tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34011742354660862942024-02-20T13:03:06.820-08:00When good food goes badThoughts on growing concerns about food and product safety and trying to live well in a toxic world.Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06570776538075102886noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401174235466086294.post-68820182484458474352011-06-24T14:45:00.001-07:002011-06-24T14:45:24.908-07:00My favorite part of JuneStrawberries and more strawberries. Blueberries and more Blueberries. I may turn into a berry. I am a fan.<br />
<br />
Last night I made fresh lemonade from frozen lemon juice I put up last month and added cut up and mascerated strawberries to it, it was delicious. <br />
<br />
Another thing I love about June is the promise of Summer. The trees are all green and the fruits are blooming. Our Mandarin tree is loaded this year and I can't wait until they are ripe at the end of the year. Our Fejoia is full of flowers as well. The plums are coming in and the apricots. Hopefully they won't all ripen at once and will give me some time to do some canning.<br />
<br />
Our CSA box has been full of goodies. We got two kinds of chard this week, bok choy, strawberries, potatoes, cauliflower and basil. Can't wait to get cooking.Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06570776538075102886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401174235466086294.post-42574183750695852752010-06-26T10:53:00.000-07:002010-06-26T11:00:56.060-07:00The Chicken or the Egg?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk07LR3rjt88CGm03vFSEFGYDRChGd7rXkHQhq9v9ZlBWF1MvPPufLZaPh6bCC6H8O7xDZRmBW0A810nqmqAPKR8_BBVrYEr3wREXDZK_sDNJZZ5IhmVbtKVombEmf8GfTxb-IvWo5Ar-H/s1600/I+found+it.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk07LR3rjt88CGm03vFSEFGYDRChGd7rXkHQhq9v9ZlBWF1MvPPufLZaPh6bCC6H8O7xDZRmBW0A810nqmqAPKR8_BBVrYEr3wREXDZK_sDNJZZ5IhmVbtKVombEmf8GfTxb-IvWo5Ar-H/s320/I+found+it.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487142430712070098" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZ2HTay6ZlHQSDF2guncrQlqddla2htjfu3EDgDdzNXaDQzYNrBkDwVYoJXjGMluKwnwpF8zR0x3mviqJsbdd47HkrMSb_igQmATen2hy-9r5Oqt4lLY_lrTMKo19MV6e-c-HT_5HrTdi/s1600/Vegas+and+Eggs+014.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLZ2HTay6ZlHQSDF2guncrQlqddla2htjfu3EDgDdzNXaDQzYNrBkDwVYoJXjGMluKwnwpF8zR0x3mviqJsbdd47HkrMSb_igQmATen2hy-9r5Oqt4lLY_lrTMKo19MV6e-c-HT_5HrTdi/s320/Vegas+and+Eggs+014.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5487142422144483234" /></a><br />Well it turns out that our little Chick n Chicken are overachievers. The breed starts laying at 16 weeks rather than the 24 that I'd read online. We got our first egg on Thursday. A tiny one with a dual yolk, very fun. The second egg was even smaller and I haven't cracked that one open yet. The first egg was delicious. The yolks were a dark gold color reminding me of saffron. The eggs tasted just like I remembered from child hood. GOOD! Lately the ladies have been having treats of plums which have just started ripening on our tree and they love cabbage leaves. <br /><br />They've been dumping their outside water and we were trying to figure out why. They would dump it, squack for us to come refill it and then dump it again. Reminded me of a child with a sippy cup. Turns out the bugs were congregating beneath it and our smart girls would wait for the bugs to come and then dump the water out of the way to get at them. I'm so proud :)Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06570776538075102886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401174235466086294.post-58148920224478058402010-06-10T10:48:00.000-07:002010-06-10T11:05:03.549-07:00Is it cheap?What are you willing to pay for your food? Are you willing to pay for less chemicals, better quality, better flavor, good wages and healthy work conditions for the people who create your food? We've been conditioned to look for cheap, but cheap and good in my experience never seem to go together. I've been reconditioning my "cheap" brain and the interesting thing is I am not going to the poor house. <br /><br />The premise of these changes is this, I don't want to pay for the impacts of my cheap choices down the road. I don't want to pay the added healthcare costs for eating crap and poor working conditions, the added welfare costs of people not being able to make a fair wage, the added cost of clean ups of destroyed, chemical laden lands. <br /><br />Here are some things we've changed and while they on the surface seemed more expensive, in the long run they have not been so.<br /><br />1. We joined a CSA - <a href="http://www.twosmallfarms.com">Two small farms</a> and get a box of produce each week which comes out to about $20 a week. It's more than enough produce for the two of us. For example this week we got Lettuce, summer squash, red potatoes, parsley, strawberries, kale and avocados.