Green Eggs.

Yeah, that’s right, no ham. Don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world (well, seeing that it’s 2012, I may have to revoke that statement). Anyhow, back to the eggs. It seems like everyone is blogging about chickens, so I might as well add my two cents worth.

one egg, two egg, green egg, blue egg (and one brown egg)

This fall my family joined a chicken co-op at the Cook’s Memorial Presbyterian Church, which also has a community garden. There are around 15 chickens and one rooster, Omelet. We visit once every two weeks to take care of the chickens and collect eggs. On average, we get eight eggs per visit, but other people have written in the log book that they got 10 or 15 eggs in one go.

the girls

the coop setup

Omelet

more eggs

Co-ops are really good because you can dip your toes in the water to see if you like it before taking the plunge. You can get experience and make mistakes without making a huge investment in time and money. And you get awesome eggs. Ahh, the eggs. They’re gorgeous. All different colors (natural Easter eggs!), with vibrant orange yolks. And they taste so…eggy. It’s an all around good deal.

An article about urban chicken farming: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/03/20/3112784/with-a-desire-to-eat-healthier.html

April 1, 2012

Dear beloved followers,

On this past Sunday, the first of April in the year Two Thousand and Twelve, I have decided-after much careful consideration-that I am going to accept a position as fry cook at the local McDonald’s. I will also begin eating meat, but only after making sure it has come from  a CAFO and has been fed on only corn, medicine, and the remains of its fellow animals. Once I have turned 16, and have procured sufficient funds, I will purchase a Hummer, and will use it as my only mode of transportation.

Sincerely,

Ivy Zerkle, fry cook

Just kidding. It was April Fools’ Day after all, and I just couldn’t resist.

I apologize for my long absence from the blogosphere. Midterms and the state HOSA competition conspired against my blogging attempts. But now that Spring Break has begun, I am free to continue blogging.

I’ll pick up where I left off, in the middle of my All Local week. On Sunday, March 25, 2012, I adapted a recipe for Farro soup from Super Natural Every Day to fit the ingredients I had on hand: Farro, sweet potatoes, field peas, kale, and spring onions. Leftovers from that dinner provided several lunches and dinner for the next two days. On Wednesday, we had cornbread and a potatoes and greens dish from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.

And that was it. I was done. Off to the land of fast food and convention centers, which provided a pretty stark contrast. I pretty much take fresh produce and home-cooked meals for granted, because I’ve always had them. So, when I have to eat fast-food for three days, it gives me quite the perspective change. My goal for this blog was (and still is) to prove that eating locally is an accessible option. I don’t know how well I have accomplished this goal, you tell me. Hopefully, I will become more adept at being a local food resource as this blog continues. If not, then I guess I can feign ignorance and continue spouting my opinions and experiences onto the internet.

But back to the point. My Local Food week went by without incident. I did not starve (as some thought I might). And the abundance of good, local food made the challenge of resisting off limit food a non-issue (with the exception of tea at a friend’s house, but we can ignore that).

Hershey, Pennsylvania

Ivy Zerkle, professional people watcher, stood quietly at the farm stand, carefully looking over the array of arugula and surreptitiously eavesdropping on the conversation at the register. She had found a prime example of the extraordinary sense of community that happens at farmers’ markets and wasn’t about to give it up. A customer and Sam, the owner of New Town farms, had just discovered that they were from the same small town near Hershey, Pennsylvania and that their grandmothers had lived only a street apart. This kind of connection is unique to farmers’ markets, and is one of the greatest benefits of local food (in addition to keeping money in the community and reducing environmental impact).

While enjoying the conversations at Matthews Community Farmers’ Market, I also purchased arugula, spring onions, dried tomatoes, and carrots.

After returning from the market, I decided it was epic omelet time. Here’s how it breaks down: 3 eggs + spring onions + fresh asparagus + arugula + goat cheese = awesome.

It’s amazing what one can accomplish when one wakes up at 8 am (as opposed to noon, normal weekend wakeup time). In addition to the farmers’ market, epic omelet, pb&j, and longboarding, I made mexican food for dinner-including the tortillas. It was actually quite simple, just a bit time-consuming. A quick google search led me to this tortilla recipe. Instead of beans, I used Anson Mills’ red field peas, which I soaked overnight and cooked for about 20 minutes with water and a pinch of salt. Texas Red salsa from Pickleville and cheddar cheese from Ashe County Cheese completed the meal.

A note: Friday was day 2. Not particularly eventful as far as foodstuffs goes. Eggs and toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, leftovers for dinner.

Success! Day 1…complete.

I think my mother is plotting against me. Yesterday, I came home from school to find that she had been to the grocery store (read: there were all manner of delicious cereals, fruits, yogurt and other similarly yummy but definitely non-local foods). While I understand the need to buy lots of food for  a family with two teenagers, it seems a little cruel to do it on the first day that I can’t eat any of it.

Other than that, Day 1 was a success. I had Anson Mills oatmeal with dried apples,  honey, and pecans for breakfast. Very good, but I put too much salt in the water when I was cooking it (not only is this my first all-local week, but one of my first experiences cooking almost all of my meals).

