ELC Days Sixteen and Seventeen

Yesterday I had leftover hamburger casserole for lunch, and I finished it off today at lunch. Good comfort food, and I seem to need that this week. It's just been stressful all the way round, but not necessarily awful.

Yesterday afternoon a friend called to wish us a happy anniversary. "Oh my God," I said. "Thank you for reminding me."

Sandy came in from work.

"Honey, did you forget that it was our anniversary?" I asked.

He looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Oh my God. I'm sorry," he said.

I could've had some fun with this, but I decided to be kind.

So we went to Bert's to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary. We usually go to Bert's for special occasions, although we did not for the last two birthdays. My only problem with Bert's is that it is so hard to choose from the huge menu of seafood dishes. And they have other entrees now, like elk.

I had remembered that Bert's had a card on the tables about a farm that they bought their veggies from, but I'm not sure of my memory now, because the waiter did not know. I asked him what seafood came from either North Carolina, South Carolina, or Virginia - I was ready for some shellfish. But I was disappointed, because he came back with the answer flounder and grouper, fishes that I don't particularly care for. I ordered the grilled feta cheese and leek grouper with a roasted red pepper relish, and I chose sides that I thought might have a chance of being local - green salad, collard greens, and cheesy grits.

I wrote Bert's an email today and I hope that they will send me some information about their local and regional buying connections, now or in the near future. I'll write about it if they answer my questions. Bert's is a favorite of mine and I suspect that maybe the waiter was wrong or there's a reason for them not having local food right now.

Tonight, it is another late dinner. I am waiting for my baked lemon chicken breasts to cool down. Remember that lemons were one of my exemptions. I used the leftover olive oil and honey wine vinegar salad dressing from the first week over the chicken, plus lemon juice, lemon zest, and dried basil. Side dish is navy beans and lamb's quarters again. Not very original, but damn, they were good and I was ready for them again.

Sources:
Chicken - Back Woods Family Farm
Honey Wine Vinegar - Quaker Acres Apiaries
Olive Oil and Lemon - Deep Roots Market
Basil - My back yard
Navy Beans - Faucette Farms
Lamb's Quarters - "weeds" from the community garden

ELC Day Fifteen

Lunch today was late because I was too stressed out to eat, but once I did I had a salad with lettuce, spinach, radishes, and carrots from the back forty, strawberries from my front porch pots, sprouts from Snow Creek Family Organic Farm, and homemade dressing made with an egg from Back Woods Family Farm, olive oil, buttermilk from Homestead Creamery, and herbs from the back forty. I snacked on roasted peanuts from Faucette Farms.

Dinner is coming out in a few minutes. I was tired of eating rabbit food, so I made a basic peasant dish - a layered hamburger and potato casserole. I used to make casseroles with cream of mushroom soup, but for the past year or so I've been making a thick white sauce with chopped mushrooms to substitute for that. It makes an ordinary dish seem like a gourmet meal. Well, I don't think anything could make this dish seem gourmet, but it sure is good.

Sources:
Hamburger - Rocking F Farm
Onion - Faucette Farm
Elephant Garlic - My back yard
Red potatoes and white mushrooms - Gann Farm
Milk - Homestead Creamery
Butter - Homeland Creamery
Flour - Old Mill of Guilford
Extra-sharp cheddar cheese - the Molners at the Curb Market - technically not made by them, it is Amish cheese that they get from Ohio. I can't find a local source of sharp cheddar, and life is not worth living with only regular cheddar. And Ohio is not so far away...

Part of the problem with this time of year is that I spend the remaining daylight hours in the garden, and then I end up cooking very late, if at all. Normally I would cook a few big dishes on the weekend to get us through most of the week, but again, this time of year is full of things that keep me out of the kitchen on the weekend.

We need more restaurants that make an effort to buy food from local farmers. We have some, such as Lucky 32, Green Valley Grill, Bistro Sofia, and Bert's, to name a few, but we need more on the lower end too, such as breakfast places that serve local sausage, bread, and pasture-raised eggs. I was in a place in Asheville that charged a little extra for free-range organic eggs. I would happily do that if I had a choice here in Greensboro.

ELC Days Thirteen and Fourteen - Mother's Day

Yesterday I headed to the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market with the major goal of buying my mother a present. Soap was out because last year I bought her soap and she said, "Everybody gives me soap. Do I smell?"

So I bought some soap for us, and for her, a nice hanging basket of flowers.

I also picked up some red new potatoes, a tomato (special request from Sandy), and a very small bunch of oyster mushrooms from Gann Farm's booth. He's really getting into the mushrooms. Many people are selling shiitakes now, but he has shiitake, white, portobello, and now oyster mushrooms.

Because I like to snack, I bought a bag of roasted peanuts from Faucette Farms. That should help me stay away from the vending machine at work.

I spent the rest of my money on pepper plants from Handance Farm and WeatherHand Farm. I bought 11 different kinds:

Red Bell (WH)
Serrano (WH)
Sweet Banana (WH)
Lipstick (HD)
Gourmet (HD)
Doe Hill (HD)
Golden Bell (HD)
Chocolate Bell (HD)
Ruby (HD)
Valencia (HD)
Joe's Round (HD)

Then I nursed a migraine until I was well enough to drive down east to Mama's house. I knew that the Eat Local Challenge was going to be seriously challenged once I got there. For one thing, I was going to offer to take her out to eat like we usually do, and there are not many options near Marietta, N.C. But Mama had already cooked dinner, and didn't really want to eat out.

Sidenote: The food news from down home is that there is now a Chinese restaurant in Lake View, South Carolina. You have to be from there to understand how absolutely amazing this is. The last step in this exotic direction was pizza at the restaurant in the convenience store.

