Amy Stewart

For those of you who haven't picked up one of Amy Stewart's bestselling garden books It might be time to reconsider. If you haven't heard of Amy Stewart she is a garden writer with several articles and four books under her belt.
--Flower Confidential: The Good, the Bad, and the Beautiful in the Business of Flowers
This work poses some of the same questions about flower production books like Plenty and The Omnivores Dilemma do about food production. Should we be concerned about genetically engineering flowers to be free of pollen, or to be blue? Should we care that flowers are grown with thousands of gallons of pesticides, and then flown thousands of miles on chilled cargo plans to provide us with summers beauty year round? Which makes her January 2007 op ed piece for NPR all the more perplexing.... A response to the word "locavore" making word of the year, Stewart's response was "It's Time for 'Locavores to Shut up and Eat." Locavores beware! One note, Stewart's (lets say snarky) comments for this NPR piece were more than two years ago. All signs seem to indicate that plenty of other people recognize the importance of preserving agricultural land, the environment, natural resources, our health, and our connection to the land as well as the wonder that major improvements in all these areas can be accomplished through what she calls "just grocery shopping".


--The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms
An excerpt from her website says, quote: The New York Times called it "a completely original combination of science and passion." This is a fascinating exploration of the underground world and one of its most amazing denizens. The earthworm may be small, spineless, and blind, but its role in the ecosystem is profound. It tills the soil, destroys microscopic organisms that cause plant disease, breaks down toxins, and turns the ground into rich compost, creating the most fertile areas on earth. In her witty and offbeat style, Amy Stewart shows just how much depends on the humble worm.

-- From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden This was Stewart's first book and it tells the story of her own gardens evolution, pitfalls and all.

Now, she's added to her list of accomplishments with her newest work called Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities. This new work tells the tales of many a poisonous and dangerous plant, the disastrous results of our ignorance of these plants and the maniacal ways in which some of them have been used .
Please Click Here to check out her fabulous video promotion for Wicked Plants.

Click Here to check out Amy Stewart's blog, called simply Dirt. There you'll find easy links to her website and her books page.

After writting this I found two interesting responses to Stewart's comments on NPR.

http://www.eatlocalchallenge.com/2008/01/shut-up-eat.html (a whole host of good comments to keep things in perspective)

http://www.slashfood.com/2008/01/08/locavore-backlash-amy-stewart-cries-not-fair-on-npr/

October Challange... My Own Disapointments ..?

Well, I knew October was going to be crazy. And it was. I spent dozens of hours in front of the computer putting together power point presentations for a class. I had large scale bedding change outs all month at work right up through the 31st.
At home, my husband helped me care for my relatively newly acquired worm bin. He also helped me in the garden, planting garlic, kale, collards, arugula, swiss chard, lettuce, mustard greens, radishes and beets. We pulled up tomatoes, canned like crazy for a night or two, celebrated his birthday as well as his brothers (and rather missed a few others!). There was the all important Celtic Festival, and visiting relatives, and that first weekend of freezing temperatures when we discovered we had no heat and couldn't use the fire place. And on the last night of the challenge there was Halloween.

If your still with me, my point is this... I am very disappointed that I was not able to dedicate the time I would have liked to my Eat Local Challenge. I always made it to the market, except when class interfered. I made multiple local food discoveries, and I changed several eating habits that were definitely not in keeping with a "locavore philosophy."
So here is a quick list of my "failings"....
1. Dinner at Mekong for birthday dinner
2. One meal based on Joe's market chicken sausages
3. Fish and chips at the Celtic festival... and some Jameson's whiskey of course
4. Dinner after the festival at my parents house
5. Dinner at parents when no heat
6. General list of items I used through out that could have been replaced with local, but weren't
a. Feta (Both Faith Farm and Ellwood Thompsons sell different local Fetas.. But each time I was put off by the price and then my husband actually found a whole unopened package in the back of our fridge...
b. twice, mozzarella
c. once, Ricotta
d. 2 carrots- I have bought some local carrots, and will again, but to be honest I don't much care for the flavor of the local ones I've bought, and we by those ridiculously over sized organic carrots as treats for my dog. They are so fat it is one of the few things that occupies him for any time and I do feel that in the big scheme of things these are actually much cheaper, and better for everything (including my dog), than any dog snacks or treats we would buy.
e. 2 bulbs of fennel - Victory Farms was the place I found that actually was growing Fennel and they only had enough to sell to their members....so finally I rather stomped my feet and bought some at Ukrops.
f. Wheat.... the failure I felt was not so much replacing grain from Montana with grain from V.A., but more that I perhaps used locally baked breads as a stand in for too many items I deleted. One example that seems like a real improvement... I replaced my morning kashi bar with a slice of nine grain bread (Prairie Grain Bread Co.) with Kerry Gold butter (non-local, but made from the milk of pastured cows) and local peach, apple, or raspberry preserves.
g. Butter- As of this moment the only alternative is the Amish butter sold by Faith Farms that actually comes from Pennsylvania (and people love it). I am sure there must be some others out there, but I haven't seen them.
h. Finally... I still haven' t found a local peanut butter. So just had none all month.

