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Is it a cake, a pie, or a wrongdoing for which a legal claim for damages may be brought? A torte - not to be confused with a legal tort - is a sweet, rich Austrian cream cake covered with nuts or fruits that originated in Austria. This savory version resembles a vegetable pie. I use the best of summer’s bounty, layer it with fresh mozzarella and enclose it in pastry. The flavorful roasted red pepper sauce adds a touch of sweetness and color.

Legend has it that mozzarella was first made when cheese curds accidentally fell into a pail of hot water in a cheese factory near Naples. For this recipe, use fresh, high-moisture cow’s milk mozzarella that contains more than 52% moisture, or Capriella (half goat’s milk, half cow’s milk mozzarella) from the Mozzarella Company in Dallas, Texas. Paula Lambert founded the business in 1982, using the same exacting methods for handcrafting fresh mozzarella that she witnessed while living in Italy.

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“Free organic fruit. Perfectly ripe. Locally grown. Yours for the taking.”

Your ears perking up yet? If this showed up on your local Craig’s List or Freecycle would you be frantically e-mailing, “When can I come over”? Amazingly, such an opportunity probably exists right now, perhaps right down your road, as fruit trees ripen and – too often – fall to the ground and rot.

Like an archeological remnant of a past generation, industrious homeowners often planted these fruit trees several decades ago, before our era of mega-supermarkets and the universal concept that we can, and should, buy everything 24/7. Seems these trees tend to fall into two categories: either they belong to senior residents who can’t physically pick and process the fruit, or newer residents who bought the house with the tree and don’t have the time to pick, much less know what to do with four bushels of pears. Other folks even go as far as considering these trees a nuisance, as overripe fruit falls to the ground and attracts bugs and rodents, eventually chopping the tree down.

Don’t anger the Lorax, make pear pie instead. By connecting with these untapped fruit sources, you cook up something bigger than your private food stash – you will be an ambassador for building community, one bite at a time. I made my annual pilgrimage yesterday to local seniors John and Mary’s house to raid their pear tree, coming home with three five-gallon buckets of fruit. No secret invasion needed; Mary calls every year right before Labor Day to let me know the pears are ripe and we’re welcome to harvest.

Here are three tips for foraging a fruit tree near you: Read the rest of this entry »

I’m eating a lot of oat groats these days. I found a source for locally-grown oat groats, but the minimum order was 25 pounds. Oat groats are the least processed of all edible forms of oats, so they store a very long time (some sources are giving them 30 years under the right conditions.) So even though I’d never tasted them before, I decided to give them a try. I figured any minimally-processed food was a good addition to our diet, and even if it took us years to use them up, it’d be okay. And in the meantime if the apocalypse arrived, there’d be something to eat. Win-win-win.

Oh. My. God. This is what oats taste like. I like good old-fashioned oatmeal just fine — I’ve eaten it for years, still happy to eat it if that’s what’s on the table. When I discovered pinhead oats and stone ground oatmeal, though, I realized just how much regular oatmeal had lost in the process of being…well, processed. (Don’t speak to me of instant oatmeal. That’s not a food.) So it comes as no surprise that getting closer to the whole grain results in an even more interesting taste and texture.

Even so, oat groats were a revelation. Read the rest of this entry »

Too early to be thinking about Thanksgiving? I don’t think so. It’s heirloom turkey time. Order now before you miss out.

Factory farms have been producing most of the meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products in the United States for decades. Although the food is cheap and convenient, this method can create a host of problems, including the loss of small family farms, pollution and animal stress.

Numerous varieties of livestock—Bourbon Red turkeys as well as Red Wattle pigs, Tunis sheep and Barred Plymouth Rock chickens—are endangered and disappearing from our farms and more importantly, from our dinner tables. What’s a localist like myself supposed to do?

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Lovin’ Fresh is a series of recipes designed to showcase produce gathered from local farms or grown in my own garden.

It’s almost here and I thought I’d better prepare all of you for it.  It’s the ying to the yang of vegetable gardening.  Those of you that are fortunate enough to have a little piece of ground to grow your own food will be very familiar with it.  And those of you that visit farmers markets and can’t resist the siren song of all those amazing late summer vegetables know it too.  Perhaps you shudder a bit just to think about it.  Or, if you’re like me, you lie in bed, eyes wide open, conjuring up ways to creatively sidestep it.  

