‘Twas sometime before New Years, and all through my place
Lurked unknown ingredients no one could trace.
My cupboards were full of things I couldn’t say,
Let alone recognize if I saw them today.

 

Frozen chicken fingers, sausages, french fries galore,
All snug in  my freezer, but wait there is more…
In my fridge there were sauces, salsas, juices and jams,
Beef pepperoni and peaches stored in their cans

 

The pantry was worse, taco shells and their spice

Crackers, white flour and short-grain white rice

Tomatoes in tin, beans in EDTA

“Get rid of it all!” I said, “Give it away!”

 

I’ve decided to change up the way that I eat

Because corn syrup and “colour” don’t seem that neat

Monosodium chlorides and “natural flavour”

Don’t sound like the food any humans should savour

 

I read a few books, watched some videos too
And had an idea, something not very new
“Eating food should be easy” I thought to myself
“Simple and yummy” so I cleared off my shelf

 

“Now Veggies! now, Fruit! now, Whole grains and Organic!
Where will I shop now?!” (I started to panic).Farmers markets and butchers all came into sight

And I realized, with effort, it would all be all right.

 

It will take some control to learn how to say “no”
But think of the things I’ll learn as I go:
Like how to cook lentils, and eat food while I’m out,
Where vitamins come from, and what’s good about trout.

 

I’ll learn to try new things, and read every label,

How to make lunches, and eat at the table,

Some things will be gross, and some things will be yummy.

At least I’ll know all things that go into my tummy.

 

I’ll be sure to keep posting, and keep you appraised
About how all the meat you eat must have been raised.
Some things will be scary, some things just plain new,
Some you won’t like, but what can you do?

 

Here’s the some good food, some good times and more!

Here’s the the new things I’m going to explore!

I hope you keep reading, and enjoy what you find,
And that this blogs help a little to open your mind…

 

(written and read aloud as she typed by Sarah Pearson)

The Great Purge

I am currently in the process of purging out all of the foods in which I cannot name all of the ingredients in from my food supply.

I was (and still kind of am) excited about this, but it’s not the easy 20 minute sweep that I thought it was going to be.

First off, I am getting rid of more food than I thought I would be. Luckily, most of this is unopened and can be donated to the food bank. I will keep opened items until my roomie comes home to see if she will use them, and if not, bye bye honey garlic sauce.

Items being disposed of (and their unwanted ingredients) include and are definitely not limited to:

Beans: dextrose, modified corn starch, artificial flavour, caramel

Vegetable Thins: vegetable oil shortening, dextrose, monosodium glutamate, hydrolyzed soya and/or wheat protein, natural flavour, more vegetable oil shortening, disodium guanylate, ammonium bicarbonate, glucose-fructose, monocalcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate, more hydrolyzed soya and/or wheat protein,  soybean oil with TBHQ, amylase, protease)

Kraft Peanut Butter: corn dextrose, sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil

Golden Dragon Sweet and Sour Sauce: hydrolyzed (corn soy and wheat) protein, modified corn starch, maltodextrin, sodium benzoate, colouring, partially hydrogenated soybean and cotton seed oil

Vegetable Thins Ingredients (interesting: there is a "Sensible Solution" claim, a "Baked with Real Vegetables" claim and a "44% less Fat" claim on the box too..)

The Veggie Thins are by far the worst of it, and a lot of what I am getting rid of isn’t too bad except one or two things. Most of the beans have EDTA and Calcium Chloride (which is basically to help them keep their shape from what I could gather on wiki, but it sounds too sciency for me). Even Kraft Dinner doesn’t beat the crackers, but with sodium phosphates, natural flavours and colour is has to go.

I wavered back and forth on a few cans of fruit, because I love canned peaches and pineapple, and because the ingredients really aren’t that bad. Peaches have: peaches, water, concentrated fruit juice (apple and/or pear and/or grape) and citric acid. Citric acid was originally on my “no” list, but it’s really just lemon juice. The reason I’m not keeping the peaches (single tear) is because they can’t tell me which fruit juice is in the peaches, and because I don’t understand why they need fruit juices at all.. peaches are yummy as peaches. I am however keeping the pineapple, because it is pineapple, pineapple juice and citric acid.

