Spuds in Tubs: Simple and Sustainable Urban Agriculture for Schools

If you have a potato, some soil, and a big plastic tub, you too can be an urban farmer. So goes the thinking behind Spuds in Tubs, a program with a completely catchy title and a very simple mission: to get children thinking about how to grow food. In one of the classrooms where I volunteer, big blue bins line the windows, adorned with the names like “Potato Crusaders.”

Spuds in tubs is beautiful in its simplicity. It is a project of BC Agriculture in the Classroom, although I am sure that echoes of this sustainable urban gardening project can be found elsewhere around the world. Teachers receive portable tubs, compost, and Warba potatoes, an early variety of potato that is ready before the children are finished school. Teachers use the plants to teach about sustainable food, but they can also use the potato plants across the curriculum. Observations can become Language Arts studies. The growth and change of a plant can work into the science curriculum. Plant growth can become a math lesson, and potatoes are certainly a lesson in multiplication.

Why Spuds in Tubs? It’s a small and sustainable program that is easy for teachers to implement. Teachers apply over the winter, receive kits in February, and the class has new potatoes by the middle of June. The program is much different from creating a large school garden, an outcome that is delightful but can involve a heavy dose of school politics. Creating an outdoor community garden on school grounds can seem like a big project, especially for overworked teachers. There is also the question of summer maintenance. Unfortunately, vegetable gardens do not really follow the school season, and planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall still leaves a long, dry summer for teachers and parents to coordinate. Urban agriculture is a healthy and beautiful thing, but it does require coordination to be sustainable.

This year, over one hundred and fifty schools are participating in the Spuds in Tubs project. Each classroom will receive five tubs with soil and with potatoes to plant. That’s nearly four thousand seed potatoes going into the ground, with a result of thousands upon thousands of little new potatoes for the children to eat. The Spuds in Tubs program is an urban agriculture program that works: it’s small, it’s simple, and it’s sustainable.

Have you been involved in classroom urban gardening? What are your simple strategies for success?

Goat’s cheese and Beetroot and Lentil Salad with English Goats Cheese, Garden Flowers and Herbs

This was one of the courses that I was struggling to rule out, to cook or not to cook. Sometimes you simply have to go with it and cook everything (see my St Georges Day Menu for the other starters). This salad is very easy to make. The reason that it is so good is the flavours that are brought together within it. Simply lovely!

Goat’s cheese and Beetroot and Lentil Salad with English Goats Cheese, Garden Flowers and Herbs

Ingredients:

6 x Medium sized Beetroot

Maldon Salt

Black Pepper

Cup of Puy Lentils

1 Stock Cube

1 x Lemon

1 x Carrot

1 x Celery Stalk

1 x Goat Cheese (I had the St George Soft Goats Cheese)

Olive Oil (Rapeseed Oil if you have it!)

From the Garden:

Small bunch of Sorrell
Small bunch of Oregano
Small bunch of Parsley
Small Bunch of Mint
Viola Flowers (Optional)

First to the Beetroot, simply chop of the leaves leaving a small amount of stalk and place in boiling salted water (leave the skins on). They should take 25 to 30 minutes to become tender – check with a knife to see if cooked. Once cooked set aside to cool for 10 minutes and then using your fingers peel and remove the tops and bottoms of the Beetroot. Once peeled set aside to cool completely.

Next to your lentils, find a suitable pan and ¾’s fill with water. Season the water with a generous pinch of salt and add the stock cube, carrot that has been cut in half lengthways and the Celery. Check your packet and cook for the recommended amount of time, again until tender. Once cooked set aside to cool (removing the veg that have now done their job and imparted their flavour).

Once both the Beetroot and Lentils have cooled and you are ready to serve it’s simply an assembly job.

Take the Beetroot and chop into 1/8’s so you have 8 perfect moon shaped pieces.

The Lentils need a good glug of Olive Oil and the juice of a Lemon, stir in and check your seasoning. Next chop your herbs and add them to the lentils.