So we had chicken tetrazini, which had nothing local or organic in it, fruit salad, which had some strawberries from one of the local farms, and field peas and silver queen corn from Mama's freezer from her garden last year. She baked this Vidalia onion/cream cheese pie that was incredible. I have the recipe - it's from Cooking Light or I'd post it. For dessert, strawberry angel food cake. The cake was from a mix, but the strawberries were local.

Not bad, considering she had no warning. But that's pretty normal eating for her. We had the leftovers for lunch today.

After I explained the Eat Local Challenge to her last night, she made blueberry muffins for us this morning. The blueberries are from her bushes. And those muffins were so delicate and delicious!

Late that afternoon, I went over to the farm where there is a house built in 1820. The chimney had fallen down and I wanted some of the bricks. They were in a pile of dirt and my brother and I picked the whole ones out of the top of it. Apparently the chimney had been mortared with mud. The bricks are probably too soft and crumbly to walk on, but I'm going to stack them up, lay some old landscape ties across the tops, and use the shelves against the south side of my house for container plants.

I was guilted into attending Mama's church with her this morning, which I swore off forever after a horrendous homophobic and just plain stupid sermon on Mother's Day two years ago. But Mama knew that she was going to be the oldest mother there this year, and she would be recognized. We offered to hire a hit man last year when she was the next-oldest mother, but fortunately it turned out not to be necessary.

To my relief, the sermon was not offensive and I enjoyed it. It was about Hagar, and I was just waiting for him to launch some right-wing denouncement of Islam, but he actually pulled an interesting message from it about not knowing God's plan when one feels abandoned and talked about helping single mothers.

My brother had plowed Mama's garden twice this week. Every year she says that she will not be able to have a garden again next year. But then she complains that no one will plow her garden for her. Mama is 82 and although she is in great shape for her age, she was diagnosed with osteoporosis and it is hard for her to stoop and plant and pick now. She really does want a garden - she has never NOT had a garden. By the time I got there she already had a huge garden planted with seeds coming up in every row except a small area she saved for my tomatoes. I planted a couple of Brandywines, Romas, and one Amish Paste tomatoes in two different spots. The spot she saved for them had a tomato virus in the soil so I talked her into trying them in a different area as well. That soil looks really worn out. She'll put one of the Brandywines into a pot.

So I've had a big weekend. I don't know what I'll do for dinner, but it will be light and probably involve strawberries, cheese, and/or salad. Right now I'm enjoying a New River Pale Ale, "brewed and bottled in Ashburn, Virginia."

ELC Day Twelve (plus Community Garden Update IX)

Whew, what a long week this was! After I did that panicked buying at the farmer's market last Saturday morning, I checked the refrigerator tonight and realized that I haven't eaten hardly any of it. I ate leftovers and salad all week because I didn't have time to cook.

This morning I went to Tate St. Coffee House, where I picked up a fruit bar for a mid-morning snack and a slice of broccoli quiche for my lunch. Tate St. Coffee House gets its baked goods from Spring Garden Bakery, its bagels from Best Bagels (which Becky thinks is a chain, but we're not sure), and its tarts and savory pies from one of my favorite vendors at the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market, Nora Glantz. I'd be willing to bet that her broccoli pie had at least some local ingredients from the market in it.

When I got home I went out to the community garden and spent some time weeding and side dressing everything with some very fine composted manure. The tomatoes are finally looking healthy and happy - stocky little fellas. I put up all my tomato cages and I still need to buy 22 (!!!) or build some wire cages. I will have a lot to contribute to the Plant a Row for the Hungry program this summer. Hope they're hungry for 'maters.

There are a few of either the green lettuce or endive plants that I had given up on coming up. I don't remember what I planted where. The peas are just not that into me. The broccoli, kale, and friends are looking great and I picked some kale, along with a bunch of lamb's quarters in the uncultivated areas of the garden. And a few cherrybelle radishes.

It was pretty late when I began dinner, and the chicken breasts I thought I had thawed out for dinner turned out to be chicken backs and neck, so I'm making stock even though I didn't want to do that tonight.

So I chopped up the kale, three spring onions, minced a clove of elephant garlic, sliced some white mushrooms and sauteed them in some olive oil and sprinkled dried basil all over it. Cooked up some organic penne rigate, tossed it all together with a dollop of the olive oil/herb mayonnaise I made earlier this week and grated parmesan/reggiano.

Fed a taste to husband who refused to eat more, although he said it wasn't bad. In fact, it is very, very good but he's being a juvenile about food tonight. It happens from time to time. It was probably the mushrooms. He's particularly weird about them, even though he likes them.

ELC Day Eleven

I did eat a very good salad today, with spotted aleppo, tennis ball, and oakleaf lettuce, French breakfast radishes, carrots, and a creamy herb dressing that I made myself, starting with my own mayonnaise. I'll post the recipe sometime when I am not so tired, and have tweaked it a bit.

But tonight I fell totally off the wagon after running full-tilt all day and then ending the evening at a reception where there was cream cheese crab dip and lots of chocolate. The spirit was willing (I passed on ALL the meat) but the flesh was weak.

ELC Day Ten

Open-faced roast beef sandwiches, leftover Seattle Grits Cake, blah, blah, blah...

I'll try to come up with something else soon, but tomorrow will be so busy that it will probably be salad. But it will be a GOOD salad.

ELC Day Nine

I'm turning my fingers purple as I snack on these mulberries I picked from the tree across the street. I thought the robin in it was going to have a heart attack it was so agitated. Some of them are really good, and some of them are so-so. I can see why they have never made it as a "shippable" product. I guess I always ignored them because I regarded them as such a nuisance, but I can see the value in them now that I've tasted them. Thanks, Diane, for making me aware of these. Maybe one day I will make a cobbler.

Today has been such a good day! But foodwise, it was mostly leftovers. This morning I ate carrot cake around mid-morning. Snacked on some granola. Lunched at home with my leftover Seattle Grits Cake from Lucky 32 and STILL couldn't finish the whole thing. Tonight we're heading to the Sierra Club meeting where Charlie is speaking about Slow Food, and there will be refreshments there. I'll have to be good and wait until I get home to eat, then we'll probably have some of the leftover roast beef on Simple Kneads bread. Or marinated goat cheese from Goat Lady Dairy.

