August 2012
2 posts
July 2012
1 post
June 2012
3 posts
May 2012
14 posts
Spring Fruit Obsession.
At this exact moment, the following is happening:
- Thinly slice 3 rhubarb stalks
- Thinly slice a handful of strawberries
- Heat a tablespoon of oil and half a cup of water in a medium skillet
- Add the rhubarb
- When the rhubarb starts to get soft, add 2 tablespoons of honey (I used Tremblay’s apple locust)
- Add the strawberries
- Stir often and keep simmering until you have a thick hot pink syrup
- Let cool to slightly above room temperature
- Serve over Hot Bread Kitchen’s multigrain baguette
- Die happy
“Oh um, strawberries? Delicious.”
—Ethan
April 2012
5 posts
Sustainable Food and Privilege: Why is Green Always White (and Male and Upper-Class) →
racialicious.com
“All social movements need a variety of voices, but I argue that food reform requires this diversity even more urgently because it is so universal in its reach. And if we can reach all those voices, then think of all the activists we will have as allies—feminists, anti-racists, interfaith leaders, and so on—interested and involved because food justice speaks to the needs of their communities and their call for action (activists: this is on you too—get on board!). As consumers of this kind of liberal rhetoric, we need to demand that the powers and big hitters in the food world diversify their representations. The food movement can only grow more powerful for it.”
“I recalled with a twinge of sadness how Japhy was always so dead serious about food, and I wished the whole world was dead serious about food instead of silly rockets and machines and explosives using everybody’s food money to blow their heads off anyway.”
—Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums (via salsalsally)
Take this class that I am teaching! →
brooklynbrainery.com
In this three week course, we’ll explore the history, political economy, racialization, and sexualization of my fourth grade lunch.
As a ten year old, I had milk, tuna, and chips nearly everyday—a lunch totally based off popular food advertisements at the time. In this course, we will talk about why milk has become so pervasive in American diets, despite a growing intolerance to lactose. We’ll learn about deli meats, pink slime, and other sandwich fillers, plus the way that food advertising has contributed to our processed food choices.
We’ll look at everything from Byzantine depictions of the Madonna to Got Milk ads to understand how Western cultures view food and why we eat so much of it. Plus, there might be snacks. All diets welcome!
March 2012
8 posts
Vegan Mac and Cheese aka why I am a genius
Yesterday, I told Maggie that I want to paint my living room shades of yellow ranging from white cheddar to macaroni and cheese. Today, I passed the Gorilla Cheese truck and literally drooled on my sweater. Seriously, it was disgusting (of me).
After two weeks of no cheese (a miracle, I know), I realized that I need it. Going from 13 to 0 pieces of cheese over night was emotionally crushing me, thus it was necessary that I create some sort of cheese sauce for my pasta tonight. Plus, I was too lazy to stop at the store for marinara sauce on the way home from school.
I’d post a picture, but I ate it too quickly.
INGREDIENTS:
2 tbsp olive oil
roughly 1/2 cup original hemp milk (Thank you, Nora, for leaving that in my fridge!)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp turmeric
pinch of sea salt
1 tsp Cayenne pepper (ooh, or chili powder!)
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
Pour olive oil into your skillet and heat it up! I set mine to medium heat.
When the pan is hot, pour in the hemp milk and stand back so it doesn’t spray your face.
Add the garlic and let it hang out for a few minutes. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking.
Add in the turmeric, salt, and pepper and stir.
Turn the heat down low and prepare your bowl of pasta. You want to do this in advance because you are going to make enough for one bowl and you are going to want it immediately. Plus, once you add the nutritional yeast, there is no turning back.
Add the nutritional yeast, stir once to incorporate, and pour directly over your pasta.
This makes enough sauce for one bowl and a whole lot of regret that you didn’t make more.
Learning to Farm Sustainably →
blogs.newschool.edu
This was written by a new friend about our trip to the farm. She’s called Sara Esquibel and she is a very nice lady!
The New School takes on Sylvester Manor →
shelterislandreporter.timesreview.com
This is an article written by a lady who followed us around all day and took pictures of us covered in mud and manure. It’s an interesting take on our volunteer trip.
