You know the guy, Otsi, the 5000 year-old mummy found in the Italian Alps back in 1991? Well now we know that the fellow ate wild goat, plus some wheat grains--in fact the ancestor to today's wheat grains--before being shot in the back with a stone arrow. He ate a hearty meal, at least 1/2 pound of food, apparently. And what he ate perfectly described his era--a combo of hunted food and gathered food, possibly even cultivated food.
Isn't archaeology/anthropology grand?
Artist Ron English likes to mess with folks. His "cereals" carry varying messages about the sugary, artificially enhanced, rubbishy products he satirizes--and he actually places them in a supermarket--in this case, Ralph's, Venice Beach, CA.( Take a close look.)
Apparently if you find one of his creations and return it to him, he will sign it for you.
More about Ron English here.
I could write about tainted melons, and icky e.coli ground beef, but why? You know all that. Better to zoom in on a damn fine veggie Indian fry bread lunch, served up at Acoma Pueblo, in their Y'aak'a Cafe at the foot of the mesa.
"Y'aak’a means "corn" in Keres, the language of Acoma. Corn was farmed by the Acomans for centuries in the valley beneath the 367-foot mesa where we live. It has sustained us for hundreds of years and is intertwined with religious ceremonies and art."
Via The Lahore Times----"....yesterday British pensioner Peter Glazebrook set a new record for the heaviest onion in the world.
The monster vegetable tipped the scales at 17pounds 15 and half ounces – breaking the earlier world record of 16 pounds 8.37 ounces in the hands of John Sifford, the West Midlands, since 2005."
"Food deserts," heard of them? Places where the only groceries available are chips, soda and corn dogs from a convenience store.
Earlier this summer Michelle Obama announced an initiative with major food chains to create more supermarkets for exceedingly under-served neighborhoods. The chains promised 500 such stores.
Now actor Wendell Pierce of the HBO show, Treme, has committed to opening four such stores in hard-hit neighborhoods of his native New Orleans. According to the WaPo, " Grocers have historically been reluctant to open locations in poor neighborhoods, citing problems with crime and transportation. "
The stores are set to open this spring under the name Sterling Farms. Apparently, “the New Orleans Sterling Farms will have a uniquely Big Easy feel— monthly crawfish boils for the neighbors.”
Right out in the open--no guerilla-gardener he, Bill Koen, City Horticulturalist of Lakeland, Florida, is planting edibles on city land. Bravo, Bill!
Via The Ledger.com
"A petite crop of vegetables, fruits and grain is thriving at Heritage Park at Kentucky Avenue and Orange Street. Indian corn, okra, peppers, kumquats and eggplant provide an unexpected agricultural filigree to the slice of city property.
Towering corn stalks also ring the perimeter of a circular planter in the parking lot at Lakeland's main library, and an assortment of ornamental peppers can be seen near the entrance to the Lakeland Electric building on Lemon Street.
City horticulturist Bill Koen said he started installing food-bearing plants at Hollis Garden more than a decade ago, and in recent years he has expanded the approach into other city properties...
Koen, a city employee for 41 years, said he planted the crops at Heritage Park in the tradition of the "victory gardens" Americans tended in their yards and in public spaces during World War I and World War II."
( Thanks for okra photo to Bijlmakers.com)
Via Felicia Fonseca, AP----"...it's here where the staples of traditional food -- corn, squash and beans -- flourish with what little water reaches the usually dry land.
It's a farming technique that has been practiced for centuries as part of a belief that a prosperous life comes through hard work.
Micah Loma'omvaya shares those stories on a tour he leads to the Hopi mesas that rise above the northern Arizona desert, giving visitors a glimpse of Hopi tradition and culture that's rooted in agriculture.
...Ceremonies, songs and cultural activities are tied directly to agriculture with prayers for rain and a fertile harvest. Prayer sticks with feathers hang from stones that support terraced gardens, and Hopi art commonly features rain clouds.
"That's the simplest of pleasures that we forget in our commodity-driven society when we want the latest iPod, vehicle and the best shoes," James Surveyor (the marketing and sales associate at the Moenkopi Legacy Inn & Suites on the reservation,) said. "That prayer, that ceremony, that belief is all intertwined with farming because farming is what the people are."