Oh yeah, and I'm sipping on a Duck-Rabbit amber ale, "handmade in Farmville, North Carolina." It's really good, almost Newcastle good.

ELC Day Eight

Lunch today: leftover beans, lamb's quarters, field peas, and brown rice from this weekend, strawberries, and carrot cake.

Dinner tonight: I was lucky indeed that the Sandman offered to take me out to dinner and we were near Lucky 32, so I went back and had a great meal with North Carolina ingredients again! This time I ordered the Seattle Grit Cake, which was supposed to be an appetizer, but turned out to be a huge plate of delicious slices of toasted grits (or polenta, if that suits you better) covered with asparagus, onions, portobello mushrooms, spinach, and a cream sauce. I only ate a third of it, so if you don't see a post from me tomorrow, you can assume I finished this meal off. And it only cost $7.95 in a beautiful restaurant with great, friendly service.

Plus, their cornbread was without a doubt the BEST I have ever tasted (Sandy had a piece with his meal). It had a naturally sweet, caramelized corn taste to it. The problem I have with most cornbread around here is that it is usually like eating dessert. This had exactly the right amount of sweetness. When I praised it to the waitress, she brought more for free.

Groan - I'm hauling my fat and satisfied self to bed now.

ELC Day Seven - Lamb's Quarters

Might I remind you about the newly born international Eat Local Challenge blog, where I just posted an article and recipe about lamb's quarters?

My husband and I really enjoyed this at lunch today. There was not a morsel of meat in it and Sandy ate two bowls full. It was easy, inexpensive, and delicious!

The navy beans came from Faucette Farm at the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market. The lamb's quarters came from my community garden row. I used a half clove of elephant garlic from the back forty. Elephant garlic is really amazing. I dug this last bulb up over a year ago and it is still good! I was lucky to find it today, and will use the last few cloves sparingly until I can get some garlic locally. Some salt, pepper, and Liquid Smoke and that was it.

The big meal was tonight's dinner. I have been marinating a grass-fed beef roast from Rocking F Farm for three days in the oil and vinegar salad dressing that I made last week. One thing I have learned about this pasture-raised beef is that the cuts that I can afford are tough, and have to be dealt with accordingly. I meant to put it in the crock pot yesterday morning but didn't have the time. With a rare rainy, stay-at-home in pajamas day ahead of me, I decided it was time to dig out a cast iron dutch oven that my mother gave me for Christmas two years ago.

I had nearly forgotten about it. We found it at a country antique store - seasoned and perfect and just like hers, except not so black. I had had my fill of trying to season several cast iron pots and pans in the last century. One set that belonged to my late mother-in-law had some kind of hard goo in them that I simply couldn't chisel out. The other set I just lost patience with and finally sold the whole she-bang really cheap at a flea market.

I dusted the roast in flour, browned it in olive oil on all sides, then simmered it all day long in the rest of the marinade with a little water, a little red wine, a sliced up onion, the other half of the elephant garlic, and two chopped portobello mushrooms. And I finally got the thing tender!

The portobello mushrooms were from Gann Farm at the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market. The onion was from Faucette Farms. The wine was a great discovery - from Grove Winery, a Merlot grown in my county! I bought it at Deep Roots Market. It is very good to drink, too - I plan to sample a little more as I watch the Sopranos.

ELC Day Six

Last night's meal of pork chops with barbeque sauce, field peas, and potato/leek salad was very, very good. I got out my first cookbook, Better Homes and Gardens, to remind myself of how to cook the pork chops. I browned them first, and then simmered them for a long time in the sauce. Excellent. Since I snagged the last four chops that Wes had until the fall, I'll save the other two for a special meal.

While I was doing that, I baked a carrot cake. I was not kidding when I wrote that I have never baked a cake. I've never been a big cake eater, which is funny because my mother bakes cakes that routinely bring more than $100 at charity auctions. It's not that I don't like them. I just don't usually save room for them because everything else is so good!

I used up all my carrots except for the three still out in the dirt. I had no idea it would take so long to grate them, and I regretted throwing out the food processor parts for doing such tasks. I assumed that my mouli would make short work of it, but it seems that my mouli is very, very dull.

Then I realized that the cake was not going to be enough for 30 people, and I was too tired to start another one. I had enough ingredients for half a recipe so I got up early and baked another half cake. No time for the cream cheese frosting. That meant I barely had enough time to get to the farmer's market, pick up my chicken from Wes, and shop for half the items on my list.

When I got to Charlie's at 9 a.m., I found out that I misunderstood and there would be 20 people. After actually losing sleep over this and running around like a nutcase this morning. D'oh! But hooray - I have carrot cake to eat this weekend!

Oh yeah, and I used flour from the Old Mill of Guilford. Donna happened to have a special order that didn't get picked up, so she sold it to me. So at least I have found locally milled flour - maybe not from locally grown wheat, though.

Anyway, the workshop was great, but that's another post.

For lunch, Charlie made a spinach lasagna with spinach from his garden, and we made a huge salad from his garden, including radishes from mine.

I'm not sure I can cook tonight. It might be carrot cake, field peas, and potato salad for dinner.

This morning at the market I bought:
chicken, eggs, spring onions, and snow peas from Back Woods Family Farm
dried navy beans and onions - Faucette Farm
alfalfa sprouts - Snow Creek Organics
strawberries - my new friend from Julian, NC

And didn't have time for the rest, so I may be taking a Sunday trip to the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market, something I don't normally do because it is so much farther away off a busy highway. They have a who-o-o-le different thang going on out there. Not better or worse, just a different vibe and some different products. I hear that there's a vendor who brings fish from the coast, so it will be worth the trip to check that out. Especially if s/he has shrimp.

