Local Delicious

I’ve eaten pretty healthfully for a number of years, though I don’t claim to be any kind of zealot about it and I certainly don’t hassle my friends when we sit down to dinner.

It’s been to the benefit of my health to gradually adopt a diet that is more veggies than meat, more white meat than dark, mostly skip the dairy, easy on the sugar (including the hidden kind), very little processed food.

I don’t remember the last time I ate a fast food burger — they disagreed with me over a decade before Super Size Me, Fast Food Nation or Our Daily Bread hit movie theatres.

In more recent years I’ve moved along the healthy eating continuum to organic fed, free range eggs and buying even less meat, making the choice for organic or natural rather than traditionally raised and slaughtered when I do. (If you want to know more on the why’s for organic and naturally raised meat, check out Fast Food Nation, Our Daily Bread and King Corn to get you started.)

Just What Constitutes Healthy?

Most recently, I’ve been learning more about the fats dilemma. I don’t mean the trans-, saturated, hydroginated, monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, blah, blah, blah fat dilemma. That’s kind of old news. No, what has me alarmed is what hasn’t yet made the 6 o’clock news.

I already knew olive oil is “good” and that “cold-pressed” and stored in a dark bottle is  “better” but I was hazy on the why and wherefore. As part of a nutrition program I recently took in, I learned why. Plus a few additional facts that have given me serious pause. In layman’s terms:

• The perfect, beautiful, clear, yellow oils we all grew up eating are processed at high heats which makes them go rancid; they must then be chemically bleached and deodorized.
• All fats are fragile. They easily turn nasty (break down and become unhealthy) in heat, so it’s important to cook them below their smoke point.
• Many fats quickly go rancid when exposed to heat,  light and air. It’s best to store them in the refrigerator. (Same with nuts, by the way, of which many oils are made.)
• Animal fats pick up and store trace chemicals like hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides — look out dairy products.

I think what bothers me the most is that the people producing it don’t seem to think anything of the fact that we’ve been eating deodorized, rancid cooking oil for decades. Beyond disgusting.

Healthier Choices

Here are a few things you can do to include truly healthful fats in your diet (a must for overall health):

• Perhaps it’s obvious but it bears repeating: Don’t eat non-food products that masquerade as food but are actually made of chemicals. (For example, check  the carton next time you buy ice cream. If it says “frozen dessert” it’s likely a petroleum by-product, not food.)
• Don’t eat oils that are perfectly clear, practically odourless, and stored in plastic. They’re nasty (see first item in initial list).
• Purchase oils that are cold-pressed and stored in dark coloured glass.
• Keep your more fragile oils in the refrigerator or at the very least in a cool, dark cupboard.
• Know the smoke point for the fats you use and stay below them when cooking. Cooking at lower heat for slightly longer is better.
• Use organic butter. You’re worth it.
• Go easy on the dairy and choose organic when you do. Remember, you’re eating what those cows were injected with.

It’s impossible to completely avoid “bad” fats but it’s crazy not to remove them from our diet where and when we can by make small, easy changes to our buying and cooking habits.

Margarine Alternative

As a final tip, if you’re hooked on margarine because it’s so dang easy to spread but you’re rethinking the logic, try 1 part organic butter/1 part olive oil. Bring the butter to room temperature then mix with the olive oil. Refrigerate and use as needed, it spreads like margarine.

Many of the people I’ve encountered as part of my interest in all things local food-ish get that being part of a network allows you to have a bigger impact than trying to change the world alone. It’s the very basis of a grassroots approach when you see something you like or don’t like and feel the need to shake things up.

Most of us don’t wield much more power than a small — if mighty — sword in the shape of a pen (or blog), so connecting with other people who “get it” and want to share ideas and resources to make things happen becomes second nature. I’ve found this particularly true of the local food community. There’s something about food, eating, and gardening that inherently brings people together and creates a connection.

Well, hello mainstream, it looks like the big guns are jumping on board. The kind of collaboration (a.k.a. networks) that communities and grassroots movements have long relied upon now has some new labels, cool technical jargon, and pretty graphics. But set aside the fancy terminology and it’s the same old barn-raising approach that has effected change since the dawn of time.

Hurrah! Just imagine the change that could happen…

Thinking Like a Network from Lemongrass Media on Vimeo.

If you really want to garden, you can garden. All it takes is a little creativity.

One East Vancouver resident converted a parking space into a garden on the rental property she shares. In my condo the rooftop deck is surrounded by tomato plants bent double with fruit.

One of my all-time favourite micro gardens is this resident’s creative solution to urban farming:

• One used canoe – check
• Southern exposure – check
• One narrow concrete slab  in the alley – check

Presto, a beautiful garden.

Do you have a creative urban gardening solution? Share your pictures via email to liz [at] localdelicious.com.

Not all of my gardening this year has been riddled with blunders and mystery. In fact, I’m rather proud of how much food I’ve cultivated in the garden as a novice gardener.

Below is some of the bountiful harvest I have been enjoying all summer, often in a quick and healthy stirfry.*

Yellow bush beans, green pole beans and snow peas

Tomatoes, green and yellow wax beans and broccoli

Carrots, rhubarb, mint and parsley

A tiny fraction of the beet greens I've harvested this year

Three of my largest heads of garlic, approx. 3" diameter

Carrots still in the ground, yet to be savoured

A full head of broccoli is a beautiful sight to behold

The rhubarb patch after the first harvest -- can you see a difference?!