This type of focus on our continent's food heritage delights us, and reminds me to say, "Be Happy, Be Hopi." We'll definitely be signing up for a trip back through Hopi agriculture.
FYI Check Hopi Tours or call 928 206 7433--tours leave from Moenkopi Lecay Inn & Suites, via Experience Hopi.
Having written here myself about the Prince of Wales' admirable Home Farm, I am delighted to find this take, from a woman who seems to know her eggs from her offal. Rachel Laudan's blog is dubbed A Historian's Take on Food and Food Politics.
"Prince Charles inherited 135,000 acres, much of it excellent land in the south and west of England. His manager farms the Home Farm, the organic bit, 1000 acres where he in time-honored tradition raises rare breeds.
His tenants are not required to farm organically, without doubt use as much of the latest agricultural technology as they can afford, and accept farm subsidies. His estate agent Smiths Gore I presume collect the rents and handle the accounts.
Like corporate agribusiness, Prince Charles has integrated vertically by producing a line of food products, Duchy Products. These he sells not in farmers’ markets but through the large grocery chain, Waitrose. (True, they pay some royalties into his charity, but that is in trouble at the moment, having to bail out some land investments made by the Prince). He advertises these industrially-produced foodstuffs by appeal to tradition (a technique pioneered by big wine in late nineteenth-century France).
In 2008, rents from tenant farmers (and presumably from sources such as The Oval cricket ground and holiday rentals in the Scilly Isles) provided him and his family with an income of $26.4 million.
So when I read rave reviews of Prince Charles at the Future of Food conferencegoing on in Washington, D.C., I have to wonder.
Is Prince Charles’ decision to farm 1/135th of his land organically really so compelling? How can his admirers, most of whom I suspect, distrust agribusiness (and by any standards, Charles’ landholdings have more in common with large corporate landholdings than small family farms), overlook the scale of his operation?
Because of a sneaking deference to royalty? Because he claims as his own, standard British agricultural practice, such as dung spreading?
Whatever the reason, I find the deference amazing. Prince Charles is, in my view, agribusiness personified."
Prince Charles, who champions sustainable agriculture, is on a three-day U.S. visit that will include meeting with the president on Wednesday after delivering a speech at “The Future of Food” conference at Georgetown University, hosted by Washington Post Live.
Prince Charles' totally organic farm called Highgrove, in Gloucestershire, was converted to organic starting in 1986.
Full disclosure, I watched Chuck marry Diana way early in the a.m. one summer on the Jersey Shore. I was watching from there, that is. I even tooled off on my bike to buy wedding-appropriate morning pastries to eat. (The evening before?) I knew he was still smitten with Camilla, I knew she had lost patience while Chuck dithered about marrying her. Yes, I knew all that.
Anyway---these young persons--I do not know them!-- are not compelling....Chas was "my prince" after all---born when I was 3---I remember the birth. OMG. Nonetheless, I am pleased that no one expects Kate Middleton to be a virgin, that the couple has been coupled for many a year, etc etc. So, yeah, I will take a gander.
Food! Is it a Wimbledon breakfast? Strawberries n cream?
Heavy joe, after all I might catch a glimpse of Baba Wawa so I need fortification. All those network talking heads with their banalities to hand? I may require the fabled Italian "caffe correto," espresso with a shot of grappa or brandy...Plus, a crusty mini ciabatta with real actual fab butter from Plugra, and a hunk of good Belgian dark chocolate. ( At 5 am?)
There's an Italian theme here because God knows an English fried breakfast would leave me belly up, waving a white flag. And tea? Not at 5 am.
ps Word has it that Kate, not a teenager, has been losing weight to the point of absurdity. Hope she enjoys the post-wedding feast, once the dress is off.
A man who later would be accused of ruling the Ivory Coast with a firm "paternal" hand, was a rebel who stood up to the French colonialists in 1944, founding the country's first union for African cacao farmers. Félix Houphouët-Boigny pushed for independence from France, having established that indigenous plantation owners had the right to hire migrant workers for their own spreads. He himself was a cacao farmer who became the first President of independent Ivory Coast, after holding several offices in the French government.
Of course the French had established the cacao, coffee and cashew plantations that contributed to the Ivory Coast's vibrant economy. ( Only coffee is native to the African continent.)
