Interview with the Parents. One Question.

I sent this email to both my parents today and I am posting it and their responses (I am reading a lot about the connection between the environmental movement, technology and agriculture and how these have affected the social movement in regards to food that we see happening now):

Subject: Question

How much did the issues of pesticides and chemicals with farming come up in your life during the 1970s and 80s?

Do you remember being concerned about these things or hearing much about 'organics' or 'organic farming'?

Dad's Answer:

A cogent question.

Once in college, mid-60's, I was vaguely aware or Carson's "Silent Spring." A major breakthrough, however, was the first Earth Day in 1970, from that point on one's consciousness had been raised to all sort of infractions. At that time, I first became aware of the poisoning of our rivers and dangers of agricultural runoff. One of the first rivers to "die" in MN was the Minnesota which ran just outside of Sleepy Eye and was totally killed by farm pesticides, your pharmacist grandfather confirmed this for me. I also remember having a faculty room argument circa 1975 with a math teacher who also farmed concerning this issue. He maintained that the biological make up of the plant mitigated the chemicals (?). Organic farming expanded in response and had previously been reference indirectly by people aware that home grown tasted better than store purchased. Again, the Carson book and social questioning of the late 60's and 70's was huge in raising personal awareness.

The use of farm pesticides ( to increase yield) was deployed hand in hand with the increased use of mechanized farming during the demands of WWI and into the twenties. Yield ran far ahead of consumption during the twenties and threw the agricultural sector into economic chaos before the crash of 1929. Remember, the New Deal (Ag. Adjustment Act) paid farmers to plow up planted fields in 1933 and not to plant in subsequent years do to overproduction - pesticides a major player in increasing yield per acre.

Hope this helps.
\\Dad

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Mom's Answer:

Erika,

Going back even earlier, I grew up with pesticides and chemicals being routinely used in farming and on our lawns. Grandpa Ray sold them at the drugstore and Uncle Ron did crop-dusting around the countryside as a job. I and everyone in our community was exposed to A LOT of these chemicals. I was a child, so I didn't have much of a reference point at that time. However, when I got to college and the whole "back to the land" movement began, there was much discussion about natural foods. We also linked the development of pesticides and other chemicals by big companies like Dow to chemical warfare, like napalm and Agent Orange. I protested with many other Macalester students against Honeywell because Mac had a lot of stock in Honeywell and most of us were not only against the war, but against the specific use of these terrible chemicals that caused deforestation, water pollution, and disease and death to people and animals.

I was highly aware of organic farming in the 70s and shopped at the earliest co-op in Minneapolis (Seward), Boulder, and in Brainerd once I lived there. I also helped start a paper recycling center with my philosophy students at BHS because of our concern about clear-cutting of forests and a paper shortage. All of these issues seemed to be linked in my mind because of the corporate approach to abuse of resources and the growth of agribusiness, etc.

Does that help?

Mom

Stumptown Arrives in NYC

So happy. So happy. So happy that I might even go out for a coffee after work rather than a beer! Shocking, I know.

Brief synopsis before I direct you to the brief article in the NYT: Stumptown, started in Portland, is a direct trade coffee importer, roaster and distributor. Their dedication to the bean is unparalleled as far as I have found. Direct trade, going beyond what people consider so great called fair trade, means that the people that own this company (yes, the actual owners of Stumptown) travel to South America/Central America/Africa/Indonesia to meet with growers and farmers of coffee beans, negotiate a good price for their worth and continue a relationship with them for years.

Genius subversion of traditionally horrible capitalistic principles. Oh, and guess what, if you're literally in a relationship with someone who is growing beans mostly for you and your company, you're probably going to be able to tell them what you like, tweak the amount of shade the beans get for example or say, you know, please don't put pesticides on the beans.

In the end, this is not an elitist pursuit--it is quite the opposite. Their espresso a their coffee shop in the new (and wonderful, had friends stay there and checked it out) Ace Hotel on 29th Street is 10 cents more than at the Starbucks around the corner.

They roast the beans at a facility in Red Hook (Brooklyn) and my co-worker met with the owner (friends of friends) to hear all about the company and its pursuits. I can tell you, at least second hand and from taste/sensual experience, this stuff is the real deal. These guys are an amazing example of shifting the traditional paradigm in beverages.

NYT Article here.
Stumptown website here.

