In this episode of The Farmer & the Foodie, we travel down to Berea College Farm to learn how they are building the next generation of farmers.

From day one, it was a student-promoted idea.

Everything that we can utilize from our farm, the students will take that and run with it.

And in the kitchen, we prepare a delicious autumn-inspired menu.

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

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

And this is.

The Farmer & The Foodie.

[music playing] I'd heard that Berea College was this working farm and in a beautiful area in the foothills of Kentucky.

And the students that we interacted with had passion.

interacted with had passion.

They were excited.

They felt a part of a bigger purpose in a community.

That they are really taking farm to table, not just as like a concept but a reality, and giving their students the opportunity to learn what it is to work on a farm, as well as bring that food to a store.

The heart of Berea is that everyone takes part in the college and actually makes it run.

And it was really neat to go see how that was put into action when it comes to farming and, in theory, training and raising the next farmers and foodies of our generation.

[music playing] The Berea College Farm was established in 1871.

The students wanted to provide some of their own meat and produce and milk for their dining hall.

So, from day one, it was a student-promoted idea, and the staff helped support that, as we do now.

The Berea College Farm includes about 500 acres.

We have beef cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys, and horticulture area of the farm where we raise plants and produce for our community.

Do you think working in horticulture is a job that young people might be interested in in the future?

I think young people are interested in it now.

I mean, I've been here four years, and we've never had an influx of people not wanting to come and work here.

For every person we have leave, we have two people come in.

The love and the want to grow and have this kind of environment is still well and alive.

I hear you're a generational farmer.

Tell me about that.

Yeah, my grandfather raised a bunch of cattle, Black Angus, for a while.

And then my dad also has a farm.

He also raises cattle.

Yeah, so you're used to working with cattle.

Do you work with the cattle here?

Yes, I do sometimes, actually today.

Making sure the fences were hot and they had a good amount of minerals to ensure that they have, you know, a good health.

What are some of the daily chores that students are doing here that surprised you?

We do everything.

[Laughs] The spring plant sales student ran.

The student goes and finds the seeds.

They decide, "Hmm, do we want this variety of zinnia or do we want this variety of zinnia?"

Irrigation, I've learned a lot about that.

I didn't know anything about it really when I first came here.

The maintenance on all of our equipment student ran with staff help.

I mean, the planting, seeding, upgrading, all of that is student ran.

What do you think these students are taking home with them after they graduate?

Some students might work in agriculture extension.

Some students may never work in agriculture again.

Maybe some of our students will become attorneys and might be engaged in agriculture law.

We do have students in fact that are nursing majors and as a result of working on the college farm, they're going to learn about taking care of livestock, which translates into taking care of people to a certain extent.

I'm an education elementary major and even though it really doesn't have anything to do with my major, I still love the work that we do and it's never really stopped me from just coming here and enjoying what I do.

I think my favorite part is I'm not stuck inside all day.

It's just very nice to get to just spend half of my day outside working, doing something that I know that matters and the big community loves.

It's not like it's necessarily career readiness, but it enhances the liberal arts education we offer to be able to do things on a farm.

How does the history of this farm and this program inspire you?

I would say that it just wants me to become, I guess, more sustainable because that's a major principle that we have tried to instill in our farm.

Maybe trying to increase our sustainability just to improve production of like our animals and overall health and just better-quality farming overall.

And is part of the core of this farm, is it to produce good food?

Absolutely.

We are raising our animals with the animal welfare approved standard.

They get to experience all of the natural behaviors of an animal in their lifetime.

And so, we have 100% grass fed and grass finished beef.

The pigs have spent most of their life outdoors getting to root around in mud and experience all the pleasure of being a pig.

Our laying hens have egg mobiles.

Students move those every week, but they're allowed to run around outside all day long.

And we raise the turkeys in the same way.

So, there's a rotation.

The hogs get rotated, the cattle get rotated, and that enhances the pasture health.

The section we're in actually is the glass greenhouse.

It's probably older than I am.

Every plant in here is probably older than I am.

Most of the plants in here we used to kind of take the plants for plant sale and then sell like the babies off to community members that want it for their garden or their house.

And then we have eight high tunnels outside that we grow year-round production for farm store and dining, which has just like lettuces, tomatoes, and peppers in one.

We just took radishes out of another.

I noticed some greens.

Do you do some like hardier winter greens like kales, and turnip greens?

Our kales right now are in fields.

We have a lot of spinach.

It's a fan favorite.

What about the market and distribution side of this farm?

