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Choices, Chard, Cornmeal and Some Rotis.
November 20, 2008 |
It would be curious to discover who it is to whom one writes in a diary. Possibly to some mysterious personification of one’s own identity. ~ Beatrice Webb
I logged into the site today and feel like I’m in an alternate universe. This is MY diary? I don’t identify much with it any more. Or shall I say I don’t recognise myself in here the way I used to. That’s because it seems it was AGES ago that I seemed to enjoy cooking a meal or taking a picture. I guess it’s a phase. Or maybe the time when I enjoyed those things was a phase.
From time to time, I do browse sites that talk of nutrition and food policy - grist, Nutrition Action, Diseaseproof, Michael Pollan’s blog at the New York Times.
It was Pollan’s open letter to “Farmer in Chief” President-Elect Obama that help me make sense of what I have been witnessing over the past year at my local Indian grocery store.
My Indian grocer is always attentive to customer feedback and willing to stock unusual items to cater to special requests. He has a captive clientele - this is the only Indian grocery store in the 11th largest state in the country. The next one is 500 miles away. Yet, I’ve almost stopped shopping there. He used to carry five types of cooking oil - corn, peanut, safflower, light sesame and mustard, all imported from India. Now he has just one - the pungent mustard oil - and is down to three varieties of rice.
When will he be able to stock the others again? “I am not sure.” He used to carry seven brands of fine whole wheat flour (atta). My three favourite brands came from India. They were “100 per cent whole wheat” and had a coarser grind than the U.S. and Canadian brands. Now, he only stocks the latter. “There’s a shortage of supply”, and, of course, the fact that he gets last dibs on what’s available from the wholesale distributors in California.
Pollan’s letter to Obama was an eye-opener on the culture of consumption that surrounds our culinary choices. It helped me connect the dots to see why my Indian grocer has a smaller inventory and fewer sales over the past year. As I read through the nine pages, three facts jumped out at me. Cold hard numbers make the point much more acutely than pages of prose.
1. Our consumption patterns are destroying the environment and fueling our oil addiction.
After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy — 19 percent.
… Whenever farmers clear land for crops and till the soil, large quantities of carbon are released into the air. But the 20th-century industrialization of agriculture has increased the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the food system by an order of magnitude; chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, modern food processing and packaging and transportation have together transformed a system that in 1940 produced 2.3 calories of food energy for every calorie of fossil-fuel energy it used into one that now takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food.
2. Food prices have been artificially kept low in the U.S. at the cost of public health. This is because of federal subsidies and the promotion of maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived.
Spending on health care has risen from 5 percent of national income in 1960 to 16 percent today, putting a significant drag on the economy. … Four of the top 10 killers in America today are chronic diseases linked to diet: heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer.
Most supermarket goods, for instance, are sweetened by high-fructose corn syrup as heavy subsidies to corn farmers make it cheaper than sugar.
3. Meanwhile, high food prices and shortages in the rest of the world have led to food riots in more than 30 nations in the past few months, and so far one government (Haiti) has fallen.
Should high grain prices persist and shortages develop, you can expect to see the pendulum shift decisively away from free trade, at least in food. Nations that opened their markets to the global flood of cheap grain (under pressure from previous administrations as well as the World Bank and the I.M.F.) lost so many farmers that they now find their ability to feed their own populations hinges on decisions made in Washington … and on Wall Street. They will now rush to rebuild their own agricultural sectors and then seek to protect them by erecting trade barriers.
The solution? Replace fossil fuels with photosynthesis to produce our food calories. Sunshine is free.
True, this is easier said than done — fossil fuel is deeply implicated in everything about the way we currently grow food and feed ourselves. To put the food system back on sunlight will require policies to change how things work at every link in the food chain: in the farm field, in the way food is processed and sold and even in the American kitchen and at the American dinner table. Yet the sun still shines down on our land every day, and photosynthesis can still work its wonders wherever it does.
We as consumers should be prepared to
1. pay more for safer, healthier food - organic, local, pasture-based, humane.
2. accept the idea of fewer - but more wholesome - choices.
Then, coming to think of it, do consumers really have a choice?
After living in New York and California, trying to sustain that lifestyle where we currently live is a real challenge. Earlier, we could easily walk into a Whole Foods or Trader Joe. In California, we could source veggies year round at reasonable prices at our farmer’s market. Where we now live, we have a short growing season of about 4-5 months. Our farmer’s markets, sadly, bring most of their produce from out of state. Our state produces 8% of food nationwide, but most of it is sourced to food corporations. Weekly deliveries of produce from our local CSA are only from May to September. That still doesn’t address other staples like grains, lentils and dairy.
