Bountifield

Years ago I asked what anyone might know about an organization called CTI, promoting sustainable technologies for global agriculture. I've never found anyone in my local circle who had an answer. A little online research just now revealed that they have been rebranded as Bountifield, with a focus on Africa, providing support for improved and sustainable post-harvest technologies, such as storage and getting crops to market. Ninety percent of the farmers they help are women. It seems critical work to reduce hunger and food waste, and to improve the lives of rural women. You can read all about it and support them through this website https://bountifield.org/

WFPB. WTF?

I ran into "WFPB" on the Rancho Gordo Bean Club Facebook page. Everyone seemed to know what it means except me. After puzzling over it for a while, thinking about all the things it could be, including a radio station east of the Mississippi, I asked.  Apparently it is "whole food plant based." It was explained to me as no meat, no processed foods. So I asked two more questions. Does no processed foods mean nothing cooked, dried or fermented, since those are all processes? No, it means no preservatives or extractions (e.g. white flour, white sugar). And my persistent question, why does plant-based always mean only plants (and fungi) when everything else -based does not mean that exclusively? (A fact-based narrative, for example, can use some poetic license.) I was told that WFPB is really a lifestyle.

So here are my two meta-questions.

Why must we refer to everything by initials? Because texting, I know. But really, you cannot expect everyone you share one interest with (in this case cooking beans) to be in the know on all the abbreviations, initials, and acronyms you use. It's just another way of creating in group out group dynamics, and we have too damn many in groups these days. Just to be fair, I hate it when knitters use cute in group jargony abbreviations, too. And church code words and alphabet soup - yuck.

And why are diets equated with lifestyles? Come on. I love to grow, cook, share and eat food. But my behaviors, my choices, my ethics are bigger than what's in my fridge and belly. My lifestyle is built from the intersection of many things, like a very messy Venn diagram.

Good Food Purchasing Values

I've been meaning to link to these five points for a while. Preparing for the Deacons Talking webinar on Thursday spurred me on.

The Good Food Purchasing Program from Real Food Media on Vimeo.

UN Report on Food Waste in North America

Anyone who followed this blog in its early days knows that I showed a great fondness for lengthy reports. Here is one that appeared earlier this year. How I missed it, especially with my continuing work with our local Food Recovery Coalition, I don't know. I've only had time to skim it so far, but want it linked here. Diverting food waste is both a local and a global challenge.
https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/27688/WasteNot.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
There's a good chart on page 13 which shows the proportion of waste generated at the consumer phase of food's life cycle. This is highest in North America and lowest in the developing world where waste is most often generated between harvest and retail, in storage and shipping.

Ode to Baked Beans

I've just joined the Rancho Gordo Bean Club, and with that subscription comes the right to participate in the related Facebook group. Every day recipes are shared, cooking methods and vessels debated, and the glories of beans depicted.
A few days ago a woman posted a snapshot of a bean pot she'd found at a yard sale. "Is this okay to cook in,"she asked. It seems that a previous owner had messed with it, gluing felt on the underside of the lid, but otherwise it looked just fine, a large (four pound capacity) pot for baking beans in the oven.
One commenter mentioned that New England baked beans are always made with the lid off, with the cook adding a little water periodically over the hours of baking.
"What?!?," I thought. Whoever heard of that? You use the cover, but as they fit loosely you do need to check and add to the liquid from time to time. My reply to her was more polite than that, of course.
She then cited a cookbook that for her is canonical. I looked up the book and found the author was a journalist, not a cook, which left me with only one reply. "I'm chuckling as I read this. My New England Cookbook was my grandmother, born in 1890 and baking a pot of beans every Saturday for most of her adult life."

Our family bean pot now resides with my nephew Kevin, who from time to time cooks up a pot of beans in the true New England manner. Beans, salt pork (not bacon), onion, Colman's mustard, molasses, and white sugar. Gram usually baked pea (also called navy) beans, but later my Aunt Margaret produced the best results ever - hulking, meaty and sweet - with Maine yellow-eye beans.

