Come the Revolution

I’m not just of Irish heritage, I’m of Irish Catholic heritage. Also Italian Catholic heritage. That means that even though I haven’t been a practicing Catholic in over a decade, I still think about Lent. And Lent, as anyone reading will likely not know, started last Wednesday after a night of meat eating for most and debauchery for a few. It continues until after the Easter vigil on April 3rd if you’re anxious to get back to what you’ve given up, or when you wake up on April 4th if you’re like my family (“No, you are not allowed to eat a creme egg. You have to wait until tomorrow!”).

For what would now be considered a traditional Lenten Fast is also a simplified meal plan started and ended with a day of true fasting. What is usually done is to have a small breakfast, a small lunch, and a sensible dinner, with no snacks between. There were at least some years where my father drank only water during Lent.

What I’m encouraging my family and friends to engage this year is not just to eat less food, but also to eat better food. Give up high fructose corn syrup (especially if you’re already giving up soda). Give up canned goods if you can afford to do so. Bake your own bread for the 7 weeks or eat whole wheat. Use the time you spend in the kitchen contemplating history, contemplating simplicity, contemplating the body and soul that you have and are choosing to nurture by filling it with natural foods.

And then after what, at least within my family, will be a ridiculous amount of chocolate and cursing (the two big things they abstain from) on Easter Sunday, this diet, or some semblance thereof, will likely no longer feel like abstention. It might just feel like good, real food.

We received a copy of this book — an original edition, no less — as a gift from friends last week. I found this passage especially lovely:

There is no home like the farm home. And with the incomparable charm of rural home life comes the infinite pleasure of creative effort and the exhilaration of contending with nature and winning bread from the bare ground. There are a constancy and a stability about it all. There is something to build on, something to look forward to in the years to come. [. . . ] Some people in the cities have an idea that farm work is not an “elevating” occupation, but I want to say to you, my friends, with all the earnestness of which I am capable, that agriculture is one of the most dignified employments in which a man can engage.

-Edward Owen Dean, Opportunities in Farming

The federal animal-tracking program NAIS would have been a disaster for small-scale farmers and homesteaders; the grassroots No-NAIS movement turned it into a PR nightmare for the USDA. Last week, Ag Sec’y Tom Vilsack proposed a new, more flexible program. Read on for details.

A NAIS history lesson

Way back in the day, some people at USDA dreamed up NAIS — a National Animal Identification System. While the intention — track disease, protect farms with good practices and hold others accountable– may have been noble, NAIS was the farming equivalent of “using a hatchet where you need a scalpel” (as a certain President might put it). NAIS would have required farmers, homesteaders and even pet owners to register their animals with the government, tag them, track and report their movements (across state borders, not around the farm), and submit yearly paperwork and fees.

The expense of the fees and tagging equipment would have driven many small farmers out of business. Others would have chosen to operate illegally under the radar. Beyond the expense, there was a principle at stake: Small producers were being punished for Big Ag’s bad behavior, and the effect would be to drive what little competition feedlot farms have out of business.

And there’s also that whole government-oversight thing. I bet you can guess how most farmers feel about that.

NAIS first came on the scene in Spring of 2005 and was supposed to be fully implemented by now, but USDA began backing off (thanks to major grassroots opposition) as early as April, 2006. Last week, USDA announced that NAIS is dead in the water, and a new program is slated to take its place.

Animal Disease Traceability Framework

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack proposed a new program to replace NAIS. Here are some basics of the proposal:

• After the Feds work with states to create a minimum standard, the details and administration of the program will be left to individual states. Records will also be owned and maintained at the state, rather than the federal, level.
• Only producers whose animals will be moved in “interstate commerce” will be subject to the new framework. Homesteaders and most small farmers will be exempt, including those selling live animals at local markets.
• Whereas NAIS required the use of expensive and excessive electronic chip identifiers, states will decide what forms of ID are officially required under the new framework. Visual tags and brands will be an acceptable possibility.
• Much of the $120 million already spent on NAIS paid for elements that will be useful under the new framework as well — IT infrastructure, for example, and NAIS electronic tags that have already been implemented under the voluntary program.

You can read more details at USDA’s Animal Disease Traceability site. USDA hopes to issue a proposed rule for the federal minimum requirements next winter, at which time they’ll offer a 90-day comment period. No need to wait until then to make your opinion heard, though — get in touch with your state veterinarian [pdf] to let them know what you think of the new proposed framework.

