Friday Fast Ones

Fast One: Store-purchased organic eggs may not live up to all they’re cracked up to be. Those in the local food movement pretty much already know this, but it’s worth getting out there. Most organic eggs from supermarkets are produced in glorified (and often not so glorified) factory farms with very little difference from non-organic eggs, except for the price tag. Supermarket brands, including Whole Foods, rank lowest on the list of quality. What it  means to you: If you’re buying Certified Organic eggs at the supermarket, you’re probably being shafted. Find a local farmer, and get your money’s worth. And, honestly, it’ll probably be less money; though, it’s still a far better value even if it’s the same price or more expensive.  Ask around at your local farmer’s market, or go to localharvest.org to find real eggs.

Fast One: PA rejected regulation 2777, which would have effectively banned any an all ways of selling raw milk in PA! What it means to you: Well, if you’re in PA it means you can still get raw milk. If you’re anywhere else in the country, it means that some politicians are hearing those of us who are being active about wanting choices in our food. If you want the ability to decide if you should drink raw milk, eat pastured eggs and chickens from a small farm, or any other kind of food freedom, you need to get active.  Monsanto, the Corn Refiners Association, The Dairy Council…all of these companies spend millions of dollars a year lobbying to control your food.

Fast One: Speaking of the Corn Refiner’s Association, they’re now actively pushing their “educational” agenda about HFCS on blogs, and paying or otherwise compensating “mommy bloggers” to push their product as healthy. Essentially, they give money, gifts, or other compensation to people for listening to a presentation, and they blogging the positives. CRA reps are popping up on negative-HFCS blogs everywhere, and disappear when pushed about their agenda, whether or not the CRA is paying them to comment, etc. What this means to you: Buyer beware. Take a critical look at the blogs you read, and do some digging into their integrity. Taking money or other gifts to post positively about a product or service isn’t something I consider ethical, do you? There’s a large amount of money being spent here. People are becoming more aware of  HFCS and choosing to eschew it, which is starting to hurt the profits of Corporate Agriculture. They’re fighting back, and doing it in a fairly sneaky way, which writes a story all it’s own. There’s a whole post here in and of itself, one I’ve done before in some respects; but, really, just go read the link and the comments. It’s worth it.

And, last but not least:

Friday Fast One: It’s VA Wine month! There are 180 wineries in VA, many of them using grapes grown either on their estate or in close proximity.  What this means to you: Well, a very good weekend, if you plan it right! It also means, however, that all of those locavores (I hate that word, btw) out there need to hop on this bandwagon. Supporting local includes beverages, and there are some amazing wines coming out of VA. Several wineries are competing for international awards, and holding their own. For some insights, visit Swirl, Sip Snark, Dezel at MyVineSpot.Com, Drink What YOU Like, or  VA Wine Time to check out The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and plan a trip!

To Celebrate VA Wine Month, I’ll be splashing (which means pouring wine tastings) for Wintergreen Winery at Rebec’s Garlic Fest this Saturday. Swing through, say hello, see my New Hair, and try some great local wines! I’m the short blond with the short ‘do at the tasting station!

Related Articles

• Rebranding High Fructose Corn Syrup: Good or Bad Idea? (mpdailyfix.com)
• New York hopes to ban spending food stamps on soda (salon.com)
• Brands and blog tours – not always so sweet. (mom-101.com)
• Not a Sweet Idea: Rebranding HFCS to Corn Sugar (triplepundit.com)

Monday Healthy Eating

This one is simple, and the only change you’ll notice is positive: switch to 100% pastured, 100% grass-fed meat, eggs, and dairy.  It tastes better, has far more nutrients, and depending on the cut somewhere between 1/2 to 1/3 the calories of grain-fed, conventional meat. Higher in cancer-fighting (and fat fighting) things like conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), Omega Fatty Acids, Vitamin D (in which deficiency is becoming almost an epidemic!), and other beneficial nutrients. Plus, it tastes better.

The average American can lose 5-12 pounds just by switching from conventional, corn-fed beef to pastured, grass-fed.  That’s pretty spectacular. Plus, the beef tastes like..well, beef.  Get it locally, and it won’t taste like the gluten-sodium solution they inject into all the poultry and beef you buy at the store, either.  The milk will have vitamin D that your body can actually absorb and process in it, and the eggs will be bursting with Omegas for good brain and heart (they can reduce the chance or heart disease), and are crucial in the development of humans from conception through death.  What’s not to love?