Okay, all this, but really when I look at this list I don't think it's so bad. I am a little proud of myself, and more I am rather excited about all of the great local foods that are available today that were not available even at this time last year. I only imagine next year will be even easier. I'll do another few post on my discoveries.. there were some great ones! And, I have only been inspired further to keep at it, and keep finding new ways to eat local and balance all the rest that I love about my sometimes very busy life.

October 11-17 Eat Local Challenge Menu

Here, belatedly, is the menu I put together for this past week. (Spelling is one of my great weaknesses. Passing comments from my husband serve as the blackboard's spellcheck and this week he kept any such corrections to himself so I apologize for any mistakes.) There was, as always, some adjustments. The jalapeno dish and the pizza got pushed back into this week. Thursday Night was dinner with our friends Jonah and Liz. Liz went out of her way to accommodate, by heading out to the Wednesday morning market to pick up all the fixings for a tossed salad, as well as zucchinis to grill up, and apples for a honey crisp. I picked up some ground turkey from Ellwood's and the hamburger rolls, as well as chocolates from the Wednesday afternoon market at Lakeside, and some sweet potatoes from Bill's Produce for fries. We toasted with the Horten Norton and had a great meal complete with homemade sweet pickles. I decided not to worry about the ketchup, mustard and partook.

The Quiche became a fritatta, the Lentils for the soup were not local... but the onions, chicken broth, rosemary, sage, and the Asian greens I put in right before serving all were. And the cornmeal is Patrick Henry brand from the mill in Ashland.

The cream came from Yoder Dairy via Elwoods, the Shiitake mushrooms came from Fertile Crescent, the red peppers from my yard and Amy's organics, The chicken from Avery Branch Farm, the poblanos, and sweet potatoes were from bills produce, the onions, I'd chopped and frozen from either Victory or Bills, the arugula and spinach from Victory, and finally the black beans were canned and although I need to use them up they never did get opened. The tomato sauce is made with about 6 tomatoes from my garden and for pizza sauce I add one can of paste (the smallest size they sell). I know the paste is cheating, but until I find the time or the tomatoes to cook down into a sauce thick enough to put on a pizza crust, this is how it is.

On the subject of cheating...Tuesday night was a big one. After spending all day digging and tilling, I came home and put up 6 quarts of tomatoes and helped my husband put up 3 quarts of pickles. When we finished a little past 7:00, having done nothing but can, and with no dinner started I caved in and we shared a meal of chicken sausages he'd bought at Ukrops. We did have these with our own peppers, and green beans from the market. Lunches all week were leftovers... and the yummy homemade yogurt my mother in law made for me! I like to eat this with honey and apples, or with hot sweet potatoes.

Eat Local Weekly Dinner Menu for Mid- October

Meal 1
Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Tart
End of summer salad
Ginger Ice Cream

Meal 2
Stir Fry with Broccoli Rabe and Japanese Eggplant


Meal 3
Cavanna Pasta with Yoder Dairy Cream sauce, wilted spinach and Shiitakes

Meal 4
Tofu 'steak' sandwiches
Spinach, Beet and Walnut salad
Pound Cake with Peach Honey

Meal 5
Frittata with Potatoes, peppers, garlic, squash and goat cheese feta
Toast with Amish roll Butter

Meal Plan for Early October

So real quick here is my meal plan for this week. I will try to come back later and give recipes, sources, and 'cheats' (such as the new potatoes from North Carolina) if I can find the time.

Meal 1
Homemade pizza with homemade sauce, Roasted Red Peppers, garlic,basil, Mozzarella, and olives.
Spaghetti Squash with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, onion, zucchini, sweet pepper, and cherry tomatoes.
Arugula salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette and focaccia from "No Wonder" bread.

Meal 2
Homemade soup with chicken stock, potatoes, parsley, kale, carrots, garlic, onions and maybe some chicken.
Grilled cheese and tomato sandwich
Baked apples with honey

Meal 3
Scalloped New Potatoes with chives and garlic
Salmon with Herb butter over mustard greens
Steamed green beans

Meal 4
Swiss chard and goat cheese frittata with green onion
Sweet potato baked fries
figs with honey

Meal 5
Fried Eggplant with homemade marinara sauce
Baked spinach and feta mushrooms
Roasted Red pepper on crusty white bread
arugula salad

Thoughts on Meat, Money and the Market

As My October Eat Local Challenge has got me thinking even more about what I eat than usual I realize that a lot has changed in our eating habits over the last year and a half. My husband ( a former "Meat Tribe" member in his younger days) always insisted upon meat as part of every meal. Now, however, he is often accepting of 3 or more meals a week meat free.

