food museum blog

Cans Nixed: Further Proof That Fresh ( Or Frozen?) Is Better

The self-described "food politics" website Civil Eats has posted this by Naomi Starkman:

"Consumer Reports’ latest tests of canned foods, including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, have found that almost all of the 19 name-brand foods tested contain measurable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA). The results are reported in the December 2009 issue and also available online. BPA, which has been used for years in clear plastic bottles and food-can liners, has been restricted in Canada and some U.S. states and municipalities because it has been linked to a wide array of health effects including reproductive abnormalities, heightened risk of breast and prostate cancers, diabetes, and heart disease. I’ve reported on BPA here, here, and here."

My pantry, which I just checked, contains a few cans--tomatoes, white beans, black beans, and pumpkin. I stared hard at them just now. A can of green beans never has entered my larder but, yes, tuna has, sardines have, along with the odd cans of beans. As a spontaneous, non recipe-based cook, those beans are vital and always ready to go.  Soaking dry beans overnight-- of course I have done that, but usually when I know that I am preparing a massive portion of black bean soup the next day.

I am sure many of you soak and cook beans ahead, and then freeze them in handy sized amounts, right?  But in what? Plastic bins! Baggies?  Chemical-laden somethings?

Help!

( Tks to http://www.thehungrymouse.com/home/2008/10/24/white-beans-two-ways-garlicky-dip-creamy-soup/ for can pix. It's a site that looks lively and informative, BTW.)

Homage to Norman Borlaug

Reading Randy Cohen's piece in the NYT this morning, in which he asks why people don't make more tv shows or films about "heroes" who do astonishing work without any need for guns, led me back to Norman Borlaug. He died recently, age 95.

Borlaug was a plant pathologist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in developing and spreading around the world high yielding wheat varieties resistant to disease.  In 1986 he established the World Food Prize to honor those who had worked to lessen global hunger. He was close friends with one of our gurus, John Niederhauser, the legendary potato breeder who was a World Food Prize Laureate in 1990.

You can read about Borlaug in many places. Here at Wiki, and his NYT obituary here.

Early on, hungry people made an impression on Borlaug. In 1935, still a student,he was a leader in "the Civilian Conservation Corps, working with the unemployed on U.S. federal projects. Many of the people who worked for him were starving. He later recalled, "I saw how food changed them ... All of this left scars on me".

We had chatted with the engaging Dr. Borlaug on a few occasions, and recognized his and Niederhauser's shared global views,  deep intelligence, diligence and high energy. These were not narrowly focused office guys, diddling around 8 hours a day. They never stopped working.

Borlaug was attacked in later years by those who felt his approaches had led to ecological degradation and an over reliance on chemicals. In a NYTimes interview with John Tierney, he said, "...some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things".

He worked to lessen the use of pesticides, in the end, but continued to lament that governments were not doing more to address the world's burgeoning populations.

 We expect to have ample food to eat, every day, but we pay little attention to those whose toil provides it. Food production is not sexy, so don't expect a mini series on it any time soon.

Gas Bags--Bag 'Em

 Wind has come early to Albuquerque, and left in its aftermath plastic bags. All over the mesa bags are caught in tumbleweeds, or  snagged on sage.  In the past few days I have retrieved as many of them as I can-- offerings from the Giant Mini-Mart, Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried, Walmart, Walgreen's, The Dollar Store and Smith's come up again and again. Over 3 dozen bags thus far.

The technology for biodegradable/compostable bags made from corn starch or potato starch, renewable commodities, has existed for years. As have reusable bags of all types--string, straw, leather, nylon, dried dung, you name it.

Plastic bags are so 20th century, so made from petroleum, so lethal to wildlife.  How hard is it to start carrying reusable bags?  San Fran was the first American city, as far as I know,  that banned plastic bags in use by chain stores and supermarkets. LA will enforce a ban starting 2010. Vermont is intending to impose a tax of 17 cents on each plastic bag used by the customer, also beginning 2010.  The Colorado legislature recently backed away from a ban, the silly boobs. But the planet still hosts buggy whip manufacturers who cannot let go, apparently.

The entire country of Ireland banned the bags long since.  Other countries are in various stages of anti-plastic bagism. Shoppers in Belgian supermarkets who do not bring their own carrying devices must withstand withering glances fr0m their fellows, and pay for the flimsy bags the store may still have tucked under the checker's stool.  Even China is getting steamed on the issue.

