In case you didn't already have enough to worry about, a recent article by the Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology asserts that today's vegetables have fewer nutrients than the ones produced 50 years ago. While today's broccoli, tomatoes, and other produce tend to be larger and more beautiful than the puny specimens of the late 1950's, they allegedly contain between 5% and 40% fewer vitamins and minerals.
One reason for this drop is the so-called "dilution effect." Today's veggies, although bigger than in those of the 1950's, contain roughly the same amount of nutrients. Consequently, their vitamins and minerals are combined with a lot more cellulose and carbohydrates, leading to far fewer nutrients per serving. As larger vegetables are selectively bred to maximize size, this dilution effect grows more and more pronounced.
Another cause that some researchers cite is the industrialization of agriculture. Apparently, monoculture and accelerated growing cycles deplete soil nutrients and ensure that produce spends less time absorbing the nutrients that do exist. Ultimately, these practices further dilute the nutrients in produce.
While dilution is endemic to most forms of agriculture, the industrialization effect can be mitigated by organic and local farming. Organics spend more time in the ground and are exposed to more nutrient-rich soil. While this results in lower yields and higher prices, it also produces vegetables that are more nutritious. In other words, while you might not be able to feed your kids the same high-quality Brussels sprouts that grossed out poor Beaver Cleaver, organic produce might just offer a comparable experience!
When I think of Dutch Gouda, the word Boerenkaas comes to mind. Boerenkaas means "farmer's cheese." Several years ago, when I began selling cheeses, I was shocked by the amount of industrial Gouda being sold as artisanal. When purchasing artisanal Gouda, look to see if the cheese is a Boerenkaas. Currently, there is an incredible array of different Boerenkaas cheeses being imported from L'Amuse cheese shop in Santpoort-Noord, Holland.
Many of the Boerenkaas cheeses from L'Amuse have a deliciously crunchy yet milky creamy texture with well distributed crystals. The paste color is a deep yellowish-brown, and its aroma has notes of hazelnut and caramel with some meaty and cellar notes. Depending on the type, it can have a particularly long finish with hints of caramel. Formaggio Kitchen sells several Boerenkaas cheeses that are worth trying.
I highly recommend the Boerenkaas Veenweidekaas (pictured above). This one comes from a four hundred year old farm built on a dike in Zoeterwoude. Lidia and Theo van Leeuwen ripen their cheese more slowly by adding less salt. This ripening process allows the cheese to develop incredibly rich pronounced tastes. Like many French cheeses produced under AOC regulations, Veenweidekaas must also be produced according to certain regulations. They require sustainable production in consideration of the land and the wildlife that share the farmland. After the jump, find out various ways to eat Boerenkaas cheeses.
If I was ever going to envision the perfect cereal website, it would probably come pretty close to Me and Goji. In a clear, easy-to understand manner, the site allows users to design their own cereals, using a wide-ranging collection of flakes, nuts, fruits, and flavors. As customers add and subtract from their "bowl," the sidebar keeps track of the price and nutritional info of their concoction. Information about the origins and composition of ingredients is available at the click of a mouse, as are recommendations and advice. Having designed the perfect cereal, customers can name it, save the recipe, and order capsules of it. Delivery is quick and easy, and the saved recipe makes re-ordering a snap.
For my cereal, I used Goji's artisanal cereal, a robust mix of grains that stood up nicely to milk. Keeping it simple, I added dried goji berries, cashews, and coconut, which resulted in a delicately-flavored cereal with a nicely varied texture. I also tried Me and Goji's seasonal blend, a mix of their "flaxed and flaked" cereal with goji berries, cranberries, apple, golden raisins, pumpkin seeds, and cinnamon. While their mix was much more interesting than mine, I found the massive quantity of dried fruit to be a little too chewy for my tastes, and the flaxed and flaked cereal quickly grew soggy. In future experiments, I will probably go with other cereal bases, as I'm a big fan of sturdy flakes.
King Corn filmmaker Curt Ellis announced on Civil Eats on Monday that his resolution for 2009 is to give up factory raised meats and only consume "animal products from humane, sustainable family farms." He's doing this because of the inherent issues of health and humanity having to do with confinement-raised meats. This is a fairly simple, if expensive, goal if he were only eating at home. However, it becomes far more challenging when he adds restaurant eating in the equation.
