Ecoshock Radio Interview

Why Farmers Don't Name Their Animals...

This has been the toughest lesson in introducing Olivia and Cameron to real farm life. Olivia, who is 8, has been a vegetarian and a staunch animal rights activist since she was 5. She will tolerate our carnivorous meals while offering great debates about her point of view, eternally hopeful that we may see the error of our ways sooner than later. But Olivia also falls in love with every baby farm animal she holds and want assurance that THIS lamb or THIS piglet will surely be saved and given a good home for it's natural long life, preferably in our living room.

I guess I am asking for advice here. I truly appreciate her young idealistic values and mores, and I love that I have a self-confident daughter who fights for what she believes is right, but I also want to offer a realistic view of food production and the cycle of life to my children. Perhaps I am unable to come up with the right way to handle this is because I am a bit conflicted with the issue as well...

From Fine Art to Fine Food Article about the Project

Bartering is Back- see FoodonTheFood blog

Turnips, turnips, turnips

I have to be honest here. I have never tried a turnip before Jake showed up with an armful of huge white turnips from the Vineyard. Barry and I put them on the kitchen counter and looked at them. We sniffed them, they smelled delicious - sort of like sweet carrots. Barry prepared them the first night by mashing them and cooking them in butter and garlic. They were very similar to mashed potatoes. Cameron and Olivia were not fooled on the other hand. They both rated the turnips a 2 out of 10. Brussel sprouts are a 2 on the kid's scale. Sigh. The next night we served them chopped up with other raw veggies and Cam ate those fine... I just don't get it...add butter (yum) and garlic (double yum) and the kids "turn up" their noses (sorry, that joke was just sitting there waiting to be said) but serve them raw and they get thumbs up.

Featured on WCVB Boston Channel 5 -link here to story

We were featured on Boston Channel 5 yesterday. Just wanted to mention that we offer full marketing and design services for our farm partners within the project:

• Branding, logo and style guide design
• Print and collateral design
• Website design and development
• Photography
• Film/video creative and production.
• Media and PR Kit

There is still room in some of the tiers so feel free to contact us today!

Scallop Chowder From Martha's Vineyard

This weekend, Beetlebung Farm from Martha's Vineyard delivered some prepared dinners made from local goods gathered across the island as the barter trade for some branding work we did for them last week. Barry and I ate the bay scallop chowder caught by a commercial fisherwoman and her friend on the island. As a born and bred Cape Codder, I have to say it was some of the best chowder I have ever had. The broth was milky and sweet with large bay leaves, chunky potatoes, carrots, bacon and delicate little scallops. Thank you Jake, Chris, Mrs. Ferreira and Betty!

Logo Design for Bull Frog Acres

We have just finished the branding for Bull Frog Acres in West Wareham, MA. This was a great logo to work on because of the frog. He definitely looks like he is having fun jumping over the sunflower. Best of luck with the new branding to Denise and Jeffrey!

Cooking Steak From The Farm

T-bone steak. Now there's something I know how to cook. Outside on a
Weber charcoal grill. In the summer.

We had received two wonderful T-bone steaks from Round the Bend Farm
recently and they had been sitting in our freezer, and in the back of
my mind, ever since. Broiling I know how to do, but I'm not always
adept at stopping at the right time, and it took me years to learn to
keep the oven door slightly ajar when broiling with an electric oven.
I decided to keep it simple and rub some Montreal Steak spice onto
them, and aim for medium-rare for me and medium for Valerie. On the
side, some steamed broccoli and a crisp Caesar salad.

The verdict? A wonderfully tender, mouth-watering medium-rare steak,
with a kind of a smoothness to the bite that I hadn't experienced in a
steak in a long time. Valerie, on the other hand, got about half way
through hers before she slowed down and then finally stopped eating
altogether. She surprised herself, I think, by not being able to eat
it after having seen the beautiful animals on the farm just the week
before.

The kids opted for mac and cheese -- and even Cam, who usually loves
steak, was fairly quick in saying no thanks to the bite I offered him.
Olivia couldn't stand the sight of the red meat in the kitchen and
quivered her lower lip with every bite I took.

Altogether an excellent meal!

Green Eggs and Ham

Barry and I just met with Zephyr Farm in Rhode Island to create their logo. Michele brought us some lemon pesto and green eggs - should be interesting for Barry to cook with this weekend.