For lunch I had basic pb&j using homemade bread, Imladris farms jam (I could eat this stuff straight), and the aforementioned ‘regional’ Bertie farms peanut butter. I also had an apple. Yay.

Dinner was a downhill battle, since half the day was over and I had gotten used to resisting the urge of processed foodstuffs. I modified this recipe to suit the ingredients I had on hand: mushroom linguine from Pasta Wench, broccoli, and roasted pecans. We substituted local peanut oil for the olive oil, and I left off the parmesan (because cheddar probably wouldn’t have worked). To put it simply, it was amazingly delicious in every way and it was easy to make and I had enough left over for lunch today.

This is the generic recipe image, not my result.

Dear Spring…

I am glad that you are now officially here, after arriving two months early. Although the warm weather and rain are much appreciated, they have made my baby turnips bolt. I am not pleased. Not. Pleased.

Regards,

Ivy

This is not to say, however, that all the plants in our garden have decided to flower. In fact, most are doing quite well and are big enough for me to eat this week. For example, the asparagus…

We have had fresh asparagus with almost every dinner for the past week.

Several pounds of broccoli and collard greens have turned the refrigerator into a jungle. And what with the beds of overwintered kale and spinach, I should have no worries about getting my daily value of Vitamins A, C, and K (1 cup of kale has 1328% of the daily value of Vitamin K!). Also in the garden are radishes and a variety of herbs. We still have dried garlic and hot peppers from last year. The one thing we are out of, and that I neglected to get at Atherton, is onions. The onions in the ground now are still too small to harvest, but there is an abundance of wild onions in the rest of the yard, and I would only need a few to get the same flavor…hmm…

Off to the Market…

…to buy a fat pig. Home again, home again, jiggety jig. Well, I didn’t buy a fat pig but I did go to the market. Yesterday I took a trip to Atherton Mill Market to stock up for my upcoming “Local Week.” I was successful in my search for edibles and managed to make it home without any of the dairy spoiling in the 80 (!) degree weather.

At the entrance of the Market, Microfarm had a stall set up with an awesome backyard chicken coop beside it. We have wanted to get chickens for a while and even joined a chicken co-op (more about that later) to get some experience. Our major concerns are space and our dog, Buster, who enjoys ‘playing’ with the chipmunks, squirrels, and birds a little too much for our liking.

Inside, the abundance of fresh, green things (not to mention all the green clothing-Happy Late St. Patrick’s Day!) overwhelmed me. Never the less, I found foodstuffs to sustain me. I got pecans (locally grown and roasted) from Chosen Roaster. The samples were sweet and still warm from the roaster, which was new to me. Then I took a trip to Pickleville, where, surprisingly enough, I didn’t get pickles. My mother got pickles-she’s the only one in the family who likes them, but more for her-and I got Texas Red salsa. At Coldwater Creek Farms, I purchased some yams (I yam what I yam and that’s all that I yam), and commiserated over Duke’s embarrassing loss with the guy running the stand. Then I headed over to Simply Local, which gathers local products from across the state and sells them at Atherton Market (grocery store inception!). While there, I got both fresh and dried apples from Perry Lowe Orchards; peanut oil from A2A Living Oil; goat cheese from Bosky Acres; cheddar from Ashe County Cheese; butter and skim milk from Homeland Creamery; and, finally, some potatoes. All of these items, in addition to the produce we get from our garden, should give me many options for delicious meals  in the coming week.

Where’s the Beef?

Let’s talk about meat. By now I am pretty sure most of the world connected to the internet has heard of the “pink slime” scandal. Pink slime is a byproduct of meat processing that usually gets thrown away or put in animal food. Factories make pink slime out of all the scraps: tendons, trimmings, stomach linings, and otherwise unusable bits. Pink slime is used as a ground beef filler and is thought to be in at least 70% of all ground beef. The USDA (against the warnings of its own scientists) approves the use of pink slime in school food, even though it is treated with ammonia to kill E. coli and Salmonella. I repeat, pink slime is being put into school lunches, this stuff is being fed to America’s kids and my peers and the USDA isn’t doing anything about it. Even McDonald’s, Burger King, and Taco Bell -companies not exactly known for healthy food- refuse to use this byproduct in their recipes.

The centrifuge-separated and ammonia-treated meat processing byproduct.

This is gross and just plain wrong. Also, the USDA doesn’t require packaged meat to have any indication of its filler content, so it can be very difficult for customers to tell what they are getting.

Now, I am a vegetarian, so meat in general is pretty unappetizing to me. But for those who like meat, there are plenty of farms that provide healthy, pink slime free meat. Not only that, but their animals are raised in great conditions and lead happy lives. Some good sources in the Charlotte area are Grateful Growers (check out the pictures of their piggies!) and Baucom’s Best (100% grassfed beef). Both of these farms sell their products at the Matthews Community Farmers’ Market, which also has fresh produce and other handmade goods.

Another helpful resource is a link to a Change.org petition. This petition letter asks USDA Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to ban the use of pink slime in school food. You can add your name to the petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-usda-to-stop-using-pink-slime-in-school-food.