Cities across the nation suffer from some of the same ills regarding poor quality food and inequitable distribution of healthy, fresh produce and other unprocessed foods. But New York City has a bold plan that could very well serve as a model for the rest of us.

Communities in every urban area include pockets or neighborhoods that have higher rates of diet related diseases than neighboring communities, little or no physical access to healthy, fresh foods, or lack of money to buy the fresh food that is available. Our broken food system contributes to our national health problems, but it’s also a huge contributor to climate change and other environmental problems. Additionally, employment in the food sector – whether you are a farmer, farmworker, or service industry worker – often means scraping by on less than a living wage and living without health care.

How do we fix our food system and reform it into something that actually serves us?

If we want to build a decentralized food distribution system that serves the people equally, the best way is to start at home with a clear vision and concrete policy recommendations. NYC’s model for a better food system, if adopted, could be replicated in other cities across the nation, creating jobs and providing better food for more people.

In February, Manhattan Borough President Scott M. Stringer released “FoodNYC: A Blueprint for a Sustainable Food System,” calling it “the most comprehensive effort to date to unify and reform New York City’s policies regarding the production, distribution, consumption, and disposal of food.” (The report was produced as a result of the New York City Food and Climate Summit held in December (09) in partnership with the non-profit Just Food.)

Of all the ideas presented, the blueprint chose to outline 10 bold ideas for the future. Cities everywhere take notice!

1. Urban Agriculture: Urban agriculture can reduce rainwater runoff and pollution, reduce the heat-island effect in cities, and absorb and sequester carbon. New York’s blueprint calls on the city to create a citywide urban Ag program that will identify land that is available for urban agriculture, such as vacant lots owned by the city, foster community gardens by giving them park status, and ease regulations and provide incentives to pave the way for green rooftops and other innovative urban farming programs.

2. Regional Food Production: Small regional farmers struggle to survive and compete with cheap overseas produce and heavily subsidized produce from industrial farms. When this happens, farmland dwindles and the farming population shrinks while urban consumers remain hungry for local foods. One task of the plan is to assess the capacity of a regional foodshed, facilitate connections among upstate farms and downstate consumers, and develop a long-term strategy towards preserving current farmland.

3. Food Processing and Distribution: When local food has to be shipped off somewhere else to be processed, it’s not really local food anymore. Relocalizing processing can create jobs along with a greener, more equitable food system. The plan recommends increasing distribution capacity of fresh, regional foods by expanding the existing Hunts Point Wholesale Produce Market and building other smaller wholesale produce markets in different areas of the city. Another recommendation is to invest public funds in local food processing plants.

4. New Markets: It’s all about access. Neighborhoods that have access to healthy, fresh foods suffer lower incidences of diet related diseases. The plan recommends fostering the development of non-traditional food outlets such as farmers’ markets by investing in increasing their capacity, offering long-term leases for public markets, and taking other actions that lower the barriers to increasing the number and type of alternative (non-grocery store) food venues in every neighborhood.

5. Procurement of Regionally grown Foods: Municipalities have huge buying power and can really move the needle toward change. By investing public money in community-based food, governments are creating jobs and bettering the health of local citizens. The recommendations focus on requiring publicly-funded schools, hospitals, senior centers, homeless shelters, and jails to mandate the purchase of regionally produced food.

6. Education: Kids don’t necessarily learn how to eat well at home, any more than they might learn algebra there. The blueprint recommends fostering lifelong good eating habits through requiring food curriculum in schools, exposing children to farms and gardens, and instituting meatless Mondays in New York City schools.

7. Food Waste: Rotting food creates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. The plan recommends that the city lower food waste by decreasing the amount of food that goes uneaten through better procurement practices and by investing in municipal and individual composting programs.

8. Plastic Water Bottles: We live in a country with safe tap water, yet plastic bottles remain ubiquitous and have terrible environmental consequences. In New York, only 10% of plastic water bottles are recycled. The blueprint recommends banning sales of bottled water on city property and encouraging the use of water canteens.

9. Food Economy: Food fares well even during a recession. Focus the city’s economic development strategy on food businesses, creating good jobs and better food at the same time, through zoning, kitchen incubators and other programs. The plan also calls on New York State to protect the rights of farmworkers.

10. Government Oversight: Everybody eats and we already know that food has huge environmental and personal health impacts. Why not give food its due and treat it like transportation, education, and sanitation by creating a Department of Food and Markets to oversee and lead the reform of the city’s food system? That’s what the panel recommends.

