The Week in Locavoria - Aug. 31, 2009
Back in 2004, Chef's Collaborative, Slow Food USA, and the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy formed the RAFT alliance. Raft stands for "Renewing America’s Food Traditions". This year in New England there's a RAFT "grow out", involving a bunch of chefs and farmers who are growing heirloom species from cool outfits like Seed Saver's Exchange. Be sure to check them out!
2009 has been a really hard year for farmers. The east coast is suffering a huge tomato blight and those tomatoes that survive are mealy from the unusually cold nights caused by El Niño. Meanwhile there's really cool news lately on the explosion of women and young farmers! Yea, farmers!
Time magazine took a heroric stand against America's love affair with cheap, crappy foods, and for their effort got smacked down by industry shills. Marion Nestle is all over it.
Michael Pollan sides with Whole Paycheck Foods in the health care debate, and for his efforts gets shot down by Big Ag. No word yet on the state of his immortal soul.
Science and locavoria meet on the pages of the New York Times. Here's to hoping for lots of new non-GMO certified foods at your local stores soon. Speaking of locavoria, looks like it's not just for us vegetarians any more. Mobile slaughterhouses are making it easier for small ranchers to get local meats to customers. I think this is just cool.
Recipe of the Week - Sparkling Nectarine Peachsicles
Ahh, a sunny day, cheap champagne and fresh organic peaches. What could be better? Popsicles, that's what!
3-5 nectarines and/or peaches, organic of course!
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup clover honey
juice of 1 lemon
1 cup sparkling wine
Peel and chop the fruit, then add it to a medium sauce pan along with the nectar, honey and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, set a timer for about 12 minutes and cook, stirring constantly, to a lumpy, syrupy consistency.
Remove from heat for five minutes to cool, then transfer to a food processor and blend for about 60 seconds. It should take on some air and a pleasing, light peach color. Add the sparkling wine and blend for another 30 seconds, then straight into the refrigerator for at least an hour.
To freeze, pour about 1/3 cup per serving into a small container, cover with plastic wrap and pierce with a craft stick. Freeze for 6-8 hrs. (Adapted from Fine Cooking.)
Posted by LocaVori on August 31, 2009 at 4:45 p.m..
3 comments so far
On September 1, 2009, joe said:
so, about those popsicles .. I'm having trouble getting them to set up properly - I'll keep working on it!
On September 3, 2009, Sustainable Eats said:
That is interesting about the tomatoes - so glad I put 30 plants in this year! and thanks for the peach recipe. I am picking up 40 pounds from RAMA farms on Sat at the UW Farmer's market. If you haven't tried them yet they make your toes curl...
On September 3, 2009, joe said:
Good luck with the tomatoes! I didn't plant mine til June and the only ones that look promising are the Early Cherry. My volunteers are bigger than the seedlings I started indoors!
