The LAST Challenge
While the First Lady of the United States was applying for a new fresh market near the White House, and her husband was being heckled by southern congressmen bent on obstructing health care for millions, tens of astroturfing teabaggers descended on a remote corner of the Washington Mall. Thank goodness for local food!
The Week in Locavoria - Sept. 14, 2009
Michele Obama has finally got her farmer's market! The new FRESHFARM Market will showcase local foods from all around the DC area - Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, even Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The market also aims to be financially progressive, making purchases available with food stamps and other means.
FRESHFARM Markets' new producer-only farmer's market
According to a PR Newswire press release
This is the culmination of a long journey for FRESHFARM Markets, which has brought farmers into the center of Washington, DC, where policy is made. Today farmers are right where they should be, at the center of the debate about how America eats now and what choices we will make in the future for ourselves and our children
HobbyFarms.com has just announced a new magazine called Urban Farm. The magazine's stated mission is "to promote the benefits of self sustainability and to provide the tools with which to do it on any size property." Wowza! I can't seem to find them at my local bookstore yet, but you can already follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
The New York Times just came out with a very interesting op-ed on the connection between health care reform and local foods. More specifically, the disconnect between trying to reform health care and trying to make people healthier. The problem lies in the way that government has subsidized cheap, crappy food for the past several decades, making Americans fatter and sicker, and in the process taxing our health care system.
The Atlantic writes about the enormity of year-round tomatoes. A long time ago, people used to eat foods that were in season. In the winter you had canned tomatoes, if you were lucky. No more. Americans have a spoiled expectations for all foods all of the time, but this comes at a great cost: environmental, economic and social. The workers on Florida farms labor under conditions that are literally slavery, not to mention the environmental costs of shipping produce such great distances. Gourmet Magazine has also published a disturbing exposé on the Florida tomato crop.
On a brighter note, Huffington Post is covering the Pro-Foods movement. Rob Smart, credited with coining the phrase lays out a manifesto of seven basic principles:
- Inclusive
- Pro Farm
- Pro Consumer
- Pro Cooking
- Pro Eating
- Community-Oriented
- Entrepreneurial
The LAST Challenge
Challenges seem to be something of a fashion among food bloggers. Crunchy Chicken has the buy nothing challenge (and a host of others), and Sustainable Eats is all about a local/sustainable challenge. Since a byline of Vori.Us is Local, Affordable, Sustainable, and Tasty (LAST for short), I'm thinking about declaring a challenge of my own. I'm still turning the idea over in my head, but the question I'll leave you with is how can you become more pro food by applying the LAST principles:
- Local
- Affordable
- Sustainable
- Tasty
What do you think? Til next week!
Recipe of the Week - Pear Bread 2.0
This is one darn recipe I just can't seem to get right. But with a pear tree in the back yard dropping fruit like crazy, and two big dogs stealing almost every bit of it, here I am again with version 2.0 of my not-so-famous recipe. Enjoy!
2 cups pear sauce
3/4 cups cane sugar
1/2 cup drawn butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
dash nutmeg
1 cup toasted walnuts
To make the pear sauce, peel, core and finely chop about 4 cups of pears, the riper the better. Put them in a food processor and blend thoroughly. You can have a few small lumps, but not too many because they don't really cook.
Mix the sauce with the sugar, vanilla and egg, and slowly mix in the butter, making sure to go slowly and not to turn the egg into scrambled egg :)
Mix together the remaining ingredients with the flour and fold into the pear mixture about a half cup at a time.
Pour into a buttered 4" x 8" bread pan and bake at 325 for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Serves best lightly toasted with butter!
Posted by LocaVori on September 14, 2009 at 4:43 p.m..
