It's Farmer's Market Time!

I am so excited because my local farmer's market, in Central Square Cambridge, opens this coming Monday! It runs every Monday from May 24 through November 22nd in the Harvest Co-Op parking lot. Every year there are an amazing variety of fruit-and-vegetable farms, bakers, grass-fed meat producers, and luscious flowers.

Gorgeous variety at the Central Square Farmer's Market, by Tiny Urban Kitchen

If you live in Massachusetts, you can find your own nearest market at massfarmersmarkets.org and if you live elsewhere, you can search on Local Harvest. If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon yet, give one a try! It is so important, more than ever, to support our local farms before they disappear, and to keep your money out of the hands of the huge food conglomerates who care more about production quantity than safety and quality. Have you seen Food, Inc. or read any of Michael Pollan's books and articles? Some of the most important journalism of our time.

New studies have shown that there is a definite link between ADHD and pesticides, and who knows how many of the increased number of cancer diagnoses are related as well... Given this recent revelation, most advice stresses washing "conventional" (non-organic) produce thoroughly. Unfortunately, a good number of the vegetables and fruits we eat are so high in water content that the pesticides on the outside almost always penetrate through the entire fruit. For "the dirty dozen" - the most notoriously contaminated foods- it is imperative to choose organic. Unfortunately Dole and other large companies have started their own organic production in countries where who knows what that designation really means, so the word begins to carry less and less weight. What you can almost always be sure of if you buy from local, small farms is that they use best practices even if they're not certified organic. It's expensive and wasteful to use chemical fertilizers and pesticides, when a good biodynamic farm requires none of it-- it's a perfect, closed system and it's the natural, truly "conventional" (as in throughout all of history except WWII until now) way to grow food. No scary chemicals, no petroleum-based fertilizers. If a farm stand doesn't have signs saying "no pesticides" then ask!

It can be more expensive to buy organic, of course, especially at natural foods stores like Whole Foods, but the seasonal bounty at a farmer's market almost always costs less than produce which has been trucked thousands of miles and passed through the expense-adding processes of marketing and middlemen. To further stretch your budget and survive through the winter when the less temperate areas close up production, think about learning to can or using a deep freeze!
If you are intimidated by the variety of strange veggies you encounter, pick up a book like How to Pick a Peach or Farmer's Market Cooking and start experimenting!

Happy produce shopping!

Frugal Friday: Flexitarianism

OK, so "flexitarianism" is kind of a silly name because it's not like we're going to be eating flex. (Flax, on the other hand is a good choice, and lacking it can be like, deadly, if you don't eat fish. But I digress). Perhaps you've heard about it, though-- the movement is trying to encourage people not necessarily to become total vegetarians but just to include more meatless meals in their weekly diets, or to be more "flexible" in their choices.



If you've read Omnivore's Dilemma or any Michael Pollan, or seen Food, Inc. or the Meatrix, then you are aware what the situation with factory farms in this country is. If you don't, even though it's difficult to face, you should know. The word disturbing comes to mind-- or perhaps horrifying. Unfortunately, we can hardly expect the meat-and-potatoes mentality to change overnight, nor for avowed carnivores to pull an about-face, or for the increasingly-poor-and-underemployed masses to be willing to pay twice or three times as much for non-feedlot meat. It is essential, however, that we reduce the demand for cheaply-produced meat so that conditions improve for both the animals and for the impact of bacterial illnesses, etc. (Did you know that beef raised eating pasture and not in a crowded feed lot does not HAVE e.coli? It's not even a possibility. Cow stomach pH cannot support e. coli unless they're fed unnatural things like corn and soybeans [which are also nearly exclusively genetically modified, but I suppose that's a topic for another day]).

Even if you don't care one iota about the animals or worry about getting sick, think about this: major, major disasters have been created by man over-farming, throughout history, such as desertification (yeah, those huge, uninhabitable deserts in Africa? Humans created those. By over-grazing our livestock. Seriously). Large-scale pig farming alone is responsible for a staggering number of alarming events, and chicken and beef lots are really no better.

But what's a wife to do with a small grocery budget and a hungry man who demands his steak? To be honest, while change is difficult for all of us, if you adopt some "flexitarian" ideals you will be surprised how inexpensive and also satisfying it can be to go meatless now and then, and how quickly your stubborn significant other will learn to love it (especially if by happy coincidence he happens to drop a bit of belly and you make a big deal out of how sexy it is, ahem!)

Even when you're not cooking fully meatless meals, you can control cost, calories and contribution to the problem by dividing up your plate into just a quarter protein, a quarter whole grain and a full HALF vegetables. I do not recommend that you try to choke down three cups of broccoli at every meal-- variety is incredibly important, for both satiety and phytochemical benefit (if you don't eat all of the colors of veggies and fruit, you're missing out on essential nutrients). Instead, find a great book like More Vegetables, Please or How to Pick a Peach and learn delicious and easy prep for two or three (or more!) vegetables per meal. A little extra work, perhaps, but worth not dying of butt cancer. (It's true, not eating veggies gives you the asscancer. Come on, do you want that? I don't think even your burger-chugging boyfriend wants that). Also, PUT BUTTER ON THEM. Or cook them in olive oil. Use spices. Don't try to eat them all plain and boring and virtuous (although some veggies are delectable with nothing at all, like fresh spring asparagus.) ...And for the love of all that's holy, don't try to eat tomatoes in December or strawberries in August because they are out of season at those times and will be a pale, pathetic shadow of the real thing (not to mention far more expensive.) Next week I'll talk a little bit more about meatless recipes and finding local, seasonal produce, but a good start for at least knowing what to look for during which months is this great Pro-fruits-and-veggies site.

Do you have a stubborn meat-eater at home? Have you been able to or do you think it will be possible to influence their ways at all, with these tips, if you're interested in trying it?

Happy Cooking!