ELC Day Five

Tonight will be a cooking night, since I promised to bake a cake for tomorrow's permaculture gardening workshop with Charlie. I told him that I've never baked a cake before, so if it's awful, he has to tell me it's delicious anyway.

Now I wish I had thought ahead enough to buy lots of strawberries last weekend for this dessert, but it looks like it will be a carrot cake. I'm using the recipe from the Moosewood Cookbook, and making a cream cheese (Organic Valley, NEVER Horizon!) and pecan frosting. The carrots are from my garden, the pecans are from the farmers' market, the butter is from Homeland Creamery, and the rest of the ingredients will be organic except the baking powder and soda.

As long as I'm in the kitchen, I'm going to bake marinated pork chops (from Back Woods Family Farm), use the rest of the egg salad (which I had AGAIN for lunch) in potato salad (red potatoes from Gann Farm, lovage and dill from the back yard, an organic leek still in the fridge from Deep Roots Market, and of course, Duke's mayonnaise), and cook a small pot of field peas frozen from my garden last year.

"Lip Lickin' Sweet and Smoky BBQ sauce" is made in Greensboro. Around this area you can't throw a rock without hitting a barbecue joint. I will commit a sacrilege right now and confess that I don't care much for chopped barbecue. I'm not into that vinegary sauce that's used in North Carolina. When I go, it's for the hush puppies. These will be the first pork chops I've eaten in ten years, by the way, so I'm planning to put this sweet sauce on them.

Uh, how do I cook pork chops? I don't remember! But I poured this stuff over them last night.

According to the Slow Food RAFT map, our region is the "Corn Bread and BBQ Nation." I understand why, but I don't have to like it. If I really decide to cook this meal the way my family did when I was growing up, I'll fry my cornbread like pancakes, or make corn muffins. Around here people bake it very sweet, like cake.

ELC Day Four

Looks like my ELC daily posts will cover the evening before, since I don't usually get on the computer late at night. My eyes need a rest by then.

Last night, Sandy and I went out for a couple of drinks after I watered the community row. We have two local breweries in Greensboro - Natty Greene's (named for Revolutionary War General Nathaniel Greene, who lost an important battle with the British here, but weakened them so much that it led to their surrender at Yorktown soon after) and Red Oak. I had a Buckshot Amber Ale at Natty Greene's and a Red Oak at McCoul's Irish Pub. Also tasted Sandy's Smithwick Irish Ale, which may result in me adding another exemption to the list! The waitresses at these restaurants were puzzled at my queries about local food.

Weeknight dinners (or suppers where I come from) are not a big thing at our house. Sandy is not usually hungry because he often eats a large late lunch. He wasn't brought up to eat regular scheduled meals like I was. I use the late afternoons to work in the garden during the week, and sometimes I am too tired to cook or even eat. So I often end up picking at leftovers or having a good snack in the place of dinner.

Local snacks are an issue. It's a good thing that I like cheese.

Breakfast today: Yogurt and strawberries! I almost forgot that I had local strawberries!

Lunch: my co-worker and I went to Lucky 32, whose owners have made a commitment to supporting local foods, co-ops such as Eastern Carolina Organics, companies such as Niman Ranch, as well as Slow Food Piedmont Triad. It was a little more expensive that I usually spend for lunch, but after two days of eggs and lettuce I was ready for some real food.

After asking about the origin of the shrimp (California, but at least she could gave me an answer!), I decided to order Cornmeal Crusted Carolina Catfish with Creole mayonnaise, creamy grits and "seasonal vegetable," which turned out to be broccoli rabe - all delicious. The grits served at Lucky 32 (and sister restaurant Green Valley Grill) are savory and fabulous and I could eat them by themselves. They buy their grits and cornmeal from the Old Mill of Guilford.

Okay, I did eat the pickled okra on my companion's plate. I'm only human!

ELC Day Three

Okay, don't laugh, but the egg salad sandwich I had for lunch today was nothing less than scrumptious!

I was making up a batch of regular egg salad for the Sandman with sweet pickle relish, and spotted the jar of chutney. Generally I wouldn't think of eating eggs and fruit together, but it was a winner.

You won't be able to recreate this exactly, but I'll bet that you could come close to it if you tried. I made mine with hard-boiled eggs from Back Woods Family Farm, quince chutney chopped up fine, honey mustard (not local, but I'm going on a quest for local mustard and BBQ sauce this weekend), a little Duke's mayonnaise (technically within the perimeters, it was made in Richmond, VA), salt and pepper, and topped it off with tennis ball lettuce.

The eggs were huge and so good that I ate two standing at the sink, salt shaker in hand, for my dinner last night. And I didn't need anything else!

Although the quince chutney was not made totally from local ingredients, the quinces were from the tree next door, the peaches were bought at the Piedmont Triad Farmers Market last year and dried in my food dehydrator (something I definitely plan to do again this summer), and the raisins, dried cherries, sugar, and apple cider vinegar were organic and from Deep Roots Market.

The wholegrain bread was from Simple Kneads Bakery. I bought it already sliced, and I keep it in the freezer so that I can pull out a few slices at a time. Since there are only two people in this household and we're not big sandwich eaters most of the time, a big loaf of bread can go stale before it is half eaten. However, I have noticed that their bread will keep as long as a week on the counter and still be fairly fresh. When it isn't, it goes in the freezer for meatloaf or bread pudding or strata.

ELC Day Two

Because I'm not wasting food, I am eating the yogurt that I forgot about this week, so it won't go bad. So I had that with "Good God Granola" from Snow Creek Family Organics (Sandy Ridge, NC) this morning. They didn't grow the ingredients, but they put them together.

For lunch, I had a salad with the thinnings from my garden this weekend. Tennis ball lettuce, spotted Aleppo lettuce, the few Lutz salad beet greens that survived the Critter, carrots, and French breakfast radishes, topped with marinated goat cheese from Goat Lady Dairy (Climax, NC). This was my first salad from my garden. Last year I ate my first salad in late March!