Here at home I gently encourage the clerks at Walgreen's not to automatically toss a toothbrush into a plastic bag. Wait. See if the customer really needs one. Etc.

Recently I was one of the first 50 customers to snare a reusable bag at Ace Hardware. I think stores should either give these away willy-nilly--free advertising--or sell them at cost.

The no-frills grocery store I pop into in Florida solves the problem by having no bags at all. You either bring in a bag, grab a used t.paper carton from the store, or juggle your goods to the car.

Before the petro bags are all gone, however, if you're handy with a crochet hook, visit this.
( Tks to www.plasticbagbag.com for pic of a plasticbagbag.)

"Get Rid of Lawns!"

The famed biologist and "ant man," E. O. Wilson gave a talk last month I was delighted to catch---and  while he  ambled happily hither and yon in his prepared remarks--- there are 5-6000 species of bacteria in a handful of soil; 42 ant species were discovered in one section of one tree in the rainforest,  same as the number of species in all the UK-- during the question period he was sharply  to the point.

When asked about the number one environmental thing Americans easily could do, he did not answer, "Switch out those antique light bulbs,"  but said, instead, "Get rid of lawns."

We agree, of course. Let's put in a good word for "edible lawns,"  however, as well as for "edible estates," a concept promoted by architect Fritz Haeg, among others. (  Haeg's book,  Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, came out early this year.)
Amazingly, though, even in these difficult times, with water shortages, food shortages, and money shortages, many Americans are still constrained by the so-called covenants of where they live.   These, naturally, are mired in the mid 20th century. ( No visible veggies growing, no clothes lines, no chickens, etc., etc.) Home owners may be  further cobbled by the rigid definition of "curb appeal" as well.

Plant edibles, people, and then go out and graze with selected ruminants, right out front where the Zoning Board folks can see you!

( Photo thanks to http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/05/10/edible-estates-goes-to-print/)

Delighting in Hens and Eggs

 I well recall the first egg laid by our pet chicken, Harold, ---OK, we were ignorant back then--- in Belgium. It was oddly wet and oblong in shape. We urged Harold to try harder, and so she did--the next egg was eggish. A desultory layer, she did bring forth a few, though never with the vigor and consistency of her non-science experiment sisters. ( Harold triumphantly survived a first grade egg-hatching project, but always walked with a limp.) Nonetheless, she did her best and we were thrilled at her output.

Most newbies to the great world of hens and eggs are similarly delighted. John, one of the Summit Springs Farmers, recently wrote:
"So, every Monday morning, I give the chicken coop and the chicken's food and water dishes a thorough scrubbing.  This morning, I got the dishes done and fed the excited chickens before opening up the back hatch of the coop to clean up the laying boxes and put down a fresh layer of bedding (shredded paper and wood shavings mixed together)...and there in one of the boxes was a single small brown egg!  The very first!  A bit later in the morning, I checked again and found that 2 more eggs had appeared, and later, one more still (making a total of 4 and enabling a proper breakfast for Sonya and me tomorrow.)  Yeehaw!
I am excited and feel like a proud parent.  We got our hens back in March when they were less than 2 days old, and now, they're laying!  Go, ladies, go!"

See?

While the first egg story took place on a Belgian fermette and the second on a farm in Maine, apparently the US is now seized with a growing "urban chicken movement." Two Albuquerquians have started the website urbanchickens.org. A California site has this: Chickens in the City. And there's Urban Chickens, a blog, and The Urban Chicken.

For the finest book we know on these birds, try The Chicken Book, by Page Smith, a classic.

(Actual Albuquerque city dwellers pic thanks to http://dukecity.ning.com/group/abqurbanchickens.)

Wall.E ---A Film Promoting Love, Plants, and Giving Up Junk

As many people now know, Wall.E is a trash-collecting robot who finds love in an extremely unattractive environment, our own Planet Earth in the year 2700. The Pixar flick is touching, clever, and a tad too long. The film opens with little Wall.E pursuing his workaday life in the rubble of a trash-filled, people-free Earth. The lone "live" creature there is a resilient cockroach who reminds older (nay, ancient) viewers of the fabled Jiminy Cricket, though the cucaracha has no lines.

