For Easter: Jacqueline, the "Dusty Baker" has a recipe for beautiful pastel-dyed tea eggs, achieving beautiful tones with an assortment of teas and herbs such as raspberry earl grey and chamomile. Caveat: this recipe dyes peeled, hardboiled eggs, rather than shells; no doubt the same ingredients could be used for natural dyes, however, just like more traditional sources such as onion peels, beets, etc. If you try it, share your results here with us. (Photograph courtesy of The Dusty Baker.com.) And while we're on the subject of naturally-colored easter eggs, Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. tells us how to how to do it naturally with this easy recipe. Her handy chart offers several coloring options, most of which are found readily at the co-op or are already in your cupboard. So you're a veganista, or vegan-curious, and looking for some fresh Easter recipes? Take a look at some of these at at VegKitchen. The crustless tofu quiche with mushroom and herbs is hitting my sweet spot; while the spring greens salad with endive and oranges (I would use blood oranges, myself) would be a great way to use the red endive we have at FH right now. I would use blood oranges for this recipe. Because not all of us will be able to sit down to an easter feast (and that's an increasing number of us): Check out the Neighboring Food Co-op Association's (NFCA) "Food Co-ops and Healthy Food Project". The project focuses on ways that co-ops can serve the needs of all community members but especially those at low-income levels, who often have the least access to fresh, healthy food. Our recent member survey tells us that FH customers tend to be more highly-education than the general population as a whole, which may also indicate but does not guarantee higher income levels. The survey also reminds us that we still have a lot of work to do in the community at all income and education levels. How can we best achieve that goal? (Thank you Ellen Anthony for sharing the link): "In the U.S. 23.5 million Americans (including 6.5 million children) live in areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious food, particularly in low-income neighborhoods and communities. The recent recession and its aftermath have had a dramatic impact on communities across our region, affecting people’s ability to provide themselves and their families with healthy food... "Food co-ops would appear to be an effective tool for supporting healthy food access, locally rooted economic infrastructure and ownership opportunities due to the values and principles of the movement...For many food co-ops, there is the central challenge of being affordable to all sectors of the community while also facilitating economic support of food systems that provide high nutrition, protect human and ecological health, and promote fair relationships with producers and farmworkers."
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*Last week on our Facebook page, we had a lively discussion about our favorite ways to eat blueberries. (The consensus? Grab handful, pop into mouth, chew and repeat.) Then Loretta McElwee found this scrumptious recipe for grilled chicken breasts with blueberry chutney, from the Vitacost website. I think this recipe would also work great with pork chops, or seafood, also at Fiddleheads, but will it work with tofu, tempeh or seitan? Anybody game to give it a go?
*Sweet Tanka Chili, comes from Marco Frucht , an Uncasville-based NAMA-nominated songwriter (for his song "Frybread"). Like a lot of contemporary music by Native American artists, who work in every musical genre, Marco's recipe marries traditional elements with unexpected surprises: nitrate-free, hormone-free Tanka Bites (bison meat nuggets with cranberry and spices); cumin, cayenne and black beans; jalapeno and sweet potatoes. (Check out the link to his Reverbnation page above for a calender of upcoming appearances.) *Co-op on the March: A Little Insurrection of Good Taste is a wonderful article written by author, political activist and FH tea buyer Frida Berrigan in time for our forth anniversary on Feb 4. She sets down in words the experience and the very feel of being a part of FH - as staffer as well as customer - more accurately and engagingly than I could imagine possible. *Ellen Anthony, shared an "action alert" from the Organic Consumers' Association: you can contact the FDA if you believe we have the right to know about dioxins (remember Agent Orange?) in our food supply: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_24750.cfm *Since we're speaking of politics and going off the subject of food for a moment - your forebearance I ask, gentle reader - did you see this article in Sunday's New York Times about the deaths and injuries of Chinese workers making Apple products, thanks to the company's willingness to ignore health and safety violations? But thanks as well to our insatiable demand for the newest Apple products at the lowest cost. It also puts paid to the warm and fuzzy image Apple has so carefully cultivated. (And as it happens, I'm typing this on an Apple desktop 'puter, so it's a chilling reminder that I'm part of the problem as well.) How does that relate to food? Not at all - until we remember that how we treat workers any place around the world, in any industry - including food production and argriculture - is all part of the same philosophical paradigm, whether the end product is cheaper toys or tomatoes. Did you know that January is National Hot Tea Month? Lindsey Goodwin suggests 31 ways to celebrate the month and expand your beverage repertoire. (And of course, you can get everything she mentions - black, green and white teas, herbal tisanes, etc - at Fiddleheads.)
