This Pretty Package of Paper is Gonna be Tedious...

And the process beings. I have been looking for recipes online and began formatting my project. Not going to lie, I am really excited about doing this project because when I went home I bought a bunch of pretty construction paper, stickers, and pretty paper for my front cover. I’m not going hard core for Brian or anything… Nope not at all! J

Looking for inspiration and recipes online actually is a VERY tedious job. I sat on my computer for a solid 2 hours and I only got though finding and organizing my recipes for spring. If this isn’t dedication in the name of Brian Ellis I don’t know what is. Secretly though, I am thoroughly enjoying it. I cannot wait to have a complete sustainable menu for spring, summer, fall, and winter. I am definitely going to try out some of these recipes this summer.

The more I research the more readily available I realize it is to find recipes that are applicable to a sustainable diet. We do not realize the amount of canned and processed foods that contribute to many recipes, but by substituting those out for fresh vegetables (such as canned tomatoes vs. fresh tomatoes) we can successfully cook sustainably. By focusing recipes around seasonal produce, one can easily find recipes which have more similar seasonal ingredients. I came to find that often times Italian or Mediterranean fused recipes call for a lot more fresh vegetables than those of the Asian culture for example. There are a lot more packaged sauces that are commonly used in Asian food ( I have definitely seen it in my mom’s cooking), in comparison to Mediterranean food which relies on the flavors of the fresh ingredients to give life to a recipe.

I was really enthusiastic about cooking before, but now I am even more excited about having the opportunity to cook. There are so many alternatives to eating unsustainably, and frankly I’m sure the food tastes and is A LOT better for you too.

My goal now that my cookbook recipes are basically all orderly, I can begin preparing what I am going to say for my presentation, and paste all the pages on the pretty paper I bought! Oh man, this brings me back to the days of arts and crafts. I’m excited! J

Omni-Dilemma for you, Brian

It’s sad. I went on Brian’s blog to see if he had left anything prior to the accident about what to write about on Omnivore’s dilemma, and it says “too be announced”….. I guess that just means I get to run rampant and wild about Pollan! Parttttayyyyyy.

I think what I enjoyed most about this book was how balanced Pollan’s argument was. I do not think the way in which we will make a change with citizens of the United States about their eating habits, is by criticizing and giving an ultimatum. Not everyone is willing to give up their meat, or become a vegan. That simply is an unrealistic goal. I feel like Pollan strives to address every side of the argument about the food industry making this book a good read for any person, of any view point.

I have to say my favorite concept of the book is how Salatin’s method for slaughtering chickens is seemed uncleanly by the Feds, but in reality Salatin is incredibly right: the clean air is the best means for slaughtering animals. The fact that Pollan was unable to even enter a slaughter floor goes to show how unethical and dirty it is. I can’t even imagine the stench or grotesque pictures one would encounter by going onto that floor.

Reading this book simply opened up my eyes to a new level of corruption within American society. While, and after reading OD, all I could say was how crappy the United States and how corrupt we are. However, I needed to remember and take a few steps back. Each society has their own issues and think of it this way: would you rather be starving because there is a lack of food availability like all those who suffer in places like Darfur, or would you rather live in this OBESE society? Think about that and don’t tell me there is something wrong with this picture, and some of the radical ideas of Americans. Don’t get me wrong, I am COMPLETELY acknowledge that yes there is an issue in the United States with our food industry, but thought I’d be like Brian and try to look at an argument from all sides. He was the one to always do that after all…

What is this? No fresh ingredients in my Chewy Bar? BLASPHEMY!

Most of the time when we look at the ingredients on the boxes of the food we eat, there are a bunch of words that you probably don’t even understand within the list of ingredients. All of these crazy names for what is put into our food just makes everything even more clear: if we simply use fresh ingredients in the foods we cook, we can achieve sustainable cooking.

I went home over Mother’s Day weekend, and was able to have access to another bookstore besides Ackerman. I went in there and sat down and basically got lost in the collection of Alice Waters cookbooks at the Borders in my hometown. As I was browsing through her cookbook of recipes for her restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, the reoccurring theme of the cookbook was fresh ingredients. Although I have many recipes in mind for my cookbook, one thing I constantly have to keep in mind is the aspect of fresh ingredients. We don’t realize the extensiveness of processed foods infiltrating classic recipes such as marshmallows on our yams during Thanksgiving, or graham crackers for our piecrusts. Therefore, all of the recipes I have been looking at for inspiration, I must take into consideration the aspect of almost ALL fresh ingredients, and surprisingly its a lot harder than it seems.

