Meatless Monday: Celebrating Regional Traditions

And, they’re off… In the quest for the ultimate meal, Thanksgiving Day chefs everywhere are pulling out their trusty cookbooks, notebooks, and boxes filled with family recipes — the traditional tools for holiday menu planning.

Slow Food USA reminds us that there were regional celebrations in honor of the harvest long before 1941, when the last Thursday in November was declared as the legal Thanksgiving Day. Here is the interactive regional map of the USA Slow Food USA recently posted. Click on a region, and you will see a variety of recipes from harvest celebrations unique to that place. The Northeast has the most offerings. While  Nasaump may not find a place on your holiday table, Stewed Pompion might. As a New Englander, I encountered many surprises as I traveled West on the map, finally arriving in Hawaii. I don’t expect to try the recipe for Kulolo, but I enjoyed watching Uncle Val and his family making a very large batch.

Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to thank your family farmers in your area — by shopping at farmer’s markets and farm stands or by purchasing foods labelled “local” at the supermarket.

Do you have a memory of a natural food you once ate but can no longer find — say a certain type of squash or dried bean? Slow Food’s Ark of Taste project “travels the world” collecting such products. “The Ark was created to point out the existence of these products, draw attention to the risk of their extinction within a few generations, invite everyone to take action to help protect them.” You can find these foods listed alphabetically in the Slow Food Ark of Taste online catalogue. Here you can read about the history of the food and its nutritional value. Because some farmers have made the decision to propagate distinctive foods at risk or in danger of extinction, you may, in some cases, be able to purchase these products. If that is the case, a link will take you to the LocalHarvest site with sources for the item. 

If you would rather just shop, go directly to LocalHarvest where you can shop by category with the options either to purchase online or to locate the closest retailer for whatever you desire.

Have fun. Happy planning!

Happy Monday! 

Have a great week. Eat well. 

I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening 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.”

Saturday Short Subjects: T-Day Tips

Thanksgiving Day is a few days away, and I have a feeling that some of you are still working out your menu details and pulling together your shopping lists.

Here are a couple of links to help you come up with the tastiest, healthiest, and best for the planet menu possible.

• First, take the Slow Food USA quiz. Do it between now and Monday, and you will be entered to win a turkey “raised with care” from Whole Foods. And, if you are like me, you will learn a thing or two.
• Second, check out the Environmental Working Group’s Holiday Kitchen page. 
• Third, once you have your ingredients on-hand, you will want to prepare them safely. I found this page through a link at the FDA. The Holiday Food Safety Success Kit has videos, tips, activities, ideas — all the tools you need to ensure a healthy meal for you and your guests.
• Finally, once your meal is done, you will want to take care with your leftovers. This USDA page outlines everything  you need to know on that subject.

Remember that even if you are not cooking for this holiday, these tips make sense for every meal.

Happy planning. Happy feasting. 

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: Food in the News

Remember the online petition I started a while back? It was the petition asking Stop & Shop supermarkets to stop sourcing their frozen green beans from China. Well, it’s still chugging away. I have over 270 signatures now and I have just extended the petition deadline to January 15. I’d really like to reach my target of 500 signatures by then. Can you help?

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

While doing my holiday shopping, I discovered that with a little extra effort it is possible to buy many gifts manufactured in the USA (or at least North America), especially sox! [More on this after the presents have been unwrapped.] Whole Foods and the Elm City Market both carry organic frozen beans sourced from North America. It would seem that Stop & Shop could, too. Sourcing frozen green beans from a world away makes no sense.

On another note, for those in need of an artificial tree, including those who are allergy-prone or travelers during the holiday season, it would seem impossible to find an artificial Christmas tree NOT made in China. [Please correct me if I’m wrong.]

King Arthur Flour, whose products have been staples in New England pantries for years, is featured in an ad being aired by Google. If you’ve missed it on TV, you can catch it on YouTube. This is the short version; there is a slightly longer one as well

The ad, promoting Google Chrome, tells the wonderfully inspiring story of how this 220-year-old Vermont flour company has used the web to transform itself into a baking company known the world over.

New Haven’s Elm City Market now has over 1,200  member/owners.

Slow Food USA posted this link to an article at Civil Eats promoting ways to reduce food waste during the holidays.

Last Minute Gift Ideas

For the person who has everything, consider a symbolic gift in his or her name to Women for Women, an organization which helps women survivors of war rebuild their lives. By a couple who love to bake, I was gifted with a symbolic baking kit (rolling pin, flour, and tins designed to help women in countries like Bosnia and Afghanistan to learn the skills and get the tools they need to start bakeries) and my husband with a carpentry kit (for women in Kosovo training to become carpenters). There are many gifts in a wide range of prices including: fabric, carpentry sets, okra seeds, gardening tools, dirt…you get the idea.

And there is still time to order through LocalHarvest (the subject of last week’s Meatless Monday post). A number of vendors are offering free shipping on selected products from Page oranges to pecan pie.

Please come back tomorrow for some free stuff for kids and more last minute shopping ideas.

Happy Monday.

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.”

