On this episode of The Farmer & The Foodie, we visit a family farm that's growing their community through food.

I think the little community-niched market can support a lot of families and support a lot of farmers, too.

We consider the farmer our partner, the health department, but we also consider the consumer our partner.

And in the kitchen we're building flavors with vibrant vegetables.

I'm Maggie Keith and I'm the farmer.

And I'm Lindsey McClave and I'm the foodie.

And this is... The Farmer & The Foodie.

[music playing] Stepping on a farm like Need More Acres feels like home.

I definitely noticed that it had this historic Kentucky farm feel.

The farmhouse is over 200 years old, which is just very striking, and you can see how they've worked to preserve this family home.

And also I couldn't help but notice, oh, this is a very much a working farm, but also there's this sense that something really big is going on there.

Nathan and Michelle are teachers at heart.

They really collaborate with the community in order to share the knowledge of farming that they've developed.

Their diversified CSA boxes have shown that they work with other farmers and bring more food to people.

Michelle is who I got to meet first and she is number one, just so welcoming.

The sense of just justice that comes from her and just the passion she has for growing food and feeding her community is inescapable.

She has a mission.

She cares for her community, and everything comes from a really genuine authentic place.

[music playing] I grew up in a farming community in California, so a lot of the kids I went to school for their parents worked on the farms nearby, and so that really influenced me.

And then, because we were many of us had limited access to food, there were a lot of social programs that we were a part of and one of them I remember I had someone come and they were teaching us about nutrition and she handed me a kiwi and she said, "Anytime you have access to fresh food, you should eat it because you're worth it."

And that just really planted a seed in me that influenced me in what I believed I was worth and believing that I deserved access to fresh food but then also later wanting to make sure that it was available to other people as well.

Need More Acres has evolved into quite a few different outlets and things.

It is actually I would consider it a small family farm.

Foremost primarily produce, and we are a four seasons farm, which is a little bit different for even most vegetable farms in the state of Kentucky.

And being four seasons what I mean just what we're standing here today we're standing in a crop of brussel sprouts that will be harvested during the winter months and we do traditional summer crops also.

A lot of farmers admire your work and you're so willing to share knowledge with other farmers.

Where did that desire to share knowledge and like make sure that you were spreading good farming knowledge around Kentucky come from?

My wife and I both have backgrounds in education outreach.

We both work for the University of Kentucky in different outlets but that passion has always been there.

Pass the knowledge along to share.

We try to be an open book here.

We'll have field days.

We'll have events out that we do one-on-one education with farmers and our sole purpose is just to help the consumer and the producer realize, hey, Kentucky has a lot to offer in vegetable production especially in the winter months and as a producer I need that to offer because what do I do the other eight months.

You know, so that's where these crops come into play that we're standing in today.

What does an inclusive food system mean to you?

Being inclusive of people that are coming to the farmer's market and they didn't know they could get food in the winter and now they can and they're excited but also maybe somebody who's at home and they don't have transportation and maybe they're elderly and they need access to food, to also the people growing it.

So smaller scale farmers or people who don't have land access or people who are completely new to farming, but they want to learn about this and they want to be able to do it.

We consider the farmer our partner, the health department, and our other community organizations our partners but we also consider the consumer our partner and you know, they're making that choice to take on the labor of cooking fresh food and so we really want to take that seriously, but we really want to make them feel good when they get that box of food.

So we seem to want to go big and have global supply chains and whatnot.

What do you think would happen if we had a hundred of you like a hundred of these smaller local supply chains?

Do you think we could feed a good amount of Kentucky?

I think we can and we did we used to do it.

People look at it as kind of stepping backwards.

Yes.

You know that makes sense?

But it's not really stepping backwards, it's really supporting the community is what it boils down to.

You can't go to the Box Store and get my brussel sprouts all year long.

You have to learn to eat seasonally.

Even within these varieties here.

We're standing in brussel sprouts, they all look the same, but there's five varieties of brussel sprouts in here.

And everyone's a little unique in its own right, just like we are as people.

Yeah.

[laughs] But I think the little community niched market can support a lot of families.

And support a lot of farmers too.

But what we do here on the farm is a much more personal smaller scale of that same model.

That can be duplicated next county over and we have folks come from other states that look at it.

Individuals are bringing bushels over, right?

That we can package with our product and redistribute out in local community, most of them say within 50 to no more than 100 mile radius that they go out.