In college the first big snowfall was when I decided to put my bicycle into hibernation. It’s not that I didn’t want to ride, but having tried to ride the bike across campus (to an indoor, caged location) was a comedic event. The tires just couldn’t cut through the snow and find any asphalt. Besides, I thought, no one else was out on their bicycles anymore.

After college I lived in a city, a real city, where it didn’t snow too much too often and the asphalt held the sun’s warmth for weeks of cloudy weather. Where it was safer, or at least it seemed so, to bike in the winter than to walk. The first time it snowed I realized how safe it was for me to be able to feel the control the tires had through my feet. If I started slipping, I could feel it.

Now I’m in a town that is not particularly bike friendly, where the snow doesn’t disappear the day after it falls. And I’ve decided to stay on the bicycle during the winter. The difference is that here, where the windchill on the way home from work can dip below 0°F, I need to be wearing a facemask and goggles.

There are a few important things to remember about winter biking, aside from the proper attire. Believe me, if you don’t wear enough clothes, you’ll know it. The other things have to do with caring for your bike. The salt and grime that end up on the underside of your car also end up on your bike. It’s important to frequently clean off your bike. A damp cloth is usually enough. Also, it’s important to have the right kind of lubricant- one that can handle cold and wet conditions- and to use it liberally and frequently. That salt and grime? Yeah, definitely not something that you want mucking up your gears.

If it’s icy or you’re concerned about traction, it’s ok to let a little air out of your treaded mountain bike tires. This will give you more surface contact, which is better for icy conditions. If you’re in an area that’s always got ice during the winter months, invest in one (for your front tire) or two studded tires.

If you have a road bike, the thin tires may help you more during snow than my mountain bike tires do. They can cut through, rather than floating on top of, the white fluffy stuff. This will likely work to your benefit provided there isn’t an ice skating rink below the layer of powder. So if you’re riding on 700c’s be careful in spring as the thawing and freezing often leaves a layer of ice behind.

You’ll end up going pretty slow in fresh snow, but being able to experience the snowfall and the crunching beneath your wheels will more than make up for the extended commute. Biking is the most beautiful way to experience a snowy night.

www.nataliedee.com

The “Sweet Surprise” ad campaign tells us high-fructose corn syrup is fine in moderation — but is moderation really possible? Read on.

Have you seen the Sweet Surprise advertisements? Launched in the summer of 2008, the $30 million multimedia campaign aims to improve public sentiment towards high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Well, that’s my take on it. The Corn Refiners Association, who paid for the campaign, has a different explanation:

The goal of the campaign is to dispel myths and correct inaccuracies associated with this versatile sweetener and highlight the important role high fructose corn syrup plays in our nation’s foods and beverages.

The TV ads, which pit mislead HFCS-free followers against in-the-know HFCS fans, boil the campaign down to three points: high-fructose corn syrup is natural, nutritionally the same as sugar, and fine in moderation. The problem with those three points is that they entirely skirt the real issue. Let’s take the campaigns points one at a time.

Is HFCS Natural?

Manufacturers use a fairly complicated chemical process to turn corn into plain old corn syrup, made up of glucose, dextrose and maltose, and corn syrup into high-fructose corn syrup (fructose is sweeter than glucose, which is why food processors tend to favor it).

The FDA has ruled that products made with HFCS can be labeled natural as long as the corn syrup itself never touches glutaraldehyde, a highly toxic synthetic chemical used in its production. A year ago two U.S. studies found that about half of all tested samples of commercial high-fructose corn syrup contained mercury, which is a potent neurotoxin.

So yes, the FDA once stated that HFCS can be called natural — but they also used to think Bisphenol A was no big deal, and we see how that’s turned out.

Is HFCS nutritionally the same as sugar?

This one’s fairly true. Table sugar, or sucrose, is a disaccharide of glucose and fructose, and my understanding is that HFCS has only slightly more fructose than glucose.

Fructose has some marks against it when it comes to nutrition; it’s been loosely associated with obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, because the body processes it differently than other sugars. Agave nectar, a sweetener preferred by many natural-food types (who should all read this), has much higher concentrations of fructose than HFCS.

When it comes to HFCS, IS there such a thing as moderation?

“It’s fine in moderation!” the pretty blond in the commercial cajoles her HFCS-resistant beau.