Another surprising keep is ketchup (though, without frozen fries and KD for a year I’m not entirely sure what I will put it on). Heinz Ketchup (at least the one I have) has tomato paste, sugar, white vinegar, salt, onion powder and spices.

I am also needing to dispose of some alcohol. This is tricky, because it is opened, and I’m pretty sure you can’t give it to the food bank even if it is sealed, and I don’t want to chuck it and let some under ager or recovering homeless man find it.  This too can wait until the room mate gets home I guess (unless anyone out there over the age of 19 is in want of tequila, white rum and half a mickey of Sailor Jerry’s). Pending that, I may be celebrating New Years by pouring it all down the drain.

Other item’s that I am keeping though won’t be buying again in 2012 include my probably not so happy frozen meat, baking supplies (meringue powder, cream of tarter, baking soda and baking powder as well as white sugar and flour).

This has also made me think a little on what is or isn’t acceptable. For example, I am shunning canned tomatoes for a year, because the acidity in tomatoes is proven to chance the chemicals in the linings of the cans and well, it’s all bad (though tomatoes packaged in glass jars are all good). Also, EDTA is scary. Pretty much anything that is described by only letters is a definite no. I also want to stop eating hidden corn product such as dextrose, and maltodextrin, and the less hidden corn product high fructose corn syrup. Natural Flavours is a scam (if something was naturally strawberry flavoured, you would get strawberries or strawberry juice in it), and though I am keeping my own supply of (cough cough expensive high end) food colourings, I would rather not have them in my food. Though I have come to terms with citric acid, I am weary of anything else that sounds chemically (calcium chloride, disodium guanylate etc.).

While I am a little sad to see how many items I had stocked that I have to get rid of, I am also inspired by my simply stocked new fridge and cupboards. It’s kind of refreshing to see (almost) nothing but simple meats, fruit, veg, dairy and eggs.

So Long Unidentifiable Food!

 

 

“Jimmy’s GM Food Fight”

Want an interesting documentary on GM foods, that really seems to show a little of both sides? I found one!

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/jimmys-gm-food-fight/

Jimmy Doherty is a farmer in the UK, who uses natural and classic farming techniques. He raises free range meat (from what I gather mostly pigs though), and has a degree in entomology (bugs).

When I saw that this is who was doing a documentary on GM foods, I thought that he would most definitely be against, and I was surprised at how open he was to the whole GM thing – especially living in the UK where GM foods are pretty much banned, and protestors have been known to strip down entire fields of GM crops to prevent spreading and even research. He visited farmers in the states (believe it or not, the Amish), who use GM crops and are all for it, and farmers in the UK who are completely against it. He also goes to Uganda to visit banana farmers who could use some of the benefits of GMO, and a GM lab where GM versions of the bananas are being created (and surprisingly stolen by locals to plant). Back in the UK he visits a lab, where they are trying to develop a strain of barley resistant to drought, and where another scientist has grown tomatoes that also contain the nutrients found in the pigments of berries (specifically blackberries and black currants – they actually look kind of yummy), so that people who do not eat enough berry fruits can still get the nutrients from food, not pill.

Jimmy raises the point that farmers have been modifying plants for thousands of years through seed selection and such (he shows what we have done to cabbage). Is it that much of a difference to go directly into the gene?  For some reason, the berry-crossed tomatoes don’t seem like a bad idea to me. They would help more people get the nutrients they need. The barley also doesn’t seem so bad. If barley could resist drought, it would ensure that people had food, even when times were bad (weather wise at least). Is this messing with nature though? The claim is made that by creating a plant resistant to a certain pest or herbicide, farmers will have to spray their crops less. This would mean less pollutants and chemicals in/on our food, and would be much better for the environment. It could even (though I doubt it) drive down the cost of food, as farmers wouldn’t have to buy all of those chemicals.  That doesn’t seem all that bad either.