February 2012
7 posts
NYC's Community Gardens →
gardenmaps.org
This map breaks down all of the 215 community gardens located in New York City by a number of variables, including usage, percentage of food, and vegetables grown.
Urban Ag resources
I’m writing a memo for my political economy class about New York City’s urban agriculture sector. I’m having trouble finding information regarding the number of people involved in city ag, the amount of money it brings in (or doesn’t), and acreage. Everything I’ve found is vague.
Tumblr urban foodies! Help a sista out!
So, like, do you eat fish?
When I first tell someone that I am a vegetarian, they respond in one of three ways. The first and most rare of the three is acceptance. They say oh that’s cool, I/my sister/my friend from elementary school is/was a vegetarian. The second response is to immediately build a defense wall and give me all of their justifications for eating meat. The third and most annoying response is so do you eat fish?
I’ve ranted and raved about this before, but I am going to set things straight once and for all here.
vegetarian: eats a primarily plant-based diet, but also eats and wears animal by-products, like eggs, dairy, and wool. Most vegetarians are lacto-ovo vegetarian.
pescetarian: eats plant-based foods as well as seafood. Pescetarian is a hybridization of pesce (Italian for fish) and the suffix -tarian (from vegetarian).
omnivore: eats a balanced diet of plants and animals.
carnivore: eats only animals.
vegan: also known as pure vegetarian, eats only plant-based matter.
flexitarian: fluctuates between different diets depending on a schedule. ex, “I am vegan on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but I am a vegetarian the rest of the time.”
freegan: eats anything free. The freegans I know are mostly vegans, but if they are offered a hamburger, they will probably say yes.
localvore (or locavore): eats food that is locally grown or raised.
Oh, and one last thing. Yes, I have heard of hummus and tahini. Yes, they are good sources of protein. No, they are not 90% of my diet and no, they are not “pretty much like dairy.”
February berries.
Friday morning was tough. I woke up with exactly forty minutes to get to work and I left my apartment still wearing my slippers. While running to catch the train, I passed a fruit stand advertising three pints of berries (your choice!) for $5. Starving for food and summer, I handed over my money and walked away with blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries.
I rationalized this impulse buy with statements like “not everyone can be perfect” or “cheating is okay sometimes” and “this will boost local economy by putting money directly into that man’s pocket.” I was willing to ignore the Grown in Mexico stickers and the fact that some of the labels still clearly read Shop Rite.
When I got to work, I sat down and excitedly opened my first berries since summer. The first blackberry tasted like a neutral mouth. The second tasted like dirt. The third had a feather stuck to it and so I threw those away.
The hard blueberries were fine, mostly tart, but the softer ones were gross. All of the strawberries were terrible and tasted like cotton balls and smelled like lotion.
Moral of the story? Never eat fruit out of season. You can tell how nutritious it is just by the taste…bland is bad!
Challenge: Buy Groceries at Whole Foods on a Poverty-Level Budget →
dietsinreview.com
I wonder how this would change if they bought meat substitutes, like tempeh or tofu, instead of meat.
“I contacted Whole Foods and suggested a bet. If I could feed my family of three for 30 days exclusively from items purchased at Whole Foods for $491.10 they would reimburse me for my food. If I didn’t make it, they’d owe me nothing. The budget worked out to $16.31 cents per day total for all three of us. In case you’re wondering, here’s what we bought for the month.”
The future of farming →
flavormagazinevirginia.com
There’s a crisis in farming: The average age of a farmer in the United States is between 57 and 59. Thirty percent of our farmers are beyond retirement age. And the USDA says we need 100,000 new farmers a year – that’s right, every year – to continue American food production at current levels.
January 2012
6 posts
Local food updates.
This is my fifth cold of the season. I usually don’t get sick this many times over the course of a few months, but I also usually eat a much more balanced meal.
I have revised my local foods diet again. After all, you can’t make political statements if you don’t have your health.
I am going to eat as locally as possible, but if I need to buy lemons to put in my tea, that is okay too. However, I will try to eat fewer eggs and less cheese. It doesn’t really balance out my food miles, but it does make it a lot better.
