Meatless Monday: KYF

In recent weeks the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been much maligned for allowing “pink slime” to be served to school children and for greenlighting a GMO corn touted as “drought resistant,” the first fields of which will soon planted in test trials across the Western Great Plains. That’s a lot of bad press for a department celebrating its 150th year.

Screenshot of the Compass cover

On Leap Day, in the midst of all this controversy, the USDA released the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass. It should have been a shining moment.The Compasses showcases the work of the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative, which was launched in 2009 to coordinate the work of USDA’s 17 agencies and many staff offices that invest in local and regional food systems.  The Compass is an online multi-media narrative with case studies, photos, facts, videos, and an interactive map documenting USDA supported local and regional food activities in all 50 states.  

Farmers markets are a highly visible component of Know Your Farmer (KYF). The Compass states, “The number of farmers markets nationwide increases by 54% between 2008 and 2011, providing 7,000 venues for farmers to interact directly with consumers.” If you take the time to flip through the pages of the Compass pdf, however, you will soon realize that there is much more to the KYF story. KYF provided funds for a vast array of programs, projects, and purchases including: mobile meat processing units allowing small farmers to process their meat on site; high tunnels to extend the growing season; preservation of farm land; support for young farmers; and farm to school programs.

Grants were not confined to rural areas. Try out the interactive map for grants to urban centers. Click on New Haven and you will find three grants. 

• Zip code 06511 received one of the seasonal high tunnels. 
• The recently opened Elm City Market in New Haven was the recipient of a $4,000,000 USDA loan. 
• New Haven’s City Seed received a grant of over $73,000 for marketing and expanding membership services for the Buy CT Grown program.

I can attest from personal experience that this government money has made a positive impact in my city. I would imagine that citizens across the country would say the same. Let’s all take a moment to recognize KYF and the many other good things the USDA has done during its 150 years. 

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday 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.”

Peeling Garlic Made Easy (Maybe)

I’ve had a deadline-filled week and I have a busy weekend planned. So if you are looking for an erudite post today, you won’t find it.

Here’s what I have instead – a short and very entertaining video about peeling a head of garlic in 10 seconds without getting your hands smelly. I haven’t tried it yet, so I can’t swear it works. 

My friend Joannie shared this on her blog a few weeks back. She credited Jonah, who must have found it on the Saveur Magazine site, a place I have to confess I had never visited before watching its executive food editor Todd Coleman’s performance in this clip.

I hope you like it. Please come back soon. I have a couple of posts in the works. I’m still filling in the links and details.

Have a Happy St. Patrick’s Day and a great weekend.

Meatless Monday: Welcome to Claire’s

Long before the phrases “sustainable food movement” or “artisanal” were coined, and before most of us had heard of Michael Pollan or Alice Waters, New Haven had Claire Criscuolo. In 1975, on a prominent downtown corner, Claire opened Claire’s Corner Copia, a casual restaurant serving healthy, affordable food, initially cooked entirely by Claire and her family. Much has changed in New Haven and the world during the decades since then, but Claire’s and Claire are still on the same corner where it all began. Welcome to Claire’s is a new cookbook celebrating the landmark restaurant’s first 35 years.



I love Claire. This is not the first time I have dedicated a post to her, nor is Welcome to Claire’s the first of her cookbooks I have purchased. Welcome, however, does the best job of conveying the essence of Claire’s. In this book you hear Claire through her recollections and section intros. You see Claire through the book’s many colored photographs — of Claire, her staff, her food, and her satisfied customers. And you get a sense of just how important Claire’s is from the customer testimonials scattered throughout its pages. 

Of course there are also recipes. Those designated “Claire’s Classic” are directions for preparing time-honored staples from the restaurant’s menu, including my husband’s favorite — Moroccan Sweet Potatoes — and the item most associated with Claire’s — her beloved Lithuanian Coffee Cake. The collection also contains numerous vegan and gluten-free offerings. Indeed, the only readers who may have to look hard to find something to satisfy a craving are those on the Paleo Diet.

I baked the Pumpkin Spice Bread so I would have something to trade at Slow Food Shoreline’s Slow Food Swap last Saturday. I doubled the recipe and baked one large and four small loaves. [I kept two for us.] The use of cardamom instead of the more expected nutmeg, and the addition of dried cranberries as well as the usual pecans, made these loaves deliciously different. My kitchen smelled great for hours. I would caution you, though, to check the breads earlier than the stated time. It might have been my pans or the fact that I had a double batch, but my loaves were done far earlier than I had expected. All turned out fine. I caught them in time. And they made a fine currency for trading.

Claire dedicated the book to her husband and business partner Frank whom she called, “the love of my life.” Sadly, Frank passed away late last year before the book was printed. He would be proud.

I am very glad I’ve added Welcome to Claire’s to my collection and I urge you to do the same. The book is available at Claire’s, in area bookstores, at the Elm City Market, and online. 

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday 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.”