GE Sugar Beets in MI--boycott Kellogg...buy sugar cane

Thanks to Lisa for sending me this link about the genetically engineered sugar beets in MI this year--I've been crying inside about this for some time, and it seems like most people that I bring the subject up with have not heard of it. We should be SHOUTING in Michigan about this danger! Boycotting Kellogg is a start, but it should go far beyond that--and I doubt many of us at this blog eat much sugar-laden stuff anyway...it seems more like we should be boycotting Domino Sugar and Pioneer as well...choose natural sweeteners, like raw honey and maple syrup...and if you must have some sugar (I love it in my coffee), try Florida Crystals' organic sugar grown in the US from sugar cane...organicbythecase.com carries it in different sizes.

I implore you to learn about GMOs and tell everyone you know.

This article also has interesting comments following it...

Global Warming is here!

Hello everyone! Dan Houston from Global Warming Salsa, wanting to let everyone know what we are working on...Our salsa had a nice live spot on Fox2 Morning News last Friday, July 18. We were working at our booth at the Quake on the Lake and we got the attention of the Fox2 news crew, some of whom remembered us from Milford Memories last year, our first day in business with the salsa.
Ben Bailey, the morning meteorologist, interviewed us on the air and showed off our label and mentioned our salsa plans. He seemed to really like the bottle and the label idea. He also liked our "Global" flavor idea...which we just started to launch this month.
The idea behind our name "Global Warming Salsa" is a subtle play on the fact that we plan to have 15 "Global" flavors of salsas (based on our award winning medium salsa) featuring spices and peppers unique to different "Global" cultures. If you know me, I love food, and really enjoy cooking; the global flavors are my home concoctions based on the styles of cuisine I enjoy.The first of the Global flavors was introduced last week, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. It is the Japanese version of our salsa, and I know that initially sounds odd, but the result has been our best seller of the month. A subtle infusion of fresh ginger, wasabi, and toasted sesame provide a unique essence to our classic medium, changing the character completely.
Of course, to be part of the Global Warming Salsa family, it has to be all natural, and it has to be mouthwatering. This is the first of many planned "Global" flavors, soon to follow: Italy, Spain, Brazil, China, Africa, Caribbean...all featuring the tastes of these unique culinary styles.We are still planning "Global Warming: Green" our first venture into organics. We are looking at a couple local producers of organic foods to see how the crops develop; it is important that we do not wait until the last minute to get the organic salsa going. We attempted it at the end of last summer when we started the company but organic crops did not look very promising when we shopped for them. We are optimistic we will be on track for this year.

Product review - Fiddlebump's All Purpose Cleaner

Hello again all... Just wanted to give a quick review on Fiddlebump's All Purpose cleaner. This stuff is wonderful! I guess it is hard to say too much about a cleaner but I love this stuff...it does a great job at cleaning, smells wonderful (I happen to love the smell of mint), and does not make my nose, eyes, and lungs burn...BONUS! Well, have a great, healthy, and blessed day!!!

Rebekah

Bad Policy

Apparently, under Michigan law, ten thousand pigs are exactly the same as ten pigs.

We have a law called the Right-to-Farm Act. It was a good idea to start with, and was conceived to keep new residents in a rural area from suing a farmer because his livestock smells like livestock. I'm in favor of this. The new folks knew they were moving to the country; they should have been prepared to smell a few cows, or hear an occasional rooster in the morning.

The problem is that, under the law, if a farm operates "using generally accepted agricultural and management practices," they can't be sued for polluting.

Further, there has been at least one ruling that "All evidence says that modern agriculture must grow to be competitive and economically viable."

Must it? A small farm cannot be economically viable? I bet some of LVL's suppliers would disagree.

And of course, modern "generally accepted agriculture" includes CAFOs and toxic manure lagoons.

So unfortunately, a law that was created to protect the small farmer from nuisance lawsuits now also grants immunity to giant industrial CAFOs.

Don't get me wrong: I think it's a Good Thing to protect farmers from annoying lawsuits when they get a new neighbor who doesn't like the smell of horses. But at the same time, the law makes no distinction between a family farm with a hundred hogs and an industrial operation with two or three thousand hogs. If you think there's no difference, you've never spent a week downwind of a hog confinement.

