The New American Farm Cookbook

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 4, 1993 by Michael Schrader

Linda Griffith writes features on wine and food, and her husband is the host of "The Morning Exchange," a daily television talk show in Cleveland. They are the co-authors of "The Best of the Midwest."

In their visits to many restaurants in the United States they learned that the highest-quality ingredients come from farmers who use organic methods - no pesticides, antibiotics, hormones or chemical fertilizers. They set out to meet the vanguard of the trend. As they explain: "They are specialists in quality and taste and are directly involved in marketing what they grow. They are usually organic, or as close to it as possible. A weather disaster can still ruin the season; these farmers still have to be lucky. But it is a movement that is saving thousands of American farms."

Organic farming requires that the soil be free of chemical residues and alive with organic material and that it be fertilized with natural substances. There should be a rotation plan to put nitrogen into the soil. Irrigation water should be uncontaminated. Seeds and seedlings must be free of synthetic fungicides and pesticides. Insects should be managed by predator insects and organic pesticides.

The Griffiths traveled all over the country, where they found counterculture dropouts, entrepreneurs seeking a tranquil life, disaffected city dwellers and third-generation farmers tilling their farms. They interviewed Richard de Wilde of Harmony Valley Farm in Viroqua, Wis., who grows baby lettuces; Orlando and JoAnn Casados of Ranch O Casados in San Juan Pueblo, N.M., whose chilies are famous; and Coll Walker of Little Compton, R.I., who supplies the well-known Al Forno restaurant in Providence.

The more than 200 recipes, featuring organically grown foods, include Buster's Pickled Jalapeno Peppers, Summer Salsa, Heavenly Pumpkin Cheesecake, Warm Duck and Red Cabbage Salad, Summer Salad with Fried Goat Cheese and Fresh Mint, Ma Griffith's Salt-Rising Bread, Andy's Strawberry Meringue Cake, Cheese Souffle with Shellfish Sauce, Ali Barker's Milk Punch, Shaw's Crab House Garlic-Basil Dungeness Crab, Salmon Fillets Steamed in Lettuce Leaves, Sinful Mussel Stew, Heavenly Smoked-Trout and Shellfish Pasta Sauce, Rachel's Smoked Caviar Butter, Shrimp and Corn Chowder, Three-Generation Stuffed Cabbage and Grilled Marinated Rack of Lamb.

The Griffiths have done an extraordinary amount of research. This illustrated cookbook is bound to become a classic.

Gold, who majored in psychology at Tufts and human sexuality at New York University, worked for free to get her culinary training. Now she is culinary director of the Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co. and has created menus for the Rainbow Room and other famous New York restaurants. Her delicious little meals reflect the flavors of the world and are organized as From the Cold Buffet, Little Romantic Meals, Low-Fat Little Meals, Speed and Ease, Slow-Cooked Little Meals and Little Meals with a Kick.

Stafford developed more than 650 recipes 13 years ago when her husband was diagnosed with cancer. She substituted vegetables, pasta, brown rice, whole grains, cereals, fruit and fish for the rich foods they had grown up with. The food was the cure.