before the drive.

i really thought i was going to eat like a crazy carnivore before i left new york: hot dogs and sushi and sausage pizza and god knows what else. but i didn't. my friends did surprise me with a dinner at walter foods and i got so emotionally tangled and confused that i ordered (and ate!) fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy. but that was an anomaly. an oddly delicious anomaly. i also thought i would eat doughnuts at the doughnut plant and that ludo would force me to try the bbq at fette sau, but those events never happened.

mostly, i tried to eat everything from the csa. and then some. mostly sandwiches.

courtney and i did do a trip to sri pra phai, where we ate pretty much everything vegetarian on the menu. it was a true feast that i did not photograph because we were so excited and ate it all. but it did begin with the orangiest and tastiest thai iced tea ever.and, just for sentimentality, the last meal i made in the apartment. a sandwich made with the end of the baguette, toasted with cheddar cheese, and probably tomatoes. a sliced kirby cucumber (my fave). leftover brown rice sauteed with onions and green beans. and an iced coffee, from somewhere in da hood.
not pictured: food and cocktails at lucali's, the brooklyn farmacy (which might get its own post), flatbush farm, henry public, cafe pedlar, egg. i really did eat my way out of town.

brooklyn is really going to be hard to top: all that local, organic goodness. sigh.

and then, a million things happened.

• i said it; NPR confirms it: the macaron is set to surpass the cupcake in popularity. it's the next fashionable dessert. america, do not ruin this pastry.
  
• if we wanted, we could make it so that the animals don't feel pain when they are killed. apparently, this will make the humans feel less bad about factory farming. wait. what? and why must we factory farm? nytimes op/ed here.
• i plan for my government class to participate in this contest, sponsored by GOOD. they seem to think that taking the junk food out of school cafeterias is like taking away one's civil rights. we know that kids eat better when the options are better.
• "The Bulgarian Parliamentary Committee on the Environment has agreed that GMOs will not be allowed within 7 kms of organic farmland, and 10 kms away from permanent, registered beehive clusters. They also adopted a five-year ban on the cultivation of GMOs for commercial and scientific research in the field." way to go, bulgaria. rock it. full article here.
• new, REAL rules for organic dairy. such an improvement. says the nytimes, "The new regulations, which go into effect in June, are much more specific. They say that animals must graze on pasture for the full length of the local grazing season. The season will be determined by local conditions and agriculture authorities, like organic certifiers or county conservation officials, not by the dairy alone. While the grazing season must last at least 120 days, in many areas it will be much longer. The rules also say that animals must get at least 30 percent of their food from pasture during the grazing season." yes.
• some of my students are reading my twitter. and maybe this blog. oh god. maybe they will learn something from me in some format. even an unconventional one.
  
• manhattan borough president scott stringer continues to amaze me. you can read his "blueprint for a sustainable food system" here. marty markowitz, what are YOU doing to change the way we eat? at least for the kids?
  

teener beener

it's tina's birthday. i hope that her breakfast is as good as mine.

the blackberries were purchased at the natural food store for $1. i am unsure as to where they came from, how they could be so cheap, what kind of farming methods were used. it can't be right. it was a moment of weakness; i couldn't help myself.

and the avocado is organic, but can't be local. there was no sticker, but everything in the other, bigger natural food store is organic. for real.

everything else came from the farmers' market. caraway rye toast with ronnybrook basil-laden cheese and a fried egg. a delight.

and! just like i am attempting in my advanced economics class, the kids at the automotive high school in williamsburg are taking a class in slow food: learning its origins, about farming and gardening, subsidies, and industrialization. i wish i could get my principal to implement a class like this one. every kid should learn this stuff. i have to sneak it into the curriculum. such a renegade.

and, happy birthday, tina. you are pretty awesome.

i feel bad about the beans.

i feel a lot of pressure to use dried beans. it might be because they have less salt. and because that is the old-fashioned way of doing things. i am a fan of pickling my own pickles and making my own salad dressing and spaghetti sauces, and i guess it seems like cooking my own beans would be on that list as well.

but i hate it. i hate that i have to soak them, and then cook them. so much time involved. and it takes forever, and i have to make a concerted effort to remember to use them immediately. poo. the soft beans are the best, in my opinion. they only seem to get that way when they are canned.

and other people who cook use the dried varieties, and i feel like an idiot if i want the canned ones.

well, i do. and mark bittman sort of does too. this week, he wrote about "rethinking" the canned beans. he also struggles with the dried ones, but not in the same way. personally, i think he likes the canned ones even more than he has admitted. (i bet he is a secret canned bean eater.)

so there. i am going to stop overthinking the beans. the canned beans i buy are organic. and it's chickpeas and black beans. it's not a hamburger helper pizza burger.

got me looking so crazy right now.

well well well

we knew it would happen. i went to see food, inc. i mean, isn't that obvious?