The idea of GM foods still frightens me a little because there really is no way to know the health effects of it all until it is maybe too late and it seems that not a whole lot of research has been put into what GM crops do to ecosystems. If you develop a plant to resist a bug that eats it, what is that bug going to eat? Then, if numbers of the bug starve and die out because of cross contamination and not being able to find the plant they eat, what does the bird that used to eat the bug eat? Agreed that most such bugs are considered pests, but I’m sure that they are still part of a food chain. Flies bug me, but spiders eat them, and spiders are all right by me.

Then there is the whole idea of ownership. Look at Monsanto. It’s a company who has developed GM versions of soy and canola, and is now tormenting farmers because Monsanto’s plants have cross contaminated with other farmer’s crops and now Monsanto wants money. Many farmers have lost everything because of Monsanto. Some have tried to fight back, and lost. I’m not too fond of that: the idea that a big company (like Monsanto) can own a plant variety, sue the innocent organic farmer who’s crops they have ruined because their seed had blown onto his farm and destroyed his crop. If embracing GM crops means embracing the rights of giant companies to crush small farmers or force them to grow their product, I’m not down.

Seems to me that the whole idea of GM foods is one giant tangled mess of DNA and big business. I feel like I don’t mind the idea of it when plants are spliced / modified with other plants. The idea of putting fish or animal genes into plant foods is creepy though (Little Shop of Horrors anyone?). I like the idea that GM crops could help save food sources and farmers in places like Africa, where food is scarce and hard to grow, but don’t like that fact that in Canada and the US GM crops are seeming to be used as more of a corporate weapon than a benefit to the people who grow and eat the food. Plus we still don’t really know the consequences.

What are your thoughts? For, Against, or so turned around you don’t know what to think anymore?

“Food Matters”

I have been feeling a bit under the weather, and if you know the weather in Vancouver right now, you know what that might entail. I am one of those people who very rarely gets sick, and when I do I am out of the game for a day or two. It sucks, and as a result, I can get a little bit sucky too (I called my Mom tonight and asked if she would come to Vancouver to make me a grilled cheese…).

The bright side is that between naps, hazy shift at work, shots of oil of oregano and vitamin D (thanks!), hot baths and hot tea, I can catch up on some reading.

Today I read “Food Matters” by Mark Bitterman.

It was a nice, easy read, and as the recipes take up the bulk of the book, was only 120 pages. I think that this was originally on my documentary list (have to double-check that), but the book was available when I was at the library, so I picked it up. I enjoyed it. I felt like it was a shortened, easier to read version of “In Defense of Food” by my new-found role model Michael Pollan, but with less facts, references to studies and eye-opening facts.

Mark Bitterman somehow makes the whole thing feel easier, as he based his book on his own foodstyle change. He also emphasises the need to reduce meat intake as a way of controlling environment, as well as health (Interesting fact from Page 1: “global livestock production is responsible for about one-fifth of all greenhouse gases – more than transportation”). Mark takes the “cheat” approach – he eats strictly from dawn till dusk, then lets himself eat freely at dinner. I have not given myself the same luxury (or at least will not be as of Sunday.. boom boom boom), and will be knowing the ingredients of all of my food, all of the time. On the flip side of that, my only rule is that I have to know my ingredients. While I am choosing not to eat chemically engineered food products, I can still have a steak for breakfast if I so choose it, or white bread, as long as I can tell you what is in it (flour, water, oil, yeast, salt and sugar when I bake it :P).

Flipping through the recipe section I am reminded that I really must learn what I’m supposed to do with lentils, and that I need to eat more of them. I also see a bit of soy product, which I kind of cringe at. I will have to write about soy one day, and why I think it should not be a huge part of daily life. In either case, finding meat alternatives is not a bad idea. I plan to eat meat and fish more consciously (happy cow, not mad or sad cow) in the next year, and with my budget this will in turn mean better quality, and most likely a lot less quantity.

