OUR FIRST OFFICIAL ACT OF PARENTING.

Further loves our water filter––it's kind of maddening. Now that he has learned to crawl, we will set him on the floor and he will use his newfound mobility to move swiftly to the water filter, reach for the tap, and try to dump all the water onto the floor.We are never far away, so we usually we just stand there patiently, gently blocking his hand from grabbing the tap while saying "No, Further, we do not play with the water filter," over and over. He then just looks at us curiously and tries again, but again we reject it. Finally, he'll get bored or frustrated and move on. But we don't want to just say "no no no" all the time. What we want to do is discourage him when using something is inappropriate, but then offer an emphatic "yes" when it is time to use it. So now, when we need to fill up a water bottle or a glass, we take Further over to the water filter and let him pull the tap, show him what it's for, then let him shut it off.Now, do we think our nine month old will suddenly get it? No. Not at all. We do not think he will just suddenly lose interest in the water filter at inappropriate times (update: he hasn't). If anything, he will have more interest in it than ever because we let him play with it for once. But if we continue to stop him from playing with it when there is no purpose, and let him use it when there is, then perhaps we can get him to understand that the water filter is a tool, or especially, if I may stretch this idea out a bit, that the stove is a tool.We are very diligent about the wood stove. So when it's going, we take him to it and let him watch me build a fire. We then hold his hand near by and let him feel the warmth while saying "HOT." As he gets older we'll let him help us collect kindling, build and (very far down the road) start the fire. Not because he will be able to do these things on his own anytime soon, but so he can see how it works, and get him used to the difference between a tool and a toy––create a habit out of using them correctly.Really, our goal as parents is not to just teach our child to be good or helpful or respectful, but to habituate him to it. We want him to look at the water filter and think, "If I want to use this, I need to fill something." Or at very least, "I can use this to fill something," which we conceded may be a glass, or a boot. Slowly, however, the time-and-place factor will become apparent. So in the same way your parents may have habituated you to clearing the table, or making your bed, or saying please and thank you, we want to habituate Further to everything we do. We want to habituate him to being helpful. Habituate him to being respectful of others. Habituate him to curiosity, to the joys of work, to eating well. Instead of always explaining to him why we do things, or just hoping he figures it out on his own, we want to also show him, involve him, and be consistent. Especially when he shows interest.But what do we know? We have only had a child since December so really, we have done no real parenting yet. Up until this crawling thing, he has just been another farm animal. Now, however, the real fun is beginning. And like our birth plan, we hope to stick to our parenting plan as much as we can (though like our birth plan, we know it needs to be malleable). But if nothing else, maybe it will save us some water.- Jesse.

THE FARMER AND CHEF SERIES: CHEF TO FARMER, NOT FARM TO TABLE.

In the name of full disclosure, Rolf and Daughters might be my favorite restaurant. I have worked and eaten at many great establishments over the years, but R.A.D.––as it so appropriately abbreviates––has served two of my most memorable meals. That being said, I suspected this may be the case long before I ever came in for dinner. The chef/owner, Philip Krajeck, has been coming to our farmers' market for several years now to buy produce. And for Philip, quality is paramount. He has bought loads of produce from us over those years but he has also turned down perfect-looking July carrots when the flavor wasn't there. He has passed on chanterelles when they seemed a little beyond their prime. I've always felt you can tell a good wine by simply talking to the winemaker, and I like to think you can tell a good restaurant by simply watching the chef at market. So I had no doubts, by this measure, that Rolf and Daughters would be good.But Rolf and Daughters isn't just a good restaurant, it's also an uniquely subtle one. The atmosphere is lively, italicized by fresh, creative food (and drink), that seems to prefer its focus be more on the experience than the chef––the experience than the farmer. No one at R.A.D. would likely describe the place as a farm-to-table, despite the fact that the chefs buy a vast majority of their food from local farmers. In fact, in the day I spent with them, they filled an entire pick-up truck full of food from no less than six different small farms. But this, as impressive as it is, is just not something they feel compelled to advertise. There are no blackboards with the farmers' names, no farmer portraits on the walls, nothing in their literature about farm-to-anything (in fact, nowhere in their online profiles does it even say who the chef is, let alone the farmers). They simply let the food advertise this for them.Curious about this, I asked Philip and his sous chef Owen Clark why Rolf and Daughters doesn't play up the farm-to-table thing, since they do it so legitimately. They both said they'd prefer to simply serve the best tasting food, and let the quality of that food reveal to people that it came from good farmers. "Doing it quietly," Philip added, "makes a bigger reverberation." And it has. Rolf and Daughters has already in their young existence been heaped with accolades including the number three Best New Restaurant from Bon Appétit in 2013. Moreover, you know it's reverberating because they are a mid- to high-end restaurant––in a city filled with mid- to high-end restaurants––that stays packed. In other words, when people want a nice meal, they may try other restaurants, but they go back to Rolf and Daughters. Again and again.Anyway, I felt it was important to profile Rolf and Daughters in this fashion to give you an idea of the type of chefs I was utilizing for this project. The ultimate goal is to understand how farmers can better serve chefs, and chefs can better serve farmers, so I needed a restaurant who greatly relied on these relationships to get to the bottom of it all. Next week, we'll dive a little further into those details––what farmers do right, what farmers do wrong, and we could all be doing better––so stay tuned.- Jesse.