I remember women bringing huge pots and cookers of beans to the summer fair at First Parish Church in Duxbury. I always helped my mother at the food table, of course. We would sell the beans by the pint, ladling them into the cardboard containers used for hand-packed ice cream. Margaret's recipe always sold out first. One year the new minister's wife brought her beans, but there was much whispering about the fact that they contained TOMATO. How, growing up on the back side of Beacon Hill, did she not know better!

Since abandoning meat as a dietary essential, I have tried to bake beans that taste good without the salt pork. For a while I was adding a nice big dollop of mango chutney to the pot. This helped some, but also redoubled the sweetness. Now that I am paying attention to the added sugar in my diet, the idea of the many forms of sucrose in the recipe is cloying. So I'm going to set out on an experimental journey, with less molasses and no other sugars, but adding something to boost the umami without obviously making a diversion from the New England route of bean cookery. Three contenders are Worcestershire sauce (I do eat little oily fish), smoked paprika, and tamari. Stay tuned for the reviews.

Preserving the harvest

I still love cooking, with a special fondness for baking and preserving. But I have to say that my stamina and attention span for long involved processes has diminished.
So my favorite tools of the season are the Instant Pot, immersion blender, and food mill.
I've made two batches of marinara by simply throwing everything in the pot. Well, not exactly throwing - there is some rough chopping involved, and the onion and carrot and garlic get a bit of saute in the olive oil first. Then when it's all done and cooled some, I blitz it in the pot.
I've been portioning this out, mostly as one cupfuls for one person's pasta, and freezing it.
But I've had an idea which I hope will turn out to be a bright one. I'm going to make the recipe one more time, subbing peppers, sweet and hot, for the carrot and some of the onion, and using vinegar (sherry?) as the liquid instead of the wine called for in the original recipe guideline. When it's whizzed "to the desired consistency," as the recipes say, I'll have salsa. With my handy pH strips I can see if it's then okay to can, and do that to save a little freezer room.
Oh - and meanwhile I have some roasted small tomatoes, given the immersion blender treatment to use in tomato-herb bread.
Here's the guideline I've been using for the marinara:
https://www.simplyhappyfoodie.com/instant-pot-marinara-fresh-tomato-sauce/
Except with paste tomatoes - I have San Marzanos - using just one 6 ounce can of organic tomato paste to give it a little more backbone.
And https://www.daringgourmet.com/fresh-roasted-tomato-and-herb-bread/
This impossibly long blog entry has a good recipe for the bread, which has never met a cheese it didn't like.

From the most recent Hazon e-blast

“Environmental teshuva” is shorthand for a further and renewed commitment to doing better for the planet. It’s a process for each one of us to think about what we are doing, or could or should be doing, going forwards. Environmental teshuva as a minimum – we believe – involves three elements:

1. Making a commitment to further change in our own behavior. (We’re especially encouraging people to reduce or eliminate their consumption of industrial meat and dairy, which is one of the single largest drivers of anthropogenic climate change);
2. Amplifying that by encouraging any institution you are part of to build or strengthen its Green Team, and enter into a multi-year process to drive systemic change...;
3. Being a wider ambassador for change – by volunteering time and/or giving money.

Carbon Farming

We need monetary incentives for farmers transitioning to no-till and other carbon sequestration practices. We've made progress in California. More could be done, and lots more in federal programs.
https://thefern.org/2019/06/one-man-is-trying-to-save-the-world-from-climate-change-by-mobilizing-an-unlikely-team-iowas-farmers/
By the way - this is also an interesting article about the intersection of faith groups, agriculture, and climate change.

The information we have been seeking

I'm still annoyed that CNN did not allow free streaming of the climate town hall, but I probably wouldn't have learned much about the candidates' positions on climate change in relationship to agriculture and the food system. It's not an interest of urban media, even though everybody eats.

Here's a gift from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.
https://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/climate-change-agriculture-presidential-debates/
I've not had time to study this and follow the links, and but until I do and can comment, here's the dope.

