Batch’s Best Family Farms

The Batches have grown fruit in the State of Washington since 1936. We met them a few years back after they had seen our website and called us to talk about food, fruit, and the farmer’s connection with food lovers. After just a short conversation, we knew we had to work together. The Batches own cherry, apple and pear orchards near the shores of Lake Chelan in the high desert of Central Washington. (sadly, no more apples or pears) They’re blessed with the world’s best growing conditions. But, they wanted to take their quality fruit a step further than the marketplace – all the way to their customers. We discussed the fruit that was usually sold in most grocery stores. Tom Batch cringed as we mentioned the tasteless cherries, the mealy apples and the rock-hard pears we regularly encountered in our local markets. As it turns out Washington produces some of the finest cherries, apples and pears in the world, but most of that fruit is picked too early. Why, because it needs to trucked or trained across the country to reach your supermarkets. Unfortunately, once these fruits are picked the ripening process is altered, and in certain cases stopped altogether.

Below is a recent article by Greg Batch:

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SWEET MEMORIES, KID STUFF AND A GREAT-LOOKING CHERRY CROP

 

by Greg Batch, of Batch Family Farms in Lake Chelan, WA

 

As a kid, a trip to visit my grandparents meant a trip to the orchard – a chance to sit on a tractor, climb up into the dusty cab of an ancient flatbed truck with a busted door latch, pull on rubber boots five sizes too big and “help” my grandpa drag ice-cold aluminum sprinkler pipes from one row of trees to the next.

 

Last weekend, my two young daughters got a taste of the same experience at the cherry orchard with their grandparents.

 

Saturday afternoon, Ruby and Olive woke up from their naps (about the same time as Grandpa). Dad, my wife Kristen and I piled the kids into their car seats and drove up into the hills above Lake Chelan to see how the cherry crop was coming along. When we turned onto the dusty switchback road that leads up to the orchard, three-year old Ruby reminded us to “be careful of the pits.” Sage advice . . . but about seven weeks early.

 

Even though we couldn’t eat them, we were all glad to see a beautiful cherry crop growing on the trees. The blooms had almost all fallen off, and on every limb, little green cherries were taking shape. The young Sweetheart trees I remember planting with a shovel four years ago are now about nine feet tall and covered in fruit. Between the hide-and-seek game, tractor rides and running for the sheer joy of it, I think we covered almost every inch of the orchard and saw every branch on every tree.

 

With full-time office jobs in Portland, OR, we help with the family orchard as much as we can (mostly during harvest), and we hope to be able to take over someday. But for now, we’re glad that Dad/Grandpa enjoys running the place. We can’t wait to taste the sweet rewards in July (and to share them through ChefShop.com). And it’s nice for all of us to know that Grandpa’s always available for tractor rides.

 

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Listening to Greg Batch talk about farming and his family’s cherry orchards gives you hope that old-fashioned values like hard work, loyalty and pride in the family business have not gone completely out of style. Batch’s Best Family Farms exemplifies the sort of small producer that we at Chefshop.com support in every way we can. Batch’s Best is family-owned and operates on a smaller, human scale, rather than an impersonal, corporate industrial one. The Batches take the time to ensure that all of their fruit is of the highest quality, throughout every step of the growing process. And of course – their cherries are out of this world.

 

Although he lives the urban professional lifestyle, Greg’s heart clearly belongs to the farm and a part of his soul is in every cherry tree in the Batch family orchard.

 

We sat down with Greg and his father Tom to talk about family, farming and growing excellent cherries.

 

 

Your family has traditionally grown apples; how and why did you make the switch to cherries?

TOM: My wife and I had been farming apples for more than 15 years when the apple market began to weaken, but the real estate market was strong. We were working on a strategy for our retirement, and selling our land was the answer. Greg, our son, has always been interested in farming, and a few years back he purchased an old cherry orchard. Although he now lives and works in the city, we run the cherry business together.

 

What draws you to farming?