Here is an excellent article, with many linked end-notes, that explains the situation in much greater detail than I can.

So what's to be done? Not sure. I think this law should keep protecting small farms and stop protecting industrial-scale ones, but messing with it might do more harm than good. I'd love to hear what the growers who supply LVL have to say about this issue.

Dancing with the Universe--to inspire hope

This video will make you laugh, cry, and feel silly.

But it's so much more than that...treat yourself and watch this video. Read the article after.

http://www.minnpost.com/stories/2008/06/27/2396/dancing_with_the_universe

What does it have to do with living locally? Thinking globally, perhaps, or is that too cliche? Maybe it's just healing to know that we all laugh, we all dance, we all love, and we share this pretty planet.

Industrial Insanity

I'm starting this post as a place to archive information about industrial insanity...as our global food system continues to disintegrate due to non-sustainable methods, the floundering scientists will attempt to fix their problems with additional technological "advances" because the alternative, small organic food production, is not an option for them. As Scooby-Doo would say, "Ruh-roh".

Genetic Modification particularly freaks me out. This is very scary stuff, folks. Once the modified genes are unleashed, there may be no going back...

I begin with a link to an article about a GM corn being tested now that will help keep phosphorus out of pig poop, which is a problem in watershed...

http://www.scidev.net/en/news/gm-corn-improves-animal-feed-cuts-pollution.html

Note how they make it sound like they're tree huggers, wanting to cut down on pollution...

The next is about another genetic modification, but this time of grass, to reduce methane in cow poop...

http://www.newwayswiki.org/blog/2008/06/gm-grass-helps-cows-reduce-methane/

I feel like I need to collect all of these so we can better be aware of how quickly our environment is being endangered. Sorry folks, but when you buy conventional food, you have no way of knowing if it contains GM ingredients. I feel like we need some screaming to get politicians talking about this...wanna join me? "Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh...!"

One Local Summer Check In!

So, how are you all doing? Too busy enjoying local produce from the Farmer's Markets and your garden to check in with your local meal? Me too! Things have been busy in our household with summer camps, vacation planning and all around just being outdoors soaking up the sunshine.

Last week when we had a couple of cool days I decided to make some chili for my One Local Summer Challenge. Remember, if you make an all local meal feature it here on the the LVL blog or email it to me and I will post it for you! If you are looking for some great recipes and delicious ideas from the One Local Summer Challenge, you can always visit the Farm To Philly site for more drooling! No licking your computer screen please, it's not local! :o)

Here is my white bean chicken chili with yellow summer squash and smoked Gouda. You can see the whole post by clicking here (the recipe is in the comments section). Can anyone identify the white containers used to store the excess soup for the freezer? I am betting that they look familiar to a few LVL members!

Chicken - Crestwick Farms

Stock - Homemade

Squash, onion, garlic - Farmer's Market

White Navy Beans - Hampshire Farms

Gouda - Grassfields Organics

Flour - Westwind Mill

Cream - Calder's Dairy

Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Chile Powder - Not Local

Local Food and Meeting Katie

Our family went up north this weekend. When I say up north, I mean 3 cities (not really near each other) in 3 days. We started out here in Waterford and went to Tawas to visit my family who was in town and staying at my Aunt and Uncle's lake front vacation home. It was wonderful to see all my cousins and their children. They are all scattered around the country (CA, MI, FL, WI, etc.) and this is the first time we have seen them all in one place!! We took a cooler full of food and made at least some of the meal local.

We had a big family BBQ on Friday evening. We contributed greens from our CSA and other salad fixins that were local (carrots, kale, radishes, tomatoes, etc.) We took our own homemade salad dressings too.

The next morning we went over to visit again and made lunch. We took two local chickens and grilled them with a bit of seasoning, steamed local asparagus and broccoli and had Kombucha and Kim Chi too.