There’s one co-op that sources stuff locally at exorbitant prices. It’s the only place in our whole city that sells organic cream and organic unsalted butter. (Costco sells organic salted butter at half the cost of the butter sold at this store, but if you need unsalted, you have to go to the co-op.) Do I want to drive 20 miles round-trip and pay seven dollars for a head of organic local cauliflower? I’m not sure.
We try to make the best of the situation by
1. Buying local and organic whenever we can. Hell-Mart, no kidding, has a growing organic section in the produce aisle. (If you’re planning to dash me an e-mail saying how evil Hell-Mart is, try moving to my city and shopping at the organic section at Albertson’s. It sucks huge lemons.) If I’ve to choose between two comparable products, I pick the one that came from a closer location - oranges from California rather than South Africa. Cheese is the only exception. We only buy imported cheeses because of stricter regulations in Canada and Europe that disallow the use of rBGH and artificial growth hormones.
2. Try and buy stuff with as little packaging as possible, and paper rather than plastic. I prefer buying organic milk from Costco rather than my regular store ‘cos Costco milk is in cardboard cartons rather than the gallon plastic container at the other place.
3. Our veggie garden has served us well. It also helps us appreciate the sweat and care that goes into growing food that is not laced with pesticides and fertilisers.
4. When deciding whether to buy organic, it’s important to keep in mind the “dirty dozen foods” that have a large amount of pesticide residues even after being washed.
Apples
Cherries
Grapes
Nectarines
Peaches
Pears
Raspberries
Strawberries
Potatoes are notorious for having heavy pesticide residues. Relatively okay non-organic products are bananas, mangoes and corn.
Either way, we like to wash our fruit and many veggies with a drop of dish soap to remove wax and the chemicals attached to it. Dairy and eggs in our home are always organic and “hormone-free, antibiotic-free, cage free, vegetarian-fed”. Peeling non-organic strawberries is not a bad idea.
Seen from the larger perspective, the limiting of choices available in the Indian grocery store is not such a bad thing. It forces us to buy atta (fine whole wheat flour) from Canada or the U.S. As also our cooking oil. While we had an assortment before, we now stick to safflower or peanut oil produced in the U.S. The swiss chard is from our garden.
A dash of organic fine cornmeal does two things. It adds sweetness to the dough. It lends the touch of coarseness that is missing in the flour that I bought. The cornmeal from India (makke ka atta) is finer than fine wholegrain cornmeal we got from King Arthur Flour. Either works. Or simply substitute the cornmeal with whole wheat flour or oat flour.
We made these a couple of times - with and without sourdough. In lieu of sourdough: use fine whole wheat flour (atta) to cornmeal - proportion about 2:1.
Any greens will work.
SOURDOUGH SWISS CHARD CORNMEAL ROTIS
9 ounces stiff sourdough starter
1 cup fine whole wheat flour (atta) (regular whole wheat flour will work too)
2/3 cup fine wholegrain cornmeal
swiss chard - dunk the leaves in hot water for 30 seconds, put in cold water, squeeze dry and chop - 1 packed cup
turmeric, cayenne powder, cumin powder, salt to taste
water to knead
1/2 tsp oil per roti for cooking
Knead everything together (except the oil) into a smooth ball of dough for about 5 minutes. Start with very little water and add more as you go. Then roll out into discs and make regular rotis. You may need to roll them a tad thicker than regular rotis - more like parathas without a filling. LIKE THIS. Cormeal makes the dough tear more easily, so roll with care.
We like ours with low-fat homemade organic yogurt or hummus.
This is our entry for Heart of the Matter: Whole Grains @ Joanna’s Food.
- bee
Chard - Swiss/Red/Rainbow, Cornmeal, flatbread, Flour, food policy, GARDENING, India, Michael Pollan, NUTRITION, sourdough, Wheat, whole-grain, whole-wheat
i read that letter too… the chard rotis look delicious. I’ll have to pick up an extra bunch to try this
looks yummy n healthy…
The organic milk we buy at Costco comes in plastic gallon containers. We have our weekly veggies & fruits delivered from Capay Farms. I think it is a steal for $29.99 coz it lasts for two weeks.
You sound very low key Bee, I hope you are OK.
“When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.†John Muir
It never ceases to surprise me how everything is connected and a seemingly harmless thing can actually harm.
I recently learned that rice farms in Asia are really big sources of methane. Who would have thought that a grain that is so easy to grow and that sustains the poor in developing world could have a bad impact on the environment.
