passions :: perfections :: peoples :: stuffs
Uncle Glenn and The Choice of Buying Organic:
To Glenn, a farmer’s job is to produce as much food as he possibly can, because people tend to need more food than they have. Developing and improving chemicals that increase yields is one way the farm industry keeps up with ever-increasing demand. We tend to look at the environmental damages caused by industrial farm runoff—not to be understated—and we associate the pollution with corporate greed. It’s easy to forget that without these chemicals, we’d perhaps have less food. The cost/benefit analysis here is tied inextricably to the ones that motivate our individual consumption, and it’s even harder to balance.
[Puff piece? You decide. But I think the answer is in distributed growing rather than in counting on "specialists" (farmers) for everything. There was a time when everyone was a "farmer" for themselves. What if stopped growing lawns (I don't) and started vegetable gardens? Don't you think that improve things for everyone? I do.]
Source: Simple Blog
If you want make any abode feel like a home you should bake bread. I don’t know why it makes this seem truer than preparing other food stuffs. But it does. Never done it before? Think you lack the equipment? Here’s what to do. Go to your local pizza place. Ask for one of the uncooked rounds of dough they make into a pizza. Take it home, shape to suit, pop into the oven until it looks done to you. Wonder at how you’ve just elevated the sense of home in your house, apartment, hovel, what have you…
Now, start looking at recipes…
The Fox Is Black » Magnus Nilsson’s Arctic Cuisine:
The menu at Fäviken is changeable, as when one ingredient runs out, it needs to be replaced by another. We never replace dishes ”just because”, instead we would rather wait for a new ingredient, idea or dish that is actually better than the one being replaced. Much of what we serve has its own life and remain on the menu for a long time, slowly evolving into something entirely different to the original, despite having the same name throughout its life.
[Like the philosophy, can't speak for the food.]
parsnip latkes with horseradish and dill:
I have this affliction or maybe you could call it a fixation with latkes. And I know you’re probably thinking, potato pancakes? With shredded onion? They’re good, but are they really worth obsessing over? But you’d be using the literal definition of latkes and to me, latkes are not so much a singular recipe with a finite ingredient list but an approach to pancakes; an approach that could include anything that can be shredded and fried. And oh, when you start from this vantage point, they most certainly will.
I’ve made potato latkes, sure. Many times, even. But then I made mixed vegetable latkes with Indian spices and curry-lime yogurt. I made apple latkes, replete with a caramel sauce made from the juice you wring from the shredded apples. (I waste nothing in the kitchen. My grandmother would be so proud!) This past summer, I made zucchini fritters to solve a dinner crisis. And now, there’s this: Parsnips. Potatoes. Dill. Horseradish. Lemon juice.
[We played around with the same idea—to try various root vegetables—and decided "to not to" for the sake of our expanded holiday waistlines, but we did salt away the concept. This post should act as a reminder. One critical note. Latkes are at their finest only moments from the pan, when they are just cool enough to eat without burning your mouth. because most if us can't fry enough at once to serve them to a large group at a meal, they are best either on their own, served as a treat or hors d'oeuvre.]
Source: smitten kitchen
Somehow the moment you say you’re not eating meat people thrust a salad at you. Not an eggplant or mushrooms or broccoli or pulses or grains or rice or pasta or rutabaga. A salad. A big pile of lettuce with some oil and vinegar on it.
[That is because most people only think of meat, fowl, and maybe fish as "eating". There's no belief that you could be satiated without it, and little thought given to whatever else is being served.]
Source: Sasha Dichter’s Blog
Waldo Jaquith:
A cheeseburger cannot exist outside of a highly developed,
post-agrarian society. It requires a complex interaction between a
handful of vendors — in all likelihood, a couple of dozen — and
the ability to ship ingredients vast distances while keeping them
fresh. The cheeseburger couldn’t have existed until nearly a
century ago as, indeed, it did not.Love the Sagan quote at the end.
