Eat Local KC

Must Have Been The Weather

I am pretty disappointed that we could not do the Pennywise Eat Local Challenge here. We were having this great early spring, it all looked just right for fresh produce, early in the season. Then out of nowhere, well, the Northwest actually, came this freeze with three days of lows in the teens. Brutal. So many lost plants and replanting. I woke up to the first open day of farmers markets to snow on the ground. The Midwest is a hard place to be a farmer indeed.

Here is it May, and the past weekend at the farmers market yielded little in variety for vegetables. I did find all my herbs and plants, but otherwise, the early spring lettuces were nowhere to be found unless you count the greenhouse-grown plants for sale. I did find two large plants of leaf lettuce for $2.00 each. The grower said I should get about four cuttings, making my investment $4.00 for eight heads of lettuce. Not bad.

The other items we found, much to my relief, were scallions, and green and purple asparagus. The purple asparagus is a treat, milder and sweeter, and only to be had for these first weeks of the season. I was worried that it was lost for the year.

As we head into May, the produce we should have had in April will start to show up. Lettuces, Chard, Kale, Radishes, Beets and more Asparagus. I had posted my spring greens recipes in anticipation for April. Looks like I will just now get to make these recipes with local produce.

Here are just a few of my seasonal recipes that can be made with the early season bounty:

Basic Viniagrette for Fresh Greens

Ham, Asparagus, Onion and Goat Cheese Tart

Roasted Asparagus

Asparagus, Ham, Peas and Tortellini with Parmesan Herb Sauce

Braised Red Cabbage with Blueberries and Goat Cheese

Sauteed Red Chard with Clementine Sections, Feta, and Balsamic Reduction

Crispy Kale

Garlicky White Beans and Kale

Chard Tart with Grana Padano and Goat Cheese

Hashbrown, Chard, Tomato and Ham Frittata

Roasted Beets with Mixed Herbs and Shallot

More Good Reason Not to Import Food from China

From the New York Times:

The pet food case is also putting China’s agricultural exports under greater scrutiny because the country has had a terrible food safety record.

In recent years, for instance, China’s food safety scandals have involved everything from fake baby milk formulas and soy sauce made from human hair to instances where cuttlefish were soaked in calligraphy ink to improve their color and eels were fed contraceptive pills to make them grow long and slim.

For their part, Chinese officials dispute any suggestion that melamine from the country could have killed pets. But regulators here on Friday banned the use of melamine in vegetable proteins made for export or for use in domestic food supplies.

Yet what is clear from visiting this region of northeast China is that for years melamine has been quietly mixed into Chinese animal feed and then sold to unsuspecting farmers as protein-rich pig, poultry and fish feed.

Read more about this here.

Got Grass?

On my way home from work, I pass not just one, but two California “Happy Cows” billboards. Given that I live in the Midwest, and I can find a cow standing in pasture less than 20 minutes from my city in any direction, I’m not all too clear on why I should be seeing ads about the mental state of cows in California. I’m also not certain why someone spent $17 million in 2001 alone to tell me how happy the cows are.

I mean, many of the cows here look happy to me. Especially the ones that make my milk. They pretty much live on a pasture most of the time. They get milked only a couple times a day, no hormones or antibiotics. They eat grass, lie in the sun and basically do all the things happy cows should be doing. I even have a photo of the actual cows that make my milk posted here. So, see for yourself. Do they look happy to you?

Fixing the Farm Bill

Here are some good reasons why you, as a consumer, would want to send a QUICK, EASY email to support changes to the Farm Bill. Hey, you don't even have to know your representative's name! And, realistically, most of us don't. It takes less than a minute!

There are some very real benefits to consumers in this issue, ones we all need to be aware of and involved in — even if you've never set foot near a farm.

Here are the two ammendments that would help the situation and the basics of what they would do for YOU.

The Healthy Farms, Food and Fuels Act will do the following for YOU the consumer:

1. Promote renewable energy development on farms, ranches and forest lands (cheaper, clean energy FOR YOU!).
   
2. Link producers with consumers through farmers markets and farm-to-cafeteria (as in your school's cafeteria) initiatives, and provide new assistance to low-income and elderly consumers (wait the last one goes under altruism, unless YOU are low income or elderly).
   
3. Help create more organic farms, thus better and more sources of quality produce for YOU.

The EAT Healthy America Act will do the following for YOUR CHILDREN:

1. Require federal feeding programs, including the YOUR CHILDREN'S school lunch and school breakfast programs, to adhere to the 2005 USDA Dietary Guidelines.
   
2. Expand the fruit and vegetable snack program in YOUR CHILDRENS' schools across the nation and develop new nutrition promotion programs to assist producers in enhancing their markets.

Antibiotic News

The FDA is currently considering approval for use of the animal  drug, cefquinome, in food animals. The drub is a fourth-generation cephalosporin, which is one of a class of drugs  highly valued in human medicine as treatment for serious and life-threatening infections.    

Four top medical organizations have written the FDA to advise against approval for the drug’s use on food animals. The organizations include; The American Medical Association (AMA), Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and American Public Health Association (APHA).

2007 Season Eat Local KC Challenge

Eat Local KC is proud to announce the 2007 Season Eat Local Kansas City Challenge. This event is a joint effort between The Eat Local Challenge (www.eatlocalchallenge.com) and our local Kansas City Food Circle’s (www.kcfoodcircle.org) 100-Mile Diet group.

What you need to know about buying eggs

Eggs can be found in several colors besides white or brown. The shells can be pink, speckled, blue or even green. The color of the eggshell has nothing to do with the flavor or the nutritional value of the egg. Both of these depend on the diet of the chicken, how it is raised and the freshness of the egg. There is a lot of confusion, however, with all the terms regarding eggs. Caged, Cage-free, Free Range, Pastured, Vegetarian-Fed, High-Omega-3 … what does it all mean?

Green Eggs and Lamb

Above: Beautiful green and brown eggs are dwarfed by the huge goose eggs. Both available through Pinwheel Farm in Lawrence.

Want some of the most beautifully colored eggs this Easter, but don’t have time to dye them? No problem, just stop by the Pinwheel Farm in Lawrence, Kansas where you can get a mixed dozen of colors from soft, warm brown to light sage, blue-green and olive. The best part? The chickens do all the work.