Take Control of your Food. Do it now.

There have just been so many things in the news lately about food - and not about the deliciousness of it, or the versatility of produce, or anything good like that. No, the news is all rotten, and it depresses me. 

By now, I'm sure you've heard about Monsanto and Bayer merging. Let me just say at the outset, I don't think these two corporations are the devil incarnate. I think there are an awful lot of people working there that are just trying to make a living. Both of these companies make products that actually make the world a better place. They are not all bad. And them getting together like this is probably really good for some people, good for the bottom line. We're capitalists. Making money is often the goal. 

No, what concerns me about this merger is the ownership of seeds. The patenting of life. The fact that our nation's farmers, already stretched too thinly, must grow food a certain way in order to make a living. And that we, as consumers, must buy and eat food grown this certain way, sometimes without our knowledge or permission.

Do we know what we're eating? I mean, really know? When we buy a box of pasta at the store, what are we really getting? (And trust me, I've bought my share of pasta.) Certainly genetically modified wheat. From Round-up Ready seeds from Monsanto? Possibly. We can't really know. That ice cream we're purchasing - is the milk from grainfed cows? probably. What grain was given to those cows? Genetically modified corn, most likely. 

My sister-in-law texted me last night, having just watched a movie called "Consumed." (I have yet to watch it, but apparently it's streaming on Netflix.) "It's scary, Elizabeth," she wrote to me. "How can we know what we're eating?"

A smaller news story also has me quite disgusted. Perhaps you've heard of the Heirloom Expo? it takes place every September in Santa Rosa, which is in Sonoma County, a couple hours northwest of where I live. This festival celebrates heirloom fruits, vegetables, and herbs; 15,000 people come from all over the world; vendors from seed banks come to show off their wares; there's music and community - you know, just like a county fair. Sure, there are some pretty 'out there' ideas, but there's also companies like Baker Creek, a world-famous seed house with two locations in the United States. I really wanted to go to the Expo this year, because I'm not working at the moment and it takes place in the middle of the week so I've never been able to before, but I couldn't figure out how to get back in time to pick up the kids at school. I would have loved to go and taste all the varieties of tomatoes, squashes, apples that they had there. I would have loved to pick up some packets of heirloom seeds and chat with like-minded folks.

But guess who did show up on the third day of the event? The Sonoma County Health Department, who fined any booth that was giving away samples of fruits and vegetables, saying it was 'not to code.' This event has been going on for six years. They couldn't have worked all this out before the expo started? The fines were hundreds of dollars, for things like giving away a free apple. Listen, I'm a rule-follower, but this is ridiculous. (The news this morning is that the director of the Health Department resigned. Chalk one up for common sense. You can find the whole story here.) Some people feel this was a direct hit against those who are saving seeds, against the 'pure-food' movement.

All of this leads me to think we need to make a real shift in the way we think about food. How can we take back control?

Growing your own is the ultimate way to thumb your nose at big agriculture. Only by doing it yourself can you be absolutely certain of what you're eating - what seeds or starts you're buying, how the fruit was grown, etc. If I eat a tomato from my property, I know the history of the seed, what's in the soil, the conditions the plant grew in, if there were any chemicals used, etc. I can prepare it the way I want, using the ingredients I want. You can't get much better, or more honest, than that. And it's gotten to the point where growing your own food is a radical act. You're saying 'no' to these genetically modified seeds. Did you know farmers can be fined for growing things like corn and wheat from seeds they have saved? Since when are seeds, seeds that you yourself collect from your own harvest, not your property? Stick up for seeds, saved down through generations. Spend your money at local seed houses who believe the same things you do. 

If you can't grow your own, the next best thing is to find a farmer close to you. Go to the farmers markets. Get to know who's growing your food. Ask them about the seeds, how the plant was grown, what tastes best, how to prepare it. They will be absolutely thrilled to answer every single one of your questions, and if they're not, that's not the farmer for you. Start a relationship and see if that farmer doesn't start saving you the best things every Saturday.