NPR - Public Radio Kitchen Tidbit

Will Work for Food
“The whole point was to level the playing field for these farms because they have no design budget.” Hat Tip: Julia Rappaport

Seasonal Dinner Series featuring local foods

Will Work for Food Project plans to offer a seasonal series of organic dinners that connect the farmer and farms to urban diners.

Eat. Drink. Memory. Blog Article

Will Work for Food Project promotes small farms & sustainable food

Too many American children are so far removed from their food sources that they think chicken is a little deep-fried, processed nugget.

Now at a time when the fast food nation falls deeper into an economic slump, more Americans are re-thinking their relationships with the food that they eat. Yearning for simpler times, foods that comfort and nourish, Americans are rediscovering small farms and sustainable foods.

How timely that Valerie Gates, graphic designer and creative director of Gates Studio in Boston, began the Will Work for Food Project. Gates' incredible project - where she barters her design services to small farmers for their locally grown and produced food products - grew out of her own exploration and wonder about sustainable food and the people who produce that food.

"Farming is a dying art," said Gates, who has begun working with six small farms in her area to develop logos, branding and websites. "The people who run these farms work incredibly hard. They start the day at 6 in the morning and end at 11 at night. They want to make it hip again to get back to the land."

Two books influenced Gates' decision to do something positive and creative for small farmers as well as her family. After reading Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma, a book that considers what we eat, how we make those decisions and the implications of those choices, and Barbara Kinsolver's book, Animal, Vegetable, Magic, the author's chronicle of a year in eating locally and seasonally, Gates dreamed up her project.

Will Work for Food gives farmers access to branding and marketing skills to grow and sustain their way of life and, at the same time, teaches her family about where good food comes from while putting healthier food on the table each day.

The entire family is in on the project. From Dad and business partner, Barry, who is learning to cook all the great food stuffs, to Gates and their children -eight-year-old Olivia, a vegetarian, and 13-year-old, Cameron - the family is on a journey to discover the wonder of where food comes from and the people who grow it the slow and natural way.

"It's fun for me," said Gates, whose energy and enthusiasm is contagious. "I'm pretty much a city girl. I appreciate my food more. I appreciate where my food is coming from more now."

The family went on one of their first farm visits today, an event televised by the local news. The big news? Olivia held a newborn lamb, the family learned farmers don't name their animals (for obvious reasons), and they got to see an ingenious mobile hen house. Better news yet? The family is gaining a deeper understanding of the mysteries of the natural world, the pressing need to be sensitive to the earth, and the vital role of food in daily life.

And the farmers are equally thrilled. Sixteen have lined up to work with Gates Studio. Gates and her family are at the precipice of a trend.

Now, someone get Barry a copy of Ruth Reichl's classic Gourmet Cookbook and Deborah Madison's fabulous Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

Photo: ©2008 Gates Studio

Boston Globe: Nurturing ties to local farms, by design

(David Kamerman/Globe Staff)

By Julia Rappaport Globe Correspondent / March 5, 2009

Valerie Gates is not exactly the person you'd expect to go public with the declaration: Will work for food. But that is just what the Wellesley creative-marketing designer and mother of two did last month.

When her business began to lag in the fall, Gates, a 43-year-old who entered the marketing world nearly 15 years ago after working in the Los Angeles entertainment industry, devised a creative way to reach new clients, feed her family, and help the community all at the same time.

The concept was simple: She would offer the creative services of her firm, Gates Studios, to five local farmers in exchange for food or shares in Community Supported Agriculture programs. Gates sent out about 60 e-mails notifying area farms and farming organizations and waited to see if her idea would catch on.

Soon enough, it did.

Sarah Cogswell, the buy-local coordinator at the Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership, received the e-mail early last month and contacted Gates.

"Any opportunity to help out our local growers, especially in advertising or marketing, and getting their name out is invaluable in a way because it will last a while," Cogswell said. "It's something these growers don't have time for."

Cogswell's nonprofit organization acts as a resource for the region's agricultural enterprises. Among other things, it sends out a weekly newsletter to area farmers, and on Feb. 6 Cogswell included the offer by Gates. By that afternoon, the designer's phone was ringing off the hook. Within a week, 16 farmers from all over Massachusetts and even Rhode Island had called.

Just days earlier, Gates was worried her offer might not generate any interest. Now she wondered how she would choose just five farms.

And the stakes were high. Not only did Gates want to choose local farms that needed her services most, but she also wanted to fulfill the second part of her mission: to make over her family's eating habits.

During the Christmas holidays, Gates read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma," a look at the many pitfalls of America's industrial system for raising and processing food. She followed it with Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," a memoir about the quest by the author's family to eat only locally grown products for a year. The books changed her thinking about food and farming, Gates said.

