In today's Press-Register, Bill Finch celebrates his bountiful late summer harvest of peppers and eggplant and lists a number of tantalizing varieties.
articles: August 2008 Archives
If you love okra, you'll love the big feature on okra in the Press-Register's Friday Garden & Home section. (Note: the online article does not include growing tips.) Read and make plans for next year's crop.
While I consider the issues of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) rather out of the scope of this blog, here's a succinct article from Slate which lays out the stakes.
Via the Organic Consumers Association, a link to Grist's Checkout Line blog, addressing a question on sustainable fish choices. Lots of good links and guidelines, though as always there is no definitive answer to this very tricky question.
Via the Organic Consumers Association, a link to this article on Grist: Dispatches from the Fields: Whatever happened to organic?.
This thoughtful piece contains some really illuminating comments on why we need to continue to push for organic food, and has a lot of useful links within the article as well. The authors, both working on small farms, write: "a focus on buying locally avoids a critique of industrial agriculture from all perspectives except that of transportation." That may be going a bit far, since I think - or hope - that for most people there are also issues of fair wages and compensation, supporting the local economy, food that is just plain fresher and better, and at least a chance that small farmers will be more likely to embrace organic agriculture (and these reasons are all cited in the article). My investment in local food is closely tied to the idea of sustainability. But it's true that to focus solely on food miles pushes these other, equally important ideas to the rear.
Via Culinate, over at Grist's new Checkout Line blog, Lou Bendrick answers a question about how to talk to growers, and commenters debate the value of organic certification, among other things.
I think it's important to talk to growers about their methods, both because it gives them opportunity to talk about something they are proud of and for you to learn something about how your food is grown, and also because it lets them know there is an interest in and market for organics. However, I also feel reluctant to query people who don't openly advertise that they're "pesticide-free" or organic. My assumption is that if they're not volunteering that information they're using conventional methods, and let the buyer beware.
Although I do think it's important to have standards, I don't have a problem with growers who are not certified organic. Knowing a bit about the certification process, and having heard enough farmers complain about it, I can understand why it's not something everyone would want to pursue. My concern is more about the growing method, not the certification.
Whether you're a farmer or a consumer, what are your perspectives about asking for information? Do you have any experiences, positive or negative?
Culinate ran a nice little interview with Lynn Rossetto Kasper, host of public radio's The Splendid Table. I'd love to see her new book, The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper.
You can listen to the show online, via podcast, or on Mississippi Public Radio Sundays at 11am.
Some more green grilling tips from Culinate.
Via Culinate, a link to Swimming in Greenpeace's Seafood Report in the Washington Post food blog A Mighty Appetite, where Kim O'Donnel reviews the Greenpeace report Carting Away the Oceans: How Grocery Stores Are Emptying the Seas.
The report is aimed at evaluating commercial buying practices and takes a look at U.S. grocery stores. None fares well, with top-ranked Whole Foods getting only a 4 out of 10 score. The report does NOT make recommendations for consumers, nor does it endorse any of the popular watch list programs. It does provide a red list of 22 species most vulnerable to overfishing and extinction. Included are many commonly seen on menus and in fish markets here, including grouper, red snapper, and tropical shrimp.
Over at Culinate, Harriet Fasenfest writes:
Ask yourself why you garden. Urban farming isn’t for the merely romantic.
She reminds us of the hard work and casual ridicule that comes our way.
Sadly, our market season (in Mobile) is over for the summer, but Culinate provides these good tips to keep in mind when you're shopping there again in the fall:
In today's Press-Register, Bill Finch salutes the anole, the small, entertaining lizards ubiquitous in our gardens, known to some as chameleons or false chameleons. Like just about any reptile you may see in your garden, you should be happy to have them, since they consume insects.
I can remember visiting a great aunt and uncle who lived in central Florida 30 years ago, and spending lots of time - sometimes succeeding - trying to catch them.
Last year my daughter found a young one in her room. "Mommy!" she said, "there's a lizard in my room!" I thought it was yet another imaginative game. Much to my surprise there was a lizard, a young anole. We managed to capture it in a bowl and carry it outside to some leaves, where we let it go and watched while it licked dewdrops with its little tongue.