For dessert, I had a slice of wholegrain bread from Simple Kneads Bakery (Greensboro, NC) topped with quince butter that I made this past December, from the quince tree next door.

As I posted before, what I am exploring this month as part of the Eat Local Challenge is making my salad dressings from scratch. Yes, it's simple, but I've never bothered because I liked the bottled dressings I bought. Here's the recipe I used for a basic vinaigrette from my favorite cookbook writer:

1 cup olive oil
5 Tbsp vinegar
1/2 tsp salt

Her recipe then calls for garlic, but I added 2 Tbsp. of garlic chives from my garden instead. I poured it all in a bottle, shook it up, and that was that.

The vinegar was local! I bought it from Quaker Acres Apiaries at the Greensboro Farmers' Curb Market. It is honey wine vinegar, and if you want to hear all about it, all you need to do is look at it and you'll get the full story.

Did I like the dressing? Well, not especially. I think I'll use it to marinate a roast. I'm a green goddess girl, myself. I need to make a trip to Earth Fare for some Homestead Creamery buttermilk. And I'm going to make mayonnaise.

While I'm there, I may buy some North Carolina trout. Although Earth Fare sells humanely-raised meat and poultry, I asked the guy at the butcher counter, and none of it is local. Not much of the seafood is, either.

ELC Day One

This will be a brief post, since I've had migraines since last night around 9:30, and I don't want to poke the monster while it's snoozing.

Because of my sickliness, eating anything and just getting up was a challenge today. So I wasn't 100%.

Today I ate some leftover mac and cheese with broccoli. The mac and cheese was Annie's, but the broccoli was local from the farmer's market.

Other than that, I drank coffee (organic free-trade from Deep Roots Market, with organic sugar from DRM, and lightened with milk from Homestead Creamery, which is in Wirtz, Virginia, but according to Yahoo Maps is 87.3 miles away. I like them because they use glass bottles that you can rinse and return to the store.

I made my pitcher of iced tea flavored with mint from my garden last night, and I am oh so glad that I did.

I have no idea what I'll try to put on my stomach tonight, but it will likely involve bread and goat cheese. If I start feeling much better, salad from my garden with a simple vinagrette dressing.

Eat Local Challenge Goals - Update

I posted my personal goals for the May 2006 Eat Local Challenge a few weeks ago. Now that I've had a little more time to mull these over, I've tweaked and refined them.

Goal: To eat food produced within 100 miles as much as possible, then extend the range to food raised, produced, or caught in North Carolina, South Carolina, or Virginia.

Exemptions: salt, pepper, spices, tamari, flour*, pasta*, rice, olive oil, lemon juice, apple cider and balsamic vinegars, tahini, sugar, other baking necessities, Parmesano-Reggiano, coffee, tea.

Challenge: I'm used to eating out for lunch in the neighborhood, and I don't think that anyone serves local food. My addiction to Pepsi One, which I'll try to kick in May. My new craving for olives. I'll miss salmon and bacon. Local regulations will not allow pork producers to cure meat without nitrates.

Help needed in finding: Grains of all kinds, pasta. If I can find local sources for flour, pasta, and Carolina grown rice, I'll take them off the exemption list in an update.

Tips offered: The Greensboro Farmers' Curb Market sells locally grown chicken, beef, pork, dried beans, mushrooms, milk, butter, goat cheese, and eggs, in addition to seasonal fruits and vegetables. Chicken will be available from Back Woods Family Farm again in May. The corn for the grits and cornmeal from the Old Mill at Guilford is grown in Yanceyville. Donna sells their products at the Curb Market. The Piedmont Triad Farmers Market also sells sustainably raised lamb, and ostrich. Deep Roots Market carries some local products, including some fruits and vegetables, beef and dairy products.

NOTES:

I'll buy my fair-trade organic coffee from Tate Street Coffee House, which is a short walk away, and sorry, but I have to have sugar in my coffee.

I'll keep a pitcher of iced tea in the refrigerator to try to kick my diet soda habit. I can't go without caffeine - my migraines are enough of a problem in the spring. The problem here will be my husband drinking it all. He loves sweet tea. I'll flavor it with mint from my garden.

I'll buy my bread from Simple Kneads, a wonderful organic bakery in downtown Greensboro, or from nearby Spring Garden Bakery, or pita from Dough Re Mi at the Greensboro Farmers' Curb Market. Or bake it.

I am mulling over making my own pasta for the first time. After all, I have to justify buying this noodle-cutter at the Liberty Antiques Festival yesterday! Note that I bought a "new" baking pan that begs for lasagne as well. I think I found a source for semolina flour from Virginia. I'll post more if I decide to do it - it looks like the fates have decreed this. Now let's see if I have the time and energy.

I plan to eat a lot of salad, which is not really one of my favorite foods. The way I have decided to make this fun and challenging is that I will make my own salad dressings and marinades. I've been addicted to Annie's dressings for years, but there's no reason I couldn't make my own from scratch. I've added a lot of the base ingredients for salad dressings and marinades to the exemption list, to which I plan to add herbs from my garden and other ingredients that I find at the farmers' market.

Eat Local Challenge Goals

The Eat Local Challenge is scheduled for May, 2006.

Goal: To eat food produced within 100 miles as much as possible, then extend the range to food raised, produced, or caught in North Carolina, South Carolina, or Virginia.

Exemptions: salt, pepper, flour, pasta, rice, olive oil, lemon juice, coffee, sugar. I'll buy my fair-trade organic coffee from Tate Street Coffee House, and sorry, but I have to have sugar in my coffee. I'll buy my bread from Simple Kneads, a wonderful organic bakery in downtown Greensboro, or from nearby Spring Garden Bakery.

Challenge: Seafood. Cheddar cheese. My addiction to Pepsi One, which I'll try to kick in May. My new craving for olives.