Now line up your plates and using a spoon place a small pile of the herby dressed lentils in the centre of each plate. Now place Beetroot pieces all over around the piles of Lentils like petals around a flower. Then place another good spoon of Lentils on top of the Beetroot to hold them in place.

Break pieces of goats cheese over the top of the salad and then sprinkle any remaining herbs over the top of the salad.

Finish the plate with a circle of Olive Oil (you know the chef’y way to finish a plate) and your there. As a good friend of mine tells me regularly, minimum effort, maximum impact!

To add to the colours I picked the flower heads from Violas growing in my garden, most of the guests hadn’t eaten flowers before and it turns the dish from a gourmet salad into a centrepiece and talking point!! Try it!

This is a full and mouth smacking starter or appetiser! The sweet Beetroot, creamy Goats Cheese and almost meaty lentils are brilliant together. The Lemon juice, Herbs and Olive Oil just bring the whole thing up and make it, well.. Fantastic!

British Food Home

Intensive Cultivation: Sustainable Farming on a Single Urban Lot

Hey, urbanites – do you grow your own food? As cities move into this century where the international basis of our food becomes less certain, people are working to relocalize our food sources. Peak oil? Reducing your carbon footprint? Sustainable food? With saving seeds and growing in urban and community gardens, no problem, right? Well, for many the reality is a lot more challenging. Yes, it is possible to grow food in a community garden, and it is possible to grow food on a deck. But the reality is that for most of the urban population, this is a small supplement to grocery store food. How can we shift from dabbling to urban and suburban food production that can make a significant contribution to our daily meals?

Like any up and coming urban activity, there are the early adopters, the superstars of urban farming. These superstars grow bushels of produce on a corner of an urban lot, or help feed the neighborhood with their abundant produce. While it takes over an acre of land to feed the average American, many people do well with much less, a fraction of an acre. These produce-growing stars include Jim Kovaleski in New Port Richey, who has covered his back and front yards (and sides too) with produce. He sells the greens he produces in his suburban yard. While the rest of us grow a few heads of drooping lettuce, how do these urban and suburban superstars do it?

You don’t need to tell an urbanite that space is at a premium in a small urban garden. This is where space-saving gardening comes in. The food forest idea comes from a permaculture background and focuses on developing a self-sustaining garden that integrates vertical layers, like fruit trees with greens growing underneath and kiwi fruit growing up the tree. Square foot gardening is an intensive rotation system that encourages people to grow just what they need, with the right quantity of plants in a single square. Trellising of larger plants like zucchini is also a feature of the square foot garden. When you’re gardening in an urban setting, viewing every space as a potential growing space is one of the keys to high yields and sustainable yields.

Intensive cultivation requires a strong garden ecology, especially if you want to sustain this cultivation for a long period of time. Encourage bees, butterflies, birds and all sorts of bugs to come and visit the garden. Beneficial, pollinating and predator insects are important to the health of a garden. So is the garden soil. Amending the soil with kelp, compost, and other natural products will help keep it growing. Soil is the basis of the food that sustains us, and without healthy soil our gardens do not thrive.

Experimentation is also key to a sustainable urban farm. When you plant, do it in the right places and experiment to find out where those places might be. If lettuce fails in one location, pull it and begin again in another location. Instead of forcing a plant to be happy with artificial fertilizers and pesticides, allow each plant to find its niche and thrive there. Gardening will be much, much easier.

Have you gotten high yields of produce from an urban or suburban farm? How have you done it?

Soft boiled duck eggs with Asparagus spear soldiers wrapped in crispy bacon

Asparagus, you wait what seems an eternity for it to arrive, you first start to eat it and the season is already over.

Asparagus for me is one of my favourite vegetables, when it arrives it really feels like you have turned the corner of winter and the new menu is here to stay. Over the month or so that Asparagus is in season I try to eat as much of it as is humanly possible including it or serving Asparagus with every meal. You can add Asparagus to most dishes but the best way to eat Asparagus is simply – steamed Asparagus for me is enough, but as I had a few friends coming over for my St George’s day dinner party menu I thought I would glam it up a little and combine it with a few other fantastic flavours.

