Please Be Edible

R.I.P. Felix

2010-11-08T23:55:00.000-05:00

Felix lost his battle today. We're devastated. He'll be missed tremendously.
There's not really anything else to say.

Did You Vote?

2010-11-02T12:40:00.000-04:00

Well, did you? Regardless of your politics, if you live in the US I hope you participate/d in the political process today. If you do nothing else to influence the policies that shape how you experience life, I hope you took ten minutes out of your day to vote.

Got Chocolate?

2010-10-26T11:03:00.000-04:00

Kristen at Rage Against The Minivan posted these videos today. You may have (hopefully) read about this issue before. But this series of short videos (there are five in all) really sheds light on the reality of cheap chocolate. It also highlights the illogical and immoral sense of entitlement to inexpensive indulgences that seems to pervade US consumer thought. I hope you'll watch these videos and then come back and share your thoughts here.

And then here, here, and here.

What (To Do With) The Duck?

2010-10-16T13:46:00.000-04:00

This is less an actual post than a request for input. I have had, for a while now, a duck in my freezer. I bought it at my son's request, but never prepared it because... I don't know what to do with it! The duck came packaged with a packet of sauce. But naturally (or, unnaturally, as it turns out) the sauce is full of stuff I don't want to eat or feed my family. So, I figured I would just check with all of you to see if you have any recipes you love for preparing duck. I don't have time to go surfing the net for recipes right now, so I'm really hoping your collective wisdom will come through for me! Whaddaya say?

Where Should You Buy Organic Eggs?

2010-10-15T11:21:00.006-04:00

Well, according to this morning's newsletter from Dr. Mercola, you should probably buy they from a small local producer. The Mercola article relates a report from the Cornucopia Institute (there is a good, short video on the front page if you scroll down just a little and then an organic egg brand scorecard located here) that sheds a rather dismal light on the production methods responsible for the majority of "organic" eggs in the US.

The short version is that eggs labeled organic which come from large producers are produced almost exactly the same way traditional eggs are produced. The one notable difference is that the chickens are fed organic feed (in their overcrowded buildings, shut away from the great outdoors). It sounds like these big producers are only paying lipservice to organic standards and the expectations of consumers. Newsflash, I know...

Just one more reason to support your local family farms!

This post is participating in Fight Back Friday hosted by Food renegade.

So, Here's The Deal. (In Which I Ramble)

2010-10-08T17:22:00.001-04:00

Yes, it seems I've taken an unanticipated hiatus from posting. I've tried to write about that, to explain, many times. But... the right words just were not there for me. There's been a lot going on here. For months. More than a few crises, epiphanies, and changes of direction.

Initially, the lack of posts here was due to the combination of me being busy with what can be, fairly accurately, described as "many things breaking," and the simultaneous realization that what I wanted to write for Please Be Edible had moved beyond what I originally said I was going to write about that. That second bit resulted in my brain temporarily checking out while my emotions wrangled, in my free time, with the question "what to do?" If you just read "free time" and thought to yourself oh yes, I've read about that mythical creature before then you probably understand why this process took me so long to resolve in my mind. To the extent that it has been resolved.

As I was starting to figure things out, several things happened. It felt like they all happened back to back. Boom, boom, boom. But, really it's taken a couple months to unfold.

The boys in my life have been difficult. Well, except for Teak, who has been behaving himself. Good dog.

First, Felix relapsed. We almost lost him. Again.

And it was all my fault.

I was too busy, too distracted, too disorganized. I lost track of his medication schedule. But thankfully, when his condition changed, I noticed it. Today, he is improving.

Then school started. For the kids. For me. This is my second to last semester working on a degree I started almost ten years ago. My thoughts on that process and the state of education in this country could be a whole blog unto itself. But for now, it's a matter of balancing all the things I need to get done each day. This is a precarious balance. Little things can throw everything out of whack. Big things... well, it's just bad...

So, when I found myself at the ER with my son, who had a four inch wide hole in his abdomen and was pulsing blood onto the gurney, I just accepted right away that things were going to be tough for a while. Oddly, or not so oddly, really, when you think about it, it has been rediscovering the joy of reading for pleasure that has helped me keep on an even keel. I owe Su-sieee! Mac over at This and That. Here and There. Now, Sometimes Then. a big thank you for this, because she suggested I join that Cozy Mystery Challenge. It's all about balance people.

So, that's where I am right now. Too little time. Too much to say, but can't find quite the right words. Trying to stay afloat. I will post more often, now that things are starting to settle a bit. But, I'm writing a lot, a ridiculous amount really, for school. And that has to get done first. Meanwhile, brace yourselves for a few posts on bigger picture topics. I've had these stuck in my mind for a while now and just haven't been able to shake them- so I've decided to share. You lucky folks you.

Book Review And Giveaway!

2010-10-05T01:48:00.001-04:00

Back a little while, I posted about the five Louise Penny books I read as part of the Cozy Mystery Challenge. At that time, the sixth book in the series was about a month away from being released. Well, Penny's publicist saw my previous review and sent me a copy of the new release, Bury Your Dead. I've written a review and will be giving away a copy! You can read the review below, but to enter the giveaway you'll have to click over to a new blog I've started, which is dedicated to books. The link is at the end of the review. More news on Please Be Edible's future coming soon.

If you’ve never read anything in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series, there’s something you need to know. This review is of the sixth book in the series. You will find no spoilers in this review. However, if you are new to Chief Inspector Gamache and company, start at the beginning with Still Life and work your way up to this one. This will both allow you to avoid reading spoilers in the later books and, at least as importantly in my opinion, allow you to learn the characters’ characters (did you get that?) in the same order Penny did. I believe you would have a very different relationship with some of the important characters if your first meeting involved only the full brunt of their superficial aspects rather than the nuanced introduction you receive when reading the series in order. It’s up to you; but I’m confident you will thank yourself for starting at the beginning.

The first books in this series were set primarily in and around the cozy, if somewhat murder-prone, fictional village of Three Pines in Quebec, Canada. Bury Your Dead gives the weary village residents a break. There is no fresh murder in Three Pines. Instead, Penny introduces us to some new characters during Inspector Gamache’s recuperative stay in Quebec City. Recuperative stay? Well, yes. While faithful readers were off killing time between books, Inspector Gamache was busy as ever executing his duties. In the course of things, something went horribly amiss. So, when we meet up with Gamache again in Bury Your Dead, he is in recovery mode. Unfortunately for the Inspector, someone forgot to deactivate the devil’s GPS and murder finds him even in Quebec City. Bury Your Dead dishes up one fascinating dollop of Quebec history, two murders, ~~three~~ four mysteries, and too many red herrings to count.

Penny is a devastatingly good mystery writer. You see this in the lyrical writing, the reticulating plot lines, and the vibrant descriptions that bring it all alive. But! The trait that really sets Penny’s books apart is their grounding in “the good.” All the traditional elements of a mystery are there, but Penny’s spin on them, woven quietly throughout each book, suggests an unflappable hopefulness about the world. Sure, you’ll meet characters who make terrible decisions with heart-rending outcomes. But this author just never takes the easy way out of a tricky situation, and doesn’t let her readers off the proverbial emotional hook either. Where others write characters you love to hate, Penny writes characters you hate to love. But you will love them, because Penny’s particular skill is in her portrayal of humanity. She presents characters as essentially good, but inherently fallible. If that sounds a bit heavy, relax. While you will meet complicated characters who are sometimes torn between emotions, who struggle to figure out how to do the right thing, and who sometimes fail, along the way they visit fascinating places, share what they learn, and eat decadently. And if that’s not enough for you, there’s also the judicious use of congenial snark.

Click here and scroll to the bottom of the review to enter the giveaway!

Update

2010-09-25T00:15:00.000-04:00

Let's just skip over the part where I try to explain why I haven't posted in almost a month and go right to the part where I tell you that, after considerable mental floundering, I've given a lot of thought to where I want to go with this blog and that, while I don't have a complete plan for its future just yet, I have some ideas- the fruit of which will soon be forthcoming. Meanwhile, there are a few things I'd like to wrap up- the fruit of which will also be forthcoming.

Watch This: Educate Yourself

2010-09-03T11:11:00.001-04:00

You really can't be an informed voter or citizen without an understanding of the issues discussed in this video. If you can't see the whole video screen, click here to open it separately.

GE Salmon About To Be Approved With No Labeling?

2010-09-01T18:08:00.001-04:00

I'm really starting to think the FDA should be considered a subsidiary of a corporate conglomeration rather than a government body intended to serve the public.

The FDA is "considering" approval of genetically engineered salmon. From the center for Food Safety article:

FDA announced the same day that it will hold a public comment period and a hearing on labeling for the transgenic salmon, which seems to presuppose that the controversial GE fish will be approved. If the GE fish is approved, Agency officials are undecided as to whether they will require any product labeling.

NO PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD has been opened on the question of whether to approve GE fish and there is only a BRIEF PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD on the question of labeling GE fish. Check out the article at the Center for Food Safety website, to read more about this issue and to make your voice heard.

In The Garden

2010-08-21T21:45:00.002-04:00

It is totally cool to be able to toddle into the backyard and come back with dinner. THAT'S food security.

It seemed like it took forever for the tomatoes to set fruit. Now, the plants are loaded with fruits. I've been harvesting paste tomatoes for a while now, but no slicers. Yesterday I spied my first Cherokee Purple nearing ripeness (not pictured here). Woohoo! (Next year: blow off school and get the garden in on time!)

I've started planting the fall garden. This is broccoli. I have more to put in, but nowhere to plant it! Time to expand the garden again.

It will be a race to the finish to see if the melons have time to ripen. I was feeling pretty confident until today, when I noticed some kind of borer damage in the melon patch. Go melons, go!


These Echinacea have had a hard summer. Something has been eating the petals. This was actually the first time I saw them more with petals than without since I planted them in late spring.

Cozy Mystery Challenge Update

2010-08-21T15:47:00.000-04:00

Knowing that I would have little to no time to read for pleasure come September, I jumped right into reading for this challenge. I've completed five of the six books so far- and enjoyed every minute of it!

All five books I've read have been by the same author, and from the same series. This is Louise Penny's Armand Gamache mystery series. All the books in this series are set in and around the cozy, if somewhat murder-prone, fictional village of Three Pines, Quebec, Canada. The first book in this series, Still Life, was Penny's debut novel. It was a strong start.

In all five books, Penny displays a great knack for describing the complexities of human feelings and motivations. She deftly illustrates how an individual can be both wonderfully good and startlingly bad. And she wraps these descriptions up in a package gilded with descriptions of scenes that paint a lifelike and charming picture of the fictional Three Pines community. I don't want to tell you what happens, or even tell you too much about the characters (and boy are they characters!). Suffice it to say that I think if you pick up Penny's books you will be pleasantly surprised. My only caveat is that I recommend starting at the beginning of the series in order to avoid prematurely learning things from books that occurred earlier in the series. In order, the series is:
Still Life
A Fatal Grace (US title)/Dead Cold
The Cruelest Month
A Rule Against Murder (US title)/The Murder Stone
The Brutal Telling

And, a sixth book, titled Bury Your Dead, is set to be released September 28. That's not quite enough time for me to finish the challenge, so I'll have to pick up a sixth book elsewhere (and my local library system just put out a list of recommended cozies- how convenient!). But I will definitely be looking for The Brutal Telling later this fall. For more info on the Cozy Mystery Challenge, click the bookshelf to the right in the sidebar.

Reinventing The Wheel

2010-08-20T23:55:00.003-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted here. Life has been busy. And complicated. And challenging. I've started multiple blog posts, only to not quite be able to pull my thoughts together. Just too much happening all at once in my mind. Sometimes that's just how it goes.

On the up side, I've seen compelling evidence of the difference resulting from the dietary changes we've made, and that even The Boy, who has fought these changes at almost every step, is starting to appreciate the difference in how he feels- at least when he stops eating this way. That's worth a lot. And it's part of what pushed me over the edge to tackle another, long neglected, food goal. Tonight's dinner preparation was the first of the kids' cooking lessons.

Sometime back toward the beginning of this journey, the reality of my own spectacular lack of training in the "kitchen arts" sank in. It was an overwhelming realization to confront while also trying to radically change the totality of one's dietary habits. But it also made me cognizant of the need to prepare my children better than I had been prepared. Yet, being at the beginning of that journey myself left me frustrated and not ready to tackle teaching anyone else. The goal was shelved until recently.

I'm still learning how to cook with real ingredients rather than short-cut ingredients that are convenient but packed with stuff we shouldn't actually eat. I still get frustrated in the kitchen on a fairly regular basis. And, sadly, I still botch meals on a fairly regular basis. Fortunately, I have learned that thats's one of the lessons the kids need to learn- that developing cooking skills takes time. It takes trials and, inevitably, errors.

I had been getting frustrated with the restrictions on what I could prepare- not only from my own lack of knowledge, but due to the kids "won't eat" lists. And I had grown tired of complaints when things didn't go as planned in dinner preparation.

Finally, this combination of circumstances came together to push me to just jump in where I am and let the kids learn first hand the trials and tribulations of feeding your family. I feel like I'm reinventing the wheel. I know the knowledge to manage a kitchen well and prepare tasty wholesome foods is out there. I'm still working on tracking it down. But that's okay. We can learn together- and they can avoid waking up when they're pushing forty and realizing they don't know how to appropriately feed their bodies. It'll be an adventure. The kids will gain a useful skill. I'll gain a few nights off from cooking duty. And hopefully we'll all gain greater appreciation for each others efforts. Wish us luck on this new journey- we're going to need it!

How about you- have you taught your kids to cook? Do you have any tips to share?

This post is participating in Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.

Giveaway Winner!

2010-07-24T11:25:00.000-04:00

Well, we have a giveaway winner! The winner was drawn old-school in order to accommodate entries that combined, for example, a comment and following in one comment submission. Each entry was written on a slip of paper. All entry slips were combined in a bag and then mixed and shaken. Finally, one slip was drawn at random. I'd like to thank everyone who entered Please Be edible's first giveaway. This was fun!

The winner of the $60 CSN Stores gift certificate is Debbie C! Debbie C, your email address has been forwarded to CSN Stores and you should receive your prize via email before too long. Enjoy!

Cozy Mystery Challenge

2010-07-23T13:32:00.000-04:00

This is completely unrelated to food and gardening... But Su-sieee! Mac recently blogged about belatedly joining in the 2010 Cozy Mystery Challenge and it looked like so much fun I had to join in too. Briefly, a cozy mystery is a mystery sans naughty language, sex scenes, and gore and often involves an amateur sleuth. You can follow the bookshelf link to the right (looks just like the pic above) for more info, a fantastic book list, and the opportunity to join in too!

Homicide In The Garden

2010-07-20T12:59:00.000-04:00

That's the title of the post I intended to write today. It was going to be a double homicide. And I was going to perpetrate it. In the end, though, I just couldn't go through with it. I hope the two near-victims appreciate the reprieve. More than that, I hope they redeem themselves; but I'm not holding my breath.

You see, last year was the first year I tried the much celebrated Sungold tomatoes. They produced well but, like most of last year's tomatoes, tasted watery because it rained all freaking summer last year (except the time I was away which was crazy hot and bone dry and, naturally, did in much of the garden. *sigh*). This year, I gave the Sungolds another chance. It's been a tense relationship from the start. They have severe B.O.

I tried to ignore it. I tried to be sympathetic. I hoped it would go away and be replaced by that lovely normal tomato smell. It didn't. It got worse. The other day when I touched one of the Sungold plants it made my hands reek. When I came inside, The Girl actually recoiled from the smell... after I had washed my hands twice. The relationship just seems headed down a dead end road. Even with the new garden bed, space is at a premium in my food plot. Everybody needs to pull their own weight and, I now realize, not offend the gardener.

But I couldn't pull them out. I haven't given them a fair trial. I would just be wrong.

So, I'll check freecycle for someone giving away hazmat gear and walk wide circles around this variety. I won't grow them again next year. And I'll no doubt spend an inordinate amount of time wondering what nutter of a plant breeder thought it would be cool to introduce to home gardens tomato plants that cause gardeners to smell like roadkill with a side of toxic waste.

Please also see Would You Eat This? I'm so curious to know!

Would You Eat This?

2010-07-19T19:44:00.000-04:00

Paula Crossfield over at Civil Eats recently posted an interview with Daniel Imhoff, discussing his new book The CAFO Reader. If you don't follow "food news," CAFO refers to Confined Animal Feeding Operations. It's an interesting interview and I encourage you to read it. However, at one point, Imhoff states "Ultimately where we’re going now is in-vitro meat, where we don’t need animals at all, we just clone tissue, and manufacture animal flesh." I've been thinking about this for several days and I'm curious... would you eat this?

A Few Quick Recipes That Are Healthier Than Fast Food

2010-07-18T16:30:00.001-04:00

It has been really interesting to me to read your challenges and concerns about eating healthier in the comments of the giveaway post. Many of them are my challenges as well. Over the last six (almost!) months, I have become much better at avoiding fast/convenience foods and eating healthier instead. But... I totally understand the problem of not having the time, or energy, to cook a healthy meal after a busy day. So, here are a few of the "quick but healthier than fast food" recipes I fall back on when I just don't feel like cooking.

The first one I have posted before. That's my Who Hash recipe. The only caveat with this one is that it does involve rice (brown rice, because it's better for you! * Ha! Naturally, having posted that, I then read this article that presents a different view of that. You be the judge!). Sometimes I am too tired to wait for rice to cook. But rice is also something that can be made ahead of time (heck, you can probably even freeze cooked rice for a quick go-to). This is such a simple, filling food- and the kids love it.

Next is what I call Cheater's Chili. I know chili aficionados will be appalled, so it you consider yourself in that category please look away now. Cheater's Chili caveat: involves canned ingredients. I try to avoid canned ingredients these days, but on days where the choice is between canned or take-out, I try to go for the can.

