Eat. Drink. Better.

Talk about the trifecta of travel.  Make farmers’ markets a priority on your travel agenda and you save money (no admission fees), go green (most markets showcase seasonal, sustainable agriculture) and local (slap that cash directly in the farmer’s hand).

As my husband, John, and I and our eight-year old, Liam, trade Wisconsin winter on our farm for a few weeks working on writing projects on the California coast, indulging in the farmers’ market scene is like the equivalent of a therapists couch for our frozen Midwestern souls.  We see shiny happy people holding fresh spinach and the 20-degree below wind chill back home melts away as a far memory and all is momentarily right with the world.

While markets in January rank particularly appealing, you don’t have to solely escape parkas and snowplows to appreciate a farmer’s market while traveling.  We seek out local markets wherever we may roam.  According to USDA statistics, farmers’ markets grew in number by 13 percent between 2008 and 2009.  Tanking economies may just be what folks need to connect back to their food roots, craving a better quality, authentic connection to what’s on one’s plate.

Pack these seven tips the next time you travel to add some farmer’s market flavor and fare to your touring plans:

1.  Determine a destination Read the rest of this entry »

As mid-January rolls in, those traditional New Year’s health resolutions fade away:  Loose ten pounds, get fit, etc.  Why?  Deprivation sucks.  Our food loving community here at Eat Drink Better continues to rise like yeast dough on a hot day for one common reason:  we embrace food with passion and realize that our eating choices impact the world around us.  Hungry for knowledge, we share a mutual quest to eat and drink better.

So while January still hangs on the calendar, come up with your own “Good Food Bliss List” for 2010.  Folks probably are familiar with the “Bucket List” concept, popularized by the movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman:  Make a list of all those things you want to do before you “kick the bucket.”  Oh yeah one more point:  do them.

The “Good Food Bliss List” has two key differences:

1.  One year time frame.

Just think about what you could realistically achieve in 2010.  I confess I’m the local, seasonal, organic version of Veruca of Willie Wonka.  Higher standards (and hopefully a dash more pleasant), but I still want it now. Read the rest of this entry »

Priscilla Magnusen, raw food expert and teacher shares some valuable information with us about going raw.

How does going Raw or adding in more raw food to your diet affect your overall health?
When you eat a raw and living food diet you are feeding your body and your cells the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes that cooking destroys. The act of heating food over approximately 112 degrees Fahrenheit destroys enzymes in food.

Our food choices have a cumulative effect on our body, and whether we are conscious of it or not, what we eat affects our mental and emotional health, just as much as our physical health. People who eat raw food invariably experience improved physical health and mental wellbeing, more energy, weight loss, detoxification, and a stronger immune system. I’ve personally witnessed people heal themselves of diabetes, migraines, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, ulcerative colitis, crohn’s disease, IBS, arthritis, allergies, candida, depression, and fibromyalgia.

How is eating Raw good for the planet?
Eating raw naturally lends itself to living in harmony with Mother Earth. You are avoiding packaged or processed foods, so you are not creating any waste or products to be disposed of in landfills. We hardly produce any trash in my home and the leftover food we don’t eat or “drink” goes directly into our compost bin. Those willing to eat organic will be doing even more to support our planet. Conventional produce is grown with pesticides, herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, and other chemicals that are toxic to the environment.

In addition, you’ll likely eat very little, if any, animal products, which have an incredible impact on the planet. A plant-based diet requires 300 gallons of water a day, while a meat filled diet requires over 4,000 gallons per day. Animal feces produced in factory farms is the largest source of airborne methane, which causes global warming. Meat eating also contributes to pollution in lakes and rivers due to run-off from factory farms, and an increase in fossil fuels used to raise animals for food.
Read the rest of this entry »

We talk a lot about local eats around here. John just wrote earlier today about how local farming could help revitalize the city of Detroit. Around this time last year, Carla went into some broader benefits of local food.

Whether you choose local to reduce your carbon footprint, connect with your community, or because you’re looking for the freshest ingredients, GOOD.is has a handy new tool that’s worth checking out!
Read the rest of this entry »

A recent article by Fortune highlighted the well known social and economic woes of Detroit and also proposed a unique solution to try to heal the Motor City - farming.  A financially well off Detroit resident, John Hantz, has proposed a radical idea to purchase large tracts of vacant, run down houses, remove the rotting houses, and return the land to productive agriculture use by creating a for-profit farm operation.

Creating a farm of this size would make it the largest of its kind in the country, and Hantz believes it could help the city by restoring tax delinquent and blighted properties to a state of agricultural and economic productivity.  Farms located within the city would also supply farm fresh produce to local markets and restaurants and provide desperately needed jobs to Detroit residents.