My cousin's wife (who I adore) is from Mexico, she made a fresh salsa and some other yummy mexican specialties. We were talking about food and some of the work I do in the local food arena and she told me stories of going to her grandmother's farm in Mexico when she was a child. She grew up on a ranch, but her grandma's farm was old-fashioned without electricity, etc. They would get to take turns catching the chickens running in the yard to "catch dinner". She said the chickens tasted so good and she doesn't really eat much chicken now as it taste so poor to her. She raved about our chicken (as did everyone else). She wants to try and source local meat in her area (South Florida). She would get farm fresh eggs and milk and all kinds of other delights at her grandma's farm too. She thought our eating local and sustainable was great!!

We then drove to Rodney, MI (near Big Rapids) for a family get-together on my husband's side of the family. Had a blast there too and then left Saturday night for Traverse City. We stayed at my husband's uncles house on the bay. We brought eggs and some kale and onions and garlic scapes (all local) and cooked breakfast. They had local MI strawberries and bread from a local bakery with local Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam. It was a great breakfast.

After we left his uncle's on Sunday afternoon we went to the National Cherry Festival for a few hours with my Brother-in-law and his family. It was crowded and hot, but interesting. We were hungry so didn't hit too many vendors before we went to find a restaurant to eat dinner. However, I ran into the Naturally Nutty Booth and met Katie!! She was so nice and they had samples of some new flavors. We picked up several jars (the kids liked them finally after taste testing). We got a Chocolate Cherry Peanut Butter, a Chocolate Cinnamon, the Butter Toffee and the Honey Roasted Cinnamon.

So far we opened the Honey Roasted Cinnamon and it is so good!!! I must say that LVL sells the product for cheaper than what we paid at the festival, but it was worth it as I got a cool free tote bag. I will definitely be ordering more of these from LVL!! They are so delectable, I so far haven't made it to a sandwich, just ate it right off the spoon.

Lisa

More Product Reviews: My thoughts

Here’s an update on some new products I’ve tried:

The Honey Roasted Cinnamon peanut butter is awesome! If you haven’t already noticed, I love PB and this one has a wonderful hint in the background of cinnamon—nothing overpowering, but you can definitely tell it’s there. These PB’s are so yummy, there’s no reason for jelly.

Put some Vanilla Almond Butter on top of some toast with a squeeze of honey and you have your very own Graham Cracker! This stuff is to die for!

The McClure’s Pickles are good, but not crunchy enough for me—there isn’t the “snap” when you bite into them. The flavor of the spicy ones is really good, although they are a bit salty for me. My SO (significant other) loves salty food, so he raves about these.

Sansonetti Grilled Portabella Pasta Sauce: Nice flavor and has some nice pieces of mushroom throughout. I always add a few ingredients to any jarred sauce, like extra garlic, hot pepper flakes and some fire-roasted tomatoes, and with these little additions, this one is our favorite. The marinara one is good as well, but we like the chunks of mushrooms.

The meat from Creswick Farms:

This is the first time I’ve ever had organic ground beef and the biggest surprise for me was that there is NO GREASE after browning it! What a total shocker! Nothing to drain and no need to rinse (which I normally do with regular ground beef). The hamburger patties are very convenient and cook up quick. (Hurry up and get them back in, Julie! LOL!)

The Filet Mignon is wonderful! Our only ‘seasoning’ is a bit of kosher salt before grilling—these are top notch and I highly recommend them. They are way cheaper then a steakhouse and much better tasting. Cooked these up with some of that yummy asparagus and some corn on the cob…YUM-O!

Tried the Jalapeno & Cheddar summer sausage, unfortunately, I am not a big fan of it. There wasn’t much of a bite as I’d hope for. Put them out with some cheese for a small get together before the 4th—the cheese was gone, but the sausage remained L.

The cottage cheese is really creamy. It’s usually on my list every week.

The butter: Holy TUB O’BUTTER! That’s a lot of butter for 2 people! I split it up with a person I work with, so it works out perfect.

Happy eating!

L

Movie Review: WALL*E

Okay, so, what the heck is a movie review doing in a blog about local and sustainable food?
Plenty.

