Green Options

Like this post? Subscribe to our RSS feed and stay up to date.

Happy Holiday Weekend coming up! This week, I want to share with you some of the words from our weekly CSA letter (we do both a CSA and I shop the market). This letter is from our family farm supplier and keeps us up-to-date with all that is happening at the farm. The paragraph sums up so much about why farmers pursue a difficult livlihood, often working a second job just so they can continue farming.

“I have been thinking a lot this week about growing things and how lucky we are to live in a place where it is possible to see nature in all its forms. As pissed off as I get about the deer eating produce, it still takes my breath away to see a doe and her baby standing by the side of the road. I love to watch the dragon flies dive boming over the plants in the field and just have to search for the nest of a quail who is frantically trying to call me in the opposite direction. It never ceases to amaze me that a seed no bigger than a pinhead can create a plant that is over 12 feet tall and will produce a two-pound tomato. What a wondrous world we live in.

Post for this week follow the jump.

Spring finally exploded here, and my market haul took two trips to the car. For a mere $40.00 I came home with peaches, two bunches of asparagus, 2 lbs. of collard greens, 2 heads of lettuce, a huge head of Savoy cabbage, cilantro, amaranth leaves, spring onions, kohlrabi, strawberries and blueberries, 2 bulbs of garlic, and 2 lb. green beans. I don’t even want to guess what the same stuff grown “no spray” at the market would have cost me in the “organic” produce section of the store. Many of the farmers I know are not certified organic, but practice sustainable methods, so I look for people I trust, not USDA logos. I like it that way.

The two “experiments” in my haul are, of course, kohlrabi and amaranth. I heard more than one remark, “But what do you do with it?” over these items. I am determined to find out. For the kohlrabi, which is a combination word from German and German Swiss for “cabbage” and “turnip,” the mild radish-like flavor and crunch lends itself to a tangy kohlrabi slaw recipe.

For the rest of the carnival, entries from all of you include some great recipes and advice this week. Reader posts after the jump.

Now, you would think on the first weekend of May, we would not be shivering from cold while we gathered fresh produce at the market, but its been a different season here, and weeks in, we are still lagging in temperatures and abundance. I keep hoping for a beautiful spring day to enjoy outside at the market, and well, I am still hoping.

In the meantime, we dress warm and console ourselves with purple and green asparagus, arugula, spring onions, herbs, lettuces and spinach.

Around the country, other markets are filled with spring’s freshest. Entries for this week’s Farmers Market Fare after the jump.

Welcome to this week’s Farmers Market Fare Posts! We gathering more posts in this second edition, and I hope that continues to grow as the Eat Local season really gets started for most of the country. Perhaps not so much for my neck of the woods where we had snow and cold. Then spring arrived the following afternoon. Just to mock me, or to cheer me up. Or both.

Given that this coming week is Earth Day, and April is poetry month, here are a few words from Kahlil Gibran’s poem, “Earth:”

“How beautiful you are, Earth, and how sublime!
How perfect is your obedience to the light,  and
how noble is your submission to the sun!

How soothing is the song of your dawn, and how
harsh are the praises of your eventide!
How perfect you are, Earth, and how majestic!”

Here are your blog posts for the week (after the jump).

The next time you’re in Minneapolis and struck with a craving for pizza, you can satisfy both your hunger and your desire to save the Earth by giving Galactic Pizza a ring.

The uptown eatery, which was recently featured on CNNMoney.com, goes to exceptional lengths to be eco-friendly. When the Minnesota weather cooperates, for instance, Galactic Pizza employees (costumed as unique superheroes) will deliver your order by electric car. The restaurant also gets its power from wind energy, sends some of its food waste to local pig farms and prints its menus on hemp.

The pizzas, too, are created with a green philosophy: many of the ingredients come from farms in Minnesota or Wisconsin, other ingredients are organic and the mozzarella comes from non-rGBH cows. Even vegans can find a menu item to their tastes, with choices including vegan mozzarella, vegan chicken and mock duck.

So, it poured down sleet all day today. That infernal rodent, Punxsutawney Phil, saw his shadow and forecast a grim six more weeks of bone chilling temperatures and “record snow events.” Three more weeks to go, Phil. Thanks, Buddy. While contemplating cooking up a vat of groundhog confit is taking it a bit too far, suffice it to say, I have the Cabin Fever, baby. Bad.

What keeps this locavore’s heart warm in February, other than my child, six layers of clothes and fuzzy socks, is the knowledge that it is once again time to sign up for our CSA. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is basically a mutual agreement between consumers and a farmer that helps guarantee the farmer a reliable income, and the consumers each get a share of the produce throughout the season.

A CSA is a real partnership; the consumers take on some of the risk of farming as a bad season can mean less produce. However, the support through the tough seasons allows the farm to continue, and it certainly pays off during the good seasons. Most seasons, a CSA subscription provides enough produce to feed a family of four. Many will offer shared, or half subscriptions for single people or small families. (Learn more about CSAs and how to find one after the jump).

Chicago residents who want to get serious about eating local and organic food have a number of ways to get their hands on produce with low "food miles" that is grown in an earth-friendly way. In addition to the scores of different farmers’ markets to be found in different neighborhoods throughout the city, dozens of CSA options are available from organic farms in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. But what happens after

[...]

These days it is easier to find things that have been produced from far away than to get things made or grown near us. When you buy local you’re actually saving energy: it takes less oil to transport something from 100 miles away than it does from around the world. Supporting local businesses also improves the economy in your area, which will inevitably create a more vibrant community.

CSA

[...]

Photo credit: Brines.org
There is a huge variety of food available throughout the year in grocery stores in the US. In most places, this is due to several factors: far distant farms situated in temperate climate regions; varieties of plants that have been bred to produce food that will ripen slowly and be hardy enough to withstand the rigors of packaging and shipping; and a transportation infrastructure that brings them to our stores.

[...]