Basically, I felt like Michael Pollan’s advice “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants” was reiterated (not that it should have to be, but reminders are always good). I am still curious to see the documentary though, and what they did with it.

If you see “Food Matters”, pick it up, and give it a read. It’s short, it’s easy, and it’s inspiring.

Christmas: 35 Hours, 2 Giant Dinners, Ingredients I can Name (minus one)

This Christmas was a treat.

This Christmas, I went to my Mom’s, where my brother and his girlfriend were, and had Christmas with family. It has been 7 years since my Mom, brother and I have been together on Christmas day, so naturally it had to be done right, and right now, my mind is on food.

I showed up early early early on Christmas Eve and surprised my Mom (she had no idea I was coming). My brother surprised me by getting there the day before (I thought that he wouldn’t be there until later on Christmas Eve), and also by talking my Mom out of buying a ham for dinner that day (thanks Bud! – the rest of my family all eat pork).

While traditionally our family does the big dinner on Christmas, this year my Mom had to work Christmas day, and my brother, his girlfriend and I all had to be on a 5pm bus on Christmas, so she did a big roast beef dinner on Christmas Eve. It was delicious, and had all of the fixings. My Mom did up the roast with garlic and herbs, some home-made yorkshire puddings (I don’t eat gravy because of the texture thing, so fill mine with butter instead, mmm), and roast potatoes. I made a batch of buns (and an extra loaf of bread for Mom), and we also had corn and green beans.My brothers girlfriend had made a yummy looking coffee cake earlier that day, but by the time the plates were cleared we were all way to stuffed to sample it.

The people a few doors down had gifted my Mom with a turkey, so we thawed it out for Christmas Day. In the morning I rubbed it down with honey, orange juice, cloves and nutmeg (much to the amusing look on my brothers face when I rubbed the breast meat under the skin like something out of Alien), and simmered the neck and all of the other lovely things that come inside a turkey for gravy later on (another cringed-nose look from my brother). I whipped up come cranberry sauce (real cranberries, not the canned stuff), burned the pot, prepared candied yams (I used some store-bought marshmallows my Mom had – that is the only thing that I cannot name the ingredients in…), beans, broccoli, glazed carrots, and left over buns and yorkshires. My brothers girlfriend made seasoned roasted squash. Even Clint (my brother) chipped in and carved the turkey. After dinner (well, maybe lunch, it was only 2pm) we finally dug into the coffee cake. Yummy!!

It was a super quick holiday trip, but was great to be with family. And I left feeling far from hungry.

A Lazy Evening

Maybe it’s because I couldn’t fall asleep until late last night, maybe it’s because I was up early for work, maybe it’s because I spent an hour staring at a computer screen at the library going over 250 book/movie titles under the search word “Food”, or, maybe it’s because I caved today and ate at A&W (it was kind of gross, but when I went to Mom’s Grilled Cheese truck they were out of cheddar, I was hungry, and onion rings sounded good… Hey! It’s not January yet), but when I got home, I realized that tonight was giong to be a lazy night.

I popped in “The Real Dirt on Famer John” which I picked up at the library today and curled up with a blanket on my couch.

It was alright, though I have to admit, not what I thought it was going to be. I was expecting it to focus more on farming (Farmer John is an organic farmer in the states who runs a HUGE CSA program for Chicago), but it was mostly on his life, as influenced by the farm. He’s an interesting guy. In the first scene of the film he eats his soil.. and not more than two minutes later he’s driving his tractor in a feather boa. I didn’t feel like I really learned anything that would help me or inspire me with the whole “Eat” thing though, besides giving me a tiny urge to get my hands dirty.