When faced with gigantic problems like creating a food system that works for everyone, it’s helpful to break down the issues into smaller parts and offer concrete recommendations that build a new vision, like this blueprint does. You can read the entire report here and then get involved in a food policy council near you. They have been springing up everywhere. This handy map provides a list of all food policy councils in your state.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: wwarby

I have a theory that the more often one cooks, the easier it is for one to cook more often. I know from experience that this is true for me. Back when I worked at night in the restaurant business, I loved to cook at home on my nights off. Being a busy student and worker, my refrigerator was always bare so I’d pore over cookbooks, decide what to make, then head to the store (or stores) for the ingredients. Every time I cooked, I’d have to start from scratch with just the right spices, herbs, grains, cheeses, etc. Then I’d spend the entire afternoon cooking…and about 20 minutes eating. I enjoyed it, but this was no way to actually feed myself on a regular basis.

Now I have a different approach to cooking. I cook more seasonally, inspired by the market, rather than a cookbook, and I cook regularly. This means I always have food to eat or the remnants of a meal on which I can build a new meal. It’s so much more pleasurable to be able to feed myself (and sometimes unexpected guests) with healthy whole foods without any fuss.

Many of us end up in front of the prepared foods counter at the grocery store more often than we’d like, but we also know that if we only cooked more we’d save money, we’d know exactly what’s in our food, and we’d probably consume fewer unhealthy calories and more healthier ones. The challenge is fitting cooking into our busy modern lives, but it’s a worthy challenge. When I can feed myself, even on the busiest of days, I feel a sense of triumph in the midst of the chaos that sometimes overtakes my life.

A few weeks ago, we talked about how to actually shop the farmers’ market. Since we can’t live on fresh vegetables alone, today we’re going to talk Pantry, Paraphernalia, and Planning. You’ll see how a wide variety of foods on hand, the proper kitchen tools, and a little advance thought can turn your kitchen into the most important room in your home.

Pantry Basics

Your personal pantry will depend on taste, dietary needs and cooking habits, but here’s a good start for developing a pantry full of real food.

Basic Oils:

1 refined oil for high heat cooking like stir-frying: peanut, avocado, or safflower are good choices
1 good quality extra virgin olive oil
1 unrefined oil for general use in dressings and low heat cooking: safflower or sunflower are good choices

Optional:
1 nut oil for special salads: walnut or hazelnut oils are good options (must be refrigerated after opening as they go rancid quickly)
Toasted sesame oil for cooking with Asian flavors

Basic Vinegars:
Good red wine vinegar
Cider vinegar
Rice wine vinegar

Condiments:
Dijon mustard
Soy sauce
Fish sauce
Ketchup
Chili paste

Spices:
One gourmet salt
Everyday salt for cooking, like kosher or iodized sea salt
Whole and ground cumin
Whole black pepper
Oregano
Thyme
Rosemary
Cayenne
Pepper flakes
Cinnamon
Bay leaves

Canned Goods:
Canned wild salmon, sardines, herring, and anchovies
Canned beans and chickpeas
Canned whole and diced tomatoes
Coconut milk
Chicken or vegetable broth

Dry Goods:
3 types of pasta: one regular, one buckwheat or whole wheat, one rice noodle
Cornmeal
All-purpose unbleached flour
Whole-wheat flour
Lentils
2 types of dried beans – one white and one black or brown
Oats
One white long-grain rice
One brown rice
One interesting rice, like red or black
1 to 2 types of quick cooking grains like quinoa
1 to 2 types of longer cooking grains like wheat berries, faro, kamut
Dried mushrooms
Dried chilies
Sea vegetables
Nut butters
Honey
Maple syrup
Agave and/or sugar

Refrigerator Pantry:
Capers
Anchovies
Eggs
Tortillas
Butter
Basic cheeses: one feta, one hard grating, and one everyday like cheddar or Jack
Plain yogurt
Pickles
Sauerkraut

Freezer Pantry:
Nuts and seeds: Almonds, walnuts, pecans, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds
Frozen berries and stone fruit for smoothies and healthy desserts
Sliced bread

Other:
Lemons
Garlic
Onions
Shallots
Potatoes

Paraphernalia

The right tools can mean the difference between fun and frustration. Here are a few basic things that every cook needs. Feel free to embellish.

Utensils:
Good quality chef knife that is kept sharpened
Paring knife
Sharp serrated knife for use on bread and tomatoes
Tongs: restaurant quality, locking tongs; 1 long; 1 medium
Sturdy whisk: 1 small; 1 medium
Metal spatula
Rubber spatulas: 2 or 3 different sizes
Vegetable peeler
Wooden spoons: several in different sizes
Large metal spoon
Slotted spoon
Ladles: 1 large; 1 small
Potato Masher
Microplane for grating hard cheeses and lemon zest

Tools:
Strainer
Colander
Small hand juicer
Mortar and pestle for spices and garlic paste
Measuring spoons and cups
Box grater
Salad spinner
Nesting mixing bowls: metal or glass
Cutting boards: 1 for meat and seafood, one for vegetables and aromatics like garlic, and one for fruit
Blender or food processor
Hand-held mixer

Cookware:
1 small saucepan
1 medium saucepan
Large pot for boiling pasta and making soup
1 10-inch cast-iron skillet – great for non-stick uses as well!
Steamer or vegetable steamer basket
Baking sheets (at least 2)
A selection of glass or ceramic baking dishes: casseroles of different sizes and pie plates

A Crockpot or slow cooker will make cooking ahead easier.