Soft boiled duck eggs with Asparagus spear soldiers wrapped in crispy bacon

So simple, can be prepared in advance and looks impressive what else could you ask for in an appetiser or starter?

Ingredients:

25 spears of English Asparagus

25 rashers of British cured streaky bacon smoked

Maldon Salt

Black Pepper

7 duck eggs (pick out the blue ones for a better effect!)

I made this dish for 7, but you can easily scale it down you’ll need 3 Asparagus spears, 3 Rashers of Bacon and a Duck egg per serving.

On a chopping board take a rasher of bacon and place on the chopping board, using a knife stroke the bacon with the flat side of the knife and run it along the rasher. This will flatten the rasher and make it longer. Now grind a little Black Pepper onto the rasher (you won’t need salt as the Bacon will season the Asparagus). Place the Asparagus spear on the rasher – the bottom of the spear level with the bottom edge of the bacon and then roll the Asparagus until it has a perfect little coat of bacon and only the Asparagus tip is exposed. Repeat with the remaining Asparagus and bacon until you have 25 snuggly wrapped Asparagus Spears in the beautiful smoky bacon. Now, it was a warm day and evening on St George’s day so I had the Barbecue out however, you could cook these just as easily on a griddle pan or even in the oven.

On the hob place a large saucepan, fill and get the water to a rolling boil.

It’s now all about the timing, get some plates warmed with an egg cup for each and place the Asparagus on the Barbecue (griddle or however you are cooking them); when they are nearly cooked and crispy place the duck eggs in the boiling water. If you are cooking one or two eggs they will take 3 minutes to soft boil, I was cooking 7 so I left them for an additional minute.

Take the top of the duck egg off for your guests and sprinkle in a little Salt and Pepper, serve the Asparagus on the side of warm plate and the egg and its top also on the plate.

Grown up dippy eggs!! Warm duck yoke with crispy bacon and the fantastic flavours of Asparagus and for those who are lucky enough to cook it on a Barbecue a rounded Smokey’ ness too!!

So simple, so delicious!! Try it!

British Food Home

Resep Makanan Jepang Populer: Curry Udon (Kare Udon)

Scroll down for English translation of Japanese Popular Recipe: Curry Udon (Kare Udon)

Curry Udon adalah salah satu cara untuk orang Jepang makan kare/curry. Curry Udon adalah udon dengan kuah kari yang kental. Bisa disajikan polos hanya dengan kuah atau dengan isian daging sapi/ayam, wortel, terung ungu, kentang, kabucha dan taburan daun bawang.

Bahan:
400gram sanuki udon siap masak
600ml air
1sdm dashi bubuk
2sdm soy sauce
1sdm gula pasir
1 buah wortel ukuran kecil, iris ukuran 3x3 cm
1 buah kentang ukuran kecil, iris ukuran 3x3 cm
1 buah terung ukuran kecil, iris ukuran 3x3 cm
50 gram daging sapi has dalam/lulur, iris tipis.
40 gram bumbu kare jepang
½sdm maizena larutkan dengan 1sdm air

Cara Memasak:
1. Tuang air ke panci, masukkan dashi, soy sauce, gula pasir, didihkan.
2. Masukkan sayuran berturut-turut wortel, kentang. terung, masak selama 3 menit, bersihkan buih yang muncul.
3. Masukkan daging sapi, bumbu kare, aduk rata.
4. Masukkan maizena, aduk, matikan api.
5. Rebus Udon dengan air secukupnya, tiriskan, letakkan di mangkok saji, tuang kuah udon, taburi daun bawang.

Untuk 2 porsi.