Cheater's Chili

brown a pound of ground beef (with onion if you have it, but it's fine without too)
if there's a lot of fat, drain it off (I don't bother if the meat was very lean)
dump in a couple cans of pre-seasoned chili beans (I like Bush's)
dump in a large can of diced tomatoes
chop a green bell pepper and toss that in
add chili powder
stir while heating through
eat and put leftovers in the fridge

And this last "recipe" is really just a way to prepare salmon (Pacific wild-caught is best, but honestly, you could do a variation of this with canned salmon for less money).

Yummy Salmon

Cover the bottom of a large pan with diced tomatoes, basil, garlic, chopped onion, and chopped/sliced black olives. You can use canned seasoned tomatoes and it works great. Lay the salmon fillet on top of the mix. Cover and heat until salmon is cooked through. The flavors melt together nicely. You don't need to stir this or anything, but use a medium heat so it cooks quickly but doesn't burn to the bottom.

Okay, one more thought... We stir-fry pretty often. I don't really consider stir-fry to be super quick, but it just occurred to me that if I pre-cooked the meat when it was convenient and kept it in the freezer, I could toss it in to re-heat with the veggies and save some time. Especially if I had cooked rice in the freezer. Has anybody frozen cooked rice? How did it work out? I think I have to go try that now... Anybody else care to share your "quick but healthier than fast food recipes"?

Buying Local And Balancing Needs

2010-07-16T09:51:00.002-04:00

It wasn't that long ago that I finally started feeling a bit settled about my "buy local" routine. I had figured out what day I needed to go out to the farm store in order to get milk before the gallons of organic whole milk sold out. And I'd found a substitute free-range organic relatively-local egg source after becoming concerned about the cause of the brittle egg shells on the local eggs at the farm store. But recently, I experienced a bit of a setback.

The farm store changed milk suppliers. Previously, we were able to buy gallons of organic whole milk. It came in standard plastic gallon jugs from a creamery a bit north of here in Pennsylvania. I'm not a fan of plastic; but storing multiple glass half gallon jugs in our refrigerator is just not practical. It's also more expensive.

When the farm store switched milk suppliers, they changed to a more local creamery. This outfit has various fancy certifications and shaves a few food miles off the end product. But, for my family, there are a couple problems with this change. The first problem is that milk is now only available in glass half gallons. Also, the price to buy a gallon of milk is now roughly $7.50, compared to the $5.95 for the plastic jug we were previously buying. But there's still another problem. We think the new milk tastes gross. I've never really imagined myself to be a milk connoisseur, but let me tell you, these milks are two completely different beasts.

Now, we had discovered a while ago that the natural food store carries the same brand of milk we had been purchasing from the farm store (which is closer to us). But, the natural food store carries an even smaller quantity of milk than the farm store, and the delivery day is a problem. You see, the natural food store is where I found the eggs I've been buying. But, the delivery day is different for the eggs and the milk, and if you don't get out there on delivery day you don't get what you are after. Plus, the natural food store is farther away. Multiple trips out there each week would burn up a lot of gas.

Honestly, the logistics of buying healthy local food is sometimes daunting. I understand why so many people don't make a serious effort to buy local. It is far more convenient to go to the grocery store and get everything at once, regardless of how it was produced. It's cheaper too. In the short run. But once your eyes are opened to the long-term costs to your health and environment, it's hard to go back to buying standard grocery store fare. Plus, I've become spoiled by the rich tastes of food raised right. I recently purchased grocery store brand organic, "cage-free" eggs in a pinch. They were pale and tasteless and so disappointing.

So far, the "solutions" I've come up with have been less than optimal. I know I'm not the only farm store customer who us unhappy with the change. The farm store is pushing hard to sell the new brand, but I'm hoping that they'll switch back to the previous brand. Until then, my choices seem to be either eggs or milk, or to buy non-local organic milk or eggs at the grocery store.

Sometimes buying local is a balancing act.Maybe it always is. In a strange way, I've come to appreciate the challenge. When I have to work a little more for the food I want to feed my family, I appreciate it a little more. The extra effort makes me think consciously about the food choices I make and is a reminder of why it is important to make these choices. Sure, I'd be quite happy for the process to be easier. But in the mean time, I try to embrace the bumps in the road as opportunities not to be missed. I've come a long way since February!

This post is a participant in Fight Back Friday, generously hosted by Food Renegade.

Also, check out our first GIVEAWAY!

A Giveaway! $60 Gift Certificate

2010-07-16T09:20:00.001-04:00

I've wanted to hold a giveaway at Please Be Edible for a while now, so I was thrilled when CSN Stores contacted me offering one of my lucky readers a $60 gift certificate good at any of their online stores. Whatever your household needs, I'm pretty sure these folks have it. And really, who wouldn't love sixty bucks toward stuff they need?

Maybe you have a dog like our Luna who has put you in the market for new dining room furniture. Don't ask. Seriously. I'll cry. No naughty dog? CSN Stores has everything to go on or under the dining table too. How cute are these glasses? Or maybe this rug?

Or maybe you need new kitchen gear instead? Personally, I'd be thrilled to take home these gems...

Need something else? Swing by CSN Stores for the full range of options.You get the idea, right? Good stuff, and lots of sale prices!

So, the "rules":

Each entrant has up to three chances to win.
1. For your first chance, leave a comment below telling me your biggest challenge or concern regarding eating healthier.
2. For an additional chance, mention this giveaway on your blog or any social media (and then post a comment below telling me you did).
3. And for another chance, follow this blog with Google Friend Connect and post below telling me you did (or that you already follow).

You must enter by midnight, Eastern Standard Time, Friday July 23, 2010. One entry will be drawn at random and announced Saturday July 24. You've got one week to get your entries in!

The $60 gift certificate is a one-time use certificate. You have to use it all at once, at one of the CSN Stores shops. Winner will be responsible for shipping charges. International fees may apply if winner resides in Canada.

Per CSN Stores, this giveaway is open only to residents of the U.S. and Canada. (I know, I know...sorry!)

The winner will be announced in a separate blog post on July 24. When submitting entries, please make sure I can reach you via email as the gift certificate will be emailed to the winner!

Good luck!

Help! Calling All Birders!

2010-07-14T19:19:00.001-04:00

Earlier this evening, I opened the back door to let Luna in and something weird happened. She didn't bound over to me. In fact, she stood at the edge of the patio smiling at me, but not approaching. I called her. She nudged something on the ground. The something on the ground moved. I called Luna more firmly. She came in. I went out.

Luna had a bird. I think it is a young mourning dove, but I'm not 100% confident. Can anybody confirm that for me? The poor thing lost a lot of feathers (including its' tail feathers), but seems to be generally okay otherwise. I don't believe it can fly now. We have it in a big box with mixed seed from the bird feeder and some water. My goal is to keep it alive until it can fly again. Advice?!?

Nature: 1, Gardener: Wha...?

2010-07-13T12:47:00.000-04:00

I walk my garden every day. Several times. Weather does not deter me. So, I like to think I have a pretty good idea of what's going on in my garden, more or less, at any given time. But apparently this is yet another example of the human ability to delude oneself.

Today, as I was checking in on the original bean bed, I glanced over to the grape trellis and noticed the grapes are filling out nicely. I stepped over for a closer look.

See? Grapes. Plump and round, just like they're supposed to be. But what's that behind the grapes?

It's the nest of one clever bird! I'm sorry to report that I don't know who built this. I imagine whoever it was is probably done with it by now. But perhaps they'll be back sometime since they managed to find such prime real estate. This nest was built straddling the wooden top rail of the grape trellis. No shaking or weaving and bobbing in the wind. It is surrounded by grapes, which means the bugs come right to whoever is sitting on the nest. Plus, the giant grape leaves both shelter this nest and collect water right at the front door. I'm totally impressed! I have walked past this nest everyday- probably for months!- and had no idea it was there. Nature wins again!

RAIN!

2010-07-10T13:28:00.000-04:00

Sometime very early this morning, the sound of the storm beginning worked its way into my still sleeping mind. By the time I got out of bed, it had been raining for perhaps a few hours. I was so relieved to look out the window and see my garden completely soaked. As I drank my coffee I thought about what a precarious life it is to depend upon rain arriving in a timely fashion for one's food crops to survive- the kind of existence the settlers lived, but also which many people around the world still live today. I feel fortunate to have the ability to turn a knob and water my garden when it needs it. But I also feel a responsibility not to abuse that ability. I've lost a lot of plants this year because I have refused to water that which I cannot eat.

In a way, this heat and drought has been an opportunity in the garden. This environment has forced plants to really fight for it and has made choosing which plants to save seed from far easier than it might be under more accommodating circumstances. For example, shortly after the first bean planting was up and looking good, some critter (bunnies, I suspect) went through the entire bed nibbling off all the leaves and chewing the stems to nubs. Only three plants were left with leaves on them. Fortunately, two of those were the Golden Rod Bush Beans I had planted the last of and hope to save seed from. A burst a hopefullness and the inability to force myself to look at the carnage again combined to result in me leaving that bed alone to see what would happen. Maybe some of the nubs would come back?

Miraculously, most of the nubs came back. Some of those plants have done ridiculously well and are now sporting beans. Those plants have been marked for seed saving because, honestly, a gardener can't ask for more from a plant than to survive and produce through bunny attacks, neglect, extreme heat and drought. Similarly, in the new garden some of the tomatoes are really taking off while others, like the Romas, are struggling. Same thing with the peppers, all of which I nearly lost to insect damage early on. So, while it is a worry and a pain to garden through a summer like this one has been so far, it is also a blessing to be able to select for seed from plants that are really outdoing themselves under these circumstances. And the best thing about it is the seeds are free, and no lab is required to produce them.

New Garden Weirdness

2010-07-09T20:14:00.000-04:00

So. It's been so long since I've posted that I was actually too chicken to check and see when my last post was. Things have been busy here. Like much of the East Coast, we have been getting creamed by this heatwave. Lawns are brown and dormant. Even some of the trees appear to be going dormant- leaves turning brown and falling off, as if it was fall. That's a bit worrisome. But my garden is what's really been on my mind lately.

Because I put the garden in late this year (after finishing the spring semester and then digging the new garden bed), it was not well established when the heat hit. Oh, and then there's the "huh?" problem I had getting it going. Where I live, the soil is almost without exception a little on the acidic side. I mean, I had never seen a soil sample test alkaline... until problems in the new garden led me to test the soil. After finally getting plants into the new garden, they immediately started deteriorating. The leaves turned chlorotic. Bugs began devouring them. They didn't put on any new growth. It was bad. And, the few tomatoes on the Romas developed blossom-end rot.

Blossom-end rot is linked to uneven watering and calcium deficiency. I knew the problem was not uneven watering, so naturally, this pointed to a problem with calcium uptake. Often, BER can be treated by applying lime. On acidic soils, this really isn't often a problem. On alkaline soil, however, applying lime could cause trouble. Most plants are not fans of a highly alkaline environment, and liming decreases acidity. So it was a good thing I didn't rush out to the garden with my bag-o-lime, and instead decided to test the soil. Lo! It came up alkaline. This was such an anomaly that I had to repeat the test to believe it.

The alkaline test result presented me with a bit of a quandary. How to increase calcium and acidity...quickly? I suspected that, for some unknown reason, soil calcium was bound up rather than absent. A little research turned up the solution, which was to apply fertilizer intended for acid-loving plants. This variety of fertilizer is high in sulfur, which increases acidity.

Let me tell you... this was an almost miraculous cure. It took a few days to begin to see results. At first, the only sign of improvement was the hint that perhaps the bugs were devouring the garden less quickly. But over the first week or so, the leaves started re-greening. At this point, just about everything seems to be growing well, flowering, and setting fruit. The one big exception is the Roma tomatoes. While they did set some fruit, the plants themselves are barely hanging on. I'm not sure why either. When I transplanted the tomatoes, the Romas appeared the strongest. Unfortunately, they went downhill fast.

It's more than a little disappointing, too. I was relying pretty heavily on the Romas this year and now it looks like I'll harvest very little from them. The pair of San Marzanos I received from a fellow master gardener is doing well though. Not well enough to fill the pantry with jars of tomato sauce- but hopefully there will be enough "regular" tomatoes to still put up some sauce.

Oh well. The garden is always a "win some/lose some" proposition. What else is there to do but Keep Calm And Carry On?

Getting The Most For Your Meat Dollars

2010-06-25T12:03:00.000-04:00

This morning's wade through the ole inbox uncovered a nifty little gem in today's edition of Mary Hunt's Everyday Cheapskate newsletter. Inside was an article titled "It Pays to Know Your Cuts of Meat," which included a link to a University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension pamphlet (note that it is labeled "historical materials" as if somehow this info would cease being useful).

The basic idea behind this pamphlet is pretty simple. Instead of comparing meats by price per pound, we get more bang for our buck by comparing meats by price per serving. I think most of us probably already do this to some degree based on our previous experiences. But this handy dandy pamphlet includes a chart that does the mental gymnastics for us and covers more cuts than we (okay, I) can mentally keep track of, based on serving sizes of 3 ounces each.

One caveat: This pamphlet focuses on how much meat you get for your money, not how much utility. So for example, there is no accounting in the pamphlet for the bone broth you could make from the bones you paid for with your meat.

This post is a participant in Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.

What Does It Mean? or The Joys of Suburban Life

2010-06-24T09:34:00.000-04:00

So, this morning I took the recycling out to the curb and noticed a plastic grocery bag next to our mailbox. When I picked it up, it became immediately obvious that it contained dog poop. Nice.

Now, we have a fenced yard, so our dogs remain confined to our yard most of the time. We do walk them also, but because we have two dogs it requires two people and 99.99% of the time I'm one of them. So, I know that we are not leaving doggy deposits around the neighborhood that might prompt an irritated neighbor to relocate said deposit back to our yard. But does someone think we do? Or, was this a comment unrelated to our dogs and directed more at us?

I'm baffled. And a bit irritated. And, honestly, kind of creeped out. What do you think?

Free Pollinator Guides

2010-06-23T10:59:00.000-04:00

In honor of National Pollinator Week (who knew? but, yay!), Horticulture magazine included in today's email a link to free pollinator guides customized by your zip code (US). Funded by a variety of organizations and provided by the Pollinator Partnership, these guides are pretty slick. I have not read through mine with a fine tooth comb (yet), but on first glance would say it provides a comprehensive basic introduction to who is a pollinator (they're not all insects!) and planting for pollinators. It appears comprehensive in that it covers a lot of ground, but basic in that it does not go into so much depth as to lose a new gardener's attention. There are also some nice charts that break down what is blooming when and who benefits from it. One caveat: When I plugged in my zip code, it took me to the "simple map" view. There is also an interactive map view. My location is right on the edge of a zone change. So, check to see how close you lie to a zone change. If you are very close to the break like I am, it may be worthwhile to download the guides for both zones. Click HERE to go to pollinator.org and download your free pollinator guide.

Back On Track

2010-06-08T21:42:00.000-04:00

Recently, I became aware that all three of us were having "episodes" of "un-well-ness." Not really sickness, but definitely not well either. And I realized that we'd been slipping on our food goals. After sitting down and taking a somewhat unpleasant, but honest, look at our recent eating habits, I recommitted to eating right.

Now, everybody's body is different, of course; so, I don't think there really is a one-size-fits-all diet that is perfect for everyone. But over the course of this journey, I have come to better understand what my body needs, and what seems to work, more or less, for the kids.

I function best on a high protein diet with lots of veggies and limited whole grains and fruit. So, a week ago, I got serious (again) about eating the way my body needs me to eat, and cutting out the crap that I had let slide here and there for all of us. The change has been huge. Truly enormous.

For one thing, I have tons more energy. My skin looks better. But best of all, I have less pain. For several months, I was relatively pain free with regard to the rheumatoid arthritis. If you've been reading here a while, you know that I quit all my meds a while back to see what changing my diet could do for my RA symptoms. But as I started sliding off the routine, I started experiencing more inflammation, until I had a full blown flare not long ago. Come to think of it, that's actually when I had the wake-up call to get back on track and realized the kids were having issues of their own. A week back into clean living and I am nearly pain free.

We are just beginning to eat out of our garden. Until that is in full swing, we'll continue raiding the farm stand and farmers market (although, this last Saturday I bought nothing at the market because there was so little food there- our market has a policy of limiting vendors so as not to cause competition between vendors; but competition between vendors is what pushes vendors to supply amply and with variety, in my humble opinion).

I have developed a rhythm of purchasing from various local suppliers, and this has helped me learn to plan ahead a bit more. This is still not my strong suit, but as long as I am progressing I don't think I can complain. I am also coming to accept, and better understand, the higher prices for local and ethically-raised meats and dairy products. It is still a challenge for me with regard to my budget. I have cut back, and then cut back some more, and then a bit more, how much meat we eat. I am thankful eggs are more affordable, and they have become an important staple in my bid to keep my protein intake up where I need it to be, although the kids still don't want to eat them.

The fallout from this one decision- to eat what I should eat- has been surprising and wonderful. Having all this energy has made the idea of maintaining a fitness routine seem entirely doable. The Girl, the dogs, and I have all gotten a lot more exercise than usual lately. We haven't quite figured out what activity to do to entice The Boy to come along with us, but we're working on it!

Figuring out how my body needs to be fed involved a lot of trial and error, as well as a fair bit of frustration and soul searching. But it was an exercise well worth undertaking because feeding your body how it needs to be fed is sort of like turning a magical key in a door between Blahsville and So-This-Is-Life Land. If you are on this journey too, and if you sometimes lose your way or become discouraged, know that improvement is only one better decision away, and that each better decision takes you closer to the life you want. Keep looking for the right fit for you; it will be worth it.

Save Strawberries From The EPA!

2010-06-04T10:57:00.001-04:00

This call to action showed up in my inbox today from the FRESH: the movie site. The short version is that the EPA has decided that methyl iodide is safe for widespread use as a soil fumigant on strawberry crops, despite the knowledge that it is a known carcinogen, thyroid disruptor, neurotoxin, and has been shown to cause spontaneous abortions of late-term pregnancies.

Despite the risks to farm workers and the surrounding populations. Despite the risks to people who eat strawberries. Despite a California state-commissioned study that warns against it. Despite a 2007 letter of protest sent by prominent scientists and Nobel laureates. Somehow, the EPA has decided it is safe.