Then I watched “King Corn” about two guys who realized that people are pretty much made of corn (they had hair samples taken and it was found that the carbon in their hair was from corn). They moved to Greene, Iowa, rented an acre of land and grew corn on it. They didn’t do a lot of research into what kind of corn they were planting, and pretty much followed what all of the other farmers in the area did – fertilizing with an ammonia based product and planting genetically modified corn designed to resist a specific pesticide/herbacid and take up as little space as possible while it grows. Later on they decide to follow the paths that their corn may take (high fructose corn syrup and feed lots) and the effects that it could have. They even made their own high fructose corn syrup at home! It was a good watch, and had some interesting points on agrictulture in the U.S.

So, it was a lazy evening, but I did get two items crossed off of my list of things to watch/read. Now I need to peel myself off the couch and eat something… anything but corn.

 

Why Is This In My Food?: Vitamin A Palmitate and Vitamin D3 in Milk

I am in serious ramp up mode for the new year and on a recent grocery shop tried to buy 2% milk with no additives. Good luck if you try!

Even the organic milks (yes, I’ve started to make the switch, at least with milk, bananas and apples) had Vitamin A Palmitate and Vitamin D3 in them. I bought the milk, and sent myself a text reminding myself to investigate.

I Wikipediad Vitamin A Palmitate, and after clicking on three or four more links to try to decipher all of the science talk, this is what I came up with: Vitamin A palmitate (also known as Retinyl palmitate) is added to low-fat milk products to make up for the vitamin A lost in fat reduction, and also acts as an antioxidant. Palmitate is attached to retinol (part of Vitamin A) to make the vitamin stable in milk. Palmitate is a major part of palm oil, and you get it by treating palm oil/ fats with really, really hot water (more than 200 degrees celsius) and distilling the whole thing. The World Health Organization puts palmitate in the same grouping as trans fatty acids, and say there is “convincing” evidence that consuming palmitic acids increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (although there were no direct links in the study between the intake of palmitate and patient outcome). Hmmmm… interesting, and kind of confusing.

If I boil that all down into words that even I can understand (and I may have this wrong) they take the natural fat out of milk, and the vitamin A goes with it, so they take new vitamin A, mash it together with an acid from palm oil to make it bind better and put it back in the milk.

Then I Wikipediad Vitamin D3: This was even more confusing than the vitamin A thing.. As milk doesn’t naturally have any vitamin D* it’s not like they add it to make up for something they lost. Vitamin D3 helps with calcium absorption. Your body can produce it’s own vitamin D3 from the sun, but the stuff in milk is ” produced industrially by the irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol extracted from lanolin found in sheep’s wool.” I am wearing my giant wool sweater while looking and typing all of this up, and that somehow strikes me as funny. I read somewhere else (but didn’t book mark the page and have lost it), that it can also be somehow extracted from fish.

I also found out on the Wikipedia page that “Vitamin D might support the emergence of allergies and adulterate already existing allergies and autoimmune diseases”. You can read for yourself by clicking the link at the beginning of the previous paragraph. This makes me wonder if the fact that so many people are now allergic to something (peanuts, dairy, wheat, etc) has something to do with the fact that we are messing with our food. I’m sure it does, but I also think there’s more to it than just the vitamin D3 in milk.

 

I am really starting to realize that I have opened Pandora’s grocery bag.  My options as far as milk goes are these:

1) I can completely strop drinking milk. I really don’t drink a lot of it anyway, but really enjoy milk with my hot chocolate and some baking just plain needs it (oatmeal cookies are very hard to make chewy unless you add about a tablespoon of the stuff).

2) I can accept that there is milk, palm oil derivatives, and things sucked out of sheep’s wool in my milk and live with it.

3) I can compromise. I looked at the Dairyland website, and their homogenized milk has no added vitamin A palmitate as enough of the natural fat and vitamin A are still in there. It still contains the vitamin D3 though (by law Canadian milk has to be fortified with vitamin D).

I’m thinking option #3

All is not depressing and über scientific though! I thought that I was doing a great thing for myself by switching to the expensive organic stuff to try to avoid hormones and antibiotics. As it turns out, Canada has strict regulations as far as this is concerned. Even normal (cheaper) milk is not allowed to contain growth hormones or antibiotics. If a cow is sick and is given antibiotics it must have a “withdrawal” period in which it’s milk is not used for human consumption. In the case of organic milk, that cow is never allowed to produce milk for human consumption again. This means that I can look up which milk producers treat their animals the nicest and go from there, organic or not.