TOM: I grew up on the farm, but after college worked in corporate America for 15 years. Then my wife and I decided the valley would be a good place to raise a family, so we came back and began working in the family apple business. I’m very happy to be on the farm; I really enjoy the work that comes with each season. Right after the harvest, we irrigate, mow and fertilize the orchard; in the winter we invigorate the tree with pruning and shaping, and in the spring we irrigate again, and then enjoy watching the buds pop and the cherries form. It’s like having kids every year!

 

GREG: I’ve always been drawn to farming, and particularly to the family legacy of our farm. My great-grandparents came to the area as migrant farmworkers, and I feel a strong sense of place and pride in what our family built here. I have a desire and I feel a responsibility to carry on the family tradition, while bringing a modern sensibility to the operation. I love working with my family, and nothing else is quite as gratifying as seeing the results of your own hard work add up to something tangible - and delicious! My dad and I now hope to form new kinds of partnerships with consumers and other farmers to make family farming successful again, while producing a top-quality product. Our program with Chefshop is part of that vision for the future.

 

Why are cherries grown in the Chelan Valley so extraordinary?

TOM: Our orchard, located in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, is in a microclimate perfectly suited to growing cherries. The days are very warm, but the nights are cool, which allows the cherries to “recover” from the heat and gain superior color and sugar.

What is your favorite cherry?

TOM: Some people say “Bing is king,” but my favorite is the Lapin – a great, big bite of a cherry.

GREG: The Lapins are so big and beautiful that I like to look at them as much as eat them. They are a showpiece cherry – and they taste really good.

Goat Cheese-Stuffed Piquillo Peppers Recipe

These stuffed peppers make an enticing appetizer or side dish, or they can be served as part of a light meal along with a variety of other small, flavorful dishes.

Ingredients

1 jar Piquillo peppers (about 8-10 whole peppers)

1/2 cup goat cheese, room temperature

1 clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, or set the broiler on its highest setting. Make sure the rack is positioned at least 4 inches beneath heat source.

2. Remove Piquillo peppers from jar and blot them with a paper towel to remove excess moisture. Set aside.

3. Combine remaining ingredients. With a small spoon or your fingers, fill the cavities of peppers with goat-cheese mixture. It’s okay if they’re a little oozy on top, but be careful not to perforate the sides of the pepper.

4. Place stuffed peppers on a well-oiled baking sheet and bake or broil until brown and bubbly, 3-7 minutes. Remove from sheet and serve immediately, sprinkled with chopped fresh tarragon, marjoram or parsley.

Finding Farro by ChefShop.com

Over the years, I’ve watched several of ChefShop.com’s more “unusual” ingredients – like preserved lemons **or** piquillo peppers - suddenly go super white-hot on the food market, and I always get a little thrill when it happens. When I was at ChefShop.com in the late nineties, no one had even heard of farro. Then one day, an employee came back from Italy with starry eyes and a bag of what looked like big wheat berries. We skeptically boiled up a small batch and gave it a taste. It was the beginning of a long and lasting love affair.

Farro, also known as emmer,* was one of the earliest domesticated crops in the Near East, where it was highly valued as a crop that would do well in poor soil. There are even indications of humans consuming emmer as early as 17,000 B.C.—even before the advent of agriculture! It was grown in Egypt and Mesopotamia and eventually migrated, as many grains did, through the Mediterranean region and Europe.

In addition to growing in many soils, farro was appreciated for its heartiness – it is very high in fiber, protein and nutrients – it was valued just as much by some cultures, the Italians in particular, for its flavor. It’s toothsome, wholesome, and full of big, nutty, grain flavor. When our first shipment came in, we ate it all through that summer with everything. We ate it cold, hot, fresh and “a few days out” (it tastes better as it sits, and doesn’t lose its chewiness!). We ate it for breakfast with berries and as a snack. We wondered if anyone else would love it like we did.

As it turns out, plenty of folks did. Our farro salad was a hit three years running at Food & Wine magazine’s Classic in Aspen. Since my first introduction to it, I””ve seen farro show up in all kinds of hotspots. One reason for its popularity is its nutritional value. This is the grain that kept Roman Legionnaires alive, it”’’s an easy favorite of the health-conscious.