The next best thing after that is to buy organic. If something is grown organically, by law it cannot be from a genetically modified seed. It seems ridiculous to buy organic bananas because you're going to peel them, right? Buy organic anyway. Use your food dollar to support doing the right thing. Buy grass-fed beef, pastured pork, pastured chicken, wild fish. Yes, you will find that your food bill doubles. Do it anyway and give up something else, like your daily Starbucks (are you sure your coffee is grown sustainably?) or HBO. Make no mistake, this is important. If we support the good guys, even in small ways, our food votes will add up. Packaged food is hardest to buy, because there are so many ingredients that it's hard to know where it all came from. Organic always helps. The Non-GMO label tells you something too. Bread and grains are the hardest thing, I've found, to make the switch to. Keep looking, keep searching for the best possible food you can buy.

This is important. This is something all of us do, every single day - buy food and eat. I'm not saying to be militant about it - once in awhile you're gonna want to eat an In-n-Out burger. That's ok. It's what we do the majority of the time that will start to make an impact. Because what's next? Probably not doomsday, no, but it's just one more way in which our choices are being made for us. Take back control. Do it now. 

Our Favorite All-Purpose Summer Sauce

Sure, in the winter we crave ragu made with sausage and fennel, or ground beef and tomato paste; but in the summer nothing but the lightest and simplest sauce will do.

This sauce is so simple that it doesn't need a recipe. All measurements are flexible (in fact, I've never measured anything while making this sauce). If you like onions instead of garlic, then make that switch. If you like fresh oregano rather than basil, go for it. But for us, it's five ingredients, always - fresh tomatoes, garlic, basil, salt, and olive oil. 

Any tomatoes will do. When I have lots of cherry tomatoes ripe on the vine, I'll use them for this sauce, halving them before roasting. Plum tomatoes and beefsteaks are of course great too. You can mix and match. Whatever you've got that's ripe, that's what you want to use. I add plenty of chopped garlic - we still have tons from our garden, though I had to transfer it to the extra fridge to keep longer. You need a handful of basil from the garden too. I like coarse sea salt here. We'll save the discussion about olive oil for another time, but you're buying the closest to local you can, right? (Imported stuff may not even be olive oil - for more info check out the book 'Extra Virginity' - you will never buy cheapo oil again.) 

Preheat your oven to 375 or 400, somewhere around there. Get out a roasting pan, or a sheet pan, or a skillet that can go in the oven (actually you could do this on the stovetop too), and slick the bottom with oil. Chop up your tomatoes and garlic and spread them in the pan. Add a generous amount of salt. If you're using paste tomatoes, you'll want more olive oil; for beefsteaks, use less (because there's more juice in those). Scatter leaves of basil around. Stick the pan in the oven, and roast for at least 45 minutes (start checking around 30 minutes, especially if you're using cherry tomatoes) and up to an hour. The tomatoes should be cooked and wilted, but not blackened. Let cool in the pan, then decant into mason jars and either refrigerate or freeze.

We use this on everything - pasta, homemade pizza, bruschetta. You could use it to make a panzanella or caprese salad. You could eat it with a spoon (I certainly have). Just don't water-bath can this stuff - the inclusion of oil, garlic, and herbs makes it too low in acidity to do that safely. If you have a pressure canner, that would work. 

Usually the day I make this sauce, half gets used right away, and half gets frozen for the winter. Tonight it'll be used on pizza, with Tom's homemade mozzarella. We have tried a LOT of pizza dough recipes, and have settled on this one from Alton Brown. You have to plan ahead and make it the day before, but trust me, it's worth it. (By the way, you don't need bottled water - just boil some tap water and let it sit out with the top off for a while - the chlorine will off-gas.) 

Enjoy!

Dawn

On weekdays, I'm up before dawn, taking care of the animals and getting everyone ready for school and work. It's just too hectic to go out in to the yard and enjoy the morning.

But on weekends, I still get up at 6, and it's wonderful to go into the garden when it's still early. The birds are waking up and chattering (lately I've really noticed the Bewick's Wrens singing every morning as they scratch in the dirt among the flowers), the bees are foraging as soon as it's light, and the chickens like that I bring them whatever the squirrels destroyed the night before (usually watermelons, argh). 