August garden report

Better late than never.
Well, only a day late.
Tomatoes began appearing in August, and now are in full flush.
Rattlesnake pole string beans have passed into oblivion, but dry beans are going crazy in the same plot. I already have 3/4 pound of Good Mother Stallard. My forecast is 1 1/4 of them, less of Rio Zape and Christmas limas.
Plenty of summer squash and chard.
The winter squash plants (two in a hill) I thought might never do something erupted over night. They now have 6 or 8 butternuts in various stages of growth. They have lot of time to finish their growth and ripening.  The nearby green beans I got in late (Romano bush) have set some fruit; another week.
Winter squashes that went in earlier in other beds did not do so well, though it looks like five or six small fruit and soon.
Some may wonder why I plant things like beans for drying and winter squash in small community garden plots. It's simple; I like to grow real food, not just salad and greens.  Here, from a week or so ago.

Sonoma County crop report

The 2018 edition is out, and available here
https://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Agriculture-Weights-and-Measures/Crop-Reports/
A friend reported that the conference yesterday launching it was not well attended. She brought by a copy of the power point handout. Under reporting, especially from small specialty crop growers, continues. But

• For the first time, the gross value of agricultural product in Sonoma County exceeded one billion dollars.
• It was a bumper year for wine grapes.
• Tree fruit volume was down, but value way up. So local fruit is even less affordable for many of our residents?
• Hard to figure out what's happening with the burgeoning cider business - how many of the processed apples are becoming an alcoholic beverage - or with cannabis production, which I'm guessing comes under another agency, even though it uses precious ag land. 

I am drinking more cider these days than wine. I enjoyed the cider tasting at the Gravenstein Apple Fair on Sunday. But it concerns me that more and more land is growing crops for alcohol or other intoxicants. I want the statistics on that.
And a btw. The pictures in the report are great, and much less fuzzy than this thumbnail. .

Back to School, Back to Hunger?

In a study published in April, from The Hope Center, the stats on food insecurity among college students were grim. Almost half of students in two-year colleges and about 2 out of 5 at four-year colleges experience some level of food insecurity. Hungry kids are not just an issue of grade and secondary schools.
I became aware of this issue when we gathered emergency food providers, networkers and advocates in the wake of the October 2017 fires here. I had no idea that Santa Rosa Junior College had a food pantry for students. Around the same time, a woman I chatted with at an activist event in Courthouse Square reported that members of the football team at the JC did not have an adequate diet. Scholastic and athletic performance are impaired when there isn't adequate nutritious food.
Some students may not be aware that they are eligible for SNAP - called CalFresh here.
Last month Senator Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Representative Lawson, Democrat of Florida, introduced legislation which could help, the College Student Hunger Act.
The Government Accounting Office has also been studying food insecurity on campus. While their estimate of the severity of the problem is lower - around 30% of students at risk - they found that "almost 2 million at-risk students who are potentially eligible for SNAP did not receive benefits in 2016."
The act expands the criteria of eligibility for SNAP for students, provides for education and outreach about SNAP on campuses, and calls for pilot projects to make SNAP more useful in student dining halls and the like. 
Senator Warren's press release provides the information and links you need to learn more if you wish to advocate for this bill with your senators or congress-members. If they have signed on as co-sponsors - many have - be sure to thank them. 
https://www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senator-warren-and-representative-lawson-introduce-the-college-student-hunger-act-of-2019-to-address-hunger-on-college-campuses
And one more note. This is also a problem on elite campuses for students from low income families. When colleges pause for spring vacation, for example, dining halls close. If you can't afford to travel home and don't have a source of ready cash, even a full tuition, room and board scholarship doesn't result in a full belly.