A large amount of our ground beef goes to the Berea College Dining Hall, and we sell beef through the farm store; cuts, ground beef, and prepared food.

The same with the pork.

And occasionally there are other markets, but mainly the meat we produce and the eggs we produce stay right here in Berea.

And so, our students that help raise the animals also get to benefit from the nutrition from our livestock.

[music playing] The farm store started in 2013, and it was a way to market products that come from the farm from both the horticulture side and the animal side.

We're a bakery, we're a grocery, we're a deli, and we're a butchery.

So, we do all that under one roof.

So, it's quite a task to juggle everything from one end to the other.

So, this farm store is open to the greater Berea community, I assume, but also obviously a wonderful resource for the students here on campus, the faculty.

Yes.

Do a lot of them come here already with some experience, and that's what drew them to the farm store?

Most of the time before they come here, they don't know about the farm store.

They come and they get a labor position, then they realize the farm store is here, and they want to learn how to bake, or they want to learn how to cook.

Some students have a little bit of experience; some have no experience whatsoever.

But being here three years and watching those life skills develop, I mean, that's why I love what I do.

So, Brooke, part of your job here is developing recipes at the bakery, is that right?

Yes, yes, it is.

What is that process like?

It's first finding what I need, or just being given an ingredient to work with.

I kind of like it because it's a challenge, and then from there I build upon flavors.

So, with the Boone Tavern Cookies, I was given the oats, cloves, coconut.

I really, just those basic ingredients, I didn't know how I was going to fold it all together.

But then, I was able to add some things that made it rich and velvety, like brown butter and cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, things like, you know, spices.

So, it became more of like this everything cookie.

They use that in the Boone Tavern.

They started out using it for special guests, but now it was so popular that they actually have it on the menu.

Oh, that's so neat.

Yeah, everything that we can utilize from our farm, the students will take that and run with it.

And so, everything is made in-house every day.

So, as a recipe developer myself, I feel like the most difficult and the most fun part of that role is putting something new out for someone to try.

How do you feel when you come up with a new recipe, or like a spin on the Boone Tavern Cookie, or something different?

How does it feel to then put that out for the campus community to test and enjoy?

I'm typically scared.

I am so scared because I want my stuff to taste good, and I don't like being lied to.

Like that kitty, "Oh it's okay."

[laughs] I do not like that.

You gotta tell me up straight.

If it's horrible, tell me.

We do give a lot of creative freedom for the kids.

We do have to have some consistency being open to the retail public.

They also will say, "Hey, let's try this."

I'll go, "Okay, let me know what you need."

So, we love that creative freedom we give to kids.

Yeah.

What's an ingredient that you get that you're always excited to receive from the farm?

I do like tomatoes from the farm.

I just think they're just so good.

I grew up just eating tomatoes by themselves, [chuckles] so whenever I get to use them and incorporate them into my bakery, you know, situation, it's nice.

Yeah.

Nothing's like when that tomato season hits, and you're like, okay, fresh tomatoes.

I agree.

I also like to use berries that we get.

Speaking of things that come up, berries are really good.

They go great on focaccia.

Yeah.

They're great for making compotes.

Compotes are amazing to use, especially when I make cakes and stuff.

I love using it.

So, you mentioned you grew up on a farm.

Tell me a little bit about that farm, and is that where you learned to bake and cooking, or have you really gained a lot of your knowledge here at Berea?

Okay, so the farm is in South Carolina, [chuckles] and I did gain some cooking skills from there.

I also gained cooking skills from messing up myself and having to redo it, and I just loved baking growing up.

So, any chance that I got to bake or make anything, I was on that.

And even to speak about my great-grandmother, I used to bake with her and cook with her, and it was such a great memory.

Tell me a little bit about what it is like combining the food that you get from the farm and the agriculture program, and then integrating that here into this system.

That is a huge hurdle.

As you know, animal agriculture, they don't follow the rules.

[laughs] You know, you don't get the same number of animals every year, just like the horticulture doesn't have -- we had issues this summer with the heat and the drought.

So, trying to balance that and provide products at the same level is hugely challenging.

So, you mentioned that you are one of the head bakers here.

Tell us a little bit about the team and what it's like working as a part of a team here at the farm store.

Everyone's really good.

I love everyone that comes in here.

We have, like, such a great chemistry whenever we work, and I just know that they won't let me down.

Like, they got my back.

[laughs] If I ever, like, need them or anything, they're there.

What are your hopes in the next few years for this program here at the farm store?

We're trying to forecast and use as much of the farm products as possible.

