Michael Pollan on TED Talks

TED Talks is an amazing conference held anually in Monterey, where visionaries in the fields of technology, education and design give lectures, sharing their knowledge with attendees and each other. Past speakers have included Al Gore and Jane Goodall, and many other amazing people, scholars and artists alike. I have always thought it would be fantastic to attend this gathering, but tickets sell out a year in advance and they're expensive. However, videos of lectures from past events have been made available on YouTube and the TED Talks website, for those of us who have the interest but not the cash. TED 2008 is currently ongoing, but I am instead going to point you to a lecture from last year's conference -- 'The Omnivore's Next Dilemma' by Michael Pollan. Pollan is the author of books such as The Botany of Desire, The Ominvore's Dilemma, and most recently In Defense of Food (RFC is in the process of reading this one now). He has definitely inspired some of our interest in conscientious eating. Even though I'm a bit late on the uptake, I hope you'll check out the video of his talk:

Shop in Eco-Friendly Style

If you've been looking closely around town lately, you may have noticed some savvy shoppers carrying a handsome canvas tote that carries its own strong message. Sturdy canvas totes with large bright blue lettering covering one side exclaim "THIS IS AN ANTI-PLASTIC BAG." On the other side of the bag is a brightly colored bird and the words "BAG OF FRESH AIR." These sturdy, 100% recycled cotton totes are being sold by the James River Garden Club as part of their effort to address the serious environmental problem created by the manufacture and accumulation of plastic bags.

Area stores are joining in. Ukrop's has of course been selling their $1.00 recyclable canvas totes since late summer. Val-pack coupons this past summer contained a coupon redeemable for a "Virgina Grown" canvas tote at area farmers' markets. Even Target is slowly getting in on the act with $1.00 vinyl bags for sale that scrunch up into a tiny contained ball. ( However, if you bring your own bag to Target be prepared for clerks who are unprepared. ) The biggest example is of course Ellwood Thompson's, which no longer uses any plastic bags for packing customers groceries. As an alternative, Ellwood Thompson's is offering their own canvas bags for $1.99, as well as the James River Garden Club bags for sale.

This movement is larger than most people know, with whole counties lobbying for the right to ban plastic bags.

The James River Garden Club puts the profits from the sale of their recycled cotton bags towards conservation efforts. The two sided high design bag sells for $8 and a plain version sells for just $1. Each bag includes a card listing some amazing and scary facts about plastic bags. One line informs the buyer that "Plastic bags kill over 100,000 sea turtles and other marine animals every year when they mistake the bags for food." Think jellyfish.

The top of the included card reads, "You are holding a bag full of hope." I'll buy into that. Within the first 10 days that these bags were available, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch, almost 500 bags had sold. This gives me hope.

A woman who I greatly admire who happens to be a part of the James River Garden Club reported that within a matter of weeks they had sold out completely! They had a new order arrive two weeks ago, so don't wait- look for them at Ellwood Thompson's!

UPDATE: Elwood Thompson's was out of the James River Garden Club Bags as of Friday Feb. 29th, but the garden club plans to deliver a new batch of bags this March 1st weekend so keep a look out.

Market Update- February

Did you know that there are several 'renegade' vendors who have been selling throughout the winter at the Byrd House Market? The RFC went two weeks ago, and were happy to see Faith Farms, CCL, the No Wonder Bread man as well as a jewelry vendor holding court by the community gardens. I went back last night because I was in desperate need of some goat cheese. Faith Farms has been selling their free range eggs, hormone free chicken, beef and pork as well as some amazing Amish rolled butter and my favorite goat cheese all winter long. They take orders and deliver every Tuesday. Email them here to place an order or to get market details. You don't have to have an order in however, they always come well stocked to the market. Did I mention that I recommend the goat cheese?

I also found out that the Lawlers of Faith Farms were featured in Virginia Living magazine, a beautiful monthly periodical. Good news for the farms and the markets!

