organic food

Energy-Efficient Freezers Help You Store Organic, Local Food All Year Round

jplatt — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:13:49 -0400

We're off to a big organic food festival this weekend, and plan on coming home with a trunk full of local fruits and vegetables -- more than we can eat any time soon, but enough to keep us in good, local eats all winter long.

But before we can do that, we need to buy a new freezer. Our goal for this week is to pick up a dedicated unit (not a fridge-freezer combo), preferably a chest freezer like the one illustrated here.

Chest freezers, which have a lid on the top of of the unit rather than on the side, are 10% to 25% more efficient than upright freezers, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

According to the ACEEE, the most energy-efficient chest freezers on the market today at the Whirlpool EH151FXR (around $425) and the DC-powered SunDanzer (around $1,000).

The ENERGY STAR program offers several tips for buying energy-effienct fridges and freezers. (ENERGY STAR also recently upgraded its criteria for refrigerators, so the newest models are even more efficient than they were just six months ago.)

I don't recommend picking up a freezer unless you're going to stock enough food to fill it. But if you live in a area like me (coastal Maine) where the winters and long and local food is hard to come by, then a freezer could end up being your best friend.

Filling Up Your Freezer

jchatraw — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 02:16:02 -0400

While out at lunch with a friend, the discussion of green living came up in regards to food. My friend was pondering what people ate prior to refrigerators and other appliances that keep food fresh. The simple answer was that people only ate what was in season. But this kind of response doesn't go over well with most Americans.

Since I think about such things more than any person should, I know that it's important to buy local if you can--and that means you only buy what's in season. But what if it's April and you want that salsa you so crave and can't wait until July or August for tomatoes to come into season? That is where the truly green person seperates him or herself from the pretenders. You don't go out and buy tomatoes imported from the other hemisphere; rather, you think ahead and freeze the food now you might crave later.

In the book Food to Live By: The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook, readers get a taste of not only some great recipes geared toward the organic-minded person, but you also get some great green tips, like how to freeze the food you love. Here is an example of the practical nature of this wonderful cookbook.

Freezing Farm-Fresh Berries
Sometimes too much of a good thing is great! If you have more berries than you can eat, freeze them. Frozen raspberries, strawberries or blueberries are wonderful for making smoothies, baked goods, or ice cream year round. To freeze your own berries, spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet lined with paper towels, and place them in the freezer. When the berries are frozen solid, transfer them to a freezer bag or airtight container. The berries will remain loose instead of freezing into a solid mass, so you can scoop out just the amount you need.

When Should You Buy Organic?

jchatraw — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:21:43 -0400

Sometimes when I go to the grocery store, I think my head's going to explode. In those rare moments when my toddler daughter isn't ripping food off the shelves, I try to figure out what is the best purchase to make--organic apples from Chile or locally grown apples from neighboring Washington? It just serves to remind me how much I wish I could be the toddler three feet off the ground running care free through the grocery store again.

Just when I think I'm the only person thinking about such things, I stumble across Cindy Burke's book To Buy or Not to Buy Organic: What You Need to Know to Choose the Healthiest, Safest, Most Earth-Friendly Food. Perfect.

Here's how Burke helps us look at all the facets of this topic:

There you stand in the produce aisle of your local grocery. In one hand you're holding a bag of conventionally farmed red grapes. In the other hand you have a bag of organically grown red grapes. Both look firm and juicy, and both provide vitamins and nutrition. The organic grapes cost more, possibly twice as much. And the organic grapes have a sticker that says "Certified Organic" or "USDA Organic." Which grapes should you buy?

The choice you ultimately make may depend on the price difference. It might be determined by who's going to eat the grapes—you, your child, or your co-workers. You might pull off a grape from each bunch and see which one tastes better. Maybe that would be the easiest way to make your decision.

Now let's assume the organic grapes come from Argentina, and the nonorganic grapes are grown within one hundred miles of your home. Is it more important to support local growers and your local economy, and thus reduce the amount of fuel used to transport your groceries? Or is it more beneficial to buy organic no matter where the food was grown and how much fossil fuel was needed to get it into your grocery cart? Which grapes do you buy now?

That is the dilemma that is presently rocking the organics market. Organic doesn't mean local. Organic doesn't mean that any less fossil fuel is consumed to bring a product to market. Organic used to imply that your food was grown on a small family farm, but that is no longer true, either. And food can be both "local" and "organic" without being "sustainable."

How Green Do You Cook?

jchatraw — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:00:00 -0400

The day I decided to propose to my wife was the day I also realized one of my guilty pleasures was going to die a painful death--and a swift one, at that. Marrying a woman in pursuit of her PhD in nutrition is not exactly the way to further your secret fast-food habit. While at one point in my life, Ronald, King and Wendy sounded like great names for my future kids, I have my wife to thank for adding years to my life and stopping my bad habits.

However, there's still something to be said for tasty food--and my wife and I are in agreement on that quest. Almost six years into our marriage, I admit I still eat fast food on a rare occasion, but the bulk of the food I consume is healthy and oftentimes organic.

At the end of the day, not many people are still going to eat nasty-tasting food even if it's good for you. That's where Heidi Swanson and her book Super Natural Cooking: Five Ways to Incorporate Whole and Natural Ingredients into Your Cooking arrives like your white knight on her majesty's steed. Here is one of Swanson's tips on choosing healthy flour and how to keep its flavors intact.

"The natural oils in whole-grain flours can go rancid quickly at room temperature, so purchase them from a store with high turnover. Refrigerate or free these flours as soon as you get home, or at least store them in a cool, dark place. In the refrigerator or freezer, store them in an airtight container so they don't pick up flavors from other foods and moisture. Flours that are bought in smaller amounts, for example from the bulk/bin section, can be refrigerated in wide-mouthed Mason jars. Flours that come in larger, multi-pound bags I normally seal in a large, reusable plastic freezer bag. Also, look for stone-milled flours, which are ground slowly; this method doesn't generate the nutrite-compromising heat that occurs in other milling methods like hammer milling and roller milling."