Planning

Spend a few hours cooking on the weekend, add simply cooked fresh vegetables you’ve purchased at the farmers’ market, or received in your CSA, and feed yourself all week.

Depending on the size of your household, make:
One big pot of stew, soup, or pot of beans – use a crockpot if you want
One batch of grains – rice cookers are great for this task
A batch of roasted vegetables
A quick, basic vinaigrette
Meat eaters can roast or simmer a whole chicken or pop a meat roast in the oven.
Time allowing: another project like jam, pickles, salsa, or a pesto, red pepper puree, or other condiment.

All of the foods above lend themselves well to repurposing and quick meals. This is a good way to cook ahead for families who don’t enjoy eating leftovers. One pot of beans can become tacos, enchiladas, salads, soups, pasta dishes, dips, sandwich spreads, and more. A batch of cooked grains like brown rice or wheat berries can be used throughout the week in one-dish grain bowl meals with seasonal cooked greens, roasted squash or sweet potatoes. Cooked grains can also be added to salads or soups or used in stir-fries.

If you’ve cooked meat, use the meat in tacos, salads, sandwiches, pasta and grain dishes throughout the week. It really is all about cooking main meal components ahead of time.

Casserole type foods like lasagna take a bit longer to prepare but can also be frozen in portions or eaten all week with an array of quickly prepared, seasonal, vegetable accompaniments.

So there you have it: Want to cook more and eat out less? Just cook. These are just some ways to get started. You will surely develop your own repertoire over time.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Images: Valentin.Ottone, ernestch, Jeppestown, ernestch

While waiting impatiently for spring shoots, we have to continue to enjoy our roots. This is the time of year that I start getting bored with the usual winter suspects and turn to the less common (and less appreciated) roots.

Parsnips, for example, are terribly underrated. They’re shaped like carrots and they’re sweet like carrots, but they have an herbaceous, almost wild flavor. This recipe would make a nice Sunday dinner accompaniment to serve with roasted chicken, fish or lamb. Or add a salad or some braised greens along with a whole grain and you have a comforting and satisfying vegetarian winter meal.

Last of Winter Parsnip, Mushroom and Leek Gratin

Serves 6-8

1 1 /2 pound parsnips
1 tablespoon butter plus more for buttering dish
2 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 ounces mixed fresh mushrooms (king trumpets, oysters or whatever is fresh and local), cleaned and sliced
3 leeks, white and light green parts, cleaned and sliced lengthwise
1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
1/3 cup dry white wine
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 3/4 cup heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Peel parsnips and slice about 1/4 inch thick on an extreme angle so as to get the largest slices possible. Butter a 12 x 8 inch baking dish and preheat the oven to 400 ° F.

In a medium skillet, over medium high heat, warm the butter and olive oil. Add mushrooms and leeks along with a pinch of salt and sauté, stirring occasionally, until they release all of their liquid and begin to brown. Add thyme and white wine and cook, stirring, until wine evaporates. Set aside.

Begin to layer the ingredients into the dish beginning with a single layer of parsnip slices, followed by salt and pepper, followed by half of the leek/mushroom mixture and half the Parmesan. Repeat with parsnips, more salt and pepper, the remaining leek/mushroom mixture, and most of the remaining Parmesan, reserving a little for the top.

The final layer should consist of the remaining parsnips. Pour the cream over and push down with the back of a spoon to submerge everything as much as possible. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan on top and cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and check for tenderness, and continue to bake if necessary. When the parsnips are nearly tender, uncover and continue to bake uncovered for an additional 15 minutes or until the top begins to brown and all the cream has been absorbed. Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving to allow the cream to thicken.

Recipe Copyright Vanessa Barrington 2010

Note: Use local and organic ingredients whenever possible. As shown with Alaskan halibut.

Image: Danielle Scott

Imagine this: You’re having a normal day until you gradually notice a little sore throat and begin to feel a tad feverish. You assume you must have the flu. You go to bed and rest. The next day, you can barely breathe, and you rush to the hospital. Things go quickly downhill and soon, you’re trying to write down your last wishes – your body riddled with an aggressive infection – while the doctors put you in a coma to save your life. You may or may not make it. Sounds like something out of a made-for-TV script, right?

Now consider: The U.S death rate from the staph infection MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) surpassed the death rate from AIDS way back in 2005.

And MSRA is just one of the antibiotic resistant diseases that can infect people. Others include food-borne bacteria such as e-coli, salmonella, and still others that are associated with poverty and crowding, such as tuberculosis and typhoid.

