What I'm eating today: birthday cupcakes

The cupcakes I made for my birthday this weekend needed some decoration.  

Tiny spinach and mizuna leaves looked pretty cute, if only for a few hours.

What I'm eating today - the first harvest of the year

Yesterday I harvested the first greens of the year.  I planted the mizuna a month ago and the handful I harvested was just enough to cover a pizza.  

What I learned this week

1. According to nationofchange.org:

"The nutritional value of foods is at risk, with the amount of nutrients found in fruits and vegetables having diminished greatly over the years. One apple today may carry half the amount of nutrients as an apple produced 50 years ago."

2.  Obesity is the most common reason for ineligibility to join the army.

3.  We don't have any salad greens, and I don't know what to do.

4.  Kyoto is a brassica offered through Johnny's that is: "Similar to standard mizuna, but the attractive, finely-divided leaves are bulkier and less deeply cut."  Sounds good to me!

 

What I learned this week about the drought

Last week I posted the experimental design for the project I'm working on right now.  Even though I look at all those seeds every single day it's not that exciting and I don't have much to show for it.  Sprouted seeds that have been deprived of light just aren't that cute.  Especially since it is the time of year when there are just so many good things to eat (see below, which was dinner a few nights ago).

Here in New Hampshire the nationwide drought doesn't seem too bad since it is only 'abnormally dry.'**   In the past few weeks there have been a few of the USDA's 'charts of note' about the drought and how it will affect food prices.  You might notice below that produce isn't mentioned, or perhaps it's lumped into 'other foods.'  Most of the categories on the chart are heavily dependent on the midwest corn crop, which is threatened by 'extreme drought' right now.  Why will the price of dairy and eggs increase so much in 2013?  Think about what they eat - corn based feeds.

Source

California, where a lot of produce is grown, doesn't have any red 'extreme drought' bits in it either.  But much of the irrigation water used to grow all those crops comes from the Colorado river (it runs through the Grand Canyon so you better know where that is!).  Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico all contribute to the river and they have some pretty big 'extreme drought' spots in them.  Less water affects everyone, not just the people in the red spots.  

The NYTimes has a nice graphic mapping yearly drought for every year since 1896.

** 8/9/12 After talking to people up at the research farm I've learned that yes indeed the drought is affecting crops in NH.  For example, blueberries are drying up on the bushes, something that hasn't happened before.

August is eat local month

New Hampshire isn't the only state with abundant harvests in August.   localharvest.org has a great map (among other things) showing all the farms, markets, restaurants and grocery stores that promote locally produced food.

Dinner on a muggy night

If you are anywhere in the New England area this week, or just in the United States at all this summer, chances are you don't want to do much cooking.  After traveling for a week, and breaking out in a sweat just standing up I was not about to actually cook anything for dinner tonight.  Since I just got back last night from the OFA short course (more on that in the future once I've had a bit more sleep) the vegetable part of my diet has been lacking.

I have not been eating many of these.  Although I dissected a restaurant salad
and found both mizuna and tatsoi in it!

Not to worry!  Remember the class I went to on super nourishing greens back in the spring?  When everyone else said their favorite dish was the arugula pesto, my favorite was the greens soup.  The pesto was great, but it involved pasta, cheese and basil, which happen to be three of my Favorite Foods of All Time.  Not like this soup, which has not one, but three amazing things about it:

1. There is no cooking involved.
2. You get tricked into slurping up four vegetables without realizing it.  Five if you count avocado as a vegetable.
3. Zucchini is one of those vegetables.  We are just beginning zucchini season here, which means it is a treat and not something you feed to the dog because you have more summer squash than you know what to do with.

If you are my mom you might be thinking "what! avocado?!"  Yes, today I bought my first two avocados ever.  Perhaps this will be the year I discover how wonderful guacamole is because I have an extra one sitting in the fridge now.

Recipe 

(adapted from the Food and Health Forum- 

if you join their mailing list you get a whole digital cookbook!)

Blend together a cucumber, a whole bunch of kale and a cup of water.  Spinach would be fine too.  I did this with my immersion blender.  Dump in an avocado, juice from a lemon, a capful of soy sauce, a teaspoon of ginger and a pinch of cayenne.  Blend it some more. Then taste it.  Grate in one moderate sized (8 inch) zucchini and fold in a cup of corn.  Chill until served.  People may be put off by how it looks.  They are fools.

* Edit 7/19:  For dinner we had chips and cheese dip which balanced out the cool vegetable-ness.  Bruschetta would also be good on a not-so-muggy day.

What I learned this week

Last week's facts came from reading published articles.  This weeks facts come from other people who've read published articles.  They seem to be all about eating, which is definitely because it is after seven and I haven't had dinner yet.

lots of broccoli planted too close together

No Baloney compared three crucifers (broccoli, kale and brussel sprouts) to see which give the most bang for your buck.  As you know I'm a big fan of all brassicas even if I only get to grow the leafy kind for my research.  Which was the winner? Broccoli!  They do stress that you shouldn't really choose between the three.  All of them should be part of your diet, but not necessarily during the same meal.