RFC Visits Zed Café

Chef Bill Foster of Zed Café is matter-of-fact in his approach to food. With a southern accent and a demeanor of relentless honesty, he told us “Things should taste like what they are.” We had heard a lot about Zed Café’s reputation as a seasonal and ‘responsibly sourced’ restaurant– Tanya Cauthen of the Belmont Butchery mentioned she supplies some of their meat – and we were eager to try some of the cooking and form our own opinions. During our visit, we were privileged to chat with Foster, Zed’s executive chef, and enjoy a wonderful four course meal.

The atmosphere of Zed Café is modern and upscale, with large pieces of art displayed gallery-style in ample wall space. We sat at the bar facing a well-stocked wine rack as we spoke with Foster, who was always candid as he chatted with us on how he obtains his ingredients and the way he cooks. “Fresh and local is the European way,” he said. Foster was trained at the Culinary Institute of America, and has cooked for Richmond restaurants like the Frog and the Redneck and Acacia. It is clear he knows quality when he sees it – or tastes it. And local, fresh produce always tastes better. True, some items must be shipped in from other areas – Foster reminded us of the phrase “When Possible” written inside the menu. Cheeses, olive oil and wine: some things are just better when they are imported from France. He also mentioned the difficulty of getting certain meats and dairy products in quantity from local sources. When necessary, he buys these things from places like Albert’s Organic, a supplier of Ellwood Thompson’s. A complete list of Foster’s sources is listed on the Zed Café website. It is clear that he comes to the cooking style at Zed with a no-nonsense attitude – no matter where it comes from, everything should be the best.

Delicious peach iced tea and Zed's lunch menu.
When I asked Foster if he thought local and seasonal eating was a fad, he replied, “It’s not a fad…it’s moving back from all the fads.” It seemed silly to think of the locavore movement as a ‘fringe group’ as we spoke with Foster. There was a distinct sense that we, as Americans and members of the Richmond community, are just catching up with the rest of the world when we decide not to eat tomatoes and asparagus in February. Foster seemed interested in distancing his restaurant and cooking from buzzwords like ‘organic.’ “Organic doesn’t mean vegetarian,” Foster said, and we agreed that Zed should be seen for what it is – a gourmet restaurant that uses high quality, artisanal ingredients like grass-fed beef, free range poultry and organic produce picked, perhaps, the same day. Foster uses the term ‘clean food.’ Zed Café does feature a nearly gluten-free menu, meaning diners with allergies can order worry-free, and there are also some vegetarian menu items.

We were thrilled when Foster told us of his congenial relationship with Charlie, the owner of Victory Farms, a family-run farm in Hanover that sells produce at several farmer’s markets and runs a high demand CSA. “Charlie and I hang out,” Foster said. He told us he has been to Charlie’s farm to harvest and wash his own produce for the restaurant. We loved the idea of the chef and the farmer working side by side to create great food for consumers like us. Being at the mercy of what people are growing, Foster says, is a good thing. It encourages him to be creative with the ingredients he has on hand, and necessitates a unique, ever-changing menu.

Focaccia and olive oil appetizer.
And, as we had hoped, the food was amazing. Though it’s February, one of the hardest months to find fresh produce, Foster said he has no problems coming up with menu items. We were treated to a custom meal with four courses, all with a distinct winter flair and subtle, pleasing flavors. Beginning with an appetizer of rosemary focaccia and olive oil, we sipped a Savoie and were treated to our first course, duck confit with gnocci, baby carrots, Brussels sprouts and pea shoots. Several of us had never tried duck before, and we agreed it was delicious and nearly as soft as butter. This was followed by a dish of white Alici anchovies over Fourme D’ambert blue cheese (I had to ask Foster to spell that one) and winter kale, all in sun-dried tomato oil and balsamic vinegar. We changed wines here: sticking with white, we moved on to a Chablis, which matched well the saltiness of the anchovies. Throughout, our knowledgeable waitress was kind enough to fill in details on each dish as we dined, lauding the quality ingredients and pulling Foster from the kitchen to spell Fourme D’ambert.

