Maire Ullrich

How did you get involved with City Harvest?
Many years ago, if my math is right, 17 years ago, I was contacted by Sheila Crowley at City Harvest who was then the procurement person.  She had found me through a series of phone calls to USDA to find excess agricultural products.  I introduced her to farmers in this area and all of these years later, after millions of pounds of produce donated, I’m on Food Council.  As a result of my work with City Harvest and hunger, Cornell Cooperative Extension Orange County developed a much smaller Gleaning Program that harvests, collects and delivers fresh produce locally.

Why is hunger an important issue for you?
I work in agriculture.  Food, in some form or another, is around me all the time, in vast quantities.  I have never been truly hungry.  I feel for those who do not have enough.  It’s the right thing to be involved.  I am also pragmatic enough to know that it is in everyone’s best interest to have society, children especially, well fed with nutritious foods.  There are certainly hurdles to overcoming meeting the need.  The US certainly produces enough calories, but it is not simple to get those calories, in a healthful package, from the field to the plate of the hungry.

How has your involvement with City Harvest affected your outlook on food/or hunger in New York City?
Just as folks who are from NYC visit their local farms are shocked at the quantity of food produced in one location, my awareness of the level of hunger, and numbers of meals City Harvest provides opened my eyes.  I was astounded by the need. My relationship with City Harvest has also opened other doors for me, working on School Food for example, and other consumer issues that are policy driven for urban and suburban populations.

What is the biggest issue we face right now when it comes to local agriculture?
Labor.  Here in the lower Hudson Valley, having enough hands to plant and pick all of the produce is a growing concern to farmers and should be to consumers.  The majority of produce acres are hand-planted and hand-harvested.  There are no machines to pick a tomato for fresh consumption.

What is the most rewarding part of your job? The most challenging?
The most rewarding part of my job is working with farm families.  Having worked with the same producers for 20 years now, I have had an opportunity to work with different generations and help their businesses grow.  That is also one of the most challenging aspects of being an educator.  Family politics and intergenerational priorities frequently complicate what should be a straight-forward business decision making.  I need to consider family dynamics when making recommendations.  But it can be enjoyable and very rewarding when there is a breakthrough between members and a solution is applied.

What should individuals know before starting a community garden?
Since I work in the field of commercial production, I’ll defer to the professionals. My colleague, Debbi Lester, provides guidance for those interested in establishing community gardens in Orange County. I would recommend my colleagues in other county Extension Associations and The American Community Gardening Association at http://communitygarden.org/. It’s a great site that outlines everything from site selection to insurance in their “Start a Community Garden” section.

What can people do to help support local farmers in their communities?
Buy from them!  Go to farmers markets, join a CSA; ask for local products in the grocery store.  Try to buy as much in-season as possible.  Preserve through freezing or canning, if you can.  New Yorkers; look for the Pride of New York label. To see what is in season when go to: http://www.prideofny.com/pdfs/HarvestChart5.22.7.pdf. Take the extra effort to at least read labels and look for and buy US product.  Country of Origin labels on produce in groceries can be very helpful with this. Also, think about agriculture as entertainment. Go strawberry or apple picking for a day.  Agritourism has become a great way to support suburban farms that have higher expenses due to their proximity to dense populations. 

Where can people learn more about local agriculture and how they can be a part of it?
Being part of local agriculture can be as simple as seeking out farmers markets, asking for local products in groceries, or joining a CSA.  Then there is involved, meaning farming yourself.  Cornell New Farmer Program has a great website for those interested in that: http://nebeginningfarmers.org/.  It’s not just vegetables either.  There is info on animal agriculture as well. 

What is your favorite type of food to eat?
Yummy comfort foods like mac & cheese.  Well, pretty much anything with cheese for that matter.  And all types of cheese….even moderately “footy” cheeses.  Chocolate...mmm...chocolate.  That, too, is up there on the “if you were stranded on a desert island” list. 

Do you cook? If so, what is your favorite type of food to make?
Yes, I fancy myself a bit of a “foodie”.  Is that a pejorative now?  Until I hear something more fitting, I’ll go with it.  My father was a cook in the Navy so I had a good teacher early on, especially if you want to learn how to make mayonnaise, from scratch, for 1,000!  I work diligently on preparing well-balanced meals for my 2 small children which make tasty use of lots of fresh fruits and vegetable and other whole foods so that they have great experiences with healthy offerings.  In some ways baked goods are my favorite to prepare because the decoration aspect can make them pleasing to the eye as well as the palate.

What is a fruit or vegetable that not enough people know about/how to cook with it?
Any tips?
Yellow Onions.  Yup, a staple but often mischaracterized.  Folks talk about “sweet” onions.  Well, most of them are not actually sweet but mild.  They are low in pyruvate, the sulfur-containing compound that generates the “heat” in an onion.  They are also low in dry matter and sugars.  So calling them “sweet” is really a misnomer.  They are just mild.  In fact, a solid, dark-skinned cooking onion, like the ones produced here in Orange County, are chemically sweeter than these others.  They have higher dry-matter content and higher sugar content, along with that high pyruvate level that makes them flavorful.  NEVER try and caramelize a mild onion.  Those light skinned onions will fall apart before you attain the nice golden brown you are looking for, because they lack the sugar sufficient to caramelize and their low dry matter means a weak cell that will collapse with heat.  If sautéing for color; go for a good, dark-skinned, hard-fleshed onion.  There are also issues I have with type identification such as when someone refers to a yellow onion as white because the flesh is white.  Don’t get me started!!

What can you not live without in your kitchen?
A good, sharp knife. 

Any big plans for the end of the summer?
Harvest.  It is probably as busy as the growing season for me.  Down-time starts in October.

• At the Chef's Table
• The Food Council