Fruits & Veggies More Matters

In a recent assessment of eco-plastic, Time magazine noted that the promise of the product — a plastic that biodegrades — can only be fulfilled under certain conditions. Toss an empty bioplastic bag of chips into your petroleum-plastic-lined garbage can, in other words, and the biodegradable bag never gets the chance to do just that. And under other conditions, the supposedly planet-friendly plastic can give off methane, a greenhouse gas. But the product — current bioplastics are made from corn, with versions using switchgrass, potatoes, and algae in the works — requires less energy to make and, in theory, is a laudable idea. Pass the chips, please.

from Sift

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Mark Bittman live-blogs the shoot for an upcoming batch of Minimalist videos.

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The President's Cancer Panel made quite a stir this week when it released a report (pdf) on environmental cancer risk. It said what many health researchers, doctors and advocates have been saying for a long time — that we face increased health risks from exposure to chemicals, only a fraction of which have been tested. It also advocated buying organic food without using the word (it said food grown without pesticides instead).

Though it got little attention, here is what the panel recommended to avoid exposure to toxic chemicals:

1. Choose foods, house and garden products, play spaces, toys, medicines and medical tests that will minimize children's exposure to toxics.
2. Reduce exposure to occupational chemicals by removing shoes before entering the home and washing clothes separate from other family laundry.
3. Filter home tap or well water to reduce exposure to known carcinogens and endocrine-disrupting chemicals. Use filtered tap water rather than commercial bottled water.
4. Store and carry water in stainless steel, glass or BPA- and phthalate-free containers.
5. Microwave food and beverages in ceramic or glass — not plastic — containers.
6. Choose food grown without pesticides or chemical fertilizers and wash conventionally grown produce to remove residues.
7. Eat meat produced without antibiotics and added growth hormones.
8. Avoid or minimize consumption of processed, charred, and well-done meats.
9. Wear a headset when using a cell phone and keep calls brief.
10. Check home radon levels.
11. Reduce or eliminate exposure to second-hand smoke.
12. Discuss the need for tests or procedures that involve radiation exposure with your doctor.
13. Create a record of all imaging or nuclear medicine tests received and if known, the estimated radiation dose for each test.
14. Avoid overexposure to UV-rays by wearing protective clothing and sunscreens and avoiding the sun when it's most intense.
15. Become an advocate by strongly supporting environmental cancer research and measures to remove toxins from the environment.

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Although I stuck with the traditional French preparation in the recipe below, you are welcome to shake things up a bit by adding dried currants and/or thinly sliced red onion or some grated beets to the salad or throwing a little Dijon mustard into the dressing, etc. Bon appetit!

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pea spread

I served this bruschetta with champagne at the beginning of a special five course dinner and was pleasantly surprised by how much praise it received. The delicate pea flavor is a great way to begin a spring meal or as part of a selection of snacks to enjoy with drinks.

I came back from the farmers market last week with a new bread that has recently appeared on one of my favorite stands, Cayuga Pure Organics. I have talked about them before; they sell locally grown beans, grains, freshly milled flours and now their own 100 % whole grain sour dough bread. I was a bit concerned about how well it would grill, especially on a stovetop grill, but it turned out perfectly, no crumbling or sticking and no extra attention needed.

Sometimes, to add richness to the peas, I shave a little firm aged cheese over it, like a local Ouray. Parmesan and feta also compliment it well.

Try this spread on oatcakes, in sandwiches or as a side dish, you’ll also love eating it on its own!

pea spread

Pea spread

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2 cups peas (I used frozen)

Sea salt

Black pepper

Pea sprouts to garnish

Warm a skillet over medium heat. Add olive oil and garlic and sauté until garlic begins to turn light golden. Stir in (defrosted) peas and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook for about 3 minutes if using frozen peas, longer if you’re using fresh peas. Remove from heat as soon as they are tender and bright green in color.

cooking peas and garlic

Place peas in a food processor and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

blending peas

Whole wheat Bruschetta.

Whole wheat sourdough bread

Extra virgin olive oil

1 large garlic clove, cut in half

Pre-heat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.

Slice bread in 1/3 inch slices and brush each side with olive oil.

Heat a grill pan over high heat for a few minutes. Place 4 slices of bread in pan and lower heat to medium. Place a heavy pot on top of the bread (I used my kettle filled with water). Grill bread for 2 minutes on each side and place in the oven to crisp and keep warm while you grill the rest of the bread. When ready to serve, rub each slice of bread with the cut garlic clove and top with pea spread. Garnish with pea sprouts.

brushing bread with olive oil

bruschetta, olives and wine

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So we’ve covered the how-tos of stocking your pantry before, but we liked this post on the same subject, from the blog Simple Bites. Sure, there’s a list of basics and a checklist for personalizing your pantry, but we dug this list of reminders as to why you should stock your pantry — besides the obvious reason of needing to eat, that is:

Stocking your pantry helps you steer clear of prepackaged and processed foods, makes it easy to come up with last-minute meals, saves you money by allowing you to stock when food items are on sale, keeps food on hand in case of an emergency (remember all those snow days last winter?), and helps maintain a healthy diet full of real foods.

