“By 1970s, government policy was increasingly shaped by a controversial Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, who at the end of his career, earned a reputation for uttering offensive racial and religious insults, was convicted of tax evasion, and launched a campaign to drive the final nails in the coffin of the American agrarian experience…Butz spurred on farmers a Get Big, or Get Out.” By the early 1980s. large grain handlers like Cargill and Archer Daniel Midlands were essentially writing the Farm Bills with the mission of ensuring a steady supply of cheap commodity crops that they could trade internationally and process into value-added products.

With the move from family farms to mega-farms, agriculture became industrialized and dominated by concentrated corporate interests in almost every sector” (Food Fight by Danial Imhoff).

Now is the time to get involved in organizing to change the Farm Bill! Those of you in the East Bay, come out today to learn more about what the Farm Bill means for you. The Oakland Food Policy Council is hosting a workshop: Today, August 31, 5pm – 7pm at the Tassafaronga Recreation Center 975 85th Avenue, Oakland, CA.

A good friend of mine, and master mind behind Pardon My Hindi, just got back from Mumbai, India. He was sharing about being of Jain faith and food. He was also shared how it is a little known fact in the U.S. that Indians have a varied diet that includes animals. I guess its assumed that everyone is vegetarian in India…? In fact, he recently dined on Bheja Fry which is goat brains. In India, as with many cultures, when an animal is eaten, most parts are consumed. Admittedly, it is a rich dish that should be eaten sparingly, but that goes for many foods.

After a bit of looking around, I located an Indian chef, Sanjay Thumma, online that cooks lesser known goat dishes:

Edible East Bay featured an article on the current Oakland zoning update process. It opens with the story of my crazy girl Annabelle. This rabbit has gotten increasingly more interesting to keep. She now wanders around the yard and is easy to corral back into her hutch. I rarely pick her up. I am not 100% if I will not attempt to breed her again as she does seem to have settled down. She also shows great interest in the buck’s cage. It is the first place she goes. I am thinking I’ll make a little access door to let her in if she is so inclined. Anabelle strikes me as a rabbit that will happily do rabbit things if they are on her terms.

Currently in Rabbitland I have expanded the male hutch to a shanty duplex and introduced a young buck to co-house with Virgl. They have taken quite well to each other. In the process, I have learned that rabbits are far more agile that I imagined as they have no problem hopping up and down a steep ladder in their housing. One day I will have the supplies and wherewithall to make it look pretty. For now, it works just fine.

To learn more about rabbits check out this great (and extensive) Daily Kos article in six parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.

If you are in the Bay Area and want to learn more, come out for a rabbit class at Biofuel Oasis on September 18th.

As I have mentioned before, my connection to growing, harvesting and preparing our food has gone hand in hand with my effort studying my family history. Born in the U.S. to a proud Mexican family, I am driven to find the beginnings of our cultural journey as a mixed race. I want to learn the food traditions of my European and Native roots. I am so very close to locating some of the original families I can taste it. My recent trip took me through Salt Lake City where I stopped to explore in the Family History Library. While Salt Lake is a way to go for family records, its so much easier to fly through microfiche than to load images online and they have nearly all the films right there!

With a few concentrated hours I finally located an ancestral record that states our indigenous roots. Though I cain’t hardly read the dang thing.

While I know this ancestor, Margarita, is indigenous and from a ranch in the Mechoacanejo area of Los Altos de Jalisco, I don’t yet know the exact ranch or her tribe. One day I will dedicate time to find literature on the native tribes of this region and their food ways! It can be done. In the mean time, in recognition of the big family nopal (cactus), I will share with you a recipe for canned nopales from my Tia Maria Enedina.

To note: Nopal comes from the Nahuatl word nopalli for the pads. In addition to being high in soluble fiber, vitamin and minerals, nopal reduces the glycemic effect of a mixed meal. They are low carbohydrate and may help in the treatment of diabetes, de veras.

Nopales

Pick off  the spines.

