Filed under: Agriculture, flotsam | Tags: almonds, bees, cows, Michael Pollen, pigs, sustainability
Michael Pollen in a new installment at the New York Times salvages the term ’sustainability’ from being hooded over the unsustainable wolf. Read about cows, pigs, bees, and almonds and their mechanization in industrial agriculture!
Another smart video series that gets us thinking about how the ridiculously low costs of most products sitting on store shelves get that ridiculously low.
Here’s the teaser:
There’s more where that came from. Just look at storyofstuff.com for the story of stuff. How simple was that?
I am a new fan of parsnips, erstwhile unknown to me. It was root discovery day at the farmers’ market on Saturday and I sampled a kebab of delicately prepared roots: orange carrot, white carrot, rutabaga, parsnip, red beet, watermelon beet, turnip. I dug the parsnips (rutabaga too) so when I saw them at my favourite farmer’s table, I had to get some. She also had flageolet beans and helped me come up with a recipe for using them with the parsnips. Here’s a recipe for a hearty earthy tasting soup that the German inside you will love!
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 small carrots – mixed varieties is nice, chopped
1 parsnip, chopped
1 cup flageolet beans, soaked
5 small potatoes – a firm type like French or Russian Banana, chopped in quarters
olive oilSoak the flageolet beans overnight (at least 2 inches of water above the beans). Rinse and drain them before starting to cook them the next evening. Sautée the onions in 2 tablespoons of oil on medium heat. When they have become almost translucent, add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds. Add the drained flageolets, carrots, and parsnips to the onions and add water to cover the beans by 4 inches. Bring the water to boil on high heat and then lower the heat to simmer the beans. Lightly cover the soup and stir every 10 minutes or so. After 40 minutes have passed, add the potatoes. Allow to cook 20 minutes or so more until the potatoes and beans are both soft and edible. Season with salt, pepper and more olive oil. Guten Appetit!
Filed under: Local People, Locavore | Tags: Blue Bottle Coffee, Camper, Chipotle Grill, Elephant Pharmacy, Guerrilla Cafe, REI, Wooden Duck
Okay, we did some shopping East Bay yesterday…no, not Christmas shopping, just a few things needed in the household for which we had to schlep to the East Bay.
- A sideboard – place to stash all the unsightly clutter from visiting eyes. Where else to get one stylish and eco-alternative one but the Wooden Duck? They use wood that is at least 50 years old if not more and has been recycled from broken down homes in Indonesia – lucky duckys used to make their homes from teak wood since it doesn’t rot from water wear. The Wooden Duck is a local business – spread the wealth in your neighborhood, not some Swedish conglomerate, when you can afford to (we scrimp and save to be able to do so).
- Shoes for Mama – I’m taking a stand against Camper who keep raising their prices for their cool but sole-decaying-after-a-mere-year shoes, and I heard and now live to tell that REI carries shoes with certifiable street cred.
- When-we’re-going-out-and-cloth-ain’t-gonna-cut-it Diapers for Nasreen – Why we don’t know…but the Elephant Pharmacy has the best store deal on Tushies diapers. When they’re on sale, they’re $8.99 a pack or $10.99 when not on sale. Rainbow only has them at $13.59 or so.
My after such a shopping trip, we must surely have been hungry. We did peek into the Chipotle Grill since it’s near REI, but shied away since we’re not that into burritos. But, if you are into burritos, go to the Chipotle Grill, it’s a no-frills fresh mex place that won’t give you a heaping serving of hormones and antibiotics with your meat dishes!
We settled on the Guerrilla Cafe @ 1620 Shattuck Ave. since it was across the street from the Elephant Pharmacy and we had a coupon for it in our savvy EcoMetro guide. What a treat. It’s a chill environment with the usual Berkeley crowd – another mama even offered to hang with Nasreen so that I could eat (she did). The lentil soup was yummy and Papa loved their waffles with fresh fruit. Most everything is locally purchased (from the farmers’ market they told us) and they compost. I can’t remember everything else, but they have a neato signboard touting what they do. Oh yes, it’s another place to get Blue Bottle Coffee besides the maniacally long lines at the Ferry Building Farmers’ Market.
Nasreen then made abundantly clear that she and her poor stuffed nose wanted to get back home.
Filed under: Uncategorized
So why am I doing this? Well, besides reading every Kingsolver book written while I feed my little Nasreen, I figured that I could attempt something 21st century. I needed a place to jot down all the flotsam I find drifting around the human media ocean. And to satisfy my friends’ erstwhile suggestions, this will be where I place tidbits from my own life. Why not, I say!