These “superbugs” I’m concerned with today are the ones associated with food and farms and – though the drug industry and some farmers won’t agree – the evidence is overwhelming that they are at least partially a result of dosing farm animals with subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics added to their feed.

I used to think this was done to keep the animals healthy. And that’s part of it. But the reason it’s necessary is because most farm animals live in such crowded, filthy conditions. What I didn’t know until recently is that farmers also administer antibiotics to help the animals grow twice as fast. This boosts production and their bottom line.

In fact, according to Pew, up to 70 percent of all antibiotics consumed in the U.S. are given to healthy farm animals, not people.

(note: the above statistic was found on the Pew website but it is actually from the Union of Concerned Scientists from a 2001 report titled Hogging It! Estimates of Antimicrobial Abuse in Livestock, Mellon, Margaret, Charles Benbrook & Karen Lutz Benbrook, Cambridge Mass)

The problem with these practices, aside from the harm done to the animals themselves who have to live under such conditions, is that these superbugs, which at first only occurred in hospitals, have been unleashed on the community at large.

It used to be that MSRA was commonly found only in hospitals and nursing homes, but recently, another type of MRSA has occurred among otherwise healthy people in the wider community. This form, community-associated MRSA, or CA-MRSA, is responsible for serious skin and soft tissue infections and for a dangerous form of pneumonia.

Though MSRA can be related to farming, it isn’t a food-borne illness. But salmonella and e-coli both are, and today there more aggressive forms than in the past, making these diseases more harmful. Both can be caused by poor farming practices, as can their drug resistant mutations.

There have been multiple studies, farm surveys and stories that make the link between antibiotic use on farms and increases in drug-resistant diseases look increasingly apparent, including in the Academy Award nominated documentary Food Inc. It’s only been recently that the mainstream media has acknowledged the link between animal husbandry and the rise of “superbugs.”

Katie Couric took on the story last month for CBS News. Bravely slogging through pig farms (while remaining perfectly groomed), interviewing farmers and victims of drug resistant staph who worked on farms or lived in farm families, she presented problem clearly: These bugs are being spread through air, water and food. We know our food contains e-coli and salmonella, and MSRA has also been found in our meat supply. Nobody knows how prevalent it is because, as Couric said, “A very small amount is actually tested for MSRA.”

Couric also reported that the exact same drugs used to treat human disease are also used on animals. Her piece also presented Denmark’s experiment with administering antibiotics only when the animals actually become sick and interviewed farmers in the US who don’t use antibiotics as a regular practice.

One poultry farmer admitted that he’d been using them so long “they didn’t work well anyway anymore.”

He also said his Pennsylvania poultry farms are more profitable than when he used antibiotics and the cost to consumers was only about 20 cents per pound higher.

Though the prevalence of these diseases may be new to many Americans, the problem of antibiotic use on farms has been well understood by the science community for a long time. Researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have done numerous studies. In one, they collected flies near 8 poultry farms and then collected samples of poultry litter (a mix of manure and bedding materials) from three large-scale, conventional poultry operations in that same area. Both the poultry litter and the flies were found to harbor antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. When you think about the flies buzzing around the casserole dishes at your next get together this information lends new meaning to the word “potluck,” doesn’t it?

In another Johns Hopkins study, we learn that simply being in a car driving behind open-crate poultry trucks may expose you to harmful, drug-resistant strains of bacteria. Who knew rural life could be so dangerous?

But wait, there’s more: Barry Estabrook (formerly of Gourmet) reports on his blog, Politics of the Plate, that a new study has found low levels of antibiotics (such as those administered on farms) actually create free radicals in the bacteria, leading to a supercharged mutation rate, resulting in a heavily populated “zoo of mutants.” Good grief.

What can you do? There is a bill in Congress right now called the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act. Contact your representatives and ask them to support it.

Take it further, though: stop buying what we are being sold. There are other options out there made by producers doing the right thing. Support them by looking for meat and dairy labeled antibiotic-free.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: James Jordan

Mayor, mayor, on the wall: Who is the greenest of them all?

My neighboring hometown across the Bay, San Francisco, makes all the greenest cities lists, with its mayor, Gavin Newsom, regularly billed as “America’s Greenest Mayor.” But behind the glossy Priuses, how green is SF?

Google “country’s greenest mayor” and you get some interesting results. Rocky Anderson, former mayor of Salt Lake City, comes up first. Greg Nickels, former mayor of Seattle, also gets some hits. Then there’s Chicago’s Richard Daly, New York’s Bloomberg, Shirley Franklin of Atlanta, and Bill White of Houston, along with Gavin and others mentioned in this article. L.A.’s chief executive, Villaraigosa, just loses out to Newsom in this article about the two mayors’ dueling plans to cut greenhouse gases.