"I never really read labels before. I ate like most Americans. I didn't consider where the food came from," she said. Based on her new insights, though, "I said, OK. I've got to do something. I'd run this firm for eight years and had 15 years of experience in design, so I thought, well, that's what I have to offer."

Gates devised her plan on New Year's Day. "The whole point was to level the playing field for these farms because they have no design budget," she said.

The other point was to find a way to boost her own business, pinched by the slow economy. "It was a creative way to deal with a lag in business. January really slowed down for me and I thought, let's refocus," Gates said. "Hopefully this will generate interest in our studio as well."

It surely created interest with the farmers who read about the offer in the partnership's newsletter.

There was a call from a winery on Cape Cod, one from a community farm in Natick, another from a small organic soap maker in Cohasset, and one from a two-woman pesto-making initiative in Rhode Island. The farmers had a range of needs: website design, road signs, branding.

"Each call, we had to figure out how big the farm is and what their needs were," said Gates, who runs Gates Studios out of her home with her husband, Barry Friedman. "And we have to figure out what types of produce they have. We are trying to work out the kinks."

After visiting a number of farms on the Cape, Gates narrowed the pool of 16 to the five operations she will work with: Round the Bend Farm in South Dartmouth, Coonamessett Farm in East Falmouth, Bull Frog Acres Farm in West Wareham, Chestnut Farm in Hardwick, and, closest to home, Natick Community Organic Farm.

"As most small nonprofits do, we rely on a small amount of personnel working a small amount of hours per week. Any time we can get someone's expertise is great," said Lynda Simkins, director of the Natick farm, after learning that it made the final list.

The community farm was just about to hire a firm to redesign its website when the operation's administrator read about the offer and called Simkins in to see it.

"It's an interesting concept and a great marketing tool for her also," Simkins said. "And it continues to keep the money local."

The project will be a challenge for Gates, who will juggle the new clients with her steady list of about 20. Gates will chart her progress online at www.gatesstudio.blogspot.com, and will be learning through trial and error how to prepare meat and produce grown in season by local farmers.

It is a challenge she is looking forward to. "I have an 8-year-old and a 13-year-old and I want them to know that their food comes from a farm."

© Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Wellesley marketing designer nurtures ties with local farms - The Boston Globe

Barry tries cooking from the farm

My involvement is necessitated by being the chef of the family, and with at least two picky eaters it will be interesting.

Sweet Italian Sausage from Around the Bend Farm was on the menu last night. Never having cooked Italian Sausage before, I turned to my usual first source for recipes: my friend Tod Dimmick's Idiot's Guide to Cooking... series. Some interesting sausage recipes, but nothing specifically for Italian Sausage (how about it, Tod? And while we're at it, is there a Vegetarian Cooking version on the way?).

So then, of course, I turned to the internet. Many recipes called for stripping the casings off, which seemed to defeat the purpose of the casings in the first place (is it just packaging?), and most others called for grilling the sausage with green pepper and onions a la Fenway Park. I decided to wing it and boil the sausage first to make sure they were cooked through, and then brown the outsides in a skillet, chop them and throw them onto some pasta with some leftover "jar" spaghetti sauce dressed up with sauteed garlic, olive oil, a fresh tomato and green peppers. And fresh grated parmesan on top.

The verdict?

- The sausage itself was fantastic, very flavorful with a good texture. Valerie thought it was a great meal -- two thumbs up. Cameron and Olivia have more disappointing stories to tell: as usual they had their pasta plain ("pasta bianca" as they say in Amalfi) and I gave them the sausage and chopped green and red peppers on the side. Cameron ended up not eating the sausage at all, subsisting on only pasta and peppers, and Olivia did the same -- although being a vegetarian, my expectations weren't as high for her.

Barry

Women's Business Boston Blurb

Small farms and local growers have taken advantage of the offer that Valerie Gates, principal and founder of Gates Studio, Wellesley, extended: her studio’s services on a first-come, first-serve basis. The offer is as follows: for the first five farms, to barter for CSA shares or organic food; for the next five farms, a 75-percent discount; for the next five farms, a 50-percent discount; and for the final five farms, a 25-percent discount.

Snow Day at the Farm

It is snowing up a big storm here today and Olivia is hoping that the little pigs and new baby sheep are warm enough inside the barn...now that we were introduced to them, they stay on our mind...hmmm... how will that affect our eating habits I wonder...