there is always a way to clean up a mess

overbite

The farmer's market is like my church. It's where good people congregate with honest intentions. There are no moral obligations or restrictive dogmas like those that I experienced in the frying pans of church when I was just little, so I feel safe to be open, and if this sort of worship needs to be labeled "Pagan" then see if I give a damn. While I'm out in the spring breeze with light streaming through the tree branches let the devout sit on hard benches and if catholic kneel then sit, then stand, then kneel...whatever. I just got back from " church" I bought a little rosemary plant, some seeds for the building's garden, some EMPIRE apples, some Columbian Co-op's organic coffee beans, a giant sweet potato and some cut daffodils, hyacinth and pussy willow branches. I ate a snack sitting on some grass and watched the children and dogs run around. I read a bit more of Now's Magazine's outstanding articles on environment issues. Wayne Roberts (a hero in food security issues coverage) wrote about John Todd and his soulmate's work in turning sewage into lily ponds. If anyone is interested, look up The Bioneers/ John Todd to find out more about the work that they do. See my book report "Read Over My Shoulder"...I think it was my first blog post, about the book that you should read to make you know that there is always a way to clean up a mess.

You do SO have food in the fridge!!

overbite

So it seemed like we had nada to eat, but from the recesses of fridge and cupboard I scaped together this delightful meal:
check this: simplicity at it's tastiest.

-last of the rice-short grain brown, aproximately 1 1/2 cup
-half a big onion....or like a cup almost-chop it..
-coconut oil-always on hand, a *STAPLE if you will-1 tbsp
-sesame oil-last week's purchase-cheap from chinatown-1/2 tsp
-a substantial carrot-chopped big diagnonally
-1/2 inch of hot green chili- diced up fine
-Tahini-1 tbsp
-tamari-3 shakes, or 1 tsp
-pumpkin seeds-2 handfuls
-i cubic 1/2 inch of fresh ginger

instruction:
cook the rice
melt the coconut oil; saute the onions and carrot; add sesame oil; stir; add ginger and green chili; stir....
drop tahini into middle of pan; shake the tamari into the puddle; stir it together and then combine with the rest of the indredients in the pan.
get em all nice and saucy.
now rain pumpkin seeds(pepitas) all over it and stir again.

time:
25 minutes...

feeds two people good fats, vitamin A, protein, zinc, fiber, calcium, and trace minerals.

tips: keep heat medium or slightly lower. Also, if tahini is too thick to pour, stir it with enough water to thin it slightly.

*In my kitchen the following items are STAPLES:
coconut oil
tahini
onion
carrot
ginger
rice
pumpkin seeds
and others

when you run out of staples, then your cupboard truely is bare, until then, put something together!

food sovereignty is a battle that rages on...

overbite
"Is our society going to use land and agriculture to produce food, to distribute income, and to keep men and women working the land or are we going to hand over the lands to the large plantations that are going to expel the population, to gain a lot of money and to make exports the top priority?"

This is a quote from the landless workers' movement (MST) of Brazil, in regards to the multi-national exploitation of lands for the purpose of export, and the governement abetting of this with the help of propaganda in the media. A familiar story? Read it here overbite

Let me ruin your meal...

overbite
Yo. I know this will get controversial, but why are we so addicted to out-of-season produce? I ordered a granola breakfast today because I didn't want a weekend style brunch and I could see no other option. Interestingly, my granola came studded with fresh strawberries, raspberries, grapes and melons. A luxurious feast? No. sorry to shatter the illusion but this breakfast was maybe more harm than good.

I was dismayed but ate some of it anyway. What was my problem? Well I have been trying to eat seasonally for almost a year now, and this breakfast was breaking all of the rules. It seems I have gotten to a point in my mentality where having strawberries on my plate when they must have had to come from Chile, or Egypt for that matter, is kind of an offense.

I have heard that produce travelling those distances comes at the cost of low-nutritional value, and that's no wonder when you consider how it's done. Produce is picked before being ripe and when it reaches its destination it is forced to ripen by applying ethylene gas. (the same chemical that emits naturally from onions causing neighborhood potatoes to go bad...) This is not how the organism/ plant ripens it's fruit. Ripening is a very energetic process that involves sunshine, air circulation, soil nutrients, and a plant's inherent chemicals. Without natural ripening a fruit cannot acheive it's full potential of vitamins and nutrients. They become "show" fruit. Kind of like those plastic or wax fruit bowls you tried to eat when you were a kid.

and then there's the pesticide ingestion to think about. Conventional (non-organic) strawberries and grapes, tend to be higher in pesticide residues. Pesticides kill birds, fish, "pests" and people. Sometimes people just die slowly as minute amounts of chemicals enter their bodies and wreak havok. What we need more than anything is help from our food friends in this polluted world. Anti-oxidants are an example of that kind of help we get from fruits and vegetables. they basically douse all the little chemical fires that happen inside us. Unfortunately when we eat fruit that is high in chemical residues and low in anti-oxidants we're working at counter-purposes. Yum, and just what I needed after a weekend full of booze...