July garden report

Today I brought home chard (too much), some string beans (the rattlesnake beans are just beginning to pump), and a serving of strawberries. Two-tone zucchini is ripening, though slowly, and there's one tomato on the verge.
I feel behind in the tomato department, but as I toured the other plots this morning I noted that only cherry tomatoes are doing much. The marine layer keeps returning - a good thing from an overheated  human perspective - and that means most of the tomatoes will be ripe in August, September, and into October. My Early Girl and Imwalle Special have set plenty of fruit. The San Marzano looks like it will be last of all, and not very prolific.
Meanwhile there are almost full-sized green Fresno peppers; the bell peppers have set fruit. The Sunshine winter squash has several fruit growing fast, and the butternut I got in earlier is not too far behind. The other butternut and the Italian green beans - late additions both, along with a Lisa Simpson summer squash - are still making up their minds. One of the three dry bean varieties (Good Mother Stallard?) is loaded with pods, and the others (Christmas Lima and Rio Zape) are are blossoming and beginning to set. There are a few beets and some perennial chard in the developmental stages. I've thinned both once. 
Tomorrow we harvest the remaining plum trees on the edge of the garden, to get the fruit to the FISH food pantry.
And I still haven't learned any Tigrinya.

Celebrate!

July is National Ice Cream Month and the 3rd Sunday (today) is National Ice Cream Day.
This probably has little to do with justice or sustainability -
or do you make your own?
I really used to enjoy this. I remember the homemade peach ice cream of childhood summers. If I had grandchildren I'd probably still be doing it.
or choose local brands?
Three Twins is moving away - damn and blast. And frankly I prefer Humboldt over Straus; but Humboldt isn't that far from local.
or patronize an independent ice cream spot?
Last week I went to Noble Folk in downtown Santa Rosa; next time it heats up I'm heading for Frozen Art in Roseland.
So perhaps there are ways to eat ice cream and be a bit greener.

Food news is more interesting than the rest of the headlines

I've made a commitment to myself to post something each week. This week is getting away from me, for too many reasons to recount here.
But I've been meaning to note some of the things I heard on last week's Science Friday, which was heavy on the food system news. First - I want to learn how to make coffee kombucha. Doesn't coffee kombucha and avocado toast sound like a breakfast of champions?
More importantly, there was a long conversation with Amanda Little, the author of The Fate of Food.
You can read and listen here: https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/eating-smarter-in-a-warming-world/
But if you are having a busy week too, consider her three tops tip for eating responsibly in the age of rapid climate change.
1) Reduce your consumption of ruminant meat. I would modify that a bit. Reduce your consumption and choose beef and lamb this is pasture-raised in a climate-smart way. More expensive meat means less meat, a good thing.
2) Watch out for food waste, a big contributor to methane emissions. Did you know that people who eat the most healthful diets are apt to generate the most food waste? Develop strategies for smart shopping, good storage practices, leftover management. If you can, find friends with backyard animals who'd like your extras, get a worm farm, compost! There are all kinds of tips for reducing food waste these days. Watch this space.
3) Vote! Seek out and support candidates who are science literate and seeking policy solutions and appropriate incentives for a resilient food system.

Just a little reminder

From a story on Ynetnews, citing Emily Broad-Lieb, Director of the Food law and Policy Clinic of Harvard Law School, speaking at a conference in Israel.

"Environmental impacts are also prevalent. Broad-Leib mentions that the agricultural industry uses 70-80% of the water in the U.S., while 20% of this water goes to watering crops that will eventually be thrown away.

Since a third of the greenhouse gases emitted in the U.S. comes from this industry, the third best way to reduce this is by cutting down on food waste. Right now 30-40% of food all food is wasted in both the U.S. and Israel."

It's particularly important in this season of produce abundance to share, preserve, glean - and if those don't work, feed chickens and pigs, or compost. 

It's only "Food Waste" if it ends up in the landfill.

June Garden report, part 2

I took some photos on Thursday.
Here's my plot with pole beans.

And the promising strawberries...

Here are my neighbors' zucchinis, transplanted on or before the May 11 workday...

And here's mine, planted five weeks later.

A real plus at the Stony Point garden is the area planted for produce to be delivered to FISH Santa Rosa. These are in 12' x 12' plots, and feature what's popular, what's healthful, and what's culturally appropriate.

The tomatoes, kale, and tomatillos are from transplants on May 11, the beets and other greens we direct seeded. The sunflowers are volunteers. Community gardens that have been in existence for several years are filled with volunteer plants, not to mention weeds.

