Garden Girl

So you’re getting your CSA box and trying your best to decrease your carbon footprint, support local growers and eat more real food, but like me, you were raised in the micronuke TV dinner generation. You’re impressed at the skilled home cooking of people who have learned to make demi-glace from scratch & roast their own veggies to serve with a sprinkling of home made herbed vinegar, but you aren’t there yet, or just don’t have the time this week for fancy.

Things you can do with your CSA box before it becomes compost that are quick & oh so easy:

A) Salads.

My husband is from California, the land of the meal salad & so I know from experience that there’s not many veggies that don’t taste good raw & with all their vitamins & nutrients intact. Add some boiled egg, cheese, tofu , tempeh, or nuts & grains. & then put on your favorite dressing. (& don’t stint– you’re being healthy enough just by eating a big bowl of raw veggies.) This is as simple & good as it gets.

B) Steamed.

Invest in a big ass rice cooker with a steamer attachment. Steamed veggies will keep in your fridge for the next week or so just fine. Put them over rice with a little sauce of your choice– curry, Annie’s Goddess ( http://www.consorzio.com/catalog/organic-dressings-c-30.html ) or any other salad dressing, or a little teriyaki sauce- experiment with any spice or seasoning you like for variety. Steamed veggies over pasta topped with marinara is yummy. This is so easy your kids can take the necessary components out of containers in the fridge and pop them in the microwave themselves for dinner.

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by a small farmer dismayed at the Federal Government’s active discouragement of local food production:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/opinion/01hedin.html?ex=1205038800&en=f572f35fb6160317&ei=5070&emc=eta1

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I’ve been looking forward to seeing this project since I first heard it was coming to Austin. The “food not lawns” movement is another example of how we can find again for ourselves the fulfillment that comes from addressing our basic human needs with our own hands rather than chasing happiness through being consumers driven by media manufactured pseudo needs (growing delicious healthy food for your family, neighbors & friends beats having the lawn that most looks like Astroturf in your neighborhood).
& once again the answers comes down not to bigger better technology that will allow us to stay in the rat race, but rather to encouraging people to live with more understanding & more intimacy with their environment and with each other.

Green Right Now covers Fritz Haeg’s Attack on the Front Lawn :
http://www.greenrightnow.com/2008/03/01/attack-on-the-front-lawn-artfully-growing-food-in-austin/

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143 million pounds of beef recalled

http://www.ethicurean.com/2008/02/17/hallmark-recall/

There was an NPR segment this morning on this (warning there are brief descriptions of cruelty to animals) as well.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19141306

This was entirely preventable with the right kind of government oversight. What are your tax dollars going for if not this?
(My spouse & I don’t at meat anymore, but if you are looking for local, humanely raised & slaughtered meat in Austin/ San Antonio, I urge you again to check out Greenling.com )

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From the Austin Chronicle:
… Benitez, the director of the coalition, told an audience at UT Thurday evening that Whole Foods “is more interested in cheap tomatoes than the well-being of those working to get produce to the store.”

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Blogs/News?oid=oid%3A589592

I can’t tell you how much I love Greenling. They support local farms & farmer co-ops. The local basket ( big enough that an every other week delivery will keep two people in fresher and tastier than store bought, organic, local produce) is made up of things you’ll never see at Whole Foods, because Greenling will buy small batches of what the farmers have. Their prices are competitive with Whole Foods & you shop from your computer & receive a bin at your freakin’ door (that’s convenience).
The staff is always responsive & friendly.

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