Ann Tindell Keener | Sequatchie Cove Farm

You can now find Ann’s Local Food Letters on Blogspot:

• http://annsfoodletters.blogspot.com/

Filed under: Local Food Letter on April 28th, 2010 | Comments Off

I met a woman the other day who owns a restaurant here in the village (which is really great because it can mean a few things. It could be a nice big establishment complete with health code-esque qualities or it could just be a little shack that you drive or walk by everyday and never even know a wee restaurant dwells inside. I think it was the latter- she said it was the one up the hill that has the sign that says, well there WAS a sign but it fell down, I mean to put it back up but I haven’t yet…) She said she was very happy to see me because she had heard I really liked to cook. Or maybe she said someone told her I was a really good cook- which is more likely. I usually respond to that with- well I really LIKE to cook. That means I don’t go around telling people I am a really good cook because I don’t want to seem arrogant but also I think if you really LIKE to cook then of course you are a good cook. Read more …

Filed under: Local Food Letter on November 19th, 2009 | Comments Off

Please don’t ask me how long I’ve been here. If I looked at the calendar it would probably say two weeks. But you never can tell. It is a little like being out in Sequatchie Cove- time has a different meaning.Since there is so much to say and nowhere to begin so I guess I will start small.I made my very first batch of coconut milk from beginning to end a few days ago. Making-coconut-milk-from-beginning-to-end has already retired off to the Land of Things Other People Are For- along with changing tires and picking okra.

First I found a strong handsome man to knock the coconuts out of the tree while I lay on the beach and looked at teeny shells. Then I carried the coconuts home, one under each arm, first over volcanic rocks by the raging sea and then up a steep muddy path to the house. Then I proceeded to aimlessly hit them with a cutlass (that is a machete but they call it a cutlass down here so so do I) that I have finally gotten the hang of sharpening (I think). After about thirty minutes of that I began to work out a technique for getting the very fibrous tough husk off. I am pretty sure the easy way to do this is to have a pole in the ground with a nice sharp blade on top and cut and wiggle and work the husk from the coconut with that. But I didn’t have one of those fine-tuned gadgets. Eventually I figured out if I set the coconut up on its end on the ground I could whack off pieces of the husk til I got down to the hard shell. Now, it is all well and good to get down to the hard shell of the coconut but pulling the husk off is a whole new battle. I did figure it out eventually though and by the time I got to my third coconut I was averaging about forty minutes a husking. Read more …

Filed under: Local Food Letter on November 17th, 2009 | Comments Off

So. I’ve tried to write this letter twice thus far. Once right after I
wrote the last letter and then once in my head a few days later after a
tough trip into society.

The first letter started with- “I’ve been thinking (I do a lot of that
in my spare time- along with cooking, arranging flowers, making glass
beads, and writing). I was thinking about what I wrote last week about
eating in season. This is obviously very important if you are a local
food eater. I realized that it is easy for me to say it’s easy to eat
only in season- I’m a farmer’s daughter. I’ve been doing it most of my
life and it comes naturally to me. I would have to try NOT to eat in
season and if I did that I would end up spending a lot more money and
feeling a lot less satisfied. But for some it is not so natural. Some
were raised eating what grows on the grocery store shelves- the ones in
the produce department where there is a tiny electrical thunder before
the mist comes out to spray the lettuce from California and the peppers
from Peru. I guess I’ve never thought about how HARD it would be to
re-train yourself to eat only what is coming out of the ground miles
from your own home. Sometimes it doesn’t seem like much and sometimes it
seems like TOO much. Too much of one thing and nothing of another. If
you want to eat pasta in April you can’t make a tomato sauce- you have
to get creative and make a cream sauce with wilted arugula. Read more …

Filed under: Local Food Letter, Local Food News on October 7th, 2009 | Comments Off

I suddenly realized it has been over a month since I have sat down and written a letter. And this whole time I have been going to the market, cooking good food, and enjoying good company.

But now I am holed up inside a cloud on Lookout Mountain with nothing to do today except maybe sweep the floor and make some banana pudding (that is a foodstuff that has nothing to do with the market but is almost a necessary part of the diet if it has rained more than five days in a row). I somehow found a bunch of fair-trade organic bananas among the regular organic bananas at Greenlife so I just had to buy them. But before I make that totally unlocal (excepting the Sequatchie Cove eggs — those precious and much sought after gems) comfort food, I thought I would share some long overdue thoughts. Read more …

Filed under: Local Food Letter, Local Food News on September 20th, 2009 | Comments Off

I have something to admit. My kitchen is pretty close to my idea of heaven — add a cold river to swim in out the back door, a nice garden full of food and a milk cow or two out the front, a nice boy to hang around and clean up my messes, a few friends living next door to feed and drink wine with every now and then, and I’m pretty sure that would make it. Read more …

Filed under: Local Food Letter on August 12th, 2009 | Comments Off