You know, every day we come up with new ideas and things like that, that we can just continue to do what we're doing.

[music playing] Maggie, what a fun time we had visiting Berea College.

Yeah, it was nice to be around young energy, young farmers really interested in learning about agriculture.

I mean, I want to be a student of Berea College.

Yeah.

I know, I think we'd eat that well.

They also shared with us they have an incredible collection of historical cookbooks from the time, the region, the area, and the college.

And one of them is a cookbook from Boone Tavern called Look No Further, and it features all sorts of classic recipes, including a whole bunch of cookies.

And so we're going to make one of those cookies today.

It was also fun working with a recipe that was obviously older, because I think a couple of things I always think about in baking, general rules, are you add a little bit of salt.

There's no salt here.

There's a very tiny bit of baking soda, which is great.

It uses some buttermilk, and I've already got a cup of sugar in here into the mixing bowl, and I'm going to add a pound of butter or two sticks.

So, we'll go ahead and drop those in, and you want this There we go.

to be room temperature.

How many cookies?

[laughs] A lot.

We want this to be room temperature butter, so it'll cream up nicely.

Something I have found generally with baking is creaming the butter and the sugar.

I like to give that some time, because it really does add like a light airy quality, and hopefully that carries through.

So, I'm going to go ahead and turn this on.

[mixer whirring] And we'll give it a, you know, maybe three minutes to really blend together nicely, and then we'll move on to the rest.

[mixer whirring] We are going to grate some of this whole nutmeg.

We're going to turn this back on low speed.

We're going to slowly add, right here we have three eggs well beaten.

We'll add those in slowly, and then we're going to, it says to combine the baking soda with the buttermilk.

So, we'll mix that together, and then in two alternations, we'll add flour mixture, buttermilk, flour mixture, buttermilk, and then we'll, our dough will come together.

right.

We'll turn it out.

[music playing] Excellent.

Yeah.

So, you can see if I were freezing this, I would package it a little bit, like a couple more layers, or put it in a freezer safe container, but the idea is just to really keep all the air out, and then pop it in the freezer, and it's good in there for a couple months.

And then you just put it in the fridge overnight to defrost.

You still want it cold when it comes to rolling out, but I mean we've got, we got a lot of [laughs] cookie making activities right here lined up.

Time to make some bratwurst.

So, we have the bratwurst sausage here from Berea Farm Store, and we're going to just cook that, just sear it on the stove, and then what I like to do in a sauté pan is after I sear my bratwurst, so it just has a nice like, you know, crust on the outside, I cook it in a little bit of liquid.

You can do beer, you can do, I mean water, or you know, it's the fall, we're leading into winter, I thought why not use a little apple cider.

So, we've got a beautiful purple cabbage, we've got our radish, we've got these awesome carrots, and then fennel.

I love the like the anise flavor you can get from fennel.

So, if you want to start, I like slicing my cabbage really thinly.

And we aren't going to need this whole head.

I would definitely use like probably a third.

Fennel is kind of a similar, I like to take the outer layer off because usually it's just a little bit past its due.

It's good for compost.

Oh, you can smell that right away.

It has a very unique smell, and I feel like fennel can be a little polarizing.

I really personally enjoy it, but I think putting in a slaw is a great way to make it accessible for those who maybe are a little bit like, "Oh that's a very strong, unique flavor."

[laughs] I really like it in the slaw.

[chopping] I like to just cut it in half, then I just cut out that root end.

I'm going to take it to the grater.

Yes, I love that.

So, everything kind of gets to its own similar.

That's so, oh that cabbage is so pretty.

Yes.

Isn't it?

Yes, it's awesome.

[grating] It's awesome, awesome.

So, we'll get everything chopped up, then we'll get our dressing ready, and it just all goes in the bowl.

Great.

And this is one of those that only gets better over time.

So, we'll make it, then we'll go ahead and cook our sauce.

[music playing] We got some mayonnaise in here, [laughs] but we're going to add apple cider vinegar.

We're going to grate on a more of a microplane grater.

[grating] Our garlic, straight in here.

All right, do you want to do your cayenne?

Yes.

Yeah.

Spoon.

Do the honors of this deliciousness.

So, we want, not too much, but we want to add -- I want to add a little heat into this.

We want it to have punch, and you know -- and then this is our apple cider vinegar.

It's about two tablespoons.

This is going to really, if you don't have that lemon's great, you just want to add that like vinegary punch.

I've got our green onion I chopped up over here.

It's just going to add just another layer of flavor.

You know, just that onion-y vibe.

