Rising Prices Good for Local Food

From the New York Times, April 2, 2008:

WHILE grocery shoppers agonize over paying 25 percent more for eggs and 17 percent more for milk, Michael Pollan, the author and de facto leader of the food intellectuals, happily dreams of small, expensive bottles of Coca-Cola.

Along with some other critics of the American way of eating, he likes the idea that some kinds of food will cost more, and here’s one reason why: As the price of fossil fuels and commodities like grain climb, nutritionally questionable, high-profit ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup will, too. As a result, Cokes are likely to get smaller and cost more. Then, the argument goes, fewer people will drink them.

And if American staples like soda, fast-food hamburgers and frozen dinners don’t seem like such a bargain anymore, the American eating public might turn its attention to ingredients like local fruits and vegetables, and milk and meat from animals that eat grass. It turns out that those foods, already favorites of the critics of industrial food, have also dodged recent price increases.

Logic would dictate that arguing against cheap food would be the wrong move when the Consumer Price Index puts food costs at about 4.5 percent more this year than last. But for locavores, small growers, activist chefs and others, higher grocery bills might be just the thing to bring about the change they desire. read more . . .

Our Upcoming Weekend

We hope to see many of you on Saturday (April 19) for the opening of the Westside Community Market. On Sunday we will be heading to the Welty Environmental Center in Beloit to speak about local eating as an environmentally responsible choice.

Finally, this weekend marks the official opening of the Madison Area Community Gardens. We have a half-plot this year and there will be many blog posts to come about our foibles, and hopefully a few triumphs, with our garden!

Fast Food

We have been remiss in blogging what we are eating, there is so much going on and so much to talk about! One of our stand-by fast food dishes is Okonomiyaki--which translates from Japanese roughly as "things you like--fried!" Can't beat that! There is no recipe and it is often billed as a cross between pizza and a pancake--doesn't sound good but it is! Mix eggs, flour and water to make a batter like a thin pancake. Add strips of cabbage (keeps everything together) and then add what you like. We usually take those bits of veggies at the bottom of fridge, chop 'em up and add them. The result is a yummy, slightly crunchy, eggy pancake. We serve it with rice and a soy/ginger/garlic sauce. Last night's ingredients included green beans, carrots, onions, cabbage, peas and of course, eggs from our chickens.

Try this some night when you are pressed for time--YUMMY!

Eating Local is About the People . . . All the People

On more than one occasion we have heard the complaint that eating locally is only for the wealthy. People claim that locavores are elitist, striving to segregate themselves from "the average eater" by choosing to shop directly from the source of production.

We completely disagree.

A recent article in the Albany Times Union says it beautifully (please click the link for the full text)

It's about transforming and democratizing the food system. It's about increasing access to high-quality, nutrient-rich food and making it available and affordable to all people.

It's about establishing whole food (not Whole Foods) markets in poor inner-city neighborhoods plagued by "food deserts."

It's about keeping more farmers on the land by paying them the real cost of production and about consumers having a stake in the stewardship of productive land. It's about sustainability.

Buying locally, whether it be food or other products is about thinking long-term. Support your community and it will support you.

Foraging

There is a place, less than a mile from our near-Isthmus home, where we find Morels. One year we found over 20 gorgeous specimens and we feasted (well, my MIL and I did, Scott wasn't too keen and Evie didn't like the sherry we added to round #1). Each year, as we pass by the spot at this time of year, Evie asks, "I wonder if there are Morels yet?" Sometimes there are, sometimes there aren't. I LOVE the idea of foraging for our food. So do a lot of other people it would seem!

If you have a lot of time to kill, check out the YouTube series of EatTheWeeds's Videos. I would recommend starting with video 3, that's when he gets down to the nitty gritty.

Here in WI we are lucky to have Sam Thayer. His website, Forager's Harvest is a treasure trove of information and he has weekend foraging expeditions!

If you want to forage close to home, especially here in WI, may I recommend garlic mustard? On May 18 you can participate in the Weed Feed. An opportunity to pull invasive species and then cook 'em up and scarf 'em down. Evie loves to eat the new leaves raw, I love a good garlic-mustard pesto. Peter Robertson of RP's Pasta will be cooking a number of dishes and piles of the weed will be available for people to take home and use themselves.

Use It Up!

On April 19th the first couple Farmers Markets in our area open for business. You can bet you'll get a full report here, in the meantime we are thinking about using up what we have preserved from the last growing season.

We still have GOBS of applesauce. There may be a few apples around that were stored over the winter but we prefer to eat our sauce slowly, hopefully running out only in late August or so, when the new crop comes in.

Last year I froze a lot of berry sauces (strawberry and raspberry). Turns out I didn't freeze nearly enough raspberry (ran out in November) and too much strawberry! The strawberry sauce (just strawberries whirred up in the food processor) is endlessly versatile. I have been using it in scones and smoothies, as a base for salad dressing over spinach and eating it with a spoon with dollops of sour cream.

We will finish out last bag of frozen corn tonight (check back tomorrow for pictures of our Mexican feast), but we will have lots of peppers (dried and frozen). We will use them up by the time the new ones are ready.

We have tomato sauce left and about a quart of dried tomatoes. The dried will be gone within he month I suspect but we will stretch the sauce until July.

In the fall I always want to preserve mountains of food to sustain us through the winter. I usually get a fair amount put away but not enough to keep us totally local. Inevitably I preserve too much of a few things and we scramble to eat it all before the new crop comes in. Smoothies for fruit, soup for veggies. The new crops are on their way--celebrate!

The Joy of Pastured Eggs

Another reason we choose to eat locally grown food is because we can ask about HOW it is grown and choose to support farmers who are thinking sustainably about their land, products and animals.

Even before we had our own chickens we sought out pastured eggs. I want to buy eggs from farmers who let their chickens roam free, able to eat the delicious worms and weeds and run around in the wind, protected from predators and loved by their keepers. Now that we have our own clucky darlings I can't imagine raising chickens any other way. Turns out my instincts about how chickens are happiest is also apparent in the eggs they lay. In March 2007, Mother Earth News put out the call, looking for eggs to test and info about how the chickens were raised. The results were published in October 2007 speak for themselves. I highly recommend you go and read everything in the Mother but for those of you who just want the highlights, here they are:

From Mother Earth News "Our testing has found that, compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:

• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene"

The picture above is a recent egg from our chickens--it is a joy!