<br /><br />The best part of the CSA is getting those things that I would never try such as Fava beans, my new favorite, or things that I would never buy which are really good for me and tasty like Kale. The other benefit to this produce is it is picked the day it is delivered and it is picked ripe, so not only does it last longer than produce from the grocery store but it is better tasting. I waste less. I never get moldy berries and I rarely throw something away because it doesn't taste good. I also don't get produce that's been shipped, trucked or airlifted from far away so my purchase doesn't contribute to the extensive cost we are all going to be paying for the destruction of our living spaces. In addition the farms are stewards of an open space water shed and are actually improving the land they farm on. <br /><br />2. We purchase a split half of grass fed beef each year. The beef comes out to about $6.40 per lb. This is an average over all of the cuts which makes it sound more expensive, but I contend that it is not since we get cuts of filet, and rib eye, in fact all cuts that you could imagine. Again the flavor is superior, it has a much smaller percentage of fat, and the fat that it does have is healthy fat. The cattle are healthy, the land is healthy and the workers are healthy. I like supporting that. Check out <a href="http://www.morrisgrassfed.com/ourbeef.htm">Morris Ranch</a> to see what I am talking about.<br /><br />3. We have lessened our consumerism. Thinking about our purchases, buying recycled things at thrift stores and garage sales...and asking ourselves do I really need that new blouse, new chair, can I refinish, refurbish the old instead of buying new?<br /><br /> I'm not perfect by any means, my cheap brain comes out often and I have to talk it down but I hope I am making a difference and I think I am feeling less "cheapened" by my choices.Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06570776538075102886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401174235466086294.post-7036877420303638862010-05-18T18:30:00.001-07:002010-05-18T18:46:11.798-07:00Side Yard Bounty<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2rLeTfZVUI7R84uWEHNRxRiNm68QsUJL4DplBuC5jcHI91ZnyB1f0pos0HDBVXc9xYb2rFZL7iyAmrTA2qAzyyz4E9HcYkQJI_5VkLpszF9jpEnRZHmaT0fYnejNRcQCIsVbMXmtUk-3D/s1600/122509+083.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2rLeTfZVUI7R84uWEHNRxRiNm68QsUJL4DplBuC5jcHI91ZnyB1f0pos0HDBVXc9xYb2rFZL7iyAmrTA2qAzyyz4E9HcYkQJI_5VkLpszF9jpEnRZHmaT0fYnejNRcQCIsVbMXmtUk-3D/s320/122509+083.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5472787622458874834" /></a><br />I just got home from work walked out to the side yard and picked some raspberries, one strawberry and a handful of cherries. Now this may not seem like something to get excited over, but after reading yesterdays news about ADHD being linked to pesticides I am excited to get chemical free produce where I can. <br /><br />The last couple of weeks our <a href="http://www.twosmallfarms.com">CSA</a> box has come with strawberries which don't last long. That night and maybe a handful in the morning. I could eat strawberries for breakfast lunch and dinner but Raspberries are few and far between at our house. I try every once in awhile to buy some organic ones but inevitably I have a melt down when my $5 berries are moldy before it seems I've even gotten them home. So discovering the raspberry bush in the side yard is darn close to nirvana for me, an urban Californian.<br /><br />I didn't used to be so far from good berries. As a high school student my summer job was picking blueberries and raspberries for a local friend who owned a small u pick it farm. He would give me $0.25 a pint if I am remembering correctly but what I didn't get paid in cash I got paid in berries. <br /><br />I then moved up to the position of bucket weigher during the u pick it months. What a sweet job that was, I would sit in the little bucket shack and read a book, waiting for the next pickers to show up, so I could weigh their buckets and show them the best spot to pick. At the end of the night, I'd add to my pay by picking clean the bushes that they had barely touched only for the easiest to reach berries. Amateurs. The owner of the farm would leave me lunch on the counter, beer bread with peanut butter and jelly. Sweet. <br /><br />I think that may have just been the best job I ever had and the best berries I ever had. I don't think that's the story at the corporate berry farms and maybe that's the problem. I remember one week during one summer, we picked the mummy berries. Not my favorite job, these were berries that had a fungus and were not edible and looked pretty gross. Instead of flooding the fields with chemicals, we picked each bush clean and disposed of the "mummys" allowing a new crop to come, fresh bright berries. There is a way to grow good healthy food without chemicals. It just takes some time and care and common sense. I for one would rather care than not.Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06570776538075102886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401174235466086294.post-47240444959996616352010-04-08T17:11:00.000-07:002010-04-08T17:20:54.659-07:00Orach, it's purple!Coming home to a box of organic veggies has to be the best feeling in the world. It's like Christmas. I open each package, think about what I am going to do with the contents<br /><br />...Cauliflower..mmmm...carrots...yum...Purple leafy stuff..what the? <br /><br />It's called <a href="http://www.mariquita.com/images/photogallery/orach-med.jpg">Orach</a>, and it's the best part of the box. Not the Orach itself but the veggies we get that I have never seen before. I grew up on a small farm, we had a big garden so I am not a novice but apparently there are lots of veggie varieties I have yet to even see or hear of. This particular green(or purple) has been compared to spinach. I'll have to tell you how it tastes later, but it looks like something out of Dr Seuss. Purple Leaves!Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06570776538075102886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401174235466086294.post-73968373475866241462010-04-06T17:47:00.000-07:002010-04-08T17:19:43.474-07:00Rhubarb, Asparagus, and Fennel oh myOur CSA box started two weeks ago and already I feel healthier. I know we are getting strawberries tomorrow so today when I saw delicious rhubarb in the store I grabbed a few stalks. Yum! So far I've made two lovely Fennel salads, a leek and pine nut rice pilaf, and two big salads. We haven't started our compost project yet, but we did aquire two baby chickens who are now at 6 weeks eating up our stalks and ends of all sorts of things. They particularly liked the strawberry tops and butternut squash ends.<br /><br />Our CSA box comes from <a href="http://www.twosmallfarms.com/">Two Small Farms</a>. I started with them three years ago and then moved off onto a farm that offered a smaller share and more fruit. It's called Farm Fresh to You. I was very dissapointed in their quality and have now moved back to TSF. I am so glad I moved, the quality is as good as I remember and then some. The first batch of strawberries we got we ate over the sink with a fresh made bowl of homemade whipped cream. There is nothing better than that!Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06570776538075102886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401174235466086294.post-44022775256930022932009-01-20T14:57:00.000-08:002009-01-21T11:07:38.472-08:00FDA confirms salmonella in Kellogg's crackersIs anyone else wondering how salmonella gets in peanut butter? Eating in this country requires a certain amount of denial otherwise how would one enjoy any food? Melamine in milk products, salmonella in peanut butter, e-coli everywhere it shouldn't be. <br />I try to stick to products I get at the farmers market. <br />I look forward to my CSA box which starts up in a few weeks. <br />I am putting my order in for grass fed beef but what about everything else? <br /><br />I have to worry about peanut butter, and milk and crackers and on and on. And speaking of worrying. Trying to get pregnant again and figuring out what I should eat and not eat should be fun.<br /><br />Did anyone else realize that unfiltered coffee is worse for you than filtered? Just something new I've discovered recently that had me worrying about my cholesterol level.<br /><br />It's not just what you put in your body it's what you put on it and around it as well. I've moved to natural biodegradable cleansers for most everything in the house. Laundry, dishes, and hand and body soaps but I do still feel the pull to get some not so good for me makeup(Especially when it's free). Macy's and Nordstrom’s are giving away one free item for anyone who purchased products during a certain timeframe (The result of a lawsuit about price fixing) Yikes. I admit I did get in line to get my free mascara. <br /><br />So the question becomes how obsessed does one get? A wise person recently told me this. “Sometimes we are so focused on reaching our goals that we forget to celebrate the small or even big steps that we have already taken.” This makes sense since I want to be perfect at removing toxic products from my life for obvious reasons but today I think I will acknowledge what I have done and celebrate the steps I have taken. I’ll take a bite of my organic farmers market orange and enjoy the taste of success.Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06570776538075102886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401174235466086294.post-9970451908725350962008-12-11T14:52:00.000-08:002008-12-11T14:56:10.888-08:00The universe is against healthy eating...The universe is not helping my healthy eating plan....there are cookies by my desk at work, because it's the cookie drop off spot. They look good, so I was like I'm going to eat my apple and my mandarin orange and that will head off temptation. So I go wash my apple and it turns out it's rotten so then I go to the mandarin and I drop half of it on the floor. I guess the universe wants me to eat cookies?Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06570776538075102886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401174235466086294.post-43066742673517147322008-11-11T21:23:00.000-08:002008-11-11T21:37:53.922-08:00Good food is hard.I've spent months no years changing the way I eat, what kinds of food we buy, how we cook it. Worrying about how our food was grown, what it ate, how it was taken care of, how it was processed.<br /><br />It only took a few weeks for it all to fall apart. First I got a cold, that turned into bronchitis and a sinus infection. I'm talking 6 weeks of being sick. I am in the sixth week now and just allowing myself to realize that I have been buying and eating garbage, while my CSA vegetables wither in my crisper. I can't force myself to eat healthfully. All I've wanted the last few weeks is canned tomato soup. You know the brand, mix in some water heat it up and dip a grilled cheese in it. Try not to think about the plastics sprayed on the inside of the can...mmm... so warm and delicious. Why is it that the organic tomato soups just don't fit the bill? Follow that up with something chocolate...maybe two wafers with a layer of chocolate in the center...hydrogenated oils be damned.