Bento Boxes

I always thought the concept of the bento (obento?) box was great, because of its natural portion control and generally speaking healthy items contained within, but when I moved to New York I found that, often, a bento box consisted of rice + greasy teriyaki meat dish + a california roll sometimes + miso soup, etc etc. And they usually weren't that economical in comparison to what I thought was a decent 'deal'--the very common in NYC two rolls of maki + miso for usually around 8 bucks.
Point being, I haven't bentoed it up so much in this city. Well, any city really, but was aware of the potential power of the bento. I unfortunately overlooked home bentoeing! Which is too bad, since my first awareness of the bento was watching The Breakfast Club as a young girl: One of the absolute best scenes in the world, but also super telling because every person in Saturday detention pulls out a befitting lunch to match their personality/high school caste status. The geek has like crustless PB+J, tomato soup. The bag lady has white bread which she sprinkles with pixie stix and crushed Cap'n Crunch cereal (I think also Diet Coke is involved). The jock has a giant bag of potato chips, three sandwiches and like two Cokes. And then we get to the class, preppy homecoming queen Molly Ringwald's character who busts out this totally proper, totally beautiful bento box full of sushis. The rest of the crew then proceeds to ask her what the hell she's eating.

Anyway, the image of that lunch was vivid and, well, who didn't want to be like Molly Ringwald? Too bad I was more into being like her fashion-wise and in the regard of chasing boys who didn't notice me than adopting these interesting eating habits. Sigh.
Thankfully, the New York Times has picked up the ball once again on an interesting trend. Now, as usual also, the New York Times has annoyed me. They wrote an article about the fad of the bento box, but in doing so, assumed that (I guess since we're all foodies these days and don't have jobs?) we all have seven hours a day to make carrot sticks heart-shaped and we know how to make an olive into a flower, blah blah blah.
But let's use this as an opportunity to be inspired by that which was good: The idea of a small plastic box going with us to work or school every day filled with fresh + beautiful + relatively small ingredients.
This is a great idea for schools. This is a great idea for me to bring to work. You get the idea. Please read the full article here.
I'm working on sourcing a really cool and inexpensive bento box to buy. Sayonara.

Woohoo! Greenpoint Food Market Launches This Saturday, Sept. 12!

Frenching August

I'm taking August off, in case anyone is still reading this, to spend some time here.

Sad Truth

USA Today reports that last year we Americans spent $147 billion -- billion! -- on conditions related to obesity. Obese persons have medical bills 42 percent higher than those of normal weight. The surge in obesity may be related to modern industrial agriculture, including the use of chemicals such as endocrine disruptors. So the ag system produces cheap food, yes, but may impose other costs -- time for a rethink.

Hummus.

Attempted to make hummus this weekend. Succeeded. For the most part. Our Cuisinart makes anything pretty idiot-proof, but as it turns out, I am able to muck anything up. Even hummus in a food processor. The recipe we completely nuanced without consulting any (oh, thousands of years of) recipes was simple. We knew we wanted white beans. We could not find dried white beans, which was the original plan, and, given the blazingly disgusting heat of the weekend, we settled for not boiling our own and buying two cans of cannelini beans.

First things first, you probably don't need two full cans of beans. It filled our food processor to the top and made way too much hummus. I always over-make. But, as we started to add stuff I forgot about quantity and focused on quality. We simply added fresh lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic.

Then we added more garlic.

Then more garlic.

Then more. When he wasn't looking, I would throw more in and when I wasn't looking, he'd throw more in.

The whole head of garlic went into the hummus in the end. While delicious, it was way way way way too garlicky. And also the consistency wasn't up to snuff--a bit too runny. I like thick hummus. If anyone has suggestions, they are more than welcome. Attempt number two will certainly involve dry beans and less garlic. But it was hummus! It was definitely hummus. And it was eaten on the stoop with cucumbers, tomatoes, pretzels and toasted peasant bread on a classic NY summer day.

Anella

My birthday dinner last night was absolutely impeccable. The best thing in the world is when a restaurant opens in your neighborhood, doesn't have their liquor license yet (and is therefore BYOB) and serves amazing Italian fare, including brick oven pizzas. Um, oh yes. I was a happy gal.

The service was sweet and genuine, the server made great recommendations and the atmosphere is carmely soft and dreamily fuzzy. I could not find, online, a great picture of the bar, but they have done a bang-up job fixing up what used to be Queen's Hideaway. The kitchen is right out in the open, the chefs cooking behind a pretty low counter, a beautiful wood-fire oven blazing away behind them. It is all remarkably lovely. They have a great garden (weather did not so much permit last night, so we sat inside).

For an appetizer, we chose the bruschetta of the day -- three gorgeous toasts tiered with traditional chopped tomato bruschetta topping, then eggplant parmagiana slices, then melty mozzerella, then topped with a fabulous fresh pesto, all drizzled with olive oil and fresh basil tearings. There was nothing done wrong here.

