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Food 
Wed Jan 13, 2010 at 04:53:35 AM PST
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We've all heard that bloggers are interconnected. We hear that the lead is being taken by bloggers these days in breaking stories or fact checking them, since the blogs are rooted in such a wide diversity of people. We hear how blogs can quickly get right to the bottom of an issue.
We've heard similar things about video. A video from an ordinary person can suddenly go viral.
Recently someone suggested to me through my YouTube channel that Twitter was the place to be: "I recently came across your zmag blog .... Much of the way that discussions about food/ag are getting moved into the mainstream is via twitter.... the tech has shifted." It's hard to keep up.
Of course, we've also heard that information on the internet can be unreliable. It doesn't have the standards of scientific scholarship, or even of the mainstream media of the past. Information can go viral AND be false, half true and/or technically true but misleading.
So how does this all play out for farm and food justice work within these domains?
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Tue Jan 12, 2010 at 10:48:36 AM PST
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I've never used balsamic vinegar. I've never even had a serious discussion about balsamic vinegar. Oh, I tried some grocery store stuff once, long ago, but it was pretty much just vinegar and I wasn't impressed enough to pursue the subject. I was a little intimidated, also. A supermarket has so many kinds, which come in so many different shapes and sizes, and whose labels make such entertaining reading, that sorting them out seemed too challenging.
I should have discussed balsamic vinegar with someone who knew what it was all about.
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Sun Dec 27, 2009 at 00:34:10 AM PST
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In all likelihood, I will be working both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. I think I'll cook the rump end of a ham (lots of leftovers!) on Wednesday, with maybe some mashed potatoes, or else potatoes mashed with turnips, and brussels sprouts on the side.
That's the extent of my plans at the moment, although if anyone has a great recipe for a maple-bourbon glaze for the ham, I'm interested: haven't found one online that could match the one a friend of mine (a former chef) did off-the-cuff some years ago when we collaborated on dinner. (She was in charge of the ham; I watched her make the glaze but have never been able to reproduce it.)
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Fri Dec 11, 2009 at 11:38:08 AM PST
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My earliest memory of cassoulet was when one the chefs in the family hotel declared that there was a restaurant somewhere in the Languedoc region which had been simmering this particular dish since the 1789 revolution, perhaps even before that. At the time I thought it a tall tale but as an impressionable boy of ten I gave the chef the benefit of the doubt. Several years later, I visited the celebrated Tour D'Argent in Paris and on the menu there was a description of a cassoulet which had been on the stove for the best part of a hundred years. When I questioned the maitre D', he explained the process of preparing it: it is traditional to deglaze the pot from the previous cassoulet in order to give a base for the next one. It made sense.
Next week I'll resume this series with a piece on my favorite seven spices. And a Xmas recipe for mulled wine.
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Fri Dec 04, 2009 at 10:09:52 AM PST
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In part one I covered the history of the olive oil and how it's made and now comes the promised recipes. But first, here's a secret: it is incredibly easy to make your own herb or spice flavored olive oil. There is no point buying an expensively decorated bottle of olive oil that has a sprig or two of herb swimming into it. It's more fun to make one's own, and cheaper. Much cheaper.
There are basically two ways of making infused oils: hot and cold. I much prefer to go the cold way for the simple reason that I have burnt oils in the past. Even if you know how to use a thermometer, you might still get it wrong as it is a delicate process. The cold way is dead easy: select your desired herb or spice, add it to the (extra) virgin oil and store in your pantry for two weeks before use.
To be cross-posted on the Big Orange.
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 at 14:50:16 PM PST
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( - promoted by JayinPortland)
Last night I had the great privilege to see and hear two of the most influential and inspiring figures in the sustainable food movement in conversation. While Michael Pollan has become a household name through books like Omnivore's Dilemma, and most recently, films like Food Inc. and The Botany of Desire, he took the interviewer's seat and gave the stage to a man who has touched so many of us who care about living in harmony with nature and whose prose about Americans' relationship to their land has been as profound as it's been prophetic.
This was Wendell Berry's night, the 75-year old agrarian, author and voice of stewardship who had traveled all the way from his Kentucky farm to share his eloquence, humor, and wisdom with an appreciative audience at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. It's impossible to list all the books, essays and poems Mr. Berry has written or to do justice in words to the impact he has had on the current renaissance of agrarian awakenings from budding farmers markets to a White House garden, so I will just relay some choice quotes that I hastily scribbled in the dark theater.