Definitely want a little bit of salt, some pepper.

Oh, yes.

Give us the salt and pepper.

[grating] Let's see, I think, we're pretty good.

So, I'm going to give that a good whisk.

We'll do a little taste to make sure we're not, you know, too over -- [chuckles] under, over balanced in our flavors, and we can adjust.

Yeah.

I feel like, yes, so, we need.

So, we're going to get in, we're going to let it all get happy together, and then we'll pop it in the fridge and just let the flavors meld while we cook up our bratwurst.

[music playing] Put your sauté pan on the stove, turn the heat to medium, and then add your cooking fat.

We're using tallow, but any high heat cooking oil will work.

As soon as that's nice and hot, [sizzling] add your bratwurst, sear for about two minutes on each side, [sizzling] and then add one cup or so of apple cider.

You want enough liquid just to go about halfway up the brats.

Allow the brats to simmer and braise in the apple cider for five to eight minutes until cooked through, and then serve with your coleslaw.

[music playing] Smells like apple cider in here, [laughs] but in a way that I really like, and I feel like apples and pork go together so well.

Yes.

So, this is going to make everything better because [laughs] it's going to be delicious, I think.

I hope.

Yes.

Obviously, it's very hot.

Let's take this guy here.

I can really smell that apple cider, and.

Oh, my gosh.

Cheers.

Yes, cheers.

Oh, wow.

It's very juicy.

It's so flavorful.

The sausage itself, I really love all the spice mixtures they've got in there, and that's something that I think takes a while, years to perfect, making your own sausages.

Oh, yes.

This is definitely going to fill me up now, but it does make me think of like, a cool winter night and what I'd like to eat.

Another one of my favorite cold winter evening meals is chicken thighs with cream greens.

Oh, Wow.

It's also the way I look in the drawer, and I'm like, "Okay, I've got spinach.

I've got kale.

I've got Swiss chard.

What am I going to do?

I'm going to braise it in some chicken fat."

[chuckles] So we're going to keep on with this hearty day.

Yes.

End it with some sweets, but yeah, let's have a few more bites, and then let's roast some chicken.

Sounds good.

We've said it once.

We've said it many, many times.

We have a lot of greens in the winter.

[laughter] Anything where I'm going to braise a chicken in the oven, and it comes out, and you have all this goodness from the chicken that's stuck to the pan and my cast iron, I don't want that yumminess to go to waste, and so I like to throw my greens in with it.

Yes, sop it up with some greens.

Exactly, and when I'm feeling extra decadent, which is like, often, I like to really up the ante by putting some cream in there and just bringing the cream up to a bit of a boil, simmer, and letting it cook down.

And it just makes the greens that much richer, and it's just a really rich and decadent treat, and it pairs really nicely with the chicken.

So, we're not gonna like, totally go off the rich deep end.

We want to balance that, and we're going to use these honey nut squash for that.

I'm loving the honey nut this season.

This is my first year with honey nut.

I'm experiencing that, and I feel like it got a little trendy maybe with some of the farmers.

It did, yeah.

I love the science behind some of these seeds.

I mean, we want like the super sweetness of the different squashes, but then like, can we have a smaller butternut?

I mean, it's like endless.

And you can eat the skin on this one, which makes it so easy to throw in.

So, I mean, we're roasting this already.

My oven's on, and it's hot, so we're just going to cut these in half, scoop out the seeds, drizzle a little salt and pepper on them, olive oil.

We've got three different greens here, three of my favorite, the dino kale, lots of natto kale.

Any kale works in this though.

We've also got our Swiss chard, my fave, and then we had some spinach that I saw on this that looked really good.

Yeah.

So, we're going to take the stems out.

We'll hold on to those for another use, pickling, throwing in a stew, you know, a million options there.

Chop those up.

It doesn't have to be super tiny, but we want them in, you know, relative bite-sized pieces.

I will go ahead and take our chicken thighs over to the stove and get them going.

First, I'm going to give them a really good seasoning here.

[music playing] Place a cast-iron skillet on the stove and warm at medium heat.

I love to cook with bacon grease, and as soon as it is melted and is just about to start smoking, add your well-seasoned chicken thigh skin-side down.

Allow those to get very nice and browned.

Resist any temptation to move them.

This generally takes six to eight minutes.

As soon as six to eight minutes has passed and the skin is brown and crispy, turn the chicken over and transfer them directly into the oven, heated to 375 degrees.

You'll want to roast your chicken for 28 to 33 minutes until the interior temperature is fully cooked.

Okay, time to make some cookies.