Good thing, considering the prices we pay for farmer's market meats. We payed $17 for a 4lb chicken at Faith Farm yesterday, and $11 for a 2.2Lb chicken at CCL. We agonize over this. I think to myself, okay we get one main meal. Even the little bird leaves a thigh and a leg for lunch the next day, and then all that remains makes an excellent stock for a soup that will be another dinner and multiple lunches. Still, I thought, can I really do this forever.... what are we going without to pay for this?

I am a former vegetarian. I believe that ALL of God's creatures should be treated with respect, even reverence, especially if we are taking their life to feed our own. For me eating pastured poultry, and buying pastured beef for my husband is as much about the life of the animal as it is about all the nutritional benefits or lack of antibiotics etc. Still, at $17 for a chicken I start to feel self indulgent.
Then last night my husband and I watched this film called BARAKA. It is a beautiful film, an artistic vision of a documentary perhaps, made entirely of footage of our beautiful natural world juxtaposed with footage of our man made world. One portion of this starts with adorable little fluffy yellow chicks riding down a conveyor belt. "What is this?" I thought apprehensively... "Where are they going?"
These little chicks are piled on top of one another, tiny eyes looking around trying to grasp their surroundings are shot with some force down a shoot, dropping distances that seem 'unsafe', falling in piles on top of one another, trying to find a way to upright themselves before they are shot through more shoots slamming into stainless steel plates, bouncing off again and down another shoot. I think surely by now they must be dead. Then you see a woman grabbing the chicks up one by one, performing some task in quick motion, and thoughtlessly (because how else could you do this and preserve your mental health) tossing each limp, but living little body by it's tiny wing into another stainless steal plate to bounce off and down another shoot to be grabbed by another woman who holds it by its neck and forces its tiny beak up against a hot metal that burns the end of it's beak off, the little bird gasping, before its tossed back onto the pile, stuffed in a cage and left to sit out the rest of it's life in a putrid laying house.

My husband and I looked at one another and nodded. This is why we spend $17 for a chicken, even if it means chicken is only once every 7-10 days and not lunch and dinner nearly everyday as it is for most Americans. The other 'unnecessaries' we go with out...cable t.v., a land line phone, far fewer dinners out, or ordering food in. It's worth it.

Eat Local Challenge, Day 1 (A confession)

Shannon and I signed up for the Eat Local Challenge, where we solemnly pledge to eat foods grown and produced within a hundred miles of where we live. No problem, I thought (a bit smugly I now realize). I mean- I work at a farmer's market. I do the minute amount which is the remainder of my shopping mostly at Ellwood Thompson's. Yet today, the first day of my declared locavore-ism, I ate exactly nothing that was grown and produced within a hundred miles of where I live. Not one thing.

I had prepared poorly, not to mention that fate was not really on this locavore's side today. The idea that I had not put the conscious thought that IS local eating into my pledge occured to me last night as I was looking at the spread of the cocktail party I was attending. Tomorrow, I thought, I won't be able to eat any of this. Tomorrow, I thought, I might become a pain in the butt. What about the leftovers that were hiding out in my fridge- milk and yoghurt, not to mention my curried cous- cous salad, the pizza I bought in a moment of weakness, the endless array of cheeses that always seduce their way into my cart, the bottle of Argentinian Malbec? What was gong to happen to them? Did I throw them out in solidarity and commitment?

I was discussing this with Massey, a fellow Pollan fan at the party, and today received this pep talk via email:
He says:
I was thinking about your transition to your 100 mile diet today. I think you HAVE to eat the left-overs and other perishables you already have that are from greater than 100 miles away. It would be really wasteful, inefficient, and unsustainable to not eat the perishables simply in the name of strictly adhering to the fuel and producer conscious 100 mile diet.

So, thanks for your grace. Oh, and while we are at it, one more thing. The fair is in town and that means at least one thing- Elephant Ears. Yep, I had one today- in celebration and, perhaps really as my last hurrah. I swear.

(BTW, fried dough goes really well with Malbec...)