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 at 14:37:54 PM PST
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I can't remember how long I have been doing Thanksgiving. I love it, although I have to admit it was hard after my husband died 2 years ago. But life goes on and we carry on the traditions. Now that my daughter is in college, she brings friends from school. Her roomate is from Peru and she joined us last year and will be back again this year. And in addition to people, we also have Gabbie my dog, Bambino my NYC sisers mutt and Kafka my local sisters dog. My sister who lives in NYC usually arrives Wed with Bambino. I buy the turkey from my local coop and my daughter now in college usually meets me there to shop Wed night dinner is quick and we sit down and catch up over food and wine. Thurs..The cooking of the turkey is shared between my sister and I..My daughter likes to cook alone. This year it will only be her kick ass stuffing/dressing..Around noon the radio station WXPN plays Alices Restaurant and we all come together in the kitchen to listen.Speaking of my daughter.. Here's my daughter being carted away last Fri to jail. http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/monica_yant_kinney/20091101_Monica_Yant_Kinney__They_won_t_burn_Rx_cards__but______.html And yep thats me ...being interviewed. Politics and food go hand in hand in our family and Thanksgiving is no exception. Here's my daughter recipe for seitan stuffing/dressing. As my mother would say its a bissel ( yiddish for a little) of this and a bissel of that... short grain organic brown rice..we usually cook 2 cups 1 small container of seitan onions carrots celery dates apricots herbs of your choice. We usually use sage, but rosemary cook rice til tender...while rice is cooking saute onions, til tnder and carmelized. Add the seitan to the carmelized onions and cook for about 5-6 minutes on low. Add carrots, celery and cook til everything is soft. Add chopped dates and chopped apricots. When rice is done add above to cooked rice and add your herb of choice. Cook everything together for about 5 minutes or til dates and apricots have melted slightly into the rice We use some of this in the turkey and then have a casserole of the stuffing for my daughter... <!--Session data--><!--Session data--><!--Session data--><!--Session data--><!--Session data--><!--Session data--><!--Session data--><!--Session data--><!--Session data--><!--Session data--><!--Session data--><!--Session data-->
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Thu Oct 15, 2009 at 10:32:07 AM PDT
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I'm back. Welcome to this new food series. Hopefully, it will appear twice a month, depending on my ever growing workload, on Thursday nights (I have also a DK GreenRoots diary on DKos, every last Thursday of the month which is mostly about water safety & scarcity, just to freak you out).
In this series I will focus on basic ingredients, you know, the sort of stuff you have in your pantry larder, and some diaries will be liberally peppered with odd recipes and occasionally I'll do a culinary tour of the world and feature some of the great cuisines of our planet. Subscribe at will!
The idea of "Tales from the Larder" came from an unlikely source. I have reverted to my own name on DKos and will keep the AAF moniker parked here...
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Thu Oct 15, 2009 at 08:18:56 AM PDT
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In case you missed it, Howard Dean was live blogging this morning on daily kos about health care reform. Below are his parting comments on healthy life style choices. He was so positive about real reform, How do you feel? I'm off to meet Jay..face to face!!!
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Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 16:23:23 PM PDT
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who shows up at the store almost daily. I think she lives across the street. She always has money & knows how to count, which is more than you can say for some of the children (and a bunch of the adults!) who come in and want to buy something.
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Mon Aug 03, 2009 at 09:07:30 AM PDT
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A fantastic must-read feature from Matt Jenkins at High Country News takes us into the last few decades of the crab fishing industry, and the catch-share programs that are now being put in place seeking to prevent those fisheries from collapsing.
With too many boats chasing too few crab, fishermen started going broke. They also -- literally -- started going under. In the scramble to catch as much of the quota as possible, boats frequently sailed into fierce Bering Sea storms, and some never returned. Between 1989 and 2005, 10 crab boats sank in the Sea, taking 51 men with them. Another 34 men were lost overboard or killed.
Let's talk about this below the fold...
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Sun Aug 02, 2009 at 23:45:01 PM PDT
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Just finished reading Michael Pollan's story in today's NYT Magazine. It's about Julia Child and her effect on 1960s home cooking, empowering women to attempt scary-sounding haute cuisine; about Julie and Julia, the new movie; and about the deleterious effects of our recent move out of the kitchen and toward more industrial prepared foods (whether from McD's or from the just-nuke-it freezer section). He's spot-on in his assessment of the Food Network's programming, imho. All in all, well worth the read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08...
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Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 18:41:21 PM PDT
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( - promoted by Jill Richardson)
Not really a secret because it's all over the burbs of Southern California, the land of grass farmers. The coveted grass is more valuable than growing food and even in this economic crisis compounded by a devastating drought people are more worried about their lawns and city landscaping then letting people grow food.
I was reading La Vida Locavore when I saw that Jill Richardson posted something about missing her beloved cantaloupes this season due to the lack of water and making it a short growing season for her favorite melon.
But what struck me was the fact that the City of San Diego has a moratorium on community gardens because of said lack of water.
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Sun Jul 05, 2009 at 23:10:28 PM PDT
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( - promoted by Jill Richardson)
Everyone has some kind of insecurity, mine are many and mostly related to self image and weight. I'm currently 100 pounds overweight, quite a sum especially when I consider that we were really excited when Charlotte, my daughter, finally passed the 40 pound mark. I have to lose two and a half Charlottes!
I started this journey recently in attempting to change my relationship with food, the issues surrounding food sustainability and our Nation's struggle with obesity. Just last week the latest numbers showed that obesity continues to increase in all fifty states. It's not looking pretty.
And now that I've made it partway through David Kessler's book, The End of Overeating I have more to say about the unbearable weight of being obese. The revelations are startling to say the least.
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Sat Jul 04, 2009 at 21:05:32 PM PDT
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( - promoted by Jill Richardson)
Cross-posted at DailyKos.
I was a bit shocked to see business as usual today at the triangle that several farmers call home every Thursday and Saturday. Not that you can't find a New York City grocery store opened on the Fourth but since the Upper West Siders who depend on these farms for fresh food didn't take a day off from eating, these hard working farmers were there on the Fourth. Besides they need the money.
One of them asked me to do a favor for the farmers today. I like to think that he asked all of us. The local farmers biggest problem is exposure. Greenmarket NYC like most green market organizers only has so much money for advertising. He asked that I post information in community blogs so more residents know about the fresh food available.
Something else we could all do is get our district council or community board websites to post information about the farms, dates and locations and also what is in season. The more customers that know about these markets, the bigger they will get.
Meet a few of my local green grocers below the fold.
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