Sprouting June 11, 2009

I don’t know about you but I love sprouts!  While reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, the author describes how her daughter quickly grew some sprouts for a big party they were having with over 100 guests.  She explained that it only took a few days for them to be ready to eat.  I was intrigued and told my neighbor.  Both of us talked about how much we loved sprouts of all sorts but how we had never really thought of how they are grown.  We started doing a little research and it doesn’t sound hard at all!

This “How to Grow Bean Sprouts” Video is a bit corny but illustrates how easy it is to sprouts.  This website, Growing Sprouts, also does a good job of breaking down the steps to sprouting.  

We started our sprouts this morning and I can’t wait until they are ready.  The best part is that they will be ready in under a week – unlike traditional gardening and harvesting.  They are sitting on the windowsill soaking up the sun as I type.  

Once your sprouts are ready, there are endless possibilities for how to eat them. They are a perfect snack on their own, tasty on salads and sandwiches, can be added to soups, work well in stir fries and spring rolls, and are healthy inside smoothies.  There are endless recipes available on the web.  The best part is that they are both delicious and super healthy.  Try this delicious recipe: Asian Vegetable Rolls.

In the News… June 10, 2009

I came across an interesting article in TIME magazine online.  The article, Eating Local Before It’s Too Late by Joel Stein, described how our country’s food is becoming more and more homogenized.  The author notes the “limited number of eating opportunities in our life spans.”  Dishes native to regions of the U.S. are disappearing.  Stein ends with a bit of optimism adding, “While every highway Olive Garden and Chili’s hinders that dynamism, local cuisine is not gone yet.”  

 At the end of the article, there was a link to pictures of Urban Farming. In efforts to grow food closer to where we live, many are making efforts to plant city gardens. Some of the pictures are of farms already in existence where people are coming together to grow food in parks and on rooftops.  There are also several pictures of what could be.  I was quite intrigued by the different vertical farms that could be placed in our cities.  This idea is sort of bitter-sweet however.  While it is quite interesting that perhaps one day we could have vertical farms, it is also disturbing that we may no longer have traditional farms.  I think these vertical urban farms would be a wise addition and may decrease travel of produce but I do not want to live in a world void of farms.

Another Beautiful Saturday June 7, 2009

I went to the Leesburg Farmers’ Market on Saturday morning with my mom to buy everything for a lunch I hosted this afternoon.  I had some recipes in mind but did not want to set anything in stone without knowing what would be available.  The farmers’ market was held in a parking lot in downtown Leesburg, VA.  There were lots of people shopping and even musical entertainment.  We brought our own bags and filled them twice having to empty them once into the car.  We bought 2 heads of lettuce, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, red onions, chives, sugar snap peas, red potatoes, strawberries, broccoli, and a bunch of radishes.  We also bought a loaf of wheat bread, a loaf of cinnamon-apple bread, free-range eggs, greek-style yogurt, ricotta cheese, salsa, and hot pepper jelly.  It was almost overwhelming how much was available.  I couldn’t believe how much fresh produce was there.  Sadly, we still have to wait another month or so for more berries, tomatoes, and corn.  I can’t wait! I bought enough at the market to feed about 15 people and was able to purchase nearly all of the ingredients for my menu.  

This afternoon, I hosted a local foods lunch.  I made creamy pepper dip and salsa for appetizers.  We then had vegetable quiches, a large salad, roasted vegetables, and focaccia bread for lunch.  And for dessert I made two strawberry-ricotta tarts.  Everything was fresh, healthy, and delicious!

Growing Veggies June 5, 2009

One of the best ways to begin eating food locally grown is starting a garden.  You cannot get much more local than your backyard!  I am working on my garden for the second year this summer.  Last summer was largely unsuccessful unfortunately as I did not do my homework before getting started.  I am hoping this year goes much better.  I have started several herbs from seeds in pots on my porch as well as strawberries.  In the garden, I have planted tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, watermelons, and green beans.  I am by no means an expert and am learning more each day.  Gardening can be a lot of fun and I encourage all of you to start a small garden.  Its not to late to plant a summer veggies.  

Here are a few videos and sites that may be helpful for you to get started:

                  The Daily Green

                  The Green Guide

                   Organic Gardening for Beginners

I know that you many of you may not have a yard or enough room to start a garden, but planting in pots can be just as successful and fun.  Many plants can be grown very easily in containers and they will still produce lots of veggies.

Blueberries in December June 4, 2009

A classmate recently asked me, “What are the reasons why people are importing and getting their fruits and veggies from mass producing farms?” This a reasonable question.  When you stop to think about it what we have come to think of as normal is actually very strange.  Going to the grocery store and buying produce from around the world during any season has not always been a norm.  To answer this question, I would like to pull some quotes from Barbara Kingslover’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

“The odd notion of transporting fragile produce dates back to the early twentieth century when a few entrepreneurs tried shipping lettuce and artichokes, iced down in boxcars, from California eastward over mountains as a midwinter novelty.  Some wealthy folks were charmed by the idea of serving out-of-season (and absurdly expensive) produce items to their dinner guests” (48).

“Then fashion and marketing got involved,  The interstate highway system became a heavily subsidized national priority, long-haul trucks were equipped with refrigeration, and the cost of gasoline was nominal.  The state of California aggressively marketed itself as an off-season food producer, and the American middle-class opened its maw.  In just a few decades the out-of-season vegetables moved from novelty status to such an ordinary item, most Americans now don’t know what out-of-season mean” (48).     

We love our blueberries in December and Asparagus in August.  We live in Virginia and yet we adore grapefruits, lemons, and pomegranates. We have become accustomed to buying anything we want whenever we want.  Few stop to think about where your watermelon in March must have grown and how long it had to travel.  As for the mass-producing farms, “Supermarkets prefer not to bother with boxes of vegetables if they can buy truckloads” (76).