We want to help farmers like us that maybe they have their sales at the farmer's market, they have a CSA, but they could really benefit from some additional sales and so we're able to buy from multiple farmers every week and not only fruits and vegetables but also we buy milk from Cheney's Dairy Barn.

We buy eggs from other farmers, meat from other farmers and so that really allows us to kind of have a grocery box that we're able to deliver.

The whole plate.

Yeah.

How do you maintain hope and excitement about what you do every day?

We learn a lot more about our community by partnering with the school system, partnering with the health department.

There's so many needs in the community beyond just food.

And so for us when we partner with them we learn more about those needs.

We learn more about our community.

We learn how diverse we are.

We learn how if we're all working together, you know, that we can just make things better.

We had tornadoes here in the community that we were able to respond to with fresh healthy food for people.

Being just prepared for not knowing what's coming next but when whenever it does come we'll be ready and we'll be growing wide variety of foods.

Now what is your hope for 10 years from now, 20 years from now?

Yeah, we farm here with my children.

We have five kids.

As we talked earlier I grew up on a farm.

And I knew the hard work and the effort that it took to finish a crop out to make it successful.

Make a small farm, large scale, any farm successful and I wanted my kids to have that experience also.

I wanted them to know that we're not in control of everything.

There may come a hailstorm that destroys the whole crop but we're still going to be together at the end of the day.

We want our kids to know what it's like to work, to also play, to have fun, to be outdoors, but to go to bed at night having done a good day's work.

I'm not gonna lie when I was younger I was a heads down 24/7 go, go, go, go, and the older I get I try to pass that along to the kids too that take time, take time for yourself and take time for your neighbors and yeah,.

Yeah, and people always say you must be so busy, you have three kids.

I get that all the time.

Yeah, I get that all the time.

It actually slowed me down.

Yeah, yeah.

I get that all the time.

Because I make time for them.

We want to teach them the skills that they can take anywhere in the world.

Yeah.

They know the work ethic.

They know the basics.

They know communication with people involved in the way we market.

So those are skills that they can use anywhere.

But yeah, long-term vision would hopefully be that when I'm gone, this would continue on in some form or fashion of getting people good local food, educational outreach, and just respecting others and respecting the method of growing food.

These are some of our foods medicine boxes.

These boxes in particular are for people who have been diagnosed with diabetes and so what we're doing today is we have already gotten our deliveries or picked up food from several different farmers and we're going to be making boxes so that we can deliver them to people.

So we've already got our cauliflower in here.

We'll probably start with the bok choy next.

Do you include any information about like how to cook any of these things or what they are in case like not everyone gets access to bok choy especially not bok choy this good.

Yes, so we work with a the local health department and then other people in our community dieticians to provide nutritional cards.

And then in addition to why bok choy is healthy for you people will get recipes.

A lot of different people that will receive our boxes and not all are English-speaking, so we'll translate those recipe cards for those people so that they'll have those.

We'll probably go with the spaghetti squash next.

You know, and I love the size of this.

This is very like I think sometimes squash can be very intimidating, but when it's smaller it's like okay I can get my hands around this.

And we try to use like we'll provide this winter squash that's going to make the most sense for the boxes, so with the basil and the tomato and the pepper, you know, the spaghetti squash would be really good.

Oh, yeah.

All right.

I guess, we can do sweet potatoes next.

And how many of these boxes do you do and is it once a week?

So we make boxes three days a week and we deliver three days a week.

Okay.

And we have several different programs.

We do food medicine boxes for diabetes, for obesity, for cardiovascular disease, tuberculosis, limited access to food.

So we have a lot of different types of programs.

One of the programs we've had the longest is our Fresh Racks for Moms program, so pregnant women can receive 40 weeks of fresh food delivery.

Oh, my gosh, that's amazing.

Yeah, we also have a senior nutrition program.

Some of our programs are monthly, some are weekly.

It really just depends on the type of program and kind of the nutritional program we're partnering with.

So Lilah is this one of your regular roles on the farm helping to pack the boxes?

I mainly do the boxes now.

Tell me about Lilah's Lunchbox and how you came up with that concept.

I started when I was nine.

I started because I wanted people to have access to healthy mainly local and gluten-free food because I had a lot of food sensitivities when I was younger and we struggled with finding food that I could actually eat.

Yeah.

And I wanted people to have access to that.

Oh my gosh.

Especially kids.

And what's it been like growing up on this farm?

It's like I would say chaotic, but like in a good way.

Organized chaos?

Yes.

Yeah.