But at what cost? Child slavery is endemic to cocoa production in West Africa even today. In the late 1990's, the issue finally came to global attention. ( Another source of information re slave labor and cacao is Chocolate Work.)
The finally-ousted-today Ivory Coast politician Laurent Gbago clung to power by nationalizing his country's cocoa and coffee plantations. Those opposed to him halted export of the country's production of cashews--second largest producer in Africa--in an effort to cut off financing for Gbago.
Food--it's always there, underpinning everything.
( Thanks to Raw Living Food for photo of cacao pod with beans.)
Phil Mickelson is a good guy, we all agree. As last year's Master's winner, he is the host for what they call the Champions Dinner held at Augusta each year. ( FYI, golf.) Phil plans to pay tribute to Seve Ballesteros, whose Master's win in 1980 apparently inspired the then 10 year-old. Seve won it again in 1983, and later became a friend and mentor to Mickelson.
Ill now, but recovering from a brain tumor, Seve likely will not make this year's dinner but the spread will be appreciated by those who loved watching a dude from Spain play the game.
According to a piece from The Post Game, "... the Masters Club will have the food of Seve's nation on its plates. Mickelson is offering a mixed salad with sherry vinaigrette and olives, seafood paella, and an apple empanada for dessert."
( Back in the day, yours truly worked for Wrangler Jeans' European company based in Brussels, and Seve was an athlete we sponsored--part of my job was to arrange photo shoots with him at assorted venues. Terrible burden, as you can imagine, hanging around Seve, a cute fellow, eating European food specialties, paella included.)
From npr:
"In an essay published last November in Canada's Maisonneuve journal, physician Kevin Patterson described his experiences working as an internist-intensivist at the Canadian Combat Surgical Hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
One detail he noticed: The Afghan soldiers, police and civilians he treated in Kandahar had radically different bodies from those of the Canadians he took care of back home.
"Typical Afghan civilians and soldiers would have been 140 pounds or so as adults. And when we operated on them, what we were aware of was the absence of any fat or any adipose tissue underneath the skin," Patterson says. "Of course, when we operated on Canadians or Americans or Europeans, what was normal was to have most of the organs encased in fat. It had a visceral potency to it when you could see it directly there."
( Patterson, pictured in the Canadian Arctic, is also a novelist. More on him and his work at the National Review of Medicine website.)
Listen to Terry Gross interview Dr. Patterson on Fresh Air here:
( Thanks for the photo to Samurai Dave, aka Ronin Dave, an English teacher in Tokyo. His personal experience during the quake here. )
The Japanese plum, or "ume" in bloom, a native of China, signals spring is on the way.
"The actual ume fruit is more sour than the western plum or apricot, and is usually processed in various ways before eaten.
The most popular processed form is the umeboshi, a sour, pickled plum, which is usually enjoyed with cooked rice. Umeboshi is one of the most typical Japanese flavors. Umeshu, a sweet alcoholic beverage made of plums, is also popular."
from www.japan-guide.com
"Today, the orangery - so called because oranges and lemons were grown there - is the only surviving 18th-century greenhouse in North America..."
This line leapt out of a WaPost piece this morning, detailing archaeological work by University of Maryland researchers on the Wye House plantation near Easton on the Eastern Shore. Estate owner Richard Tilghman, whose family has owned Wye since 1659, paid for the work. Apparently he wanted more information about the orangery, and the slaves who built it, and did all the work emanating from it. At one time the Wye Plantation had about 1000 slaves
Literally, living in their quarters next to the orangery.
Writers often glibly say George Washington planted a stand of pecans or Thomas Jefferson created a trial vineyard, but we keep needing reminding that those who did the food-related work-- the planting, the harvesting, the cooking, were all slaves. ( And all the other work, for that matter.)
Orangeries, popular in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, originated in Italy, and were perfected by the Dutch. Status symbols, they were glass-heavy buildings where tender citrus and other tropicals brought in from the gardens of the wealthy could be wintered over in safety.
Frederick Douglass, who spent some of his childhood as a slave at Wye House, wrote this about the Wye House garden in 1845: "This garden was probably the greatest attraction of the place. During the summer months, people came from far and near - from Baltimore, Easton, and Annapolis - to see it. It abounded in fruits of almost every description, from the hardy apple of the north to the delicate orange of the south."
Photo: Library of Congress. 1920's image of the Wye orangery.
