Did you know that a Young Readers Edition of The Omnivore's Dilemma was released last fall? It's aimed at grades seven and up, and is a shortened version of the original. A 13 year old reviews it at Civil Eats. I recently bought a copy for my niece.

Civil Eats reports that in the March 2010 issue of Consumer Reports, "tests of packaged leafy greens found bacteria that are common indicators of poor sanitation and fecal contamination, in some cases, at rather high levels." Organic greens fared no better than conventionally grown.

Recommendations are (if you are going to buy packaged salad) that

Until packaged salad becomes cleaner, consumers’ best line of defense involves following these procedures in stores and kitchens: (1) Buy packages far from their use-by date. (2) Wash the greens even if the packages say “prewashed” or “triplewashed.” Rinsing won’t remove all bacteria but may remove residual soil. (3) Prevent cross contamination of greens by keeping them away from raw meat and poultry.

I usually try to avoid packaged salad greens since they are primarily grown in California and must travel many miles to our stores, and in the past I've had a lot of success growing cool season greens here. This year I've reneged a little on that since our garden is in distress.

In last week's Press-Register column, Bill Finch continued his series on predicting the effects of cold weather in the garden

I'm happy to say that he writes

If I've learned anything from this winter, it's that I've been too conservative in promoting winter vegetable gardening, and perhaps not loud enough in encouraging the use of simple coverings during the coldest nights.

Raj Patel, a "writer, activist, and academic," is currently getting press for his new book, The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy. Patel's previous book was Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System.

You can read an interview with him on Civil Eats. Paula Crossfield writes that

One of the most exciting social movements for Patel is the food movement, where thousands of people are raising the bar for social justice by improving the health and environmental impacts of the food we produce, and the labor practices employed in how we bring food to the table, with the goal of providing a stable food supply for all people.

At the conclusion of the interview, Patel says,

Food brings together everything that everyone should care about. It is about giving life, it is about what we need to survive on this planet, it is about our interaction with the planet, and about the way that we replenish or don’t replenish the earth that we live on. There is something both primal and industrial and very high-capitalist about food. And it is the area where, if we are interested in life, if we’re interested in the ways that we can live on this planet sustainably, then we really do need to start with questions about food. [The food movement] is to me the most vibrant area of social change certainly in the United States but also elsewhere.... I think that what food sovereignty offers is both a democratic way for us to take very seriously issues around rights, particularly around gender, but also ways in which we can think about the environment, about distribution, and poverty in ways that are sustainable. It brings it all together in ways that, if we’re concerned with social justice, whether its education, the way our institutions behave, ecology, poverty, environment, whatever it is, you’ll find it in food, and you’ll find something very exciting in the organizing around food that gives me hope in ways that very few things do these days.

As the parent of a child who will be entering kindergarten this coming fall, I'm in a position to be newly conscious of the quality of food in schools. Here are several items of interest:

At Chews Wise, Sam Fromartz points to the blog of former reporter who spent a week in Washington, D.C. schools and wrote a six-part series about what kids eat, Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen.

At the Slow Food blog, here's a roundup of recent school lunch news.

In the wake of the Caitlin Flanagan hullaballoo, here's an excellent post at Civil Eats about school gardens around the country, and a list of resources for those interested in creating them (me, me, me!). Though it was hardly my first exposure to gardening, I will always remember the school garden started by my grade school science teacher. I helped out sometimes, and I remember the tall staked tomatoes seemed positively Amazonian.

Gulf coast readers, are you aware of any school garden projects in your communities?

ADDITION 3 Feb 10: Check out this blog by a teacher in Illinois who is eating school lunch like the kids every day in 2010. Here's the Slow Food blog post.

The Fairhope City Council is scheduled to consider a resolution supporting a community garden at Stimpson Field at the City Council meeting at 6pm this Monday, January 25.

At 5:15pm there will be a City Council work session at which the resolution will be discussed and perhaps voted on - or an alternative proposal presented (see next paragraph). The work session is scheduled to be held in the Council Chamber, and is open to the public. Supporters of a community garden at Stimpson Field are encouraged to attend.

The Local Food Production Initiative has learned that Charles Langham of the Parks and Recreation Board has been working very hard behind the scenes on an alternate plan to use the site behind the K-1 Center - not the kids park, but the vacant lot that backs on to the gully on the other side of Summit Street from the K-1 Center. Mr. Langham has apparently been working with Mayor Kant and said that the City has agreed to install water to this alternative site and to level the site and build a fence along the berm & gully.

The parcel, reportedly owned by the Board of Education, has some advantages and some disadvantages. For example there is adequate adjacent parking, but the underlying soil is clay and the site would need stormwater drainage installed, keeping the berm but installing features such as a grassed swale around the perimeter after hauling the dirt and installing the garden.

The first choice remains Stimpson Field, but it will be up to the City Council to make the final decision. LFPI members and friends are encouraged to come to the working group at 5:15 since the Council is scheduled to discuss Stimpson Field, and the Parks and Recreation Board alternative will also be presented there by Charles Langham and, possibly, by other City officials.

Keep reading Bill Finch in the Press Register to learn more about this winter's cold snap and what it teaches us about our gardens.

If you visit Ever'man Natural Foods co-op in Pensacola, you may be aware they tested a suspension of their non-member surcharge at the end of last year. It was deemed successful and they've decided to make that permanent. So what that means is that even if you're not a co-op member you'll pay the same price as members on regular priced items. And what's the benefit of becoming a member (which is only $12 annually/$5 for 65 and older)? There are monthly member-only specials on over 100 items each month. Members can get special order discounts, coupons, discounted pre-paid cards, a newsletter subscription, and of course voting privileges and eligibility to run for the board of directors.

If you follow any food communities in the blogosphere, you've probably been aware of the furor caused by an article in The Atlantic critical of the school garden movement. While I'm not going to delve into the specifics of the controversy, I did think this response to it at Civil Eats, Booker T. Washington on School Gardens and the Pleasure of Work was thoughtful and useful. It quotes extensively from Booker T. Washington's 1904 book Working With the Hands.

Make plans for future winters in your garden by taking this winter readiness test from Bill Finch. He writes, "There’s no better winter to reassess our citrus growing, and determine which citrus we grow best, and which ones may not be worth the trouble." Many factors can influence your success with citrus, so read and calculate your score.