Free Lemons and Hints of Spring

Someone dropped a small brown paper bag full of lemons on our porch the other day. Who? I have no idea. There wasn't a name or a note. Just a bag of lemons. I'm guessing it was one of our neighbors but I'm not positive. Anyway, it was a nice thing to do, and it was a nice surprise to find a bag of local Alameda lemons on the porch. 

It made me wish I had a lemon tree and I could drop bags of lemons on unsuspecting neighbors. It also got me thinking about all the fruit and vegetables it would be possible to grow in the city of Alameda (or any city really). What if every yard had a fruit tree or two and some rows of vegetables? Oh to dream...

I swear I am seeing more and more vegetables being grown. I have noticed many houses in Alameda with little vegetable plots tucked into their front yard. Who knows how many countless houses have them in the back yard. 

I was riding my bike the other week when I noticed a house that had chard and kale growing right in the front yard. No formal beds or anything, just chard and kale growing with other plants. They even had a large artichoke plant right there in their front yard. All the other houses on the block had tidy little lawns and hedges, but here was this one house just growing some vegetables in the front yard. Very cool.

As far as my own backyard growing goes, the Santa Rosa plum tree has exploded with delicate white blossoms and I've been weeding the vegetable boxes. I have some lettuce, spinach and chard that I'm going to put in the ground soon. 

Vegetarian Farmer's Market Curry

Curry isn't something I make often. In fact, I don't remember the last time I made it. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever made it! ha. Well, I had a lot of veggies from the farmer's market the other day, so I adapted a recipe to what I had:

Carrots, cauliflower, onions, garlic, broccoli and spinach

The recipe was from the cookbook Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin. It's a decent cookbook that I use on occasion. This Vegetable Curry started out with a flavor base of onions, garlic, and ginger sauteed until golden brown in butter. I then added the many spices. A minute or so later I put in one can of coconut milk, chick-peas and the assorted vegetables from the farmer's market. I later added some raisins and I thought it made the curry a lot better (I usually taste food often while I am cooking). The curry made a delicious dinner over a bed of rice and there were lots of leftovers so I got multiple meals out of it!

Up close 

 

The final dish

Ode to the Watermelon Radish

At the farmer's market there was a small box of odd vegetables sitting prettily between all the others at this vegetable booth. The box of tennis ball sized, pale green orbs with rosy pink centers (a few had been cut open to demonstrate the inner color) caught my eye as I wandered through the booths. I was drawn to them like a honey bee to a lavender bush. There was a small hand-written sign above the little box that read, "Watermelon Radish". I had seen these radishes before at another farmer's market, but I didn't buy any because I am not a huge radish fan. Well today I thought I would give it a go.  They were definitely unique looking... maybe they would taste better too... only one way to find out... So along with the other vegetables I bought from this booth, I bought a watermelon radish. Yes, a watermelon radish. I bought one. 

When I got home, I immediately took out my one watermelon radish, and cut it. Just like the ones that had been cut open at the market, this one had the same stunning pink center. The person who decided to call this variety of radish a "watermelon radish" didn't have to think very hard to come up with the name for upon opening it you immediately think, "Aha! This thing resembles a watermelon."

Enough about how it looks. How does it taste? It turns out that it tastes quite good, at least in my opinion. Unlike the radishes with a red outside and white inside that have a sort of earthy and simultaneously peppery taste, this radish was much milder. Less pepper and less dirt (there, I said it. I think radishes sort of taste like dirt and "earthy" is just a nice way of saying it). 

As for what I did with these nice slices of watermelon radish... I made a sandwich. Yes, a radish and butter sandwich. I had also bought a sourdough baguette at the farmer's market. I cut off a nice sized piece of that, cut it in half, spread a thin layer of organic butter on each side, layered thin slices of radish, sprinkled some course salt on it, and voilá! A radish butter sandwich. 

I actually didn't come up with this combination myself. I remembered reading something about it in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone. In fact, I just looked up the little recipe for it, and she doesn't call them sandwiches, she calls them "canapés," which according to her book are:

 "old-fashioned cocktail or tea sandwiches of bread buttered or covered with a spread and topped with fresh vegetables like cucumbers and radishes, sprigs of herbs, or grated vegetable salads. Despite their fifties image, canapés achieve a contemporary feeling of freshness and flavor without being filling."

It was indeed fresh tasting and delicious. In fact, I had it for lunch two days in a row. I think next time I come across them I will definitely be buying more than one watermelon radish. 

Food, Inc: A Fascinating Film

I just watched the film Food, Inc. I have been meaning to check it out for a while, and I finally did. Apparently quite a few people have been seeing it here in Alameda because Blockbuster only had one darn copy left! The lady at the counter said that a lot of people were renting it. Not a bad thing by any means. 

First off, if you didn't know it already, this is a documentary. I think that for a lot of people, especially around my age, the word "documentary" is often seen as synonymous with "boring." Well not this documentary! Unlike some I have seen it was quite well done and moved at a good pace. 

Although Food, Inc. covers many aspects of our modern food industry, I think it really excels at showing footage and facts on the meat industry. That is what stood out most in my mind. This might be because I have read Michael Pollan's book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and it talked a lot about corn and soybeans. Basically, I didn't find the parts in Food, Inc. on those crops as shocking as the parts on the animals. I think that this movie is great because it shows us, not just tells us in writing, where our food is being produced and what some of the consequences are.

Both Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation) are featured in this movie. I thought Michael Pollan summed up our food system well when at one point in the movie he said:

"We have had a food system that has been dedicated to the single virtue of efficiency. So we grow a very small number of crops, a very small number of varieties, [controlled by] a very small number of companies. And, even though you achieve efficiencies, the system becomes more and more precarious. You will have a breakdown eventually."