I eat salads naked because I don't like salad dressing.  Apparently I'm missing out because the correct monounsaturated fat-rich salad dressings help release nutrients from the vegetables.  According to Mario Ferruzzi, a Purdueassociate professor of food science, "If you want to utilize more from your fruits and vegetables, you have to pair them correctly with fat-based dressings."  One study isn't enough to make me eat salad dressing all the time but maybe sometimes.

Lastly, broccoli leaves are edible.  It shouldn't be a surprise because they are in the brassica family and related to cabbage and kale.  When planting our garden a few months ago we had more plants than space.  Since I can't bear throwing away plants I stuck them all in anyways.  Now, we are eating the leaves from select plants to thin out the patch.  I treat them like kale, and they taste like - broccoli of course.

A few things I've learned this week

I have spent much of the past week writing and organizing for next fall.  So, things are happening, but I don't have anything exciting to show for it.  (I don't think you'll find eleven pages of scientific writing as exciting as I do.)

In gathering together notes and papers I've been collecting for the past year I've come across some cool facts about food, and food culture.

#1.  Spinach is my all time favorite green.  Harvesting it is a labor of love because each leaf has to be cut individually.  But, it will grow, as in make new leaves, at only 40 degrees and those leaves will be 2 brix degrees of sweetness higher.  What is a brix degree you ask?  The grams of sugar dissolved in 100g of solution.  I don't really know how much a gram of sugar is or how the brix scale actually works, but I do know that winter grown spinach is noticeably sweeter.  Some that I grew last winter was like candy it was so sweet and that is a good thing.


#2.  The average person spends $20 at a farmers market.  Hopefully this is not the only thing at which I am above average.


#3. During winter months much of the produce consumed in the United States is grown in Arizona or California and transported to consumers via truck.  In a Michigan study, locally grown winter salad greens grown in low and high tunnels use less energy to produce than greens imported from warmer climates.  

Sources: #1, #2, #3

The first lady knows what low tunnels are!

"I couldn't image how any of our vegetables would survive in temperatures that drop below freezing.  I had heard that some farmers use a plastic covering to extend the growing season into the winter.  But while I was intrigued by the prospect of keeping the garden alive, and I was open to experimenting, I was skeptical that a sheet of plastic would keep the plants warm through the D.C. winter. 

In spite of my doubts, we went ahead and built what are called low tunnels, or hoop houses, simple metal frames that stand about two feet off the ground and are covered by a clear plastic tarp.  To my amazement and delight, under those simple structures, several of out crops continued to flourish, even in very cold weather - and were unusually sweet.  I later learned that since sugars don't freeze, the plants produce a lot of sugars to protect themselves from the cold." 

Michelle Obama in American Grown

Home made green pasta

Last week I went to a pasta making class.  It was really fun, and I discovered that hand shaping pasta is pretty easy.  Of course, when I tried doing it at home I put in some greens to make green pasta!  I have lots of pureed mustard greens in the freezer.  I defrosted some and added it to the flour and water right at the beginning of dough making.

I have very little pasta making experience, but my green pasta seemed to work really well.  I cut it into short strips because I was doing it by myself and was lazy.  Topped with pesto it was a pretty good lunch (and dinner)!

tat soi florets for dinner

Since the winter (when I started saving mizuna seeds) I learned that you can eat all brassica florets.  After I read that I felt a bit stupid.  What did I think brocoli was?  Not a very tasty flower in the brassica family that is a staple in my refrigerator? 

  When I threw out all the flats of over-the-hill greens a few weeks ago I save a few of tat soi because they were just starting to flower.  Oh boy, do they taste good!  Like sweet broccoli, and with no sharpness that broccoli sometimes has.  I quickly learned that you have to pick the florets when they are small, otherwise they get tough and fibrous.

I ate most of the tat soi as snacks when working in the greenhouse, but some made it home for dinner one night.  I sautéed them with garlic and asparagus (from the store) and spring onions (from another research project at the farm).  I mixed the sauté with a piece of chopped bacon and middle eastern couscous (which I just discovered this year and are my favorite).  Then we ate it all up.

What to do with all these greens!

From yesterday's picture you might have guessed that I have a lot of salad greens in my fridge right now.  A LOT.  Some nights all we eat is salad.  If you filled up a salad bowl with greens, grabbed a fork and dug in you would know how I feel.  I am certainly not complaining!  Just ready for some salad green diversity.  Yesterday I lucked out big time.  

Two days ago was harvest day for UNH study on growing cherry tomatoes in hanging baskets.  (I looked briefly online to see if there was anything written about this study - not yet it seems.)  So, for dinner I had: tomatoes, garlic, chopped mizuna and spinach all covered in olive oil on toast.  And there was cheese on top.  From the picture you can tell I'm not going to be a food blogger anytime soon.  It smelled too good to take a good picture.

What would you do with 'extra' salad greens?

Only 10% to the farmers!