Cook your pastured beef a lower temperature (ask your local farmer, I promise they’ll give you more recipes than you can handle), and a bit more slowly. Eat beef rare medium for maximum flavor, pork medium rare to medium, and chicken and turkey done to 165 degrees (I take mine out of the oven at 155, and let it rest for 20 minutes–it makes it juicy, and continues to cook to 165 on it’s own). Most of all, enjoy it, and watch the changes in your body.

Related Articles

• Confused About Fat? Choose Grassfed! (wholefoodandmore.net)
• Susan B. Dopart, M.S., R.D.: Lunching for Longevity: Anti-Inflammatory Eating (huffingtonpost.com)
• Grass fed milk taste test – Napoleon Dynamite style (thecrunchychicken.com)
• Meat eating can be an environmentally friendly choice, argues Geoge Monbiot (grist.org)
• Liza de Guia: Making A Case for Why Grass Fed Meat Is Better (huffingtonpost.com)

Real Food Daily News!

For those who follow Twitter, or even those who don’t, there’s an online “Twitter paper” that features the latest Real Food news and blogs. It changes daily, is a quick read, and has some great articles and recipes. I made today’s edition with Monday Healthy Eating.

So, take a minute and check it out (because you know you need one more thing to do online every day!):  http://paper.li/tag/realfood And, follow me on twitter at EclecticEdibles. I post real food and VA wine related news, recipe ideas, and good eating tips.

New Reading about Food, Food Politics, and Obesity

Among other things, I spend a lot of time reading political food blogs.  Why? Well, there’s a lot reasons. Some inspire me to keep fighting for healthier food, some have great research access, some are on “the other side” so I know what I’m fighting, and some are just plain entertaining. Food is a passion for me,  and so are the things connected with it–those peripheral things like preservation, health, nutrition, security, justice, logistics…the list goes on.

The truth is, almost everything in our lives is somehow connected by or with food. Knowing what is going on around you is empowering, and often flat-out scary.  One company owns most of the seed for the grains we eat, for example. Does that really sound like a good idea to anyone but them and the politicians they fund? Because almost any rational person who spends a few minutes thinking about it can see how incredibly dangerous that is, how terrifying to have one for-profit entity controlling food supply worldwide.

So, I read a lot. I educate myself to educate others, and I love finding people who have similar passions. I’ve been trying to catch up on archives of Appetite for Profit, run by a public health lawyer. It’s fascinating, well-written, and while I don’t agree with everything, she presents good and reasonable arguments for her POV.  Swing by and read a bit, then let me know what you think.

I also read a lot of books. You know, those things with the paper in the middle of two bits of cardboard? The paper usually has words on it? Yes, you can also get “books” on kindle, but for me, it’s just not the same thing. That, however, is neither here no there. The point is I read things not blogs or twitter, and my latest  read is from an author we saw speak at Monticello Heritage Harvest Festival, Sharon Astyk. She also, of course, also have a blog (which I’ve just started diving into, so no review yet).  The book is “Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage & Preservation.”  I’m only about half way through, but I’m already comfortable recommending it. She’s got some great insights, some good recipes, and she gives you a lot to think about.

What are you reading?

Related Articles

• While I’m Gone… [Casaubon's Book] (scienceblogs.com)
• Going Raw: A Guide to Raw Foods Diets (lifescript.com)
• The Earliest Signs of Obesity (thedailybeast.com)
• Jamie Oliver Wants Ideas To Help Fight Childhood Obesity (ecorazzi.com)

Save Time and Eat Well!

A lot of people have told me that they’d love to have the ability to eat better, but just don’t have time to do meal planning and recipe finding. Or, they don’t know how. I have  an answer to both of these problems:

Let me do it for you!

I can do meal planning, recipe finding, and grocery lists remotely for anyone.

Prepare things like:

Black and White Chicken Chili

Parmesan Crusted Swai:

Quinoa Kale & citrus salad

And other yummy foods. All delivered right to your inbox!

For those living closer to me, I can also do classes that teach you how to do these things yourself to save time and money while eating better. Interested? Just use the “Contact” box to the right to send me a note and I’ll get back to you with details.