Cut them up raw, in thin strips.
Cook them in clean water (a little extra water for canning purposes), put salt and cilantro chopped and chopped onion, clove or two of garlic, fresh oregano – boil it all together.

Cook them as if you were cooking them to eat that day.

While you are doing that, get your jars ready. Clean sterile hot jars ready. Once its ready you place the nopales mix in there while nice and hot. Then boil in a water bath (30 minutes) or pressure cooker (15 minutes).

While we do not add lemon juice or vinegar, you could.

Done. Enjoy in egg scramble, in salad, in a taco, straight out of the jar.

Our friend Nick jumped the broom in Montana. So we made an inspired journey to the Big Sky. Truly beautiful country out there. I decided to pick up some fun reads during the trip- since I’d be passing through old towns. Between “In The Days of The Vaqueros” and “Lonesome Dove” I was hoping for some insight into food culture and human animal relationships. While there has been some excellent insight into horses, and some on cows, that’s about it. Well, that and a drink popular with the locals is a Moscow Mule, served in a copper cup for its flavor properties.

Oddly, while popular that far North, the Moscow Mule was invented on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, but I digress. While I’ve got some great moose, bear, bison and wolf stories to share from my trip,

the two main take homes to share on Pluck & Feather was the excellent choice of pie over cake for the wedding we attended and the great food in Bozeman.

Nova Cafe on Main Street works with local farms only which is very cool as there are farms about 15 miles away, if that. Its likely one could know the family that runs the farm. The Stockyard Calfe was also a treat, a small cafe out in the middle of nowhere and next to a Livestock Auction hall.

After the trip I was inspired to try a Chicken “Fried” Rabbit recipe. It came out superb so here it is: For about 3.5lb of rabbit.

Soak cleaned rabbit 2 hr to overnight in:

3/4 c. buttermilk (or yogurt)
3/4 c. strained lemon juice
1/4 c. olive oil
2 tbs finely minced shallots (i used my fresh small onions)
1 tbs fine minced rosemary or thyme
2 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp lemon zest

When ready, position rack of oven in the upper third of the oven and preheat to 425F and lightly oil a baking sheet.

Combine in a wide shallow bowl for dredging:

2/3 c. grated Parmesan (or aged dry jack)
1.2 c. dry unseasoned breadcrumbs
1/2c. cornmeal
3 tbs minced fresh parsley
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

In another shallow bowl mix 2 large eggs and 2 tbs melted butter.

Dip the rabbit pieces in the egg and then coat with the cornmeal mix (patting it on to make it adhere if needed). You can also do this prep up to three hours in advance and just refrigerate up to the point of baking. When ready to bake, you can drizzle butter or oil (~2-3 tbs) over it and bake at 425F for 30 minutes.

Wow. I stepped away for the briefest few days and the plants saw an opportunity for a take over. The above image is of a Morning Glory winding around a chime hanging in my kitchen.

A few years ago I wrote about innovative findings for remediation of lead in soil. It is amazing to see that what was initial research has blossomed into practices that are changing large scale soil remediation. A recent New York Times article described the use of fish bonemeal as a source of phosphate that serves as an antagonist to lead specifically. It is one the most inexpensive and effective ways to reduce lead uptake into plants. This method is being applies in Oakland by EPA official Steve Calanog. Another news piece in the East Bay Express provides a greater information on implications of lead contamination and the pending law updates that would allow for various levels of crop growing and selling within the city. Its a really well done and a recommended read.

Now that we seem to be getting a handle on lead contamination in soil, I would like to know more about persistent bioaccumulative toxins and particulates in the air from highways and gas stations.I was told by a representative from Pesticide Watch that California does not require testing for either of these for farms. In fact, as I know from experience, many farms are located along freeways.