Todays chart from the USDA Economic Research Service relates to everyone.  Why?  Because we all eat food!  Here's what they say:

"For a typical dollar spent in 2010 by U.S. consumers on domestically-produced food, including both grocery store and eating out purchases, 34 cents went to pay for services provided by foodservice establishments, 21.7 cents to food processors, and 12.8 cents to food retailers. ERS uses input-output analysis to calculate the value added, or cost contributions, to the food dollar by 10 industry groups in the food supply chain. Food processing costs per food dollar were up 17 percent since 2008, whereas costs per food dollar for most other industry groups were flat or declined. For example, energy used throughout the food system accounted for 4.8 cents of the food dollar, down from 6.8 cents in 2008. This chart is from the Food Dollar Series data product on the ERS website, updated March 20, 2012."

Mark your calendars for April 2nd!

The Obama State Dinner in honor of Prime Minister David Cameron

picture from obamafoodorama.blogspot.com

This week the English prime minister came to visit.  Above is a picture of White House chef's collecting greens from the garden for the dinner.  The climate in Washington DC is much warmer than here in New Hampshire- you can tell because they have greens growing outside already! (Also you can see cherry blossoms blooming in the background.)  Nonetheless, the White House vegetable garden still has low tunnels - maybe to keep bugs off the brassicas?


Everything on the menu from the event sounds delicious.

State Dinner Menu in Honor of 
Prime Minister David Cameron
and Mrs. Samantha Cameron

First Course

Crisped Halibut with Potato Crust
Shaved Brussels Sprouts
Applewood Smoked Bacon

Second Course
Spring Garden Lettuces
Shallot Dressing, Shaved Breakfast Radish
Cucumbers and Avocados

Main Course
Bison Wellington
Red Wine Reduction
French Beans, Cipollini Onion

Dessert
Warm Meyer Lemon Steamed Pudding
with Idaho Huckleberry Sauce and Newtown Pippin Apples

Obesity rates

 I hope everyone already knows the obesity rate in the US is increasing, so this map showing the adult obesity rate won't shock anyone.  If you remember the post earlier this week on farmers markets and direct sales you can see areas with high obesity rates are usually places where there are fewer farmers markets and not very many farms that make direct sales

While the first map today didn't surprise me, this next one really caught me off guard.  The obesity rate of low income preschoolers is up to 36% in some places!  The slogan of the Lets Move! program is "America's move to raise a healthier generation of kids." According to this map it is apparent that school programs like this will be crucial to improving people's health.

white areas have no data to map

Price ratio of leafy greens to starchy vegetables

In our house we disagree on the true nature of the potato.  I say it does not really count as a vegetable (like kale or green beans).  This map helps show why I think potatoes shouldn't be considered a true vegetable.  Dark brown areas are where green leafy vegetables cost $1.64-1.86 compared to $1.00 for starchy vegetables.  Notice that Maine and Idaho, two states with high potato industries, still have high ratios.

Map from Food environment atlas

Farmers markets and direct sales

Yesterday I was pointed in the direction of a really cool website.  The Food Environment Atlas is another USDA project that is full of interesting information (you should really visit it!).  So, this week I'm going to look at a little bit of the vast amount of information published.  Today, because it is Monday and the first day of spring break, I'll start with a few that are cheerful.

I love this map showing the number of farmers markets in 2010 because it illustrates how plant biologists count.   The dark green areas have lots of farmers markets- somewhere between 4 and 102!

This map showing the number of farms with direct sales [to the consumer] shows a similar trend as the first one.  Places where there are a lot of direct farm sales also have a lot of farmers markets.  As with many maps like this I want to know more - how is the population distributed?  what about price differences?

Friday inforgraphic: growing companions

The past few days have definitely felt spring like.  I heard a woodpecker and saw a beaver on my biweekly walk to the farm.  Farmers and home gardeners are ordering seeds and organizing for this years growing season. 

Why your mom told you to eat your greens

I believe a good diet is balanced.  That being said, the heap of fried seafood I helped consume yesterday totally upset that balance.   It was delicious but, for the next week or so I feel like I should only eat leafy green vegetables.  The kind I ate in giant bites as a kid in order to get them over with as fast as possible.

The kale I planted a month ago is now at the super cute puppy stage.

What makes greens so good for you?  Keeping me from being anemic and getting scurvy where the vague reasons in my head.  Once again I turned to myplate.gov and their "food-a-pedia." This gave me so much information that I have to think about it in small bits.  I chose to compare the greens I am using in the germination trials, as well as my two favorite cooking greens.  (Arugula is a substitute for mizuna because myplate didn't have any information about mizuna.)

data for this graph came from myplate.gov

First nutrient up is folate.  I didn't know what this was, possibly because it isn't on most nutrion labels.  It is one of the B vitamins and awfully important because it helps make and repair your DNA!  In my greens comparison collards were the clear winner for amount of folate per serving.  Interestingly, kale contains the lowest amount.

Of course, folate isn't the only reason greens are good for you.  In the future I'll look at calcium, vitamin C & A, and potassium.