Long story short, Wall.E's life begins to change when a probe robot released from a spaceship arrives on Earth and finds a wispy green plant that Wall.E has stashed away with his belongings. The arrival of the plant signals the return of life to Earth and galvanizes the fat, immobilized, junk-food swilling cartoon humans on the Mother Ship into action. Chases and antics ensue, mostly among the robots, because the humans can't even toddle.

Love conquers all, of course, and agriculture is reborn. Fade to credits.

Don't miss the credits! They are riveting, as they present the history of art, animated version. In my view, the film should have ended, and then a screen saying Do Not Leave Yet should have popped up. Because the art finale is superlative.

Wall.E is a not so subtle indictment of Fat America, people.(  BNL, the corporate entity that had taken over Earth in the film, stands for Big N Large.) We were sitting in the so-called Handicapped seats and watched the credits through the mostly weight-challenged people streaming out, many of them dragging or carrying kids, popcorn containers, and drinks.

The food spilled on the carpets in America's Metroplex's could probably feed the people of Bhutan for a day.

ps The cockroach lives inside the one food item on Earth that has not decomposed---a Twinkie-type offering.

CORRECTION, JULY 5---The corporate monolith is Buy 'N Large not Big 'N Large.

Eat Your Veggies, Yes--But Why Keep Slurping Down Milk?? Plus: Talks Bring Food to North Koreans

The New York Times today is offering us the following: The 11 Best Foods Your Aren't Eating, , a riff on a milk jug, and news on food relief workers finally being allowed into North Korea.

Among those foods are beets and chard, both frequently eaten favorites among my people, and both recently purchased freshly picked at dawn from the farmers of Corrales ( NM) Farmers Market. The provocative headline is meant to get us going, natch, though it reminded me sadly of the times I have stood in line at a traditional supermarket holding an array of veggies seemingly unknown to the checker.

Apparently there's a new, more eco-friendly, less expensive milk container out there being used by Walmart and Costco that has hard core milk drinkers in a tizzy because it doesn't pour well. Or perhaps it's just "new" and not everybody can handle Change. ( Uh oh...)   Now some in the UK have designed some more genuinely eco milk containers, or so it seems to me. Take a look at "Nice Jugs."
All that aside, why are people still lugging and chugging milk?!  Cow's milk is for baby cows, after all. You get far more usable calcium from munching almonds and eating kale than from drinking milk, people. Without the gas and the bloating and, and....

Finally, the North Korean government has both shut down its nuclear programs--or at least begun the process-- and also decided to allow international aid workers into the country bearing food. This after several  nations sat down to talk together--the so-called "six-nations," whose diplomats labored long, include the two Koreas, China, Russia, Japan and the U.S. Remember diplomacy? It works!

( Green milk cartons thanks to http://www.daylesfordorganic.com/icat/milk.)

On Thirsty Bees, and Benevolent Bee Removal

For many days in a row I delightedly had noted at least three dozen honey bees buzzing around my fountain, many of them lined up in a row drinking from it like winged mini cows along a trough. Each morning I gently refilled the fountain to the top so that the insects would not have to struggle ( and likely drown) for their water.  I told a friend of mine in the neighborhood about it and she said she had no bees at all among her apple blossoms. It was " a puzzlement," to quote the King from The King and I.

Then, the other evening, my "everything-is-of-intense-interest" terrier, Lillian J. Russell, went into a major barkathon at the front door. The low key man standing there was asking if he could "borrow some power" from us so as to extract the bees from an impromptu hive on the foreclosed  property next door.

Well!  I went next door with him, dragging my extension cord, explaining about the major bee drinking marathons going on at my place. Mountain Bee Man, Dennis Parks,  said I had been keeping them well-irrigated during  an extremely dry period in Albuquerque.  And bees en masse, who knew, can drink as much water in a day as a large, hairy dog!  Apparently, I, Foodie, was an unlikely heroine to the inadvertent bees next door.

Feeling chuffed and halo-deserving,  I watched as Dennis and his apprentice began to set up the vaccuum-cleaner-like machine that would gently remove the bees from their dog house and into their new portable home. Their efforts to save these creatures and make them comfortable genuinely touched me, given the times we live in, or rather the violent news with which we are bombarded each day.  Credit, too, goes to the realty company or the bank people or someone who chose to hire a professional bee crew to relocate rather than eliminate this unlikely colony.  ( Bee Man expected the bees would be moved to either the east mountains of Albuquerque or to Corrales, a rural Spanish land grant community along the Rio Grande.)

