Category: Uncategorized

I feel as if I’m in a bizarre Wonderland that is unfortunately called the political reality in America! The faster I run towards devouring new information about the negative health effects of glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup Ready (RR) herbicide) and GMOs, the more I’m frustrated by the continuing attacks on our body politic by Monsanto and their minions.

I am a novice baker trying my darnedest to learn how to make good bread. I would rather have bought a book by Michael Pollan called Baked. In his book, Cooked Michael talks about his time with guru bakers, farmers, and millers. He reminds us that to make good bread you only need a few basics: flour, water, salt, yeast, time, and heat. Here’s our take on local and regional grain and flour, and baking bread.

Today fishing industries around the world – both fin fish and shellfish – are continuing to harvest as large a quantity of fish as possible, mostly without regard to the remaining fish stocks, the environmental effects of wild and farmed catch, and the careful labeling and identification of the product in restaurants and markets. And to make matters worse, we are facing the introduction of genetically engineered fish into the American food system.

It’s Spring and we’ve got strawberries! Well, actually we have strawberry flowers! Fragaria vesca – the wild woodland strawberries native to the Pacific Northwest – are starting to bloom! Those lovely little white flowers (generally 1/2″ to 5/8″ across) begin blooming here in early to mid-April and soon produce tiny sweet fruit. Fruit that is often no bigger than the nail on your little finger.

With gratitude I stand on the shoulders of all those who illuminated the path before me as I walked. Special thanks to you Ed Brown, for the Tassajara Cooking book. Your light still shines within me as I help to illuminate the path for others. And I still recommend your book.

When the grocery store in Elwood, Nebraska, closed in January 2012, Sharlette Schwenninger and LeahAnn Brell went into action. Today, the Elwood Hometown Cooperative Market has a bright future in a vibrant, engaged rural community.

However, right now I’m feeling fed-up with food talk and food problems. So what really kills me on a day like today is that I feel impotent again, unable to figure out how to break through the barriers that keep others from knowing what I know is possible in the midst of all the complex food news hitting us in the face.