Wait A Minute…Corn in May?

May 3, 2011 By Nourishing Words in Farmers Markets & CSAs, Food, Healing and Wellness, Local Food, Sustainability 8 Comments

I originally wrote this column for my “Fresh Today” series in the Concord Monitor, focusing on simple ideas for using fresh, in-season vegetables throughout the year. This one took on a life of its own and I became reluctant about submitting it, for fear that it strikes too opinionated a note. I’m not sure if it will see ink or not.

Nature’s grand culinary design gives us a few foods (I’d argue, many) that are worth waiting for all year long. Corn, strawberries and tomatoes are among the many foods that are so delicious fresh from the farm that there’s just no point risking the disappointment of beauty without flavor. Continue reading →

Irresistable Spring Lambs at the Farm by the River

May 1, 2011 By Nourishing Words in Farmers Markets & CSAs, Farming, Local Food Tags: CSA Ossipee River, Farm by the River, hair sheep, Katahdin sheep, lambs Leave a comment

What a perfect weekend for visiting a dozen lambs, all just a couple of weeks old. With various writing deadlines looming, I escaped on this sunny morning to the Farm by the River in Effingham, New Hampshire. Continue reading →

Why Popeye Ate Spinach and You Should Too

April 28, 2011 By Nourishing Words in Healing and Wellness, Local Food Tags: antioxidants, how to cook spinach, Popeye, spinach, spinach nutrition, why Popeye ate spinach 8 Comments

Are you afraid of spinach? Does it conjure up images of green, flavorless mush? Popeye, perhaps, downing can after can of the stuff?

Well, it turns out that Popeye knew what he was doing, eating all that spinach. Spinach is one of the most nutritious of the leafy greens, rich in iron, calcium, cancer-fighting antioxidants, vitamin K and vitamin C. Continue reading →

CSA Choices Abound in 2011

April 5, 2011 By Nourishing Words in Farmers Markets & CSAs, Farming, Local Food Tags: CSA, farm patron program, farmers markets, Red Manse Farm, vegetables 6 Comments

Thanks to Bonafide Green Goods of Concord, New Hampshire for sharing this 15-second video about the recent proliferation of CSAs in the United States. It’s the perfect illustration of my dilemma this spring: my summer CSA decision. Continue reading →

Farming for the Future

March 6, 2011 By Nourishing Words in Farmers Markets & CSAs, Farming, Food, Gardening, Local Food, Sustainability Tags: deep organic, food systems, no-till gardening, organic gardening, shallow organic, soil, sustainable farming 8 Comments

This post relates to the Week Three readings and discussion in our local Menu for the Future course. Whether you’re participating here in Concord, following along from afar or simply have thoughts on this topic—please comment!

We’re a group of eaters, with not a farmer among us. Yet, at the third week of our Menu for the Future course, we dug into organic farming details that aren’t usually part of mainstream consumer discussions about eating organically. Many of us are gardeners, so seeing ourselves as farmers of a sort was fairly easy to do. A group comfortable with the topic at hand, to be sure.

Continue reading →

Anonymous Food

February 22, 2011 By Nourishing Words in Environment, Farmers Markets & CSAs, Farming, Food, Healing and Wellness, Local Food, Sustainability Tags: Anonymous Food, Big Organic, food coop, genetically modified potatoes, GMOs, industrial agriculture, meat consumption, Menu for the Future, personal action, vegan, Walmart 8 Comments

This post relates to the Week Two readings and discussion in our local Menu for the Future course. Whether you’re participating here in Concord or with a group somewhere else; following along from afar; or simply have thoughts on this topic—please comment!

Great readings this week! Articles included in the Week Two readings for Menu for the Future explored the progression of agriculture over the last 70 years or so from family farms to today’s huge, industrial farms and the resulting ecological and economic changes. Continue reading →

Food Decisions and Food Rules: Remembering the Pleasure of Eating

February 20, 2011 By Nourishing Words in Environment, Food, Healing and Wellness, Local Food, Sustainability Tags: Big Organic, Food Rules, Local Food, organic, pleasure of food 10 Comments

Good food, bad food. Healthy food, unhealthy food. Lean food, “fattening” food. Local food, food imported from distant lands. Small farms, industrial farms. Whole food, processed food.

The list goes on. Dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan, real food, sugar-free, paleo, vegetarian: All are ways, often for perfectly sound reasons, of drawing clear lines among a dizzying array of food choices. Continue reading →

What’s Eating America

February 15, 2011 By Nourishing Words in Food, Local Food, Sustainability Tags: Earth Institute, food choices, industrial food, Menu for the Future, Wendell Berry, Zoe Bradbury 15 Comments

Last night began the six-week discussion series, Menu for the Future, with a full, diverse group of people participating. We’re following the Earth Institute’s course book, which provides weekly readings, tips on facilitation and suggested questions for discussion. Our first week’s readings and discussion were focused on food traditions in our lives, industrial versus agricultural eating, the confusion and anxiety we sometimes feel about food choices, and our individual connections to a global food system. Continue reading →

Look Who’s Talking About the Concord Winter Farmers Market

February 9, 2011 By Nourishing Words in Farmers Markets & CSAs, Food, Healing and Wellness, Local Food Tags: Concord Winter Farmers Market, video, worms 10 Comments

It’s happening again, this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Don’t miss it. Cole Gardens on Loudon Road in Concord, New Hampshire; see you there!

If you’re not in the Concord, New Hampshire area, find a winter farmers market near you to support this weekend!

What Is ‘Safe Food,’ Anyway?

February 2, 2011 By Nourishing Words in Farming, Food, Healing and Wellness, Local Food Tags: Ben Hewitt, diet-related disease, drug-resistant bacteria, food rights, food safety, foodborne illness, foodborne pathogens, Making Supper Safe, raw milk, The Town That Food Saved 16 Comments

This is the fourth in a series of guest posts from author and farmer Ben Hewitt of Cabot, Vermont. Ben’s newest book, Making Supper Safe, is due out in June 2011. Thank you, Ben, for these thoughtful posts on a challenging, complex issue.

Having spent three posts doing my level best to convince you that the issue of foodborne pathogens is but a short chapter in the story of food safety, it only seems fair that I offer my definition of “safe food.”

It does seem reasonable that we demand food that is free of the pathogens that can cause acute illness and even death. Still, as I’ve noted, I think we need to accept that all of our actions, including eating, harbor a degree of risk. Continue reading →

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