It’s in that last little caveat that the Corn Refiner’s Association makes a sweet, sticky mess of the facts. High-fructose corn syrup may be fine in moderation, but it’s virtually impossible to moderate. It’s not just in the fruit drink at your kid’s birthday party; it’s in the sandwich you send her off to school with each day. It’s not just in the popsicle you share while picnicking in the park; it’s in the yogurt and cereal you eat while reading the paper together every morning.

See, government tariffs make sugar artificially expensive, and the Farm Bill’s outrageous corn subsidies (which, remember, come from that money you send to Washington every April) make corn syrup really cheap — and cheap corn syrup is a great way to add (empty) calories and flavor to processed foods.

In a world without cheap HFCS, soda would still be best enjoyed in moderation, but I doubt you’d find sugar quite so high up on the list of ingredients in Thomas’ English Muffins. It would be much easier to avoid overindulging in sweeteners if we weren’t pre-paying for high-fructose corn syrup with our taxes.

The average American consumes TWELVE teaspoons of HFCS a day, a fact which I can’t quite get over. If our food system placed more emphasis on whole foods — the kind that taste great without the addition of high-fructose corn syrup — maybe we’d be able to enjoy caloric sweeteners in moderation. In the meantime, it takes nothing short of an obsessive vigilance to keep our HFCS-intake to a minimum. Few people have the time, the tools or the money to avoid the high-fructose corn syrup that’s in virtually every class of processed food, so how exactly does the Corn Refiners Association expect us to consume it in moderation?

How can we avoid this stuff?

The obvious answer is to read labels, but when you’ve probably got better things to do than stand in the grocery store picking up loaf after loaf of bread looking for one that doesn’t contain HFCS. Here are some tips:

• Choose whole foods whenever possible.
• Check The Greenists’ HFCS-Free category for suggestions.
• Consult the Accidental Hedonist list of foods containing HFCS (it’s a good idea to double-check these items, since I don’t know how up-to-date this list is kept).
• Use The Good Guide to research HFCS-free products ahead of time (and if your grocer doesn’t carry an HFCS-free option, ask for it!)
• [Cian adds] Shop at your local natural foods store, where someone else is paid to read ingredient labels for you. Ask employees for HFCS-free recommendations.

Current circumstances lead me to spend hours every week standing in the produce section of a grocery. Namely because I work there, but that’s only relevant because of the questions I am asked. Here is one of my favorites:

“Are these local?”

It’s hard to describe the chasm between what people perceive should be local and what it’s possible to get locally in Vermont in January. The way the seasons work is by warm weather slowly climbing up the coast and then inland in Spring, then in the Autumn it retreats in the opposite way it came. That means that in the landlocked mountains (Lake Champlain doesn’t count), there are often frosts all the way to the beginning of June and starting again in September. Depending on how far down the mercury drops in a night, crops can be completely wiped out, either in Spring or Autumn. An early frost means that there’s a lot less grocery stores can count on in January from the local farmers.

In January around here, the only way to grow vegetables is to have them in heated greenhouses. State of the art, well heated greenhouses. Very expensive, double or triple paned glass greenhouses. Most of the vegetable farmers around here (who are admittedly few as compared to the dairy farmers and meat farmers, and even those are dwindling) can’t afford a greenhouse like that, let alone a monstrously sized one to be able to house all the greens that would sell in one (let alone multiple) grocery stores over the course of a winter that can range from November through May.

And while I’m explaining what we can’t have local in January, I want to specify that “winter squash” is a bit of a misnomer. Winter squash is called that because it lasts into the Winter, not through it. Having winter squash in the grocery store in January means likely having at least some of it shipped from the Southern states or Mexico.

So what’s local in New England in January? Or at least, what can be?
- potatoes
- sweet potatoes
- leeks
- onions and shallots
- apples that have been in good storage
- root vegetables: parsnips, carrots, turnip, rutabega, and beets
- celeriac
- kohlrabi
- cabbage
- garlic

That sounds like a lot of onion, starch, and earthy flavors, but there are really good recipes where you can locally source all of your ingredients in the middle of winter, even in Vermont. Here’s a good one:

Celeriac Soup
- makes 4 servings -

Ingredients

4 tablespoons butter
1-2 celeriac (about 2 pounds), peeled and roughly chopped
1 large leek, sliced (about 3/4 pound)
1 smallish potato, diced (about 1/4 pound)
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
7 tablespoons (3.5 ounces) heavy cream
Salt and pepper
3 slices good thick bacon, cut into 1/2 inch strips
Procedure

1. In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Add the celeriac, potato, garlic, and onion, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook the vegetables gentle until they soften, about 10 minutes.