Bahan Masakan Jepang/Japanese Grocery
Please click http://jafos.blogspot.com/
SMS/CALL: 0811 25 4628 (RESPON CEPAT)
Email: cah_djogdja@yahoo.com

**********************************************************************************

Ingredients:
400gram sanuki udon (ready to cook)
600ml water
1tbsp granulated dashi
2tbsp soy sauce
1tbsp sugar
1 small size carrot, cut into bite-size
1 small size potato, cut into bite-size
1 small size eggplant, cut into bite-size
50gram forerib/rolled backrib, thinly slices.
40gram Japanese curry block
½tbsp cornstarch dilute into 1tbsp water

Directions:
1. Pour water into pot, add dashi, soy sauce, boil it.
2. Add carrot, potato, eggplant and cook for 3 minutes, take any scum out.
3. Add beef and curry block, stir thoroughly
4. Add maizena, stir well, turn of the heat.
5. Boil udon, drain it, put in a bowl and pour the curry soup, garnish with negi/green onion.

Serve: 2 people.

Bahan Masakan Jepang/Japanese Grocery
Please click http://jafos.blogspot.com/
SMS/CALL: 0811 25 4628 (Fast Response)
Email: cah_djogdja@yahoo.com

St George's day dinner party menu

So yesterday was St George’s day, as a patriot and an Englishman I wasn't going to miss this opportunity - I never allow any patron saint days go as they are all brilliant excuses to cook something different or traditional - I had some good friends coming around and I had booked the day off work to prepare our feast.

To be honest I had been thinking off and on all week about what to cook but had not decided on anything. The morning of the big day was now upon me and I had to decide..

The morning of St George’s day was a little frantic as not only did I have to create the menu I had to shop for it.. I am lucky enough to have a great grocer fairly close by and this was going to be my first stop!

The challenge was to create an English themed menu, that was in season and achievable in one afternoon.. As we were just at the beginning of the Asparagus season this was a must! The previous week I had visited a Farmers market at Denbies Wine estate, what a fantastic Vineyard it is and an amazing English wine that they produce in Surrey Gold!! At the market I had visited a little cheese stand for a small producer based in East Sussex - Nuts Knowle Farm who produced an amazing soft Goats Cheese called St George - which of course I had bought with one eye on my St George's day feast. That was a must for a course too! Englishmen means beef and I wanted to include Watercress somewhere in the menu. Finally my garden was groaning with Rhubarb so I had to put this to good use as well...

So this is the menu that I created for my good friends, I think that you will be able to tell that I was unable to pick one or the other starter so I decided to make them both.

St George’s day menu

Soft boiled duck eggs with Asparagus spear soldiers wrapped in crispy bacon
Goat’s cheese and Beetroot, Lentil Salad with Garden Flowers and Herbs
English Onion Soup with Sage and Cheddar Cheese Crouton
Sirloin Steaks with Anchovy and Herb butter, Watercress and a tower of twice fried chips.
Stem Ginger and Rhubarb Cheesecake
Sticky Toffee Pudding and Toffee Sauce

Lucky for me the weather was unseasonably good and it allowed me to cook some of the courses on the BBQ which adds so much to the meal, especially the steaks!

I’ll be posting my recipes for my St George’s day dinner party menu over the next couple of days after all, the weather is still great and not to be wasted!!

British Food home

British Food and British Cooking!

Not sure if you have ever written a blog - this is not my only blog (wild food blog), but I always take a little while to find what to write about first..

This blog is about what matters to me. British Food and Cooking, Seasonal cooking, Food provenance and some of the best ingredients available in the world – ingredients made and grown here in Britain!

I am a home cook, I have a small garden and I love nothing more then to play around growing vegetables and herbs, nothing serious and not always successful but occasionally I get the tastiest and uber local food !!

I love British cooking, the classics and the modern! There is so much talk about the French classics that we always seem to overlook our own. British cooking is what we have grown up on so why not explore our own classics and if you’re anything like me tweak them a little and see what happens.

I am passionate about British produce as well and for many reasons. Whether it be supporting our own farmers, reducing food miles and in turn sending less pollution into the atmosphere or simply because it tastes the better there are many reasons to buy British and I will explore these as I publish articles.

Finally, and this is the primary reason that inspires me, British ingredients… I don’t know if you can hear it in my writing but I am beaming with pride when I think about it. British ingredients such as Worcestershire Sauce or Maldon Salt are globally marketed and sold because they are extraordinary and delicious.