In order to handle the protein issue at restaurants, Ellis is printing up cards impressed with the message you see above. He will leave it by his plate, in the hopes that he will be able to inspire some restaurants to consider the quality of the meat they serve.
For as long as I can remember, it's been conventional wisdom that honey is a more healthful source of sweetness than table sugar (I used it in place of brown sugar last night in a batch of rice pudding, in an attempt to make it more virtuous). It is said to have antibiotic properties and has even been found to just as effect in suppressing a cough as over-the-counter medication. However, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has recently done a special investigation into the world of honey production and importation and has found that honey, at the least the stuff produced on a large scale, has a seedy underbelly.
Here's some of what the Seattle P-I has found in their honey investigation:
It's impossible to tell via laboratory testing where honey comes from, and so while much of the honey on store shelves is labeled, that information is unverifiable and thus suspect.
There really isn't anything that special about this following list of recipes for vodka cocktails, other than the eco-inspired names and the fact that they are made with 360 Vodka, a brand new, environmentally friendly premium vodka. 360 Vodka is made entirely from American grain and bottled using 85% recycled glass and biodegradable packaging. The manufacturer, McCormick, is setting aside $1 for every 360 Vodka bottle closure returned through its unique "360 Close the Loop" program that will allow it to support recognized environmental organizations. Recipes for Green Princess, Green-tini, Enviromintz, Green House Gas, and Eco-tini after the jump:
I am still working my way through Barbara Kingsolver's latest book (written along with her husband and older daughter) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It's about her family's year of eating only locally grown and produced foods, most of which they grew or raised themselves on their land in Virginia. They experienced both struggles and joys in the process and learned a great deal about their local food supply chain. Their approach isn't for everyone. They were more prepared than most folks to take on a year of local eating. They had the space, a friendly growing climate and the time to do a lot of the work themselves. But being that issues of food and the distance it travels to get to our plates are on on the minds of many right now, Kingsolver's book is helpful in exploring ways to reduce your own carbon food-print.
If you're interested in the book, but want to get a taste before committing yourself to reading it, you should check out the July 19th edition of "Speaking of Faith," a weekly radio show from American Public Media. Kingsolver spoke with host Krista Tippett about the Ethics of Eating, delving into her family's experience, the process of growing much of what she eats and how she sees this country taking many positives steps towards local eating.
I grew up in a family that composted organic waste. There was always a container on the counter, either to the right or left of the kitchen sink, that was there for the sole purpose of collecting all compost-worthy bits and scraps. The job of taking the container out to the edge of the backyard (which was all of 50 feet from the house) was often delegated to either my sister or me. Other than the times when the container would slip out of my hands and send me reaching into the black plastic composter to retrieve it, I never minded the chore. I liked the idea that our scraps were getting turned back into usable, nutrient-rich soil.
When I moved to Philly, it took me a long time to get used to chucking my cucumber peels, apple cores and other vegetal material into the trash bin (I still cringe when I make veggie-intensive meals, thinking of all the nice black compost I could be helping create). I've considered getting a worm bin for under my kitchen sink, but my building has a strong prohibition against pets, and I'm not sure that worms would pass muster (and I'm a little concerned about what would happen if they broke loose).
With all this history in mind, you'll know just how envious I was to learn that the Seattle City Council recently passed an ordinance requiring that by 2009 "all single-family homes subscribe to food-waste recycling." They already offer the option of table-scrap recycling, but it isn't compulsory. Oh, that Philadelphia would only take on a similar program (but since we only started having a single-stream curbside recycling program, I'm not holding my breath).
Sometimes I wonder what "better" means when it comes to food and dieting and health.
For example, this article. It says that a ten year study by researchers at the University of California have discovered that organic tomatoes have twice the amount of flavonoids (a kind of antioxidant) than regular tomatoes. They found that the organic variety had 79% more quercetin and 97% more kaempferol. It could be due to the lack of fertilzer.
But even Britain's Food Standards Agency says that while some organic foods have more or different nutrients doesn't mean they are necessarily better. Though, hey, tomatoes are great for you in general.
Whole Foods' plan to merge with Wild Oats Markets has just hit a snag.