I disagree, and signed the petition against approving methyl iodide. If you would like to sign the petition too, you can find it, and more information, HERE.

*The post is participating in Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.

Magic Beans

2010-06-03T19:53:00.000-04:00

Jack and the Bean Stalk must have been written by someone as entranced by beans as I am. I always look forward to planting them because they always get right to business for me. I planted the bean bed 4 or 5 days ago. Yesterday, I was starting to worry that the beans had not shown themselves yet because they have traditionally popped up after 3, or sometimes 4 days, for me. When I looked up online how long they take to germinate, I was surprised to see 7-10 days! But, I figured there was no need to panic. This morning when I went to finish digging the new bed, the beans were peaking out. They looked like this:

Sorry. That's sideways.

Just now when I checked the garden, it was obvious the beans had been busy today. Here is what I found:

Pretty amazing, huh?

This bed includes two kinds of beans. The majority are Empress bush beans (green); but I had just a few Goldenrod bush beans (yellow) left from last year that I planted here also. So far, it seems the Goldenrods might be moving a little faster than the Empress. Last year, I was gifted a handful of Goldenrod beans by one of my master gardener classmates. I really liked them, but then forgot to save any seeds! D'oh! This year, I'll have to mark them early so I don't forget. (In theory, if I want to save seed I should separate bean varieties to avoid cross-pollination. However, beans are self-pollinating and pollination occurs before/as the flowers open, so the likelihood of cross-pollination is low.)

What kind of beans are you growing? And if you are a new gardener (or not yet a gardener!), why not give beans a try? They're easy to grow, and you can't beat the taste.

In The Yard Today

2010-06-01T19:59:00.003-04:00

I have been working on digging a new 12 by 18 garden bed in the sunniest part of our yard. I'm only half way there, so no pictures yet. It's just been too hot to work out there for long. But stay tuned- work progresses! It has to- I have way too many plants that need to go in the ground still! Meanwhile, here's what's going on in the yard today.

The front roses are blooming

The side roses are blooming

and so is the clematis

I've been patiently (not patiently) waiting for the onion flowers to open. Do you see the first two?

The first Roma tomato

A Lantana that is usually bicolor

This riot is the Russian Red kale seed pods that fell over due to the sheer weight of the pods. This plant is massive and survived our crazy winter completely unprotected.

Marigolds

Hosta

Do you see the bumblebutt hanging out of the Hosta flower?

Yum!

2010-05-29T20:39:00.000-04:00

We had these, fresh from the garden, with dinner tonight. I harvested a small bowl of strawberries several days ago. But today, The Girl collected quite a bit more while I prepared and planted the bean bed. Still more await picking in the strawberry bed. I derive a great sense of abundance from moments like this.

We planted the strawberry bed last year. You're supposed to pick off the flowers the first year so the plant can become established and not put its energy into making berries. But putting in that bed was a lot of work and I was determined to have a few hard won strawberries. Alas, it was not to be. I forgot to put netting over the bed and the critters ate every last one. This year, we were out in the near darkness netting that bed when I realized the berries were beginning to ripen! One of the best things about this harvest is I know exactly what all the ingredients are: soil, sun, water, nothing hinky.

Week Recap

2010-05-28T22:27:00.000-04:00

Or rather, a Weak Recap. It's been a busy week, with too much to report and too little energy with which to report it. But first, since I have no recent photos to share, a quick trip down memory lane, inspired by Leigh's recent additions. (Felix update at end of post)

Young Felix snoozes, knowing sis Hatchi has it covered.

Teak wonders what he did to deserve this.

This week I have really been struggling to get the garden in. Early in the week, the temperature was perfect for gardening. Unfortunately, it wouldn't stop raining. Then, it stopped raining for a day and turned all "July heatwave" on us. And then back to rain. I did manage to pot up several volunteer tomato seedlings (to be replanted elsewhere, currently undecided) and get half of what will be the bean bed turned. I had really hoped to have that bed planted, but things happen. Or, don't. I had also hoped to have broken ground on a new garden bed and plant my now impressive collection of tomatoes impatiently awaiting transplanting. But that didn't happen either.

I did score big in the "it's fun to know master gardeners" category this week. One MG was giving away extra seedlings she'd started but couldn't find places for. I came home with a couple San Marzanos and a Purple Cherokee, plus two purple tomatillos! And today The Girl and I carted home a yard bag full of Sweet Box (Sarcococca), and a flat of Mondo grass, Japanese Painted Fern, and a type of ginger from another MG. Both these awesome ladies gardens will be on the county garden tour benefiting cancer research next month. How cool is that?

I really love visiting other gardener's gardens. It is always educational, often inspiring, and generally uplifting. And honestly, I have been trying hard not to be depressed this week. The ongoing oil spill really has me down. It is such an irresponsible thing to drill in a sensitive environment when you have no idea how to clean up or even stop a spill there. I am starting to feel like I did following Katrina, where I walk around plagued by the same recurring thought: How could we not have had a plan for this obvious possibility?! But I digress...

There have been setbacks this week. I have lost a huge oak to borers. It will have to come down so it doesn't fall down on our house or the neighbor's house. The tree guy says that will cost $800. Huh. Then, The Girl and I were out to do errands when we smelled a strong burning smell and then heard what sounded like roaring flames. Inside the car. The exact cause of this is not 100% known at this point, but it appears to be related to the electrical system. I could not be any less happy about this development and I have no idea how much this will cost to fix. I also have no idea where the money will come from. I have tried convincing Felix he is obligated to start laying golden eggs, but so far I have gotten nowhere.

Fortunately, however, Felix is our big success story of the week. Today's re-check at the vet showed his hematocrit at 32% (woot! inside the normal range!), his protein normal, and his weight up to 8.4lbs. Also, after restarting the doxycycline earlier this week, the respiratory problem is much improved (although not yet gone). The vet was thrilled with Felix's progress. We are finally able to cut back some more on the meds, and not re-check for two weeks (unless there's a problem). So that appointment was good news all around and I think that high note is a good place to close this post.

Sauteed Spinach And Garlic

2010-05-25T10:18:00.000-04:00

I brought home a bag of spinach from the farmer's market on Saturday. For a long time, I have been looking for a good but easy recipe for sauteed spinach and garlic. It always sounded so easy to make, yet I regularly had less than satisfactory results. Too bitter, too blah, to something... The other night I prepared a variation on Ina Garten's Garlic Sauteed Spinach. You can find the original recipe here.

The original recipe calls for 1 1/2 lbs baby spinach. Well, my farmer's market purchase was a gallon-size zip-loc bag stuffed full of full-sized spinach. I have no idea what it's weight was. Once it cooked down, it served the three of us just about perfectly (as a side dish). I roughly approximated (really roughly) the rest of the ingredients. But the original recipe calls for 2 teaspoons kosher salt and I think this may be too much. I didn't use anywhere near that (because of the smaller amount of spinach I used), but it still was a bit too salty for our tastes. Also, I didn't measure the black pepper at all. I sprinkled it liberally over the spinach in the pot, stirred and repeated. I think it would have benefited from a little more. I love garlic and used the full amount called for. If you are using a strong garlic, that might be overkill. But the stuff I was using was fine.

Sauteed Spinach And Garlic

1 full gallon bag of spinach
2 tablespoons olive oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 teaspoon Real or sea salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper (my best guess)
dollop of butter
lemon juice
sprinkle of sea salt

1. Rinse spinach well and dry.
2. In pot or large pan, heat olive oil and saute garlic over medium heat 1 minute.
3. Add all spinach, salt, and pepper. Toss to combine.
4. Cover and cook 2 minutes.
5. Uncover and turn heat to high. Cook 1 minute, stirring, until all spinach is wilted.
6. Remove from heat. Transfer spinach to serving bowl.
7. Top with butter, lemon, sprinkle of salt and serve.

Roasted Red Potatoes And Asparagus

2010-05-22T20:17:00.000-04:00

I wish I had thought to take a picture of this dish when I made it the other night. But it was getting late by the time I got to fixing dinner, and everybody was hungry. This dish is a taste that is a little bit more sophisticated than The Boy cares for, but The Girl did not complain and I thought it was nice. I liked it even better as leftovers, which is saying a lot because I am not generally a leftovers fan. This one goes in the "keep" file.

I brought red potatoes and asparagus home from the farm stand and then asked Google for a recipe. The base recipe is here, but I did as many of the comments suggested and modified it a bit. Here is what I actually did (please bear in mind, there are only three of us; I served three as a side for dinner and got one lunch serving out of the leftovers):

Roasted Red Potatoes And Asparagus

4 large red potatoes and 1 medium sized one, cut into chunks
1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
3 tsp chopped garlic (more would be better)
2 T. olive oil (I think I used it more liberally than this, really)
1 tsp dried rosemary (might bump it to 1.5 tsp)
1 tsp dried thyme (might bump this to 1.5 tsp also)
2 tsp sea salt
black pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In baking dish, combine garlic, rosemary, thyme, half salt, and half olive oil.
3. Toss potatoes in mixture and cover.
4. Bake potatoes 20 minutes. Mix in asparagus and remaining olive oil and salt.
5. Cover and bake 15 minutes or until potatoes tender.
6. Remove foil. Bake until potatoes start to brown.
7. Season with pepper to taste.

* I actually added the pepper with the other spices, but not a lot. I also threw the potatoes into the oven before the oven had fully heated. I needed to run to the store (kids were home to keep an eye on things) and just added in the asparagus, etc when I got home. It turned out fine.

Felix Update

2010-05-22T13:54:00.000-04:00

Two things have been happening in my household lately. We've been alternating fussing over Felix and working to get the garden in. I've waited to post an update on Felix because, frankly, I didn't like the news I had to post and was holding out for some better news. And yesterday I got some!

Felix testing out his new window seat

The news we got at the Wednesday re-check appointment was not good. Plus, Felix had vomited a couple times that day after having not done so for nearly a week. His hematocrit was 18%, which is the level they consider the lowest it should go before triggering a blood transfusion. However, this was actually a slight improvement for Felix from the previous check. Unfortunately, his protein level had dropped, suggesting internal bleeding. The vet thought Felix had probably developed an ulcer from the meds. I was also distressed to see that he had lost more weight, although I tried not to freak out because I don't actually know how much he weighed when he left the emergency clinic. Our vet added three more meds to our routine and scheduled a Friday re-check appointment. *sigh*

Our Friday appointment gave us cause for celebration. Finally! The hematocrit was up to 24%, which is closing in on the 30% considered normal for cats. The protein level was up, suggesting the ulcer was healing. And the scale said Felix had gained .2 lbs. The vet said that was not a big deal because it may have been fluctuation between scales. But I am choosing to ignore her and hold onto the idea that he is gaining. He is starting to feel as if he has gained a little and right now that's just what I need to believe. We were able to begin the process of trimming back some of the meds, which Felix and I both appreciate lots. The poor guy has started drooling uncontrollably if he suspects I'm thinking about medicating him, and by the end of the process we are both soaked. It's not a lot of fun for anybody, but- with the exception of the time he left a nail embedded in my palm- Felix has been pretty good about this process. He continues to need to be isolated from the general household population, although we have allowed his sister supervised visits, and one night we booted everybody else (dogs) out of the den and brought Felix in for a change of scenery. We also sprung for a window seat, which is positioned overlooking a bird feeder and a bush with a robin's nest in it. This has been a hit so far and was well worth the price.

I would like to express tremendous gratitude to all of you who have come in from the cat blogosphere (which I previously didn't even know existed) and especially to Leigh, who alerted the cat blogosphere, and offered your support and encouragement. It is a strange thing, but I feel an almost eerie calm about having invested so much to save Felix. I think it's because I know that it was the right choice. Now, I need to trust that somehow the money will work out in the end, while also working to make that actually happen. Just knowing that there are others out there who understand why I did it has been incredibly reassuring. And I thank you for that. And Felix does too.

Recipes: A "New" Twist On Breakfast

2010-05-20T12:09:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, NPR ran an article called "Market-Fresh Breakfasts" which you can find here. If you are looking for a few new ideas to shake up your breakfast repertoire, you might just find them here. Personally, I have learned that I am far more satisfied with a breakfast of bacon and eggs than I ever was of cereal (including oatmeal) or pancakes. So I'm not sure I could switch to a breakfast that didn't include a good bit of protein. But, I see no reason not to include a generous helping of veggies as well. I think the Eggs Baked With Spinach And Feta In Tomato Shell and Israeli Tomato And Cucumber Salad will both be on my menu soon, with probably some variation of Summer Squash and Red Pepper Tarta With Basil Crust following at some point. The tarta probably involves the most work, but I love that the article's author mentions that this dish is a good one to cut up and freeze in individual servings for easy eating later.

I was surprised by some of the comments this article received at NPR. I would have guessed that anyone who didn't find these recipes appealing would just move on and not take the time to comment. But apparently, some people really have a problem with the idea that vegetables could be breakfast food, or...something. What do you think Would you eat these foods?

Do You Eat Art?

2010-05-16T10:11:00.003-04:00

On Friday, my dad rode along with the kids and me when we went to retrieve Felix from the emergency vet. When we arrived at the clinic, we had to wait a while due to the recent arrival of a couple critical cases. That was fine; we spent our time chatting in the lobby.

Dad told me about the dishwasher woes of one of my brothers. High-end machine, chronic problems. Conversation shifted to the way saving up to buy "top of the line" machines was no longer a safe bet because quality overall had decreased so much. I was reminded of some of the "art" I saw at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC. I was really struck by some of the everyday items on display. They were beautiful and utilitarian. They were obviously made by skilled artisans who took pride in their work. And they have survived more or less intact through the ages.

Segue to yesterday. The Girl and I worked in the garden. We got most of the tomatoes in, all of the basil, and some flowers too. We made a good dent in the remaining patch of weeds, and have the strawberry bed just about ready to be covered (and not a moment too soon!). The Girl worked on filling the crater (mine shaft?) The Boy dug last fall (because he likes to dig and I was curious to see how deep he would go if left to his own devices. I told him to quit when I could only see his head bobbing amongst the grass). And I noticed that the Russian Red Kale plant is covered in seed pods, and began wondering how long I should leave them before harvesting the seeds.

Moving right along to this morning, I was looking for an article about harvesting those kale seeds when I found this post at Calendula & Concrete. The article itself wasn't what I was looking for, but goodness, look at those photos! The variety of shapes, colors, and textures is... awesome. And beautiful. And just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the art you can find in the garden, much of which is edible. I was again reminded of the everyday items on display at the Met, and wondered if those artisans took their inspiration from their gardens.

When you open your cabinets, do you find art inside? How about when you open your refrigerator? If you read that C&C article, then you read this quote from Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life: "Modern U.S. consumers now get to taste less than 1 percent of the vegetable varieties that were grown here a century ago." Less than 1 percent. Would you feel you had been robbed if some band of corporations bought up your culture's art and left you with access to less than 1 percent of your artistic heritage? Because that is exactly what has happened to your food heritage if you live in the U.S.

This is part of the reason I garden. A walk through my garden is like a walk through an edible living history museum right in my backyard. There are colors and textures and smells and tastes you will never find in a modern American grocery, or probably even at a farmers market. So, if you do not garden, I encourage you to plant something- anything you like- and see what happens. And if you do garden, I encourage you to plant some new art this year, and then savor every bite.

This post is participating in Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade, which you can find here.

The Bumbling Blogger and Her Buddy

2010-05-15T10:03:00.002-04:00

Felix with toy and shaved paw

I expected that I would have more time to post here when the semester ended. And I will. But life has taken me on a short (?) detour through Pain-in-the-ass Land. I hope you will bear with me while I try to navigate my way back to some semblance of normalcy.

Things have changed here and I'm not sure how we will find a new equilibrium. But I believe we will. I have to, so I can continue putting one foot in front of the other.

If Monday hadn't been so tragic, it would have made a good comedy plot line, complete with broken eye glasses, broken fingernail trying to fix glasses, broken door handle on route to vet, etc. Last week was all about studying for my last finals and paying my summer tuition bill. The weekend was all about taking those finals and preparing for an unavoidable whirlwind trip to NYC on Tuesday. And Monday was all about Felix.

When we moved into this house two years ago, we adopted Felix and his sister, Hatchi. They are cats. They came from the local shelter, which is always overworked and underfunded. When we brought them home, they were so tiny. Too small to be on their own, really, but the shelter was happy to transfer their care to us and we were happy to bring them home. They were sick when we got them. But we nursed them to health and they became full members of our little family. Over the weekend, I realized that Felix had shrunk.

I made a Monday morning vet appointment. Even though Felix was behaving normally, I knew that a weight loss that significant was not good news. The vet confirmed Felix had lost 2.5 pounds, which was a quarter of his previous weight. Then the vet discovered that Felix's gums were yellow. She suspected liver failure and did not offer an even remotely positive prognosis. I spent several hours begging the universe for a different answer and when I returned to get Felix later the universe threw me a bone.

The blood tests were not consistent with liver failure. But they did show that something was destroying Felix's red blood cells. The vet explained that a normal kitty hematocrit was 30%. If it dropped to 18%, it was generally accepted that an immediate blood transfusion was in order. Felix's level was 10%.

The vet had called several counties looking for a donor. Ultimately, the one confirmed donor was right here in our own town. We went straight from our vet to the emergency vet clinic. Felix was tested again. He had dropped to 9% and the vet was honest that this was a really dire situation and that there was a pretty good chance Felix would not be able to bounce back.

We left Felix in the care of the wonderful folks at the emergency clinic. I can't even begin to describe how conflicted I was about leaving town the next morning, even though it was only one night. But, I can wait by the cell phone just as easily as by the house phone and I had an obligation to make the trip, so off I went at 6:30am.

I got the call with results from the first transfusion while I was still on the bus. It was not great news. He was back up to 10%, but it wasn't enough. The vets had drawn more blood than they had used, so they gave Felix a second transfusion without charging me- a real blessing considering the enormous bill I was facing. And we waited some more. We got updates every twelve hours. At first, there was not much to report. And then, miraculously, the number started to climb. When I left NYC, he was up to 18%.

