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The Good Stuff is Worth It

Mar 9th, 2013
by sophie.
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At one of the sessions at the CT NOFA Winter Conference 2013, the topic of the high price of good food came up. It turns out that when people know what they are getting and why, they accept the premium on high-value foods. High-values foods are those that were raised and processed in a clean and sustainable manner, where nutrition and taste are the priorities.

CAFO

Unhappy Cows

For over 50 years, Americans have been the lab rats in the great processed food and high-volume farming experiment. If you look at our health record in that same time, you’d have to conclude the experiment was a failure. We now have an unnatural relationship with food, know next to nothing about where it comes from, or even what qualifies as food. As it happens, animals raised in close confinement are bad for you and fat obtained from these animals is bad for you too. Animals slaughtered in facilities that process thousands of animals a day have a statistical probablility of introducing a food-borne pathogens into the line so they take remediation measures (such as washing the meat in ammonia) that may not be good for us either. When you factor in the health and environmental costs of cheap food, it’s significantly more expensive than the expensive food!

For over 50 years, we let corporate shills dressed as scientists tell us:

  • Fat is bad. Animal fats are especially bad and vegetable fats (like Canola oil) are better.
  • Cholesterol is bad.
  • Skim milk is good.
  • Light anything is good; Full-fat anything is bad.
  • Lard is bad. Crisco and margarine are good.
Pastured

Happy Cows

People are starting to challenge these assumptions. Many are returning to the methods that sustained humankind for over 10,000 years. These methods contradict the current food and nutritional “wisdom.”

Little by little, we are finding our way back to the foods and food plans that nurtured us. People are putting by (canning, freezing, dehydrating) their own provisions from known sources. People are returning to bone broths and rendered animal fats. People are returning to foods they can make in their own homes. People are buying chickens from farmers whose practices they know so that they don’t have to do an anti-nuke anti-backterial lockdown afterwards. The home town butcher is returning! (Check out Saugatuck Craft Butchery in Westport, CT and Butchers Best Market in Newtown, CT.)

There’s so much to know and it can be daunting trying to figure out where to get started. Here are a few links to the front runners of traditional foods. These people and organizations advocate making bone broths, and rendering their own animal fats for use in cooking, and using the whole animal.

  • The Weston A. Price Foundation is a nonprofit, tax-exempt nutrition education foundation. Of special note is this article, The Oiling of America.
  • Sally Fallon is the President of Weston Price Foundation. Her cookbook on traditional, nutrient-dense foods is worth a read, even if you don’t cook! She also made a video discussing the oiling of America.
  • Cheeseslave is an advocate of healthy traditional foods, full fat dairy, and against the anti-cholesterol hype. Her site has recipes, tips, and news for people who want to eat real food.

I believe it’s the modern pseudo-foods like margarine and soy milk and convenience foods full of additives, pesticides, and MSG that are making us sick. Full-fat dairy and other traditional foods have been sustaining humans for millennia. And that’s good enough for me.

  • Food Renegade is an advocate of healthy traditional foods. Her site has recipes, tips, and news for people who want to eat real food as well.

I am a rebel. I like to eat red meat. I think butter is good for me. I drink my milk raw. I avoid pre-packaged foods like the plague. I don’t believe the health claims on food labels. And, I like my food to be fresh, wholesome, and traditional.

This list is by no means exhaustive—it’s meant to be a starting point. Feel free to share other sources in the comment section.

Happy reading and happy eating!

Chocolate Chili

Jan 6th, 2013
by sophie.
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I really like this chili recipe! It’s a great winter meal and the flavors are incredible. I like that it’s so easily adaptable to local sources and it’s perfect for using up the foods I put by for the winter. (I really do need an upright freezer!) It’s also an easy and fun recipe to change up a bit each time, based on my mood and what’s on hand.

This time, I swapped out the jalapenos for a poblano pepper and added a bell pepper and swapped out the maple syrup for honey. I left out the beans. Last week, I got chipotle bacon at the farmer’s market and that worked out excellently in this dish.

