Mennonites living a meaningful life in Tennessee & the availability of fresh produce & dairy

Mennonites living a meaningful life in Middle Tennessee & the availability of fresh produce & dairy – I checked my thesaurus for the word meaningful and found these adjectives: significant, relevant, important, consequential, valid, worthwhile, sincere, deep, serious, in earnest, expressive, and eloquent. I found, on my recent trip to Tennessee, every one of these descriptions to be true. First, a little context…

Abram Friesen and wife at their farm stand. Abram is heading out to the strawberry field.

I moved away from Tennessee after college and I haven’t been back there to live. During those many years, Tennessee changed. Politically, for sure (blue to red), factories closed, middle-class jobs dried up, young people moved away from small towns in droves to look for jobs in the big city, town squares – which were the hub of activity – became throughways to somewhere else.

Town square with new traffic lights directing traffic across the side of the square instead of around.

And shops closed their doors.

Closed dress shop just off the town square, also a pizza parlor at one time. ©Kaye Kittrell 2013

Millions of the hardwood trees Tennessee was known for were cut in the Cumberland Plateau to make toilet paper, (see “The Tennessee Tree Massacre,” OnEarth, 2004) but, the thing that impacts you most when you are dropping in for a visit (to any small town), is, what am I going to eat? In the last thirty years, the majority of people stopped gardening and growing at least some of their food, and started relying on corporations to dictate their diet. This didn’t happen overnight and didn’t just happen in Tennessee, but all over the country. Fast food places sprang up everywhere, and it’s hard to find a side dish of vegetables in a cafe that didn’t come from a can.

I am blessed to live in California where it is legal, though pricey, to buy raw dairy in a store, today supplied primarily by Organic Pastures. I’ve been consuming only raw dairy since 2000 when my father was dying of cancer, and, searching for answers, I was reminded of the merits of a whole food, and fresh whole cows milk is a nearly perfect food. My grandmother, who lived to 97, always had a jug of fresh milk in the icebox (with two inches of cream floating on top), and I didn’t really appreciate it because I was used to homogenized.

Fresh milk sign at farm stand. Price is triple that in California.

In 2000, my family picketed at the L.A. County Board of Supervisors, along with a group of loyal activists, and my ten-year-old son testified to the Board that raw dairy had cured him of asthma. Dairy and asthma usually are not found in the same sentence, right? He became a top-ranked tennis athlete recruited to Stanford, which was unthinkable when he was five and hooked to a nebulizer, taking numerous drugs during an asthma episode. Raw dairy isn’t cheap or easy to find, but it’s worth it.

We made a special trip to the small Claravale dairy herd of 60 cows, which were lazing around on a few acres of grass meadow overlooking the Pacific ocean, because I wanted my young sons to see where their milk came from. These cows were as happy as cows get. It was terrific to go into the dairy and drink fresh milk that had just come from a cow passed through only a strainer. These days, the government is doing everything it can to shut down raw dairies in California and other states, so we must fight to keep the raw milk flowing. In Tennessee, however, it is legal to buy raw milk from cow shares, and I found several farms on my recent trip that are members of the cow share program.

Friesen’s cows munching on grass

In California, it is super easy to find organic, locally raised meat and vegetables from farms practicing sustainable farming techniques at the many farmers markets, CSA’s (Community Sponsored Agriculture) and health food stores. I’m deeply grateful and humbled by independent farmers, and the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund, who fight government bureaucracy, weather, Monsanto and Cargill to bring us uncontaminated, un-genetically modified food.

But, when I go home, where the sole, independent grocery store that served my hometown for decades lies vacant and even the elderly must drive several miles to get food (often at the Walmart 25 miles away, whose low prices and huge variety drove the local merchants out of business in the first place), I usually am thinking, how fast can I get out of here? As much as I love pulled pork barbecue and country ham,…

Slice of fried country salt-cured ham with fixins’

I have to balance it with fresh and organic, or I’m in trouble. Well, much to my surprise, in addition to the cow share program, there is some good news coming out of Tennessee!

Friesen’s Farm Field

The Mennonites have lived and farmed in Tennessee for decades. Some settlements go back to the 1940’s. They would drive their buggies into the town square and sell their molasses and fresh produce on Saturday mornings. They also kept farm stands at their farms. But, what was once more of a curiosity, has become more of a necessity, and more folks now drive to the farms on a daily basis for fresh food instead of Walmart!

Friesen’s Farm Stand Sign

The Mennonites are quite enterprising. One family has a log cabin business and stays so busy one of his daughters told me he has no time to make rockers and outdoor furniture anymore (so get yours while supplies last).

Handcrafted wooden rockers and furniture

Another has a small store that carries everything from broadcloth to molasses and handmade children’s clothes to vitamins. Still another makes aluminum siding. My friend Annis and I saw handmade soy scented candles in glass jars, handmade lye soap,…

Handmade block of lye soap available at the farm stand

…preserves and loads of fresh produce. One young woman told me they use small solar panels to run their sewing machines. Another told me she didn’t know anything about computers.

Row of tomatoes with small solar panel in distance on left

Gourds for Purple Martins, which eat a lot of garden pests, are strung from poles at most farms, because, “We just like to watch them.”

Gourd bird houses strung on wire for Purple Martins

Uncompromising faith and culture is the glue that holds this tight-knit community together.

Mennonite wagon and horses with boys reflected in rearview mirror

One farmer, Abram Friesen, was adamant about knowing what’s in the food he feeds his family (and sells), and disregards warnings by the local authorities about E coli, saying, “I pull a carrot right out of the ground, wipe it on my pants and eat it and I don’t get E coli.”

Abram Friesen heads back from field to his farm stand with baskets of fresh-picked strawberries

Mr. Friesen had a half-acre in strawberries alone and his entire family, save the wife and mother of a new baby (she was minding the farm stand and running back in to check on the baby) were out in in the field picking them. This man loves life, his family and his farm, exclaiming, “If it’s cold or hot, wet or dry, it’s all wonderful.” And his farm is living proof.

Rows of squash plants

There was a bounty of fresh produce for sale at a number of farm stands, and people were coming to buy it. Mr. Friesen said, “It’s all natural. If we get an infestation, we will treat it, so, it’s not organic, but it’s all natural.” And fresh, locally grown “all natural” produce is entirely preferable to what you find in the supermarket. Perhaps, if more young people start moving back to the rich farmland in Tennessee, protest the clear-cutting of trees that give Tennessee its beauty, planting farms and raising their families there, they can learn from the Mennonites’ example about sustainability, doing it yourself, the farming community and growing your own.

Have you ever visited a Mennonite or Amish farm to buy produce, dairy and meat products? If you belong to a CSA, have you visited the farms? Are you showing your children where their food comes from? Learn more about growing heritage corn and stone gristmills in the latest episode of “Late Bloomer,” “Preserving the Old Corn Growing Tradition.” Thanks for reading!

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Tags: biodiversity, compost, curbside gardening, farming on small scale, gardening, gardening web series, green your world, growing your own vegetables, Kaye Kittrell, Kaye Kittrell Late Bloomer, Late Bloomer, organic, Photography, strawberries, vegetables

Category: Community, Food Security