I arrived home very late Wednesday night. I walked in the door and the phone rang. It was the clinic. Felix's latest results showed he'd slipped to 14.5%. They wanted to start him on another medicine, but they didn't have any. Would I go to the 24-hour pharmacy and pick it up? Of course. I turned around and went back out the door. I started making my way across town and the phone rang. Never mind; there had been a miscommunication with the pharmacy tech. The meds wouldn't be available until morning.

And so the rest of the week went by- his number climbing, then dropping, then climbing. Yesterday, he had been holding steady long enough to come home. He is not out of the woods. As of yesterday, his hematocrit had not climbed into the "safe" range. He is on three meds that suppress his immune system because the theory is that this is some sort of auto-immune problem. At this point, we realize that anything could happen. But we are so relieved to have our little buddy home.

I understand that not everyone would be willing to decimate their already tenuous budget they way I have just done in order to save a cat. But I adopted him and take my obligation to care for him seriously. He is a member of our family and while I worry about paying the bills, I have no regrets about spreading myself thin in order to try to save another living creature, and especially one who has so thoroughly enriched my life. There will be no summer camp, no vacation, no frills. But in the grand scheme of things, that's really okay. If we can stay afloat, it's all golden.

I think my changed circumstances will shift the focus of my blogging a little bit, at least until I am back on an even keel. The garden just became a huge priority. We will have to expand it significantly and try to pull as much of our food as possible out of it for the summer and fall. I will almost certainly chronicle that process here. We have already significantly reduced our meat consumption due to the cost of sustainably and ethically produced meat. But I will have to reevaluate that portion of our food budget again and reduce it even further. Brown rice has already become a big part of our diet; but I expect it will become even more important for a while. The list of necessary adjustments goes on.

Our food journey just took on far more urgency. Thankfully, my lighter summer academic load will allow me more time and energy to address these challenges. I hope you will stick around and continue to offer your suggestions. I may not always explicitly say so, but I consider each comment and find each one meaningful. And I thank you for taking the time to offer them.

Who Hash

2010-05-05T10:38:00.000-04:00

This meal is so easy and so tasty. When I was a kid, my mom made this. At some point we started referring to it as Who Hash. Must have been in December when The Grinch Who Stole Christmas played on TV. I had forgotten about this simple dish for a long time, but have been making it recently. There are only three ingredients- all real foods. Plus salt and pepper. Easy.

Who Hash

(amounts of these ingredients can be scaled up or down as appropriate for your needs; this is just how I do it)

1 lb. ground beef
1 cup brown rice (that's one cup dry, which works out to several cooked cups)
1 onion, chopped

1. Cook the rice.
2. While rice is cooking, brown the ground beef and onion together.
3. When rice is done, combine with beef/onion mix and mix well.
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste. This always takes more salt than I expect it to. Add a little, mix well, taste, repeat as necessary.

Enjoy!

News From The Brink

2010-05-04T22:48:00.000-04:00

Be honest. Do you ever think that America is on the brink of a massive, food-related calamity? When I think about our food system, I am aware of the real food movement, slow food, pasture-based, 100-mile diet, etc. These are good things. But when I broaden my focus to include the wider view, I am… horrified. Honestly, I think that’s the best word for how I feel about it when I actually stop to think about where we are. My solution (read: my attempt to do something and hopefully avoid losing my mind) is to share with others my concerns, and hope that eventually enough of us will share the same concerns to be able to force change. In some ways, I can see how we are taking a step forward. In other ways, it looks like two steps back.

Today, I want to share with you some of what I read this morning. The three articles referenced here represent that step forward and the two steps back.

First up… This article by ClizBiz, which I found over at Blogher, is an interview with Carrie Balkcom, executive director of the American Grassfed Association. I learned about the AGA’s new (?) symbol that its certified producers can use to label their products. I haven’t seen this symbol in a store in my area (yet?). But I hope I do, because it indicates adherence to production standards that are superior to those that follow the USDA definition of “grassfed.” Take a look, so you’ll know what you’re seeing if products labeled with this symbol show up near you.

Next, we move on to the category that leaves me wondering why there is no Darwin Award equivalent for corporations. There really should be. Perhaps we should start one. But what would we call it? The Species Suicide Award? Think on that while you read these gems…

We take our first step backward with this article by William Neuman and Andrew Pollack at the New York Times. The authors introduce us to Eddie Anderson, a Tennessee farmer who has been strictly no-till for 15 years. Until now. This year, Anderson is plowing one-third of his land because of Roundup-resistant pigweed, which is so tenacious and sturdy that it damages harvesting equipment. And that’s in addition to growing three inches a day, reaching seven feet or more in height, and shading out crops. You can see Mr. Anderson’s problem. Thanks, Monsanto. Zombie pigweed. Niiiice.

And now, the latest rendition of greed-in-a-can. This article by Amy Gates is another one I picked up at Blogher. I have Gates to thank for introducing me to Mead-Johnson’s new Enfagrow Premium Chocolate Toddler Formula. That’s chocolate toddler formula for children ages 12 to 36 months. You know, the ages when children are supposed to be learning to eat whole foods. I know, you’re thinking “girl, I don’t even need to read that- I’ve heard enough,” but you’re wrong! Go read it, and be enlightened. Everybody should know just how low our boat is sinking.

Then come back here and let me know who you nominate for the award.

Real Food. Real Easy.

2010-04-30T11:41:00.001-04:00

By rights, all I should be doing right now is studying for the exams I have tomorrow. Instead, I went into the yard this morning with the dogs. From the window, I had seen it blooming, and I just had to get a close-up view. Had to.

This gorgeous yellow flower is the lone Russian Red Kale that survived the winter in my garden. In the fall, I was so busy with school... parenting... surviving... that I never cleaned up the garden for winter. When the snow hit, the garden was a wreck. Completely overgrown. *Sigh* I figured I would take care of things in the spring. But the spring semester has been even crazier than the fall and it hasn't happened.

Several weeks ago, however, I took a wrong turn in the yard and ended up staring a monster of a kale plant right in the face. Literally. The trunk on this thing is thicker than my drinking glasses. At that point, it had put out lots of new growth and was just starting to think about flowering. Free food! Exactly when there was nothing fresh locally, too. I pinched back it's first flower foray and harvested a surprising quantity of leaves. And then another. But eventually, it seemed cruel and pointless to stop this plant from flowering. It really wanted to. It was supposed to. And if it did, there would be more kale plants. So I left it alone to do its thing- and it has. It's beautiful. The trunk, stems, and leaf veins are purple, the leaves green, and the flowers this cheerful yellow. It's such a pretty plant that it left me wondering where I could use it in a flower border. Seriously. It's that pretty. And hey, people use those ugly, stinky ornamental cabbages- so why not kale?

But the kale wasn't all I found in the garden today. I also found an army or lettuce. Seriously. Check out the formation to the left. The solid green is Amish Deer Tongue, and the speckled is Forellenschluss (aka Speckled Trout Back, etc). Or perhaps I should say, that's what they were last year. Because I was not paying attention, I do not know if the lettuces flowered at the same time. They may be hybrids; or not. At this point, I don't care. I have an entire bed of lettuce growing, for which I did exactly nothing. In addition to these two, I've found exactly one head of this lovely (but poorly photographed) lettuce. I don't remember it's name, but will have to look it up and plant some more. It is really pretty! As you can imagine, I was thrilled so much lettuce going strong in the garden with no effort from me. But the bounty didn't

end there. The grapes that came with the property, whose trellis was all but obliterated by the series of storms over the winter, are leafing out. I haven't told them, but I've been thinking about pulling them out, rebuilding a stronger, better trellis, and planting grapes we actually like. The strawberry bed I put in last year is going like crazy. Apparently strawberries enjoy a certain degree of neglect because I have never seen strawberry plants this big. There are weeds everywhere, and still these plants make every effort to do what they are designed to do. If I remember to cover the strawberry bed to keep out the birds, it looks like we should have a bumper crop this year. How awesome is that? But wait, there's more! Despite my best effort to clean all the potatoes out of

the bed last year, one potato plant has come up. At this point, I'm inclined to leave it be for now and see what happens. You're not really *supposed* to do that- in order to prevent diseases from building up in the soil. But what the heck- let's live a little!
Then there's the chard, in red and yellow, and the corn salad that have seeded freely. And the hop vine running towards the sun. And the onions that didn't get pulled last year, but which I tried to pull early this spring and then gave up on because they were uber slimy, they are looking lovely as they prepare to go to seed.
As a gardener, and especially as a master gardener, I should be ashamed of myself for letting my garden fall into such a state. But as a real person with real responsibilities that have to come before the garden, I have to acknowledge that things happen. Usually, though, when "things happen" they don't result in free food sans work! Seeing the unplanned, yet very welcome, bounty in the garden- and the sheer beauty of some of these plants when allowed to go full cirlce,

has me thinking a lot about how and why we relegate food plants
to a garden of their own. Many plants from the food garden would be truly lovely mixed in with ornamentals. How about a walkway lined with gorgeous lettuce? Or kale as the backdrop to flowers? Onions provide interesting structural elements and the cool flowers common to all alliums. Strawberries might make a fun groundcover. Edible landscaping is not a new idea. But I'm not sure why its not more popular. I'm guessing people have just never seen the possibilities open to them. But it's worth having a good think over, because the potential exists to produce a lot of food without giving up the interest and decorative value of traditional landscape plants. Do you have an edible landscape? I would love to hear how you incorporate food with fun in your garden.

This post is part of Fight Back Friday hosted by Food Renegade.

USDA & FDA To Lobby UN To Prevent Labeling Of GMOs Worldwide!

2010-04-29T09:27:00.000-04:00

Did you read that title? Wow. How scary is this? And so many other things. Ballsy. Irresponsible. Rude. The list goes on. The following is taken directly from the Fresh: the movie website . You can follow that link to sign the petition at the website. And please pass on the info! Comments must be in by Monday.

We have just a few days to stop the U.S. government from preventing the labeling of genetically modified foods (GMOs).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have adopted a pro-corporate position that laughably claims labeling GM/GE foods creates the "false" impression that "that the labeled food is in some way different from other foods.” [1] Even worse, the current U.S. draft position paper declares that mandatory labeling laws such as they have in Europe are “false, misleading or deceptive.“ [2]

On May 3rd, Obama administration officals from the FDA and USDA will travel to Canada for a special United Nations meeting to tell the world to adopt the same position, preventing other countries from rightly labeling GMOs as different from fresh, natural food.
Sign our petition now before the deadline on Monday.

[1] Consumers Union, Press Release, April 20, 2010 http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/128?akid=122.86067.yezFWF&t=12
[2] 80+ Groups Urge FDA, USDA to Change U.S. Position on Food Labeling Civil Eats, April 20, 2010 http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/129?akid=122.86067.yezFWF&t=14

Apologies

2010-04-28T22:09:00.000-04:00

Please accept my sincerest apologies for adding a donate button. I would really like to send my kids to computer camp this summer. They deserve it; and I can't swing it. No pressure. Really.

FDA Raids Amish Farm

2010-04-27T20:09:00.001-04:00

At 4:30am Tuesday, April 20, Amish farmer Dan Allgyer of Kinzers, Pennsylvania walked out to his barn to begin the morning milking. At 5:00am, five men in three vehicles drove onto Allgyer's property and began poking around by the light of the flashlights they carried. The quintet included two FDA agents, two deputy US Marshals, and one PA State Trooper. They told Allgyer they were there for a "routine inspection," but also handed him a warrant claiming "credible evidence" that Allgyer was involved in interstate commerce. More specifically, Allgyer is suspected of selling raw milk dairy products across state lines.

The 5:00am "routine inspection" involved much rooting around, taking of pictures, and delaying of milking. The very next morning, Allgyer received an expedited Letter of Warning from the FDA informing him that "Failure to make prompt corrections could result in regulatory action without further notice. Possible actions include seizure and/or injunction."

A legal defense fund for Dan is in the works with details to follow as available. Meanwhile, please consider this request from the executive director of the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association and visit NICFA at this address:

ACTION: Please call and write the number and address below. Express yourself. Tell them that you support Dan Allgyer. If you drink fresh, unpastuerized milk tell them that. Tell them that more people every day are drinking fresh milk and this is going to increase. It's not going to stop no matter how many farmers they persecute. Tell them the government has no place between individuals and the farmers from whom they get their food.
Philadelphia District Office
Serves Delaware and Pennsylvania.
Food and Drug Administration
U.S. Customhouse
Second and Chestnut Streets, Room 900
Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 597-4390 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. (Eastern time)

Cookbook Review: A Winner! (sort of)

2010-04-27T12:06:00.000-04:00

When I posted the Easy Cabbage Casserole recipe, I promised to do a review of the cookbook from whence it came (all hail Mr. Gall, my 8th grade English teacher). Here is the promised review. Actually, it's two reviews. I obtained from the library Brenda Ponichtera's Quick & Healthy in original version, and also volume 2. The second volume is picture here. If you decide to pick up a copy, you want the one with the red cover.

I received the original book from the library first. Honestly, I was more than a little disappointed. This book included a small handful of recipes I might try (but never actually did). When I first looked at the book, I was struck by several things. Ponichtera is a dietician who specializes in diabetes, weight loss, and heart disease. So it was really no surprise to see that all her recipes feature low-fat, fat-free, light, and "lite" versions of products. I was more surprised to see her reliance on things like canned cream-of soups (low-fat, of course) and liquid smoke (what exactly is that stuff?). This book included a lot of repetition. For example, some of the same recipes appear several times- once in each specific meat's section. I can see how this is helpful if you only have chicken to work with on a particular night, but it adds a lot of filler to the book. Looking back over this book for this review, I have to say that there may be more interesting recipes in there than I originally thought. Perhaps I initially picked it up on the wrong night. But, overall, I stand by my original position.

The second book, however, I found to have more promise. I will tell you this up front: all the recipes I have tried without modification have been bland. But they have all also shown a lot of promise if minor adjustments are made. For instance, I followed the recipe for Chicken Chop Suey to the letter. It wasn't bad, just boring. I think this particular recipe would have been lots more interesting with the addition of something as simple as a small amount of red pepper flakes. I also made a Creamy Cabbage Soup that includes polish sausage. Considering the addition of the sausage, I expected more flavor. Again, it wasn't bad, but it also wasn't interesting or fun to eat. If you goal is to stay alive, this is a peach. If you want to live a little too, alterations are in order. For this soup, we felt it would have been better blended (instead, it calls for chopped cabbage in a creamy base, which is kind of a weird combination). It also needs more flavor. Perhaps a stronger sausage, or some other addition entirely.

The things that I really like about Volume 2 are that the reliance on processed products is diminished, and the recipes are almost all short, easy to follow, and promising with minor adjustments. I can work from this book. New from amazon.com, this book goes for just under $13, or used for slightly less. For that price, I plan to pick up my own copy of Volume 2. What is your favorite cookbook for "quick and healthy" recipes?

Favorite Shortcut Products: SOC Organic Tikka Masala Sauce

2010-04-25T20:43:00.001-04:00

If you've been reading here for a while, you know that I have a lot on my plate and not much time to spare. Converting to a better diet has been challenging enough without the added food prep time. As such, I've been on a constant search for shortcut products that help me feed my family better, with less time in the kitchen. Seeds of Change has a line of simmer sauces that I really like a lot. There are four of them; although oddly, the ShopRite where I find them locally only carries three. We use the Tikka Masala sauce most often. It is a mild curry sauce. Usually I add chicken and serve it over brown rice. But I did just notice that SoC has a recipe for Butternut Squash Tikka Masala on their website that looks intriguing.

In addition to Tikka Masala, there's nice Korma sauce, Jalfrezi, and Madras. We found the Madras sauce too hot for us. The Jalfrezi is referred to as a medium-hot curry sauce (as opposed to the red hot Madras and the mild Tikka Masala) and would probably be popular at my house. Too bad we can't buy it here! I also like the Korma sauce, which is a mild coconut curry. Unfortunately, The Girl is not a fan of coconut, so we don't have it often.

Each jar contains only 12 oz. of sauce, but stretches nicely with the addition of chicken. I think I remember the jar saying it contained three servings. We do tend to split it three ways here and have it as the main course of our meal. But it would go a lot further as a side dish if you have more mouths to feed. I don't consider this cheap; it goes for about $4.50 a jar. But it is really nice to have in the pantry for nights I either don't have time or energy to stand around in the kitchen. If you've tried similar healthy shortcut products, I'd love to hear about them!

Easy Cabbage Casserole

2010-04-04T20:30:00.000-04:00

This casserole is so easy. It's also healthy and the kids didn't complain at all. That makes it a new favorite for me. This recipe showed up in my inbox via Mary Hunt's Everyday Cheapskate newsletter. The full recipe info from the newsletter is below, including the original source info. But I made a few minor changes. First, I didn't have "quick-cooking brown rice." Actually, I didn't even know this existed. So I used regular brown rice. I put a cup of rice and a cup of water in a pan and brought it to a boil. Then I took it off the heat and poured the whole shebang in my casserole dish. Also, the recipe below calls for a small head of cabbage, about 1 1/2 pounds. I could not find a cabbage that small. The one I used was just over two pounds and I went ahead and used the whole thing. That made for a full casserole dish, but not too full. I meant to add salt and forgot. I think it would have helped define the flavors a little, but it was fine without. The recipe calls for a 10.25-ounce can of tomato soup. I used 14-something ounces and I think even a little more would have been even better, but I didn't add any water to it. Finally, I sprinkled the top with shredded sharp cheddar cheese and then after it baked I added a little more and mixed it in. The cheese was an excellent addition.

Unstuffed Cabbage Casserole

This is a simple version of stuffed cabbage rolls. If you're looking for a quick one-dish meal, try this one on a busy day. You'll be delighted to have a meal complete with a whole grain, protein and vegetable. You'll save time if you double the recipe so you can have plenty for leftovers.

1 cup boiling water
1 cup quick-cooking brown rice, uncooked
1 small head of cabbage (about 1 1/2 pounds)
1 pound extra-lean ground beef or ground turkey (7 percent fat)
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 can (10.25-ounces) low-fat condensed tomato soup*
1/2 can water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 2-quart covered casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Add 1 cup of boiling water and rice to the dish. Cover while preparing the rest of the ingredients.

