Meatless Monday: Citrus in the Backyard

There is a place where money grows on trees — in much of Central and Southern California — where property lines are demarcated by citrus trees instead of privet hedges.

Check out this recent photo from our local Whole Foods in Connecticut to see the value of these backyard crops in East Coast dollars.

No Meyer Lemons in this photo
because there were none to be found.
Note the price for a run-of-the-mill lemon.

According to the California Master Gardener Handbook, the most popular citrus fruit for the home garden is the Improved Meyer Lemon. This very juicy fruit is round, thin-skinned, and almost orange when ripe. Originally imported from China, it is a hybrid between a lemon and a sweet orange or mandarin and is less acidic and more tolerant of cold than other lemons. A small tree, the Meyer Lemon can be grown in containers. The Handbook also states that the Improved Meyer Lemon does not need pruning and makes an excellent hedge! It bears fruit year-long in the coastal areas, and from November-March inland. Oh, I hope you Californians with these trees in your yard appreciate your good fortune!

A backyard Meyer Lemon tree
in Silicon Valley in late February.

Citrus is thought to be native to China, but has been part of California’s heritage since the Spanish missionary Father Junipero Serro planted a citrus tree at Mission San Diego in 1769. By the late 1800s, oranges and lemons had become a commercial crop. 

How did this fruit get its name?

According to Julie O’Hara, reporting for NPR, Frank N. Meyer was sent to Asia in the early 1900s by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an agricultural explorer to collect new plant species. One of these plants he brought back was the hybrid lemon/orange, cultivated in China mainly as an ornamental. This tree was named the Meyer Lemon in his honor. The Meyer Lemon was introduced to citrus-friendly climes including California. The fruits proved too fragile to distribute commercially, but became a locally-enjoyed favorite, particularly with backyard gardeners. 

Now to the “Improved” portion of the plant name… Most of the Meyer Lemon trees in California fell victim to a virus in the 1960s. One stock was found to be free of the disease and became the basis for the “Improved Meyer Lemon” tree. 

In recent years, the Meyer Lemon was discovered by Martha Stewart. This has sent the fruit’s popularity soaring. Its aforementioned fragility causes it to be in short supply in distant markets. O’Hara claims that the skin is so thin that the fruit can be eaten whole, without peeling! Shoppers willing to pay a premium price may be lucky enough to score some in specialty stores between November and April. There are a few farms listed on the LocalHarvest site who will ship direct to the customer. The one I found lists 2 pounds for just shy of $24.00, or 10 pounds for pennies under $50.00. Ouch!

There are some recipes on the NPR site to inspire you should you be lucky enough to get your hands on some Improved Meyer Lemons. [Note: it takes 4-5 to make lemon bars.]

Have a great week. Stay warm. Eat well.

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Saturday Short Subjects: The Seals of Año Nuevo

Those are not boulders strewn on the sand, no remnants of geologic upheaval. Those dark mounds are living, breathing mammals — northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris). They have either traveled 6000 miles to return to this particular spot on the California coast, or they are newly born on the beach at Año Nuevo State Park. They earned their name because adult males have large noses that resemble an elephant’s trunk.

Elephant seals, prized for the fine oil that could be rendered from their blubber, were hunted to near extinction. By 1910, it is estimated that there were fewer than 100 individuals, living off the coast of Baja California in Mexico. In 1922, the Mexican government granted the seals protected status, and when they began to appear off the southern California coast, the US government did the same.  Today the population is approximately 150,000 (124,000 in California). Their recovery is a dramatic example of how a species granted protected status can rise again. Elephant seals began their return to Año Nuevo, on the mid California Coast, in the mid-1950s.

A bull rising to the challenge.

The males arrive in early December to establish their territory. Bull elephant seals, weighing up to 4500 pounds, engage in fierce combat to establish dominance.