Help needed in finding: Grains of all kinds, pasta. Donna Myers of Epicourier is researching flour for me. If I can find local sources for flour, pasta, and Carolina grown rice, I'll take them off the exemption list in an update.

Tips offered: The Greensboro Farmers' Curb Market sells locally grown chicken, beef, pork, milk, butter, goat cheese, and eggs. Chicken will be available from Back Woods Family Farm again in May. The corn for the grits and cornmeal from the Old Mill at Guilford is grown in Yanceyville. Donna sells their products at the Curb Market. The Piedmont Triad Farmers Market also sells sustainably raised lamb, and ostrich.

I've decided to archive the posts about my Eat Local Challenge in my project blog: Food with a Face.

Eat Local Challenge is Coming Soon!

Through several of the blogs on my new "Local Motive" blog roll, I learned of the Eat Local Challenge. Last August, a group from the San Francisco Bay area called themselves the Locavores and issued this challenge to whoever chose to take it up: For one month, set a goal to eat within a 100 mile radius of your home. This year, the challenge month is May, and I have decided to take up the challenge and share my progress on this blog. You're welcome to join the Eat Local Challenge too!

Realizing that not everybody lives in a Slow Food heaven such as the Bay area, you are encouraged to set your own goals and guidelines. I entered mine into their database without much thought, and it was published, so if you sign up, you might want to consider your options first. Read through what other people are planning to do. There is a wide range of plans, from folks planning to eat 100% locally, to one who plans to eat only from her state and the states bordering her state, to those who plan to eat one entire meal a week locally.

Here is an excellent set of guidelines for eating well from their website that makes sense for all months of the year.

Guidelines for Eating Well

If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic. This is one of the most readily available alternatives in the market and making this choice protects the environment and your body from harsh chemicals and hormones.

If not ORGANIC, then Family farm. When faced with Kraft or Cabot cheeses, Cabot, a dairy co-op in Vermont, is the better choice. Supporting family farms helps to keep food processing decisions out of the hands of corporate conglomeration.

If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business. Basics like coffee and bread make buying local difficult. Try a local coffee shop or bakery to keep your food dollar close to home.

If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Terroir, which means 'taste of the Earth'. Purchase foods famous for the region they are grown in and support the agriculture that produces your favorite non-local foods such as Brie cheese from Brie, France or parmesan cheese from Parma, Italy.

Hit the farmers' market before the supermarket. Plan your meal around local ingredients you find at the market.

Branch out. Maybe your usual food repertoire could use some fresh ideas. The farmers' market provides a perfect chance to try a new ingredient when it's in season, and lets you talk to its grower to find out the best way to prepare your new food. Flirt with your food producer!

Feed the freezer. Can't cook every night? Worried about your fresh produce going bad? It's easy. Make lasagna with local tomatoes or a soup packed with fresh veggies and freeze it! You can also make personal size meals for a brown bag lunch.

I've been blogging in my head (once called "thinking") about this ever since I found out about the Eat Local Challenge last year, especially during the last three days as I've been gearing up my plans for May. I am the only one so far that has signed up from North Carolina, so I challenge my fellow Tarheels to join me and let's share our sources!

I plan to re-write my goals and exemptions this weekend and post them. It should be a stormy day tomorrow - a perfect day to stay inside and write unless the power goes out! Then I guess I'd have to revert to a curious relic called an "pen" that uses "ink."

sustainable vs. organic

Wouldn't it be nice if all our food products could be trusted to have been BOTH sustainably and organically produced? Many times, they are. But the two terms are not interchangable, as this helpful article from The Sustainable Table shows. (Hat tip to Lawrence London of the soon-to-be launched Permaculture Piedmont NC blog for reminding me about one of my favorite web sites!)

"Are organic and sustainable the same?

"Organic agriculture is becoming more popular because consumers are demanding healthful and environmentally friendly food. In theory, organic agriculture strives to preserve the land for generations to come, but increased demand has interested large agribusiness corporations who intend to profit from the trend.

"The issue can be very confusing -- for example, even though organic is certified by the USDA, large corporations have found ways to raise dairy cows in confinement, use massively large acreages to plant crops (monoculture), and ship food thousands of miles to sell. These practices are not considered sustainable.

"This means that organic and sustainable agriculture are similar in some respects but different in others. The following table is a comparison of the two farming techniques.

Organic [vs.] Sustainable

---

O) Must be independently certified every year and approved by the USDA
S) No certification necessary

---

O) Can confine animals. Only need to give animals "access" to outdoors; don't actually have to let them go out.
S) Animals must be permitted to carry out their natural behaviors, e.g., rooting, pecking or grazing. A sustainable farmer might keep his animals indoors in bad weather, but the health and well-being of the animal comes first.

---

O) No antibiotics allowed
S) No legal restrictions, though sustainable farmers either will not give any antibiotics at all or only when the animals are sick and need to be treated. Antibiotics are never routinely put in feed or water to promote growth or to ward off potential disease.

---

O) No hormones allowed.
S) No hormones used.

---

O) Large corporations can raise food organically.
S) Sustainable food production is carried out by families who live and work on the land.

---

O) There is no limitation on how many acres can be used to grow crops.
S) Sustainable farmers use various placements of crops and plants as a form of pest control and to build soil fertility. Crops are not raised on massive amounts of acreage.

---

O) Food can travel thousands of miles before reaching your dinner plates. Organic food does not consider the use of fossil fuels or extended amounts of time that can result between harvesting/ processing and eating.
S) Food is raised and sold as close to the farm as possible. Buying locally and eating as seasonally as possible are sustainable practices

---

"Please note that many organic farmers are also sustainable. The confusion has come about because the USDA organic rules alone are not necessarily sustainable. And many small farmers chose to give up their organic certification when the USDA put their rules into effect in 2002 because the paperwork was overwhelming. But these farmers are still raising animals and crops using organic or what some are now calling "Beyond Organic" methods.