 

*Many sites that I visited say that milk does not naturally contain Vitamin D, although the Dairyland website says that it does,and, like the vitamin A, it is reduced during processing. Because I am not a scientist, I am trusting the nutritionists websites over the one that sells the milk.. again I could be wrong.

 

 

Eating Abroad Part 1

Recently inspired by a comment from a friend overseas and a growing desire to know what everyone is eating, I decided to pose  few questions to a few friends who are currently travelling abroad / have gone back home about eating, shopping, etc.

Danika is studying gender roles and fishing/conservation (sorry D, I know that’s not very specific, please feel free to correct me!) in the Philippines. She graciously agreed to let me pick her brain, and today I got a reply with her fantastic answers to my annoying list of questions:

 

Q:  What kinds of new/different/unusual things have you tried?

A:  I’d probably have to say sea urchin gonads.  I know this isn’t all that unusual in many cultures, but it was a first for me.  They mix them with vinegar and peppers, so the experience is like chewing on squeaky vinegar with a bit of a kick to it.

Q:  Have you discovered any yummy new foods?

A:  I’m enamoured with a chicken soup they make here.  It has a clear broth and usually contains small round green leaves and ginger.  Yum!

 

Q: Any gross ones?

A: I still shudder at the thought of tuba. Tuba is fermented coconut wine and it tastes like fermented [bum].  However I’ve been told it’s important to have it fresh.  Maybe the tuba I sampled was past it’s expiration date!

Q:  Are you missing any foods that you can get here but not there? Will you miss any foods when you come back?

A: Burritos.  I really really miss burritos.  When I get  back I will miss the easy access to fresh coconuts (and when I say easy access I mean the coconut sellers that squat in the empty lot just outside my apartment compound)

Q: Are there any food traditions that you know of, or have experienced? example: Christmas turkey dinners, chocolate eggs and hot crossed buns at Easter..

A:  I’m not sure what holiday it’s related to, but every once in a while in the bake shops I’ll see bread either in the shape of fish, or in the shape of a large pig suckling a brood of smaller bun sized piglets.  I love it!

Q: How much importance does food play in daily life?

A: For many people I talk [to] their day is dominated by the work involved in producing three meals.  Breakfast is often delayed until the father has come back with his catch.  Many women reported spending a lot of time fishing, gathering fire wood, and cooking.  It makes me sheepishly rethink what a chore I make out of going to the grocery store!

 

Q: Is there any interesting table etiquette?

A: A fork and spoon are the cutlery of choice.  No knives.  No chopsticks.

 

Q: What would you say an average Philippino diet consists of, and how would you rate the general health of the people who eat it?

A: Rice.  Plain white rice.  To this you add a small amount of ‘viand’ which is a side dish.  This can be mixed vegetables, meat (usually fresh fish), or if you have nothing else, salt.  The viand is usually dripping with a large dose of cooking oil.

Human health ranges from the malnourished (under fed) to men swaggering around with big ‘rice bellies’ and on the cusp of diabetes.  I once saw a man who only accentuated his bloated abdomen by standing with his thumb in his belly button as if he was stopping an air leak!

Q: Are there any major (or minor) dietary concerns over there? As in something that people tend to be picky about..

A:Most people are patient if a bit baffled by the allergies westerners list.  The major concerns I see (but doesn’t seem to be a concern of local people) are the mass amounts of sugar consumed through soft drinks and junk food, and painfully illustrated high frequency of rotting teeth of people in rural communities.  It makes me want to kick Coca-cola in the [bum].

Q: What is food packaging like in the Philippines? Do they have the same types of regulations as here where packaging and information are concerned?