By mid-month, the females, who weigh 800 to 1600 pounds, begin to arrive, clustering in “harems” on the beach. They give birth and nurse their offspring (always just one) for four weeks. The females do not eat during this time. After a month, the emaciated moms return to the sea, but not before they mate, perhaps several times! 

By mid-March most of the adult seals migrate north to waters off the Alaskan coast, a journey of 6000 miles, to eat and recuperate. There they live well offshore and often dive nearly a mile below the ocean surface in their hunt for food.  

Two weaners are in the foreground.

They leave behind the “weaners” who must learn to fend for themselves on their own. By the end of April, the weaners, too, depart for Arctic waters.

Smaller numbers of female and juvenile seals return to Año Nuevo for four to six weeks between April and August for summer molting, after which they return to the Arctic. The only time elephant seals return to land is to molt, to give birth, and to mate. Seals born at Año Nuevo return to Año Nuevo. 

To visit Año Nuevo between the months of December and March, one must make a reservation and walk with a guide. This is for your protection as well as the seal’s. With male elephant seals weighing over two tons, you don’t want to get in the way of a challenge! The Año Nuevo website advises: Seals can sometimes appear dead due to their quiet nature of sleeping on beaches. However, the majority of the time they are very much alive. Never get within 25 feet of an elephant seal. 

More weaners with Fred on the right.

Our guide was Fred, a retiree from Apple, who had accumulated an incredible horde of  information on the seals during his seven years as a volunteer naturalist; he even had a self-published book of seal facts and images to share! Here are some of the amazing things we learned from Fred on our tour:

• Only about 4% of male elephant seals ever get to mate
• Those who do rise to alpha male mate for only one season and have a harem of 50-70 females.
• After the female mates (on her way back to the sea), cell division begins, a blastocyst is formed, but the embryo does not implant until the female is out at sea and has recovered some of her body weight!

We witnessed and heard (males make a loud drumming sound to warn lesser males to stay away) a couple of male challenges, but no real fights.  We saw a few newborn pups with their moms and lots of “weaners” (pups over a month old) trying to figure out life on their own. Not all of them will make it; the staff at Año Nuevo does not intervene. 

Researchers, however, have begun to equip some of the moms and babies with cameras and tracking devices so they can learn more about their mysterious time at sea — where they go, how they rest, how they journey so far.

For our long hike over the dunes to the beach of Año Nuevo on January 31, it was windy, but warm enough to wear just a light jacket. Seals like to cool off by flinging sand onto themselves with their flippers when they get too warm. There was a whole lot of sand flinging going on that day.

For more on the Northern Elephant Seal, visit the Año Nuevo State Park site and the Marine Mammal Center site, where you can even hear the distinctive sounds of the adults and weaners.

The cliffs you see were created by tectonic activity.
Año Nuevo is part of the Monterey Formation.

What a wonderful memory to carry us through the mostly miserable weather we’ve been having in the East since our return. Today we did, however, have an entire day of sun, blue skies, and warm temperatures — at last!

Enjoy your weekend, wherever you are and whatever your weather.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Meatless Monday: Sweet, Savory, and Oh, So Satisfying Butternut Squash Chili

Sorry Texans, who reside where chili has been the official state food since 1977.  I swear I can hear you groaning. According to the rules of the International Chili Society Cookoffs, chili is “any kind of meat or combination of meats, cooked with red chili peppers, various spices and other ingredients, with the exception of BEANS and PASTA which are strictly forbidden.” 

This recipe has no meat and plenty of beans. Call it what you will, Butternut Squash Chili from the Winter Issue of Edible Boston, one of the Edible Communities publications, is the perfect comfort food for yet another chilly winter Monday in New England.

Loyal Edible Boston reader, Anne Marie Rossi of Natick, received “a lot of winter squash” in her CSA and experimented by using it in her chili. Following is the recipe she shared.