*Note: All it takes to make a delicious stirfry is a little (or more) organic butter or cold pressed olive oil (both are optimal sources of the good fat you need in your diet), a bit of this and that — whatever you have on hand from the garden. Add a dash of salt and a squeeze of citrus and you have a quick, healthy dinner.

Verdict in two words: Yum. Yum.

I recently came across a new concept in food production masquerading as a local food solution. The way I see it, it’s just industrialized food from the corner manufacturing plant vs. the one thousands of miles away.

Okay, technically that does make it “local”. Scratch the surface, however, and there’s lot more to the notion of eating local than simple geography.

Here’s a summary of the Agropolis idea:

• Employ robots and technology to grow food
• Utilize GMO’s to improve production
• Use artificial — but, hey,  low energy consumption — lighting
• Create a “powerful consumer experience” that’s more funky and far sexier than anything you can find that incorporates, say, dirt

I have so many issues with an engineered version of “urban farming” it’s hard to know where to begin. Okay, not that hard. Let’s start with the list above:

• Robots and technology — Sure, who wants people touching your food
• GMO’s — Absolutely. Hellooo, we can’t have Nature running the show
• Artificial lighting — Brilliant, now there’s no need to rely on the nasty, carcenogenic sun
• Farm “experience” vs. actual farm — Great, it’ll be just like the Disney California theme park; super clean and once you’ve been, you’ll never need to visit the state

The whole premise gets off to a rocky start with the stats Agropolis tosses about to portray food as an enemy of the earth, prefaced by “Food subjugates the earth.”

Whoa, Nellie. Food subjugates the earth? No, more like messing with natural food systems messes with the earth. More like, taking plant-based food that would feed 10 people and feeding it to one cow so a handful of folks can eat steak, that messes with the earth.

The local manufacture of food, while accurate on the geographic technicality, in no way constitutes a farm and misses the locavore boat.

Genuine Food

A big part of eating local is about eating food. Real food. Not a reasonable facsimile thereof, even if it was just picked this morning. I mean food that has soaked up the nutrients it needs and gives us the nutrients we need and then gives nutrients back to the earth when we’re done, in a beautiful, self-sustaining cycle. Just as it has for millennia, well, right up until we started messing with it post-WWII.

Science actually knows relatively little about the complexities of how real food works it’s wonderful magic, but we can see the effects when we behave as if we can manage it better than it can manage itself. Let’s face it, food’s got a huge head start on the evolutionary sustainability track.

Food Security

Another huge part of the “eat local” trend is focused on food security. Unlike the image that phrase initially conjures up, food security is not about locking down food so production is in the hands of a tech-savvy few. It’s quite the opposite. It means opening up the guide book, learning how we can each produce our own food, and creating systems to ensure everyone has secure access to quality food, no matter their income or location.

Forget the pleasure and satisfaction that’s derived from growing your own food, and let’s just look at the value of being able to eat quality food, when you’re hungry, even on a pauper’s budget. Stop. Ponder.

Respecting the Earth

In addition to a desire for improved taste and nutritional quality, embedded within eating local is a recognition that what we’ve been doing to the planet with industrial food production isn’t actually working, and it’s time to clean up our act. That includes growing practices, water conservation, multitude forms of pollution (including pesticides, cattle feedlot waste…), carbon footprint, and a great many other activities not related directly to food at all.

Does re-engineering food’s fabrication help solve the problems re-engineering created in the first place, or just create different ones?

Eat + Local

Eating local is just what it says…and more than the sum of it’s parts. It ripples into every segment of our lives. Food is our lives. We must recognize that humans are part of a system, not the creators of it. And let’s face it, we haven’t exactly earned a bonus for our management skills.

When our food got off track, a  great many other things jumped the tracks as well. I’m thinking it might be a good idea to go back to where things started going sideways and begin repairing the damage. Maybe by first figuring out how to fit ourselves back into the greater ecosystem, instead of trying to subjugate the system to humankind.

Agropolis Concept Store

Related Post:

Technically Local, But…

I had a spirited discussion last night about which exactly is the best way to cook a rhubarb crumble — and just what is the difference between a crisp and a crumble.

We also dropped a gauntlet re: whose recipe is better.

A crisp and a crumble, it turns out, are the same thing but which term you use depends on whether you favour the American or UK terminology. True to my Canadian roots, I favour the latter. (Also note the spelling of “favour”, people).

Below is my current favourite recipe for rhubarb crumble. I like to increase the amount of fruit or decrease the amount of sugar, or even a little of both, for a slightly more tart flavour.

I also demand that only real ice cream be used in the dolloping of this dessert. Anything else, like “frozen dessert” or “whipped topping”  is likely a petroleum byproduct and not real food (check your labels, people!).

Rhubarb Crumble

• 1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup quick cooking rolled oats
• ½ cup melted butter
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 4 cups sliced rhubarb
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 cup water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

[Note: you can use slightly more fruit and/or a little less sugar with equally good results]

In mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, flour, oats, butter and cinnamon; mix together until crumbly. Press half of the brown sugar and oats mixture into a buttered 8-inch square baking dish. Top with the sliced rhubarb.
In a saucepan combine 1 cup granulated sugar, cornstarch, and the 1 cup of water and vanilla. Cook together until clear, then pour over rhubarb.

Top rhubarb with remaining crumb mixture and bake at 350° for 45 to 55 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream. [Note: I usually cook it ahead, then heat it up when company’s on it's way. It caramelizes the sugar nicely and makes it slightly gooey.]

Bon appetit!

Related post: Rhubarb: Fruit or Vegetable?