I buy my milk from a company here that buys from local farms- they don’t use growth hormones and sell their milk in glass bottles that are reused each time.
I do find it complicated though–should I buy organic produce from wal-mart but then I’ve probably just bought stuff that has used up a lot of resources to get to me…
But then if I go to buy something local, I’m going to drive quite a bit more, so I’ll be burning fuel just getting there, and then paying a lot more for my food.
In the end though,everyone (at least the people who can afford to) should be a lot more conscious of what their food source is and how it is getting to them.
ditto to what Shankari said. You do sound down. Hang in there, take a break from blogging if you need it (although we’ll miss you), and I hope you feel better.
I think we re pretty lucky in Bay to have 2 farmers market close by in Satu and one in Sunday. All veggie or fruits are reasonnable even the organic stall ! Compare to safeway or Lucky (former Albertson) who just empty ur wallet for little organic food!
About rice, we should forget eating rice if the situation remain same! May be try ur cormeal roti to slowly change our eating habit.
I love chard! This is a great alternative to methi in rotis!
I am missing the “Regular Bee”. The whole of yesterday I was checking for u’re post looking for the “promised-thruday-post” but I never thought end-of-the-day post. Take care. I miss something in the recipe and in the post (that hilarious touch or the zing-thing”….something I don’t know. Please take care.
A warm hug from Mumbai {} :D! Cheer up! What can I post for you from here to make you smile?
You sound a bit lost, Bee, if I can call it that. I hope you find yourself soon, and that that means you’ll become your usual self.
Where I live, all the organic stores are on the other side of town, in the IT/commonly-perceived-as-moneybags belt - and very few of them carry vegetables. I used to buy rice there whenever I could, but have almost given up as it often has creepy crawlies. And no milk or dairy products that are organic, that’s too much to hope for, though ghee is available now and then.
Living in a desert, I can somewhat relate to what you have written. Most of the produce comes from California. Eating local is not possible. Blame the 110+ degrees summer for more than 4 months (Its still 86 here :O).
I hope all is well with you. When I came back from a long break, I had little to no motivation to resume blogging too. You just go with the flow. Things will happen one way or the other. And, most of the time, its for the good. Have a great weekend!
very well written post….
as i write this, there is an artificial rice shortage in andhra…. the gov passed an order that price should be below 20 rs a kg when it was selling for 35 or higher… so traders are hoarding… or insisting you buy 25 kgs with some other stuff as a “package”….i dont see kashmir apples as much as i see washington, china and newzealand apples….and its all very hip…. prices of vegetables here have sky rocketed because big corporations buy tonnes of it and they cant sell as much…they rot…. so they buy again… in tonnes…. and create an artificial shortage….cant we learn our lessons??
I do buy sometimes organic products, but the prices are so high then i pass the section and take from the bulk they sell. We use lot of potato as i make potato mash for lunch or something else with potato, so i buy the potato from the local farmer here. In summer i do go to thelocal farm here and buy the strawberies etc………. but now the winter is here, i just hop to the supermarket.
Hope you will be back to the old bee and till then take care of your self andask jai to cook warm anddelicious meals for you.
Some really great tips in there, Bee. And the rotis look fantastic too.
Bee, thank you for this - both the delicious rotis AND the food for thought. These issues are not easy: as you say, you want the coarse meal, but it comes from further. And as for the milk - I always find it incredible that organic milk comes in plastic bottles, but I also wonder how much better the cardboard boxes are … there’s too much for one person to know. So all we can do is what you are already doing, try to tread lighter. We’ve been eating entirely seasonally for a couple of years now, and I like the restrictions it places on what you can eat - although we’re all always LONGING for a tomato at the beginning of the summer!
Thanks for taking part in HotM, and for giving me so much to think about
Hugs
Joanna
Hi Bee,
I am one of the ‘lurkers’ on your website. I must have gone through most of your post, drooled over the food, bowled over by the gardening and thoroughly enjoyed the pictures. But have never actually written a comment.
So heres one….
I live in London..and there is loads of organic stuff around me. And trust me I would love to be organic and ensure I keep the enviroment as clean as I can.
But whenever I go to buy something organic..its 3 times the price. And I cannot afford that! I wish the goverment would make it easier to choose organic food (like they have done with recycling waste).