THE FARMER AND CHEF SERIES: AN INTRODUCTION.

This past Saturday I spent the morning going from farmers' market to farmers' market with the chef-owner and sous chef of Rolf and Daughters in Nashville ––Philip Krajeck and Owen Clark, respectively––as they did their shopping. This was, as you may imagine, fairly generous on their part. As a farmer who sells them produce, it was an admittedly audacious request to be allowed to tag along to other markets and see how they dealt with other farmers. But Philip and Owen said yes, and I think they said yes because they saw some of the same potential in it I did––that this could be a good opportunity for a farmer and some chefs to sit down and better understand one another.... over coffee and hip hop.So after some mild debate on what to do with what I learned––and what I might learn later when I go in to Rolf and Daughters to stage for a day––I've decided to do a series of posts on the farmer and chef, free for anyone who might be curious. I don't know what the end results will be yet, but I do hope the–-forgive me––journey will be helpful not just to farmers, but to farmers and chefs alike. Because alike is what they aren't, really. They can't be––not entirely. One of them needs to grow the food, and the other needs to prepare it in mass quantity, each profession requiring its own vastly complicated, and vastly life-consuming, skill set.The first post will be going up later today so check back. Maybe we can bridge a few gaps, or just reinforce some bridges that already exist. Because there is no reason that these two occupations, which rely so heavily on one another for success, shouldn't do everything they can to better understand each other.- Jesse. 

HOW IN THE WORLD TO USE ALL THIS OKRA.

We love okra. I'll even eat it fresh in the garden as I pick it. But we know that there are many people who do not love this crop. Perhaps it's the flavor, but more often than not it's the texture––affectionately described as "mucilaginous"––-and so they avoid eating it.But let's really look at okra, and try to find a way for everyone to love it as much as we do. It's a robustly flavored crop for how small it tends to be. It grows really well in our hot, dry summers. The flowers are unreal. And it's full of protein, vitamin K and vitamin C, to boot.People sometimes look at each vegetable in their CSA as an individual item to be used on its own. We like to look at our veggies as pieces of a puzzle that beg to be fit together. And okra is a relatively easy piece to fit. It can be used on its own, sure, but it can also be used as a thickening agent in soups, stews, chili, and sauces. Not to mention, when used like a seasoning, the flavor is almost indistinguishable from meat.Perhaps okra's most famous form is fried, respectfully. We love us some fried okra around here. Dip it in some buttermilk, batter it with some salt, black pepper, cornmeal and flour, then fry it in some lard and have a true southern treat. But that is hardly it's only use.Try tossing it in some olive oil, salt, cumin and pepper and baking it for 15 or 20 minutes (on 350) until toasty brown and soft. That's a great side dish, warm or cold. Or cut it up thin and add it to pasta ingredients. We sautéed some with yellow squash, tomatoes and sweet peppers for a pasta sauce the other night and it was outrageous––a word I may have literally never used before. You can also soak it in some teriyaki and dehydrate it as a snack. What about chopping it up and adding it to crab cakes or cornbread? We assure you, we will not stand in your way.If you just play around with it a bit, we're confident you will find you enjoy okra more than you realize.Okra fan already? Tell us how you use it.- Jesse.