There's always something going on.

We're always doing something and I just I really like that and there's a lot of people and I like meeting people.

Yeah.

That's really fun.

Onion next.

All right.

I love I love having like a core ingredient like an onion.

We want some things to just be fresh like the apple you can just go ahead and eat.

Yeah.

And then also some of the things to be like you can eat raw like just a salad or cut up but then also some things you could cook.

We like to add like things like this in, you know, people don't really like mushrooms, they don't necessarily have to eat them but like it's nice just to have like I mean you could put it in the spaghetti squash, you can saute it with the zucchini and the pepper and the onion.

Yeah, it'll add like a umami like depth of flavor to something.

So yeah a little mushroom goes a long way.

So these will be packed up and then are they delivered directly to people's homes?

Yes.

So we deliver directly to people's homes.

We've just found that's much more convenient for people if people don't have transportation.

We're already asking people to eat food they're not used maybe used to eating also cooking more and so if we can create convenience with home delivery we like to do that.

Yeah.

And we're doing delivery in Warren, Barron, Allen and Simpson counties.

Wonderful.

Is the last thing the apples?

Seems like it.

Yeah we'd like to have fruit as much as possible, so we'll have in the summer we'll have watermelon or cantaloupe, we'll have berries, we'll have grapes.

So through the winter we're able to offer apples all year and I just think that's really, really important to have something quick easy and convenient for people but also just making sure that when we're providing things to people it's food that people really want to eat.

It's things they can get excited about and feel like it's a real value like just a beautiful valuable box of food they're receiving.

Yeah, yeah that they are deserving of.

Yes.

yes.

[music playing] Going to Need More Acres in Scottsville was great.

It was we were among farmers who really cared about the earth and the land and it just felt good being out there.

And the community.

I mean the multiple ways that they're touching their individual community and just sort of that's spilling out into the areas around them is extremely inspiring.

I don't know how they do it all.

[laughs] They give their boxes of vegetables that go out into their community through a variety of programs.

Yeah, you just open it up and I was like I can't wait to eat all of this.

Yeah, what will you cook?

Yeah, but also they've talked about they don't want it to be too intimidating.

They want people to be ready to cook the box and I kept thinking I could literally put all of this in a pot and make a super-rich delicious vegetable soup and it would be hearty and nutritious and comforting.

So we're going to use this gorgeous lacinato kale also known as Dino kale I think and my son pointed out he said is it because it looks like Dino skin and I was like exactly right.

He still won't eat it but still.

[laughs] One can dream.

So I'm gonna have you take the stems off of this.

We'll set the leaves aside for our kale pesto and then we'll throw the stems in our soup.

Perfect that will make a hearty broth.

Yes, and then I'm just going to get started with the base of our soup.

So we are going to use just an onion.

I've got some carrots here.

And then some garlic.

Some Kentucky celery, which is just a delight, the last of seasoned, tomatoes are going to go in there.

Cauliflower.

A whole bunch of fresh herbs and potatoes.

And really the best part about this soup is anything, you know, can go into it.

We just want to give each layer -- we want to kind of layer the flavors in there.

But if you're making a broth within a soup, you just give everything time to do its part.

Yes.

And you season each layer too.

I think if we just season salt at the very end it's going to taste salty.

If you don't add enough salt at the beginning you're, you know, you won't taste any salt.

So we're just going to kind of give a little bit to each part and at the end we taste and decide if it needs anything else.

How would you like this cut?

All right.

Just a good dice, yeah.

Now our other two ingredients here for the end are the cauliflower and the potatoes.

We're going to put those in after our we've added our other ingredients and it's cooked down a little bit because we don't want them to overcook and get mushy.

They probably need, you know, 15 minutes.

You just want them to be fork tender.

It adds a little bite.

And then we're also going to chop up a mix of these fresh herbs which I love.

We've got some cilantro, some dill.

I think that adds a nice flavor.

Some parsley.

I think we should throw a couple of these celery green in there.

So we'll put some of the fresh mints like about three quarters of it within the soup to add that flavor to the base.

And then we'll keep some aside for a fresh garnish at the end.

When you first got into cooking were you interested in more of the methods that you could make it more ingredient chopping like this?

No, I -- that's a good question.

When did you get that confidence, so just feel like Well, I think what I did is I followed everything very intentionally very literally.

[laughs] I can see that, yeah.

For a really long time because I didn't know how to cook.

And so, I would just see a recipe on TV or in a book that I liked and I would not deviate -- --even a little bit.