Butternut Squash Chili 

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1½ pound butternut squash (or other winter squash), peeled and cubed
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 4 cups cooked pinto beans, or 2 cans drained and rinsed
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• 2 cups broth, chicken or vegetable
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon cumin

Directions

• In a large pot, sauté the onion in the olive oil over medium heat until soft. Add the garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.
• Add the squash, celery, and the remaining ingredients to the pot and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes, until all the vegetables are soft.  If you don’t want your beans to be mushy, add them during the last few minutes of cooking.
• Serve warm with brown rice or cornbread on the side.

A bowl from the batch I made. Don't you love the color?

I made a few small tweaks to Anne Marie’s recipe. 

• I used 1 tablespoon of Penzey’s 9000 Chili Powder (a bold salt free blend of ancho chili pepper, cumin, garlic, cilantro and a number of other ingredients including cocoa, cloves, jalapeno pepper, and cardamon) and omitted the cumin. I also cut the salt to 1 teaspoon.
• I also used my favorite Muir Glen Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes, which I was very happy to learn are now in BPA-Free cans. 
• I found that 40 minutes was not quite long enough for my squash to get totally tender. I suggest letting it simmer for 1-1/2 hours if you have the time.
• Finally, I served it atop Annie’s Mac and Cheese, the organic whole wheat variety. 

Butternut squash is a very good source of vitamins A and C, potassium and manganese, is a good source of vitamins E and B6, thiamin, niacin, folate, calcium, and magnesium, and is very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. No wonder it’s the first food for so many babies.

Have you heard of the Edible Communities publications? These award-winning magazines “Celebrate Local Foods. Season by Season.” Check out the website and see if there is one for your area. The magazines are often distributed for free at Whole Foods Markets and farmer’s markets. You can also subscribe. That way you will never miss an issue! 

Thanks to my friend Pam for sharing the recipe and the info on the BPA-free cans.

Have a great week. Stay warm. Eat well.

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Meatless Monday: How We (Americans) Eat

It has been just over 34 years since the US departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health and Human Services (HHS) released a set of 7 Dietary Guidelines Statements in a 20-page booklet entitled Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which became the 1st edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. These guidelines represent the findings of a task force appointed in 1978 by the USDA and HHS to advise the public about current knowledge of the relationship of diet to health and disease.

The cover of the 1980 booklet outlines the task force’s call to action:

To commemorate this anniversary, Food Day called for Americans to heed the “Guidelines’ sensible advice,” which has been updated every five years ever since 1980. Here are the 2010 Guidelines, the most recent update. Food Day also shared “The American Diet: A Prescription for Ill Health,” a graphic illustration of how far we as a nation are from meeting these dietary goals.

Food Day is a nationwide celebration of healthy, affordable, and sustainably produced food and a grassroots campaign for better food policies. All year long Food Day advocates work to help people “Eat Real.” Their efforts culminate in the annual observance of Food Day, to be held this year on October 24. That leaves ample time for taking some action steps before the big day.

To see how well (or poorly) Americans are eating compared to the rest of the world, check out this interactive graphic from OxFam. Be sure to highlight the results for the USA so they appear in yellow. 

How are you doing?

Have a great week. Stay warm. Eat well. 

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Saturday Short Subjects: Some Things Are Better in the West

In the city of Mountain View, California, older trees are protected by municipal ordinance. “Any tree that has a trunk with a circumference of forty-eight inches (48") or more measured at fifty-four inches (54") above natural grade or a quercus (oak), sequoia (redwood) or cedrus (cedar) with a circumference of twelve inches (12") measured at fifty-four inches (54") above natural grade” is designated a “Heritage Tree.”

Anyone desiring to remove a Heritage Tree must file an “Application for a Heritage Tree Removal,” The application is then reviewed by the City’s Forestry Division staff. If the application is approved, the property owner has two years to remove the tree. “After the tree(s) is removed, the owner is typically required to plant a new 24-inch box tree(s) or pay an in-lieu fee of two hundred fifty dollars ($250) to the City of Mountain View for each tree removed.  These funds are used to plant new trees in City parks, medians and public areas.  The property owner may choose the replacement species and planting location for the new tree(s).”

