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There are three practices that I believe all home cooks should employ in order to maintain health and happiness, as well as improve the output of their culinary explorations. These three practices are buying organic food, buying locally-produced food, and buying and/or foraging for wild edibles. Today I will be focusing on buying organic food.
Being a resident of New London, CT from August 2002 through May 2006 gave me ample opportunities to explore the various food purveyors, restaurants, wine shops, brew pubs, vineyards, and fish shacks dotted throughout South East Connecticut. While a few places stood out, like Stonington Vineyards, Brie and Bleu, and Thames River Wine and Spirits, there is one gastronomic institution that cannot be overlooked. In the town of Mystic resides B.F. Clyde’s cider mill, the oldest steam powered cider mill in the US. Clyde’s sells a number of cider-based products, including some outrageously good cider donuts, along with a countless array of spreads, dips, dressings, and pickles. However, the pièce de résistance is the hard cider sold in the cellar of the barn.
Apparently my fishing habits are altering the size of future fish, and not in a good way, according to a National Public Radio broadcast (January 16th 2009) on fishing and hunting.
Have you ever heard tales of epic battles with gigantic fish that took place many moons ago? Have you ever wondered why the largest fish that you ever caught you caught when you were a kid?
Apparently by catching and keeping big fish, we are all aiding the evolutionary process of natural selection that is leading to smaller fish. Why? Because we anglers who are fishing for dinner throw back the little guys and keep the larger ones. As a result, so says NPR, being small is a strategic advantage, and a characteristic that is transferable through generations.
Stumbling upon the Gourmet and NYTimes articles on “fish shares” last Saturday compelled me to put up a post titled “Fish Shares for MV Striper”. In light of Owen’s comments in response (on the perceived upsides to implementing a fish share system), and after a bit more reading, I want to add a few additional comments.
It wasn’t until this morning that I first read about the novel concept of “fish shares.” Am I behind the times? Perhaps. But regardless of how cutting edge this idea (and practice) is, it merits significantly greater attention. Why aren’t the commercial striper fishermen off the coast of Cape Cod using a fish share system?
What are fish shares? The concept is based on the idea of regulating the fishing industry so that it remains healthy, and fish stocks aren’t depleted. By contrast to the current use of total catch quotas, i.e. X lbs of striper can be caught in a given season, fish shares rely on individual quotas or shares, i.e. each fisherman can bring in X lbs of striper in a given season. What is the result? By removing the pressure from fishermen to go out and get as many fish as quickly as possible to beat out competing fishermen, a system of fish shares encourages catching fish more gradually.
Photo Copyright: UK Evening Standard Online
Fearnley-Whittingstall is at it again, this time attempting to make garden landshares hip! It is always heartening to see a celebrity investing some of their fame and fortune in a cause to try to make a positive impact, but hardly ever is it for a cause as un-sexy as ‘shared gardens.’ Is Fearnley-Whittingstall ‘ahead of his time’ with this one?
Copyright Disclaimer: photo not my own
The US has recently decided to punish french producers of Roquefort cheese in retaliation for the EU´s continuing (13 year old) objection to importing American beef treated with certain “unsafe hormones.” As a US citizen I am OUTRAGED by my government’s attempts to force-feed hormone-jacked-up-beef to consumers who don´t want it. Sure the EU’s objection to certain hormones used in the US might not be driven by entirely benevolent health-related concerns (protectionism?!), but if farms in Europe can meet higher standards, why can’t farms in the US?
As well fed as he is well dressed
Once a long while ago an American made a documentary about the effects of only eating fast food, this ended somewhat predictably with a high speed fattening and some near organ collapse. Sometime later, presumably, an Englishman saw it, and then informed the fine people at the BBC. The civilizing effect of the British Broadcasting Corporation is evident in their new one off show, a year old now but new to me, Edwardian Supersize Me. In the words of one of the participants….
“There can have been no better time for a chap like me to be alive. So what an enormous stroke of luck that the BBC were looking for someone to send back to that very era — to live, dress, exercise, eat and drink like an Edwardian man of means — to find out what it did to his girth, his arteries, his inner organs, his digestion, his mood, his very soul. Some guinea pigs might have been daunted by the prospect of four whopping meals a day, rivers of grog and hardly any fruit, vegetables or water for an entire week. But not I. “
(Tip of the Hat: Serious Eats)
A few days ago I wrote about the growing chatter regarding bacon flavored spirits. For some reason I thought that the bacon oddities would cease, but no, everywhere I turn I find examples of people’s preternatural love for that pork product. Am I going mad? Is the coming of Bacon shaped Bandages and Bacon flavored Floss a sign of the apocalypse, or are they harbingers of new Golden Age?
Update: There is also such a thing as a Bacon Wallet, we are clearly in strange times.
Andrew Maki
Alex Welles
Owen Maloy
An Ode to the Taco Bell Diet
January 14, 2010 in Commentary | Tags: diet, taco bell | by Owen Maloy | Leave a comment