foodmuseumblog

Mastering the Concord Grape

A North American native, the blue/purple Concord grape was developed by a transcendental fellow named Ephraim Wales Bull in Concord, Massachusetts.  Working with seeds from native wild grapes, Bull experimented, and after planting 20,000 cuttings, he finally claimed success in 1853 by winning a grape competition at the Boston Horticultural Society.

According to the history posted at The Concord Grape Association, Mr. Bull never harvested much financial success for his efforts. " He sowed--others reaped," is apparently carved on his tombstone.

That said, I bought some delicious C. grapes this morning at the growers market and recalled my mother explaining to me back in the day--I was 5?--how to eat them. Pop the grape in your mouth, squeeze it open with your teeth, swallow the juice and the gooey center containing the seeds, and spit out the skin.  Today I decided to research that notion--just checking, Mom!--and found that some people do that, some chew the gooey middle and spit out the seeds, some like the combo of juice and tangy skin, etc etc.  Methods to suit all tastes.

Chewing or not chewing the center is akin to the oyster dilemma. It was my Dad who taught  me about sliding the oyster off the shell and into the mouth, there to be chewed lightly if you were him, or swallowed whole in all its sea watery-chilled goodness, if you were me, and 11.

Now that I have come of age, I ,too, chew my oysters, lightly, and also chew my Concords, maybe every other time.

( Bull's first Concord grapevine, courtesy USDA.

Whole Foods Snafu?

Soon after Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal that contained this paragraph, ""The last thing our country needs is a massive new health care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health care system..," some of WF's liberal, affluent customers cried "Woe!" Or more likely, whoa! 

The baby zucchinis started to hit the fan. Mutterings of boycotting  WF were heard in the land. Spokespersons for WF said the remarks did not reflect the corporation's views. Wait--Mackey is the CEO, right? Huh?

Union types weighed in. According to a report on HuffPost, "Now the Change To Win Investment Group and United Food And Commercial Workers Union -- both a part of the Change To Win federation of unions representing six million workers -- have put out statements criticizing Mackey and encouraging a boycott of the store." Needless to say, WF is not a union shop.

Up in Santa Fe, where people who work for WF ( and most other retail establishments) cannot afford to live, soon after Mackey's remarks, I observed eager shoppers  locking carts in their eagerness to purchase $14.99 a pound tilapia. The place was jammed, and lines were long at the checkouts.

Boycott?

Now everyone's current favorite food author Michael Pollan has said he will not boycott WF, though he disagrees with Mackey's remarks on health care.  "...Whole Foods is often right about food, and their support for the farmers matters more to me than the political views of their founder." 

Whole Foods is the country's biggest natural/organic food store--it has over 270 stores in North America and the UK, and after buying up Wild Oats, it may be the only game in town for some.

Thanks to Trader Joe's, the local growers market, and  Southwest chain ( established by the former head of Wild Oats, incidentally,)  Sunflower Farmers Market--it's not a farmers market, dare I say!--I rarely hit Whole Foods, lovely though it is. When I do, I buy Swiss vegetable broth cubes, faux Canadian bacon, and a small container of butternut squash/crab bisque which I sit down and eat in situ. That's about it. The place is way too pricey, other than its house brand of crackers, relish, and similar items.

So--to boycott?  I never darken Home Depot's door anymore, after discovering its head honcho was a huge backer of G. Dubya. Bush. But its competitor, Lowe's, is an easy alternative.

Given my pitiful purchasing patterns at the Whole Oat, I doubt my absence will be missed. I'll go back there in a month or so,  after Obama's health care legislation passes.

Homage to Teddy, and Mocha Chip

Ted Kennedy was enjoying mocha chip ice cream, my personal fave, in his last days, according to this piece in today's WaPo.

While the Howard Johnson's Mocha Chip of my ( and Kennedy's) youth is long gone, the flavor has resurfaced in offerings from Starbuck's--Java Chip Frappuccino comes close. The Internets tell me that Honey Hut, in Cleveland, Ohio, sells a nifty mocha chip.