"In addition, large food companies have started to buy organic companies, which hurts competition and can eventually drive down the price farmers are paid while increasing the profits of the corporation. These large corporations are more likely to have monoculture, where one type of food is raised on large tracts of land, as well as confined animals. They also will ship food very long distances.

"Even though this can be potentially confusing, don't be discouraged! As a consumer, it's important to know where your food comes from. Purchasing products from local, independent family farmers – whether organic or sustainable – is your best option.

"Knowing where your food comes from is essential to eating sustainably."

There is a wonderful radio show called Beyond Organic, and you can listen to their current show and their archives on their web site.

Here's an excerpt from An Organic Cash Cow by Kim Severson, published in the New York Times today, that makes this point perfectly!

"The ethos of organic milk - one that its cartons reinforce - conjures lush pastures dotted with grazing animals, their milk production driven by nothing more than nature's hand and a helpful family farmer.

"But choosing organic milk doesn't guarantee much beyond this: It comes from a cow whose milk production was not prompted by an artificial growth hormone, whose feed was not grown with pesticides and which had "access to pasture," a term so vague it could mean that a cow might spend most of its milk-producing life confined to a feed lot eating grain and not grass.

"Exactly how much time cows should spend grazing before their milk can carry the government's organic label is under scrutiny. Several hundred farmers and organic advocates want organic dairy rules tightened so that cows have more than what they call token access to pasture.

"The issue may be ultimately decided in court, said Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute in Wisconsin. His organization is fighting the rise of confinement organic dairies, which, by his estimate, account for about 30 percent of the organic milk sold.

"So, what's a well-intentioned milk drinker to do? Decide what matters to you most.

"First, weigh the importance of the organic label. Milk from the Ronnybrook Farm Dairy in the Hudson Valley, which is sold in bottles at Manhattan's Greenmarkets, is not certified organic. The dairy uses no artificial growth hormones, but it treats sick animals with antibiotics. In the summer the animals eat mostly pasture; in the winter they eat hay with grain mixed in.

"It is a sustainable operation whose owners decided that the term "organic" was becoming co-opted by large corporations, and that the extra cost of the federal organic label was not worth it. For some, milk that has not traveled far and that comes from cows in small pasture-based operations is more important than an official stamp."

Here in Greensboro, I buy my milk and butter from Homeland Creamery. They have a booth at the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market, but they also sell their dairy products at Earth Fare, Deep Roots Market, and other markets. They are not organic - they are local and sustainable dairy farmers.

You can find out more about organic/unsustainable dairies such as Horizon and Aurora at Organic Consumers Association and sign a petition. An organic/sustainable dairy cooperative who did not choose to weaken their values for profit is Organic Valley. When Wal-mart demanded a price that Organic Valley could not produce without compromising their standards, Wal-mart turned to Horizon Dairy. (From the November 1, NYT article What Is Organic? Powerful Players Want a Say by Melanie Warner, reprinted at OCA.)

"George Simeon, chief executive of Organic Valley, a cooperative of mostly small organic dairy farmers, wrestled with the high cost of organic production a little over a year ago when Wal-Mart asked for a 20 percent price cut. For three years, Organic Valley had been Wal-Mart's primary supplier of organic milk.

"'Wal-Mart allows you to really build market share,' Mr. Simeon said. 'But we're about our values and being able to sustain our farmers. If a customer wants to stretch us to the point where we're not able to deliver our mission, then we have to find different markets.'

"Mr. Simeon told Wal-Mart to get a new supplier.

"Dean Foods' Horizon Organic was better equipped to satisfy Wal-Mart's demands. Horizon gets about 20 percent of its production from a 4,000-cow organic dairy in Paul, Idaho, which is small in comparison with many conventional dairy farms but huge by organic standards."

If you can't buy milk from a local dairy and you can afford organic, please support Organic Valley for standing up for their principles over profit. Boycott Wal-Mart, Dean Foods, Horizon Dairy, and Aurora Organic (and, as always, MONSANTO!). Embrace your power as a consumer.

(For a related post, see honesty and organics.)

honesty and organics

If you have been reading my posts about the organic controversy, you might think that I'm upset because I buy only 100% organic food. No, I'm not an organic zealot. I'm upset because I don't like dishonesty, and we have to protect our food supply from the further influence of big ag and big food, because they have proven themselves untrustworthy. I advocate buying food locally from farmers and food producers who use sustainable processes and ingredients whenever possible.

I was in a debate on the Slow Food listserv this weekend about the rider to the Agriculture Bill that weakened organic standards. The debate, between me and an owner of a large organic processing facility, was very helpful in clarifying my thoughts on the subject, so I was grateful for the opportunity. One of the points that I regret not commenting on was that the "USDA Organic" seal does not state that the product is at least 95% organic on the label, so that is why it is misleading.

Here is an image of how four different cereal boxes might look under the current standards (from Organic Food Standards and Labels: The Facts).

Now look at just the second one from the left. Without knowing the particulars of the USDA Organic system, and without seeing the comparisons with the products on either side, might you think that this product was totally organic?

Here's the link for Labeling Requirements for foods that are at least 95% organic. Why didn't they simply decide to use a seal that says 95% organic instead of the same seal used for 100% organic? That would have been a good compromise.

Since the consumer does not have access to this information on the package, usage of the USDA seal implies that there are no synthetic ingredients used. Whether the ingredients are benign or not has nothing to do with the fact that this label misleads the public. Personally, I don't care if organic manufacturers use baking powder or ascorbic acid in their foods. That's not the issue. The issue is that others might, and the labeling should be accurate and transparent.

For example, Monsanto and the USDA think that genetic engineering is beneficial to agriculture. Whether something is benign or not is highly subjective. But you can't make a synthetic ingredient organic. Once you begin re-defining words to make them fit what you would like for them to mean, you are opening the door to an Orwellian world of uncertainty in what should be an objective process.

