As I write this, a pot of beef stew burbles on the stove, the yeasty scent of freshly baked focaccia fills our kitchen, an apple pie cools on a rack near the window. After a busy day at work and the week’s raging headlines, the very act of kneading dough, chopping carrots, and sizzling onions helps me relax, gather myself, feel composed and hopeful. Cooking gives me a sense of control in times that seem uncertain; it’s a means of transforming my concerns for our future into delicious meals for those I love.

The recipe for the stew comes from Kathy Draeger, a rancher in Clinton, Minnesota, several hours from my stove. Her cattle graze on prairie grasses and flowers and she harvests fat bulbs and vegetables on her verdant land. The flour is milled from Kernza, a new perennial grain, growing in southern Minnesota, on one of the state’s first organic wheat farms. And the hazelnut oil for a salad, was pressed by the American Hazelnut Company, in Ashland Wisconsin, near the shores of Lake Superior. I know these beautiful places; the people who provide this food use practices that benefit our water, air, and soil. Cooking with these ingredients helps me visualize and value the many lines of connection that are otherwise hidden or overlooked when I’m in the grocery store.

 Sustainable farming methods improve the environment, support rural economies, and help provide everyone with access to healthy food. Unlike the extractive “conventional” model founded on corn and soy, these farms are guided by a land ethic that is grounded in the latest science. Raising animals on pasture and planting perennial and cover crops, helps keep continuous cover on the land to sequester carbon, provide a friendly habitat for pollinators and song birds, retain water, and enrich the soil. The pastured chickens, hogs, and cattle are healthy and produce high quality meat. Unlike the extractive system reliant on corn and soy grown for processed food, animal feed, plastics, and biofuel, sustainable farms produce real food in ways that help insure there will be food for the future; it is a perennial system.

According to Professor Don Wyse, founder of Forever Green Initiative, University of Minnesota, “Corn and soy, fertilizer-intensive summer crops, take up nitrogen for just three months of the year. After harvest, the land is left uncovered and is vulnerable to erosion and nutrient loss. Without any kind of ‘living cover’ on a farm through the winter, nutrients are washed into streams and the Mississippi River. Today, about forty percent of the streams in the Mississippi River basin are severely harmed. The Upper Midwest is exporting a tremendous amount of phosphorus and nitrogen into the Gulf of Mexico and expanding the Dead Zone.” 

Yet, a solution is close at hand.  “We must incorporate winter annuals and perennial crops into our agricultural landscape. We can do this by coupling recent innovations in plant breeding, agricultural planting and harvesting methods, food science, and utilization technologies. These will make farms more productive and profitable, while improving water and soil quality. The goal is to support farmers, strengthen rural economies, and improve our environment as well as our food,” Wyse says. To this end, the Forever Green initiative works with The Land Institute, Salina Kansas, to breed perennial grains, oil seeds, and legumes that keep continuous cover on the land.

Regional partnerships, such as Green Lands, Blue Waters, a coalition of universities, researchers, educators, food producers, environmental groups, business, nonprofits, governmental agencies, chefs, culinary instructors, and home cooks throughout Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Louisiana, are expanding this work. Woven through these pages are stories of the people changing what we eat and how we think about food. By harnessing nature's assets, we can extend the concept of “local food” to include staples (grains, flour, meat, and sweeteners).

This is NOT a book of lofty ideals nor is it focused a restrictive diet; most of these foods are very familiar but they come from a much different place. It may take a little more time to source these ingredients and cook from scratch. But working with them is a practical, tangible means of connecting with the researchers, farmers, chefs, and producers who are committed to addressing our planet's biggest challenges. What’s more, these ingredients, grown in rich, fertile soil are delicious and healthy, and they help us feel good so we may live more fully. 

 In these pages find tips for stocking up on local artisan grains –  barley, whole oats, rye berries, wheat berries, and Kernza all are delicious local alternatives to pasta and quinoa, shipped in from far away; a guide to heritage varieties of dry beans for plant-based stews, pilafs, and soups; recipes for new varieties of apples and the less familiar gooseberries, currants, and elderberries; ways to enjoy hazelnuts, hickory nuts, chestnuts; plus the  season’s harvest of organic vegetables. You’ll find ideas for cooking grass-fed meat and for simmering leftover bones and scraps into nourishing stocks and broths. By practicing thrift, we savor our bounty. 

Cooking is an act of showing up in the world, of caring for ourselves and for others. It’s a personal and intimate means of grappling with the climate crisis, our environment, and of supporting our rural communities, while nourishing our families. Cooking provides a focus and an outlet; it is relaxing and regenerative, and by creating meals with ingredients, grown with such care we too, become agents of change. Cooking is simple, it’s powerful, yet, it needn’t be overwhelming; often the best meals are inspired by what is already in the pantry, the garden, the farmers market. The sum of our daily choices will ultimately impact our collective future. If you’re hungry for hope and comfort; cooking is a great place to start. 

Link to purchase Kernza is here.