I also had the opportunity this weekend to go to the Mountain View Farmer’s Market. It is definitely a lot larger than the one in Westwood, and it was a lot of fun walking around. There was an array of fresh vegetables, meats, and nuts. I never realized that you could buy meat at farmers markets. I got there around 12 pm and by that time, all of the meat and eggs from the main stand were all sold out. The meat and eggs were grown on a purely grass fed, local farm, which was exactly what is discussed in Omnivore’s Dilemma as a sustainable source of meat. I realized that I want meat in my cookbook. I am not a vegetarian, and do not plan to be one. There are a lot of people, like me, who do not want to give up meat, but also recognized the importance of eating sustainably. Therefore, I think it would augment the number of people joining the sustainable movement, if they don’t feel like they need to change all that they eat by keeping meat as a constant.

Coincidentally enough, this week’s Omnivores Dilemma reading discussed the seasonality of meats. I never realized that meat also has a season. But you all will have to wait for my presentation to see how I incorporate Polan’s seasonality of meats into my cookbook.

At the beginning of my cookbook, I plan to include go into depth about the discussion of where to get sustainable ingredients. This is not completely clear cut because places like Whole Foods provide a significant amount of sustainable alternatives, but at the same time fails to provide complete sustainable products such as their shipping in of produce from all around the world.

My goal for the end of this next week is to confirm my recipes so I can get started on the concrete version of my cookbook. I even was able to run to Michael’s this weekend to gather art supplies like paper and stickers to make my seriously GREEN cookbook. (Pun intended) J

Project Update! Is Whole Foods actually sustainable?

Last week seen in my previous blog, I discussed the importance of taking into account seasonality of produce used in cooking products. I mentioned that I wanted to look into what types of produce was grown in California, and specifically organic produce, but I could not find a condensed list online about all of the types of produce grown in California.

Another probing question, which I had asked last week, was regarding what qualifies meat as sustainable. Pollan discusses in his writing this contradictory idea of “organic” from places like Whole Foods, so I thought I would dig into it a bit deeper. I went online and looked around their website to see if this idea of a capitalistic approach to “going green” really is contradictory toward the cause, and I was proven wrong. I learned from the website that Whole Foods is trying their best to maintain sustainable produce, and at least is providing the convenience to help us lazy Americans change our eating habits.

I learned that they supported sustainable seafood. Whole Foods understands that there are still some faults in their courses of action toward sustainability but they are slowly fixing them as they are discovered. There is a certification called Marine Stewardship Council certification which checks to make sure the fisheries follow the following criteria: 1) that the fishery is conducted in a way that the fish can be replenished naturally and does not kill other species in the farming practices 2) the fishery operates to ensure health and diversity of the marine ecosystem which it is in and 3) the fishery respects local, national, and international laws and regulations. Basically, if a seafood packaging has a Marine Stewardship Council sticker on it, it means it is harvested through sustainable practices. Whole Foods actually carries Alaskan Salmon with this sustainable sticker on it, which is the first and largest fishery to be certified in the United States.

Not only does Whole Foods provide sustainable fish, but also I learned that they buy a significant amount of their produce from local farms. For example, the Whole Foods I shop at in my hometown, has a significant amount of its produce brought in from the Santa Cruz county, one in particular Watsonville organic farms.

Although Whole Foods is not perfect, it is the closes resource many of us have besides local farmer’s markets to buy produce. However, all 4 of the Santa Monica farmer’s markets are considered CFM’s, Certified Farmer’s Markets. This means that they:

1) must consist of farmers who posses a current Certified Producer’s Certificate issued to them by their county’s agricultural commissioner

2) must be non-profit entities, sponsored by the farmers themselves, a non-profit organization or a municipality

3) must be grown and made in California to ensure that CFMs continue to exist for the benefit of the communities they serve.

Finding sustainable meat however is a lot more difficult. Ultimately animals rose off of grass rather than the corn fed animals is the closest way we can eat sustainable meat. This means that the animals are not injected with additives or hormones to speed up the growth process, as wekk. I found a website http://www.eatwild.com/products/california.html that provides names of farms which have their meat, eggs, and dairy products all made from animals that “eat wild”. The downfall to this is because they are such small farms, one must have it shipped to the household, which ultimately still does not make it completely sustainable. However, eating “wild” meat products again leads us one step closer to eating sustainable. We can either choose this method of healthy grass fed animals with transport or we can continue contributing to unhealthy CAFOs that are also transported. You choose.

After this week, I feel that I have enough information to successfully say that I can provide insight into resources to buy sustainable products, and begin to formulate recipes with as many fresh ingredients as possible. I would like to go to one of the farmer’s markets again however and see what specific types of produce they may have. I know on Wednesday there is one in Westwood I would like to check out, and perhaps I can even make my way to Santa Monica that day too for their farmer’s market! The one in Westwood is Wednesday from 2 – 7 on Broxton. Everyone should go!