Sources:

I wasn’t in the mood to bake the corn bread, so I just had corn instead. I really do prefer having my corn in the winter! It seems like there’s so much of it and I take it for granted in the summer, but nothing brings back the bounty of summer like hot buttered corn in January!

This is not a “challenge meal.” For the first time since I became a locavore, I’m not participating in a Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. The regular challenge isn’t running this year (though there is a small group from another region doing their own thing). I will still be eating locally throughout the dark days but actually, finding local food in the winter no longer the challenge it once was. I am lucky to have many nearby farms and farmers markets that go through the winter. Meat and dairy are easy to come by in these parts. And I collected and put by enough veggies and those “ancillary items” you need to make soups, stews, one pot slow-and-low meals (like tomatoes, onions, garlic, and herbs). The challenge remains cooking from scratch while living and working in the 21st century!

I did come across the Pantry Challenge, which is about using what you have before you go out and buy more stuff. I like the idea of using up the things I put by and clearing out the freezer to make space for the new season. Truth be told, I still have a lot of food from last year in there. (Cut me some slack—it’s a chest freezer and I have to empty it out to find anything! It’s not like I haven’t been pining for an upright freezer for like forever.) Since I found this challenge a bit late and it isn’t exactly what I’m looking to achieve, I’ll be doing my own little “use up my stuff” challenge.

In fact, the corn, tomatoes, and poblano pepper I used in tonight’s chili are from my 2011 collection!

Southern Region Eat Local Challenge

Dec 29th, 2012
by sophie.
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The folks formerly known as the Southern Region in previous Dark Days Eat Local Challenges are keeping the challenge going this year! AnnieRie Unplugged has a post up about it.

Generally in these challenges, you prepare one local meal per week and post about it on your blog, citing your food sources. Usually, participants declare their “exceptions” at the outset, for example spices, sugar and other things that don’t grow in their region.

While it’s no longer a challenge for me to eat locally (daily, even), I think it’s fabulous that people are keeping the challenge going to show the folks just starting out that it can be done and how.

The secret to a successful Dark Days Challenge is putting by (preserving foods) in season. (Okay, that’s not really a secret—our forebears did it for generations!) Meat and dairy are generally available through the winter and ingredients like herbs, garlic, onions, and tomatoes go a long way for soups, stews, pot roasts, and many other winter dishes. When that summer CSA is inundating you with greens and other veggies, cook them up and freeze them. There’s nothing like buttered corn in the middle of January to make you feel summery all over again!

Still, if you didn’t plan in advance (like I didn’t my first year, since it just sort of came up), you may be surprised at all of the foods you can find in your local foodshed and just how resourceful you really are.

Good luck to all the challenge-takers!

Local Thanksgiving 2012

Nov 24th, 2012
by sophie.
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A happy tradition of a Thanksgiving of local food continues at my house…

Appetizers

A number of these items were put by in season to be enjoyed now.

Soup

Chicken soup with bowtie pasta or brown rice. Chicken from Sankow’s Beaver Brook, onions and carrots from Newtown Cedar Hill Farm, celeriac from Riverbank Farm, and leeks and garlic from Sport Hill Farm. Parsnips, pasta and rice: not local.

Main Course

Dessert

Beverages

Thanks to all of my farmers—I hope your holiday was as fabulous as mine. Thank you to my family for your help and a great day.

Occupy the Kitchen

Oct 25th, 2011
by sophie.
4 comments

Before Occupy Wall Street and even before the financial collapse of 2008, local foodies have been well aware of the negative effects of the special relationship between corporations, our elected officials, and the government agencies created to look out for the interests of the people.

In the years since this compact between huge corporations and the government began, we’ve seen an increase in chronic illnesses, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and a glut of some of the most hideous phood products in history. We’ve seen the methods of food production become more industrialized and along with that, an increase in pollution, soil depletion, and food contamination and a decrease of nutrient density. We’ve seen a decrease in the number of farms and farmers while the remaining farms are concentrated in the hands of a few corporations.

