Before the onslaught of crowds hit Golden Gate Park for Pearljam tonight, I, along with other Green minions checked out the Ouside Lands Green scene just as West Indian Girl hit one of the numerous stages.
Don’t say that we didn’t warn you but those who are short on cash should consider the Global Inheritance sponsored recycle booth in the Eco Lands section. They offered a similar booth last year but not many people seemed aware of it. The deal here is that anyone who wants nifty Outside Lands shirt (for free) just needs to bring 75 empty cans or bottles to the booth. For 250 bottles you can snag a pair of Loomstate organic jeans and 150 gets a recycled record vinyl clock. Those not as inspired can get some Fuel TV sunscreen (and boy is sunscreen mandatory today) for just eight bottles.
Pear pie. Pear ginger muffins. Pear cordials made from fruit, sugar and vodka. Pears canned in sugar syrup. Pear jam.
When my senior neighbor Mary calls me every year at the end of August with her annual message of “The tree is ripe – come pick,” I turn into the Bubba Gump of pears, gratefully using the four bushels of pears I harvest off her abundant backyard tree.
As the country whines about escalating food prices, there’s often rotten apples falling from some tree near you. Or pears, plums – name your fruit. You know the tree I’m talking about – the one you pass by every day in someone’s yard that is practically falling over with ripe fruit and you think to yourself, “Someone needs to do something with that.” How true – and that “someone” is you.
Talk about an organic homerun: By connecting with and harvesting a local fruit tree, you not only garner more organic, fresh, local fruit booty than you know what to do with – and put something to use that would otherwise have gone to waste. You build community by connecting with others. We’re talking community at its core, most sustainable essence, sharing abundance with others, relishing the gifts of the land.
Step up to the plate – or bushel – and tap into these unwanted fruit on trees in backyards across the nation that could be making the world a better place through more pie – or jam or cobblers or muffins – you get the picture. Here are three tips for foraging a fruit tree near you:
If you love milk (from animals or a vegan option) but are tired of drinking it plain or having it with your cereal every morning, you can try to prepare some delicious drinks and frozen desserts from it. Here are a few recipes you can use to enrich your daily diet.
How great would it be if there were want ads in your local newspaper or on Craigslist for organic fruits and vegetables, grown in your town, by your neighbors? A new website - Veggie Trader has sprung up that offers exactly such a service, a purchasing and bartering clearinghouse for locally grown fruits and vegetables.
Veggie Trader describes itself as the “place to trade, buy or sell local homegrown produce”. The idea is simple, you register on the website and then offer to purchase, to sell, or trade any manner of surplus fruits or vegetables. If you have too many tomatoes and want to see if anyone nearby has a surplus of peaches or peppers, you can log on, run a search, and find out who in the neighborhood may be willing to exchange with you.
[Cherry Tree. Creative Commons photo from Suzanne Long]
The mission of their fruit-picking program is to:
Cloned asian pears in New Zealand (photo Steve Savage)
OK, I’ll admit it. That question and the picture caption are a little bit manipulative because few people know that all the major fruit crops are technically “cloned” because they have to be to get the varieties we want. If you take the seed of a Fuji apple and plant it, the tree you will eventually grow will not make Fuji apples.
It will be something new because when the apple flower was pollinated there was a new combination of genes from the male and female flower. Its the same reason our kids don’t come out exactly like either parent. So, for millennia, people have been propagating the fruit varieties they liked by making cuttings or grafting or some other way to keep the identical genetics of the desirable fruit.
So, there really isn’t anything creepy about eating cloned fruit, but because I use the emotive term, “cloned,” I can usually get a negative response. Why do I mess with farming-naive people this way? I do it to make the point that if you want to understand controversial issues about food and the environment, you need to be vigilant about being manipulated by emotive terms.
I find this to be particularly true about the anti-GMO camp. Its one thing to make an argument, but the reason that many people are afraid of these things is that they have been given a healthy dose of disinformation, often through the use of emotive terms that don’t really convey information as much as they do fear.
Eating fresh, locally grown fruit as opposed to imported fruits shipped from far-off places keeps you eating in season and more in harmony with your environment and climate. We all know a healthy lifestyle is key to optimum weight, longevity and abundant energy. Fruit, used as part of your healthy lifestyle, has many nutritional qualities for your body.
As the temperature rises, eating raw fruit in the summer months is cooling for the body and is great for those who are overstressed or overheated from hot climates or excessive mental strain. Using fruit to satisfy your sweet tooth can help you begin to leave behind chemically processed and refined sugars. Although fruit juice is very cleansing, the fiber content is lower then that in the whole fruit. Since fruit contains lots of natural sugar without the extra fiber, you should be cautious of energy or moods swings. In it’s whole form, fruit offers you more fiber which helps to balance the natural sugars that can cause dips in your blood sugar levels for some people.
Whether you have fresh fruit for a light breakfast, a midday snack or evening treat, enjoy nature’s sweetness instead of refined sugars and buy seasonal organic whenever possible.
Here are a few summer fruits and their health benefits.
I’m visiting my parents in Boston and decided to make a fruit tart dessert for a family brunch. I headed to Whole Foods, the closest grocery store with both organic and local produce options. No matter how you feel about the chain, it’s pretty cool that all their produce is helpfully labeled as ‘organic,’ ‘conventional,’ or ‘local,’ sometimes even with a profile on the farm of origin. It makes it easier to know what you’re buying, but it can still leave you standing dazed amid the Chilean grapes and California clementines, paralyzed by the complexity of options in front of you.
Hammy the hamster repeatedly demonstrates her preference for organic fruits and vegetables. For five out of the six food types, Hammy preferred organic; she did, however, seem to have a preference for conventional walnuts over organic. Please visit http://www.cooksden.com/hamster/ for more information.
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