San Francisco definitely stacks up among the greenest of the green and deservedly so, but is San Francisco all about the shiny green PR-driven gestures, neglecting the concrete hard daily work that nobody notices? Let’s find out.

What San Francisco Does Right

1. Curbside recycling and composting

San Francisco was one of the first (if not the first) large cities to institute curbside composting and recycling. As of late last year, San Francisco made composting mandatory for houses, apartment buildings, businesses and restaurants.

2. Plastic Bag Ban

San Francisco was the first American city to ban plastic bags.

3. Green Building

San Francisco has some of the strictest green building codes in the nation.

Mayor Newsom clearly enjoys being the first to do anything, but what about the everyday, not-so-flashy actions he could take to green the city and set an example for its citizens?

If I were mayor for a year, here are five things I’d do.

1. Spread the composting bug to the airport.

If they can do it in El Salvador, they can certainly do it in San Francisco. The above picture is one I took  about a year ago in El Salvador, yet on that same trip, in the San Francisco International Airport, I couldn’t find a place to recycle my water bottle (I  know, I know) or compost my apple core. A green airport is a great way to show the world that San Francisco walks its talk.

2. Leave the SUV in the garage and ride that bike once in awhile.

Ok, so the mayor’s ride is a hybrid, but a $58,000 SUV paid for with tax dollars and driven to Montana by a staffer while the mayor took a private jet? Come on. When he was mayor, Rocky Anderson’s personal car was a compressed natural gas Honda. The plan to revitalize Market Street and make it more bicycle and pedestrian-friendly is a good one but is only happening now after years of lobbying by bicycle and pedestrian groups. The Mayor could lead on this.

3. Want to leave the SUV in the garage and rub shoulders with a few strangers on Muni? Get ready for a mess.

Fare hikes, service cuts and allegations of misplaced public funds have riders fuming. The mayor should see what it feels like to be packed onto the N Judah at rush hour. Or have his local bus line cut out completely.

4. Support Clean Public Power.

One of the city’s oldest and most heavily polluting power plants, The Potrero Power Plant needs to be shut down. It is scheduled for closure, but unfortunately, the city wants to replace it with another polluting fossil fuel burning plant. Also, the fight for public power is heating up again in San Francisco. Advocates say public power would open the way for more green technologies. The mayor doesn’t necessarily agree and PG&E is shelling out gigantic, steaming piles of money to put a measure on ballot seeking to require 2/3 majority to pass public power.

5. Speaking of gigantic, steaming piles, stop selling toxic sludge – we know it’s not good for us. That high-quality, nutrient rich “compost” you’re giving away to gardeners? No thanks. It’s just the toxic sludge industry’s way of gaining public acceptance.

How does your city stack up? Is it all bells and whistles, or is it like Portland, with a unified green front at all levels?

Images: Dave Minogue, Vanessa Barrington

I’ve been making my own granola for years now. It’s much cheaper and fresher than store-bought and it’s easy to change it up in innumerable ways to fit your mood or your tastes. In fact, I’ve become completely spoiled by my granola. Whenever my cupboard is bare and I don’t think I have the time to make granola, I haunt the granola bulk bins at my local store. The prices and the none-too-fresh looks of the stuff send me straight home to spend 30 minutes making my own batch. That’s right – just 30 minutes!

Nutty Cranberry Maple Granola

This is a good basic recipe that you can adapt to your taste. See the variations below for ideas.

Makes about 8 cups

1/2 cup mild vegetable oil
1/2 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon (or to taste)
2 cups oat flakes (not quick cooking)
2 cups kamut (or other cereal grain) flakes (or you can use all oat, if you’d like)
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small saucepan, over medium low heat, warm the oil, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Do not boil. Stir in the cinnamon.

In a large bowl, combine the oats, kamut flakes, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, and cranberries. Toss to mix. Pour the maple syrup mixture over and toss until evenly and lightly coated.

Transfer the mixture to a large baking sheet and spread out evenly. Bake for 20 minutes. Stop halfway through and stir the ingredients so they brown evenly. Let cool completely on the pan and store at room temperature in an airtight container. Will keep about 2 weeks.

Variation ideas: Switch out the vegetable oil for butter and/or the maple syrup for brown sugar or agave, if you like. Vary the nuts by adding walnuts (for example) or the seeds by adding pumpkin seeds. For extra nutrition try flax or chia seeds and for the fruit, use your own home-dried fruit or seasonal, local fruit from the farmers’ market. Some people like coconut in their granola. I am not one of them.

Recipe Copyright Vanessa Barrington 2010

Note: Use organic and local ingredients whenever possible.

Image: sleepyneko

You’ve heard the charge: “the sustainable food movement is elitist…eating local, organic, responsibly raised food is out of reach for the average person.” Though you could argue the truth of this statement, nowhere is this charge more applicable than in restaurants.