Slice cabbage. In a large skillet that has been sprayed with nonstick cooking spray, stir-fry cabbage until limp. Add the cabbage to the casserole dish.

Brown meat with garlic and optional salt in the same skillet used to stir-fry the cabbage. Spread over cabbage.

Mix soup with water. Pour over all, and gently stir to mix. Cover and bake for 55 minutes or until rice is cooked and cabbage is tender. Serves: 4.

Note: One serving is an excellent source of fiber.
Nutritional Information:Serving Size: 2 cupsCarb Servings: 2**
Exchanges: 1 1/2 starch, 2 vegetable, 3 lean meat, 1/2 fat**Nutrient Analysis: calories 336, total fat 10g, saturated fat 3g, cholesterol 71mg, sodium 416mg, total carbohydrate 36g, dietary fiber 6g, sugars 6g, protein 27g
*Sodium is figured for reduced sodium.**Half of the grams of fiber have been subtracted from the grams of total carbohydrate when figuring Carb Servings and Exchanges.

Source: Quick & Healthy Volume II, © 2009 Brenda J. Ponichtera, R.D. Published by Small Steps Press, publishing health conscious books for the general population, a division of the American Diabetes Association; retail $18.95. To order call 1-800-232-6733 or visit QuickandHealthy.net. Also available at local and online bookstores.

Still Here, Still Trying

2010-03-29T17:59:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted here or even logged in to follow other blogs. I have been crazy busy with school, pounding out project after project and exam after exam. It's been overwhelming. And it has had an effect on our eating habits.

There have been good days, less-good days, and old life days. There haven't been too many old life days, though, so I haven't totally regressed. But I do know why it happened. I've been too busy. Avoiding processed foods means taking on a lot of food prep, which takes time. I have managed to find some all-real-ingredient shortcut foods at the grocery store. But not many- and who wants to eat the same three things all the time? I've also found myself making some compromises.

For the most part, I can live with a few compromises. Or, more truthfully, I'm just too busy right now to spend much time thinking about them. But it still irks me that the food offerings in this country are so out of whack that it is even necessary to wonder "would it be worse to pick up grocery store ground beef that's ethically bad or use that prepared stir fry sauce that's probably all kinds of bad for our health, so I don't go through the drive-thru which is definitely bad for our health?"

As a student of history, I recognize that the past is filled with multitudes of politicians who collected paychecks for bending with the wind, as well as a handful of individuals who stood their ground and had significant effects on history as a result. I am hoping that I will see, in my lifetime, an American politician take a stand for food safety, nutrition, and transparency- and win. Until then, I'll continue waging the daily battles in my kitchen, one meal at a time.

Real Food Challenge Week 2 Recap

2010-03-14T21:46:00.000-04:00

Well, this week has been difficult. I have had project deadlines out the wazoo and a touch of some sort of spring yuck. It never developed to a full-blown flu like I get each spring; but it was enough to slow me down. The combination of deadlines and yuck knocked me off my game a little bit. I did really well at sticking with the program for dinners. And I did a pretty good job of planning ahead for them as well. But lunches kicked my butt this week. We ate out several times because there either wasn't anything to prepare quickly for lunch in the kitchen,or because we were out when we were overcome by hunger. The Boy was loving it. But I was not. Yesterday I picked up stuff for lunches, so hopefully week 3 will not be as disappointing in this regard.

There is good news too. I picked up my first order from the new buying club. I am happy with the quality of the food. The eggs are better than those I have been buying a little more locally, and the chicken is half the price with a higher confidence level on my part with regard to the way it was raised.

Also, I finally got my seed starting shelf set up in the basement with the help of The Boy. I have to hide it in the basement because otherwise the naughty kitties who live here will curl up on top of my seedlings. Apparently, seedlings are tres comfy.

And last, but certainly not least, I lost four pounds since cutting back on processed foods. This is a minor miracle considering that the last several years have been filled with me doing exactly what the doctors said to do and steadily continuing to gain weight. Huh.

My goals for the coming week include continuing to work on meal planning and continuing the garden prep work if the rain lets up. I'd really like to get some seeds in the ground! I'll also start more seeds inside to transplant later. I'd like to try something new in the kitchen, but with so many deadlines looming it isn't likely to happen.

GAO Spanks FDA

2010-03-09T00:05:00.000-05:00

AOL News is reporting on a new General Accountability Office report that finds the Food and Drug Administration has "failed to ensure the safety of thousands of additives manufacturers put in what we eat." The GAO points to an exception to FDA rules, in place since 1958, that allows food companies to bypass FDA analysis by having the companies' own scientific panels designate their additives as "generally regarded as safe (GRAS)." You can read the rest of the story here.

Obesogens: Scary Stuff

2010-03-08T17:38:00.000-05:00

MSNBC is carrying a Men's Health article today that discusses "obesogens," a class of endocrine-disrupting chemicals. The so-called obesogens disrupt the function of hormonal systems and are believed by many researchers to lead to weight gain. Sources of these endocrine disruptors include "soy products, hormones administered to animals, plastics in some food and drink packaging, ingredients added to processed foods, and pesticides sprayed on produce." The article is an interesting, albeit scary, read. Check it out!

Real Food Challenge Week 1 Recap

2010-03-08T11:38:00.000-05:00

I've gotten off to a slow start in the Real Food Challenge running this month at Not Dabbling In Normal. I find myself missing a few aspects of last month's challenge at Nourished Kitchen. One of the things I find myself missing is the structure. So I've decided to adopt some of last month's structure for my personal challenge this month. Among the things I'll incorporate is the Monday Recap post. I thought I would enjoy the flexibility of NDIN's challenge more than I actually do. I think the reason for this is simply that, at any given moment, I am trying to juggle too many responsibilities. It gets overwhelming. I am serious about making changes in my family's diet. But I am also seriously time-restricted. It was nice to get a daily assignment last month, and know that every Monday I would have to fess up how I did during the week. NDIN is doing a "link party" today. But they also did a Friday recap. I'm not really sure if there is a regular check-in planned or not, so unless I figure out otherwise, I'll just plan to post a recap on Mondays.

That being said, I slacked more than I'm happy about this week. I also had tons and tons of schoolwork to turn in (I'm taking 15 credits this semester). On the upside, I did a better job about planning meals ahead of time and the meals I did plan were in line with our new diet. There were no disasters in the kitchen this week (woot!) and I'm getting into the swing of things with my new way of shopping. On the downside, the meals I didn't plan ended up not being great choices. They could have been worse; but they could have been a lot better.

In one respect, however, I got a "kitchen bonus" of sorts. This week was bulk trash week in my neighborhood. I scored an old-school 12 inch cast iron dutch oven that a neighbor was tossing. I'll post a picture when I've finished cleaning it up. I'm looking forward to trying sourdough bread in it.

I think my big lesson this week was my personal need for kitchen structure in order to stick to a healthy plan. I do a lot of winging it in life, with generally decent results. But the kitchen does not seem to be an area in which I can afford to wing it. That's useful information that, hopefully, I can translate into more success next week.

Also, FYI, the folks at Not Dabbling In Normal have posted a bunch of recipes this week, as well as some awesome photos. Go check them out. It's worth the click.

Speak Up. They're Listening.

2010-03-05T14:31:00.000-05:00

So, recently, I sounded off in a post here about my frustration with Safeway over a telephone survey I participated in, purportedly to improve my local store. I was so annoyed after the survey that I fired off an email to Safeway with my list of suggestions, none of which were covered by the survey. Among my complaints were things such as not being able to buy fresh, wild-caught salmon and the unavailability of unprocessed staples like beans and rice in bulk, or at least in sizes larger than a single meal. I complained that while regular milk got several cases that were always full, organic milk got only one case that was always near empty. And I mentioned that it would be nice to have the option of buying the "most sprayed" produce items in organic instead. In addition, I told them that my family tries to eat a "real foods" diet and that we have some food sensitivity issues that make buying groceries challenging in a store filled with processed foods.

This morning, I went to my local Safeway. The produce section is right by the entrance, so I always start there. The produce section at this store generally looks pretty good. But when I got to the little organics section in the middle, I was surprised to see it fully stocked. Usually it looks pretty picked over, with the middle pretty much empty.

Now, there are lots of aisles I generally skip and today was no exception. But there were still a bunch of changes that jumped out at me. In all the aisles I shopped, organic products were front and center. In some cases, the selection of organic products had increased. I brought home a couple new things to try and I'm so thankful they were available. I was stunned, however, in the aisle where I used to frown at the puny bags of dry beans. Not only are the dry beans now available in larger quantities, but also in a much wider variety! (Rice too, I think, although I was so amazed by the bean selection that I sort of drooled over them until it became awkward and then I scurried away to finish my shopping.)

For the first time that I can recall, I was able to buy fresh, wild-caught salmon in exactly the amount I needed. And while I didn't need milk today, I did notice that the organic milk case was fully stocked.

I can't claim that my one little email brought about these changes at my local store. And it probably didn't hurt that CNN linked to my blog a week after I posted my rant. But people, somebody is listening. So when you can't find real foods to feed your family at your local store, fire off an email and let them know. Post about it on your blog because these corporations employ software that pours through social media searching for what people are saying about them. I know they do because they trolled my blog after my rant.

Speak up. They're listening.

This post is a part of Fight Back Friday hosted by Food Renegade.

Putting The CNN Article In Perspective

2010-03-03T20:16:00.000-05:00

I had to give a lot of thought to whether or not I wanted to post on the CNN article for which I was interviewed. I was interviewed by Madison Park via phone regarding my participation in Nourished Kitchen's 28-Day Real Food Challenge. We talked for a long time about a range of subjects. So I was a little surprised to see that what she took from that conversation was essentially a Homeresque "Doh!" moment. Only a little surprised, though, because I knew going in that I was talking to The Media and that meant the rules were: 1) The Media can write whatever it wants, and 2)... well, no, maybe there's just that one rule.

Maybe it's because my training is in the Social Sciences, but I was disappointed that Park's article didn't delve a little further into why people were willing to go to the trouble to attempt this challenge. While it is true that the participants didn't know, going in, the depth to which we would be challenged (toss everything processed the first day?), it is interesting that so many signed on. And it's telling how many dropped out over time. Further, I would be willing to wager that nearly everyone, and quite possibly everyone, who finished the challenge "cheated" in some way. But why did they sign up in the first place?

I can only answer specifically for myself. But I suspect that many of the participants had become suspicious of the American food system. Movies like Food Inc. and authors such as Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver influenced more than a few participants. Some people were hoping for better health through better eating. And some people were motivated by a combination of factors. I fall into the last category.

For me, there are a number of factors. But one of them is my quest to see if I can manage rheumatoid arthritis with diet instead of drugs. It's only been a month, so I don't have an answer to that question yet. But so far, so good. And even if I ultimately go back on the RA meds, I have already learned a few things. I have learned that I have sensitivities to certain common food additives. And that one of the symptoms I experience when I eat "tainted" foods is an RA flare. I've also learned that cutting out processed foods for the past month improved my breathing, which is particularly interesting to me because I was not previously aware I was experiencing breathing trouble.

I'm all about moderation in life. I don't see myself ever completely giving up all processed foods. I might try making homemade pasta sometime; but I'll keep the whole wheat stuff in the cabinet. I don't grind my own flour. I would love to try that, but a grinder is not in my budget. So I buy whole grain flour. I didn't give up my morning coffee, although I did give up the sugar I added to it (most days).

For me, the shift to a new way of eating is a permanent commitment I have made, but the 28-Day Real Food Challenge wasn't. It was a challenge. It was an opportunity for participants to test themselves. No long-term commitment required. This seems to be an idea lost on some of those who entered comments at the CNN site. I suppose I studied the social sciences because it is the study of that which I least understand: why people do the goofy things they do. I can rationalize in my mind trying out a different way of eating for a month. But I can't rationalize anonymously entering biting criticisms of strangers on a website read worldwide, especially regarding matters of personal diet. How sad a life it must be to fill one's time with that. Let me suggest a different activity: take a good hard look at your own life, determine where improvement can be made, and take a step in that direction. Consider it a challenge.

For MaurenMotta.com.br Readers...

2010-03-03T09:16:00.000-05:00

Hi there! For those of you coming in from the link in the MaurenMotta.com.br article discussing Jennifer McGruder's real food challenge, Jennifer's website is Nourished Kitchen. I was interviewed in the same CNN article; however, the MaurenMotta.com.br summary of that article has confused the link to my blog with the link to Jennifer's site. But thanks for stopping by anyway!

Real Food vs. Obesity

2010-03-02T14:34:00.001-05:00

This morning, I read this article, which is all bad news, but worth a read anyway because it focuses on the problem of constant snacking among U.S. kids. Honestly, I don't think it's just American kids who have this particular problem. The article cites Michelle Obama's message to the School Nutrition Association that "parents, educators, and policymakers" share responsibility for the obesity epidemic among young people. But beyond that, the article doesn't really tackle cause of rampant snacking. And that's the real question, isn't it? Why do people feel compelled to eat constantly?

Well, I have a hunch. It stems from my experience, so far, shifting my family away from processed foods and toward real foods. And it is rooted in the knowledge that my family, too, used to snack all the time. Used to. Now, I can't claim that we never snack anymore. But this is an issue I've been paying attention to lately, in part because I was really worried, at the beginning of this real foods journey, what kind of snacks I could find to replace the processed junk. I need not have worried. As it turns out, preparing real foods has significantly reduced the desire to snack. We just aren't hungry that often anymore. I believe one of the key reasons behind this is the inclusion of healthy fats such as real butter and olive oil. I've stopped avoiding fats in favor of simply choosing healthy fats. The human body needs fats. Fat is in every cell membrane in the human body. Why? For one thing, it is necessary for the absorption of fat soluble vitamins A,D,E, and K. Maybe~ and it's just a hunch~ the desire to snack constantly stems from the insufficiency of processed foods to meet the needs of the human body. Seriously, what is the point of breaking down a real food into its constituent parts, farming out those parts to various places, reassembling them into pseudo-foods, and marketing that as food? Oh yeah, profit...

I dunno. Maybe the answer to the snacking and obesity quandaries is to eat more real food. Could it be that simple? It's just an idea. Note to Michelle: "parents, educators, policymakers, and food processors"

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday, hosted this week by Cheeseslave.

The Next Real Food Challenge

2010-03-01T18:57:00.000-05:00

I stumbled upon Nourished Kitchen's 28-Day Real Food Challenge at the beginning of February, just as I was making the commitment to myself to change how my family eats. It was an intense 28 days. I survived and learned tons! But as the challenge was wearing down, I started to worry a little about losing the support, information, and accountability I had come to depend upon in my first month of changing my family's approach to food. So I was really excited to discover another Real Food Challenge just getting started over at Not Dabbling In Normal. Where do I sign up? (here, actually) I'll continue my journey with these folks for the month of March. This challenge has each participant working at their own pace and appreciating each step in the right direction. So if you are new to real foods, this might be a good challenge to try as you get your feet wet. Pop on over to NDIN and check it out!

28-Day Real Food Challenge: Week 4 Recap and Beyond

2010-03-01T11:10:00.001-05:00

This week has been kind of crazy here. The whole thing sort of flew by me, with me thinking I was “failing” the final week of the 28-Day Real Food Challenge hosted by Jenny at Nourished Kitchen. But somehow, I actually did alright this week.

Day 22 was about choosing and preparing meat. My struggle to find grass-fed meat I can afford to buy has been a theme running through this whole challenge for me. As a result, I’ve scaled back how much meat I serve here in order to purchase meat in line with my ethics. I’ve developed the habit of always watching for a new source of grass-fed meat or a better price. And while I had never really had trouble preparing grass-fed beef, bison was a whole other matter. Last night, after much fretting and hovering with a thermometer, I prepared that much anticipated bison steak to near perfection. For me, eating meat with that much pink inside will take a little adjustment. But The Girl declared it delicious and everybody finished their serving. Progress! I tried to get a picture, but naturally, my camera told me to change the batteries and I decided to eat instead.

The animal proteins theme continued on Day 23 with a discussion of pork, poultry, and eggs from sources raised in accordance with the natural proclivities of pigs and chickens, which means access to grass, bugs, worms, etc. I’ve been buying pastured eggs and bacon for several weeks now and adore them. They’ve become my standard breakfast. I’ve struggled more than a little bit with the price of pastured poultry, but am slowly coming around. Pork is not really an issue here because, aside from my morning bacon, nobody here actually likes pork. However, if I have a chance to buy pastured-lard, I will give it a try.

Day 24 was all about preparing and using stocks and broths. This is where I really shined this week! I prepared both beef and chicken stocks, jarred them, and tucked them into the fridge for easy access. I am still learning all the ways to use them. But with one or two notable exceptions, nobody has complained about the foods I’ve prepared with them. I love the richness homemade stock adds to foods. Love it.

I was both looking forward to and dreading Day 25 and its discussion of offal. I don’t have much to report here. The Girl told me in unambiguous terms that she does not want to eat organ meats. I didn’t even have to ask The Boy. Honestly, I’m not thrilled about it either. But I have not given up hope. I need the right “entry” to this food group. I did include the miscellaneous chicken bits in the pot when I made stock. But that’s my only offal foray so far. I’ll experiment on myself when the kids visit their dad. Unless the smell drives me out of the kitchen.

Day 26 highlighted fish and seafood. I already was incorporating these into our diet, but was plagued by confusion over what is safe and what isn’t, what is sustainably/ethically harvested and what isn’t. I really, really appreciate the Seafood Watch guide to help me navigate this area.

Our assignment for Day 27 was to figure out how we can give back to the real foods movement. This assignment arrived the same day The Girl came home from a friend’s house and informed me she’d “schooled the neighbors” in real foods. Go Girl! As a Master Gardener, I already volunteer in my community helping people learn how to grow their own food. I’d like to also incorporate into my blog more resources for beginner gardeners who want to grow some of their own food. We also share resources we’ve come across, like Food Inc., with pretty much anyone. It makes a difference. For instance, after we watched that movie, I told my parents to watch it. They did, and have made a number of significant changes in their purchasing habits. They’ve also continued encouraging others to watch the movie.