Duck Confit.
Our next course was a house-pulled mozzarella salad, with fresh avocado, pickled red onions, blood oranges and a vanilla bean oil. The sweet, light flavor was a perfect follow-up to the anchovy dish. The final item was edamame cooked “southern baked beans” style (Foster said he used his mother’s recipe) with chorizo sausage and New Orleans style shrimp. The beans were sweet and almost black, and the dish satisfied any craving for a subsequent dessert. In total, the meal was wonderful, and we waved “goodbye” to Foster as he chatted with several other restaurant visitors. Our visit to Zed Café felt a bit like a celebration. We enjoyed great food and a friendly night out with a chef we respect, and we learned a little more about the way seasonal and ‘clean’ cooking fits into the process of really enjoying what we cook and eat.

Honey Love

If you had asked me about honey just over a year ago I would have told you I didn't much care for it. Then one of my beekeeper friends dropped a glass jar of his fresh, local, honey into my hand. Lets just say that my husband and I have ever since teased this beekeeper for his street smart ways. One free jar and he has had a steady customer ever since!
It turns out that this first jar of honey was rich with the nectar from Tulip Poplar pollen. The rich, sweet molasses like flavors of Tulip Poplar honey are amazing and a must try.
Although it's near impossible for a beekeeper to have any honey that's purely based upon the pollen of only one type of flower, a knowledgeable keeper can tell what flowers dominated each batch based on extraction time, color and flavor of the honey, and knowledge of his local fauna.

The benefits of honey are numerous (although it should not be given to infants.) It has strong antibacterial qualities. Studies have shown that a teaspoon of honey taken Before brushing your teeth actually prevents plaque buildup thanks to honey's helpful (and tasty) enzymes. Not to mention that if you have pollen based allergies eating fresh local honey made from the pollens in your area can help provide relief.

If you think you like honey and aren't eating fresh local honey, boy will you bee in for a surprise!
On that first day my husband and I did a taste test, our friends honey versus a store bought brand that we had long ago accepted as, well,..., just honey. First we tasted the local and then the store bought. Simultaneously we came up with a new flavor description for that store honey "Dishwater". It was done, two lovers of local honey had been made, to the greater benefit of ourselves, our local keeper, his bees, and our gardens.

Bee Space

Loving food means wanting to know everything about it- which is why we garden and why we cook. When we got the chance to take the 'Beekeeping for Beginners' class at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens, Shannon and I were hoping to gain some insight on the mysterious 'Colony Collapse Disorder' affecting beehives all over the country. (Plus I have a thing for older, agrarian men.)

No matter. The important thing to remember is that one out of every three bites of food you take is thanks to bee pollination. (And just remember, corn is wind pollinated. Ahem.) Bees are so important, and so fascinating, I feel compelled to share a bit about what we have learned. Plus, there might be something YOU can do to help them.

I have always loved bees. I thought the very idea of a honey creator was absolutely miraculous. In the library window of my elementary school (John B. Cary- represent...) there was a demonstration beehive. I don't recall that anyone gave us lessons on bees, we were just free to observe them coming and going. The side of the hive attached to the window was clear so we could also watch the workers create their perfectly ordered hexagonal cells and move busily about.

Bees garner my respect because they work. Even though they don't fly at night, they do not sleep. During the winter nights, bees huddle together and flex their wing muscles to generate heat. They will literally work until their wings fall off. Consider these amazing facts:
Bess will visit 2,000,000 flowers to make 1 lb of honey.
They fly 55,000 miles to find those flowers.
The average worker makes 1 ½ tsp of honey in its lifetime.

Good gracious. For these, (and many other reasons) I have a new found respect for these tiny beings.

My favorite new piece of trivia is that eating itself seems to be a social activity for bees. Even though there is always food available from the nectar cells, they often accept food from one another instead. Their interdependence is a gorgeous thing to consider.