If one has access to healthy fresh food in his or her neighborhood, knows how to shop, and has some basic cooking skills, one can eat real, sustainably raised food on a budget. But when was the last time you had a taco, a pastrami sandwich, or a hot dog that was made with sustainably raised meat and cost under $10?

Upscale restaurants all over the country that source farm-to-table ingredients, and chains like Chipotle are taking steps toward better meat and a more seasonal, sustainable menu. What about everyday, non-chain restaurants? This is the next frontier for restaurateurs and it’s going to require a huge commitment, not to mention a retraining of customers, a rethinking of tradition, and a reimagining of comfort food.

There are a few renegades out there pushing the envelope, questioning tradition, and doing their best to make their operations more sustainable, while keeping prices and portions in line with what consumers expect.

Last week, I attended a panel Referendum on the Deli Menu held at Saul’s Restaurant & Delicatessen in Berkeley, Calif.

Why a referendum? Saul’s sits a stone’s throw from the vaunted Chez Panisse, birthplace of food with a sense of place and incubator of chefs who have gone on to contribute to our collective food culture in untold ways. Peter Levitt, co- owner of Saul’s, along with Karen Adelman, is one such Chez Panisse alumnus.

But Saul’s stands at a crossroads. The owners don’t want to sell industrially produced meat, sodas with high fructose corn syrup, out of season chilled borscht, and factory pickles. But because Levitt and Adelman serve a cuisine that is steeped in tradition and memory and so associated with comfort, their customers are not always receptive to the foods they want to serve and the changes they want to make.

For example, they’ve moved away from that standby of the Jewish deli experience – the giant, industrially produced and heavily subsidized corned beef sandwich in favor of a smaller, more flavorful sandwich made with grass-fed beef from Marin Sun Farms. They’ve replaced Dr. Brown’s soda with house made sodas in flavors like celery, Meyer lemon, ginger, and cardamom, and switched out the factory pickles for locally made, traditionally fermented pickles.

But they want to go further, so they brought together customers, supporters, local food advocates and a variety of community members to ask for support and permission. They also brought in a few heavy hitters in the culinary, green business, and local, sustainable food worlds (who are also customers) to serve on the panel.

Evan Kleiman, host of KCRW’s culinary radio show Good Food, moderated the panel. Serving on the panel were author/journalist Michael Pollan, Gil Friend, author of The Truth about Green Business, and CEO of Natural Logic, a strategic sustainability consultancy, and Willow Rosenthal, urban farmer and founder of City Slicker Farms, along with Karen Adelman and Peter Levitt, co-owners of Saul’s.

The discussion could have gone in a million different directions. In the end I was inspired by the depth of meaning and heartfelt passion for tradition that came out, as well as the general agreement that tradition isn’t always what it seems…and I was craving a pastrami sandwich.

The panelists went deeply into a discussion about Jewish food traditions and how they came about, touching on some of the reasons why these traditions are so fiercely guarded.

Evan Kleiman: “These are foods that are embedded in our souls. We know what we love has some issues…is the meat we are longing for only something that can be produced industrially?”

Willow Rosenthal: “The desire to eat those sandwiches comes from a place of poverty and not having enough…what was chicken soup if not having to make another meal from a chicken you’d killed?”

Peter Levitt: “…and the dumplings were leftover bread.”

Kleiman: …it goes back to the “issue of our people and food scarcity.”

So if the actual food tradition was eating what was available and making use of all of it, is what we think of as tradition really something else? Like many other foods, traditional Jewish deli foods have been commoditized and their ownership has been concentrated among a few large companies.

Gil Friend: “What we take as traditional is fairly new…it’s not the deli, it’s postwar America.”

Michael Pollan: …this tradition that we call Jewish deli food and that “has seemed unchanging has been revolutionized over the last 50 years, but a lot of people didn’t notice it.”

Friend: “What is the tradition we are trying so hard to preserve? There was a time we ate what was available. This is really just a weird moment in history.”

Levitt points out that those old Jewish companies are no longer what they were. It’s all nostalgia. For instance, Con Agra now owns Hebrew National. There is one company producing salami. Salami used to vary by city, neighborhood, kitchen – “Now, there is one salami.”

So what’s the alternative?

A more seasonal, inclusive menu with more petite sandwiches including smaller quantities of higher quality meats, and maybe a wider-ranging menu.

Karen Adelman spoke on how tradition isn’t necessarily static: “Jewish cuisine is a Diaspora cuisine and the fact that the cuisine stays the same is not where we came from and not where we are going. Food changes. We have to lead, not react. The cuisine needs to reach back and connect to the past but we need to connect to our future as well. We need permission to do that.”

Pollan: “Saul’s proves it can be done. It’s just more expensive…what they are doing here is important. We’ve figured out how to do sustainable, expensive food (the customers at Chez Panisse are well-trained. Nobody there expects an out-of-season tomato) when sustainable food hits delis, taquerias, and cafes, that’s when it democratizes.”

