LocalHarvest did a price comparison survey in the fall to begin collecting data on the cost of farmers market produce vs the same items bought at a commercial grocery. The study was flawed for a number of reasons, but you can read the results here. The average cost was anywhere from $.08 to $.22 lower per pound at conventional groceries than at markets, but markets tended to be cheaper than high end groceries (such as Whole Foods). There was also wide variance depending on the items, some of which were less expensive at farmers markets.
January 2009 Archives
One thing that makes me really happy about the Obama presidency (and is at once a sad commentary on the Bush administration) is that people with ideas - scientists, academics, writers, and everyday folk - feel comfortable approaching the administration to share them. Only time will tell whether the administration will be receptive to those ideas, or if action will be hampered by an uncooperative Congress. But at least for now, there's a buzz in the air.
One place this is going on is at the DotEarth blog on the New York Times, run by journalist Andrew Revkin. You can review Readers to Obama: 10 Earthly Ideas on a Budget, and submit your own ideas for action on climate change in response to this post Obama Urgent on Warming, Public Cool. Disturbingly, recent polls have shown that public concern about global warming has dropped considerably in relation to economic, security, and social concerns. (I still can't see why it's hard to understand that climate has an effect on ALL these issues.)
Also of interest at DotEarth, this retrospective on the late Arne Naess, the philosopher and mountaineer who divided ecological thinking and action into deep and shallow.
Year's end is always a favorite time for list making, and I've noted a few food-related ones that seemed worth drawing to your attention.
The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating from the New York Times' Well blog. This one resided on the "Most E-mailed" list of Times articles for quite some time. Mostly fruits and vegetables, it also includes sardines. I've heard so many good things about sardines now that I finally tried some. The variety I had was quite good; the taste and texture reminds me a bit of mild salmon. It's one of those foods that's easy to add to pasta or salads, or throw on a nice slice of thick bread or good crackers.
Healthy Foods for Under $1 also from the Times' Well blog, and originally from the advice site DivineCaroline.
Top 10 Money-Saving Ingredients at Epicurious. Something of a riff on the previous list, this one offers suggestions for use and links to recipes. My only quibble is with tuna, which is not safe to eat frequently because of the mercury content. If you're going to have tuna, get chunk light rather than albacore; the Environmental Defense Fund has issued a health advisory for albacore because of the high mercury content. In particular, pregnant women and children need to limit or eliminate consumption of tuna to avoid mercury.
Food Trends for 2009 from the Sustainable Table blog, originally at the foodpeople.
50 Foods That Will Help You Feel and Look More Beautiful from the Sustainable Table blog.
ADDITIONALLY
Fresh Start for a New Year? Let’s Begin in the Kitchen from Mark Bittman's Minimalist column in the Times. I almost forgot this one. It's a list of what to ditch from your kitchen, and better items to substitute. To confess, I do make a few violations. There's also a Bitten blog post asking for reader comments.
AND MORE
Just after this post was published, Culinate posted Eat this now: Superfoods for the new year. One on this list we've been enjoying is quinoa. It's almost like a cross between couscous and rice, but it has a more distinctive flavor. It's great cooked in stock and made into a pilaf. It is expensive, though, and the cheapest I've found it is $3.99/lb at Ever'man Natural Foods in Pensacola.
The freezing temperatures we've had lately have been the coldest we've seen (certainly the most extended cold snap) since we moved here in 2006. My winter vegetables have fared all right; the arugula and some lettuce have gotten frostbitten, but the arugula was on the decline anyway, since most of it had matured. The cabbage and broccoli were pretty much done anyway. Some perennials got hit - my Mexican bush sage and Cuphea in particular. I keep forgetting to check my hydrangeas; two years ago they got hit by a late frost and it took them a long time to come back from that.
Have you lost any (or many) plants?
Today was inauguration day for President Obama, and my daughter and I celebrated by making cookies (truly a way to turn any occasion festive). We tried to crudely recreate the "Vote for Change" campaign logo, as we'd seen on some cookies pictured online, and this was the result. Also, we ran out of powdered sugar to make icing, but we only made half a batch of cookies so only half a dozen had to go bare. Sadly, no local ingredients, but we did use organic butter.