I love the little perks at Anella too... they bring you, unfailingly, a small teaser plate before your appetizer arrives. This time it was a crostini topped with a hummus-like white bean puree. Completely inspired us to use the Cuinsinart to make white bean hummus this weekend. Terribly delish.

Main courses, we chose pizzas! Though they do have fish + meat + pasta selections that I am sure are lovely.

I had a meatball pizza with the softest, must succulent slices of meatball flayed down the center of the pie, combined with a concentrated garlicky tomato sauce and mozz. The crust is slightly salty (in a good way), thin and crispy-soft at the same time. Adored this pizza. H had yummy three chese topped with beautiful parsley.

The best part of all, maybe, however, was the roasted rooftop vegetables we ordered as a side! Yes, many of the veggies/herbs we ate came from the rooftop garden and they were just so damn good.

Happy birthday to moi. :)

Pics of Anella courtesy of NYMag.

A Trip to the Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint

As stated a couple posts ago, I ventured out into my community to be with the people of New York for a workshop at the rooftop farm in Greenpoint (my neighborhood): http://rooftopfarms.org.

I find that, in life, there are not many experiences where one has an idealistic view/image/idea in mind upon approaching them and, lo and behold, that image matches perfectly with reality. This was one of those rare and epic scenes of life: rows of plants, vegetables, edibles all perfectly nestled on top of the most expansive, well curated and fascinating building tops in the city. It was astounding, to put it most simply.

The workshop that I arrived a bit late to was given by Annie, one of the farm's main ... farmers. Annie, who studied chocolate agriculture and worked at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, told us what it means for their farm to be organic. Though the farm is not 'certified organic' and has no plans to be (Annie called the paperwork, time and money it costs to have the measly, slowly-growing-meaningless label of certified organic "horseshit" -- and I have to agree) the only means of getting rid of pesky bugs and diseases is by:

-Hand Weeding, Picking Frequently
-Diluted Copper
-Diluted Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap
-Coffee Grounds
-Tea
and they were potentially considering doing caterpillar juice.

The farm uses a specific blend of rooptop soil and I was also lucky enough to participate in their first compost bed lay, done with compost that they made themselves from the refuse of local restaurants (Annie said the compost was almost combustible, white hot when they dug it out of the bin that day!). What an amazing cyclical gesture and symbiotic style, though.

Think of it: They grow vegetables and food for Marlow and Sons, for example, this food is prepared/eaten and then discarded into a compost bin which the farm itself picks up from the restaurant, the compost goes back to the farm to fertilize future vegetables. It's an incredible cycle of foodiness. Obviously, I adore this.

Without further ado, a few photos:

Dr. Bronner's Calls for NOSB/USDA to Stop Rampant Mislabeling in the Organic Personal Care Sector

In case you didn't love this stuff enough, check this out.

Greenpoint Rooftop Farm

I was very excited to learn recently that there is an enormous rooftop farm in Greenpoint (my neighborhood). Who knew! How did I not know this? Check it out: http://rooftopfarms.org/

Apparently, it's pretty amazing. So, I will be there this Sunday for a volunteer/sale/information session to learn about the farm and potentially volunteer. If nothing else, I will definitely check out their produce and learn about their processes.
It's hard to 'garden' in New York precisely because it's so unlikely that you will even end up living in a space with a 'garden'. I don't even have roof access, but if I did, I'd definitely green that sh*t up. According to my architecture friends who are in the LEED know, etc, it's apparently pretty easy to lay down some seed and sprout a grass or whatevs you're into on a roof. Just takes a little time to get going, but after that isn't too tough to maintain. Man, it would be amazing to have a little farm on your roof! Think about it. Take a class on it. Give it a shot if you have the means!

MJ

I have searched the internets for various reports on MJ's favorite foods and this is what I have come up with:
The general consensus is that his favorite food was "Mexican Food", but other speculations came up as well including M&Ms, KFC, spicy food and sushi.

UPDATE: Michael Jordan just confirmed at the Michael Jackson Memorial that he ate KFC with Michael Jackson on the floor of Neverland Ranch. And they laffed.

FURTHER UPDATE: That wasn't Michael Jordan, it was in fact Magic Johnson.

Fear Factor

There is an intense pleasure that comes with eating your favorite foods or even a comfort-factor that accompanies the smell/flavor sensations that enrapture one's body when they are able to munch their favorite consumables. In a sense, there is something stemming even back to this idea of the mother's breast and a feeling of intense surrender when you have something delicious to eat.