2. Add the stock, bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes until the celeriac is completely tender.

3. Meanwhile, fry the bacon in a skillet until just crispy, then drain on paper towels. (Or try some of these other garnishing options.)

4. Transfer to a blender and puree until smooth (or use an immersion blender). Return to medium heat, and season to taste. Whisk in the cream and serve immediately, topped with the bacon.

recipe is from seriouseats.com

GM-crop producing, seed patent-owning, farmer-suing Monstanto Corporation owns the seed company that supplies Burpee, Johnny’s and other favorite providers with some of their most popular seeds. Keep reading for details.

It’s seed catalog season. I poured over our Johnny’s catalog for an hour and a half last week, reading each and every description and fantasizing about spring. Later, leafing through the catalog for a second time himself, Cian said “I just want to grow everything. Even the cover-crops!”

I know we aren’t the only ones lusting after green growing things right now, and I’m sure it’s a boon to seed companies that farmers and gardeners order their seeds in the depths of winter, when we’re planting imaginary gardens that would put out more produce than we could ever use (if we even had the space for them).

Which is why now is an important time to ask if Monsanto will own your garden this year.*

In 2005, Monsanto bought a multinational corporation called Seminis, which produces and distributes more than 3,000 varieties of popular garden seeds. I mean really popular seeds; over the years they’ve had Plant Variety Protection rights for Early Girl and Better Boy tomatoes, Red Sails lettuce and Red Knight bell peppers.

Because of Seminis’ market share, it’s difficult for the seed companies we love to stop selling them altogether. The Organic Seed Alliance reports that

Seminis’ varieties account for 11 percent of Fedco Seed’s gross sales, and the numbers are much higher in categories like melons and squash. While Fedco founder C.R. Lawn expressed his personal inclination to have nothing to do with Monsanto, the volume of sales demands careful consideration.

(Fedco has since dropped all Seminis varieties.)

To keep Monsanto out of your garden this season, avoid buying seed produced by Monsanto-Seminis — and ask your gardener friends to do the same. The list of varieties they produce is too long for me to list here, but you can use Seminis’ website to research specific varieties. Make sure you look at products for both home gardeners and professional growers.

Johnny’s currently carries 21 varieties produced by Monsanto-Seminis, and they’re working on phasing out those varieties as suitable replacements are found. They sent Emily of Eat Close to Home this list of all the products in their catalog currently supplied by Monsanto-Seminis:

• 103 SIERRA BLANCA onion
• 224 FREMONT cauliflower
• 240 HANSEL eggplant
• 241 GRETEL eggplant
• 568 BISCAYNE pepper
• 642 DULCE pepper
• 733 CELEBRITY tomatoes
• 2038 KING ARTHUR pepper
• 2063 BIG BEEF tomatoes
• 2212 PRIZEWINNER pumpkin
• 2260 FAIRY TALE eggplant
• 2309 X3R RED KNIGHT pepper
• 2365 ORANGE SMOOTHIE pumpkin
• 2368 PATTY GREEN TINT summer squash
• 2894 SERRANO DEL SOL pepper
• 2954 CHEDDAR cauliflower
• 2991 CANDY onion
• 122 BEAUFORT tomatoes
• 2794 GERONIMO tomatoes
• 2700 MAXIFORT tomatoes
• 2373 TRUST tomatoes

Alternately, you could get your seeds from one of the many distributors that isn’t supplied by The Devil Monsanto; High Mowing Seeds, Fedco, Seed Savers Exchange and Baker Creek are all good examples, and Botanical Interests, whose first-ever print catalog comes out very soon, carries only one Monsanto-Seminis variety (the “celebrity” tomato).

Monsanto has their fingers in our food system every step of the way — and if we’re not careful, before long it’ll be their food system. Check out The Organic Consumers Associations’ Millions Against Monsanto campaign for more.

*I’m speaking metaphorically, of course. Monsanto doesn’t own your garden unless you try to save seeds from one of their products. Then, watch out — they might come after you.