Meatless Monday: The Challenges of an Indigenous Feast

With Thanksgiving less than two weeks away, I’m sure many of you have started to plan your holiday menu. But have you ever stopped to consider how restricted your menu would be if you decided to use only the ingredients available to the Pilgrims and the Native Americans on that very first Thanksgiving Day?

Professor Devon A. Mihesuah, an enrolled citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, oversees the American Indian Health and Diet Project (AIHDP) at the University of Kansas, a project “devoted to recovering the health of indigenous peoples.” As part of her work, she has compliled a detailed list of foods indigenous (native) to the Western Hemisphere (AKA the New World).

Upon perusing this list, you will soon learn that while turkey with cranberries could indeed be a menu possibility, there could be no butter for basting, no sugar to sweeten the berries, no flour for bread (for stuffing) or pie crust, and no apples for pie filling. You may also note the absence of the cow, the pig, and the chicken, as well as the presence of a number of things such as milkweed and mink that most of us no longer regard as food. Many of the foods on this list, including potatoes, squash and tomatoes, traveled from south to north over the course of many years. This list covers a broad geographic area; not all the items were available in what is now Massachusetts on that day in 1620. Click on any of the orange-colored items to learn more about them.

Through links at the side of the same page,you can find foods indigenous to smaller geographic areas and and the Choctaw tribe [there is however, no link for the eastern seaboard].

Dr. Martin Reinhardt, Anishinaabe Ojibway and Assistant Professor of Native American Studies, has been laying the groundwork for an ambitious challenge, the Decolonizing Diet Project (DDP). Beginning in March of 2012, along with a cohort of students and colleagues, Reinhardt will eat only pre-contact, indigenous Anishinaabe Ojibway foods for one year. To honor Reinhardt’s work, Professor Devon Mihesuah of the AIHDP recently posed a mini-challenge — A Week of Eating Indigenous Food, which ran from October 31 through November 6 — and blogged about her experiences.  Dr. Reinhardt accepted the challenge and described his experience on the DDP site. 

If going indigenous proves too big a challenge [it is for me] and you decide to stick with a more modern menu, a good source for inspiration is the recipes posted by Slow Food USA.  Or check out Slow Food’s US Ark of Taste, a catalog of over 200 delicious foods in danger of extinction. By promoting and eating these products, such as heritage turkeys, you can help to ensure they remain in production and on our plates. 

If you have never cooked but want to give it a try for the holiday, my advice is to start with something small. Cranberry sauce is pretty simple. You can follow the recipe printed on a bag of cranberries (which you can find in the fresh produce section), or check out this site for some more ideas. 

Have fun, and have a great week! 

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.”

Free Things Friday

Worthy Things to Do, Listen To, or View that Won’t Cost You a Dime


TGIF. I’m sure at least some of you will be online for part of today or the weekend ahead. I’ve been doing my share of surfing and bookmarking. Here is my current short list of bests. I’ve tried to include something for everyone.

• Sing a Song. Pass it On. In Out of Many We Are One artists Joanie Spear and Thomasina Levy articulate the need for Americans to find common ground in a difficult time. Listen to the song while you watch the video, then download an mp3 and the words and music, all for free. The artists write, “We hope you will take this song to your friends, your singing groups and choirs and sing it!”

• If you plan to buy an appliance at a Presidents’ Day sale, check out the ENERGY STAR site before you shop. You can also find current rebates at this site. Be good to the planet and to your wallet. An old post of mine might be helpful, too.

• Answer one of many calls to action. Here are just two. If you live in California, you might consider signing the petition for calling for one million green cars. If your municipality or any group with which you are affiliated is still buying bottled water, consider pledging to Think Outside the Bottle. For talking points, watch The Story of Bottled Water, one of the videos in the Story of Stuff project. Those who live in New Haven will have an opportunity to call for the end of the City’s purchase of bottled water at a public hearing on Tuesday night.

• Find out just how good your shampoo (or deodorant, and now even the chocolate you plan to buy for Valentine’s Day) really is for you, the people who make it, and the environment. You can search for ratings on all types of products at GoodGuide, also available as an app for your iPhone. More on GoodGuide in a future post.

• Watch The Warriors of Qiugang: A Chinese Village Fights Back, a documentary nominated for a 2011 Academy Award. Co-produced by Yale Environment 360, Warriors tells the story of villagers in China who fought to close the chemical plant that was ruining their way of life. The entire 39 minute film is available for viewing online.

• Go Ahead, Laugh! Portlandia, a new comedy series starring SNL’s Fred Armisen, pokes some good-natured fun at the Green life. The series is being shown Friday nights on IFC at 10:30. If you don’t get that channel, you can watch free clips here. Be sure to check out “Is It Local?”

• On Saturday, February 12, beginning at 10:30 AM, watch the TED^X Manhattan conversations on “Changing the Way We Eat.” Slow Food USA President Josh Viertel will be speaking at 2:45 PM EST.

• Download one of my favorite songs, Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer.” Now free on iTunes. Get it while you can.  

That's it for today. Valentine’s Day is coming. Please remember to share with a friend or loved one.