Grow and Behold, a kosher meat website on our links page, has an intriguing recipe on their blog for beef flanken with...blueberries. The recipe calls for fresh or frozen berries, both available at the co-op right now. FYI - "flanken" refers to the first five short ribs of the beef rib cage, cut across rather than parallel to the bones. I'd try this recipe with regular short ribs and I suspect it would be awesome with pork ribs or chops. (Thanks for this find to Allen Longendyke, our fresh foods buyer, a.k.a. "the man who brings us turkey at Thanksgiving, hams at Christmas; and wonderful cheeses and soymilk, etc, all the year round.") On our Facebook page, Ellen Anthony shared a link to a myriad of egg recipes on The Incredible Edible Egg.org. (Anyone else remember those commercials?) The global climate change we're experiencing means the hen's bodily rhythms are confused* and they are laying when they normally wouldn't. Ergo, we have eggs at co-op. Now's the time to try those recipes for chocolate souffle, snow eggs with pistachio custard or poached eggs with tomato-cilantro sauce that you've been meaning to get around to. Cathy Elton's onion tart with greens and cashew cream is perfect for those of you who 1) are looking for new ways to use the chard or kale you bought from the co-op; 2) are wanting a simple gluten-free crust recipe (this one uses chickpea flour); 3) want to eat healthier without sacrificing flavor, or 4) don't give a flying fig about any of the above, you only know that tart looks crazy-delicious. Dry skin? Try this salve you can make at home with melted beeswax and coconut oil from Cara at Health, Home & Beauty. The beeswax keeps the coconut oil from solidifying, as it does at room temperature. Thanks to member Loretta McElwee for the find! Sheila Herbert signed this petition to support the authentic fair trade movement, and kindly brought it to our attention on Facebook. 243 people have signed it thus far from across the US and Costa Rica, as well as Canada, Italy and the UK. Fair trade - paying farmers a living wage for their labor and their products - is one of the central tenants of our philosophy at Fiddleheads, and to the co-operative movement in general. (I've just added my name to the petition. Will your's be next?) And in economic news: Hostess (maker of Twinkie and Ho-Ho's) is filing for Chapter 11 protection. I know that the employees (blue and white collar) never end up the winners in this sort of thing, so I feel for anyone who is going to lose a job, no matter where they are on the corporate ladder. On the other hand, I think back to all those yellow sugar-and-lard filled sponge tubes that our moms put in our lunch boxes back in the day, with the noblest intentions to give their kids a healthy lunch with a treat - because they knew we were just going to pitch the apples they gave us anyway. And I can't help but think "They had it coming. People eat differently nowadays than 40 years ago; did they not see the writing on the wall?" (Full disclosure: it's not that I was an ultra health-conscious kid who rejected Twinkies in favor of the apples and such. It's just that I wanted the sugar-and-lard filled chocolate cupcakes instead.) *Of course the poor hens are confused. I can't even figure out from day to day if I can lower my storm windows or if I need to wear a turtleneck when I go out. Some recent links from 'round the 'net and on the Fiddleheads FB page:
Squash, Chickpea and Red Lentil Stew - Sioux Mackey found this hearty seasonal recipe on the Stronger Together Co-op website. Cilantro is used as garnish, not an integral ingredient, so no worries if you have to omit. And speaking of cilantro: a lengthy discussionon a Chowhound forum re: substitutions for cilantro. Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francis' original "Five Minute Artisan Bread" from 2007, on the Splendid Table website from NPR. (Lynne Rossetto Kasper, how do we love thee? Let us count the ways...) Had you ever heard of pumpkin challah? I hadn't. Megan shows us how it's done at Simple Bites. Possibly the simplest granola recipe I've ever come across: Five-Ingredient Granola with Fruit Butter from Marisa at Food in Jars. For Your Health: The venerable Rodale Organization reports a recall on 41,000 pounds of Tyson beef - and we are not surprised. (Pictured above: bbq-style tofu.)
If you've glanced at the catagories on the sidebar you may have noticed the catagory "veganarian". A bit of laziness on my part (no apologies, remember?), the word popped into my head the other day because I got tired of the unwieldiness of "vegan/vegetarian" "vegan or vegetarian" etc. Hence, "veganarian" as a placeholder term to indicate recipes and articles that concern the overarching practice and concept of a meatless grain-and-vegetable based diet. I think it's a useful word: rolls rather easily off the tongue (mine, at any rate) can be a noun or an adjective: "veganarian" "veganarism"; and best of all, the pronunciation can be altered in speech to indicate the degree or intensity of one's vegan-committment: "veh-juh-NAIR-ian" or "VEE-gan-air-ian". Full disclosure: I am still an ominivore. (As anyone who has come to the co-op on Saturdays and seen me serving up samples of Four Mile River Farm beef and pork, and enjoying a few nibbles myself) can attest. But I consider myself "vegan-curious", and find myself leaning in that direction more and more often. Certainly, working as a Produce Team Associate at Fiddleheads has pushed me in that direction, as has economics, aging and sundry health concerns. My impressions on the subject, from readings, from personal conversations and practice in the kitchen, leads me to believe that it's not so much an either-or thing, but rather a continuum, a sliding scale of choices and possibilities, regarding how little or how much to incorporate any animal products in one's diet (milk, eggs, honey) and life (leather). I know for myself, leaving off sugar and milk from from oatmeal had to come before putting tempeh in the wok. Trying to divvy things up too precisely seems tiresome, and misses the point. I am nonetheless confident (or foolish) enough to predict that the vegetable-and-grain-based diet, the diet that is still the primary one for most of the world's people's and has been throughout history, is becoming more and more "mainstream" here in the U.S. Call it a hunch, call it fact, call it initution, call it what you will. Certainly many of the co-op members and customers are vegan, vegetarian, or like me, vegan-curious. And the more I meals I make without dairy products and without meat, the more I realize, it really isn't that difficult, or daunting. Now a raw diet? That's another story. That I still find daunting...at the moment. Perhaps tomorrow... (Oh, and what did my pajamas have to do with any of this? Absolutely nothing, of course. Don't be silly.) |
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Text and photos copyright 2011-2013 Janice Janostak unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
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