So, if you love British food and cooking why not follow this blog and follow me as we create and talk about great British produce!

British Food Home

Jual Bahan Masakan Jepang Murah

Bahan Masakan Jepang Import Termurah se Kaskus

Ikuti thread ini (CTRL+D) dan dapatkan update resep-resep popular masakan Jepang

Pengen bikin sushi buat pacar? pengen makan curry udon? ngidam miso shiru? pengen bikin ramen sendiri?

Sekarang kamu bisa masak makanan Jepang popular dirumah.

Kami menjual bahan masakan Jepang import yang lengkap dengan harga lebih murah dibandingkan harga di supermarket.

BONUS RESEP MASAKAN JEPANG dari orang Jepang asli (native) yang sudah diuji coba di dapur kami.

Siap kirim ke penjuru tanah air dengan berbagai macam ekspedisi/kargo.

Tersedia kemasan ekonomis (kemas ulang) sehingga anda bisa memasak berbagai macam masakan jepang tanpa harus menyimpan bahan dalam jumlah banyak dan menanggung resiko bahan kadaluwarsa.

Spoiler for Bahan Masakan Jepang:

Jangan lupa bookmark thread ini… CTRL+D dulu yah..

Note

Quote:

Harga barang bisa berubah sewaktu-waktu. HARGA BELUM TERMASUK ONGKIR

1. Bahan Okonomiyaki, Takoyaki, Yakisoba, Yakiudon.
Terdiri dari:
saus otafuku 95.900/1200gr
mayo maestro 20.000/500ml
ao nori 18.000/50gr
dashi 18.000/100gr
katsuobushi 40.600/200gr.
Tersedia kemasan besar

2. Bahan Sushi

Terdiri dari:
Beras botan 41.400/kg
sushi nori 20.900/10sheets
sushi mat 17.500/pc
cuka beras 25.000/200ml
wasabi bubuk S&B 13.500/60gr
Tersedia kemasan besar

3. Bahan Chicken Katsu, Beef Katsu, Ebi Furai, Curry Katsu, dll

Terdiri dari:
Bulldog Tonkatsu Sauce 200ml & 1800ml(saus terbuat dari buah dan sayuran, tak ada unsur anjing didalamnya, Bulldog hanyalah merek)
Tepung Panko/Bread crumb
Mayo Maestro (untuk salad nya)

4. Curry Roux 41.600/10

5. Mie Jepang Berbagai Rasa dan Bentu

6. Furusato Miso Shiro 1kg Rp 41.600

7. Naruto Maki 145gr Rp 31.000

8. Kikkoman Soy Sauce 1.6lt Rp 80.000 dan 200ml Rp 13.500

9. Wakame (Rumput Laut untuk miso dan salad)

134.800/500gr, 15.500/50gr

10. Sanuki Udon 5X200gr (Beku, pengiriman baru bisa dalam kota)

11. Paket Tanuki Udon siap masak

BAHAN MASAKAN JEPANG LAIN

Quote:

Kami juga menyediakan bahan-bahan lain seperti saus okonomiyaki, saus tonkatsu, teh jepang (ocha, sencha), tepung tempura, mirin, wasabi, shichimi togarashi, kewpie (QP) mayonnaise, maguro (ikan tuna), saba (ikan mackerel), unagi kabayaki, ikura (telur salmon), crab stick, edamame, dan bahan masakan Jepang lain. Tinggalkan alamat email anda di thread kami dan kami akan mengirim pricelist lengkap.

PENGIRIMAN BARANG

Quote:

Barang bisa dikirim ke seluruh Indonesia menggunakan: Kargo Udara: Tiki, Pandu Siwi, Kargo Garuda Indonesia (hanya sampai airport/port to port), Kargo Mandala Airlines (hanya sampai airport/port to port). Kargo Darat: Dakota, Bimaputra, Elteha. Kargo/ekspedisi langganan anda yang mempunyai kantor cabang di Yogyakarta. Untuk barang cair hanya bisa dikirim via kargo darat. Kenapa begitu? karena peraturan penerbangan tentang kargo cair sekarang semakin ketat. Jadi daripada dituntut sama perusahaan penerbangan karena kirim kargo cair lebih baik kirim barang cair via kargo darat.