So where am I going to get me some of that "good fruit" ? Right now, it's apples in Ontario, preserves like jam & jelly, rosehip and hibiscus flower tea, squash, cans of tomatoes, frozen cranberries etc.... And that's how it is at this time of year. Think of it this way, our ancestors did not drop dead in February...and they did not air freight in any bananas from Honduras. They were rugged people who worked physically demanding jobs in many cases and still managed to survive a harsh canadian winter. I revere them for that.

Trust me though, eating seasonally is not easy. Changing a diet from convenience based, thoughtless eating to a diet that nourished and energizes, without hogging up resources and adding carbon to the atmosphere, is a step-by-step gradual process. The reward is that the food is tasty, fresh and fulfills it's duty which is to help and protect you.

Bird Seed Breakfast

Well I ate like a barbarian last night. You know that potroast that I cooked up? Rich and tender, just like the movies. Just a few notes about that, btw, it took aproximately 6.5 hours to cook to perfection and I heated it back up to 350F for about 40 minutes before cooling enough to serve. We ate it with a shredded beet salad doused in a little citrus/ walnut oil dressing and sesame seeds, and some mashed potatoes with butter.

Before eating I made us take a few sips of water in which I dissolved Apple Cider Vinaiger, raw honey and sea salt. I found this to be refreshing, but that's probably because it's basically a homemade Powerade, and I finally worked out yesterday. Shorty-pie thought it was a little extreme, but I explained that since we drank a bunch of coffee at lunch, we better rev up our stomachs before digging in to the feast of meat. This concept goes back to the simple fact that protein digestion requires stomach acid, and digestive juice.

Anyway, this morning I drank a glass of water with some lemon squeeze, boiled the copper kettle and assembled my breakfast cereal. This is the bird seed part:

In a little saucepan/ pot, drop 1 tbsp of whole Teff grain,
1.5 tbsp of whole Amaranth,
and 2 tbsp of whole Millet(food grade-not bird seed K?)
1tbsp of sunflower seeds, 1 tbsp of pepitas(green inner germ of the pumpkin seed)
cover with water,
leave on 3/4 heat (electric stove btw) for enough time to drink your coffee, check email, put on some clothes. Don't burn it though...stir it a few times, you know.
When it's cooked, the grains will still be slightly crunchy and they are just a bowl full of entertainment. All tiny bubbles, mixing and melding, the tan colored amaranth and millet blending with the dark brown little Teffs. Plus, these grain come from the traditional diets of people from Ethiopia to Inca. PLUS, these grain are so full of vitamin and mineral power that you get a serious edge on everyone else who ate a bagel and a coffee.
I forgot to mention, the "coup de gras" of this little dish, is the dollop of plain yogurt and squirt of agave syrup on top. If you just dont have agave, how bout maple syrup...oh, that would be lucky.

Pot roast can-do

I am making a pot-roast from a beautiful gift of Organic beef that was given to us at Christmas. I took it out of the freezer on Saturday and was starting to worry about it when 4pm yesterday arrived and I had not yet started it. Today was the day, no question, for the pot roast to cook. Good thing I had it defrosting on the bottom shelf of the fridge because blood had started to ooze from the paper wrapper. That's one thing the food Handling course taught me, raw meat, fish, etc...bottom shelf.

so the Can-do, how-to goes like this:
Preheat oven to 350F
prepare one cast iron vessel that has a lid, or a roasting pan (whatevs) by heating up some organic butter.
Throw in a tablespoon of freshly ground Oregano-picked in greece by the Olive guy at the Farmer's Market. Chop two cloves of garlic and add. Saute to a fine aroma.
Now brown the roast. Stick a fork into the hunk and put it in the butter. Brown all sides.
Open a can of Thomas Utopia Organic tomatoes-they are canadian and locally grown-and add 1 cup or so. Not covering the meat.
Put two whole potatoes-I got mine from Ben sosnicki who grows them organically 100 KM from here, and sells them at the Dufferin Grove farmer's market. They are supremely delicious, these potatoes...I did not peel them, I simply washed their skins.
Put two Bay leaves.
Cover the pot.
Put in the oven.
Go play basketball for 1 hour.
Reduce the heat to 200 F.
Go for lunch with Luke.
Check on the roast in 2-3 hours.