Okay, let's say that you don't find that these 38 added ingredients to the National List are a big deal. Neither do I, really. You haven't seen the most disturbing part yet. This paragraph at the Organic Consumers Association sums it up:

"For the first time, the Secretary will have the power to expedite petitions for access to the list of substances that are commercially unavailable in organic form. Right now there are 38 synthetic substances on the National List that have been carefully reviewed and approved by the National Organic Standards Board over the past ten years. Eight more synthetic substances have been reviewed and approved by the NOSB and are awaiting USDA authority to be placed on the National List. The industry has requested that 517 more synthetic substances be approved. In all likelihood, this new power granted to the Secretary will be the opening of the floodgate to these hundreds of synthetic ingredients being allowed in products labeled 'USDA Organic.'"

Also:

"The Secretary may develop emergency procedures for designating agricultural products that are commercially unavailable in organic form for placement on the National List for a period of time not to exceed 12 months."

See this page for the specific language of the amendment.

The Secretary of Agriculture is Mike Johanns. From the Center for Responsible Politics:

Corporate Connections:

Archer Daniels Midland; Kraft (Altria); Tyson Foods; ConAgra


Raised on a dairy farm in Iowa, Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns was nominated by President Bush to take over the Department of Agriculture from Secretary Ann Veneman. First elected in 1998, Johanns became the first Republican to win a second term as governor in the state in more than four decades, according to the Institute on Money in State Politics. A little more than $108,000 of the $2.3 million Johanns raised between 1999 and 2002 came from agricultural companies including Archer Daniels Midland, Kraft and Tyson Foods and the Nebraska-based ConAgra, Follow the Money reported. While these businesses are key to the state’s economy, they are also subject to federal regulations set by the department that Johanns will be heading. The bulk of Johanns' campaign war chest came from individual contributors, who gave a combined total of more than $900,000, or 38 percent of his total, Follow the Money reported.

The Secretary from 2001 to 2005? Ann Veneman. I guess that we should count our blessings (from Common Dreams):

"Veneman has served as a key member of the Reagan and Bush administration farm teams, as director of the California Department of Food and Agriculture during the gubernatorial administration of agribusiness favorite Pete Wilson, as an agribusiness lawyer and as a member of the national steering committee of Farmers and Ranchers for Bush. In those positions she has rarely missed an opportunity to promote a free-trade regimen that advances the interests of international food production and processing conglomerates, to encourage policies that lead to the displacement of family farms with huge factory farms, to open public lands for mineral extraction and timbering, to support genetic modification of food and to defend biotech experimentation with agriculture. Indeed, Veneman is a biotech absolutist who served on the board of Calgene, the corporation that launched the first genetically engineered food in 1994. Veneman told a forum last year, 'We simply will not be able to feed the world without biotechnology.'"

So. Do you, as an organic or sustainable consumer, trust the Secretary of Agriculture or the USDA to regulate organic certification? The Bush administration has three more years until we boot them out. The way things are going in D.C. Bush may appoint another director of a Monsanto-owned company to the post before you can blink an eye. Think that the Democrats would be better? I wouldn't count on it. Most of them are as brainwashed about industrial agriculture as the Republicans.

Buy locally and sustainably produced foods and food products. Ask your farmer and food artisan about his or her practices. Many are organic or mostly organic and cannot advertise it because they are not certified. Many have chosen not to be a part of this flawed system.

Show the power of the organic consumer by not buying these "organic" products (from the Non-Corporate Food Shopper's Guide) when they display the USDA Organic seal without the 100% designation:

• Brand Name(s): Silk Soy Milk, Horizon Dairy
  Owned By: White Wave
  Principle Stockholders: Dean Foods
  Significantly Owned By: Citigroup, Coca Cola, ExxonMobil, General Electric, Home Depot, Microsoft, Pepsico, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Walmart



• Brand Name(s): Balance Bar, Boca Burger
  Owned By: Kraft Foods.
  Principle Stockholders: Philip Morris



• Brand Name(s): Knudsen, After the Fall, Santa Cruz
  Owned By: J.M. Smucker
  Significantly Owned By: Pepsico



• Brand Name(s): Stonyfield Farms
  Owned By: Danone
  Principle Stockholders: Citigroup, Exxon, General Electric,Walmart



• Brand Name(s): Arrowhead Mills, Bearitos, Breadshop, Celestial Seasonings, Earth's Best Baby Food, Garden of Eatin, Health Valley, Imagine Foods, Terra Chips, Westbrae, Millina's, Mountain Sun, Shari Ann's, Walnut Acres
  Owned By: Hain Food Group
  Principle Stockholders: Bank of America, Entergy Nuclear, ExxonMobil, H.J. Heinz, Lockheed Martin, Merck, Monsanto, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Walmart, Waste Management Inc.
  Significantly Owned By: Citigroup



• Brand Name(s): Cascadian Farms, Muir Glen
  Owned By: Small Planet Foods
  Principle Stockholders: General Mills
  Significantly Owned By: Alcoa, Chevron, Disney, Dupont, ExxonMobil, General Electric, McDonalds, Monsanto, Nike, Pepsico, Pfizer, Philip Morris, Starbucks, Target, Texas Instruments

Items in bold are companies that I personally boycott and not a judgment one way or another against others on the list. It won't be easy to boycott all these items, especially the Hain Food Group and Small Planet Foods. But I think that I can find alternatives until they do, and I'll feel better for it.

And I'm not worried about the OTA's claim that "if Congress had not acted, many of the organic products consumers know and love would have disappeared." Puh-lease. Just change the labeling so that it is trustworthy, as over 300,000 of your customers have asked. Give us that much respect, and don't try to trick us into paying premium prices for misleading labels.

If we don't fight this, what will we do when the government and industry wants to force the next new questionable ingredient on the organic standards?

Later this week: Sustainable vs. Organic.