CARA PEMESANAN & PEMBAYARAN

Quote:

SMS/CALL: 0857 4302 1280 / 0811 25 4628 (telkomsel) Email: cah_djogdja@yahoo.com Call, SMS, atau email kami: - Nama Pemesan - Alamat lengkap untuk perkiraan ongkir - No HP - Nama barang dan jumlah order - Kargo pilihan (jika ada) Contoh: Dek Lili, Jalan Kobal-Kabul No 65 Salatiga, HP 0812 3456 7890, sushi nori 3pack, botan rice 4kg, maguro 1 pack, pengiriman via travel Maju Jaya. Kami akan konfirmasi balik pesananmu via sms 0857 4302 1280 / 0811 25 4628 Pembayaran ke: BCA 802 0097 079 a.n Lalitya Xaviera Tolong info via sms jika transfer. Karena kesibukan baru, maka ada perubahan jadwal pengiriman barang sbb JADWAL PENGIRIMAN BARANG: RABU pukul 15:00 dan SABTU pukul 09:00 TIME LIMIT TRANSFER: Rabu pukul 12:00 dan SABTU pukul 08:00

CHAT WITH ME ^^

LAIN-LAIN

Quote:

1. Barang yang sudah dibeli tidak dapat ditukar/dikembalikan.
2. Barang akan dikirim setelah data pemesan lengkap & LUNAS.
3. Barang akan dikirim dengan packaging yang memadai. Barang cair akan di seal dengan plastik dan lakban, selebihnya packing kardus.
4. Tersedia packing kayu dengan tambahan biaya jika anda merasa packing kardus tidak aman untuk barang anda.
5. Pertanyaan produk, komplain, saran & kritik silahkan sms ke 0811 25 4628

Celebrate a Sustainable Earth with Sustainable Food!

It’s mid-April, which means spring is in full swing and Earth Day is upon us. Communities all over will be celebrating this Thursday, demonstrating their hope for and commitment to a more sustainable planet. There will be Earth Day parades and fairs and festivals, tree plantings and garden workshops. But there are many ways to acknowledge Earth Day, and I encourage you to do so regardless of whether or not you are able to participate in an organized community activity, and perhaps the best is with a celebration of sustainable, earth-friendly food.

Here are a few ideas:

In my observation, many Earth Day activities are geared towards children, with music and puppet shows and seedlings to help plant the seed of Earth consciousness in young minds. For a more sophisticated celebration, why not invite some friends over for a sustainable, seasonal dinner party? Choose local, sustainably grown and produced spring vegetables, meat, cheese, and wine or beer. This could be as casual as a potluck or finger food, but make sure your guests know why you’re sticking to strictly sustainable foods and spark some good conversation.

If you’re looking for something fun to do with the kids, arrange to take a family day trip to a local, organic farm. Pack a picnic and spend the day outside, enjoying the fresh air and the farm animals. Talk to the farmers about why they choose to farm sustainably and what being stewards of the planet means to them. You may even be able to help out on the farm and get your hands dirty!

Share Earth Day with a special someone and go on a date! Split a locally-raised, grass-fed steak and a bottle of local red wine. Tour your area vineyards or breweries, or try to catch a screening of Fresh for dinner and a movie. Turn off the electricity and serve dinner while sharing your inner thoughts on sustainable food by candlelight. Really, the options are endless.

Whatever you choose to do this Earth Day, the important thing is to focus on more Earth-conscious eating, not just that day, but every day. Make a small commitment to eat more locally, seasonally, or organically. Reconnect with the Earth through your food choices and embark on a mission to help save the planet, one bite at a time. It really does add up, and it’s pretty tasty.

Producing Sustainable Soil: Does Large-Scale Composting Work?