And one more shot. The fence around the garden is softened with many rose bushes. They are a bit past their prime blooming time now, but here's one beauty.

Garden report

I meant to take some snaps yesterday morning when I went to the Stony Point Garden to weed and water, but it started heating up more rapidly than I expected, so I left hurriedly, forgetting my goal.

It's tough getting used to a new garden. This one is pretty sterile compared with the Fulton Road garden. Bees and ladybugs, yes, but for birds I've seen mostly crows, a few little brown birds, and one robin. There are gophers around one of my beds, and they have gnoshed on both species of pole beans. I still have seven or eight Christmas lima plants left, and six rattlesnake snap beans, so that's not too bad.

The strawberries I inherited in the bean bed have taken on a new lease on life with weeding, fertilizing, and regular watering. The red basil looks great against a backdrop of bean leaves and the early girl tomato has set quite a few fruit.

I was late getting things in. First the late rains and all the weed growth they stimulated hindered me. And then being gone for nine days in early June meant I needed either to get things in and going a few weeks before that, or wait until I got home. It's not a good idea to have seeds sprouting or recent transplants still finding their feet when someone else will be doing the watering, perhaps irregularly. The beans I transplanted since returning are a little wonky, but the peppers and squash are chugging along. Other gardeners already have zucchini; in fact, it looks like some already have too much. Mine are several weeks away. The great blessing is that in this climate we can usually keep our summer producing plants going well into October, so I will not be deprived. While I'm waiting for them, I have two packages of fava beans in the freezer. I've harvested plenty of radishes, the garlic is finally ready to harvest, and the chard is producing full bore.

Here's the garden in mid-May.

June is national Dairy Month

So a few thoughts on dairy, particularly in my corner of the world.
The dairy business is in trouble - or at least stressed - here. Milk is still the second biggest crop ($-wise) after wine grapes. It's close to 90% organic in Sonoma County, too, partly because the price of organic milk is not controlled the way conventional milk is. But there are sustainability advantages beyond income ones. So what's the problem?
1)The growth rate of organic milk sales has slowed. One wonders if the appeal has reached most of those who can afford the higher prices.
2) According to Albert Strauss, at a recent Food System Alliance meeting, organic dairies behave the same way as conventional ones, upping production when prices slide, compounding the problem.
3) Some processors have moved away from our area, in search of a lower cost of doing business, leaving producers scrambling. ( I stopped buying Wallaby yogurt when I realized it was no longer sourcing milk here, and was now effectively Dannon. I buy local milk and make my own using mesophilic cultures., that is, at room temperature on the kitchen counter.)

We hear we need to reduce our consumption of animal products in our diets to make an impact on greenhouse gas generation, but we also need to think about the positive effect of organic and resilient dairies, and buy the products of our local ones. (That is, organic milk and other dairy products that carry the name of a local dairy or creamery, not a general brand.) The best of them improve the pastures they use, pay attention to water quality, etc. And did you know that organic cows live longer lives? Information in sources varies, but it seems CAFO milk cows live a maximum of six years, averaging four or so. Organic dairy cows can be productive members of a herd into the double digits, and have a maximum life span well into their teens.

You can read about Strauss dairy and creamery here:
https://www.strausfamilycreamery.com/mission-practices/
And learn more about a family dairy near me, Beretta, here:
https://sonomarcd.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/SRCD_Beretta_Profile-in-Stewardship_2016_FINAL.pdf

Meanwhile, make sure the milk you consume is doing not just your body, but the environment and your local economy, good.

Summer reading

I am certainly not going to read every book on Food Tank's summer list.
But I expect I will skim some, read a few, and perhaps review or quote them here.
In fact, I just requested two by authors I admire from my public library, and downloaded Vacant to Vibrant via Hoopla, which I thought might be an interesting browse during some travel time later this week.
Check out the list for yourself here: 
https://foodtank.com/news/2019/06/the-29-books-on-food-tanks-summer-reading-list/
And post a comment if you find something to recommend.