Of course, farro is especially good for you if it’s organic and wholegrain (like the one we’re offering from Lentz Farms…see below!). Grains have three parts to the edible kernel: the endosperm, germ, and bran. The endosperm is the inner soft, white carbohydrate portion. The germ holds proteins, and the bran, vitamins and minerals. Farro is naturally high in fiber and nutrients, and in this wholegrain version, nothing has been removed. (Farro described as “pearled” **or** “semi-pearled” has had all **or** part of the bran removed and has often been parboiled as well, which speeds the cooking time but takes away from the nutritional value, nutty flavor and texture.)

Is Farro Gluten-Free? Farro is not gluten-free, but it is considerably lower in gluten than wheat, and it is generally more easily digestible by the human body than wheat. If you have a relatively mild gluten sensitivity, farro may work for you. Check with your doctor.

I like to think of how we at ChefShop.com are making our own contribution to the movement . . . by bringing you farro from farms practically out our backdoor. (Broadly speaking…!)
By Lesa Sullivan, of The Pink Hobart

 

OUR NEW FARROWe at ChefShop.com are always on the lookout for wonderful, new products. So we are thrilled to introduce our favorite new farro – an organic, heirloom farro grown locally on a small family farm in eastern Washington.

A Family Farm for Four Generations
Lena Lentz Hardt lives on the farm that her great-grandfather established in 1898 in eastern Washington. For generations, the family grew wheat and barley, just about the only things everyone thought grew on such dry land with very little precipitation. (Unlike famously rainy Seattle, the eastern side of Washington state receives far less moisture. Lentz Farms only averages a minuscule eight inches of rain a year.)

Lena is now the last of her family living on the farm, and a few years ago, she was struggling with low wheat prices. One day, her business partner René Featherstone heard her bemoaning the low prices and suggested she grow something else. Lena was skeptical. What else would grow on this dry land, with no irrigation?

But there was an answer: ancient hulled grains – a.k.a., farro and spelt. In the early 1990s, René had researched and published an article on spelt and ancient grains, hardy crops that thrive in dry climates and yield very healthful (and tasty!) grains. Lena was convinced, and in 2000, they grew their first spelt crop, adding emmer (farro), the following year.

Off to an excellent start, they nonetheless encountered challenges. Unlike wheat, spelt and emmer kernels come away from the stalk still covered in a tough hull, which must then be removed with a special de-hulling machine. Still, although it makes for more labor, the hull has advantages: It protects from pollution and helps keep the grain fresh. Organic growing poses another set of challenges. It was not easy for Lena to find an organic seed-cleaning plant to separate the grains from the stalks after harvest – because if a plant processes conventionally grown grain, then organic growers can’t use it for their organic grains.

But the demand for Lentz Farms grains has grown steadily, especially for the organic grains. And Lentz is providing not only a top-quality product, but another rare commodity in the eastern Washington grain market – they are a farm that sells directly back to the community, to small local bakeries and some shops throughout the region, rather than selling all of their product for large-scale national and often international distribution, as most wheat growers there do.

HOW TO COOK DELICIOUS FARRO

Farro is quite versatile. It works as the basis for a meal-in-itself salad **or** for a simple side dish. It cooks up beautifully, retaining a chewy texture and nutty flavor, and works well with robust flavors like red wine, wild mushrooms, onions and also meat.

Farro is great in simple soups, made with fresh onion, thyme, tomatoes, richly flavored beef stock and red wine. Finish with a drizzle of punchy olive oil and freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano for a real luxury. This is a warming, filling meal hearty and flavorful, the epitome of satisfying! But it’s not just for the winter – room-temperature farro salads make wonderful picnic lunches **or** summer dinners.

Maybe you’re thinking, well, this sounds wonderful, but it does take a long time to cook, doesn’t it? Yes . . . but we like to think of it as simple way to make a great dinner. Just cover farro with water to soak before heading to work in the morning. When you get home, first thing, drain it, put it in a pot, cover with fresh water, bring to a boil, and then simmer. Then, it cooks for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, while you sip a glass of wine. In the last 20 minutes, saute some onion with mushrooms and a little thyme **or** rosemary **or** just a splash of red wine. Toss together a salad. Voilà. (And you’ll have terrific leftovers for lunch the next day!)

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