foodmuseumblog

The End of Cheap Coffee: Why the Diner Staple Is About to Become a Luxury - Lifestyle - GOOD

On a rainy Wednesday afternoon in Venice, California, Dan Kougan spreads out three shot glasses in front of a curious audience. The champagne-colored liquid bubbling on the left is a homemade hops soda. The creamy, tan shot in the middle is a barley-chocolate malt topped with a tuft of steamed milk. And the chestnut-hued beverage on the right, the raison d’être of this whole ordeal, gives off the unmistakable scent of fresh espresso, extracted from the highest-quality coffee beans the developing world has to offer.

via www.good.is

Trader Joe's Sublime Olive Oil Spud Chips

How have I missed these before? Is it because I tend to skirt the snack section of TJ's? I mean.....Providing you can exercise culinary self-control, a must for TJ cookies, pumpkin ice cream, et al, buy these. I eat 3-5 a day, if so moved. They crunch, the salt level is perfect, and my best pal, olive oil, is involved. Yes!

Photo via French Fry Diary

Indoor Growing, Vertically

"Growing Power is undertaking something that has never been done before. We will build the first five-story vertical farm in the world. Our vertical farm will have south-facing greenhouse areas for the year-round production of plants, vegetables, and herbs. The building will provide educational classrooms, conference spaces, a demonstration kitchen, food processing and storage areas, freezers, and loading docks to further support our mission as a local and national resource for learning about urban sustainable food production. Administrative offices, volunteer spaces, and staff support areas will be closely connected to the greenhouse and educational areas to allow for active observation and participation.  In essence, the vertical farm will be a hub of economic activity, community building, educational opportunities, and resource sharing for the Milwaukee community and the world."

Growing Power develops sustainable Community Food Systems.

Save NYC Food Trucks, Grassroots Campaign to End Metered Parking Ban of New York City Food Trucks

via laughingsquid.com

"Blood" from Rice in China

"Researchers in China believe they have found a way to produce and harvest large quantities of human serum albumin (HSA) -- a blood protein that is widely used in drug and vaccine production -- from ordinary grains of rice.

"It looks like an interesting technological step forward," Dr. Richard J. Benjamin, chief medical officer for the American National Red Cross, told FoxNews.com. "It could potentially produce large quantities in a reasonable time."

Via Discovery News

ps   For travel to rice paddies, have a look here.

 

McIcky: Their So-Called "Pork" McRib

"McDonalds' McRib and its cult-like following are back. Thank goodness the "disconcerting" sandwich is only returning for a limited time only, says Meredith Melnick at TIME. Because if you knew about all the unpronounceable ingredients packed into the McRib, you might think twice about wolfing down the sauce-drenched pork concoction. Think you can stomach what's inside? "

Get the gory details Via The Week

( Photo: CC BY: Calgary Reviews )

 

Food companies petitioned to ban new Monsanto GMO corn | MNN - Mother Nature Network

Hmmm--which is true? Yes, it is GMO corn, but will it be sold processed as critics suggest, or fresh, as Monsanto states?

A---"The coalition said the biotech corn would be used in canned and frozen foods as well as sold fresh, but will be indistinguishable to consumers from conventional corn because the U.S. government does not require genetically altered food products to be labeled."

or

B--"The safety and benefits of biotech sweet corn products — as well as other biotech crops — is well established," said Monsanto spokeswoman Danielle Stuart.

 

Stuart said the new sweet corn is a fresh-market product that will be sold on the ear, with or without husk, in the produce section of grocery stores."

 

via www.mnn.com

Bees, Beer, Wattle Seed, Dogfish, Google: Combine, Drink

 

Foodies, Get Thee to Occupy Wall Street | Mother Jones

1. The food industry is a big fat monopoly. Agribusiness is concentrated to a point that would make a Wall Street master of the universe blush. Vast globe-spanning corporations, many of them US-based, dominate the industry.  

via motherjones.com

"The bulk of corn and soy grown by US farmers ends up feeding animals in vast factories, and here, too, the consolidation is dramatic: Three companies now process more than 70 percent of all beef, and just four firms slaughter and pack upwards of 58 percent of all pork and chicken."

Report from an Organic CSA in Poland, Maine

Yesterday afternoon, and this morning ( in drenching rain,) comprised "harvest day," at Summit Springs Farm, Maine. The greens have been washed, and everything else sorted and bagged or binned. The beets are beginning to look weary, having fought off bugs and rot all summer, the spuds are hearty, the greens luxurious, the kohlrabi--why do so few people eat these?--gorgeous but a tad scarred.  Ah, the peppers, fab!   Multi tomatoes, squash, eggplant....The CSA-ers will pick up their shares at the farm from 3 to 7 pm today, and a few from other locations, methinks. 