<br /><br />I did find some lovely pie crusts in the freezer section, whole wheat and no hydrogenated oils. YUM! and managed to make pumpkin pie from scratch with a pumpkin we got in our CSA box. (It was not stringy, it was delicious)<br /><br />Why is it that good food is so hard? Maybe the question should be why do I expect myself to work a full + day, commute an hour home and then wash, chop vegetables and prepare food from scratch, clean the kitchen, get clothes ready for tomorrow, make lunches, do some more work, maybe some laundry, pet the cats, feed them, visit with my husband.....I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Let alone getting to the farmers market and the "good" grocery store.<br /><br />I want to eat good food and I will keep trying...I just wish someone would cook it up for me!Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06570776538075102886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3401174235466086294.post-30833675250055268202008-08-16T09:36:00.000-07:002008-08-16T09:51:00.268-07:00Eating Together!<p>Can men teach us about cooking and eating? Women seem to have the market cornered on dieting, what to eat, when, where and how. Women have traditionally been the cooks in the home. There are articles in almost every woman’s magazine about what to eat to improve your appearance. All of the weight loss meetings I’ve attended are predominantly attended by women. But…what has happened to our food reality in this body image obsessed culture is anything but culinary genius. </p><p>My partner Dan loves to cook and when he does, he loves to feed me. It didn’t take long for me to realize, that he was filling my plate to the same level he was filling his. Not to mention, the way he cooks, full fat, sometimes butter and oil in the same dish! The humanity! No wonder my pants started to get tighter!</p><p>I always thought I would want a man that cooks. What I didn’t realize is how difficult it would be to get him to go along with all of my crazy dieting techniques if he did. Instead of feeding him whatever I fancy, based on how “fat” I feel today, we have to decide together what to make for dinner. We have had more than one facedown over having “deep fried morsels of goodness”, as dinner. I find nothing wrong with having Special K, with dehydrated super sweet strawberry-like pieces, and milk for dinner, (Who would?) but a plate of fried whatever? Crazy!</p><p>After the first meal he cooked for me however, there was no going back. A delicious mix of shrimp, chicken, lime juice, shallots, and garlic in a cream sauce over pasta. He didn’t have me at hello, he had me at “dinner”. I was thoroughly impressed that he made a recipe with Shallots, let alone a recipe with so many ingredients. When he peeled the garlic by rubbing it together in his manly hands, I almost fainted. I didn’t know the half of it. While Dan’s favorite thing to do in the kitchen is fry things, when pressed (by me) he is perfectly capable of making a delicious marinated chicken to go over a lovely healthy salad. </p><p>One area where Dan’s cooking has been beneficial to me in a more spiritual way has to do with the fact that as a single girl I got into a comfortable habit of cooking in a certain non fat, diet way. Frying my eggs in a non-stick pan, with a shot (less than 5 seconds) of non-stick spray was a daily occurence, and I sometimes substituted egg whites for the whole egg to cut more fat. I almost had a heart attack on the spot when I realized that my new boyfriend was filling the bottom of the fry pan with olive oil and then carefully frying each egg one at a time in the lusciously bubbling oil. He would take them out, drain them momentarily through the slotted spatula and deposit them atop a buttered slice of bread. This was decadent eating. My momentary freak out over the oil incident turned into utter delight at the taste of his breakfast over mine. </p><p>Have I forgotten what real food tastes like? These changes in my daily food life have made me start looking for more real food, real tastes. I now eat real full fat cheese, and butter. To counterbalance the butter, I joined a Community Supported Agriculture program that delivers a box of fresh, local and organic produce to my neighborhood for me. The food in this box tastes like it should. The strawberries instead of a beautiful but flavorless store bought berry are smaller, some might say not as perfect but the flavor! Almost seems sinful. This is what food should taste like. I haven’t been on a fast food binge in weeks. Our new Wednesday night ritual is a bowl of strawberries with home made whipped cream. I don’t even miss the multiple dried up, low fat, high sugar cakes I used to placate myself with. I may be on to something here.<br /><br />I’ve never been skinny and I admit I am tempted still to go back to torturing myself with non fat bland tasting food, to make myself feel like I am accomplishing something. When I do feel the urge though, I remind myself that the full on diet lifestyle never worked for me in the past. I wonder, would it be better to eat food that tastes good on a day to day basis while keeping my portions to pre Dan days? Maybe men and women can teach each other something about dieting or the lack thereof, in fact eating!</p>Jenniferhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06570776538075102886noreply@blogger.com0