In that I might explain our long absence from this blog, I would like to say that farming is a full time job and a half, even for apprentices with short hours. We also made the decision to make a mad dash to the altar (or river, through a field, as it were). I tell folks it was to keep as many of our relatives in attendance as possible, Amanda says it was so that I could do her taxes this year. Either way, you will now be able to read a couple of wedding-related posts over the course of the next few months. First thing’s first, the ring.

Amanda asked me to write a little bit about finding an engagement ring that can be ethically and ecologically responsible. I don’t have a lot of history dealing with jewelry, but I’ve recently spent some time in local jewelry stores and learned a bit from the kind folks who helped me out.

I think the best thing I did for myself was to know what I wanted ahead of time. I got some nice hints from Amanda and started looking at websites to see what all of those hints added up to. Things to be considered: stone material, size, and cut; ring material, size, style, and the stone will be held. Have a price in mind, and tell the jeweler. The woman I ultimately went with told me that if I said $250 she could get me something I would be happy with for that much, If I said $25′000 she could do that, too.

I knew from the outset I didn’t want a diamond for both ethical and environmental reasons. The only diamonds that are conflict-free are lab-made. They’re beautiful but expensive, so they weren’t a viable option. I knew I wanted a sapphire, and once I’d secured that there weren’t any of the right size/shape available from within my family, I wanted an estate one if possible. I lucked into an estate stone that was perfect. If you don’t see a stone that you want in the store, ask about having a few in your price range brought in for you to look at- you can even specify country of origin if you’d like (for new stones, anyway) so you know more of what went on in the mining of your stones. Otherwise getting tips from the jewelers and then going antique shopping can be a great way to find a stone. I know at least one person with a beautiful sapphire ring that was found at an antique store by chance.

Ideally the gold would have been recycled, but the jewelers voiced concerns about recycled gold. One told me it wouldn’t work because I wanted white gold and once recycled it doesn’t retain the color as well. I don’t know how true that is. The argument against it that won me over was that it would work for an in-set stone, but for a traditional looking ring that holds the stone externally, the brittleness of recycled gold could risk the tines breaking and the stone getting lost. This, to me, is the best argument against recycled gold for a traditional-engagement-style solitaire. I want the ring to be able to handle being worn in real life (although not during farm work) and not have to worry about it.

With this, as with most things, I compromised on what I considered important points for ecological reasons in order to have a ring that will likely last at least a few lifetimes. I ended up with a ring from a local store, with an estate stone, which Amanda was happy with. So happy, in fact, that she married me.

For your own responsible indulgences, here are a few incredible online retailers:
Green Karat
Brilliant Earth
Simply Wood Rings
Simply Wood Rings

To let us concentrate on gardening/farming, we’re going to take a summer vacation. Somewhat like the kind you have as a student, except this one involves more work.

In a few months we will return, we hope with awesome farmer tans (I will try and convince Amanda to share them with you), a lot of posts pre-written in our heads, and a better feeling for where we’re going.

The weather was perfect yesterday morning, and I knew this really cute guy would be selling leafy greens and flowers at the Rutland farmers’ market, so I decided to head downtown and check it out.

I was impressed with the sheer number of vendors — people were selling everything from jewelery and handbags to pupusas and dog biscuits (and, of course, vegetables). I went with $25 in my pocket, intent on getting some cheese and asparagus and seeing what else struck my fancy.

I did come home with cheese (a lovely hard goat cheese from Consider Bardwell Farm in West Pawlet, VT). I also got a jar of very interesting apple cider vinegar & horseradish jelly, which will be good with the cheese and on our morning english muffins. The loaf of honey-oat bread I bought from a very old man turned out to be absolutely perfect, crusty on the outside and moist on the inside. I got some rhubarb (for literally half of what it would have cost in DC), which I’m hoping Cian will turn into a crumble.

I was able to pull Cian away from his work for a few minutes to get some tasty Pakistani food from a vendor. Oh, and I spent some time talking to Karl Thomsen, who does beautiful seat weaving — a trade he learned from his father. And there was a woman from the Czech Republic selling cookies so beautifully decorated I’m not sure I could bear to eat one.

Overall a good haul, and under budget. There wasn’t much point in buying veggies, since we get those at work for the time it takes us to pick ‘em. The one big disappointment was asparagus. Since “our” farm doesn’t have an asparagus bed, I was really looking forward to picking a bunch up, but no one had any! I know we’re a little further north, but I can’t believe that not a single bit of asparagus is ready to harvest yet. What’s spring without asparagus? I ask you. Maybe next week.