M. chip was one of the original 28 flavors of ice cream from Howard Johnson's menu--he started his business in Quincy, Massachusetts, with homemade ice cream, doubling the butter fat content, and attracting a slew of customers.  His first roadside restaurant in 1929 led to a chain of 400 by 1954. Cleverly, Johnson had forseen the need for family eateries along the nation's toll roads.

Alas, by the late 1970's, the Hojo roadside joint was fading, as the company zoomed into the lodging business. Thereafter the brand was bought and sold many times over.

Today there are 3 actual HoJo restaurants in operation, in Bangor, Maine, Lake George, NY, and Lake Placid, NY. I visited the Lake Placid place a few years back, and gorged on fresh onion rings, fried clam roll and, mocha chip ice cream. Heavenly.

FYI  Keep up with the HoJo saga here--apparently we may see a return of Hojo's!

Another Day, Another ( Same Old) Diet ?

 Eat more veggies, ginger, turmeric, blueberries, whole grains and fish, cut way back on red meat, dairy, and trans fats, and, presto, you will be entering the anti-inflammation zone. It's all in a book aptly called The Anti-Inflammation Zone, by Barry Sears.  Now this diet is not aimed at "weight loss," apparently, but people do lose weight on it.  And, by yes, reducing inflammatory-ness, one takes a firm step towards preventing all manner of disease, including heart ailments, cancer, even Alzheimer's.

The LA Times did a piece on the anti-inflammatory trend and the author noted that the Mediterranean diet really does closely resemble the a-i edibles approach, except possibly for the heavy use of ginger and turmeric.

 Is this yet another recycling/repackaging of common-sensical eating? And what about the Inuit?

Curiously, what was common and sensible eating for the northern-dwelling Inuit many years ago-- their traditional diet---hints at the positive role of fatty fish as described here in Discover magazine, in 2004.

"Today, when diet books top the best-seller list and nobody seems sure of what to eat to stay healthy, it’s surprising to learn how well the Eskimo did on a high-protein, high-fat diet. Shaped by glacial temperatures, stark landscapes, and protracted winters, the traditional Eskimo diet had little in the way of plant food, no agricultural or dairy products, and was unusually low in carbohydrates. Mostly people subsisted on what they hunted and fished. "

Here's the fishy kicker. "... like a “natural aspirin,” adds (Professor Eric) Dewailly, omega-3 polyunsaturated fats ( from fish and sea mammals) help put a damper on runaway inflammatory processes, which play a part in atherosclerosis, arthritis, diabetes, and other so-called diseases of civilization."

Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod--Food Heritage

Named by British voyager Bartholomew Gosnold after his mother, Martha, in 1602 the island of Martha's Vineyard apparently was rich in luxuriant grapevines. As rich in grape, as the Cape nearby was rich in cod. Gosnold named Cape Cod, as well. Such an observer of food,  our little-remembered Gosnold, and food available in such abundance in the not-yet-even colony of Massachusetts.

Gosnold, an attorney with a bent for sea exploration, returned to England intent on recruiting stout souls to help found the Virginia Colony. Five years after his New England sojourn he died in or near Jamestown in 1607, a swampy site he thought rightly to be unsuitable for habitation. Most of the original Jamestown settlers died of famine, and its accompanying scurvy and dysentery.

The tale of why settlers in a land filled with vegetation, game and fish died of hunger even in the summertime is fodder for many books, including Jamestown, the Buried Truth, in which we learn that dogs and cats were eaten by the afflicted Jamestonians.

The Obamas ( and Bo) need not fear hunger during their stay on the Vineyard, however. 35 year-old West Tisbury Farmers Market is right down the lane from their lodgings.

Guerrilla Gardeners Unleashed

Years ago, as visitors to China, we noticed that food plants were growing everywhere--tucked into walls, jammed amidst jumbled blocks of broken up cement, as well as in fields, plots,  pots and tin cans.

In recent years here, there and everywhere, guerrilla gardeners have been striking, planting hollyhock and sunflower seeds in iffy/ugly ground and waiting until the end of summer wild bloom to delight and amaze passersby. But these days the flowers increasingly have been augmented by or even supplanted by veggies.