October Eat Local Challange

Okay,
So way back in August I signed up for an October Eat Local Challenge with http://www.eatlocalchallange.org/. Thankfully Erin decided to join me. Like Erin, I was a little overconfident in how easy this would be. October is also a trying month for me. My work as a gardener means that in October I am almost exclusively digging, tilling, hauling, and planting all day everyday. After 8 hours of all that I know I am usually way too tired to come home and jump into the 2hours of cooking usually required to produce a full scale meal which is what my husband (who also has a labor based job) and I require. A sandwhich, salad,or scrabbled eggs and toast is just not enough for him, or often for me. Working outside all day also means I need portable foods. For the last week my morning time from 5:30 when I get up, until 12:00 when I have lunch consist of a slice of prarie grain bread, with local peach preserves, one apple,and one asian pear. So far this has served me just fine, but for sure when 12:00 rolls around I am ready for a hearty lunch.
So Here is my long lists with all the nitty gritty details for those of you who are thinking of trying such a challange and want something for comparison...
We are following the Eat Local challenge site's recommendation to adhere to the "Marco Polo Rule" which allows exemptions for anything that has been widely traded for centuries. So Under the Marco Polo Rule I have forgiven myself...
1.Olive Oil
2.Olives
3.Rice
4. Cinnamon and some other spices such as salt and pepper, what about buying those processed at the Sauers Factory on Broad St.
5. Coffee
6.Chocolate in great moderation
So now... In addition to the above I have also added some raw basic ingredients that will make many a home made meal possible...
7. Wheat flour ( I know of a couple sources for locally grown wheat, one I would have to purchase in the spring and grind myself, and the other is out of Suffolk). If anyone knows where I can find some let me know please. So for now I am sticking to Employee owned King Arthur Flour and My locally made Prairie Grain Company Breads and I'm sure some other breads and perhaps pasta from the farmers market.
I have reservations about things such as the pasta...where does the vendor get their ingredients, eggs etc. But, for now I am leaving this option open.
8.Some nuts etc, I have already in my fridge (and no I did not run out and buy them last week! )
9. Vinegar
10. Parmesana cheese
11. Fresh Mozzarella ( My mother-in-law has been making this and gifting some to me and I got a lesson in Mozzarella making from her with mixed results, but "local" mozzarella depends upon my local milk source. I have made and frozen several dishes using our homemade motz. in preparation. We'll see.
14. Perhaps a couple onions Since the ones in my garden are the size of large marbles and I haven't seen any at the farmers markets for the last couple of weeks.... I have not had any luck with keeping onions for any period of time. Any suggestions on keeping onions?

So this list seems very long and at this point if you are still reading you are probably thinking "Where exactly does the 'Challenge' come in?"
Well, we'll see I guess.
Like miss Kingsolver said I will not be eating roadside weeds... although some weeds from my own yard will probably make their way into my salads.

So here is a quick list of all the things I have saved and put up in preparation for October and for This winter in general... This is what makes eating local doable and affordable. Having a garden of your own and a great network of friends with their own gardens makes all the difference. If you don't have a garden or a space for one I highly recommend looking into a community garden, or median plot, or as my parents have done.. offering to do all or a large portion of the work in exchange for a chunk of their neighbors yard. The non-gardening neighbor gets free produce and my parents get a place to garden.
Okay, okay, here's my list...
- Garlic -we grew our own and we started with 90 heads of garlic.. the stock pile is dwindling. We do use a lot, but I certainly have enough left to get through the next few months.
- 14 quarts of tomatoes. Most of these came from my own garden as well.
- 1 quart of mixed pickled hot peppers, also from my garden
-Some dried hot peppers from my garden
- 1 quart of pickled sweet peppers
- Various bags of dried basil (sweet, Thai, lime) and other herbs (thyme, marjoram, sage, chives) from my garden
- 1 quart of tomatillos
- 6 quarts of pickles
- Several 1,2 and 3 serving bags of blanched green and wax beans from Pleasant Fields Farm.
- 4 quarts of Tomato, kale and bean soup I made with kale, tomatoes, garlic from my garden and onions and black eyed peas from the farmers market.
- Several servings of Eggplant Lasagna I've made from eggplant from my garden, tomato sauce I made from my tomatoes and Mozzarella from my mother-in-law and from my one lesson in Motz. making. I love this dish, the Eggplant is used IN Place of pasta!
- Many bags of frozen blueberries from my blueberry picking outing early in the summer
- Ditto for strawberries
- A couple bags of peaches
- Too Many tubs of Pesto from basil from my garden, some made with sunflower seeds, others with walnuts.
- also bags of frozen deseeded hot peppers, bags of chopped sweet peppers for chilies etc, a jar of peach 'freezer jam' thanks to my mother in law, a jar of fig preserves thanks to Natalie, a jar of butter pickle chips thanks to my sister-in-law, and hopefully some other stuff I have forgotten.

So eating all local right now is not an option it seems, but what you can't see here are all of the many 'Cheats' I've allowed myself for the last year that are now cut out. It's definitely a work in progress. I still hope to find local peanut butter... (What's up? we Are in Virginia?!), and local pecans...and on and on.