I always if I'm looking for a new recipe or discovering one I do like to follow it as the recipe writer recommended generally because that's the experience they're wanting you to have.

Like when you go to a restaurant and you get a dish the chef is this is how they want you to taste it.

So I do like to start there and then it kind of like you can let the inspiration kind of roll from that point.

yeah.

We're going to put our pot over medium low heat and add two tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of olive oil.

Once that melts go ahead and put in your aromatics.

The onion, the celery, the kale stems, the carrots.

Saute with some salt and pepper until that starts to be soft and translucent, five to ten minutes.

And then, you're going to add your garlic and your red pepper flakes.

Let that cook down for about a minute before you add one tablespoon of tomato paste.

This is going to add lots of umami flavor as long as we mix it in and then let it sit there so it can caramelize on the bottom of the pan.

Resist the urge to stir for about three minutes and then give it a go.

Let it stir, scrape up the good bits and pour in one cup of dry white wine.

That white wine is going to pick up the caramelized bits of tomato paste on the bottom of the pan and we're going to let it reduce until it's about a half a cup.

And then, in goes our freshly chopped tomatoes, a healthy pinch of salt, stir, let those guys cook down as well, then add six cups of water, one parmesan rind, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and let the soup cook and simmer on low for about 30 minutes bringing all the flavors together.

At that point it's time to add our cauliflower and our potatoes and we just need to cook those until they're fork tender, about 15 minutes.

Taste for seasoning.

This is when I like to add a nice healthy dash of our mixed tender herbs for fresh flavor.

Ladle into bowls and enjoy.

So we have these beautiful lacinato kale leaves that we are going to put in our pesto.

I love pesto because it's such just a base for experimentation, exploration Yes.

Different greens, herbs, et cetera.

And instead of the traditional pine nuts today, we're going to use some pistachios.

Oh, I love it.

Yeah, the nuts and the cheese really do it for me with the pesto.

[laughs] That's why I really like to add it to things.

Couldn't agree more.

So I'm going to go ahead, this is a third cup of shelled pistachios, throw that in there along with a nice pinch of your red pepper flakes.

These are extra spicy and I do like a kick in my pesto.

Me too.

I think especially when we're working with this kale and we're keeping it raw, we want stuff to kind of punch it up a little bit.

Yes.

You know.

This is going to be hearty.

Exactly.

Spicy too.

But I also appreciate that we are not cooking out any of the vitamins.

Yes.

So I think that's really, really a nice element.

So wonderful.

I'm just going to add a lemon.

I'm just going to squeeze that right in there.

Catch any seeds and then I'm going to let you start putting our kale leaves in.

Yeah, this was a great way to get through your greens.

Right?

I know.

So good, right?

And we can't forget the garlic.

To me that is a non-negotiable in a pesto.

Kind of like Parmesan cheese.

[laughs] But you could mix up, you know, the cheese you use.

We'll pop those in and then we're just going to do a really nice chop on these.

Really see that we break down the pistachios, that the kale gets nice and blended and then we'll drizzle in our olive oil, add our Parmesan and we're ready to go.

Great.

[rattling] I'm going to let that run.

[rattling] a bit of olive oil [rattling] This is going to bring it all together.

And to me, if you've got a brick of Parmesan, you can't make it any better.

[laughs] I mean, that is just, if that's something you can have freshly grated, really does punch your flavor up quite a bit.

All right, that should do it.

We're just going to blitz that together real quick.

You don't want to over blend the cheese part.

So we're just going to kind of -- Pulse it in.

--let this pulse it all the way in.

[music playing] Another one of my favorite recipes is eggs in purgatory.

My mom would make this a lot on the weekends growing up, especially if we had company, because it's very easy to throw together, but it also can feel a little bit fancy Yeah.

and it's flexible.

We love flexible.

Our kale pesto would be a great addition to this, especially because it does need a crusty loaf of bread.

So if you've got a baguette to go with it, we've got this beautiful sourdough loaf here from a local bakery that we're going to enjoy with it.

So essentially eggs in purgatory are eggs cooked in a simple sauce.

Yeah.

So I mentioned, we've got a flat of tomatoes, end of season.

So we're going to make the use of these.

But through any season, if you have a can of tomatoes, tomatoes you've put up frozen, this is the perfect way to use them.

Garlic is a must here.

I like to make it spicy.

You don't have to, but the whole purgatory idea, I don't know if it needs a little heat.