This WaPo report from Britain focuses on the town of Todmorden, where edibles have been planted all over town, even in its cemetery. Resident Mary Clear started the effort which has now achieved legitimacy, and some funding, and operates under the name Incredible Edible Todmorden. (Obviously, this started as a determined lark, perpetuated by people with a sense of joy and abundant humor.)

The GG's have struck in Los Angeles, and Harrisonburg, VA, and countless other locales.

According to Web Ecoist, "In Cuba, guerrilla gardening has grown into a countrywide tradition. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, the country experienced an economic crisis that led to food shortages. As a result, Cubans began growing food wherever they could, and what developed was a culture of organic urban agriculture. Today, up to 70% of Cuba’s fresh produce is grown in these urban gardens." 

BTW, FYI and NB  From the WaPo piece above:  " In June, Queen Elizabeth II ordered that part of her garden at Buckingham Palace be dug up for vegetables. (Royal officials emphasized at the time that the queen's patch was planned before first lady Michelle Obama launched one in the White House back yard.)"  Now, now...

( Pic tks to http://www.novinow.net/2009/05/18/into-the-fray-guerilleros/)

Americans ( Soft Drink Industry) Against Food ( Syrupy Soft Drinks) Taxes

You, too, can fight back against food tax! YEAH!   I just stumbled onto this cheery, filled-with-young-healthy-looking models website called Americans Against Food Taxes, with its healthy lunch box message. The gigantic US beverage/convenience store industry cares deeply about your health, and that of your kids, and doesn't want bananas, um, and apples, huh?, taxed. No Cokes are pictured, oddly. No 7-Up pictured, either. No crappy soft drinks pictured anywhere on the website. Gosh and golly.

On the News tab is a photo of a young guy holding a paper bag overflowing with fresh veggies. No one is going to tax bell peppers, lettuce and asparagus..........

But here's the text, as it begins the --be afraid, America, be very afraid-- message that health care is bad and scary, and soft drinks are good and American.

"Get ready, because that’s exactly what many lawmakers and advocates of health care reform have in mind to help pay for the massive health care reform being considered in Congress. Senate leaders are considering new federal taxes on soda and other sugary drinks. Other watchdog groups are busy identifying other food items they believe are too high in sugar or fat content to tax as well."

A Coke being equated with "food".

INGREDIENTS:
CARBONATED WATER, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CARAMEL COLOR, PHOSPHORIC ACID, NATURAL FLAVORS, CAFFEINE.

57MG CAFFEINE/20 OZ

65 grams of sugars, 240 calories. See sugar content of assorted drinks/juices here. And this, from a 2008 report published by newser.com:

"According to a study recently published in The Journal of School Nursing, soft drink consumption has increased by 300 percent in the past 20 years, the Allen Press reports, with 56 to 85 percent of children consuming at least one soft drink daily.

These beverages currently constitute the leading source of added sugars in the diet.."

So much to be pissed off about these days. I think I'll go cultivate my garden.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump--Food Heritage

A far-flung food history finder friend has alerted me to this ancient food heritage site, already recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. It's in Alberta, Canada, in the foothills of the Rockies, and is apparently the largest, oldest--dating back 5500 years--and best preserved of the buffalo killing sites in North America.  Its name derives from a hapless young brave who hung out under the cliff to watch the carnage and got caught in a pile of diving buffalo.

Our reporter writes:

They were hunter/gatherers, living on inhospitable land, frozen much of the year, unreceptive to growing edible crops.  The only domesticated animal they had was the dog, and they did not know about the wheel.  But they somehow managed to psyche out the buffalo, analyze the terrain, and spend weeks gently coaxing the herd towards its ultimate doom.  

Once they had their crop of buffalo, they would use every bit of the beasts—eating the fresh meat and drying the rest in strips for future consumption.  The pelts they used for clothes, the skins for tents, the sinews for thread, etc. Without  this meat, these people would have not survived.

Mean Fruit: Mango She's Not

Clinton Kelly of tv's "What Not to Wear" said this  recently of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's apparent sartorial non-style: "...wearing a color like mango head-to-toe only works if you are a mango.”

Ouch! Life is Unfair, Dept of.

