Good Works
American
Livestock Breeds Conservancy. The nonprofit ALBC (first discussed in AoE 26) works to
preserve traditional breeds of North American farm animals, all but a few of
which were abandoned in the last half of the 20th century, as agriculture
focused increasingly on mass production. Yet compared with their successors,
the traditional breeds are well-adapted to the areas where they originated.
In general, they are more hardy and healthy, more fertile and give birth
more easily, and they thrive on pasture, which means less plowing and
erosion and a big savings in fuel and labor. All these qualities lend
themselves to sustainable agriculture. At least as important, the old breeds
add enormously to the genetic diversity of our livestock: they will likely
contribute important characteristics that will benefit future agriculture.
It's true that the old-fashioned animals tend to grow more slowly and produce in lower volume. But their meat, milk, and eggs tend to taste
better, and their more concentrated milk gives higher yields of cheese. The
ALBC focuses on 150 or so breeds, including Milking Devon cattle, American
Mammoth Jackstock asses, Buckeye chickens, Narragansett turkeys, Pilgrim
geese, Santa Cruz sheep, and Red Wattle hogs. A tax-deductible membership is
$30 a year and brings the bimonthly ALBC News, which reports on issues,
breeds, and projects.
American Livestock Breeds Conservancy
Pittsboro, North Carolina
tel 919.542.5704
www.albc-usa.org
Seed Savers
Exchange. Local species and varieties of plants are the foundation of traditional
eating around the world. The nonprofit Seed Savers Exchange (first discussed
in AoE 7) was founded in the 1970s by Diane and Kent Whealy and a handful of
other gardeners with the aim of preserving traditional North American
vegetable varieties. Without SSE, many would have disappeared. Over
the years, the organization has expanded enormously; it now also covers
grains, fruits, herbs, and flowers. In the Seed Savers 2010 Yearbook, 704
gardeners list 13,571 different varieties of vegetables and fruits, most of
them available to any member who requests seed and encloses a fee. Besides,
through its catalogue and website, the traditional SSE sells seed of a number of
varieties raised on its Heritage Farm in northeastern Iowa as well as some bought from other growers. Profits benefit
SSE operations. In addition to the Yearbook, SSE members receive the Spring,
Summer, and Harvest editions, magazines with thoughtful, often
thought-provoking articles on gardening and varied agricultural topics. A
tax-deductible membership is $40 a year.
Seed Savers Exchange
3094 North Winn Road (farm, gardens, and shop)
Decorah, Iowa
tel 563.382.5990
www.seedsavers.org
Books and Publications
Prospect Books. This
small publisher in Devon, England, specializes in books on food history and
produces the periodical PPC (Petits Propos Culinaires). Among the more
contemporary cookbooks on the list is one of the finest ever written:
Patience Gray's Honey from a Weed (see AoE 5 and 69).
Prospect Books
Blackawton, Totnes, Devon
United Kingdom
www.prospectbooks.co.uk
Kitchen Arts and Letters. This, the finest food and wine bookshop in the United States, has a
helpful and extremely knowledgeable staff. The selection goes far past the
mainstream to include many unusual, foreign, out of print, and rare books.
Kitchen Arts and Letters
1435 Lexington Avenue (between 93rd and 94th streets)
New York, New York
tel 212.876.5550
kitchenartsandletters.com
Simple Cooking. Written by John Thorne with his wife Matt, this eight-page letter is close
to home and kitchen. The approach is relaxed yet serious; the writing is
opinionated and unusually fine. Five issues are $25.
Simple Cooking
Northampton, Massachusetts
www.outlawcook.com
Food
(a few of the better-known North American suppliers from past issues; one or more suppliers, often small and not widely known, appear in most issues of AoE)
Coffee
George
Howell Coffee Company. This coffees offered by this purist roaster surely form the most
discriminating selection in the US. George Howell (first described in AoE 20) combines the skills of a
longtime professional with the passion of a disinterested connoisseur. He
stresses geographic origin, preferring the crop of a single farm where that
is available. The roasts, apart from espresso, are moderate — light by most
current standards. Howell seeks that carefully calibrated point where the
beans' aromatic qualities show fully.
George Howell Coffee Company
312 School Street
Acton, Massachusetts
tel 866.444.5282
www.terroircoffee.com
Earthenware
Henderson's Redware. Ken Henderson produces, by hand, traditional American earthenware (redware),
including bean pots, colanders, bowls, preserve jars, lard pots, pipkins. (See AoE 59 for more information.)
Henderson's Redware
53 Downing Road
Bangor, Maine
tel 866.376.4475
www.hendersonsredware.com
Meat
R.M. Felts
Packing Company. Producer of my longtime favorite bacon, cured with only salt, then
pepper-coated and smoked with damp oak sawdust. The similarly cured jowls are also
good. Either one is shipped properly wrapped in greaseproof paper, not in plastic.
You can order the bacon sliced, but slab bacon holds its flavor much better.
All the bacon comes, as it should, with the rind on, and you can still get a "rib
side," which is a whole slab with the ribs in. I have never tried the dry-cured
hams, which are sold young, after only ninety days.
R. M. Felts Packing Company
P.O. Box 199
Ivor, VA 23866
tel 888.300.0971
no website
Father's Country Hams. The Gatton family ham cure contains salt, sugar, sodium nitrate, and sodium nitrite. On the website, many other “gourmet” foods have joined the original cured items, but you can still find the uncooked whole country ham, which is smoked with green hickory and aged nine to twelve months, sometimes longer. The bacon, smokier than some, comes without the rind, and you can still buy a whole, unsliced eight- to nine-pound slab or four one-pound slabs.
Father’s Country Hams
6313 State Route 81 (Gatton Farms store)
Bremen, Kentucky
tel 877.525.4267
www.fatherscountryhams.com
Jamison Farm. John and Sukey Jamison produce lamb in a tender pale style that recalls milk-fed. They buy just-weaned lambs from surrounding farms and raise them on their 160 acrres of intensively managed pasture. The lambs are finished on grass, not grain, and carefully slaughtered at four to six months. Normally the meat is shipped frozen to retail customers — be sure to ask for fresh. (See AoE 53 for more information.)
Jamison Farm
171 Jamison Lane
Latrobe, PA 15650
tel 800.237.5262
www.jamisonfarm.com
Spices
Penzeys Spices. It's no secret that the Penzey family sells high quality spices and that, as a
matter of course, the ground spices are extremely freshly ground. (I don't like the herb and spice mixtures containing dehydrated
onion and garlic.)
Penzeys Spices
19300 W Janacek Ct
Brookfield, Wisconsin 53150
tel 262.785.7637
www.penzeys.com
Tea
Camellia
Sinensis. The partners in this Canadian tea company visit key growing areas and import directly; they emphasize freshness. There are two shops in Montreal and one in Quebec City.
Camellia Sinensis
351 Emery, Montreal
tel 514.286.4002
7010 Casgrain (near the Jean-Talon Market), Montreal
tel 514.271.4002
624 St-Joseph East, Quebec City
tel 418.525.0247
www.camellia-sinensis.com
Upton Tea
Imports. Tom Eck's company offers a wide and discriminating selection of
fine teas.
Upton Tea Imports
34-A Hayden Rowe Street
Hopkinton, Massachusetts 01748
tele 800.234.8327
www.uptontea.com