But who is out there doing the hard, heroic work of challenging customer assumptions about what comfort food is besides Saul’s? Not many that I know of. There are a few mid-to-lower-priced non chain or small chain restaurants trying to change bring sustainable food to a wider dining audience, but it’s really just a drop in the bucket.

The trend seems strongest in burgers. There’s the small Pacific Northwest chain Burgerville, and there’s Amanda’s in Berkeley. LA has O Burger serving up 100% organic food and featuring grass-fed beef burgers (though there’s no information on where the beef is raised) and many vegetarian choices.

In San Francisco, three Sellers Market locations feature salads, sandwiches, and pizzas made with local, organic, and sustainable ingredients, providing a viable, sustainable lunch option for downtown office workers. There are two Farmer’s Diner locations in Vermont.

There have to be more. Leave a comment to let us know about other everyday restaurants serving sustainable, seasonal, local menus.

To learn more, you can also read Saul’s blog.

Note: The event benefited the Center for Ecoliteracy, an organization that works with schools to support and advance education for sustainable living.

Image: A. Strakey

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

As Woody Allen has been quoted saying: “Ninety percent of life is just showing up.”

If that were the case at the farmers’ market, I’d probably end up eating a pastry, having a cup of coffee and heading home with a bouquet of flowers and two apples. Nothing wrong with that…unless you are trying to feed yourself.

I’ve been doing the bulk of my regular (not special occasion) shopping at the farmers’ market for several years now. Doing it right has become second nature, but in the beginning it required a different mindset and a different set of planning tools than the grocery store. In this post we guide you through the tips you’ll need to make the most of your trip, plus we’ve designed a helpful pyramid to use on your next visit.

Why shop at a farmers’ market instead of the grocery store?

The food is better, hands down.

I can’t tell you how many vegetables I didn’t like until I tasted them ultra-fresh, with the soil and dew still clinging to their tender leaves. Broccoli, mustard greens, and Brussels sprouts come to mind.

Vegetables with so much vibrant flavor are easier to prepare. You don’t need fancy sauces or preparations. Olive oil, salt, and maybe a little garlic or lemon generally suffice for almost any just-picked vegetable in season.

You can’t help but eat seasonally.

As long as your farmers’ market truly draws farmers from your area, you are eating what is seasonal and local all the time. In contrast, your local grocery store likely carries apples from New Zealand, even if they are in season in your local area.

Support your local economy: Recent studies have confirmed that money spent locally on food directly contributes to local job growth. Farmers’ markets also serve as anchors for other types of desirable community based businesses and housing.

Preserve farmland for future generations: Buying from your local farmers keeps them in business so they aren’t tempted to sell their land off to developers. This increases future food security for us all and keeps communities diverse and interesting.

Cut down on food miles: Why buy grapes flown in from Chile when they are grown right in your local area?

Connect with the people in your community: Part of the joy of regular market shopping is seeing friends and neighbors. This solidifies connections, leads to recipe sharing, and sometimes even impromptu dinners!

Shopping Success: Or, avoiding midweek trips to the grocery store

1. Work the flexlist – Even if you’re not the meal planning type, at least have an idea of how many meals you’ll be cooking for the week. Before you go, check to see what you already have on hand and think about what else you can buy for your meals that week. Wasted food is not only an unnecessary use of resources, but decomposing food in landfills is a prominent contributor to global warming. Finally, make a list, but stay flexible to take advantage of deals, inspiration, or the asparagus that just came into season. Buy what you need and use what you buy.

Avoid wasting even further by planning meals that can parlay into other dishes or weekday lunches.

2. Don’t forget the bags! At my zero waste market, that goes for linen (or reused plastic) bags to carry greens and other loose items. Bring more bags than you think you’ll need. When shopping, balance your load. Put heavy items on the bottom, lighter items on top.

3. Bring cash. Small bills are best. Try to use larger bills for more expensive items like meats, seafood, coffee, and bread.

4. Get the lay of the land. When you arrive at the market, take a quick walk through to see what’s there. I always do this as it helps me with my flexible shopping plan. Whose peaches look best? Who has the better price on corn? Who has strawberries early? If one farmer has strawberries in March, I want to know about it right away so I can plan my other purchases around them. Once you become a regular you will find favorite vendors and your shopping will become quicker and easier.

5. If you’re on a budget, go at the end of the day. Vendors will often cut you a deal. Don’t expect to get everything on your list this way because items often sell out. I always go early to get my pastured eggs.

6. Ask questions. Want to know how something was grown, where the farm is, what that strange root is? Just ask. The vendors are happy to talk to you. That’s why they are there. If it’s not clear that the food is organic, it’s ok to ask. For example, in California you may see signs stating, “certified producer”. That just means the vendor is certified to sell at the market. If the sign doesn’t say, “certified organic,” it probably isn’t. Many farmers don’t bother with the arduous and expensive certification process, but still follow organic practices and don’t spray pesticides. Just ask.