One of the hot issues (at least in the "food" community) during the transition to the new administration was the choice of Secretary of Agriculture. The selection of former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack was met by mixed reactions, particularly as there had been at least one group (perhaps more?) lobbying against him, and at one point he was rumored to have been removed from consideration. Opponents of Vilsack generally felt he was too closely associated with conventional agribusiness, including Monsanto, and would maintain the status quo rather than bringing about much-needed change away from a fossil-fuel based food system. However, some in the organic community (including Michael Pollan) have been conciliatory about the choice, and even guardedly optimistic. Personally, I'm disappointed, as I would have rather seen someone more obviously progressive, whose appointment signaled a commitment to change. Here's a roundup of articles and opinion:
Eat Local Challenge: Barack Obama to appoint Tom Vilsack as Secretary of Agriculture
A few comments from blog editor Jennifer Maiser, and links to several pieces online, including the Michael Pollan interview on NPR's Morning Edition.
Chews Wise: Obama's USDA Secretary 'Maybe Won't Suck?'
Author Samuel Fromartz makes a few remarks and links to a Huffington Post article that "has a fine roundup of all the criticism."
-----: Organic Heavyweights Back Vilsack
Information on the organic coalition supporting Vilsack.
The Sustainable Table Blog: Everyone has something to say about the new Secretary of Agriculture
More links, including one to The Center for Rural Affairs, which is coming up with its own list of recommendations to give Vilsack. You can add your signature and comment.
-----: 2 Minute Bio- Secretary of Agriculture: Tom Vilsack
Info on a brief bio of Vilsack at Time.com.
Slow Food USA Blog: Vilsack Chosen as Ag Secretary
Brief reaction from the Slow Food USA bloggers.
You might also have heard about the campaign to get an organic victory garden started on the White House grounds, Eat the View, headed up by the folks at Kitchen Gardeners International. The idea garnered a lot of media attention, and won the On Day One competition to suggest "what the next president can do on the first day of his or her administration to help address the world's most pressing challenges." No word yet on whether the authorization to break ground has been given.
WHAT: Local Food Production Initiative public meeting
WHEN: Monday, January 19 at 6:30pm
WHERE: Parlor of the Fairhope United Methodist Church Christian Life Center, in Fairhope
TOPIC: Sustainable Agriculture and Gardening by Dr. Harvey Joanning, Professor Emeritus, Iowa State University. Dr. Joanning grew up on a farm in Iowa in which he and his family had large gardens in which they raised much of their food. He supervised a doctoral dissertation dealing with bringing diverse groups together to cooperate in promoting sustainable agriculture. He has worked with the Smart Coast organization looking into the future of agriculture in Baldwin County. He will talk about commercial agriculture and the need for a switch to sustainable agriculture and "kitchen and field gardens."
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Also at this meeting Elaine Snyder-Conn will give an update on planning for a community garden in Fairhope. Her Committee has met with the mayor and most of the city council members, and has prepared a written memorandum of understanding between the City, the Local Food Production Initiative, and the community gardeners. On January 21 the Committee will make a presentation to the Fairhope Recreation Board asking for their approval to have the community garden at Stimpson Field.
See this archived post for more information on the Local Food Production Initiative, centered in Fairhope. Current projects the Initiative is looking into include establishing a community garden in Fairhope; expanding the season on the Fairhope Farmers Market and perhaps finding a permanent off-street location for the market; educating the public about the opportunity for and benefits of local food production; and exploring ways of encouraging the preservation of farmland in Baldwin County.
Rainy winter days like today are fine ones for curling up on the couch with a book, as my daughter and I did this afternoon (or, if you're four and live where it's 70° in January, they are fine days for putting on your rain jacket and boots and splashing around in puddles, as my daughter did this morning).
After my daughter's fourth birthday in December, we started reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series, which begins with Little House in the Big Woods. We are now over half way through the second novel, Farmer Boy.
I had never read the books when I was a child, and got the idea from a friend whose daughter was enjoying them. The fascinating part for me is that the books (the first two, at least) are really all about food. There are thick descriptions, not just of what the family eats, but how it is grown, harvested, stored, and prepared. I often feel hungry while reading the details of the meals. Wilder gives complete instructions for planting a potato field, harvesting dried beans, how to grow a milk-fed pumpkin, making cheese and butter, maple sugaring, and making candy and ice cream, and that only begins to describe the variety of food-related tasks she writes about.
These books are oddly relevant now, in a time of renewed interest in local food, grown by our own hands or people we know; in the recession-era renaissance of home arts like cooking, canning, and preserving. This is food as it ought to be, and, for most of human existence, has been.
Here's a colander full of winter greens from our garden. There's a small green cabbage, arugula, leaf lettuce, and a beet.