My oldest and I went to see WALL*E the other day. He loved it for the story and the characters. I enjoyed it for those reasons as well as others. Generally speaking, I am in agreement with Professor Tolkien in that “I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence.” WALL*E is chock full of allegory, and if I were a different person, I'd probably hate the movie for being too preachy. But since I'm me, I enjoyed it, and since you folks are here, you will probably take a certain amount of comfort, as I did, in the fact that other people understand the importance of sustainable living, and those people have a big audience.

WALL*E lives on a desolate, toxic future Earth that has been abandoned by humanity some centuries ago. He is, as far as we know, the only functioning robot on the planet. His only companions are a cockroach and a collection of relics he has painstakingly assembled. One day, he finds a plant. He's never seen one before. He puts it in his collection.

Later, Earth is visited by another robot, whose mission is to find proof that Earth is habitable again. WALL*E follows the new robot back to her mother ship, which turns out to be the home of what's left of the human race.

These people are the product of a processed-food diet taken to the extreme. They don't move much, all their food comes in a cup, they never see dirt, they communicate entirely electronically. They don't seem to have touched one another in a long time. And that's the way it's always been for them.

When WALL*E and his friend show up with their plant, though, things change for the better.

What are these preachy messages that I was talking about?

• Blind obedience is bad.
• Big box stores are not to be trusted.
• Dirt isn't something to be afraid of.
• Go play outside once in a while.
  
• Food comes from farms.
• If we don't start living sustainably, we're going to wreck the planet.

There are probably others in there that I either missed or else have forgotten. If you like being in the choir and feel the need for a little affirmation, you should go see WALL*E. If you like an entertaining story with many sympathetic characters, ditto. If you have kids, bring them. They might not notice the allegory, and if they do get the message, well, it's a message you want to send anyway, right?

Shampoo bar and crystallized honey review!

Hello all, hope everyone enjoyed our beautiful summer day before we turned back into Seattle ;)

Just wanted to give a little review on a couple of things regarding skin care... Skin care? I thought you said shampoo & honey?!?!

That's right...I said skin care...

I have been trying different combinations of natural products lately for my oily/blemish prone skin (no, I am NOT a teenager...). So, here is what I found that has worked wonders...really. The tea tree/mint shampoo bar from Boh Bon is WONDERFUL for my hair, face, and chest/back. (I use the green tea/green clay soap from Creation for the rest of my body and LOVE it too) I also got a tip from a friend in the honey business that honey is really good for your skin...honey, I thought?!?! rather sticky, isn't it? Not in the shower...and Crystallized honey is even better. It is a wonderful scrub for all your blemish prone/ blocked pore/ and generally rough skin problems. Next I use the jewelweed spray from Creation, which is not just for itch, it is a toner too! Ready for the big finish?!?!... Virgin coconut oil for moisturizer! A little goes a LONG way, it smells awesome, and it does not make my face oily or clog the pores. In fact, some research has shown it is a good sunscreen.

So, there you have it...I finally found the right skin care for my teenager-like skin. Hope this helps someone in need;)

Let's have a chat...!

From what I can discern, there are a LOT of LVL members. Shoot, I even met one at my son's friends birthday parties! I know you're out there, I can see you lurking, reading the blog and I know you are green! So, let's talk. I have linked all the terms about composting in the following paragraph for those (like me!) that would like to learn more.

I am on the fence about composting, worm bins and the like. I am afraid to build a compost heap outside for fear I will become the Old Country Buffet for the raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, ground hogs and possums I see roaming my neighborhood. The vermicomposting (worm bin) also makes me nervous because I have 4 boys, two dogs, 1 cat and a husband to keep alive. How would I also add 87 worms to the list? And, I would feel terrible if they died. I have also looked into contraptions like Nature's Mill where is nice and convenient under the counter with a neat little pull out drawer for the composted soil. I am just a little apprehensive about the possible smell. I just do not want my kitchen to smell like rotting food. And, it's not an inexpensive item to invest in, just to find out you don't like it!

So, what do you all do? Compost heap? If so, how did you build it, how do you maintain it and do you have a critter control problem? Worm Bin? Can you actually keep them alive and do they really have to stay in your house over the winter? Let's start a discussion. Add your comments to the post and I bet we can all learn something here. I feel guilty as sin every time I throw out a cabbage leaf or avocado pit. There must be something I could be doing just a little better!