Its summer time and plants and animals are in full swing. Its the season where I have to run to keep up the most. Needless to say, there are a ton of crop and animal topics to catch up on as well. However some of the greatest rewards in growing my own food comes in slow motion. For example, it took three years before we saw hops for our home brew. The rhubarb I gave up on entirely as it takes three years of growing before it is safe to eat. The first year the hens kicked it up but they stayed alive. Year two, the turkeys trampled them to near death. The third year, though they had struggled, I harvested, made a delicious pie and burned the heck out of my stomach with the oxalic acid. I guess they were in part reestablishing after each incident. Ironically, the hens had one more devastating go at the plants and that was it. Sadly, I live life now without rhubarb.

One project that has been delightful has been the Nocino I made two years ago with green walnuts. The recipe said its ready after 6 months but this was not true at all. It has taken two years to develop a fruity nutty flavor that is pleasant enough to offset the potency of this liquor. At this point, it is all that it should be which is why I ventured to climb a tree and pick more with the Amazing Lauren. I’m also trying another recipe. Another two years to go for this batch but as with many Pluck & Feather projects, well worth the wait.

An alternate recipe gleaned from Chowhound.

25 green walnuts
3 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
peel of 1 lemon (yellow part only; the white pith is too bitter)
1.25 liter of vodka, 100 proof
3 cups sugar
1?4 liter of cheap sparkling wine
1. Soak the walnuts overnight to draw out any worms and other impurities.
2. Quarter them and put them into a large jar with all other ingredients. Place in a sunny spot, sealed, for at least 40 days; 2 months is better. Shake every few days.
3. Strain and bottle the liquid. Put a few bottles away to age two to three years.

The Environmental Working Group just came out with a Meat Eaters Guide to help those of us who eat meat make better choices. In it they offer ways to reduce your carbon footprint, for example (For the record, no one in my household eats meat at the frequency implied below. Cheese, yes. Meat no. Though the daily showers thing…it is a guilty pleasure) :

- If you eat one less burger a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for 320 miles or line-drying your clothes half the time.

- If your four-person family skips meat and cheese one day a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for five weeks — or reducing everyone’s daily showers by 3 minutes.

-If your four-person family skips steak once a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for nearly three months.

- If everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion miles — or taking 7.6 million cars off the road.

What I appreciate most about the Meat Eaters Guide is the pragmatic realization that the world is not about to go vegan, or even vegetarian. Now that we are over that psychological hurdle, what are better decisions for our climate? In fact, EWG offers a set of guidelines for eating “greener meat.” How does this compare to my own backyard produced food?

CHECK!- Grass fed or pasture-raised meat has fewer antibiotics and hormones and in some cases may have more nutrients and less fat; livestock live in more humane, open, sanitary conditions. NO GRAZING ANIMALS, NO ANTIBIOTICS, NO HORMONE INJECTIONS

CHECK!- Lean cuts: less fat will likely mean fewer cancer-causing toxins in your body. THE ANIMALS I HAVE ARE LEAN.

CHECK!! No antibiotics or hormones: reduces unnecessary exposure and helps keep human medicines effective.

CHECK!- Certified organic: keeps pesticides, chemical fertilizers and genetically modified foods off the land, out of the water and out of our bodies. I DO NOT USE THESE CHEMICALS.

CHECK!- Certified humane: means no growth hormones or antibiotics were used and ensures that animals were raised with enough space and no cages or crates. NO CAGES OR CRATES, ENCLOSURES YES BUT NO CRAMPED CONFINED SPACE.

CHECK!- Unprocessed, nitrite-free and low-sodium: avoid lunchmeats, hot dogs, prepackaged smoked meats and chicken nuggets.

CHECK!- Sustainable Seafood: avoid airfreighted fish and farmed salmon

I’d like to add, there are no miles added to the processing or distribution of my eggs or meat. That reduces carbon miles significantly. I’d also like to add that because I can only raise so much in my urban space, I am more willing to eat less to ensure what I eat is what I have grown and raised. This also a great reduction measure.

So while one could deduce from this report that surviving on lentils, tomatoes, and 2% milk is the best, greenest choice, so would not ever flying or driving, or even running electricity in my house. However, there are other practical ways to balance out my life choices so I am responsible and reducing my carbon footprint. Each time I make a better choice, I make a difference.