The Market This Week

Fun stuff we got at the Charlottesville Market today: (aside from all our usual yummy veggies and meats from various farmers):

-Garlic from Roundabout. We were so happy to see Meagan from Roundabout back at the market, since they’d been absent for the beginning of the season. There is nothing, and I meant nothing, like Roundabout Garlic. It’ll ruin you for any other garlic. We got 2 lbs. We’ll be getting much, much more for storage over the next year. You should do the same. They also have wonderful heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos (which we also got), and more. Stop by, and tell Meagan hello!

-Sgt. Pepper’s Berry Balsamic Band marmalade from Mass a’Peel. This stuff is fabulous, as are all the varieties we tried today.  It’ll go with a lot of things: chicken, cheese (which we’re pairing it with later this week–more on that below), bread and butter, and probably a few other things I’m neglecting to mention. But what we’re really excited about pairing it with are the scones Thadd’s just decided to bake. Yum.

-Matcha latte and matcha cookies from Blue Forest Bakery.  This is a wonderful, local bakery specializing in Japanese breads like anpan. Recently, they added the wonderful cookies, and the latte was really refreshing.

-Caramont “The Old Green Mountain Round” goat cheese. If you’ve not had it, you should try it. It’s amazing. Actually, all their cheeses are beautifully crafted.

-Night Sky Farm’s 4-pack of chevre. This is another great farmstead dairy & cheese maker. We love their peppered chevre. We love everything else, too, but the peppered chevre has a special place in my stomach…er, heart.

The produce was great this week. Tomatoes are coming in, as is corn, squash (patty pan, yellow, zucchini, etc.), greens, potatoes, herbs like basil and dill. All told, it was a great day at the market.

Growing Power, Day 2

So, after no sleep and a meal I’d loosely term “breakfast” (hey, it’s a hotel, I realize I can’t expect too much), I trundled off to Growing Power for Day 2. I missed the morning at the farm because Anne, Cherlynn (I hope I am spelling that correctly), and I had to get to the kitchen and get started.

This is Cherlynn, helping out with kitchen prep before class. She works in nutrition education, and will be doing a mozzarella cheesemaking class with youth next month; so, she wanted to come early and get in on the boring pre-cheese action of kitchen prep and ripening the milk. She was a huge help, and it was also a great chance to get to know another chef who is as passionate about food as I am.

Sunday turned out to be the day of culinary experts and foodies in the cheese class. We had three chefs besides me, and all were inspiring, creative, and energetic. You see one of them above,  a man simply dubbed “Chef” by everyone I talked to, stirring a very, very large pot of very, very hot whey (did I mention he spent most of the day making us all hungry by elucidating on things like how he makes his savory cheesecake?). Because we had all this incredible whey from both cheese classes, and a bit of extra milk, and because my classes ran on-time as scheduled, I added ricotta making to Sunday’s itinerary.  What you see above is the whey and additional milk being heated to 200F before precipitating the ricotta curd with vinegar. What you see below is how you work on the fly with what you have instead of what you think you need.

The lovely blond woman hiding in the corner on the left is Anne, one of my two designated staff helpers for the weekend. She was amazing, from start to finish, and I really hope I get to work with her again.

Aside from the wonderful staff and students you see in the photo above, though, what you should be noticing is the cloth that is lining the (huge) colander. Is it cheesecloth? No. Why isn’t it cheesecloth? Because I hadn’t thought for one second we’d have time, milk, or reasonable facilities (or, for that matter, enough interest) to make ricotta. I was wrong on all counts, so I needed to come up with something fast. T-shirts to the rescue (thanks to the GP staff for running out and picking these up!). We washed them, then cut them and used them to strain the curds. They weren’t a perfect solution for many reasons, and we did lose some ricotta into the whey; but, it was a pretty darn good last-minute substitute.

I said there were three chefs, and above you see the remaining one as he pressed the whey gently out of the ricotta, and salts it for eating. The class came up with some additional seasoning ideas (including “Chef’s” brilliant addition of Lawry’s!), and it was probably the dreamiest batch of ricotta I’ve ever made. Seriously, we considered just hiding it and meeting up later to eat it on some crackers with a side of beer.