Of course, we have all heard about the plight of the bees. Hives are failing without predatory cause. We learned on Saturday that home apiarists have not had the troubles that agribusiness has with the Colony Collapse Disorder. Our speaker, David Fitzgerald, theorized that migratory pollination, (that is carting bees around to pollinate crops) is extremely stressful, and exhausts the workers and disorients the entire hive. Go figure.

It is so important to remember that there are many vital reasons to support local, organic agriculture. Our lives are intimately connected with those that feed us. And that includes the bees.

For more information on beekeeping in Virginia (and interviews with some of the cutest gentlemen ever) check out Angels of Agriculture. For more universal information on the predicament of the honey bee, take a look at the Vanishing Bees Site.

When Important Things go Pop!

As you know, we here at RFC are all about eating fresh, local and organic foods. I am no purist ( I'm just not there yet), but the term most often used to describe those of us who attempt to eat as local as possible is Locavore. This word got a whole lot of free press this past December when The New Oxford American Dictionary named it their word of the year. As there site explains this word was first coined by four women in the San Francisco Bay area who first challanged the Bay area community in August of 2005 to eat as much as possible sourced within a 100 mile radius of their homes. Since then, the movement has expanded all across the country and beyond, combining with the slow food movement and others.

All publicity may be good publicity, but a recent article in a popular style and shopping magazine may have done a real disservice to the locavore cause. I am all about some pop culture. Well, that's true of some of its many forms. I love a lot of pop music, T.V. and a light hearted commercial rag from time to time. The problem with pop culture is that it glorifies the trival and trivializes all things important. This can be a problem when a lesser known idea or movement is thrust into the pop culure realm.

The article entitled "Eating Locally for Two Weeks," provides some good information to a readership that may not be likely to seek it out on their own. The author really comes accross as though she is genuinely trying to support an eco-friendly movement. Sadly however, the format and context of the piece inside a magazine usally dedicated to the latest in coffee mugs and lighting fixtures, leads the author to obscure or omit any understanding of the fundamental values behind this movement.

Forget that this article is published in the March issue and describes the author at her local up state New York farmers market purchasing heirloom tomatos and "two beautiful eggplants". My real beef is that the author complains that after her first local shoping experience she had spent $60 for only two days provisions. She later complains that in just 10 short days she had spent $325 on groceries (when usually she was only spending $200 before) and put 100 extra miles on her car. What the heck is she buying and where on earth has she been going? I understand that we're talking NY prices, but rather than make this sort of contextual observation, the author states that this "is definitely not a 'we-the-people' movement."

To add insult to injury, she never provides a real working definiting of "locavore", or references for readers to find out more. Instead, she says that from what she can tell "locavores don't have office jobs-they seem to be able to spend all of their time foraging." Alas, I can't do that (nor can most of the country)." That sort of minimizing and narrow- sighted commentary can only hurt when provided for the consumption of a readership who may very well look no further for information on a topic they little understood before reading the author's frivolous and discouraging piece.

I can tell you that in the peak of late summer/ early fall (when the article must have been written), my husband and I always managed to spend less or equal the amount of money we had been spending shopping "conventinally." On average, we would spend $45 -$50 at the market and about the same at the grocery store. It got to the point where some weeks I didn't even have to go to the store, and others my bill would only be about $30. Other weeks, (depending on purchases of jumbo cans of olive oil or laundry soap), were higher. Point is, three meals a day, for seven days, for two people, could range anywhere from $80-$135 per week. Not everything we ate was local, but most of it was.

On the Oxford American Dictionary blog site, an editor for the dictionary is quoted as saying the word Locavore was selected in part because it is "significant in that it brings together eating and ecology in a new way." Well put. I have said that I am no purist when it comes to local eating. I get as much as I can from the markets, local farms and my own garden. Time is always a constraint, however I have enjoyed every moment of the whole 'eating local' experience. I have met dozens of wonderful people I never would have met, made new friends, and tried ( and loved) loads of new foods I never would have before. I have learned more about my food, my health, my surroundings and community, and myself in last several months than I ever thought possible from simply having fun and eating well. And for what it's worth, I got all this goodness on a very tight budget.