I think this is precisely a big factor as to why knowledge about food is feared, in a way. What if someone told you that the milk you suckled from your mother's bosom had been tainted with all sorts of harmful chemicals? What if your favorite cereal, it turns out, is made from wheat that is laced with pesticides and the strawberries you've consumed for years were carcinogenic (strawberries you associate with brilliantly bright wonderful summery days in fields near where you grew up)? Would you want to know this information or would it be 'too scary' and would you be inclined to shy away/deny it?

Often, I think, in regards to food, the old cliche holds true: ignorance is bliss. It is a mechanism for defending one's own comfort and safety. If you don't know, honestly, that the Doritos are made with 17 different chemicals that cause neurological damage (this is a fabrication, by the way) or if you choose to deny yourself that knowledge, then you can continue to consume them and continue to feel the same comfort from them that you always have. It's battered wife syndrome, in a sense--how could something that gave you so much joy and positive feeling be so bad for you? Pretend it's not true. Pretend it didn't happen. Pretend you never learned that it was bad.

People make the choice to stifle their epistemological gainings, most especially when it comes to the realm of food. More importantly, nutritional knowledge has turned itself (through the intricate and deliberate workings of a strange FDA/USDA labeling system and marketing ploys of corporations, lobbyists) into a knowledge game that seems accessible only to those that devote an incredible amount of time and study to it. Nutritional Knowledge has, these days, become elusive in the minds of many and it is therefore too 'overwhelming' or daunting to even consider trying to understand, according to the average American. Much like, oh, Philosophy. Neuroscience. Islam. But the sad fact about this idea of the complexity of knowledge is that it is a sham and something created, not the truth, about food. Eating well and feeding your body nutritional things is a very basic science that anyone can (and, let's be honest, probably does) understand--it's our denial of this and the complications of a food system gone completely awry that push it to a place of inaccessibility.

'Organic' Truly Losing Its Meaning?

This piece by Marion Nestle in the San Fran Chronicle about what it means these days for a food to be labeled 'organic'. I especially like the article because it is in q + a format and is very simple and digestible (pun intended).

Check it out; you may learn something.

"USDA organic rules are about the letter of the law, not its spirit. Food marketers, however, take advantage of public perceptions that "organic" implies spirit - sustainability and better nutrition. Companies that follow the rules can legitimately market highly processed foods as organic, taking advantage of their health aura to command higher prices." -Marion Nestle

Geography of Food

This article in the Times of India highlights a study by British researchers that claim that geography actually impacts tastebuds. They claim, "The research found Britain's taste preferences could be broken down like regional accents and depended very much on an area's history. In the north east, foods are enjoyed by taste buds on the tip of the tongue because the region has a history of industrial workers demanding meals that offer immediate sustenance." Read the full article here.

But what of cultures and lands (yes, literally, lands) that do not have such a history? For example, oh, America. How much does a history play into our tastes? I sort of wonder if we were more susceptible to a food culture of processed (though novel) foods because we lacked a steeped tradition of sorts. Though many immigrants carried the histories and traditions of their homeland with them to America, there was at the same time a real invigoration of an idea of a new life, a different way.

Just a hundred years after America became a sovereign country, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing and a hundred years after that, we were all eating processed, manufactured and unrecognizable 'foods' more so than any other country. We have always been at the forefront of food product processing, marketing and distributing. And Americans absolutely gobble this stuff up. One has to question if somewhere in this incredibly short history, we forgot to create our own traditions of food and cooking. Was it just a lot of bad timing? What foods are considered 'American' and why? What cooking techniques and traditions are considered 'American'? Anything? Were we just too late to the culture-making game that we failed, or as yet have failed at least, to develop some sort of ideas about what it means to eat and cook and grow food?

I would say yes, but that all is not lost. In fact, we hit a bump in the road. We rode a wave of capitalism, nouveau riche countryism and we wanted to be different as a culture. But things are changing. The food movement is sending us in the right direction. We are essentially going backwards, starting over, hitting the reset button in order to move forward and create what we forgot to create. It's going to be simple at first, we are focusing on basic ingredients, flavors, herbs, that's what we want right now (and it feels new and it feels good), we are learning how to grow, how to do it naturally and how to cook. We are creating tastes and blending our cultures finally in a way that is not rushed and is not for money. Americans are awakening their tastebuds and creating their own recipes and ideas. We want Steinbeck's Salinas Valley and the tastes of Faulkner's cows' milk again. We don't want novelties anymore, we want food.