In the grey window
a curl of Satsuma peel
fragrantly remains.
2 days ago
Frozen Blueberries
I live in a condo. With a shared common area yard. Shared with the neighbors two small children, their one large dog and enough plastic toys to entertain a hand full of generations to come.
All of which is to explain why I don't garden. Oh, and there is little sun. And the year I planted tomatoes they were eaten by the town roof rats. That was the last straw. Actually the last tomato.
But every January I get the urge. It's a physical pull in the center of my chest. I want to plant seeds. I want to dig and to watch things grow. I begin designing elaborate cantilevered structures to hang plants from with sonar devices to keep the kids and critters away. Two nights ago I imagined an enclosed greenhouse.
"Do you think we could build one on the back deck?" I asked my resident cute guy builder.
He pointed out our deck is over the garage. And up three flights of stairs.
Ummm. I haven't given up.
In the meantime I took blueberries for muffins out of the freezer last night and remembered the Fairfax farmers' market where I bought them. Not quite like growing them but that hot summer evening, the redwood trees in the park, the subsequent walk around town snacking on blueberries all came back to me.
Not the harvest memories I'm longing for but I love them all the same.
Stinging Nettles
Maybe I shouldn't have put the greens with stinging nettles in the blue bowl. They would have looked better in the orange. Or left in the pan. Maybe I should have tried to fluff them.
They made everything clump together. Until then the kale and chards with carmelized onions looked great. Edible. They were greener than hundred dollar bills. I could distinguish one green from the other.
After the nettles, they clumped. One big wad. I cut it up and combed it with a fork. Then I had a lot of little wads. That stuck together.
The cute guy looked in the bowl. "What is it?"
"Greens." I said it with confidence. "Yummmmm. The carmelized onoins are so sweet." I took another bite. "And the greens are..."
He took a little from the serving bowl, surveyed it on his fork, eyed me with distrust. "Don't laugh," I told him. He nibbled a stem. "Just try it. You'll like it." He took a bigger taste.
"Oh yeah." That's great," he said. "What's that over there," he yelled. I turned my head.
"Where?" I turned back to see his fork retreating from the bowl. Empty.
It looks like I'll be eating clumpy local greens for the next couple of days. Damn ugly but they don't taste bad.
Really.
Kabocha Squash
I figured out the best way to cook winter squash -- have the cute guy do it!
Tonight he baked a centerpiece kabocha squash, smashed it up with butter and a bit of brown sugar. It was the best squash he's ever made.
"It's the only squash I've ever made," he reminded me.
Still it was delicious. He made good points.
In Defense of Food
In Defense of Food
The threat of colliding storms couldn't keep me away from Michael Pollan's premiere author's event last night to promote his new book, In Defense of Food. The holidays were events to get through for this evening. My star was on stage. His book was in my hands. The message: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants., half a haiku, already memorized from the front cover.
He came out, all legs and laced up boots. He talked about shopping and eating from the outer edges of the grocery store to find Food. To avoid the food science products of the middle aisles.
He talked about the satisfaction of eating Food. That you don't need as much of it to be satisfied. Patricia Unterman interviewing him disagreed and I'm more in her court on that point then in his too. I know that if a little is good, more is better.
And he talked about the huge toll on the environment by methane belching cows. I tried to picture that, a nice brown jersey cow belching, but couldn't. Apparently it takes a giant toll on our air quality though.
And then we parted ways. Michael Pollan, my rock star of the eat local, protect the environment, reduce my carbon bite movement hit on bananas. He said he wasn't a purist about eating local. Fine. I was with him. We do the best we can. But then he condoned eating bananas. In fact, he said, we should enjoy them now in the last days of cheap oil because it isn't going to last.
I agree with the enjoy part. Especially when food is imported. It's getting to us at a high cost. But I also believe that eating closer to home is better for the environment and is a way everyone can participate to one degree or another to make a difference. And it felt like Mr. Michael Pollan backed off on his previous point to raise awareness of the high cost of consuming cheap imported foods. I'm disappointed.
He still has great points and layers of useful information in just the first five pages of his new book. And I want to believe that he is simply sculpting his message to be accessible to a larger audience rather than the local food zealot I've become as a result of his previous book, Omnivore's Dilemma. Time will tell as he's speaking all over the country in the next few months.
In any event, I'm reading the new book and sticking with local foods as much as I can. It's one thing I can do.
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