Pollan makes an excellent point, because when you focus so intently on efficiency (which is directly related to profit for these large agribusiness companies), the system will eventually have a breakdown. When profit is the sole motive, companies (and stockholders in these companies) want to see profit now. They aren't worrying if these methods will be viable, five, twenty, even one hundred years down the road. 

 I'm going to try and convince both my parents to watch it before it is returned to Blockbuster and I highly recommend you watch it too. Here's the trailer for the movie. 

Book Review 1: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Part of what inspired my passion for locally grown food, sustainable agriculture, and more broadly, food that is good for people and the planet, has been reading books on this subject. I have decided to do a project where I write posts about some of the books that really inspired me or taught me in some way. Of course I am focusing on just the books that have to do with food. 

Book Review Number One: 

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

By Barbara Kingsolver

This is the book that sparked my passion. Barbara Kingsolver is a clear, interesting and witty author. This book documents the struggles and rewards of her family eating only "locally grown" food for a whole year. Essentially they try and eat as much food grown in t

heir backyard and on neighboring farms. Her family lives in rural Virginia and has a large garden, their own chickens, and eventually their own turkeys. Her description of trying to get the turkeys to mate was hilarious. 

In the book there are recipes and meal plans written by Kingsolver's teenage daughter, Camille Kingsolver. These provided insight into the seasonal changes in the food they ate and it also gave a teenage perspective on the challenges the family faced. I found this part particularly interesting since I am around Camille's age. Barbara Kingsolver's husband, Steven Hopp also wrote blurbs with facts about our current food system and other information. 

Overall, I learned a lot from this book. It was very entertaining and inspiring to read. I would highly recommend it. 

The Hibernation Ends

Well, it has been quite a while since I last posted anything. In fact, it has been so long that I actually forgot my username for my blogger account. Lame? Yes, I would say so. Luckily it didn't take me terribly long to find the right combination. 

Why has it been so long since the last post? I could come up with many reasons. None of them all that good. Yes, I was busy, I had some big essays to write and lots college application related stuff. In fact it felt like I was doing a lot of writing. Maybe that is my excuse, that all my writing energy was going into writing essays for classes and for college apps. Well, now the college apps are all in and I am only taking science / math courses at community college this semester. Which means... I should have lots of writing energy to expend on this blog! 

Although I have not posted recently, I have had multiple ideas for posts bouncing around in the back of my head. Hopefully I'll actually be turning those ideas into actual posts!

This is actually a rather pointless post other than to say that I AM BACK. My blog was in hibernation, like a big bear, and it now wakes from its sleep. 

Side note: January 2010 marks the one year mark since I started this blog. Slow Food Junior is now 1. 

Red, Green and RAW

October makes me think of orange, gold, brown, purple and deep red. This Farmer's market trip ended up having a red and green theme which was sort of random. It reminded me of Christmas. Just so you know, this color theme was not done on purpose! It just... well it just happened. 

See for yourself:

Apples, red bell peppers, grapes, raspberries, garlic, pears, strawberries, basil, chard, squash, fresh bread and raw milk. Yum.

Even though it's October those strawberries were amazing. I wonder if they were a second crop of strawberries? I know our strawberry plants produced two "crops," one in May/June and one in late September. 

Most exciting new booth at the Alameda Farmer's market: Organic Pastures!!! This is the coolest thing that I have come across in quite a while. Organic Pastures is a locally operated dairy whose cows are grass fed. The best part is that all their dairy products are RAW.  This milk is incredible. I had seen it at (and bought it from) natural grocery stores in the area, but not at the farmer's market!! I'm pretty sure it's cheaper at the farmer's market (no middle-man) and there are more choices.  I would definitely give their milk a try if you are okay with drinking raw dairy. Check out their website for more info. 

Front Yard Harvest

I have a thing for odd fruits and and vegetables. There's something about the intriguing names of heirlooms and the nonconformist look of these old-fashioned varieties that is fascinating. Not only do I adore heirlooms, I also like rare and dare I say, weird veggies and fruits. I am drawn to them the way a moth gravitates towards a light on a dark night. 

In front of my house, on the slim strip of earth between the sidewalk and the street sit four quince trees. Odd? Indeed. 

The quince is not an easily eaten fruit. Although it is in the same family as the apple, it is not something that can be bitten into and enjoyed because it is hard and bitter.  Because of this, my family never used the quince. Once, we had a nice lady knock on our door and ask if she could pick some of the quince, my mom said, "go for it, take as many as you like." 

Last year, as my interest in cooking, local food and the Slow Food Movement grew, I decided I would use the quince. After all, how hard could it really be? I remembered seeing a few recipes in my Deborah Madison cookbook so I decided what the heck. 

I decided to poach the quince in water and sugar. This brought out their unique taste and turned them that rosy coral pink. Doing this also made the quince sweet enough to eat. I will admit I found the taste and texture a bit odd. But, I did make an apple and quince crisp that was quite delicious. I also made a tart of quinces, apples, and pears.  When combined with these other fruits the quince flavor was more subtle. 

 

From what I have found, quince seem to have a few main uses:

1. Quince Jelly 

2. Quince Butter (similar to apple butter)

3. An addition to applesauce

4. Chutney

5. An interesting addition to apple and/or pear desserts

6. Quince syrup

Right about now, early October, is when our quince ripen on the trees. When quince are ripe, they turn a golden yellow and have a very flowery perfumed scent.  I just picked them this afternoon and a think I have a few pounds of quince sitting in the kitchen. 

Now the question is what will I make with them this year?