In the meanwhile, I take inspiration from you and grow a few things in pots on my little balcony
xx,
Priya
thanks for some thoughtful words - take care of yourself
That’s a wonderful post! The rotis look lovely! tempting me to pick up one through the screen
I have also started my efforts at living and especially eating more consciously. Now, I don’t look at the price, but the label which says where the vegetable comes from, when i buy them. That way I am automatically eating seasonal products. And interestingly, I found that a lot of times they are also cheaper. Except for a few things like bananas (or pineapples or mangos - but only in summers) I try to buy locally as much as possible or at least those that grow in the nearby regions or countries. Apples are usually grown locally, potatoes rather from Germany than any other place. It is for the first time that I’m really becoming aware of what grows in Germany during this time of the year, and that after having lived here for more than 11 years. Shame on me. But, better late than never.
I understand living on a budget makes it hard to think of organic food as “affordable”.
And I don’t know the individual’s stories, so I cannot say what follows will apply.
I do know folks around here who complain about the high costs of organic vegetables yet think nothing of buying a magazine or a book or a cup of specialty coffee - often weekly (daily for some for the coffee). Some of these same folk often eat lunch out daily during the work week.
If you add up those costs and make an effort to brew your own coffee/tea, take (healthier!) lunches to work, read the magazines online and use the public library for books, then many of us CAN afford organic fruits and vegetables more often.
Bee, what you wrote was very honest. Thanks for trusting the community with your situation. I add my wishes to the many others that you will discern what it is about your life right now that does not feel like the “real you” and then know what to do (if anything) about that.
Although most of our vegetables come from the supermarket… we do make sure to buy the ones which have been produced in our area, and yes, with less packaging. We are lucky in the sense that our area is quite agricultural. Our milk is supplied to our door by the friendly milkman.
Hugs to you and take care…find yourself soon
Buying locally is a good idea. Also, changing our choices based on what is available so closely is something we have to do…I like to buy organic milk for reasons that cows wont be fed meat fodder. But then i just had a doubt what if people here is US feed organic meat fodder to their cows and sell milk as organic? What difference is it going to make to me, as i want cows milk from cows fed on plants… Just heard about this cows being fed meat from a couple of sources and i dont know how true it is. Anybody please give some info if u know more about this or if i am wrong. Also i buy my milk from trader joes which says it is harmone free though not organic after this internal saga
Deb’s comment makes so much sense. Thanks Deb and Bee for this thought provoking post.
There are dairies in the US that make cheese from milk that is free from the rB’s. Tillamook is a farmer owned cooperative that has been in operation since the early 1900s. Granted that they do not have exotic cheeses on their product list, their cheeses are darned good and nearly local.
Local vs organic or natural (not certified organic) is a battle that plays out in my mind each time. But how do you resolve the fact that those same companies that play the field in the GMO area are into organic seeds as well? I always choose local even though there is not much to buy in semi-arid Colorado. I’m a fan of Kipp Nash and my yard grows all the veggies that he grows and more - all in my dreams.
I’ve stopped feeling guilty about buying from Walmart/Sam’s Club. The denizens of Boulder city won’t allow a Walmart into their city but all of them flock to the nearest one and pay lower taxes as well. So I’m a hypocrite, too.
Like Bharti, I buy my milk from a local dairy. They supply ‘natural’ rB-everything-free milk in plastic bottles that are returned to them every week. There is a dairy with better tasting milk in glass bottles. But the bottles were too heavy for one person and too cold for another so we switched to lighter, easier to hold and plastic bottles. It’s a little more expensive per gallon but we can skip deliveries and it evens out over the month.
I think you need a little bit of Colorado Rocky Mountain High. You should make a trip.
i just discovered a great dairy selling hormone-free, antibiotic-free milk. they home deliver. it’s great.
Thought provoking.
The choices here are different. For one thing, as far as vegetables and fruits go, locally produced ones are still a lot safer because they’re mostly grown on small farms where farming is done the old way.
As for things like milk, I think the only way to ensure the quality would be to buy a cow or two!
The organic concept is catching up in a big way here, but I can’t understand why we have to pay 3 to 4 times more for food that is grown the natural way!! How many can afford it?
Like Arundati says, I see less of locally grown fruit but plenty of fruit from the U.S, China, Australia and New Zealand to mention a few. And I find it difficult to buy fruit and vegetables that stay fresh for days on end in our temperatures!
I also noticed you don’t seem or sound quite like yourself. Maybe you need a break? Take care.
You do sound low. I went through this as well - had no interest in posting recipes, leave alone taking photographs and cooking. I guess it is a phase and the interest waxes and wanes.
Bee, whatever it is that’s making you feel down, know this: you brighten many others’ days and they would like to reciprocate. Let them. You have some extraordinary friends here. We value the ideas and information you share, but don’t want it to be a burden on you. Make yourself smile; think back to that 187K Accord…
Bee, I am not sure what to say that would make you feel better, other than the fact that the space you have here is one of the BEST - imparting sense in a no nonsense way.