A:  Plastic.  Mountains of plastic.  When I say I don’t want a bag people give me a funny look.  I understand that without refrigeration, and with a lot of insects, one way to prolong the life of food is to wrap it in plastic.  But in most island communities there is no working trash program, so the plastic either gets burned (yuck), or ends up in the ocean (double yuck).

My experience with food packaging here is that it does not require the same stringent regulations on the food contents.

Q: Is it easy to find basic, healthy options?

A: I find this very different when I’m in the city vs. when I’m in the villages.  It’s easier to find fresh fish in the villages, but I’m not cooking out there so mostly it gets fried before it comes to me (cooking oil has it’s own food group here).  Vegetables can also be harder to find on islands without much soil to grow things in.  In the city it’s harder to find food not wrapped in plastic, but at least I can cook it for myself and go easy on the oil.

Q:  How about organic/ ethically treated options?

A:  I assume all the locally sourced meat I eat in the villages is organic.  Most of the herbivore I see that source the meat seem generally happy, but the dogs are a sorry lot.  I know dog is eaten here, but I haven’t knowingly partaken.  When I cook in the city I generally stick to vegetarian options to outweigh all the meat I get in the villages.

 

Q: What is the grocery shopping experience there like?

A:  Noisy.  My favorite experience was having the whole store stop for a store sanctioned minute of prayer, and then have the speakers immediately proceed to blast the song “making love to booty music” when the prayer had finished.

Q:  Do people seem to put thought into what they’re eating?

A: I think most people are just happy to have food.

Q:  Are there a lot of fast food options? Restaurant options? What kinds?

A: In the city they are everywhere.  The main fast food joint is called Jolly Bee’s which is a local chain, but if you want to go a bit more upscale you go to McD’s.

Q:  Would you say food is generally more expensive or less expensive than here?

A:  If you eat locally it’s less expensive.  I can live off 4$ a day in the villages.  But if you go for cheese, yogurt or other western dairy concoctions things start to reach normal western prices.

Q: Is there any at home gardening going on? Community gardens?

A: Lot’s of people have fruit trees (banana, papaya, mango etc.) if they have land.  many of the schools have gardens and make gardening a part of the school curriculum.

Thanks a million Danika! I have to say that I am incredibly jealous of the fresh local fruit options (mmm… mango), but no so much about the sea urchin gonads. Danika also made mention of a Christmas trip to an organic farm/resort.. jealous doesn’t even begin to describe it!

I love the fact that gardening is part of the school curriculum. Maybe if that were the case in B.C. I would be able to keep something besides berries and succulents alive! In all seriousness though, I think that North Americans in general would greatly benefit from learning to garden in school.. not only would it be a fantastic learning experience, but might cause people to think a little bit more about where their food comes from, the work that goes into creating healthy food, and make healthier choices even when away from the garden.

The plastic sounds like an issue that needs some thought. It’s sad that people feel the need to over package things (I will admit that I am guilty when it comes to this too), and situations can only get worse when there isn’t a proper place to dispose of, or recycle all of the waste.

Thanks again Danika! Happy Eating!

Hey Momma: I Ate Bacon!

Let me first start off by saying that I don’t eat pork.

I stopped eating pig when I was about 12 because, well, I wanted a pet pig. I know it sounds silly, but you can’t eat what you call a pet. If I had a cow, I would call it Stew, and I would eat it, but I wouldn’t train it to do fun things, walk it every day or let it sit on the couch. It’s different. Anyway, since I stopped eating it, I have completely lost the taste for it, and, since Robert Pickton, it just kind of grosses me out.

I dedicated this one to my Mom, because I’m sure it was a huge hasstle for her at times. Once she was trying to impress a boyfriend with a fancy roast beef dinner – yorkshire puddings and the whole bit. She also wrapped the roast in bacon, managing to quickly pull it off and throw it in the trash before I could see, probably thinking that I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. She thought wrong and I was angry. She also really likes bacon.