“It” is that deluge of fresh produce that starts to haunt every corner of your kitchen, entryway, and basement, taunting you as it slowly deteriorates while you fret over and hunt out ways to use it up.  By late summer, you’ve grown a tad tired of zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, peppers, and even tomatoes.  Actually, I never tire of tomatoes, but I do get full before I can finish each new batch that comes off my prolific vines.  That’s where this recipe, appropriately named Use ‘Em Up Cold Summer Soup, comes into play.  How full of promise is that title?  Question is, does it live up to the hype?

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360, Square One, Purus, Sunshine, Fourteen, UK5, Ocean, CapRock, Prairie, Crop, and Rain. Not all household names when thinking about a vodka martini- yet.

While organic and biodynamic wines have been around for decades, organic and sustainable spirits have just started to come on board.

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At home, we rank king and queen of our own kitchen – declaring local and seasonal priorities, treating area farmers like valued citizens, banning high fructose corn syrup and declaring kale royalty. Once we cross the moat of our island home base, navigating reality can get a bit more treacherous and sticky, especially when organizing an event outside your kitchen confines. Our quest for sustainability deflates through the reality of standardized event menus, venue restrictions and catering managers rolling their eyes and commenting, “But we’ve never done it that way before.”

Enter Greg Christian, owner of Greg Christian Catering and Events, Chicago’s “Conscious Caterer” on a mission to bring the healthy, sustainable food message to the event scene. Wearing his white chef coat like a cloak of armor, Christensen proves that commitment, passion for healthy food and a dedication to constantly questioning and evolving can prompt true change.

Christian’s journey toward sustainability sparked when his young daughter’s asthma improved significantly through eating organic foods. “But I was living two lives, eating organic at home and using conventional foods in my businesses,” Christian confesses. “I realized I couldn’t live these two separate lives anymore and I started literally diagnosing where my food inputs came from on a world map.” This mapping system prompted not only change, but a deep sense of humility for Christian. “I’m humble and honored to be part of the global food system,” adds Christian, an emotion fueling his catering company’s constant quest to buy from area farmers, run a zero waste kitchen and continually work towards further greening his operations.

Planning an event you would like to keep green? Here are five tips to get started: Read the rest of this entry »

or

Reasons to be a Vegetarian!

As a former vegetarian, I eat a very select and small amount of meat and consider myself a conscious carnivore these days. I’m doing research for a book and i wanted to gather some facts about the environmental impact the industrialized meat production system. I’m all about creating a safe, humane, healthy and regional farming system for both veggies and animals.

After scratching the surface of the topic of industrialized meat production, I’m more convinced than ever, we will not survive if we continue (as a culture in the US) to demand and consume as much meat as we have become accustomed to. Churning out beef, pork, chicken, etc. on this scale can’t be sustainable, and I’m sure there are hundreds of great arguments about why we really don’t need to consume this much meat. I’ll leave that debate to those better qualified to cite studies and reports. I just know how I feel and what works for me. I’ve got many addictions, but thankfully meat isn’t one of them.

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Our family traveled through Salt Lake City, UT, during our National Parks Extravaganza this summer on our way between Grand Teton National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. As always when we travel, we try to find local independent restaurants that source locally. Generally this is easy to do by looking for foodie blogs in a target area and either searching their posts or asking them directly for recommendations. I found the very helpful Gourmand Syndrome, who suggested Tin Angel Cafe.

The Tin Angel Cafe is right across from Pioneer Park at 365 West 400 South. (Addresses in Salt Lake City and in much of the rest of Utah, after some initial confusion, are incredibly helpful — an address actually provides directions to the location.) The funky ambiance manages to avoid both kitsch and preciousness, not a mean feat. The outdoor patio is a fun space overlooking the park across the street, but temperatures were in the 90s at 8:30 on a mid-June evening, and we opted to sit inside. Read the rest of this entry »

The clock is ticking and back-to-school sales are bombarding us every time we turn on the TV or open a newspaper. At the same time, farmer’s markets are at their peak with the bounty of the harvest. Is it possible to connect the two?

The answer may be Ann Cooper, a.k.a. the Renegade Lunch Lady. She’s on a crusade to persuade schools across the country to transform lunches into healthy, appetizing meals. Furthermore, she is teaching students about nutrition through hands-on work in gardens and a curriculum that covers the fundamentals of food.

Ann’s mission is to change the way our children are eating. Her goal is to tackle outdated district spending policies, commodity-based food service organizations, political platforms with no mention of school food or child health - and ultimately the USDA - to ensure that kids everywhere have wholesome, nutritious, delicious food at school.

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