In the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t been to any of the Occupy locations (although there’s an Occupy New Haven) and I’m waiting to see more before I decide if the occupations are a good idea, but I do agree with the premise: that it is time for the 99% to stop tolerating the greed and corruption of the 1%and their purchase of our legal and political systems.

So, I’m occupying the kitchen. As you may know, I am a local foodie (locavore) year ’round. Every dollar I don’t spend at Stop and Shop is a dollar that goes to the actual producers in my town, state, region. I like handing those dollars directly to the people who did the work. I realize that one person eating locally does not effect vast and sweeping change, but I believe in what Margaret Mead said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does.”

I live in New England and I’m no Eliot Coleman (even in the summer), so I count on others to raise my food for me. So, at this time of year, I’m working like a squirrel, storing food for the winter. (More of a pre-occupation than an occupation.)

I invite you to Occupy the Kitchen too. Try putting at least one local food away to consume over the winter. It doesn’t matter what or how—you can freeze it, can it, dehydrate it, ferment it, whatever you like. In addition to being additive free, each item you put by is one less item you have to buy from a Big Corporation.

My Occupy the Kitchen project today was dried garlic. I peeled and sliced the garlic and dried it in the dehydrator at 120 degrees until they were crispy. I’ll grind them in a spice mill and have my own garlic powder.

There are lots of resources available for putting by foods, including your search engine if you don’t want to buy a book. I’m personally fond of Put ‘Em Up, by Sherri Brooks Vinton. I hope you’ll decide to try this at least once.

There are some good reads on the Internet on the intersection of the food movement with the Occupy movement. Steph Larson at  Grist has a great article:

I believe one fundamental way to rebel against an unjust economic system is to grow my own food. This way, my primary means of sustenance is out of the hands of corporations. Most food sold in grocery stores — even organic food — is owned by a few, very consolidated agribusinesses. Growing your own food undercuts their power.

The 99 percent movement has been criticized for not having a specific policy agenda, but I agree with George Lakoff; this is about a lot more than policy. It’s about our collective values as Americans. Growing food, bartering, and supporting local businesses are only a few of the many ways to wrestle power away from corporations and put it back in the hands of the people.

Also check out the articles by Kristin Wartman at Civil Eats as well as Tom Philpott at Mother Jones, where he says, “Because Big Food makes Big Finance look like amateurs.”

As it happens, there’s going to be an occupy against big food event at Zucotti Park (Occupy Wall Street) on October 29 at 1 PM.

In closing, I leave you with this image of my current favorite sign from the occupation:

. .

Note: This post is shared at Hartke’s Blog Carnival.

 

Sport Hill Farm 2011 CSA – Week 12

Aug 27th, 2011
by sophie.
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With uncertainty about what hurricane Irene might do to the crops, here’s the bounty from week 12 of my Sport Hill Farm CSA:

  • 1/2 dozen ears of corn
  • 1 bag of potatoes
  • 1 bag of sweet onions
  • 6 sweet Bianca peppers
  • 1 cantaloupe
  • 1 bag of cherry tomatoes (mix-n-match)
  • 6-8 red or orange tomatoes (mix-n-match)
  • 1 yellow brandywine heirloom tomato
  • 1 bunch of kale (bonus/optional)

I’ve learned a fabulous new way to cook corn (soon to be featured in another post). I’m particularly looking forward to that cantaloupe. Al picked the first two last week and I swiped one immediately. It was delicious, refreshing, and everything else you want a cantaloupe to be. The cherry tomatoes are in the dehydrator as we speak, becoming “sun-dried.” I can and do eat tomato salads every day, and that’s what’s in store for the rest of the tomatoes. I’m thrilled to have another bunch of the Toscano kale. Kale is one of the nutrient super foods and this is my favorite variety of kale.

Late Bloomers Farm Sport Hill Farm 2011 CSA – Week 11

Aug 13th, 2011
by sophie.
2 comments

Time is flying by, it seems. Happily, I’ve been getting some things put by for the Dark Days. Meanwhile, here’s the bounty from the here and now, week 11 of my Sport Hill Farm CSA:

Looks a little like Christmas.