Finally, Day 28 is about looking forward. I fully intend to continue buying and eating in line with all that I’ve learned during the last 28 days. I had made the commitment to change how we eat just before I stumbled, accidentally, onto the 28-Day Real Food Challenge just as it was beginning. I owe Sara at Plays Well With Butter for pointing me to this challenge. Thanks Sara! I’m so glad I joined! I have plenty to learn still and plenty of room for improvement. But I have also progressed more than I would have without this challenge to guide, support, and nudge me. Thanks Jenny!

Looking forward, things I plan to work on include planning ahead and perfecting my sourdough bread. We've cut way down on the amount of grain in our diet primarily because to do them right requires more work than I can muster. I'd like to add a little bit back. I still haven't made the sauerkraut I've been looking forward to, and I goofed with the cultured veggies I did make. After they started to discolor at the top of the jar, I decided to toss them. After spooning all but the last spoonful into the garbage disposal, I decided to have a tiny taste. It was good, and I wasted it! Note to self: patience really is a virtue. And then there's offal, which I'm working up to. Really. Check back and see.

Clarifying Food Goals

2010-02-26T15:52:00.000-05:00

When I started down the real foods path I had no idea what I was getting myself into. On the surface, it sounded pretty simple. Stop buying processed crap and replace that with natural whole foods. No problem. Well, let me tell you, ignorance truly is bliss.

Anti-nutrients? Phytic acid? SCOBY? Find a local farmer and grill him on pasture raising animals and organic practices. Learn to ferment foods. Learn to like fermented foods. Learn to freaking plan ahead.

Making a commitment to a real foods diet requires not just an ideological shift, but also an actual lifestyle change. It requires more time in the kitchen, at least initially and probably long term. It requires significant changes to one's shopping habits and significant up-front research time devoted to locating real foods. And it requires an ongoing food ethics conversation, even if that conversation takes place only in your own mind.

I have found myself debating the ethics of potential food choices from several angles. Produce is pretty easy. Is it organic? If it's not organic, is it one of the less-sprayed options? Is it local or relatively local? If it's not organic and not local is there something I could substitute?

Meat, however, has caused me some serious mental wrangling. My family eats meat and it doesn't look like that's going to change. I've been vegetarian and it's not for me. My kids have the option, but neither of them seem inclined that way. So, I try to make the best meat-buying decisions I can. And it's not that easy. Local pastured meat is pretty expensive. At least twice, and often three or four times, as expensive as grocery store meat. We have cut waaaay back on our meat consumption (and it was never as high as the "average") lately in order to be able to afford to purchase local, pastured meat. And while I am happy to support local farmers raising animals ethically, I am also more than a little pissed off that the values of the society in which I live have become so skewed that choosing to eat ethically equates to taking a financial hit for those of us who are not in a position to raise all our own food (which, I suspect, is most of us). Shouldn't the norm be ethical eating standards? If it was the norm, perhaps we could all afford to eat ethically.

And then, of course, there's the "eat local" dilemma. At this point in my food journey, I'm shooting for an 80/20 solution. If I can purchase 80% of my family's food from local sources, I'll be happy. There are just certain things I don't see myself giving up. For example, I live on the East Coast and have access to some relatively local seafood. But not Pacific wild-caught salmon. I'm not going to buy farm-raised salmon, so I'll continue to purchase the flown-in variety. And while I can grow and save my most-used spices and seasonings (basil, oregano, and garlic in my kitchen), there are plenty that are not produced locally that I don't see giving up (salt, pepper, vanilla...). I think I will eventually be able to procure more than 80% of my family's food locally; but for now, that's a number I can live with.

For me, the result of these mental food wranglings has been the slowly emerging outline of my personal food values.

1. My family's health and nutrition is foremost. So this translates into an emphasis on nutrient dense whole foods produced without harmful pesticides or other contaminants.

2. By necessity, my budget needs to come in second. But to stay in line with my first priority, this really translates into two possibilities: find less expensive foods that meet the above rule, or reduce our overall consumption. So far, I've done a little of both.

3. My next priority is to purchase local foods in keeping with the first two rules. I do this, incorporating my 80/20 philosophy on the matter. But another part of the "buy local" idea, for me, is to lobby for greater access to local foods. I've been back and forth in my mind about the role of grocery stores in the real foods/local foods movement. But I know for sure that my life would be simpler right now if I had greater access to local, ethically produced foods in my grocery store.

4. My last priority, due primarily to time constraints (but also, somewhat, to budget constraints) is to practice ways of food preparation that allow for optimal nutrient utilization. Mastering these new (to me) techniques is a huge time sink. For now, I can only test the waters and hope to slowly develop competence.

I'm sure other people's priority lists would be different from mine. And I'm sure I left out some important considerations. But for now, I'm comfortable with the way my ideas about food are evolving. This is where I'm at right now. Where are you?

This post is a part of Fight Back Friday, hosted by Food Renegade.

Easy Dinner: Salmon, Squash, Spinach

2010-02-25T20:04:00.000-05:00

Today, in the course of conversation, I was asked if I had any pictures of the food I've been preparing since starting the 28_day Real Food Challenge. (I'll leave it up to your imagination to determine what sorts of conversations can produce the question "Do you have any pictures of your food?" Actually, let's make a game of it! Post your guess scenario in the comments for a chance to win my undying gratitude.) Anyhoo... the question prompted the realization that, despite starting this blog in order to track and support my goal of shifting my family to a real foods diet, there are, in fact, few photos of food. Huh. I had to think about why that is a little bit, and the answer that came to me is because I've been sort of frustrated in the kitchen lately, so I suppose I haven't been inclined to record that in photos. I mean, seriously, how many photos of "I tried to make.... but this is what it turned out as...." do you want to see?

But tonight I fell back on an old favorite and am gracing you with this riotously exciting photo of it. I love yellow squash, much to the chagrin of The Boy. Don't ask me where this squash came from. I didn't even read the label to find out. Perhaps I didn't want to know. After all, I grew up calling this 'summer squash' and it is hardly summer in this hemisphere. I could eat this stuff all day cooked briefly in a little butter, salt, and pepper.

Spinach is another of my favorite. I will eat spinach almost any way you could think to prepare it. Except, possibly, souffle. The idea of a green souffle just seems wrong to me somehow. I'm not sure spinach is supposed to be that light and fluffy. I think of spinach as a 'workhorse' veggie, so spinach as a souffle seems kinda like putting a dress on a mule to me. But I digress... Tonight's version involved just a little butter and garlic.

The salmon, which I ordinarily would do in a pan but couldn't because the frozen piece of fish was too freaking long to fit in my pan- thank you very much Safeway, I had to do in the oven under the broiler. This recipe really works better in the pan. The salmon cooks on top of a bed of diced tomato with basil, garlic, and oregano (I admit it; it came from a can tonight), black olives, and diced onion. Usually I spoon the veggies over the salmon before serving, but I forgot because I was trying to remember to take the photo and apparently I can remember only one thing at a time. But! This way of preparing salmon is really yummy, so I highly recommend it!

Easy peasy. Just the way I like it. Now how about those scenarios?

Grocery Survey Rant

2010-02-24T09:48:00.001-05:00

Last night, I received a phone call asking me to participate in a grocery store survey. Initially I told the guy thanks, but no thanks. And then he said "Well, it would help improve your local store..." and I thought to myself "Hmm...what if it really did improve my local store?!" Ten minutes later I got off the phone totally annoyed. None of the questions on the survey had anything to do with issues that actually would improve shopping there for me. It's almost as if Safeway doesn't really want to know what it would take to do better. No, it's far easier to push the employees to improve their end of it- which is the gist of the line of questioning of the survey.

So this morning I shot off an email to Safeway, telling them of my frustration with the survey and outlining my suggestions for real improvement. Because honestly, the employees at my local store couldn't do a better job! The employees are great! It's the lack of selection of real foods that sucks so bad. It's a huge, huge store with nothing to eat inside it! I hope I emphasized enough how bitter I am about not being able to buy wild-caught salmon except in giant frozen packages that won't fit in my freezer, or tiny frozen packages that won't feed my family. How hard would it really be to offer fresh, wild-caught salmon? Seriously.

I think ShopRite will get my next email. They've started carrying pastured beef (yay!) that comes from Australia (huh?!). Two miles out of town there's cattle in the field, but the stuff they're offering is from Australia? According to travelmath.com, that's 9788 miles away. That's the best they can do? Really?

Have you contacted your grocery store about carrying more real food? Did you hear back? Tell us about it!

This post is participating in Real Food Wednesday, hosted this week by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

My Recipe Is A Finalist!

2010-02-22T22:17:00.000-05:00

My recipe for One Quarter Dipping Sauce is one of four finalists in Nourished Kitchen's February Clean Your Plate Challenge! You can check out all the awesome entries and vote for your favorite here.

Gorgeous And Edible...

2010-02-22T10:05:00.000-05:00

...and I don't have to do a thing to them.

Forelle pears

28-Day Real Food Challenge- Week 3 Recap

2010-02-22T09:53:00.000-05:00

This week has brought its' ups and downs for me in the 28-Day Real Food Challenge. But it has also made me aware of how close to the end of the month and thus, the Challenge, that we are. And the idea of coming to the end of this Challenge makes me a little bit sad. I have found that I really crave the accountability of having to check in each week, and the guidance of Jenny's daily emails, and the comfort of reading about my fellow participants successes and challenges.

After reflecting on the 14th and writing up our Week 2 reviews, we got back to business on Day 15 with primer in SCOBYs or, symbiotic colonies of bacteria and yeast. SCOBYs are involved in the creation of kefirs (water and milk), kombucha, and ginger beer. I hadn't actually heard of the so-called "ginger beer plant" SCOBY before, so I had to look that up. What I learned was fascinating! Our actual assignment was to get a culture and start brewing. Well, I've been looking for a local source for water kefir grains for a few weeks now with no luck. I did discover bottled kombucha at our "local" (not so local) natural foods store and bought a bottle. The results of that purchase were disaster and my Ode to Kombucha. I would really like to get some water kefir grains, so if you've got an abundance and would like to spread the wealth, please contact me so we can try to work something out!

The lesson for Day 16 was about preparing cultured vegetables at home. I was really excited about this part of Week 3. I like sauerkraut and have been looking forward to trying my hand at making some. But when it came time to prepare my first cultured veggies, I went looking for a recipe I thought the kids might enjoy too. You can check out this post see the Marinara-Style Cultured Vegetables I tried. Yesterday I tasted this experiment. It's definitely doing its thing, but also definitely not done. Also, after I tried it I had a brief but intense headache. I'm not sure if the two things are actually connected or not; but it seems possible.

On Day 17, our assignment was to try our hand at making yogurt at home. This is another assignment I was looking forward to. However, life got in the way of progress this week and I haven't done it yet. I did buy more milk yesterday, so hopefully I can get that going today.

Ditto for Day 18's assignment to make cheese. I plan to try my hand at the yogurt cheese first, after, you know, I make the yogurt.

Day 19 had me worried for a moment when I read that it was about neutralizing enzyme inhibitors in nuts and seeds. While I did buy grains to soak, way back in the challenge, I never actually soaked them. Or flour. Because, well, that requires more thinking ahead than I can generally muster in my fire-to-fire life these days. But I was reassured that nuts were not gone for good when I read that the nasties in nuts can be avoided by ditching the papery skins or roasting. Most of the nuts I use are either roasted or de-skinned. I was a little sad about pistachios until I double checked- yes! Those salted ones with their skins on are roasted.

So, the little high I got from not losing pistachios came crashing down on Day 20 when I read the assignment on soaking beans to neutralize phytic acid. It would be nice, for people like me, if I could soak a huge batch of beans and then re-dry them so they were available when needed. I haven't read anything about doing this yet, but I'm trying to keep hope alive. I have enough trouble trying to get more beans into our diet let alone trying to remember to soak said beans. So if anyone knows if I could soak a large batch of beans and then dry them in the oven (no dehydrator here) for later use, please let me know. My big worries about this idea are the possibility of decreasing nutrients and the possibility of decreasing keeping time.

I'm looking forward to Week 4 where we'll address meats, fish, and broths. These are areas I have struggled with a bit during the challenge. I've learned a lot so far, although I struggle with not being able to improve everything at once. I've had some big challenges in my life outside food this week. They've highlighted for me some of the things I'm really good at, and some of the things I'm really not good at. I hope to be able to incorporate that new enlightenment into my life so that I don't find changes such as this food journey to be quite so hard to adjust to; but in the mean time, I've discovered that when all else fails, I can type a question into the black box on my desk and answers will trickle in from cyberspace. How cool is that?

Thanks again, Jenny, for hosting this Challenge.

We Now Resume...

2010-02-20T22:05:00.001-05:00

... our regularly scheduled programming. Yesterday's special viewing of "The Meltdown" was brought to you by The Daily Stress of Life in conjunction with the Extraordinary Circumstances That Shook My Foundation. Your regular programming is brought to you thanks to the support of viewers like you.

So. Everything's cool here. Really. Yesterday, not so much...except...

I learned that if I holler into the void when things get rough, some special people will holler back. That's a pretty amazing thing. I am truly indebted to you.

The universe took pity on me too. The library got in touch to tell me that the only copy of Nourishing Traditions in our county system, that I had been at the end of the request line for only days before, had suddenly become available. So I sprinted over there to pick it up before they changed their mind. And I spent a lot of time with that book last night, and today. And now I see why people cherish it.

And then just before I went to bed, I got a reply to an inquiry I'd sent about a "buying club" that operates kinda-sorta close to me that would make raw milk/dairy a possibility. Plus, this club has significantly lower pricing on grass-fed/pastured meats than I have been able to find locally. I love these people already.

Also, a friend recently asked me if I'm a "visual" person and, while looking over the buying club price list, I realized that yes indeed I am. I really like (need?) to see things laid out in front of me. I'm am not so good with abstracts. So, while I'm not sure exactly how this knowledge will improve life, I feel hopeful that it is a clue and a tiny step towards better organization.

I hope your weekend is wonderful. I thank you for your encouragement when I really needed it. Now back to regular programming...

Comment Form Issues

2010-02-20T10:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, some people (including myself) had trouble submitting comments on my blog. I found that resubmitting after receiving the error message worked to get the comment through. I have no idea why this is happening or how to correct it, but I value your comments so please don't give up! If you just can't get the comment form to work, please email me here. Thanks!

The Trouble With Transition

2010-02-19T11:37:00.000-05:00

As this post is my entry in Fight Back Friday (generously hosted by Food Renegade), I feel I should warn you that it is written from the position of one who is shaken. If you conjure in your mind the image of a scrawny kid being suspended in the air by a hulking bully, the scrawny kid swinging like mad even though he knows he's about to be pummeled- that scrawny kid is at the point where I feel like I am today.

I shouldn't complain. Because relatively speaking, my family is doing pretty well shifting to a real foods diet. My problem is three-fold: I'm simultaneously shifting to eating real food and learning how to prepare real food, the local foods available to me right now are limited in scope and prohibitively expensive, and I can't afford screw-ups.

Because I never learned how to cook with real foods (with a few exceptions), I don't have a bank of tried-and-true recipes to substitute real foods into. So, every night's dinner is a game of chance. Last night I lost. Again. On the upside, I learned that nobody in my family likes scallops- except the dogs, who like them lots thankyouverymuch. On the downside, dinner's failure left us hungry and unsettled since nobody wanted any more fruit and there aren't any prepared snacks in the house. I need fallback possibilities! It probably sounds dumb to those who've been at this a while. But in my household, every ounce of my time is fought over by the myriad things to be done. I need to learn things that can be done cheap and fast that will be healthy and filling. And don't involve eggs or bacon, since I'm the only one who will eat them. *sigh* How do other single parents make this transition?

I'd really like to buy more local foods. But doing so presents a real dilemma for me. For example, I have in my freezer one .70lb local, grass-fed bison steak. It was $13.99/lb, so my steak cost me $9.79. I am terrified to cook this thing. If I screw it up I will have to beat myself. Twelve ounces of local-ish bacon...$6.79. Local-ish grass-fed but non-raw milk is about $6/gallon. The butter is roughly $5 for half a pound. (And who the heck is buying the $22 pastured chickens?!) If the rest of my bills didn't add up to so much, I would happily pay these prices. But I can't very well stop heating the house, or paying my friggin' property taxes (for which, apparently, I get my driveway packed solid with plowed snow).

Perhaps the most discouraging thing to me right now is the screw-ups. I know this is part of the learning curve. But I so can't afford it. I took a chance on the scallops. They were on sale. I love it when I can buy shrimp on sale. They keep well in the freezer, everybody likes them, and I know what to do with them. Seafood is so good for you, I was hoping to expand the offerings a little. But no. Even at the sale price, that loss stings. Recently, I even screwed up one of my old stand-bys- beef stew! How I managed I do not know. But I do know that $10 of local beef were in that pot and it was absolutely inedible. Surely this is one of the reasons the family cook fell for standardized industrial foods! I don't want to go back to that life, but ooh, the pain of transition.

You're probably wondering, by this point, what's up with the picture at the top of this post. That's what I miss. I miss my garden being open for business. I miss knowing that if I screw-up dinner, I can run out back and come back with a full meal in no time. I miss my garden being full of things I know how to cook (admittedly, because I don't actually have to cook most of what comes out of my garden).

My plan is to keep swinging and hoping not to get pummeled. I would welcome advice from those who have gone before me on this journey. What recipes do you fall back on? What real food snacks are popular at your house? How do you stretch the expensive ingredients? Enlighten me. Please!

Tiptoeing Into Cultured Vegetables

2010-02-17T11:42:00.000-05:00

One of this week's assignments in the 28-Day Real Food Challenge is to get familiar with cultured vegetables. Looking back, the only truly cultured veggie I can recall eating is sauerkraut. I plan to make some, but I know I'll be the only member of my household to eat it. So, I thought for my first effort, I'd try to find something that might...possibly...be eaten by all of us.