A friend was visiting from Toronto, a large urban center in Canada. She ate an apple, then looked curiously under my counter. “Where’s your green waste recycling bucket?” she asked. By that I assumed that she meant the compost bin. We’ve experimented with several kinds of composting in our home, from backyard bins to bokashi to worm bins. Our goal is to reduce the food waste that we produce, but our ulterior motive is to create sustainable soil for the garden. It can be hard to find good organic soil for a vegetable garden, and it seems sensible to make our own.

Green waste recycling was a new concept to me, however. What she was looking for was similar to a recycling bin, a recycling bin for compost. In her city, the city government sends trucks around to pick up the yard waste, fruit and vegetable peelings, and even the Halloween pumpkins. The compost is trucked to main composting facilities where it is turned into soil. The public then buys this soil for their gardens, should they so desire.

Does this composting concept really work? Yes, the city is producing sustainable soil, but the process seems a little ridiculous. Trucks burning fossil fuels move through neighborhoods, causing air pollution. Then trucks carrying people from the suburbs head over to the local composting center and pick up a load of soil. Municipal composting can also be a large expense for cities, adding to the tax burden on already-drained citizens.

Municipal composting is convenient, but is it logical? Yes and no. Municipal composting programs do create a huge opportunity for reducing green waste, and they create soil from materials that would otherwise produce methane in landfills for years. While it makes the most sense for individuals to produce their own soil at home, composting is an activity that has a lot of barriers. It might not seem difficult to collect fruit and vegetable peels and move them into a bin, but many perceive it to be too time-consuming. There’s also a cultural barrier connected with the formation of soil: some perceive it to be dirty and smelly. Oddly enough, many people also view composting as a socially-responsible effort rather than a common sense one, since they do not use the resulting soil in a garden.

As a municipal composting program begins to move into my city, I alternately rejoice and despair. I am pleased because there have been times when I have been unable to compost, and I want an opportunity to reduce my waste. I am sad because it will become easier to throw peels into the recycling than to use them in the garden, and many people will lose a valuable way to support locally-grown food.

What do you think? Is municipal composting a good idea?

Brunch...ish?

Hello darling readers! I have not spoken to you in one million years. It's not for lack of love, I promise.

So, let's talk about Sunday, shall we? Sunday is always a bit of a sad day. Whereas Saturday morning is full of the promise of the entire weekend, stretched out ahead like a thousand miles of highway and a full tank of gas (plus a fully charged battery, because naturally we're in a hybrid), Sunday is more like the the last hour of a party, when you know you'd better squeeze whatever fun you can from the song that's playing because it's about to come abruptly to an end.

For this reason, I feel the need to indulge on Sundays. How? Push all thoughts of work to the deepest darkest recesses of my brain, sleep in, never put on real clothes - and of course eat. Eat plenty of rich, fatty, salty, sweet, wonderful food. Lately going into The City for brunch to do this has become far too much work; after all, that involves putting on shoes. So I've been an at-home glutton. Not a particularly fancy one, but with the proper spirit nonetheless.

If I'm lucky, I can get the hubby to make me waffles or pancakes. He does make excellent pancakes, and he really enjoys doctoring up special sauces for them out of ingredients like fresh figs. But that's a longshot. More likely, I'll make myself up a pot of smoky grits - smoky because they get a shot of smoked Tabasco sauce. Oh, yes. Maybe I'll follow that up with some Sweet & Sara marshmallows that happen to be waiting for me in the fridge? If you haven't tried the strawberry kind yet, you simply haven't lived. And really, who says you can't eat Tofutti Cuties in the afternoon?

I've come to the conclusion that brunch does not have to be fancy. It's just got to be properly enjoyed.

Corntainers: Sustainable Food Packaging

We live for takeout. When I talk about we, I mean North American culture in particular, although many cultures around the world offer delicious takeout options. In North America, the grab and go meal is standard. Brown bag lunches? No way. For many, restaurant fair is an almost-daily occurrence. Americans eat out four to five times per week. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they have a sit-down meal. It may mean that they grab a sandwich or a salad from the nearest deli. All of this eating out has an ecological impact. The disposal of packaged takeout food is a very real environmental issue, and much of this packaging is not even recyclable.