  • 1 dozen ears of corn on the cob (More niblets for the Dark Days. Although I blanch it first,  I hear you can freeze it raw—on or off the cob.)
  • 1 brown paper bag of red tomatoes (I’ve been making lots of simple tomato salads: sliced with some basil, a drizzle of olive oil, and sprinkle of salt. Refreshing and delicious.)
  • 1 bag of cherry tomatoes
  • 2 cucumbers
  • 3 peppers, Bianca bells, I believe
  • 1 bunch of kale
  • 1 bunch of collard greens (I don’t have any experience with collards to speak of and I’m thinking about using Paula Dean’s recipe.)

Sport Hill Farm 2011 CSA – Week 10

Aug 7th, 2011
by sophie.
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Here’s the bounty from week 10 of my Sport Hill Farm CSA:

  • 1 dozen ears of corn
  • 1 bag of cherry tomatoes
  • 1 head of cabbage
  • 1 bunch of kale
  • 4 red tomatoes
  • 2 yellow tomatoes
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 bag of onions and garlic
  • 4 squash

From the outset, I put by 10 ears of corn for the winter in my very own Sport Hill/Late Bloomers niblets. There is nothing on Earth like having sweet corn in the  middle of January (with a few feet of snow outside) to improve your mood. If everyone put up some sweet corn, we could wipe out Seasonal Affective Disorder in our lifetime.

Astute observers will notice two heads of cabbage in the picture when the CSA share of the week listed one head. That’s because the eater and the farmer are truly partners. My first attempt at fermenting cabbage into sauerkraut didn’t work out. With me having a few new ideas to try out, my farmer stepped in as my full partner in this experiment and invested a head of cabbage into the second trial. Like the CSA, if it works out, she gets half of the sauerkraut. If it fails, we both get nothing (except experiential education).

Canned Goods

Nov 10th, 2010
by sophie.
4 comments

Well Kaela, I did it.

Thanks Sherri for the great recipes and instructions.

Carrots, hot cherry peppers, jalapenos, and garlic from Maple Bank Farm, Cherry Grove Farm, and Sport Hill Farm.

Looks like tomatoes

Oct 3rd, 2010
by sophie.
1 comment

This year’s tomato harvest has been fabulous. As you may recall, last year wasn’t so good. So this year, I overcompensated. I got tomatoes from Holbrook Farm, Cherry Grove Farm in Newtown, Daffodil Hill Growers, and Sport Hill Farm.

I need lots of tomatoes to put by for Italian Sunday red gravy (gravy, not sauce!) and plum tomatoes (Romas and  San Marzanos) are the best for that. A friend told me about another variety called Pompeii, but to get those, you have to grow your own like he does.

For the last few years, I’ve been processing tomatoes by blanching them to remove the skins and (sometimes) running them through a food mill to remove the seeds. Sherri Brooks Vinton and my Pompeii-growing-friend both recommend roasting the tomatoes, so I thought this year I’d give roasting a try.

Here’s how I did it:

  1. Wash off the tomatoes.
    2. sport_hill_tomatoes

    25 pounds of Sport Hill tomatoes

  2. Slice off the end.

  3. Slice the tomato in half.

    4. Tomatoes on the half shell

  4. With two fingers, swipe out the seeds and pulp.

  5. Toss the tomatoes in a bowl with some olive oil.

  6. Lay the tomatoes out on a baking sheet. Use parchment paper for an easier clean-up.

  7. Roast the tomatoes until the skins are crispy and peel off easily.

  8. Peel the tomatoes and preserve by canning or freezing.

Twenty-five pounds of tomatoes yields between six to 12 cups of processed tomatoes, which needs to be further reduced to make a good thick gravy. You just can’t get enough tomatoes!

About the title of this post

Way back in the dark ages, my high school pals and I used to enjoy tinkering with song lyrics. Here’s the song. You can sing the title of this post instead of the original lyrics.  If you want this song repeating in an endless loop in your head for the duration, listen before you seed your first tomato.

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