves on the top for looks. And I'll put all those stems together and wrap them in newspaper and place them in your refrigerator and the leaves are going to be a little bit wilty when you take them out of your refrigerator. If you have a refrigerator that you're not using for fruits and vegetables, that's the best environment and then take them out and place them on your counter and you'll have peony blooms for four to five weeks. That's great, that's a great idea. I bet you guys have some beautiful flowers inside your house this time of the year. Oh yeah, we love cutting the peonies here. I wonder if people like to get married in June because their peonies are growing in June and peonies are known as the wedding flower, is that right? Yeah, it is. A lot of brides do choose peonies because they are so beautiful and their available during that time of the year. A lot of the flower is the cut flowers for peonies that are distributed to florists actually end up going into wedding work. They're just gorgeous and they smell terrific too. I was noticing, though, I was sniffing around here, some are more fragrant than others. Is that just the way that they're bred? Yeah, it is. It's the way that they're hybridized. A lot of the older peonies, if you notice, have that really nice fragrance, like your grandmother's peonies and sometimes some of the hybridized peonies, you know, that fragrance goes away. You might have a real beautiful flower that you're attracted to and you really love, so you sacrifice one for the other. You got to have a little bit of both, however. Yeah, you do, and that's why you have to have a combination of different peonies because you want the fragrance and yet you want the beauty of some of the new hybrid peonies. My cousin just bought her first house and I've been trying to figure out what to do for a housewarming gift. And after walking through here I thought, oh, I'm going to get some peonies plants 'cause they last forever, right? Yeah, they do. They actually will last 60 to 100 years. Wow! - You know, when they're planted. And what a wonderful idea for a housewarming gift 'cause it's something that they've just moved into, they expect to be there for a long time, and they can plant a peony for their new home. Yeah, I think that should be a new tradition in Wisconsin. When someone buys a new house, get them a peony bush. Yeah, that'd be great. Well, I was hoping, I'm having a little party later on, and I was hoping to pick some peonies to make the table look beautiful. Oh, well, we have a lot for you to choose from here. I hope you can find some favorite. I don't know if I can pick a favorite.

laughing

Inga

Well, I'm going to go try and pick a favorite and then I'm going to meet 'ya back at the farm where we're going to make up our Smorgastradas.

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Inga

I don't know about you, but I can only eat so many rhubarb deserts and I like to use my rhubarb instead in a rhubarb cocktail. But today, since I have so many little kids coming, I'm just going to make a rhubarb refresher. No alcohol needed today. The first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to just cut up my rhubarb and you're going to need about four cups. You want 'em to be about an inch thick. I like to use the pink part of the rhubarb, I think that it makes the drink a little bit pinkier and you're going to know what I'm talkin' about when all this is done, but it's going to be a delicious, sort of tangy rhubarb drink. That looks to be about four, four cups. I'm going to eyeball it like I always do. I'll fill up my blender here. I'm going to put a little bit of sugar with this 'cause I don't want it too tangy, so about a half a cup of sugar.

blender whirring

Inga

And I'm just going to strain it out 'cause you don't want the pulp. And if you can kind see it's that beautiful pinky rhubarb color. And with the back of my spoon I'm just going to push it down and get as much liquid out as I possibly can. It's going to be a nice, festive drink because of the color, it's so beautiful. And it's also going to be refreshing, it's such a hot day today. And then I'm just going to squeeze in some lemon, some fresh lemons. The secret ingredient here is going to be a rosemary simple syrup. Alls I did was put a half a cup of sugar in with a cup of water and then I just put that on medium heat, dissolved the sugar and threw about five big sticks of rosemary in there, fresh rosemary, and steeped it like you would tea. So it steeped for about 15 minutes or so. I'm going to add a little bit to my drink to sweeten it up and it just goes so well with the rhubarb for some reason. Rhubarb and rosemary are just a perfect companion. So if you're going to do this for cocktail hour now is when you'd want to add your white rum or your vodka. But since we're doing it for kids I'm just going to water it down with a bit of water. You could also use some sparkling water if you wanted to. And then just give it a nice little stir, that looks good. Well I'm going to put this in the fridge to help it chill up a little bit and then we're going to make the star of the show, the Smorgastradas.