Growing and harvesting food is haaaaard, to quote a past president known for his penchant for days off,  and so each time you eat, thank a farmer! ( And buy locally....)

 

 

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Dumb Stuff from the Garden Front

"A disabled Ohio man has been ordered to stop selling vegetables from his front yard. Wesley Wood says the few dollars he earned selling tomatoes, broccoli, and peppers helped supplement his Social Security checks. But officials told him it’s illegal to sell produce from a private home, so Wood will now give his vegetables away. “I just don’t want to see the stuff go to waste,” said Wood. “And I have a lot of it.”

Via The Week

Foodie asks ---Is it illegal in Ohio? In, say,  Akron? In the USA? Where?  Terrible reporting.

Eat, Shop, Laugh at Trader Joe's

 

HOPE-HOWSE (http://www.hope-howse.org) joined with the Laughter Yoga movement and the Levity Project during the Annual Laughter Yoga International conference 2010 in Albuquerque, NM.

 

Confused About the Global Food Market? Watch This.

 

Conceived and produced by Denis van Waerebeke.

Via Fast Company----"Though ostensibly created for a science show in Paris for 12 year olds, it's actually probably waaaay over a kid's head..."    Or not.

Wine from India Has Arrived on UK Shelves - Telegraph

I haven’t, yet, had the chance to travel to an Indian vineyard but the country did have a clear presence at the London Wine Trade Fair in May. It now produces 13.5 million litres of wine a year, according to a report by the United States department of agriculture. To put that into context, it’s five times as much as we produce in this country.

via www.telegraph.co.uk

Walmart's Fresh Food Makeover | The Nation

..."As Walmart positions itself as an expedient solution to the food desert problem, critics question whether a retailer known for fostering a low-wage economy and driving small stores and union groceries out of business is a viable ally in the effort to help struggling communities get access to affordable, decent food. The food desert problem, these critics contend, is more about poverty than grocery stores. Some argue that the retailer’s newfound interest in food deserts is a public relations push designed to help it finally gain entry into lucrative urban markets from which it has long been excluded, thanks to grassroots opposition."

via www.thenation.com

Grateful for Growers Markets

9/11 is a good time to express gratitude for life and food and peace, especially if one is lucky enough to be living in a peaceful space. And there is nothing like the bounty in a farmers' market as the season starts to wind down.

Honoring Those Who Labor So That We Can Eat

Farm workers in California.

Photo via Planet Matters and More

Marimbas, Zucchini Car Races, at Homer, AK, Farmers' Market

Check out the story here at EATSAlaska!

Squaring Up to Watermelons--Japan

It's that time again, and the melons are rolling out of the fields. The round ones, that is. The square ones need tiny implanted wheels...

See, back in the 1980's, the Japanese decided square was better. 

"According to a BBC news article published in June 2001, a Zentsuji farmer came up with the innovative idea for a space-saving square watermelon some twenty years earlier. Since then, the square fruit has been sold in various selected outlets across Japan, but they are prohibitively expensive to buy and their potential market is therefore quite limited. The BBC article noted:

Today the cuboid watermelons are hand-picked and shipped all over Japan.

But the fruit, on sale in a selection of department stores and upmarket supermarkets, appeals mainly to the wealthy and fashion-conscious of Tokyo and Osaka, Japan's two major cities.

Each melon sells for 10,000 yen, equivalent to about $83. It is almost double, or even triple, that of a normal watermelon.

"I can't buy it, it is too expensive," said a woman browsing at a department store in the southern city of Takamatsu. "

So today, we have no clue how much a square watermelon sells for in Japan. But, my spies tell me that squares are, or at least were introduced into these United States a couple years back, selling for about $75 per.

If that seems steep and you must have one, the clever persons at Instructables have info re growing your own.....next summer.......

 

Put A Gator in Your Tank?

Alligator fat may be the new, new thing in green alternative fuels, according to Rakesh Bajpai, of the American Chemcial Society. 

"Dr Bajpai said: 'The search for non-food ( he should have said non-plant) sources of biodiesel already has identified a number of unlikely candidates, including spent oil from deep fryers in fast-food restaurants and sewage.

'Alligator fat could join that list. Each year, the alligator meat industry disposes of about 15million pounds of alligator fat in landfills.'

Via the journal,  Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, as reported in the Daily Mail.