After a little web surfing, I found this post about making Marinara-Style Cultured Vegetables. I don't know if this will pass the pickiness test or not, but I decided to give it a whirl. I'll admit right up front that I had no intention of making the quantity this recipe is geared to make. So, I downsized and approximated. And skipped several of the first steps entirely. Here's what I did.

I shredded one beet, old-school.

To that, I added three shredded carrots and one small shredded onion. Why I shredded the onion, instead of just dicing it, I do not know. Shredding onion is neither easy not pleasant. Note to self... I also added the garlic/shallot/basil mix and the dry ingredients. Actually, I didn't have any marjoram so I left that out. And I didn't have fresh oregano, so I added dried.

I mixed the whole mess together, added some whey, and mixed it again.

The mix went into a quart mason jar, with a little extra distilled water since the veggies and whey didn't make quite enough juice. I topped the combination with a clean cabbage leave. It's job is to keep the rest of the stuff below the surface of the brine. If it starts to look like that method is causing trouble, I'll pull it out and try to come up with something else. I've heard of people using baggies full of water, but I'm not sure I want to put plastic into something that is supposed to ferment- so, cabbage leaf it is! Here's the end product.

I'd love to hear what combinations of cultured veggies you have tried, and especially if something was a hit with the kids.

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted this week by Cheeseslave.

Sourdough Goof

2010-02-16T19:59:00.000-05:00

So, last night I mixed up some bread dough with a dose of Grover, my sourdough. It sat overnight and rose nicely, though not excessively. I wasn't worried because it was progressing the same way the first loaf did and that one was yummy.

Everything went smoothly until about lunchtime when I set it in the oven, under the light, for the second rise. I didn't think to take a picture, but it looked like a normal blob of bread dough.

The kids and I had some errands to run. Just a couple. They shouldn't have taken very long. Really. But there was no parking. And then some yutz parked in the drive lane on a one-way weird shaped parking lot, thus requiring everybody else to back up the wrong way. And then we stopped at the library and got lost in cookbooks. You know, things happen...

So when we got home, this is what was waiting for me in the oven, which wasn't turned on- just the light was on.

I had debated leaving the plastic wrap on it in the oven, but was glad I had because the dough clung to the wrap instead of glopping all over my oven. I'm not really an oven cleaning kind of gal.

So, the decision had to be made- throw it out or throw it in to bake? I knew that long rises made for more sour sourdough. But having made only one loaf before this, I had no basis of comparison. So, I decided to go ahead and bake it. After I trimmed off the dough sliding down the side of the pan. After I did that, I got a better look at the depth of oops I was dealing with.

Yeah, I know... If you're a successful sourdough baker, I'm pretty sure you are holding the sides of your monitor and screaming "Throw it out and run away!!" If only you'd said it sooner! Here's what greeted me after baking...

The Girl was in the kitchen when I pulled this baby out of the oven. The conversation went something like this:

Me: Doesn't that look terrible?
Girl: It kind of looks like flooring.
Me: Can I quote you?
Girl: Yeaaah?...I guess...only if you mention I said it in the nicest way possible...

Sooo, being the adventurous type (cough), I sliced a piece off . It actually looked pretty good inside.

But it sooo, sooo wasn't good. It was terrible. Sour enough to make me cry if I forced myself to eat it. Which I didn't do. Because I'm absent-minded, but not stupid. The dogs like it though. I have no idea why. Brain damage maybe, from knocking their heads together all the time. Whatever the reason, they're welcome to it.

I had a little chat with Grover about this minor disaster. He swears it wasn't his fault. That I should have paid more attention to the rise time. I'd like to blame him for this goof. Thing is, I think he's right. We'll try again soon and see how it turns out.

Real Food Gardening Basics: Soil Testing

2010-02-15T23:21:00.001-05:00

Soil Testing

For our purposes here, there are three main points to cover about soil testing: how to do it, why to do it, and how to use the test results? We’ll tackle how first.

How do I soil test?

You may have seen home soil testing kits in your local garden center. The quality, reliability, and breadth of these kits can vary widely; so to have confidence in the accuracy of your results, why not let a professional testing lab handle the test for the same money? A web search or call to your local extension office will turn up several lab possibilities. But be sure to compare the specifics of each option. Fees vary, as do actual services performed. For example the labs recommended in my area charge anywhere from $5 to $18 and the specific nutrients tested for vary, but not necessarily in correlation to price! Your extension office may have a handout detailing the specifics of labs in your area.

In order to have your soil tested by a lab, you need to send them a sample. There is a “right way” to do this. When you’ve settled on which lab you’ll use, download any forms you need from the lab website and check to see if the lab or your extension office provides a sample bag. If not, you’ll need a zip lock bag.

To collect the soil sample, follow the instructions your lab provides. But the basic process looks something like this… Dig a slice of soil (plunge the shovel 6-8” into the soil, lift out, set the shovel close behind the cut and plunge in again) from several spots in the area you intend to plant. Mix the soil from all the slices together in a clean bucket, leaving out rocks, plant material, and other debris. Mix it really well so the sample you send the lab really represents the whole area you plan to use. Once the soil is well mixed, measure out about a cup and a half of soil. It should not be wet! If the soil feels like it’s got a lot of moisture in it, spread your sample on a plate to air-dry a bit before packaging it (don’t bake it). If the sample is dry, go ahead and pour it into either the sample bag you were provided or your zip lock bag. Seal the bag and follow the packaging and mailing directions on the form provided by the lab, but be sure to indicate on the lab form that the area you are testing will be a food garden. The recommendations you receive back could be very different if the lab thinks you are testing a lawn.

A short while after sending off your soil sample, you will receive back a report from the lab. Some lab reports are gussied up with colorful charts, but most look like something out of, well, a…laboratory (ahem). To the uninitiated, soil reports can seem as if they require a Chemistry degree to decipher; but honestly, they’re not that complicated.

Different labs may convey the information slightly differently. But all the reports will tell you about the levels of plant-available nutrients in your soils, provide amendment suggestions, and indicate your soil pH. Many will also tell you the level of organic matter in the soil sample, but some laboratories charge extra for this, so make sure you check this before sending in your sample. There may be other information in the report; but for beginners, the nutrient levels, pH, and organic matter readings are probably enough to tackle. Don’t be shocked if your report indicates that your soil sample contained only about 5% organic matter- this is about average. If your sample tests much lower than that, you’ll know you need to beef it up a bit.

Why should I soil test?

Your soil test report provides crucial information about the ability of your soil to support healthy plant growth. As mentioned in the first installment of this series, most foods humans eat can be traced back to the soil one way or another. Healthy soil produces healthy plants. The benefits continue passing along up the food chain. As a gardener growing some of your own food, you have a prime opportunity to make sure that your food comes from the healthiest soil possible. Your soil report provides lots of information to help you in that quest.

How do I use the test results?

Amendments

The amendment recommendations for your soil that you receive in your soil report are based upon the sample you sent in and the assumption that you will be growing a food garden. The recommendations will be presented as a number of pounds per thousand square feet. In order to correctly amend your soil, you will need to determine how many square feet of growing area you will be amending. If your plot is roughly square or rectangular, you can multiply the length measurement by the width measurement and be done with it. Other shapes will require a little more work to calculate.

As an example, let’s assume your garden plot is 20 feet by 20 feet. That’s a total of 400 square feet. That’s only 40% of the 1000 square feet your amendment recommendations are based upon. So, to figure how much you should apply to your plot, multiply the amount recommended in your report by 40%. To illustrate, if your report recommends 6.0 pounds of potash, that’s really 6 pounds per thousand square feet. For your 20x20 plot, you’ll only need 2.4 pounds. But remember, your results are based on the size of your plot. If your plot is 840 square feet, that’s 84% of the 1000 square feet; if it’s 620 square feet, that’s 62%.

Once you know how much of a recommended amendment to use on your garden space, you need to decide how you want to apply it. Commercial fertilizers, synthetic or organic, are widely available but are not the only options. A little independent research is in order here to ensure the product you choose is in keeping with your ethical framework.

It is important to understand that pH is a logarithmic and not linear measurement scale. In order to understand it, however, we can compare it to a standard number line of equally spaced marks with the center mark numbered zero, marks to the right of zero numbered in positive increments of one, and marks to the left of zero numbered in negative increments of one ( …,-2, -1, 0, 1, 2…). On our pH number line, we’ll use the same equally spaced marks; however, our center mark is numbered 7 and represents a neutral condition. The numbers to the left and right of 7 decrease or increase by one as on a standard number line, but they represent exponential changes in acidity or alkalinity. Numbers lower than 7 represent relative acidity, while number higher than 7 represent relative alkalinity. To illustrate the degrees of change, we can consider some common materials. If we compare baking soda solution, which has a pH of 8.4, with milk of magnesia, which has a pH of 10.5, what we need to understand is that we’re not really talking about a (more or less) “two point change.” The difference in alkalinity between the two is far more significant. Milk of magnesia is roughly one hundred times more alkaline than is the baking soda solution. If we then compare our baking soda solution (pH 8.4) with common vinegar (pH 2.4), the “six point” difference actually indicates that vinegar is one million times more acidic than the baking soda solution.

Different plants have different preferences with regard to pH; however, most garden crops are happy in the 6.0-7.0 range. Some notable exceptions are found among berries: blueberries prefer 4.0-5.0, blackberries 5.0-6.0, and black raspberries 5.0-6.5. So if you plan to grow berries, consider setting aside space for them outside your regular garden plot.

Soil pH has a lot to do with where you live. For example, much of the Mid-Atlantic has acidic soil, while areas such as Arizona and Utah tend to be alkaline. Reducing acidity is a fairly simple matter of applying agricultural lime. Your soil report will indicate an appropriate amount of lime to use, but remember that it will be expressed as pounds per thousand square feet and do the conversion to determine the actual amount for your plot. Alkaline soil is a little trickier to amend. Alkaline soils often have some limiting factor that needs to be addressed with more care than can be addressed here. If you find yourself with alkaline soil, consult the local extension office or a reliable local nursery for advice.

The importance of pH to gardeners is really twofold. The plants’ preferences are important. But pH also affects nutrient availability. As luck would have it, the same 6.0-7.0 range in which most vegetable patch plants thrive happens to also be the range at which most soil nutrients are most available. Pretty smart plants, huh?

Organic Matter

We discussed the types of matter that make up organic matter in the first article of this series, which you can find here. We will discuss the form that is perhaps most familiar to gardeners, compost, in more depth in the next article in this series- so we won’t go into it now.

Stay tuned… Next up will be compost and composting…

Ode To Kombucha

2010-02-15T17:51:00.001-05:00

Oh, Kombucha, what did I do to you?

You were elusive.

But I searched

until I found you

at the distant store

where I chose you

thoughtfully

and bought you

with joy in my heart.

The bottle

said

use caution when opening.

So I did.

And still

you attacked me

gushing

on my pants

and sweater

driver's seat

and car floor.

Oh Kombucha

you made me smell bad

like vinegar

and maybe flowers.

You made me

the butt

of children's jokes

and complaints

when I was

far

from home.

Oh Kombucha, what did I do

to you?
I wanted to
like you.
But

you are gross

and

mean.

28-Day Real Food Challenge- Week 2 Recap

2010-02-14T21:04:00.000-05:00

Well! I felt like quite the slacker in the Real Food Challenge this week after a grueling Week 1. This second week was more education, less to-do list. The easier pace was welcome here since we're still adjusting to the changes we made in Week 1.

The lesson for Day 8 was all about fats for high heat usage. The only oil on the list that I've been able to locate is palm oil, so that's what I've been using. At first, it seemed a little odd to scoop solid oil out of a container. But I find I actually like the palm oil. I would really like to try coconut, but have not been able to locate any sold near me.

Day 9's lesson was on resisting GMOs. This is an issue already near and dear to my heart. I had actually already sent in my letters on the GMO alfalfa issue.

On Day 10 we covered fats to eat raw. I'm using olive oil and butter. In fact, olive oil, palm oil, and butter are the only fats in my kitchen right now.

Day 11 brought instructions to bake some sourdough with the starter we started in Week 1. I had already done this the day before and eaten it with the dipping sauce I whipped up. (Oooh, so yum!) The bread turned out great, but the baking method needs a little work.

On Day 12 came encouragement to find real milk. Raw milk is illegal here. I would buy it if I knew who to ask (ssh, don't tell "the man"!); but so far, I don't. I have found local, grass-fed dairy products and feel good about buying them in the mean time. They are wonderful!

Finally, the lesson for Day 13 was about getting your bacteria. We frequently have yogurt and sometimes kefir (milk) in the house. I'd really like to try water kefir, but I haven't found anywhere local to buy some. Ditto for kombucha. I'm the only person in my house with a taste for sauerkraut- but I've been reading about making it and plan to give it a try. So I'm especially excited to find more about this is coming up next week in the challenge.

The 28-Day Real Food Challenge is hosted by Jenny at Nourished Kitchen. Thanks for all you're doing for us, Jenny!

Real Food Gardening Basics

2010-02-12T10:55:00.004-05:00

This is the first in a series of articles I am developing on the gardening aspects of real food. These articles are the abbreviated version of what may become an ebook. If you might be interested in such an ebook, please email me here and I'll let you know when it's available.

Soil

Food plants grow in soil. Understanding what soil is and how it contributes to food is important for anyone who eats, and especially important for anyone who endeavors to eat real food.

What is soil?

For the purposes of this article, we’re really talking about topsoil. Topsoil is a mix of solids, liquids, and gases in the form of minerals, organic matter, water, and air. The composition of topsoil changes constantly. Water runs in and out and evaporates. Organic matter breaks down and is used up. Healthy topsoil is dynamic.

In addition to these basic ingredients, topsoil is home to vast numbers of living organisms. Some such as moles, earthworms, and insect larvae, are easy to see with the naked eye. But most of the organisms in soil are microorganisms. They include organisms such as fungi, bacteria, and nematodes.

We’ll learn more about the organic aspects of soil when we get to the Compost article. But in the mean time, it is important to understand that all the parts of the soil serve special functions. If you consider the question “Which makes music, the musician or the instrument?” you’ll see that it’s not one or the other- they must work together to make music. I hope to show you how healthy soil is similar. Healthy plants are the product of healthy soils where all the parts are working together.

Soil solids

Soil solids include both mineral and organic matter. They provide the bulk of soil and the medium that holds water and air where plant roots can reach them.

Mineral solids include rocks, sand, silt, and clay and makes up roughly 45% of optimal topsoil. A soil’s texture describes the proportion of specific mineral solids in the soil.

Soil that is predominantly clay is often referred to as “heavy” soil. These soils retain a lot of water and are generally high in nutrients. However, the particles are packed close together leaving little room for air. Clay soils feel slippery or sticky when wet and can bake solid, and even crack, when dry. Amending clay soils will improve water drainage, allow for better root penetration, and improve the soil’s ability to support microorganisms.

The “solution” to clay-heavy soil is to add composted organic matter. Recommended amounts range from 3-8” inches deep across the surface area you intend to plant. This composted material should be dug or tilled into the top several inches of soil; however, going deeper than a shovel’s depth is not necessary.

Soil that is predominantly sand feels gritty and has low water- and nutrient-holding capacities. Sandy soil has the opposite problem from clay soil in that the spaces between the sand grains are too large, allowing water to drain away too quickly and offering little stability or nourishment for plant roots. Amending sandy soils will improve water retention and increase nutrient content.

The solution to sand-heavy soil is the same as for clay-heavy soil: composted organic matter. However, because sandy soil has little nutritive value of its own and poor particle adherence, a greater quantity of compost must be added over a longer period of time. Planning to incorporate a 2-3” depth of compost across the surface area you intend to garden, applied 3-4 times a couple weeks apart might be a good guide. It’s a lot of work up front; but after the initial garden building, maintenance should be pretty simple and pain-free.

Silty soil feels silky like fine ground powder or flour when dry and slippery when wet. Similar to clay soils, silty soil has small pore size and poor drainage. On the soil particle size spectrum, silt tends to fall between the super small size of clay particles and the relatively large size of sand particles. Silty soils are improved by the addition of compost; however, smaller quantities are generally needed than for either clay or sandy soils.

Organic matter soil solids include humus, biomass, and residues and by-products. Humus is organic matter that has completed the composting process and become stable. It is a complex and not yet fully understood substance, yet is vitally important to both soil structure and health. One primary function of humus is water retention. Biomass refers to the living aspect of soil and includes creatures ranging in size from microscopic bacteria to soil-dwelling vertebrates such as moles. The organisms that comprise biomass are responsible for breaking down residues and improving soil structure by creating tunnels that allow water movement and oxygen transport underground. Residues include un-decomposed dead plant material and creature corpses. By-products are substances that some plants and soil creatures release into the soil. Residues and by-products provide nutrients and energy to soil organisms and help hold soil particles together in clumps. Compost produced in the garden is often a combination of these components.

Gardeners rarely have soil composed of only clay, sand, or silt. However, the relative proportions of these materials suggest whether or not a particular garden site needs to be amended to provide better soil structure and if so how. Soil with a good mix of clay, sand, silt, and organic material is called loam. Loam is the gardener’s goal.

Soil liquids

The liquid component of soil is called the soil solution and is composed of water and dissolved materials. The soil solution is where plants obtain nutrients. An important aspect of soil solution is pH.

pH is a scale from 0 to 14 that indicates whether a soil solution is neutral, acidic, or basic (alkaline). A neutral pH reading is 7. Acidic readings are less than 7, while basic readings are greater than 7. Most garden vegetables prefer a pH between 5.5 and 7.5, but it’s a good idea to consult a pH chart regarding the specific plants you intend to grow because, to a plant, that two point spread is sometimes pretty significant. Home pH test kits are available, but pH is also tested as a part of a regular soil test which would also provide information about nutrient content, as well as amendment recommendations. Some garden centers, and all extension agencies, can either provide you with a soil test or help you get one.

Soil air

The air in soil is pretty similar to atmospheric air, with the exception that soil air contains a bit higher concentration of carbon dioxide and a very slightly lower concentration of oxygen. One of the main reasons for this difference is that the soil is teeming with living creatures that take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. Because oxygen moves into the soil and carbon dioxide moves out of the soil through tiny pores, the exchange happens somewhat slower than the conversion taking place in the soil. Plants adapted to growing on well-drained soil also require oxygen for their roots to survive.