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Inga

Some of the kids have arrived and while they're playing I'm going to finish doing the Smorgastrada, this is going to be the star of the show for our midsummer fest. It's something that's very near and dear to my heart, it's basically a Scandinavian style sandwich cake. What we're going to do is just layer in different fillings. So instead of a sweet filling like you'd do for a cake, we're going to do savory fillings. The first filling I'm going to do is a smoked trout canape. I'm lucky enough to have a lovely husband who can smoke trout for me so I'm going to use some of the trout that he's already smoked. The last I checked with him they didn't have any success so far with catching any trout. So that's about eight ounces of trout. I'm going to use some fresh dill in here too. I love the flavor of fresh dill. If you don't like dill you could use tarragon or parsley. That's the thing about cooking is you really just want to use what you like, make it your own recipe. So, about two heaping tablespoons. And then we're going to juice a lemon in there. And lastly, I'm going to put in a little bit of cream cheese. Pop it right on in there. And then we're just going to give this a good spin.

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Inga

Okay, I'm going to set this off to the side and we're going to make our second filling, which is just going to be a sliced cucumber. I'm going to slice 'em a little bit thick, I don't know how thick, maybe that's a quarter-inch thick? Gettin' the cucumber going. I know the kids are busy swinging, they're going to be hungry when I get done here. I'll cut off a few radishes. I'm going to slice these thin. So I'm going to do a cream cheese frosting, but instead of making it sweet, like I would for a carrot cake, I'm going to make it savory for my sandwich cake. 'About two packages of cream cheese and a half a cup of sour cream and we'll just whip this right on up.

food processor whirring

Inga

Okay, that's to a nice consistency that's going to be very spreadable. And now I'm going to take my loaf of bread. So I'm just going to take the crust off so that the frosting can adhere better. So I'm just going to cut around in a circle and then I'm just going to cut this off so it make a nice, flat top for me. I'm going to cut these into my cake layers. So I want to have three layer cake. There's one, two, and the bottom is three. I'll take a little bit of my cream cheese spread here to help adhere the cake. That way when I'm frosting it doesn't move around too much. And on here I think we'll do some smoked trout spread. You don't have to do trout. If you don't like trout, don't do it. You could do a ham salad right here or a shrimp salad. So just fill it a little bit more. Boy, the whole valley here, there's so much excitement happening, everybody's out on their tractors, spring is here, I'm so happy. So for my next layer I'm going to put a little bit of that frosting right here. My next layer is going to be cucumber and radish and I'm just going to pop these cucumbers right on here. The next thing I'm going to do is just sprinkle some radishes. I think it looks pretty and it's a nice little crunch to it. Put a little bit more of the frosting down here. I like to add the frosting to the bread or else it just kind of dries out, especially with those cucumbers. You need a little bit of fat to make it good. A little bit of fat makes everything good. All right, smash that down. Now we're going to frost the whole thing, just like we would a cake. So start goin' here and just keep workin' around until you get everything covered. So now that I've got my frosting on and it's lookin' good, I'm going to put some pea tendrils on. So I'm going to take a few of these and just layer 'em around, a few more peas here. And then I'm going to take some of my cucumbers, push 'em in there. Come all the way around. Little radishes over here to add a little bit of color. I'm going to put some hard-boiled eggs on top, I like the way that looks. And I'm just going to cut these into quarters, place them on top of my cake, here and here. And, ladies and gentlemen, you have your Smorgastrada. Isn't it beautiful on the inside? I'm going to get my hands washed, get everything ready, and then invite the kids to the table for a midsummer celebration.

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laughing

Inga

Cucumber salad, the classic Scandinavian side dish. Boiled potatoes with lots of fresh dill. Rhubarb refreshers cool you off on a hot summer day. Use your imagination and fill your Smorgastradas with your favorite ingredients. Strawberry cake with lots of fresh whipped cream, the perfect ending to the midsummer fest.

laughing

Inga

You don't have to be Scandinavian to celebrate a midsummer fest so I hope this has inspired you to celebrate your own and I hope you'll gather with us next time

All

Around the Farm Table! I'm your host, Inga Witscher. Well great, thank you guys, for being here.

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All

Around the Farm Table is funded in part by Wisconsin Farmers Union, united to grow family agriculture, Heartland Credit Union and Friends of Wisconsin Public Television.