Sustainable Food Swapping

ckane — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Here's a green idea that's like an updated version of the consciousness-raising women's lib groups of the 70s (or a little reminiscent of spouse-swapping key parties, except much healthier for the couples involved). A group in Woodstock, Oregon calling themselves the Green Team first banded together to clean up local bus stops. Their next act, back in September, was a sustainable potluck supper, with the goal of promoting the 3Rs and to get spouses to join the team. Dishes had to be prepared with locally-grown ingredients, and the bearer of each dish explained how each stage of the preparation was green, considering aspects like the transportation of prepared and refrigerated foods. Four couples came, and the next dinner brought five couples. Now the group gets together for sustainable potlucks monthly.

Conversation flowed naturally, since they already had the shared interests of green living, and some of the discussions over locally-sourced dinners have included:"solar energy, IKEA packaging, recycling in Holland (where Dan and Ann Steigerwald had lived for many years), the possibility of recycling styrofoam with orange extract, ways to store food without using harmful plastics, and – the ultimate recycling – organ donation."

Image: The Bee

Deep Truth

jchatraw — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:15:34 -0400

Upon recently hearing Bill McKibben give a talk about some of the concepts behind Deep Economy, it reminded me again why I love his writing so much. Reading Deep Economy is like sitting around the kitchen table at Grandma's while she splashes spices and flavors into her stew pot as effortlessly as she recalls a great story about growing up in rural America--the combination of which will undoubtedly result in a delicious and memorable meal.

McKibben also makes you think about the way you're living--and dares you to change. It's definitely a leafy green read that should be read by the skeptics more so than the choir.

Here's a green nugget from his book, now out in the more economical paperback edition:

Jack and Anne Lazor bought Butterworks Farm in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom in the midseventies, after a stint of working at Old Sturbridge Farm in Massachusetts. There they dressed in colonial costumes and milked cows by hand and talked to the tourists. But, as they eventually figured out, they weren't actors; they were real farmers. Slowly they've developed one of the state's premier dairies: their organic yogurt is nearly a million-dollar business, expanding steadily year after year ... It's great fun to sit in their kitchen eating bacon and eggs while Anne mixes up some salve for the teats of her cows and the Lazors describe their life. The talk's a mix of technical detail ... and rural philosophy. "We have such a 'take' mentality," Jack says. "It's part of our psyche, because we came to this verdant land as Europeans and were able to exploit it for so long."

But here the exploitation feels more like collaboration. We stroll over to his solar barn, where the forty cows in the herd loiter patiently, mulling over the events of the day. "That's Morel, that's Phooey, that's Vetch, that's Clove, that's Jewel ..." The vet wanders in, to report that he's figured out what's wrong with Emily: milk fever, easily treated. ... It's very clam in here, no sound but cud being chewed, and it's warm out of the late-winter wind. Jack, who's a talker, is explaining how Vermont could market itself as "the natural state," and how he's hoping to market masa harina for making tortillas next year, and so forth. I'm sort of listening, and mostly just absorbing the sheer pleasure of the scene—that this place works, that I've been connected to it all winter long, that it will be here, with any luck, for the rest of my life.

Love Stings -- But My Eco-Man Is in Control

salbert — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Dave and I got back to my place and I realized that I needed to eat something other than GORP. He made me lay down on the couch and he made me an omelet. Thank God I had organic eggs in the fridge!

I also ‘organi-sized’ my fridge just in case this exact thing happened. Well, maybe not the fainting part and the dire humiliation… I could’ve done without that.

But hot Architect Dave in the kitchen? Fantastic. Organicfoodcart.com is a website that has everything organic available for delivery. They deliver it all, from King Crab Legs to fresh fruit and even herbs and spices!

“All this and you cook too? I should faint more often”. I ate those eggs like I haven’t seen food in days. On my couch I find myself falling asleep when I hear a faint buzzing sound…

“What’s that?” I ask to no one in particular. Then I look up to see Dave fighting a wasps nest. I thought I was dreaming, or rather having a nightmare, but it was real. I mean, if this guy was vying for “hero” position, it’s his, hands down.

Wasps? I thought they only ate crustless cucumber sandwiches and played golf with a martini in their hands?

“I’ll be right back,” he says. “Don’t worry about anything. I don’t want them attacking you or the dog.”

“Ok”, is all I can manage to get out of my mouth. I think I’m still in shock. Shock and awe, that is.

I can’t believe this guy. I fainted on him, obviously got caught in my ‘I hike all the time’ lie and not only does he take care of me, but then is going to kill my hornets. I didn’t even know I had a hornet’s nest.

Just the fact he was looking out for my dog makes my heart swell with, dare I say it, strong, strong like?

I fall asleep and Dave wakes me up with this glass vase like container.
“This is how we’re going to stop your Wasps, “ he says.

Now, call me non-green but where are the chemicals and spray guns? How is a vase going to get rid of these nasty little beasts?

Dave tells me that this sturdy, colored glass trap will take a bite out of my wasp problem. Simply add the included lure, a bit of water, and replace the stopper. Hang or place in an area with high wasp concentrations. Wasps fly upthrough the bottom hole, become trapped, and drown in the water. After two weeks, replace the lure, or just add sweet liquid (lemonade works).

A girl could get used to this.

Hey--did you miss the beginning of RiverWired's new Green Reality Series: Girls Gone Green? Come on, catch up. Check out Shari’s previous posts here.