My physical reward, not that I needed one, came a few hours later in the form of a plastic bear filled with honey from the Bee Man's honey farm. Readers, it was sublime.

( Since I did not take a pic of the bees drinking,  I am grateful to http://www.tonitoni.org/images/050422_beesdrinking.jpg for the shot above.)

SSF Mainiacs Visit Fabled Indian Farm

The Summit Springs Farm-ers, ( you may recall their ongoing effort to erect a large greenhouse on their spread,) recently have returned to Maine after an incredible 5-week trip to India, and their spokesperson on all things ag, John Sayles, sent us this report:

" One of the most rewarding experiences of the trip was a visit to Navdanya, an organic research farm and seed bank about 10 kilometers outside the city of Dehra Dun in the Indian state of Uttranchal. The 20-acre site was founded in the 1980’s by Dr. Vandana Shiva, a scientist, environmentalist, and activist, “to support local farmers, rescue and conserve crops and plants that are being pushed to extinction and make them available through direct marketing.” The Navdanya website also notes that the farm is “actively involved in the rejuvenation of indigenous knowledge and culture. [Navdanya] has created awareness on the hazards of genetic engineering,  ( and)defended people's knowledge from biopiracy and food rights in the face of globalization.”

After looking through the small bookstore and administrative center, we walked around this unique farm with a guide. In small plots, different combinations of crops are grown together to see how they do. One plot may have carrots and onions together; another may have carrots, onions, and coriander (cilantro). Crop density is also studied. One plot of wheat has been intensively planted, and another less so, and another even less, but perhaps also interspersed with another grain or even another variety of wheat. Dozens and dozens of these plots cover the farm’s open spaces. Nearby is an orchard, and in the opposite direction is the seed bank.

We took a short walk down a tree-lined lane with bright green parrots flitting about overhead, to reach the seed bank, a modest rectangular building with an adobe appearance. We all took off our shoes and filed in. Over 300 varieties of rice are kept here in metal boxes, plus about 70 varieties of wheat, numerous other grains, and vegetable and fruit seeds. It is probably the most extensive private seed bank of its kind in all of India. The building itself, though, was much smaller than expected, quite modest, and decorated with lively paintings of flora and fauna on the walls. Outside, the spirit of experimentation and variety continued with the compost area. We saw four or five different composting methods being tried, everything from pit composting to compost bins with removable sides to elaborate composting trenches designed to make the worms happy.

  Our friend and traveling companion, Nicole, is an amateur herbalist and was thrilled to spend some time with the farm’s herbal guru. He showed us around his modest plots of medicinal and cooking herbs and also allowed us a peek into his rooms where he dries and prepares the herbs. All of this was followed by an excellent buffet-style lunch in the farm’s mess hall. We took a brief look around the farm’s library and bookstore and purchased a few books, including an Indian cookbook, before thanking our new friends and hitting the road for the drive back to our ashram in Laksman Jhula. The Navdanya experience was moving, inspiring, and thought-provoking. I would love to return for a longer stay and perhaps do some volunteer work there as a way to help this noble effort. "

For more information on the remarkable visionary Dr. Vandana Shiva, a physicist trained at the University of Western Ontario, click here.

(Pix by shaggy, baggy Farmer John who can be seen just above on the right.)

Food News From All Over

Tired of all the U.S. presidential candidates already? Then consider Mr. Breakfast for President.  It's a campaign launched by the wacky entrepreneur behind Mr. Breakfast.com, Eddy Chavey, a fellow who has seized on his matutinal subject and won't let it go. ( Apparently he does good works, too.)

Tired of abused cows providing your milk? ( Tired of all those commercials that start with a dumb question? )Anyway--fellow Blogger Kathy F, based on the cusp of London over thar, sent us this link to something called Cows Unite!  It's an entertaining, time-consuming, clever website but I am still fuzzy as to what they are or what they do--but then, I am sure you fervent websters can find out.

  And finally,  this all sushi all-the-time-website, Sushi 4 Me, tumbled down our rabbit hole recently--it's sassy, and full of info, including glimpses of sushi culture, funny videos, the whole California roll. Go here.