7. Try something new. Ask the vendor or another customer how to prepare an unfamiliar vegetable. Some of my most interesting food conversations have been with other customers. I’ve been on both the receiving and the giving end of plenty of advice, and even made some new friends along the way. When was the last time you made a new friend at the grocery store?

Farmers’ Market Food Pyramid

Yours may be a little different but one way to think of what and how much to buy for a balanced week is to think of it in terms of a pyramid. Starting at the bottom, choose the bulk of your items there, working your way up into the tip of the pyramid.

I know that I will need to cook dinner 4 nights this week and that I would like to have leftovers for lunches. Here’s what I bought at the market this week:

1 head of heirloom lettuce
A couple of handfuls of arugula
1 pound spinach
1 bunch kale
1 bunch chard
2 pounds potatoes
1 bunch beets
1 bunch carrots
1 grapefruit
2 blood oranges
2 navel oranges
1 big Chanterelle mushroom
1 avocado
2 onions
1 head of garlic
1 bunch of celery
1 fennel bulb
8 oz. goat cheese
2 pieces chicken confit (from my CSA)
1 dozen eggs (from my CSA)

Here’s what I’ll make:

Saturday night dinner: gnocchi with chicken confit and chanterelle sauce, steamed and sautéed kale with garlic and lemon, avocado, blood orange, and lettuce salad.

Sunday dinner: potato chard soup with fennel/orange salad – leftovers for Monday lunch.

Monday dinner: frittata with goat cheese and spinach served with roasted beet and arugula salad – leftovers for Tuesday.

Wednesday dinner: Lentil soup with carrots, spinach, and lemon. A salad of the remaining greens and beets – leftovers.

Enjoy!

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: Ed Yourdon

Graphic: Spyre Studios

Musicians have been pleading for people to pay attention to the environment ever since I was a child. When I think back to the era of these songs it’s shameful that we haven’t come further. In the 70s we bought tiny cars, turned off lights when we left the room, put on sweaters, and kept the heat at 68 degrees. After two decades of amnesia we arrive in the now where all those old ideas seem new again – and necessary.

Joni Mitchell
Big Yellow Taxi

“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Beach Boys
Don’t Go Near the Water

Jackson Brown
Doctor My Eyes

“People go just where they will;
I never noticed them until
I got this feeling
That it’s later than it seems.”

Jethro Tull
Wond’ring Again

“There’s the stillness of death on a deathly, unliving sea,
And the motor car magical world long since ceased to be.”

Kansas
Death of Mother Nature Suite

“Once she ruled the earth with love and wisdom;
But we were much too smart to live her way;
With greed and lust we tried to rise above her.”

John Cougar Mellencamp
Rain on the Scarecrow

“Rain on the scarecrow, blood on the plow;
This land fed a nation, this land made me proud.”

The Pretenders
My City Was Gone

“The farms of Ohio had been replaced by shopping malls.”

Rush
The Trees

“And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.”

Blue Oyster Cult
Godzilla

“History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man.”

James Taylor
Traffic Jam

“Damn this traffic jam!”

Image: lanuiop

The ancient grain quinoa has an intriguing crunchy texture and is super tasty and healthy. Great for vegetarians and vegans due to its high protein content, it’s a healthy whole grain that is versatile in the kitchen. In this pilaf-like dish, you’ll encounter nutty, crunchy, sweet, and tart flavors in every bite.

Serve as a side dish or as a stuffing for peppers or baked squash. Add a green salad and you have a light meal. Leftovers travel well the next day. If you’ve ever tried quinoa and found it unpleasantly bitter, the soaking and rinsing step should take care of that problem.

Quinoa Salad with Dried Cranberries and Pumpkin Seeds

Serves 6-8

1 cup quinoa, soaked in several changes of water, rinsed well and drained
2 thinly sliced green onions
3/4 cup dried cranberries, or other local, dried fruit of your choice, cut into small pieces
3/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
4-5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

In a saucepan, bring 2 cups water to a boil. Add the quinoa, lower heat, cover and simmer until the quinoa is tender and moist, without excess water (about 30 minutes). You may open the lid occasionally to check its progress. If the quinoa is done, but there is still too much water, drain in a fine mesh sieve. Cool slightly.

While the quinoa cooks, whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil.

Place the cooled quinoa in a medium bowl with the onions, cranberries, pumpkin seeds and parsley. Add the dressing and toss to blend. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately. The picture shown above features a little shredded parmesan as garnish, which could be nice, too.

Recipe copyright 2010 Vanessa Barrington

Don’t forget to go for organic and local ingredients whenever possible!

Image: tombothetominator