Meatless Monday: The "Incredible, Edible, Egg"

The original campaign logo

Back in the late ’70s the American Egg Board (the US egg industry’s promotional arm) launched its “Incredible, Edible, Egg” campaign. The campaign was brought back in 2007, and has very recently been revived with the launch of a new, easy to navigate site, full of recipes, celebrity chef endorsements, egg facts, up-to-date information on egg safety, and videos about family egg farmers and how the egg gets to your table. The Egg Board’s good works are prominently displayed, and the site does its best to rekindle consumer confidence in the American egg industry—no easy task.


One can’t really talk about eggs without mentioning chickens (or ducks, or geese, or some other species of fowl). So even though it’s Meatless Monday, I start my post by talking about the domestication of chickens.

Humans have a long history with chickens. According to about.com, recent research suggests multiple origins for the first domesticated chickens (Gallus domesticus), in distinct areas of South and Southeast Asia around 8,000 years ago. It had long been assumed that Europeans brought the first chickens to the Americas, but it may have been prehistoric Polynesians, according to research from The University of Auckland’s Department of Anthropology published in 2007. DNA analysis was performed on chicken bones discovered at an archeological site in Chile, and the evidence found conclusively that the bones followed the same DNA sequence as that of prehistoric chickens in Polynesia. The Chilean chicken bone is estimated to date from 1321-1407 AD, at least 100 years before Europeans set foot on South America.

Why are chickens (and their eggs) such a big deal? Chickens can be raised in a small space and their requirements for food and water are minimal when compared to other farm animals. With a good flock, nutritious food is always available, and any extra eggs can be bartered or sold for other items a family needs. “Egg money” kept many families afloat during the Great Depression.

The beauty of having one’s own flock of laying hens has driven both the urban chicken movement and the survivalists, who believe that every family should own at least four laying hens. The idea is catching on everywhere. Cities and towns alike have been passing ordinances making chickens legal (subject to certain restrictions). The family who owns the cottage colony in which I stay on Cape Cod even had a flock this year. A search online for egg bartering will show you that in these tough economic times eggs are being traded for all kinds of goods and services. A failed senate candidate in Nevada's plan for bartering chickens as a better alternative to the new health care legislation was highly publicized and much spoofed. 

From a human point of view, eggs really are an excellent and convenient food. Eggs are rich in protein as well as choline, which has been linked with preserving memory, and lutein and zeaxanthin, which may protect against vision loss. The egg’s high cholesterol count is no longer the worry it was a decade ago: most doctors now say an egg a day is fine for most people. Eggs have a long shelf life, are relatively inexpensive, and can be turned into a meal in almost no time at all. Anyone can cook a scrambled egg! 

Around mid-century, the small flock on the iconic family farm was replaced as the main source of this country’s eggs. After World War II, with the introduction of antibiotics and vitamins, chickens became the first domesticated animals to be factory-farmed, in small operations throughout the country. Today, however, these have become huge enterprises, with chickens packed into overcrowded cages in a few centralized locations. To give you an idea of the scale of today’s farms, this past Spring, a warehouse in Ohio caught fire, and a quarter of a million hens lost their lives. To viewers of Food Inc. these horrific conditions are all too familiar.

Animal rights activists have been lobbying to improve conditions for some time. On July 6, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed landmark legislation that requires that all shelled (whole) eggs sold in California come from hens able to stand up, fully extend their limbs, lie down and spread their wings without touching each other or the sides of their enclosure, thus requiring cage-free conditions for the birds. Things seemed to be looking up, since this law pertains to all eggs sold in the state, whether or not they were produced within its borders.

Then came the most recent salmonella outbreak at the DeCoster-affiliated egg farms in Iowa (discussed in my blogs of September 14 and 30) and the subsequent massive egg recall. The people at Slow Food USA graphically connect the salmonella outbreak and the “life” in factory egg operations in this short video urging citizens to demand that Congress pass a new Food Safety bill that will crack down on “corporate bad actors” (like DeCoster) while at the same time not hurting small farms.

After watching this video, it’s hard not to experience both fear and loathing. What’s an egg lover to do?

There are several choices.

1. You can try to shop responsibly at your grocery store. Read the egg carton for the source of the eggs and how they were raised. A guide to what the labels mean is available here.
2. Shop at your farmers market or local farm stand. Since the egg recall, egg sales at farmers markets have skyrocketed.
3. If you have the space, raise your own. Many cities and suburbs have recently passed legislation permitting small flocks as long as certain requirements are met.
4. See if there is a small farmer in your vicinity willing to trade or sell some extra eggs. You might be surprised if you look online.
5. Consider trying some egg substitutes. I do love the taste of an egg, and I have to admit I have not tried this myself— yet. But I will. And I will get back to you when I do. 
6. Vote with your fork, as Michael Pollan would say, but also follow current events and lobby your legislators for change. Check out Slow Food USA and Food Democracy Now. Both groups lobby for food safety. Or the Humane Society. No animals should have to “live” under these conditions. And these conditions jeopardize the health of us all. 

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.”