Why do I need to know this?

Gardeners need at least a basic understanding of the components and workings of the soil because soil is plants’ life support system and every change humans make to the soil affects the health and productivity of the soil and the organisms dependent upon it. Humans are one of those dependent organisms. Most foods humans eat can be traced back to the soil, with the partial exception of things like seafood (although it’s all connected, thanks to nifty things like the water cycle and erosion).

Next up… More on soil tests and composting…

This post is my entry for today's Fight Back Friday hosted by Food Renegade.

Better Sweet Potatoes

2010-02-11T14:29:00.000-05:00

Nobody in my house is a fan of sweet potatoes. They are just too darn sweet! But despite the general lack of enthusiasm, I continue to try sweet potato recipes we'll like (or at least eat) because they are so darn good for you. These were so-so with the kids, but I really enjoyed them. The sweet is balanced with spicy and everything is enhanced by a little salt. This just made it to my top two favorite sweet potato recipes- and of the two, this one's actually pretty healthy. I followed Becks' recipe for Chili Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges which you can find here at Delish. She's got better pictures and the full (but still easy!) directions, so go check it out!

One Quarter Dipping Sauce

2010-02-10T19:14:00.004-05:00

** If you have arrived here after attempting to vote for this recipe, please check back with Nourished Kitchen as it appears there may be a problem with the voting mechanism. Also, thanks so much for your vote!!**

This is my very favorite way to use olive oil. It's easy, healthy, and addictively tasty. This version has a little heat from the garlic and red and black peppers; but it's a simple matter to adjust for your own tastes. The following recipe makes a small quantity because I'm the only one who eats it at my house; but you can scale up or down both the spices and the oil. Letting the spices steep longer in the oil before use will also strengthen the flavor. Here's how I do it.

One Quarter Dipping Sauce

1/4 teaspoon salt (I use Real Salt)
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon rosemary (I used dried today, but you can also steep a twig of fresh for a bit and then remove)
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
chopped fresh basil to taste
chopped fresh garlic to taste

Combine the dry spices in a bowl. Ordinarily, I would use a sprig of fresh rosemary and not add it until the oil was mixed in. But because I used dried rosemary today, I added it with the other dried ingredients.

Next, add in your chopped basil and garlic and toss the ingredients together. This will get the salt working on the garlic and basil.

Add in the olive oil and stir well to combine. You can use it right away, of course, but the flavors meld together nicely if it sits a little while before using.

If you are participating in the 28-Day Real Food Challenge over at Nourished Kitchen, this dipping sauce goes great with the sourdough bread you can make from your new starter! Enjoy!

This post is my entry in Nourishing Kitchen's Olive Oil Clean Your Plate Challenge and is also my entry for Real Food Wednesdays hosted this week by Kelly the Kitchen Kop.

Food Crime & Punishment

2010-02-08T20:29:00.001-05:00

I hate to admit, one week into the Real Food Challenge, that I screwed up big time. But I did. It was, after all, the Super Bowl. I allowed each of us to choose a forbidden food to enjoy during the game. The boy chose his weird faux cheese things and the girl and I had Cool Ranch Doritos. This was a mistake.

In my former life I enjoyed this same snack numerous times. But apparently my body didn't and I just never realized it. Now that we've been off the junk for a little while now, my body put its foot down in no uncertain terms.

I had prepared a hearty, real foods dinner. None of us really ate all that much of our snacks. But the little I did have was enough to trigger a really bad time. Shortly after I gave up on the Doritos, I realized that the roof of my mouth was covered in blisters. Huge blisters. Painful blisters. Then, my medication free joints- which had tolerated shoveling snow just fine- kept me awake until, very early this morning when I gave in and took an anti-inflammatory. The joints are mostly over their tantrum tonight. But the roof of my mouth still feels like I just this minute bit down on a way-too-hot slice of pizza. Lesson learned. And let that be a lesson to you! Rating: not edible!

28-Day Real Food Challenge- Week 1 Recap

2010-02-08T01:03:00.001-05:00

A few days ago, after stumbling into Sara's blog where I read about the 28-Day Real Food Challenge going on this month at Nourished Kitchen, I moseyed on over to NK and joined the Challenge myself. Little did Iknow what I was getting myself into!

The challenge for Day 1 was to clean the pantry, fridge, and cupboards of all processed foods. I will admit right now that I did not toss everything with processed ingredients because my family is just beginning to change to a real foods only diet and I don't think we'll stick with it permanently if we go cold-turkey and then get frustrated. Also, I just can't afford to replace a lot of food at once. However, I did toss a whole bunch of stuff. The pictures show most of it.

Much of the stuff I threw out was stuff that has been lingering unused in the cupboards or fridge for quite some time. But others, like the oil and sugar, will be missed. For most of this week, I have been relying on olive oil and butter. I can't find coconut oil locally. But one of the grocery stores has palm oil, so I picked some up today.

Day 2 brought the challenge to choose wholesome foods. Fortunately, I already had on hand quite a few things that fit this bill- whole, organic milk and real butter; fresh fruits and vegetables; olive oil; nuts; and whole meal flours. I've been working on incorporating these foods for some time. My biggest challenge has been to learn ways to prepare these foods without incorporating processed adulterants.

The challenge for Day 3 was to improve your grains by soaking them. The goal is to reduce the effects of the phytic acid present in the grains in order to improve absorption of the grains nutrients. Well, this was a head-scratcher for me as I'd never heard of this before. But it is intriguing and I fully intend to try it! I don't have any whole grains on hand yet and I was too wussy to soak a bowl of flour until I had a better idea of what exactly to do with it. I'll read up on this as I'm able and then give it a whirl. Please feel free to recommend reading material!

Day 4 was my favorite challenge- to start a sourdough starter! Yum! Because I joined the Challenge a few days late, my starter is not ready to use yet. But it is coming along beautifully and smells great! I am a firm believer in the tradition of naming sourdough starters (it's harder to forget to feed something with a name), but I haven't yet settled on a name for mine. Here's what mine looks like now (sorry, picture's a little fuzzy).

The challenges for Day 5- sprout your grains- and Day 6- mill your own sprouted grain flour- will have to wait until I can get some grain. Also, I don't have a grain mill or a dehydrator and they really aren't in the budget. I'll probably try the wet-milled method suggested as an alternative, but I only have a teeny-tiny food processor and no blender. I'll give it a whirl (sorry!) and see what happens.

Overall, I'm happy with my progress this week. I was afraid I might feel guilty for not going cold-turkey on all processed foods as instructed on Day 1; however, I really haven't because I know it would increase my family's chance of failing at permanently changing our diet. It is really important to me to succeed at this, both for our long-term health and for a more immediate purpose. Several years ago, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. I have been taking multiple medications every day since then. And it really pisses me off.

Over the years I had become very suspicious that my RA and other health issues were diet related. It wasn't until I read Pollan's nutritionism rant in In Defense of Food that it all came together in my mind. That epiphany felt like an idea that had been trying to fight its way out of the back of my mind finally broke through. My initial goal was to be off RA meds and feeling fine by the end of 2010. But, when one of my meds was due for refilling a few weeks ago, I just said "no more". I had no idea what would happen. When I first started the meds, I could barely walk the pain was so bad. The first few days I was sore, but not awful. But I was changing my diet, drastically, at the same time. I have been amazed by how good I have been feeling already. Yesterday and today I shoveled massive (!!!) amounts of snow and I really don't feel any worse than anybody else who spent two days shoveling. And that's after I gave up the second medicine too. It will be interesting to see how this experiment progresses. Meanwhile, I'm really looking forward to the rest of the 28-Day Real Food Challenge.

Snow Day

2010-02-07T08:09:00.001-05:00

I took a snow day from posting yesterday due to "Snowzilla." This picture is the view out my front door. All that arrived Friday night through Saturday. The hairy looking mess of twigs to the right? That's a japanese maple that is just hating life right now. The random green bits dead center? My rosemary plant. The two tiny twigs just below and to the left of that red truck? Rose bush, desperately attempting to send up a flare. The snow depth mid-ground to the left of the rosemary is actually how deep it is from the ground up. There was a little drifting, but there's still at least 30 inches of snow out there. I had to force open the back door and shovel a trail to the yard for the dogs. The snow out back is deeper than our golden retriever is tall. I love snow. But man, we did lots of shoveling yesterday!

Sourdough Starter

2010-02-05T00:47:00.001-05:00

Isn't it adorable? Thursday's assignment for the 28-Day Real Food Challenge is to start or otherwise acquire a sourdough starter. No directions were included so, although I knew the basic idea behind sourdough, I hit the web for instructions. There are lots and lots of instructions out there and no two are the same! Ultimately, I stumbled into this article from Eric at breadtopia.com (which, though I haven't fully explored it yet, looks to be a great resource for those who'd like to bake their own bread).

The method Eric demos, in both article and video form, is incredibly simple- but surprisingly includes pineapple juice. The purpose of the juice is to create the right level of acidity in the culture for the yeast to start working. If you are interested in the science behind that- and it really is fascinating- Eric mentions in his post that Debra Wink, the discoverer of this method (a chemist and baker), had sent him an essay on the topic that he would forward on upon request.

I didn't get my starter started until the middle of the day. Even so, several hours later when I stopped by to check on it there was already action. When I initially combined the ingredients, the starter looked similar to the picture above. When I checked on it later, the picture below is what I found. It appeared to have already started fermenting a bit as there was what appeared to be a bit of hooch (alcohol resulting from fermentation) on top. I stirred the mix (resulting in the above photo) and set it back safely on top of the fridge.

Starting sourdough starter from scratch is apparently a pretty tricky thing. The failure rate appears to be high. After reading Debra Wink's essay on the subject I have to wonder if perhaps many of those failures are not actually failures, but rather people tossing the starter before the yeast they want really get going. When not using the pineapple juice method, other bacteria get working before those desired by the bread baker. Ultimately, the initial bacteria turn the starter too acidic for their own survival, paving the way for our yeast to take off. It's an amazing journey that also happens work out beautifully for humans.

Cookbook Review: Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals

2010-02-03T20:21:00.000-05:00

I imagine that someone, anyone, reading my blog would come to the part where I saw that I never learned to cook and would roll their eyes. The thing is, there's more to it. I can pop open a book and follow directions as well as the next girl (or guy). The problem is that about three out of four times, things just don't turn out the way they were supposed to. Either that or I have a heck of a knack for picking the worst recipes ever. So, I don't buy cookbooks. I borrow them from the local library. Tonight I tried out Tom Valenti's Soups, Stews, and One-Pot Meals. Let me tell you, this is a winner!

I was in the mood for something special, but something in keeping with my pursuit of living processed-food-free. The recipe I made was Simmered Shrimp Saute with Shiitake Mushrooms and Scallions. The directions were clear. The ingredients were common, with the possible exception of capers. I happened to have some in the fridge, so I was in luck. I didn't keep track of how long it took me to prepare this meal. I would say this isn't a super fast recipe, but also not one that takes a long time to prepare. The longest part for me was peeling the shrimp. If you find peeled butterflied shrimp you are home free. And the taste! Rich with a sophisticated melding of flavors, but not over-the-top. The recipe says it serves four. I divided it between the three of us and it was too much. I would say this serves six.

I suspect this cookbook would be a good one to have on the shelf as a go-to when preparing something special for company or special occasions. But a number of reviewers on amazon.com said they use this cookbook frequently. If the majority of recipes in the book are comparable in taste and prep time, I might actually buy this book.

28-Day Real Food Challenge

2010-02-03T11:08:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, without knowing entirely what I was signing up for, I joined the 28-Day Real Food Challenge hosted by Jenny at Nourished Kitchen. Doing so seemed like a good way to remain accountable right from the start of this exciting yet daunting process of getting my family off processed foods. The challenge is laid out like this:

Each day, for the entire month of February, you’ll receive an assignment that will help you learn about the principles of a nourishing diet including the importance of grass-finished and pastured meats, wholesome fats, sprouted and soured grains and probiotic foods.

That all sounded good, so I continued reading.

Learn how to stock your pantry, how to source wholesome foods, how to reduce costs, hot to mitigate antinutrients naturally present in certain foods and how to improve your diet step-by-step through nourishing, real food. Simple as it is, the 28-day challenge is designed to walk you through a transition into real food one step at a time.

Alrighty then! Where do I sign up?

Well, let me tell you... That first step is a doozy. Jenny has us boldly stepping right off the cliff and into the void. When I read the Day 1 instructions to "remove all processed foods and foods containing those ingredients from your kitchen" I thought of that commercial for some stop-smoking aid where the guy is inexplicably on top of a building contemplating stepping off the roof, and when he does take that step, the stop-smoking aid's manufacturer has kindly made available "invisible" steps that lead him safely to the more stable street level. I started to worry. Who is this Jenny anyway? How confident am I that she really has a series of sturdy invisible steps that will lead me safely back to solid ground? Jenny has clearly been studying corporate America and has mastered the concept of 'first get them hooked- then drop the whammy."

I'll be honest with you; even though my family has already been moving toward a diet free from processed foods, I broke out in a cold sweat before I even opened my cupboard cabinets. Realizing that this challenge has hundreds of other participants, I started surfing their blogs to see how closely they were adhering to this requirement. I found a really mixed bag. Some people are making allowances for spouses, parents, or other roommates.

For me, the issue boils down to two questions: Can I afford to summarily toss and replace these banned foods? and What the heck will we eat until I can replace the banned foods? (We're talking hungry teenagers here!) The answer to the first question is a resounding "No." And the answer to the second question is "I have no idea." So, I was happily surprised to log on this morning and find this advice from Terri at Simply Basic: “Just take baby steps and you will do just fine. Don’t try to change everything overnight.” And that is exactly what I plan to do. Thanks Terri, for the right advice at the right time!

An Affair With Real Food

2010-02-02T16:30:00.000-05:00

After a night of sleeping on it (okay, right off the bat I’m lying to you: the dog was ill and vocal and nobody was sleeping; he’s fine now, and sleeping, while I’m here trying to force my eyes to stop crossing), it occurred to me that I should give you a better idea what you’ve signed up for.

I am shooting for nothing less that a total overhaul of my family’s eating habits from processed-foods-dependent to processed-foods-free. And I need to do it on a seriously limited budget. That’s a pretty big challenge. But wait, there’s more! I also need to learn to cook. Don’t misunderstand… I’ve been feeding myself and my family for years. I have pots and pans and various utensils and the mess in my kitchen as proof that I actually use them. The problem is that I never learned to cook from scratch. Plus, I grew up in an era of handy-dandy kitchen shortcut products, almost none of which, it turns out, are good for us. I suspect I have a lot of company, judging by my voyeuristic forays at the grocery store.

The magnitude of the change I needed to make started to gel in my mind while reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Clarity showered me from above as I made my way through Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food. And the film Food Inc. firmed my resolve. But unlike Kingsolver, I don’t have 40 acres, a spouse, and a best-selling author’s income to support my efforts. And unlike Pollan, I don’t live in the Berkeley/Bay Area “land of food opportunity”.

In addition to money, my plan faces other limitations. My local grocery stores have decent, but limited selections of affordable fresh produce. Much of it comes from far, far away and lacks sufficient taste to warrant buying and eating it. The organic sections are of good quality though uniformly meager. In season, locally grown fresh produce is available, but is of surprisingly slim variety. We do have year-round availability of local, somewhat pricy, grass raised beef, pork, and lamb. Recently, I’ve seen whole local chicken as well- but at twenty four bucks a bird it is well outside my budget. And we have access to expensive but really exceptionally yummy dairy products and eggs.

Since buying my own home, I have been vegetable gardening in season. But I have yet to produce enough produce to have some put by for the off seasons. We’ll work on increasing yields and learning to preserve our harvest this year. But at this point I can’t count on growing all our own produce, or even most of it.

And then there’s time… It’s a really nice thing to be able to open the freezer and pull out individual chicken tenderloins all ready to throw in a stir-fry. But guilt and disgust over the production of that chicken is pushing those convenient tenderloins off my plate. So far, I’ve found no local, ethically raised alternative. As I examine what and how we’ve been eating, I find numerous similar examples of quick and easy ingredients that ultimately are far more costly than I realized, either ethically, health-wise, or both.

Oh, and one last thing… I hope to do all this well enough that my family won’t miss the processed stuff. I want us to enjoy real food so much that we don’t want to go back to our tawdry past. I want to be able to say “Remember when I made that great stew?” and hear back only the groans of delighted remembrance.

Is that asking too much? I don’t think so.

And So It Begins...

2010-02-02T00:26:00.001-05:00

Forgive me, dear reader, for hauling you into this messy affair. I just don't think I can manage it alone. The last decade or so my relationship with food has been a shambles. It was an insidious descent, slow and steady, until one day I found myself standing in the grocery store, incredulous at the realization that there was nothing there I wished to eat.

But eat we must, so life continued more or less unchanged as I struggled to make sense of what felt like a lost love. If only I'd been paying attention! The problem was a lost love. I missed the perfect peaches straight from the tree and strawberries still warm from the sun- foods that made even the dullest days of my childhood summers memorable. The complex tastes of a long-simmered pot of stew were long gone.

For years, I wandered glassy-eyed down isle upon isle of box upon box of foods that seemed to all be variations upon the same ingredients, none more palatable than the boxes they arrived in. Industrial food bored me. This frustration was compounded by three things: a rising fear that industrial food did not adequately feed the body; the dawning realization that it didn't feed the soul; and the embarrassing, inexplicable, and frustrating knowledge that I'd never learned how to prepare real food.

So... I set out to educate myself. And now it's time to develop the skills of sustenance. It's daunting to try to make up for decades of missed knowledge. And my recent efforts at preparing real food, sans prepared ingredients, have been hit and miss. Somewhat more miss than hit, truth be told. It would be easy to cut corners. And that's where you come in- accountability. I earnestly desire a happy, healthy relationship with food for myself, and for my children. With you checking over my shoulder, I know I can get there.