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There’s no need to limit rhubarb to pie.

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The following post was submitted by Joe Cloud, partner in T&E Meats, a small-scale locally focused slaughterhouse in Harrisonburg, Va. I wrote about T&E in the WaPo and invited Joe to post his thoughts on this blog. – SF

 By Joe Cloud

This is usually the slowest time of the year for butchering, but T&E Meats is booked months in advance, like the other small meat processing plants in Virginia. We’re working at almost full capacity to bring locally grown, pasture-raised, and humanely slaughtered quality meats to market. 

But, right now, our future is looking tenuous due to newly proposed regulations from the USDA.

Picture an hourglass and you’ll understand the local, sustainable meat crisis: there are plenty of willing consumers looking for humanely raised, quality local meats, and there are more and more farmers looking to “meat” that consumer demand (sorry – couldn’t help myself!), but the real bottle neck is processing capacity. Small, community-based meat processing plants have become an endangered species in America, done in by an ocean of super-cheap industrial meat and the challenges and costs of meeting one-size-fits-all regulations.

Although species go extinct on earth on a regular basis, every so often there is a major event that comes along and wipes out 40% or 50%. The same happens in the small business world. A few businesses fold every year due to retirement, poor management, and changes in the market, and that is quite normal. But then every so often a catastrophic event comes along that causes a wholesale wipeout.

In the small meat businesses in America, catastrophic events result from changes high up in the regulatory food chain that make it very difficult for small plants to adapt. The most recent extinction event occurred at the turn of the millennium when Small and Very Small USDA-inspected slaughter and processing plants were required to adopt the HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Plan) system. It has been estimated that over 20%, perhaps more, of existing small plants went out of business when HACCP was first instituted. Now, proposed changes to HACCP threaten to take down many of the remaining local plants, making the availability of healthy, local meats a rare commodity.

This is ironic given the USDA's new emphasis on promoting local food production. The department's Know Your Farmer Know Your Food Program web site says it wants to "foster the viability and growth of small and mid-size farms and ranches, and we want to create new opportunities for farmers and ranchers by promoting locally produced foods." But the newly proposed regulations from the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the inspection arm of the USDA, will reduce local opportunities for ranchers, never mind create new ones.

The intent of HACCP is to prevent contamination of meat by harmful pathogens. It does so by instituting well-recognized, established processes and controls set by the USDA itself. At T&E, we have had a HACCP Plan in place since 1999, and it works. We undergo extensive E.Coli testing every year, and have never had a positive sample.

But on March 19, the FSIS published a Draft Guidance on HACCP System Validation, outlining new rules which would institute much more intensive testing of all meats, whether or not a problem has been identified. These requirements will cost small plants tens of thousands of dollars, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, every year — a financial burden appears great enough to force many to shutter.

Now, the reason these rules are being proposed is clear: millions of pounds of recalled hamburger, e. coli food poisoning incidents and distrust by consumers and foreign trading partners of U.S. produced meat. But these problems have arisen at plants that handle thousands of animals a day in extremely fast-moving production lines.

Small plants operate quite differently. At T&E, for example, we process around 20 animals a day. I know which farmer delivered each animal, often because that same farmer wants his butchered animal back so he can sell it. We're not mixing thousands of animals of unknown provenance into piles of hamburger meat and then sending it all around the country. 

Perhaps a large plant slaughtering 5,000 animals per day can afford its own lab and microbiology staff, and can pass the cost along to the consumer. And perhaps they should, given the recalls arising from these large-scale facilities. But most small plants can’t handle it.

The USDA needs to recognize that "One Size Fits All" inspection no longer works. The risks arising from mega agribusiness plants are far different from community-based plants and they should be regulated appropriately. This does not mean lowering the hurdles for small processors. Rather it means tailoring regulations to the scale and risks of an operation. That way we can provide what the consumer wants – safe AND local food, not just the shrink-wrapped anonymous meat in the supermarket.

The USDA is accepting comments on this matter until June 19th, 2010. The original deadline was April 19. You can learn more at the Association of American Meat Processors web site, or the Niche Meat Processors Assistance Network.

Please submit a comment if you care about community-based meat processing and humanely produced meats. Your comments really do matter. Submit your comments to the email address DraftValidationGuideComments@fsis.usda.gov or to the
Docket Clerk, USDA, FSIS, Room 2-2127, 5601 Sunnyside Avenue, Beltsville, MD 20705.

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The pot is shaped more like a jug. You can probably find these things at Asian markets (if they stock South East Asian goods) if you have one close by. However, if not, you can also buy them online for $12 – $30. 

4. Once the rice is finished, dump it out of the basket into a bowl and stir in half of the coconut mixture, mixing well to combine. Slice the mango and serve with the rice, drizzling more of the coconut sauce over the rice before serving.

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