Photo by Eliza Billingham
Laura Lee Misterly of Quilisascut Farm;
IImagine chatting with your doctor We discussed two options for treatment: take medicine or eat a burger. Which would you choose?
Casey Carr, a licensed naturopathic doctor in Coeur d’Alene, isn’t trying to slam pharmaceuticals, but she does try to offer her patients a wide range of health tools before they reach for a prescription. For Carr, one of the best medicines to protect and heal our bodies is what we put into them every day: the food we eat.
“Given the right materials and foundation, the human body has the ability to heal itself,” Carr says. “I try to stimulate that in a variety of ways.”
To that end, Carr will be collaborating with local farmers and ranchers to host three farm-to-table events this summer that she calls “food as produce,” an effort to discuss how soil, food, and agricultural practices impact not only the planet but our own physical and mental health. In addition to dinner, each night will include an educational component and plenty of time for conversation with the farmers who are the stars of the meal.
“Most farm-to-table meals are all about the food,” Carr says. “Of course, the food is great, but often the farmer is invisible.” [After] Having worked with many dedicated farmers, they contribute to people’s health in a different way, just like doctors, and they need to be at the center of this conversation.”
The first Food as Farmacy event will be held June 1 at Quillisascut Farm in Rice, Washington, for $70 per seat. In addition to eating a meal made entirely from farm-sourced ingredients, 15 attendees will learn cheesemaking from farmer and cheesemaker Lora Lea Misterly and take home a fresh goat chèvre they made themselves.
The second event will be a family-friendly burger night on June 29 at Castle Rock Ranch in Kingston, Idaho. Up to 150 attendees can learn about ranchers Albert Walsh and Jordan Shay’s regenerative beef herd and enjoy delicious burgers on homemade buns. Admission is $40 for adults, half price for children 12 and under and free for children 6 and under..
The final event of the season will be held at the new Genesis Mountain Farm near Sandpoint. Tour the hydroponic greenhouse that can feed hundreds of people year-round and learn how to make low-waste Italian salami from Seattle chef Seamus Pratt. This upscale banquet costs $160 per person and seats about 50 people.
“I think a big part of the appeal for people who come here is being able to talk to the people who actually manage the land and the animals,” says Castle Rock’s Shay. “Our hope is that people who come to eat with us and spend time with us aren’t necessarily just coming to eat. They’re coming for the experience. They want to learn something and find out how what we do is different.”
Kirisaskia goats produce healthy soil and cheese.
Carr had always wanted to be a doctor. Growing up, several family members died young, mostly from cancer. As a teenager, her aunt was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
“She underwent all the conventional treatments: chemotherapy, radiation, surgery,” Carr says, “but she was the first person in my family to also change her diet. She and her husband completely overhauled their diet, and I saw it really transform her health and her husband’s health. That was my awakening to the concept of ‘food is medicine’ in a very general sense. To see that firsthand — to see it extend her life and her quality of life — was truly amazing.”
She first studied medicine and nutritional science at Cornell University, then did a four-month internship on a farm in Tuscany.
“I learned more about food and food as medicine in four months there than I did in four years at Cornell,” she says. “It was a really eye-opening experience and really lit a fire in me about the difference between nutrition and nourishment, which are both so important, but we often forget about the nutrition part in our current food system.”
For Carr, nutrition is more than just taking in calories: it’s about eating good food to prevent future illness, checking your stress levels while eating to see how they affect your digestion, and giving your body what it needs to regulate hormones and fight infections. Carr believes farmers are crucial to health because nutritious food comes from nutritious soil.
“There’s a difference between carrots grown in composted organic soil and carrots you buy at the grocery store in February in Washington state,” she says. “My medical practice was born from the realization that what we eat three times a day is the medicine we take, whether we think of it that way or not.” [I try to be] “You have to be careful about blaming food, but really try to get people to think a little bit more about where their food comes from and about quality and quantity.”
Carr encourages her patients to think of food as a tool of empowerment, a way to take control of their daily health. “Nobody’s perfect,” she is quick to add. And she’s well aware that healthy foods are often the most expensive foods in the U.S. But, as she points out, chronic illnesses are expensive, too.
The three Food as Farmacy events are Carr’s way of inviting the wider community to think more deeply about the interconnections between soil, animal, plant and human health.
“It’s a mix of all of my passions: food, medicine, agriculture and the farmers who make it all happen,” she says. ♦
For ticket sales, location details and other information, visit foodasfarmacy.com.