Last week at the Farmers market a woman was selling beef bacon. I didn’t buy any on my first visit, but was really curious. I have eaten turkey bacon, and anyone else who has knows that it’s not bad, but it has a kind of spongey, dry texture that doesn’t really cut it. So, on Saturday I went back to the market and picked up a small package. When I asked about it, the woman told me that it was done in the same way as pork bacon: cured etc. (I’m sure turkey bacon is too, but only after being ground, seasoned, processed, and squished into bacon looking slices).  I paid about 4 dollars for my tiny little packet, which contained 4 large slices. A little pricey, but in the name of trying something new, and the fact that it was unmedicated, free range, grass fed beef, not too bad.

Tonight I was craving breakfast, so I pulled out the pan and gave it a go.

When I took it out of the bag it just looked like a really thin slice of steak (which makes sense, really, and it’s nice to know that what you’re eating actually looks like what you’re eating). It bubbled and got all warpy like I remember bacon doing, cooked fairly quickly, and smelled yummy. It even kind of tasted a bit like bacon.. which threw me off at first. It wasn’t a super porky taste, just a familiar one. Debra (my room mate) tried a bit and said that she tasted a hint of shrimp. Interesting. The texture was a really nice break from the turkey style. It was chewy, but not beef jerky chewy. It was also nice and fatty (I will happily admit that I am okay with fatty foods.. I loves me some butter on toast). All in all I would call it a success, and would happily buy it again.

 

 

The List

I was watching Food Inc. last night, and felt inspired. It’s great how movies and books have the power to motivate, make you think just a little more and keep me on track (let’s face it, when I’m excited about something, I’m all there, but my attention span isn’t quite commendable).

So, in hopes of constant inspiration, and in the name of learning something new every once in awhile, I present The List, a list of books and documentaries I will hunt down and watch/read, maybe review for you, and use to keep myself mindful and on track through out this whole Eat thing. Please let me know if you have something that you think should be added! Finding a list of movies was easy, but when I search for top food books, I tend to get more cookbooks than anything else.

(Again, I am posting in the QuickPress thingie, so will add links etc. when I have the regular posting abilities back – sorry for now!)

Movies / Documentaries:

“Dirt: The Movie”
“Food Fight”
“Food Inc.” (I have seen this one a few times now, but it’s good)
“Fresh”
“Killer at Large”
“King Corn”
“Supe Size Me” (I have seen this one too, but it’s fun)
“Fat Head” (a rebuttle to Super Size Me, where a guy actually looses weight on his all fast food diet. It also has a lot of points similar to those of MIchael Pollan in “In Defense of Food”)
“The Garden”
“The Future of Food”
“The Real Dirt on Farmer John”
“Food Stamped”
“What’s on Your Plate?” (Seen it – two teenage girls in New York discover what is in their food… not bad)
“A Shout Out for the Garden”
“Dying to Have Known”
“Forks Over Knives”
“Food Matters”
“Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead”
“Vegucated”
“The Last Heart Attack”
“Julie and Julia” (I know, not a documentary, but sooo good!)
“The Greyson Miracle”
“Good Food, Bad Food” (by Vancouver’s own John Bishop of “Bishop’s” on 4th Ave.. a bit of a dry watch, but interesting!)
“The Price of Sugar”

Interview:

Dr Rima Laibouw – Codex Alimentarius

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8MM3mLbd24

Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSN0gZF_AEM&feature=related

Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0uga1W3cz8&feature=related

Books:

“The Omnivore’s Dilemma” – Michael Pollan
“In Defense of Food” – Michael Pollan (a re-read)
“The Table Comes First”
“Good to Eat”
“Why We Eat What We Eat”
“The Man Who Ate Everything”

“Food Matters” – Mark Bitterman

“Superfoods: The Food and Medicine of the Future” – David Wolfe

“Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” – Barbera Kingsolver

“The End of Food” – Paul Roberts

“Will Write For Food” – Dianne Jacob (okay, not about food, but about writing about food, and writing is after all, part 2 of this project)

“Food Politics” –  Robert Paarlberg

(See? I clearly need more book suggestions…)