it's terrifying. not like the end of food, which i had to read fast because the anxiety it produced was overwhelming. but i wanted to throw up. everything that i have been writing and talking about for years was put onto a movie screen with accompanying visuals of feedlots and dead chickens and iowa. and veggie libel. it's scary out there. (and then, there are things like this image that frighten me, but i cannot truly explain why.)

people, you should watch it. it's so important. it's like all of those books i read all in one place. and here i am, being so self-righteous, writing about high fructose corn syrup and seeds and organic produce like i am some sort of scientist. i do not mean to be insane. mostly, i want to eat food. i know you do too. and it's not the shelf.

food, inc. reminds me that i am not alone in my desire. or neuroses.

imagine.

imagine you are low on cash, but you want to eat well. organic, even. but when can you make that choice to buy conventional goods? are some foods better when they are organic? are some better for you?

the answer is yes.

if you can't have it all, but want organic something: lettuce, bell peppers, carrots, peaches, strawberries, nectarines, spinach, celery, cherries, apples, potatoes.
if you want buy conventional foods and feel ok about it: mangoes, kiwi, broccoli, onion, cabbage, asparagus, eggplant, pineapple, avocado.

think about the skin. the vegetables with the thicker skin are less likely to penetrated by pesticides, which are obviously not for eating.

look.

i have a variety of emotions about this graphic.

safety and definitions.

let's define organic. in terms of food production. the short version? because it's complicated.

lacking in synthetic substances. no fertilizers or hormones.

the us department of agriculture has rules. a person can't just label anything it wants to be organic. and no one said organic would taste better, or keep you from getting sick, or save the world. it's just that there are plenty of us who do not want to eat too much pesticide. so, there are specifications.

in the nytimes dining section this week, there was an article about people making a decision not to buy organic food anymore because of the recent salmonella outbreak. one has nothing to do with the other. i have been thinking about this article for days and it just makes me mad. organic food can become contaminated in the same ways that conventional food can become contaminated. the organic label is about its creation and treatment.

read the article, and then disregard it. people are lacking intelligence. and any kind of analytical skills. that's why the economy is a bust.

it's like people have chosen NOT to look both ways before crossing the street.

a shout out

organic valley has coupons on its website!! the cost of milk is way up, and organic milk is even costlier. i am sure you've already noticed this increase, but, well, at least there are coupons... and for butter and cheese, too.

organic wins.

by the way, if you think that the organic produce is just the same as the conventional, that it is too expensive, that you can't afford it, i totally get you. BUT, you have to eat the organic romaine lettuce. i know, it sounds weird, like how would it matter, anyways? it does. it's so good and spicy that i keep asking the brother to bring it home from his organic-friendly-work neighborhood (that's soho, kids).

and, a savvy friend sent me this list.
if you are wondering which organic produce makes the most sense, you can consult the list. if you think you can't afford every item organic, then this is the list for you.

what's the point?

so i initially started this blog to talk about food, a minor obsession of mine (some would say major obsession; my students from last semester would say it's all corn, all the time). i've been writing a lot about cooking, not really food politics. and now that i've been baking for the housing works for a while now, i've noticed some things.

• i don't get paid enough to make everything organically. the organization hasn't asked me to make everything using organic products, but i really want to do so. isn't that what we should be eating?
• eggs that are NOT free-range or organic or from pasture-fed chickens come in styrofoam packages. if i chose any or all of those options, i would be losing money on the goods i make just from the eggs alone. the "regular" brown eggs come a recyclable container. why not the others? and why are the brown eggs 30 cents more? is it the container? i spend extra so that the container is recyclable but the dilemma in the egg case at the store is maddening. am i the only one who over-thinks this issue?
  
• milk is another story. i buy organic valley milk. it's so good, and i don't even especially like milk. it's seemingly obscenely expensive, but the gross sorta-pasteurized regular kind doesn't last. i never even finish the carton, and buying the small bottles makes it almost as expensive as buying the organic ones. no one wants bovine growth hormone and utter pus in their milk. anyhow, i love organic valley. their soy products and their dairy products are outstanding (i wrote them a letter last year to tell them so, and they even wrote back); they are a farmer-owned coop; their farming methods are so sustainable that they won an award for them. they really have all the characteristics that i want in a company. and a milk product. i guess that one is non-negotiable for me.
  
• to that end, what's the point? if EVERY product that you put into a cookie is not organic, sustainable, pasture-fed, et cetera, then does it matter? don't you still end up eating things that you don't want in your body? does it matter at all that i over-analyze the dairy case? is it a waste of time? and what about flour? i like the unbleached flour by heckers, but it's rarely on-sale, and therefore, too expensive. does it all have to be enriched flour? can't i just get some grains in a bag? and, is it just insanity that i have two bottles of vanilla extract at home? one for the housing works (mccormick)? and one for us (organic)?
  
• i can't help but read the labels. you have to do so. it's crazy not to, isn't it? there are scary things out there, and they are in the food! (best examples: high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated anything). and what the hell are "natural flavors?" just tell me the flavor; i'll be ok. really, i will.
  

yes, the ignorance was so much easier.