The Federal Trade Commission is trying to stop the proposed merger, saying that if the two organic foods giants get together it would lead to higher prices and be bad for consumers. But Whole Foods chairman John P. Mackey says in a statement:
"The F.T.C. has failed to recognize the robust competition in the supermarket industry, which has grown more intense as competitors increase their offerings of natural, organic and fresh products; renovate their stores; and open stores with new banners and formats resembling Whole Foods Market."
Whole Foods had announced in February that they were going to buy Wild Oats Markets for $565 million.
If I had to name some of the biggest trends regarding food and beverage in the new millennium, I'd have to say that coffee (including everything from coffee houses, products, variety, quality, availability, and quantity) and organic products would head the list. Ready-to-drink beverages would be next. It comes as little surprise then that ready-to-drink, organic coffee offerings are sprouting up all over the place.
A reader of ours has discovered one such beverage called Froid (french for "cold", not rhyming with Freud) which is, according to him, "hands-down the best thing to hit the market - ever." Has anyone else tried it? I'd like to hear your opinions as well.
The product itself is available in three flavors; original coffee, French Vanilla, and Iced Chai, and is made with 100% certified organic ingredients and has no artificial or chemical additives.
I'm sure we will continue to see an endless amount of similar products fill our store shelves, since I don't think this trend is going to end anytime soon. Then again - it is organic, it is coffee - do we really want it to stop?
If UK's Soil Association has its way, there might be a ban on organic foods imported into the UK. At the very least, the Soil Association would want those foods that are allowed in the UK to be stripped of their "organic" label.
The concern arises because the organic foods are brought into Britain via carbon-emitting flights. The demand for organic foods is rising much faster than UK farmers' ability to supply it. However, increasing the number of flights into the UK with organic foods from elsewhere means that there will be an increase in greenhouse warming.
We mention organic foods here on Slashfood quite a bit - how can we not when "organic" in the food world is about as trendy as the color yellow in fashion? The problem is, however, thaat like many things that become trendy. eating organic is expensive - it might be better for our bodies and better for the environment, but it's not something that everyone in the US can do.
Rebecca Blood has taken up the challenge of eating all organic on a food stamp budget as allocated by the state of Oregon. She's tracking herself by posting on her blog every day what she makes and eats for a month (obviously, eating organic and doing it on a budget means practically every meal has to be at home). The question for Rebecca wasn't whether she could stay within budget, but whether she would be able to eat well. So far, it looks like she's doing pretty well with things like Spaghetti with Zucchini and Basil (pictured above) and Baked Chilaquiles.
I just mentioned an article over at The Washington Post that had a few basic tips for saving money while trying to eat more healthily, and now I'm looking at similar information over at CBS News that takes it one step further by focusing on organics. As we all know, organic foods can be, and more often than not, are, more expensive than regular foods. Here are a few tips on how to find lower prices:
Shop around, i.e. don't think Whole Foods Market is your only option.
Go to the Farmers' Market, and shop strategically. Going later in the day often results in lower prices.
Yes, y'all, we are making way through some earth-friendly products and ways to live as we near Earth Day, which is next Sunday, April 22. We've already seen Green Chocolate from food blogger Sean Timberlake, using bamboo in the kitchen and on the table, and today, these are just a half-dozen foods that are considered earth-friendly. Yes, as sad as it would seem to think that the foods we eat, which come from the earth, could be bad for the planet, these are a few things that are grown sustainably, or in some way cut down on the impact that transport, packaging, etc. have on the environment.
Edible Indoor Miniature Garden - Instead of using all that energy to go out to the market to buy a salad, grow one on your desk!
The turkey turned out perfectly, but the gravy's a different story. Avoid botching the one recipe that guests pour over their entire Thanksgiving plates with these quick fixes.
In case you didn't already have enough to worry about, a recent article by the Journal of Horticultural Science and Biotechnology asserts that today's vegetables have fewer nutrients than the ones produced 50 years ago. While today's broccoli, tomatoes, and other produce tend to be larger and more beautiful than the puny specimens of the late 1950's, they allegedly contain between 5% and 40% fewer vitamins and minerals.
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If I was ever going to envision the perfect cereal website, it would probably come pretty close to 
Sometimes I wonder what "better" means when it comes to food and dieting and health. 
Whole Foods' plan to merge with Wild Oats Markets has just hit a snag.
If UK's Soil Association has its way, there 
I just mentioned an article over at The Washington Post that had a few basic tips for saving money while trying to eat more healthily, and now I'm looking at similar information over at 
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