Yay!

So, here's our dough.

Cold dough is your friend, so go ahead.

Okay, are you ready for this?

A little on top.

Yeah, and I'm going to put a little bit on top.

I'm just going to kind of roll it.

I like to go maybe a quarter-inch thick here.

I love the recipe from the Boone Tavern cookbook that we're using because it just says, chill, roll it out.

It's very to the point.

It's not so specific, but that's what recipes were like in the beginning, right?

They're very homey and sharing, and a lot of this is just by feel.

And I also like to try to make sure I always flour the top of it.

I'm just going to cut down, and then I like to pick up pretty quick, so it doesn't have too much time to overthink the dough.

Yes, oh man, what a cute little man.

Yay!

Do a candy cane here.

We're going to bake these off.

It's at about 375 for six to eight to maybe 10 minutes.

You just sort of, again, you know your oven.

So, I think we should have dinner before dessert.

[chuckles] We'll make our cream greens, and then it'll be time to decorate.

Great.

All right.

While the chicken is cooling, return the pan to medium-low temperature.

Add two cloves of sliced garlic, the zest of one lemon, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and sauté with a wooden spoon, scraping up all the good bits from the bottom of the pan.

[music playing] You want to add your greens in small batches, tossing in the fat until they're wilted and they've cooked down a bit.

Once all the greens have been added, squeeze a hefty amount of lemon juice over top.

Add your cream to the pan, and toss all the greens in the cream.

Bring the cream up to a boil, and then quickly drop to a simmer, and allow the greens to cook and reduce down in the cream for about five minutes until the cream is thickened.

The greens are very, very well wilted.

Taste and add additional seasoning if preferred, and time to serve with the chicken.

It's decadent, but it's delicious, and I love how cute these have turned out.

So, yeah, should we taste?

Yeah, are we going to build a little... Okay.

Let's do it.

I'm going to take this guy right here.

I want to start here.

Yeah, I'll take this one.

These are so adorable.

Oh my gosh, and then I kind of like this as a little cup for... Yeah.

That's what I was thinking too.

All good.

Yum.

And as always, pretty much everything in here is made by a local farmer, grown, raised.

Yeah, this to me is like a great weeknight meal or holiday dinner.

I'm going to start off with some greens.

Yeah, I'll try this chicken.

I'm just going to go like full.

I really, really like the greens.

But I make them at home all the time, so I was really excited to share that one with you today, because to me, it's one that's always in my rotation and never fails to make me happy.

I never think of creamed greens other than the holidays, and I love it just for every day.

Yeah.

Well, I think like traditional creamed spinach, there's like a bechamel involved.

It feels a little more complicated, and to me, this is just an easy way to get some veggies on the table.

Yeah.

Wow.

The bitterness is totally gone.

Not that they're always -- actually, in the winter, I feel like they're sweeter than bitter, but I'm carried with this honey nut.

Thank you.

Thank you, farmers.

Thank you, Kentucky soil.

So, good.

I think these puffed up and look gorgeous.

Thank you, Boone Tavern, for a classic.

[laughter] And we're just going to make a really quick icing.

So, we've got powdered sugar in here, and I'm going to mix in some maple syrup.

That golden.

And this is one of those you just kind of mix it together until it starts to get creamy.

Okay.

I'm actually going to put the vanilla in with my cream, and we're going to get some cream going.

And I like to just kind of do this bit by bit, so it kind of... You know exactly how much to... It's just the texture you want.

Yeah.

And I mean, I have the vanilla, but you could eat that out.

You could add a little almond extract.

A bourbon?

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

[laughs] Oh, my gosh.

You could totally add that.

That would not be a bad idea at all.

I'm going to start with this little guy.

Okay.

A little gingerbread.

I mean, you could do this idea.

Oh, that's smart.

So, dippity do that.

Yeah, that's one option.

Yes.

I like this dipping.

So, we could do a drizzle.

I might go ahead and play with some of our sprinkles in the meantime here.

[music playing] This is a season so worth toasting to.

Yeah.

It's been fun traveling Kentucky with you.

It has.

What a season.

Cheers.

[glasses clinking] Cheers.

[music playing] Cheers.

Yeah.

[music playing] So nostalgic.

So, good.

It's exactly what I want to sugar.

If it's not broke, don't fix it.

[laughs] Makes you appreciate those like the people at Berea College and on who have preserved these recipes and traditions, farming practices, all of the above.

Yeah, yeah.

Old and new.

Let's keep celebrating.

Yes.

[chuckles] [music playing]