In the end, though, we did have enough left to take back to GP for some of the folks there to sample, too, despite the rabid sampling you see above.

This is the whole Sunday class, minus Amanda (who is taking the photo, but who appears to be stealing some cheese from the colander in the front of the photo above). Yep, that’s me with no sleep, not enough food, sweaty and steamed.

All in all, it went pretty well, and they’re hoping to have me back in June. We’ve got a kink or two to get worked out before then (primarily if we can use this kitchen again), but I’ll keep you updated.

As for the rest of the workshop, I didn’t get to do a whole lot of it, which is kind of what I expected since I was teaching. I got a chance to have a short chat with Will about future cheese possibilities and work-arounds, and I hope to see some of that come to fruition as Growing Power continues to grow. I met a slew of amazing people, some of which I hope to feature here in the coming weeks, and learned a lot about the ideas people have for urban and sustainable agriculture across the country. Some of it’s pretty damn impressive, and almost all of it is creative and out-of-the-box in a way that is very inspiring.

I did get to take the tour, and I got to play with the goats. They are so cute I almost just slept in their pen instead of going back to my hotel:

But, I didn’t. Instead, I helped pack up the tent and tables, then went out for a margarita with some of the staff and some of the attendees. Then it was home early-ish, because I had more work to do and an early wake-up.

I also owe a huge, overwhelming thanks to Ryan, without whom I am pretty sure this whole thing would never have happened, and to Anne, who also fits into the category of misson critical for this workshop (both GP staff members). Thanks to Amanda for all her help and enthusiasm, as well, and to Will for giving me the opportunities.

The Big Announcement

The airline ticket is in my hot little hands, so I feel pretty safe making the annoucement:

I’ve been invited to teach by Will Allen at Growing Power, Inc May 15th & 16th. I’ll be teaching introductory cheese making with fresh goat’s milk for their “From the Ground Up” workshop series. This is their first-ever cheese class, and I am honored to have been invited to teach it.

I met Will at the recent Growing Power workshop at Lynchburg Grows, and had the chance to talk with him briefly about the food we provided and what went into making it happen. Will, a former basketball player turned farmer, and his foundation were recently awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, which is a Big Deal.  This nationally (internationally, actually, as it seems there’s been reports on his work in several countries–thanks google!) recognized non-profit’s stated miss is: “supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities.  Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner.”

This is pretty exciting for me. A paid teaching opportunity here is wonderful, and I will definitely be blogging it. I’m hoping to possibly even do a podcast, so stay tuned!

Moving News

As some of you know, we’ll be moving to Lynchburg, VA in about a week. This means there will be a hiatus on updating starting today, so I can finish packing. We should have internet up and running within a day after the actaul move, but there’s a lot of unpacking to do. So, plan on hearing from me again the first week of November.

This also means I am no longer taking clients in Northern VA, but am accepting new clients in Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Charlottesville starting in January (I will not be taking new clients during the holidays).  For now, I am not able to do pre-prepared meals for drop-off, but hopefully that service will return after the New Year.

See you in a few weeks!

Chef Channon at Sur La Table

It was wonderful to see Channon again. She continues to inspire me, educate me, and make me laugh.  Her class at Sur La Table went beautifully, and in just a few weeks she’ll be off to Turkey. Color me jealous!

Above: Channon whipping up some muhallebi, a rice-based pudding. This recipe, and the others in her book, were redacted from Ottoman Turkish recipes previously lost to us.  And, they’re yummy. Below: Me, flipping the katlama boregi, a feta and walnut savory pastry.  I have to say that I share the feelings of most other female chefs I’ve met: Chefs jackets for women are awful. They make you look lumpy and poufy no matter how svelt you are!

Channon and I were hosted by Ms. Kauffman, a reknown chef and cookbook author. Hopefully, I’ll have some of her cookbooks reviewed here, and a link to her website, soon. The three of us spent the day preparing for this class, and were helped out in the evening by another of my favorite chefs (and a wonderful friend), Elaine Koogler. She, incidentally, is to thank for these pictures, which we really appreciate.

Sur La Table has a beautiful professional kitchen, and our helper Whitney was fantastic. I am looking forward to teaching there myself soon!

Check out Channon’s website, which includes all kinds of fun stuff from videos on food preparation to her NPR interviews!