And they have, I love these green onions right now.

So I'm going to throw those in too for some flavor.

But again, this really is like sky's the limit.

Add vegetables.

You could make it green with a whole lot of blended greens in there.

Put a large saute pan with tall sides and a lid on the stove.

Add enough olive oil to just coat the bottom of the pan and warm until it sizzles.

When you add your minced garlic, your green onion, and your red pepper flakes.

Saute those for just a minute until they start to fire up and bubble a little, and then add your chopped tomatoes and a healthy pinch of salt.

Stir those altogether and then let those tomatoes just cook down, release all of their juices over medium to medium low heat.

And after about five minutes, get out a wooden spoon or a potato masher and give those tomatoes a good smash.

So you create a little bit more of a thin sauce.

It's got a little bit of a puree texture.

After those flavors have continued to meld for about another five minutes and simmering, it's time to add your eggs.

You'll want to go ahead and have your eggs individually cracked and then one by one, gently lower your egg directly into the tomato sauce.

As soon as the eggs are in, put the lid on and allow those eggs to poach in the sauce over medium low heat for four to six minutes.

You'll want to check, and just as soon as the whites are set, pull the pan off the heat, garnish, and serve.

All right, moment of truth.

Our eggs are hopefully just set.

Oh, gorgeous.

Perfectly bubbly.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

So real quick now.

Show me how to do this.

Well, I just want to use these green onion tops because we've got them right here.

Yes, crunch.

And then, I'm going to take some of this feta and and just crumble it all over the top.

We should take advantage of this gorgeous sourdough.

Sourdough.

Yes, thank you.

And then, I would just do like a little smear of it.

You could certainly toast your sourdough.

I kind of like when it's soft because it's just going -- --to soak the sauce up.

Yeah, I feel so good.

And then I'm just going to dig in here and scoop out an egg.

I'm just going to layer it right on top.

I'm going to get a little more salsa sauce.

I love how the eggs are just perfectly poached.

I know.

We are The Farmer & The Foodies.

Yes, yeah, we got it.

We can accomplish anything.

These are strong chickens.

And you know, the longer they sit, the more the yolks do set, but it's still delicious.

So I'm going to cut on into my yolk.

All right.

Oh, see, this one's starting to set.

Gooey, gooey.

But it's jammy and gooey.

Oh my gosh.

I love it.

You're going, you're going straight in.

Yeah, I'm going for it.

I love it.

I do love how the sourdough is already soaking even up.

Makes me so happy.

The cheese, the saltiness of the cheese.

Wow.

Amazing, Lindsey.

It's super bright and punchy, but very hearty.

Yeah.

This has made me -- Which I love.

Yeah, like this was always a hit with my mom.

And I think I love the communal nature of it.

When she'd bring it out to the table, we'd all just usually, we cut the bread, but you can tear off a loaf, you know, and dig it in.

Yummy, yummy.

Yeah, I love any sort of activity around food.

I would love to be part of your family meals.

You're always part of our family meals.

Well, we're having a nutritious breakfast and we need to follow that by a lovely soupy lunch.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Soup time.

Oh my gosh.

I saw that sneaky ride.

Did you see the rind?

I love it.

And certainly you could, you know, start with bacon something like that.

But I mean, to me -- Definitely, amazing.

--this doesn't need anything more than all these good veggies we've got.

Let's start with our pesto.

We're going to just do a really nice little dollop.

I think that's going to add like some complexity here.

I love the idea of pesto on soup.

I know me too, right?

Yes.

And then a little bit more umami.

Why not just some extra, but that parm and nod to what's in there.

[music playing] And I so appreciate all the love that has gone into each of the vegetables that farmers have grown.

I think it's so reflective of what they do, their family, their mission, and the box that inspired the soup.

It was all going to people who need food to heal their bodies.

I love that so much.

Me too.

[music playing] [music playing] I think that pesto really adds a lot.

It really makes it fun and complex.

The cauliflower has enough crunch where it doesn't just like goo into the soup.

I really appreciate that.

Yes.

Totally agree.

Yeah.

I can see how this would be healing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hearty, nourishing.

And every -- what I like is everything we put in the pot, all the nutrients that had stayed in the pot.

We didn't like take anything away.

We didn't, you know, remove anything or add anything extra.

It really all just kind of came together and created some flavor.

All right.

Thanks for warming us up on these cool evenings.

Absolutely, I'm excited.

I think for the cool seasons ahead.

Yes.

[music playing] [music playing]