Misleading date labels contribute to food waste.
While we wait for legislation that can standardize and clarify, you can educate yourself and others about what date labels really suggest.
Taste and smell remain the best indicators of food quality. The milk in my morning tea lived on past the date on the carton. It's milk from a large local brand, Clover, and it has been stored properly. If it gets stinky or lumpy it goes; otherwise it's just fine.

The Food Law and Policy Clinic of Harvard Law School continues to publish useful reports on this and other issues around extra food and reducing food waste. Check it out.
https://www.chlpi.org/flpc-releases-issue-brief-calling-federal-legislation-standardize-date-labels/?fbclid=IwAR14ifBkxD73BRbIEsDo4B0NWLwh3rEPGOgDDilFCAOLXSWS4gXyWph7PaM

Ten commandments?

Earlier this month I found The Ten Commandments of Food as adopted by the World Council of Churches.

https://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/rev-dr-olav-fykse-tveits-address-to-the-seminar-on-food-and-water-for-life-hong-king-4-may-2019/ 

Ten is a lot to remember, isn't it? I didn't go to the sort of Sunday School where we memorized the original ten, though I do think if someone quizzed me on what is or isn't included in them, I'd probably do well. Memorizing is a lot harder now at my advanced age, so a list of three or four things is a lot easier to handle. That's probably why I like LOAF. (See the link on the right.)

On the other hand, this list of ten includes references to scripture, and thus could be a great framework for study. It also includes that all important happy item at number ten: 
Rejoice and share the sacred gift of food with all.

Lessons from Jose Andres

Listening to this while driving to Trader Joe's today
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/05/23/jose-andres-vegetables-unleashed-cookbook
made me think I ought to post a few reflections inspired by Jose Andres.

I still find myself recommending his book We Fed an Island. Yesterday I was chatting with a colleague who is involved in continuing ministry to those who suffered and were displaced by the Camp Fire. We shared stories about emergency food. I asked if she'd heard of the book; she hadn't. It's an easy read, one I wish everyone involved with emergency food would peruse. At the very least, those of us whose efforts have been frustrated by Big Relief would find a friend in this humanitarian chef.

Did you know that Andres now has a chain of plant-centered fast food restaurants? They are called Beefsteak http://beefsteakveggies.com/who-we-are/, for his favorite sandwich, with a fat juicy slice of beefsteak tomato at it's heart. In the ten minute segment today, he opines that "if we want to feed the world, vegetables are going to need to be at the center of the plate."

This made me think about "plant-based" diets, because the term is usually applied to diets that are exclusively plants (or really plants and fungi), that is, vegan. What can we call our diets when they are mostly plants, but not exclusively? Vegetarian is kind of a tired term, I think, and is based on omitting some foods from one's diet. Plant-centric seems clear, but a little technical. I'm going to start using "plant rich."

The segment ends with some political musing. And I think I've found, from Chef Jose Andres, my new tagline:
"Make America better, one plate of food at a time."

A New Look - and less wonky sidebars

Well, I've just finished a tour de links and cleaned things up a bit.
I realized in doing so that I have many more links on extra food which I could have posted, but most  can be found through the Sonoma County Food Recovery Coalition web pages, and the link is on the right.
"Extra food" is a much better way of saying food waste. We decided in our Coalition that it should only be called food waste if it ends up in the landfill. If it can be shared with people, fed to animals, or composted, it isn't waste. Our little group here in Sonoma County includes representatives from gleaning groups, food justice organizations, cooperative extension, environmental health, and waste management - and a pig farmer.

Next steps

will be to clean up the side bars. Stay tuned.

Time to revive this blog?

I seem to be hearing and reading a lot these days about the green new deal and how it relates - or doesn't - to agriculture and the food system. The current environmental crisis is not about only greenhouse gases and climate change. A systems approach is clearly needed. One that integrates global vision with local wisdom; one that has room for knowledge from science, critical use of technology, and agroecological principles; one that considers access to land, fair wages, and better diets for the world's poor.
This article from Nature makes some good points and raises some questions.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01420-2?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=453877cf49-briefing-dy-20190508&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-453877cf49-43518605