Many of the flowers in the garden bloom only in the cool hours of the morning, such as the Nicotiana Alata, which is a white flower which smells lovely. Or the squash blossoms, which usually close up in the heat of the day. The light is nice too, gentle and cool. In short, the garden is a different place in the early morning hours than it is in late afternoon when I'm usually out there working. I like to sit in the mulch and watch the activity around me, while scratching the cat or the dog.

Tonks, Hermione, and Ginny

Pumpkin

Tasha

Ladybug eating aphids on fennel blossom

Black Cherry

California Sunflowers

Chitalpa, showing signs of Autumn

Amaranth

Jalapeno

Cosmos, cuphea, and tithonia not yet blooming

Delicata

Fennel seeds drying

Russian Sage

Calabrese peppers 

Verbascum, or Mullein

Snap peas 

Cantaloupe

Winter Brassicas just starting in trays

this cucumber grew in the wrong place, no?

Gall wasp nests on the Valley Oak

Cherokee Purple

One of our canning shelves

I hope you're all having a lovely Saturday, and getting to enjoy some time outdoors, too.

Don't Grow Potatoes in Containers

I've grown potatoes in rows (and had a good harvest), potatoes in towers (also a good harvest), and this summer I decided to try potatoes in containers. The title of this post pretty much sums up my experience. I planted five pounds of potatoes, and my yield was pretty much.... five pounds of potatoes. Enough for one meal and leftovers. Not at all cost-effective, and completely and totally not time-and-effort-effective. 

Of course, it could be user error. I probably did a million things wrong. I used unfinished, unscreened compost as my growing medium. The pots were only 10 gallons. I started them in the hottest place in my garden and that stunted them early on. The roaming turkey (remember her?) destroyed the leaves once or twice. I grew them in summer instead of in cooler weather. Who knows. All I know is that I'll do potatoes in the ground from now on.  I think potatoes benefit from being spread out, having a lot of room to grow sideways, and don't like being cramped. The hilling seems not terribly important, meaning that a covering to prevent light from getting in seems to be all my potatoes need - not huge mounds of soil. Potatoes grow from the roots, but not from the stems, so trying to grow them 'up' instead of 'out' really doesn't make much sense. 

Oh well. I have some volunteer potatoes coming up where I had them last winter (I must have missed a few while harvesting), so I'll let those go and hopefully we'll have another small crop in January.

I watched a video on You Tube of a guy in Britain who grew potatoes in enormous containers on his allotment, and they did very well. So again, chalk this one up to me not doing it right somehow, but still. No more experimenting. I'll grow them in our raised beds from now on.

Western Scrub Jay nest

Yesterday, I was doing dishes at the sink, and I looked outside as I often do towards the fountain, because there are always birds to look at there, bathing and drinking, and something caught my eye. We have a big bale of straw sitting out by the fence. I use straw for many things - lining the chicken's nesting boxes, hilling potatoes, mulching melons - but now there was a big dark thing on the bale and I couldn't figure out what it was. So I went outside to investigate and this is what I found.

This nest had clearly fallen out of the privet tree above the bale, and landed upside down. I carefully turned it over. The entire thing stayed together as I did this, it was (appearances to the contrary) very tightly woven and intertwined. I looked for evidence of broken eggs: None to be found. So then I went back inside and sat down at the computer, and my first guess turned out to be the correct one - it was a Western Scrub Jay nest. 

We get lots of Jays in our garden. They are constantly swooping around, startling the smaller birds, hollering at the dog or cat, warning me to stay away. They like to bathe in the fountain and when they puff themselves up you can see just how large they are. They take the acorns from the Valley Oak, and bury them around the yard to ferment, just like squirrels. (The number one thing that I am always weeding for is tiny Oak trees.) What I didn't realize is that they also eat insects, all kinds (I have seen one eat a honeybee), and even rodents! Of course they also eat small birds and the eggs out of other nests. I have mixed feelings about Jays. 

For a fascinating close-up look at a Scrub Jay nest in action, check out this link. This is worth watching! 

After researching this nest, I decided to put it back up in the privet. I think the babies have probably already been laid, hatched and launched; but just in case....