FoodLove 19: Sarah Spaeth- 25 years in conservation!

Sarah Spaeth is simply remarkable. She is the Director of Conservation at Jefferson Land Trust. This “wild brethren” tracker grounds herself in the spirituality of place and environment.

“Farms, fish, and forests forever”is the mantra of the mission-driven organization of which is a part. That same mantra reflects how she lives and makes choices. Sarah has consistently applied her world view over a quarter of a century to build communities of support around important environmental locations and land.

She is one of the key people who works with community members to preserve parts of Cappy’s Trails for our access to nature within the city limits, and also the Illahee preserve which maintains important habitat for spawning salmon.

Sarah is also a pioneering leader, along with the Executive Director of Jefferson Land Trust and other team members in their efforts to examine how to look at lands through an equity lens. These conversations are challenging, and it requires the fortitude of a tracker not to be daunted when the path is not always clear.

Read about the Kawamoto farm that was endangered by the racism of Japanese internment but now is being preserved for agrarian use by the land trust and its partners. Fair warning, I wept when I watched this video. The self-restraint in the telling of the personal tragedy of internment and “othering” within this story tears me up the most.

The story is most deeply one of perseverance, resilience, relationships that persisted across perceived divides, lasting community, and honoring the importance of legacy and lineages despite racism.

If you are an anti-racism activist, Jefferson Land Trust’s preservation efforts are a remarkable and visible moment that changes the story of property ownership through collective action. The property will maintain a lineage of land stewards who will continue to tell the story of Kawamoto family lest we forget. The collaborative work of many partners focuses at the intersection of farm succession planning and an ongoing battle against structural systems that would otherwise make it difficult for some qualified farmers of color to own or maintain an expanse of agrarian farmland on the peninsula.

In this conversation, Sarah and I also talk about the balance of human impact with the natural environment and also the balance of sweet and salty in a Kouign amman! You have to listen to learn what that is (if you don’t know already).

When asked what she would contribute in to a newly re-imagined home economics, Sarah encouraged people to develop a deep relationship with the places they are in, and she gave us her berry pie recipe. I can’t wait to try it!

I knew that the expanse of Sarah’s knowledge was vast from the first phone call we had, and I learned some things about her baking experience that were new to me. What she does in her daily work is truly FoodLove: The Space Between Terroir and the Tao of Food.

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Berry Pie

Author: Sarah Spaeth

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 20 MinTotal time: 40 Min

Sarah writes in the North Olympic Salmon Coalition recipe book: “This is my favorite summer pie! It bursts with flavor, as half of the berries are cooked and half are fresh. I have made this with blueberries, blackberries, and a combination of logan, blackberries and marionberries. This gluten free and sugar free version works well for my family, but you can make it with any prebaked pie crust.”

Ingredients

Berry Pie

• Crust:
• 2 cups gluten free oats
• 1 cup almond flour
• 1 cup almonds
• 6-8 dates
• 1/4 pound butter
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 Tbsp coconut flour
• Filling
• 6 cups berries
• 2 Tbsp gelatin  dissolved in 1/4 cup cold water
• 2 Tbsp butter
• Grated rind of lemon and 1 Tbsp juice
• 3/4 cup honey or less

Instructions

Berry Pie

1. Crust: Put oats, dates and almonds in the food processor and pulse until the mixture is uniform, add all other ingredients and process until it starts to hold together. Press mixture into a greased pie plate (this may make enough for two smaller pies) and preface at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until light brown. Cool crust and set aside.
2. Filling: Put 3 cups of berries in a saucepan with honey and bring to a simmer- cook briefly until berries break down a bit. Mix some of the berry juices with the gelatin until mixture is smooth with no clumps. Add butter, lemon rind and juice and the gelatin mixture into the saucepan of cooked berries. Let cool a bit, then line the prefaced pie crust with the cooked mixture. Evenly distribute most of the uncooked berries across the filling, then layer on the remaining cooked berry mixture, smoothing it out. Finally, distribute the remaining raw berries on top. Chill in the refrigerator for several hours until the pie has fully set. Serve with ice cream, whipped cream, a mixture of mascarpone and whipped cream or whatever suits your fancy. Enjoy!