I was listening to Michael Pollan talk on NPR about the open letter, how chicken and fish farms ship chicken and fish over to China to be cut and packaged and sent back! I think of the carbon foot print of that packaged chicken in the grocery store every time I look at it.
I always admire people who are working hard to achieve healthy living and environment. Food costs are rising, even here in New Zealand. We’d better planting vegetables ourselves, in order to be able to fresh supply of household needs. We lived in the big city before we decided to move to the countryside. We could not think it was better for the kids to start their early years, moreover, we love spacious land. It’s much freer to move wherever we want without being watched by neighbours or some nosy people. Perhaps it’s a bit private, but hey, everyone needs to keep privacy, don’t you think?
About pesticide, yeah… it’s a bit difficult in one way, but I prefer staying being organic. We plant all of those fruit trees to be able to be picked and eaten fresh, so we do not use any pesticide. If we intend to spray, we use organic spray, such as using the herbal base, like pyrethrum. One thought: who knows that we someday are free from pesticide?
well from the looks of the pictures, seems as tho ur picture mojo didn’t go far! looks great!
great letter. i agree with most and coming from a communist island, i get it. but, at the end of day, we as americans are very very spoiled ppl.
i never could understand why US had to import South African oranges when u have such wonderful varieties from Florida!!
Oh Bee, you do sound down. I wonder if the planets are aligned all wrong - I have recently been looking at everything that is going on in the world and the enormity of the challenges we face and felt like going back to bed. For like twenty years. I read the news from Zimbabwe with mounting horror and can’t help but wonder where the Bob Geldof of Zimbabwe is. People just seem to suffer from compassion fatigue and everyone is intent on looking out for number one.
I really admire you for your decisions and choices as regards buying food. The whole issue of food production is so fraught and so complex. There was a report in the London paper this morning about how sales of organic food have already visibly dipped as the recession looms ever closer - and you can’t blame people for buying cheaper if you see the ridiculous mark-up on organic products. I don;t buy magazines or expensive coffeshop coffee (not unless I’m on vacation and treating myself!) and I have to admit thinking twice about buying stupidly priced organics - and I am not in dire financial straits with a family to feed.
It just seems as if the global recession and crop shortages have come at exactly the right time to give the GM advocates a foot in the door: “how can you keep objecting to GM crops on ethical grounds when people in Africa are starving to death? We should be planting GM crops to save them!” - and the argument gets harder to deny as the suffering increases! It’s a very scary confluence of circumstances.
As for oranges from South Africa, I am guilty as charged. Ditto South African apples. Poor people and their livelihoods depend on the fruit export industry in my country and although I will avoid other foods flown in from exotic places, I will buy proudly South African to support our industry. Sorry….
And just before we all sink into despair, I have always loved that Garfield quote
Bee,
Thank you for this very interesting and wonderful post. You do a great job of getting the most local, and unchemicalized food as possible. Your Rotis looks very delicious.
Hi
I dont post as much, but have always raed yr posts and posted the first time when u wrote abt yr letter to Bri.
I think u already know this but it helps if u hear it from someone else too: I think u are grieving .. the fact that you can still be writing and blogging when Brianna cannot , and there is no real reason why it turned out this way, may be making you feel depressed and questioning yourself…. Maybe I have overstepped my bounds as a reader, but you will hopefully realize that it is OK to live your life as it is given to you, even though others are given different outcomes… it is not in yr hands anyway..I apologize upfront, if I have opened raw wounds..sorry.
Hang in there, there are a lot of people who may not know exactly how you feel right now, but are hoping that you will come through it nevertheless..(If u want you can email me privately.)
Best, Vyjoo
Hi again Bee,
I can relate to your post in more ways than one. I think it’s hard as life gets busy and so many important issues are floating around us to devote as much time and energy to our blogs. Like everything else, this too shall pass and the growing pains will yield to good changes.
I have been health and issue conscious for a long time. However, my awareness and knowledge has increased ten folds in recent years. I read a lot of the same publications as you do. This burst of reality we have gotten in the past ten years, or so, is the door for positive changes… the awareness we all needed all along. You and your blog are a wonderful voice in the movement. Thank you!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Reading this post like so many other publications on and offline that talk about organic, farm fresh and gives me even more appreciation for the the food here. Sure in Barbados more than 80% of the food is imported but it is not the same in most other parts of the Caribbean and people here are doing more to grow and buy local and organic. In some ways I feel like the world is now catching up with us. Case in point, America’s first president of colour.
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