[While an interesting thought experiment it doesn't ring entirely true. Sure there can be problems with the seasonality of vegetables, but cheese making would have been a continual pursuit for those who did it. And while animal rennet is certainly most common, there are vegetable used rennets as well. etc. etc. The truth seems closer to "it takes a village" than do it all yourself. Maybe you hot house something, trade for some cheese, and no doubt, pre-freezer slaughtering a cow or a sheep would require multiple families because a single (unless very large) family couldn't eat the animal fast enough… I try and enjoy each season for what it brings in all senses. The weather, the food, the holidays. So I think the effort to completely raise the entire meal from the ground is cool, much as planting trees to turn into furniture later is cool. But that path is long, and life is fleeting.]
Source: Daring Fireball
Why the Keurig K-Cup is the beginning of the end for great coffee « Muddy Dog Roasting Co.: Do you think that vision is crazy? Let’s see. How easy is it to buy a Walla Walla onion? Never heard of it? I’m not surprised. I grew up with them, but they’re already a thing of the past. Hundreds of vegetable varieties have already gone extinct, solely due to our desire to homogenize, to have crops that ship well, regardless of how they taste. Only 5% of US apple varieties that existed just 200 years ago still exist today. Ninety percent of vegetable varieties have gone extinct over the last 100 years in the UK. The crimson flowered broad bean, the Champion of England Pea, the Bath Cos Lettuce, and the Rowsham Park Hero Onion are just a few examples of vegetables that are lost forever. Hundreds of heirloom vegetable varieties are on the brink of extinction. And there are all kinds of other foods that are falling victim to this same phenomenon. Try to buy a really great charcuterie today – Boar’s Head is as close as you’ll get in most places. A beautiful creme fraiche? How about Yoplait? Great cheeses? We got your Kraft, RIGHT HERE. Don’t believe me? Go check out Slow Food’s Ark of Taste. Oh, what’s that, you would like to have a nice meal at a cute bistro? Sorry, all that’s available now are chain stores like Panera, TGI Friday’s or Appleby’s. But you can probably score some Jack Daniels chicken wings, or some other ill-advised mess. I can sum it all up in one word: Monsanto.
[And while Jim of Muddy Dog Roasting Company explains from his perspective. I think this particular paragraph worries me more (I'm not a coffee drinker) in that it is part of a larger problem, which expressed perfectly above. And in case it isn't obvious the lost biodiversity is not just a loss of taste and experience. That's bad enough. But it has become entirely clear that eating different foods is healthy for you, and having variations of each food makes that easier (you eat a tomato, but it's a different tomato). The varying balances of the "ingredients" of a fruit or vegetable is a fundamental goodness. And the craft of growing and preparing food, where the results are not consistent at the "Monsanto" level and don't try to be is also a fundamental goodness. It's the same thing that is appealing about anything hand made. Sure, a dreadnaught style guitar has certain fundamental qualities. But each one is different. Hand build a bicycle and each one will have some personality even if you use the same measurements and tube set. That variation is good for us. And we need to be extremely careful that we don't lose it in a chase to the bottom in the name of efficiency and money.]
Source: Marco Arment
Kim Lisagor:
At the end of a busy school day, kids need some love from a
relaxed, supportive parent. At the end of a busy work day, some of
us need a little help to become that parent. Here’s what to do
when the closest mixer is a juice box.
[Gets more plausible each and every day.]
Source: Daring Fireball
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a Luxardo maraschino cherry or an organic cocktail cherry. Turn to face Cupertino and raise your glass.
(Yes, it’s a variant on a Manhattan. Yes, I’m having one right now. Yes, this is sincere. We mourn in our own ways.)
[Heh.]
Source: Coyote Tracks
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Transparency and Technology: Secrets of Small Farm Success
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Transparency and Technology: Secrets of Small Farm Success:
[It grow ever more obvious to me that in a world filled with "marketing" that lacks substance that the solution is purchase as much as possible from people. The environment benefits, your community benefits, you benefit. A triple play.]
Source: Blog: Slow Food USA
Written by Daniel
January 6, 2012 at 9:26 am
Posted in advocacy, commentary, food