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As I write this I think back on the past few days’ efforts to make small daily changes to my eating habits. Believe me, I’m not one to deny myself the things I enjoy; I’m more likely to find something that both satisfies my cravings and that I can feel good about eating. Applying it has actually been much easier than I expected. If I stick to satisfying the senses, I find......read more
A few weeks ago, I was kicking around in Adams Morgan on a Saturday morning. The residue from Snowpocalypse 2010 had finally melted, the sun was shining, and I was feeling fine. I turned the corner onto Columbia Road, and saw a big white delivery truck where a smiling, bearded man was handing happy people boxes of gorgeous produce. “What’s this?†I thought. I meandered over to......read more
If you happen to be making a list of (or song about, coffee table book on…) the world’s filthiest and/or ugliest vegetables, please make sure to include salsify on your list. Would you just look at how ugly these things are?!? But, through the miracle of Photoshop, look how purty I made them. I jest. No Photoshop trickery here, just some peeling, boiling, mashing, mixing,......read more
So, I’m from Louisiana. And though I can’t be certain, I’m fairly sure that we Louisianians, categorically, are not known for eating a lot of beets. The same cannot be said for Russians, for whom beets…… Damn. I was about to say “are like potatoes to us." But that ain’t quite right. Russians heart their potatoes rather......read more
Over at Grist, Bonnie Azab Powell reports that farmers markets are growing like weeds all over the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are 6,132 farmers markets in the United States, a 16% increase from last year and a 214% increase from 2000. California leads the charge with 580 markets, followed by New York, Illinois, and Michigan. However, only one sixth of......read more
It's no secret that young people are psyched on farming these days. Nowhere is that more evident than in rural Oregon, where NYT writer Isolde Rafferty discovered a burgeoning movement of young farmers making a run at small-scale agriculture by doing things the old school way. Shunning the ways of industrial farming, the new generation of ranchers and growers are capitalizing on heightened demand......read more
To most of us, the sustainable food movement is a relatively recent phenomenon. But to chef/author/food activist Alice Waters, it began four decades ago, before "sustainability" was even a word. That's when she opened Chez Panisse, the Berkeley eatery that helped pioneer the now-popular concept of serving local, organic, seasonal food. Over the last forty years, Waters and Chez Panisse have......read more
From biodynamic to dolphin-safe, free range to grass fed, there are enough food labels out there to make your head spin. Any product can slap on a label with an environmental claim, but not all labels are created equal. Audobon Magazine cooked up a nice and simple breakdown of what labels have a leg to stand on, and which aren't much more than pasture-raised B.S. Third-party labels are the most......read more
Michael J. Potter is one of the last little big men left in organic food. More than 40 years ago, Mr. Potter bought into a hippie cafe and “whole earth” grocery here that has since morphed into a major organic foods producer and wholesaler, Eden Foods. But one morning last May, he hopped on his motorcycle and took off across the Plains to challenge what organic food — or as he......read more
After graduating from an urban university and gaining some experience working in the city, Lifen Yang succumbed to the magnetic pull of her rural homeland near Kumming, in China's Yunnan province. Returning home, she applied her business know-how to launching her own restaurant. Sourcing organic produce from her parents' farm, Yang promotes healthy, sustainable food practices in the area. In "The......read more