It is the home owner’s responsibility to care for any Heritage Tree on his or her property. Mountain View’s ordinance states that “if you own or control real property in the City, you are responsible for maintaining and preserving all Heritage trees in a state of good health.  It is against the City ordinance to willfully injure, damage, destroy, move or remove a Heritage tree unless granted a removal permit by the City.”

What a contrast to New Haven County where residents are in a battle with utility company UI who is seeking to implement aggressive tree trimming and removal in response to power outages caused by falling tree limbs in the state’s recent super storms! 

This tree in New Haven survived a recent trimming to accommodate power lines. Under the new UI plan, it would almost certainly be removed. 

This would not happen in Mountain View.

If you love trees, please float the idea of Heritage Tree legislation with everyone you know. We still have most of our trees. Let’s hope we still have the time to protect them.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).

Meatless Monday: Planning Your Summer Garden

With the cold winter we’ve been having, I’ve been spending plenty of time planning for spring.

If you are fortunate enough to have a large enough space with ample sun, perhaps you, too, are thinking ahead — to a summer vegetable garden.

If you are a newbie to gardening, or feel like you could use some helpful gardening tips, let me suggest a visit to Organic Gardening, a terrific blog by my Master Gardening Mentor Rachel Ziesk. In her most recent post she described a method for determining if those seeds you’ve saved are likely to sprout.

I’m sure she’s turning the pages of her favorite seed catalogs right now, dreaming about what she’ll plant this year.

Rachel and I live in Connecticut. Last year Rachel planted her first seeds indoors on February 17th. You can read about how she got started here. Maybe her posts will inspire you. 

Some of Rachel's beautiful late season harvest. 

If you are thinking about heirloom or organic seeds, here are a couple of links to some interesting catalogues:

• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds [with a store at the historic Comstock, Ferre & Co. in Wethersfield, CT]
• Johnny’s Selected Seeds 
• Seeds of Change
• Burpee also sells organic seeds and garden supplies.

This should be enough to get you going. Happy planning.

Have a great week. Stay warm. Eat well. 

On Mondays I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Saturday Short Subjects: DIY Cleaners

Although it may not seem possible, Spring weather will soon be here — even if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow tomorrow. 

If you’ve got a case of cabin fever, why not start your Spring cleaning? If you can get it done now, you’ll have one less thing to keep you indoors when the days get sunnier and warmer.

There’s no reason to spend a lot of money on cleaning solutions when it’s so easy to make your own out of inexpensive and readily available ingredients. This graphic lists my favorite recipes for DIY cleaners.  

Buy the largest bottle of white vinegar you can find, a box of Borax from the supermarket detergent aisle, and a bottle of your favorite dish soap or Dr. Bronner’s. The only pricey item is the scented oil used in three of the four recipes, but at just a few drops per batch, a tiny bottle of oil will go a long way. Your whole house will smell fresh and clean for hours. Choose your favorite fragrance (or two). You can vary the cleaner according to the season or your mood.

Try these recipes out by mixing up a batch in a heavy-duty spray bottle. Simply spray the dirty surface and wipe it down. I keep a bucket of water nearby for rinsing the cloth or mop when it gets too dirty. I keep several spray bottles handy for spills or life’s other little emergencies.

Here’s another tip. When cleaning glass, try using newspapers instead of paper towels.

Isn’t it nice when you can be Green and save some green at the same time?

Don’t work too hard.

Have a nice rest of the weekend.

Why Saturday Short Subjects? Some readers may recall  being dropped at the movie theater for the Saturday matinee — two action-packed feature films with a series of short subjects (cartoons or short movies, sometimes a serial cliffhanger) sandwiched in between. Often the short subjects were the most memorable, and enjoyable, part of the morning. That explains the name. The reason behind these particular posts is that we are all short on time. My Short Subject posts should not take me as long to write or you as long to read (or try).