animal vegetable miracle

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Virginia and I discussed how both of us have been attracted to the

turquoise and brown color combination. How do certain colors and color

combinations hit the collective consciousness? Can Pantone take all

the credit? I will leave it to her because she writes about that for a

living.

I just thought that the apple/persimmon cake I baked last evening

looked nice. Unfortunately, I ran out of cooking oil and substituted

low fat yogurt to mixed results. It really could use more fat. I used

the Swedish Apple Cake recipe posted in Recipe Meme and used a

combination of 1 chopped apple plus enough Hachiya persimmon pulp to

make up 3 cups.

By the time I added enough flour to make a stiff batter, there was a

huge amount. I also baked 3 mini-loafs not pictured above. They were

all given to families that help us keep Iris occupied (along with

fruit from the flats we bought at Costco yesterday).

With the help of Google, I discovered another recipe for Persimmon

Cake that reads very similar to my cake. The ingredients are largely

the same, save for small variations in spices. I used only cinnamon;

she added nutmeg and cloves. Rachel has gone to cooking school while I

have a BS in Chemistry. Maybe her cake will taste better. ;-)

I was on a cooking roll yesterday, also cooking black beans. 2 pints

were frozen for another dish, and the rest went into Best Black Bean

Soup from Learning to Cook with Marion Cunningham. I added 2 carrots

to her recipe. Notice the cilantro garnish from our garden? The great

part of being a messy gardener is all the "volunteers". Who wouldn't

want fresh, young cilantro volunteers?

This was supposed to be a post about Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, the

book I read for the Apartment Therapy Re-Nest Book Club. In the

beginning, I didn't think I would want to read another book nagging me

to eat locally and organic. As I wrote before, I thought I was too

busy add more to my workload. I was even chastised by reader mmadden

for saying that "Farmers' markets are great, but they are not

convenient for a harried working mom." (Go read her criticism and my

response.)

I can say that I changed my mind (about the book, not about farmers'

markets). Barbara Kingsolver has made some valid points about our

nation's messed up relationship with food. Even if I don't have her

real estate, I can still grow more of my own food. I can also eat more

seasonally and locally, even within the time constraints of shopping

only before and after work and childcare duties.

I used to think it horribly unfair that I was so heavily penalized in

footprint calculators for not eating more locally. After all, I eat

very little meat and that takes a lot of energy and water! My

lifestyle is really green! I drink filtered tap water! I recycle! I

re-use! I am on a stuff diet! Look how little trash I generate

relative to my neighbors! How can my footprint be marginally better

than average?

I forgot about the poop.

In modern life, we don't pay attention to what goes in and out of our

bodies. We pretty much assume that there will be some food to eat when

we are hungry and that our bodily waste will disappear with a flush.

It is not so simple. Anyone who has ever backpacked understands how

much they eat and poop. Barbara Kingsolver reminded me that, for most

people, our greatest consumption, measured by mass, is in the food we

put in our bodies. The greater the mass, the greater the amount of

energy it takes energy to move it around. It is time to eat more

local.

Kingsolver moved across the country to a place where with more land

and water. I need to live close to work, in one of the densest regions

of the US with some of the priciest real estate and very little water.

Even so, with a little creativity, there is room to improve.

Our hostess in Christchurch threw together a light supper the evening

we arrived. Amongst other things, she served a salad made with lettuce

from her garden. How did she do that in a townhouse with a garden the

size of ours? The next morning, she showed me her vegetables,

interspersed with her flowers and other ornamentals. She only had 1-2

heads of lettuce in two varieties, but it was enough if she picked a

few leaves each day from each head.

I already grow rosemary, thyme, bay and several varieties of chives

and mint. Our Meyer lemon tree is groaning under the weight of this

winter's crop. I already sowed some lettuce and pea seeds before I

left home so I should have plenty of salad greens for a couple of

months.

I started eyeing the insipid baby's tears ground cover in the shady

areas. Wouldn't that be a good habitat for spinach, lettuce or

watercress? Can I tuck some more herbs in other areas?

In the book, Barbara Kingsolver and her family spent a year eating

local foods, most of it in season and organic. The first early spring

of their experiment was bleak. They hadn't preserved food yet. They

shopped farmers' markets, but the pickings were slim. In a few months,

though, their garden started to reward them. My mouth watered as she

described the arrival of each new food that came into season. Morels.

Asparagus. Berries. Stone fruit. Tomatoes.

She reminds us that food tastes best when it is in season and has been

freshly picked. You can't get fresher than your own garden. Lacking

that, a farmers' market where the food was picked a that day is a good

alternative. Unfortunately, I still find it difficult to go to a

farmers' market for reasons I elaborated elsewhere. I explored

alternatives.

At the recently remodeled supermarket 300 feet from my house, I spoke

with the produce manager. He appears to be sansei (3rd generation

Japanese american) with longtime ties to the community. He has been

trying to convince the regional produce buyer to allow him to buy more

Asian and Hispanic produce. He says they didn't believe him when he

said he could sell those "specialty" items in his mass-market

supermarket. Slowly, he is convincing them otherwise. The variety is

increasing but quantity is still a problem. To my frustration, he

can't keep enough white turnips (lobo in Mandarin) in stock. You can

get beaver tail cactus there along with advice on how to cook it. I

need to support his efforts by buying his produce.

Because of my commute route, it is easier for me to go to Whole Foods

on my way to the office instead of on the way home. I started bringing

in an extra bag for all the things that need to stay cold. I pop them

into the fridge at the office while at work and bring them home later.

Whole Foods doesn't necessarily have to be expensive. The bulk bins

are a relative bargain. All their meats are guaranteed not to have

antibiotics or added hormones. They even have a case near the front of

the produce section of "in season and local" foods.

I also shop Trader Joe's on the route home. When we buy fresh food at

Costco (a warehouse store with that sells food in bulk), we share them

with other families. That way, we can have a greater variety.

I am planning meals more and using the food we buy more efficiently. I

cook in large batches, freeze some and share some. Yesterday, my next

door neighbor came over to help herself to snips from my rosemary bush

(there is no way we will ever run out). I brought her over some

mangoes and oranges from Costco. She sent her daughter over with some

rosemary focaccia bread and challah and I sent her home with some

apple persimmon cake. Another day, I sent over some cream of mushroom

soup and scored some home-made pasta sauce.

It is time to send over some of our Meyer lemons. I remember fondly a

few months ago when the neighbor on the corner gave away his excess