Read the rest of this entry »

New Year’s resolutions – it’s that time of year again. The time when many of us say we’re going to change ourselves, change our lives, maybe even change the world. Some of the most popular New Year’s resolutions are to lose weight, exercise more, save money and manage debt, get a better education, and reduce stress.

Making resolutions specific increases the chance that we’ll follow through on them. Below, I have a few specific suggestions for New Year’s resolutions that shouldn’t be too hard to keep and will, I hope, be worth trying.  Read the rest of this entry »

In her recent TED Talk, Carolyn Steel takes a look at the history of food production and asks an important question: What would a modern city look like if it were centered around food?

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, I presented how to prepare St. Louis style pizza.  This week I present to you, the best places I can think of in St. Louis to go out and taste the real thing.

1) Imo’s Pizza.  Imo’s is probably the most well-known choice in St. Louis and rightfully so.  Imo’s has really branched out, providing plenty of locations throughout the city area, so wherever you are in city, there is never an Imo’s too far away.

Imo’s offers anything from 8 to 16 inch varieties with either St. Louis thin or think crust.  There specialty is the tangy provel cheese, which take great pride in.  This is the chain that real made the St. Louis style pizza craze what it is today.

Read the rest of this entry »

First Lady Michelle Obama cultivated a fresh vision heard around the world when she initiated a kitchen garden on the White House ground last spring.  But don’t think that as the snow flies this growing venture will dive into hibernation.  Thanks to the vision of Sam Kass, Food Initiative Coordinator at the White House and garden visionary, the First Family will be eating local through winter thanks to simple winter gardening tactics.

Here are three tips from the White House for eating local and season from your garden year round:

1.  Add a Hoop House Read the rest of this entry »

The Journey

As I drove out to Stolen Acres on a sun-splashed Saturday morning in November, I saw dormancy glitter all along County Trunk Highway N  in the township of Pleasant Springs.  The town takes pride in its local farming and rural character in an era of industrialized farming and subdivisions.

My journey took me to a 125-acre farm along Kinney Road, across from what was my grandfather Henry Schroeder’s  barn, out-buildings and farmhouse.  Steve, Dave, and Doug Stolen manage Stolen Acres, Inc., renting their family farm to corn and soybean producers.  They won’t sell the place because it’s part of their ancestry and it has more value to them than any amount of money. 
The Patriarch                                                                    
 Every Saturday morning, a special guest joins them as they do maintenance on equipment and whatever else needs doing.  Tom Stolen, now 97, is the patriarch of the Stolen clan.  A pioneer in Dane County, Wisconsin soil conservation, Stolen worked closely with the University of Wisconsin to initiate contour strip farming practices designed to reduce soil erosion.  Corn, soybeans and wheat had their own strips on the hillside.  Stolen recalls that his neighbors “thought I had lost my mind.” Eventually, other farmers adopted at least] some contouring practices.  Busloads of visitors from as far away as Japan came to view Stolen’s innovation. 

Tom was an Edison when it came to efficiency.  Stolen was the first to put a concrete floor in his dairy barn, developing a mechanical loader to scoop animal waste into his manure spreader.  He also built an automatic feeding trough that transported ground silage from the silo to the cow barn so all the cows could feed at once.  During my visit, Stolen showed me a vice and a horseshoeing tool that he made himself.

The 80-acre farm 

Stolen’s advice to farmers is to “keep up with the times.” Yet Pleasant Springs farmers have left a valuable legacy from the past.  On other side of the former Schroeder farm is Otis Anderson’s farmstead.  Anderson farmed from age 21 to age 85.  The Olson brothers of rural Stoughton, Wisconsin rent the 80 acres and grow corn and soybeans.  In his heyday, Anderson recalls milking 21 cows, filling eight, 80-pounds milk cans, and sending the load to the Albion milk plant. 

Anderson once had 40 sows and hauled a pickup truck of feeder pigs to Johnson Creek, getting $9 for each animal.

The Commitment to Farming

Today, Otis says he has no use for big-time farming.  The town’s larger producers, however, remain committed to local farming and Pleasant Springs’ rural character. Jim Skaar has farmed in the area his entire life and has 300 acres in Pleasant Springs alone.  Ron Lund owns 1,800 acres in Dane County, but says a 40-acre parcel in Pleasant Springs is one of his better farms because of its rich, dark silt loam soil that historian A. R. Ames wrote about back in 1877.  Lund and his brother refuse to sell the 40-acre farm because they don’t want someone to build a house on it.  

Big or small, my journey taught me that these farmers have left a two-part legacy.  The lifers built their farm community and showed people how to grow local food.  The current group, regardless of size, is committed not only to farming but the rural character of the place where they make their living.