"Julie and Julia," The Movie

Why isn't it titled "Julia and Julie," as without Julia Child there likely would have been no blog for Julie Powell, no book, no movie made from the book? Most likely because the blogger in question comes across as a whiny, self-absorbed twit, even with  Amy Adams' customary twinkle in operation.

Yes, this is a food ( and wine) film. And, yes, watching Meryl Streep unwrap and deliver Julia Child is the only reason one might want to rent the future DVD, just to see what she does and when and how she does it. Streep is an actor who uses her entire body in the creation of a persona,  from her feet  all the way up into her coif. ( But, of course, one is not supposed to be avidly scoping out the technical details of an actor's work while watching a film--one wants to be utterly absorbed in a place, a story.)

As a film, this melding of Julie and Julia does not work.  Julie is small and Julia is large. Julie complains and Julia rises above. The director/screen writer Nora Ephron could have made the Julie character more feisty and generous, but presumably the "real" Julie held sway.

And so, as my friend and I watched the film yesterday we were both fighting off sleep during the Julie bits, and rearing awake whenever Julia was on board. And we both recalled that our respective mothers cooked Julia's boeuf bourgignon, which, then as now, closely resembled the less glamorously dubbed  "pot roast," save for the addition of red wine to the former.

The movie will make you run out to buy more butter, and some decent red. And consider how well people back in the day dressed, even with the silly hats.

Musings on Food Deserts, and Coffee Shops with Locked Outlets

Years ago we lived in a food desert, apparently. We were in DC, on Capitol Hill, right across from Eastern Market. OK, we didn't.  But the tiny, cramped grocery store we frequented--the aisle could accommodate only one skinny collapsible  stroller at a time---closed down soon after we arrived. So we relied on the Market for some things, and piled into a car to hit the traditional supermarket, several blocks away. 

We could buy yogurt and milk at the  liquor store, two doors from our house, mind you. 

But this was in such sharp contrast to the varied foods sold in small shops on the Lower East Side of New York, where we lived back in the early 70's. Cheese shops, green grocers, bagel joints, bakeries, Italian delis, fruit-sellers, and bodegas in adundance.

Meanwhile, the joys of cafe-sitting with one coffee all day while plugged into the Internet? Disappearing, perhaps. As more ( out of work) people crowd in and dominate tables, coffee shops, themselves struggling, are fighting back, according to this piece about New York in the Wall Street Journal.  Maybe laptoppers should be welcomed only at long counters equipped with plugs, with a time limit derived from a complicated formula based on food/drink consumed.

Further:

Food desert as defined by Wikipedia:  "A food desert is a district with little or no access to foods needed to maintain a healthy diet, but often served by plenty of fast food restaurants."

On food deserts from Chicago-based Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting.

Comfort Food Awaits Freed Journalist Laura Ling

According to this AP report, Al Gore, whose company Current TV employs both women just freed from North Korea, told Ms. Ling, "... your mom's been making your special soup for two days now."

Special soup!  Mine would have been a rich, creamy, basil-y tomato bisque or maybe a crab/squash bisque or a Thai coconut soup with fancy mushrooms or a wild mushroom and cream concoction and all these musings are making me soup-hungry.

But--I have not recently been freed from North Korea, my dear Mom is long gone, and it's going to be in the high 90's today, so the chances of any soup on the agenda are minuscule.

 Still, I would love to know what Laura Ling's mother's " special soup" is....

(Found adorable loving soup bowl artwork at this website dedicated to Swedish news in English!

http://www.thelocal.se/blogs/eatingout/2009/04/)

Land and Oil-Rich Nigeria Faces Food Shortages

Check out this revealing report from the Washington Post on how Nigeria went from being an exporter of food from well-run large farms to being unable to feed its own people, following the discovery of oil in the 1970's, and the subsequent abandonment of its farm-based economy.

"Today, about 90 percent of Nigeria's agricultural output comes from inefficient small farms, according to the World Bank, and most farmers have little or no access to fertilizers, irrigation or other modern inputs. Most do not even grow enough food to feed their own families."

Appalling? 

The key here is on small farms. Their supposed inefficiency stems not from their manageable size, but from the lack of small-scale financial and technical support from the government for farmers, the majority of whom are women.