In the eighties, the world was focused on Styrofoam. The substance was blamed for damaged to the ozone layer, the layer that protects people from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Today, there’s been a gradual phase-out of the CFCs in this packaging, but its production still uses precious petroleum resources and produces waste. Then there was plastic. Clear plastic takeout packaging is light and flexible, washable and recyclable. But plastic is a non-renewable resource, even if it is recycled. Finally, there is paper. Paper products seem to be a logical choice for takeout. This packaging is lightweight and recyclable. However, given that they are contaminated with our oily food waste, we haven’t quite mastered a way to recycle these paper products. They’re renewable, but they’re not ideal.

Into the muddy mix of takeout packaging comes the corntainer. No, that isn’t a typo. It’s a container made out of corn. Imagine waving fields of green corn. Imagine 54,000 bottles. The Corntainer Corporation can make that many bottles from a single acre of corn. Not bad, and definitely annually renewable. Corntainers are popular at our local Whole Foods, the site of many pilgrimages for those who wish to buy sustainable. They look like plastic, so you can see the food inside. However, they compost like corn, sort of.

The sort of is the catch. Corntainers do need to be returned to the store for processing in a commercial compost. While it makes sense to save your packaging until your next takeout purchase, this does make the corntainer less convenient than other recyclable packaging options. Grab and go meals, wash and drop recycling are easier than making a special trip to the store to compost your container. Corntainers strive to be ethical and sustainable. The company was designed to reduce the use of petroleum. Although corntainers are an odd variation on the cash crop, the company does donate to organic farming associations, supporting local agriculture.

What do you think? Are corntainers the next generation of sustainable packaging, or are they a passing trend?

Sustainable Food Markets: Do Origin Labels Help People Purchase Local Organic Food?

It used to be that you could go to your local food market and stroll down the aisles, surrounded by an abundance of food that hailed from all corners of the globe. You could be oblivious to the actual origins of those products, purchasing goodies from all parts of the world with great abandon. Grapes from Chile, salad mix from China, who knew, really? As of March 2009, mandatory Country of Origin labels came into effect in the US, and this was supposed to give those purchasing this food a clue as to where it hailed from.

Yet many times companies seem to be skirting the labeling requirements. You often need to read the really, really small print to discover where your fruit and vegetables have been grown. And are the organic vegetables flown in from China really all that sustainable? Is it really good food labeling if these organic vegetables are labeled California Mix, even when they hail from places far from California?

Why should we care where our food comes from? Recent interest has moved from organic everything into local food. Sustainable food purchasing is not only about low levels of pesticides, it’s also about the carbon footprint of your food: how far has your food flown or been trucked? Food can easily have a carbon footprint that outweighs the food itself. Out-of-season strawberries are a good example. For the health-conscious, it’s important to know where your food comes from because that changes what is invisible but present on your food. If you’re not buying organic, this is especially important. Food grown in other places might contain pesticides that are not permitted in your country.

For example, in the US twenty-five percent of fresh and frozen produce is imported, and half of this comes from the US’s warm neighbor, Mexico. Want fresh fruit that is out of season? Those strawberries don’t come from Washington. But there’s a quirky and unhealthy circle going on in the realm of food purchasing. The US exports pesticides to other countries. These countries spray those pesticides on their food crops. Then companies turn around and import these pesticide-laden crops to sell to consumers at US-based markets. Pesticides that might be banned in one country are exported to another, sprayed on crops, imported by companies, and ingested by unwitting residents. This is yet another reason to support local food and to buy organic. Buying organic reduces your pesticide consumption, and buying local at least ensures that you are not purchasing foods with large quantities of banned pesticides.

There’s a market for sustainable local food. Is it being served by US-based food labeling laws? While these laws are a start, companies have a long way to go before they can truly say that fruits and vegetables for sale in stores are safe and sustainable.