That's one head of lettuce, isn't it a beauty.  Lettuce is really easy to grow even from seed and what's better than going outside and picking your salad.  Start planning your vegetable garden today! 

Food Inc

I just watched the movie Food Inc the other night.  Having read the Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pollan I was familiar with much of the information.  I highly recommend Michael Pollan's book, he details how government subsidized corn is in all of our food and details the benefits of grass fed beef over grain fed.  A cow is biologically meant to eat grass not corn.  When we feed cows corn E. coli grows in its gut.  Since feed lots are filthy places where cows stand knee deep in their own manure the E.coli ends up in the food supply.  Sometimes E. coli kills people.  Pollan is a commentator in the movie Food Inc which details the E. coli situation and many other aspects of the commercial food industry.  You can follow Michael Pollan on Twitter @MichaelPollan.
Other interesting food facts are given in the movie.  It gives details about GMO foods.  GMO foods are genetically modified organisms.  In one case a company that sells herbicide modified soybean and corn seeds to produce plants that will not die when the poison they make is applied to them.  That way the farmer can apply the herbicide to the whole field and the corn or soybeans won't die. There are even some seeds that create plants that produce their own pesticide so in affect if you eat the plant you are eating pesticide.  Some groups have attempted get the USDA to require labelling of GMO foods but the food industry has some serious lobbyist and the latest attempt was denied. 
I felt I had a good awareness of the secrets of the food industry and this movie was still an eye opener for me.  Some of the practices of the food industry will leave a bad taste in your mouth. 
Oh I have a Twitter account now too...you can follow me @Lisalynnwil

Saratoga Farmers Market

I started this blog for a class I'm taking at Pace University.  It is a requirement for my Social Media class.  Well I have to confess I'm supposed to post once a week and I am late!  Sorry Dr. Sachs.  I think I will keep this going after class is over.

Today I went to the Saratoga Winter Farmers market.  Even in the dead of winter you can get fresh greens, cage free eggs, locally bottled milk, hydroponic tomatoes....  Today I got cream at The Battenkill Valley Creamery.  Unbelievable stuff, it actually comes in a glass bottle.  For Easter dinner I'm making a ham from a "homegrown" pig and creamed potatoes with the creamery cream.

Creamed Potatoes

3 lbs potatoes
8 oz heavy cream
1 stick of butter

Boil potatoes for about 20 minutes unpeeled.  They should still be firm.  Peel potatoes and cut them into 1" cubes.

Combine all the ingredients in a double boiler.  Simmer for 3 hours.  Do not stir for the first hour, after that stir occasionally and gently.   Add salt and pepper to taste.  I can't say it's a skinny dish but it's real!  Definitely something to indulge in only once in a while. 

If you want more information about the Saratoga Farmers Market go their website saratogafarmersmarket.org and the Battenkill Valley Creamery at battenkillcreamery.com

Farms not Factories

I first became aware of the true nature of commercial food many years ago when I read John Robbins' book Diet for a New America.  In this book Robbins details how our food choices affect the environment, our health and the treatment of animals.  Immediately after reading the book I had a hard time making food choices.  The organic movement hadn't yet started, after some time I kind of gave up trying to eat cleaner as a lost cause.  For years after I would have a sense of guilt everytime I purchased beef from a big feed lot.  I was squeamish over buying caged chicken knowing that they were so pumped up on steroids that their legs were not able to hold them, that the chickens were raised in such filthy conditions they needed constant antibiotics.

Thankfully it has become easier to make food choices with a conscience.  I am lucky to live in an area with many farms and beautiful farmers markets.  Farmers markets bring the source of your food closer to you.  You can talk to the farmer and ask about their methods, you can shake the hand that raised your food.  Farmers markets often offer organic produce, grass fed beef, cage free chicken and chicken eggs.  There is less loss of nutrients because often the produce is picked the same day or the day before you purchase it.  Once you eat a free range chicken egg and see the brilliant orange yolk you will never want another supermarket egg again. 

There are many resources available to find a farmers market in your area.  You can go to www.localharvest.org or www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets. to find a market near you.  Many growers offer CSA, or community sustained argriculture.  When you sign up for a CSA you are underwriting the farm and receiving a share of the product as a result.  Eat local, eat in season, eat with a conscience...

Vile Food Goes Viral...Social media leaves the food industry nowhere to hide.

You hear it all the time, "Avoid processed food", but what is processed food?  Any food that has been changed from its original, natural state is  processed food.  When you make apple cider out of apples that is a processed food.  When you create a food from chemicals with some natural flavorings you have created a processed food.  There is a whole spectrum of processed food from the benign to the downright disgusting.  The food industry would love to keep the processing a mystery, but that's getting harder to do these days. Like chicken nuggets?  This is a chicken nugget before they make it look like chicken again.

  Recently the process of making chicken nuggets went viral on Youtube and Facebook.  Fast food and frozen chicken nuggets are made from mechanically separated chicken.  This process puts a whole chicken in a grinder, blood, guts everything.  The blood makes it this strange pepto bismol color so it is dyed to look like chicken.  The resulting goop is crawling with bacteria so it is "treated" with ammonia.  Don't worry the FDA said its okay to eat ammonium hydroxide in 1974.  Oh and since it tastes disgusting chicken flavor is added back in.  Yummy...

The Industrial Food Chain

The monster in the cupboard is the industrial food chain.  This blog is in defense of real food. Rather than continue to preach to people who don't want to hear it I thought I could share my thoughts about factory food with people who might want to be educated about it.  The more I have learned about the manufacture of food the further I have gotten from the industrial food chain.  Some things might shock you...they're the kinds of things that you can't unsee... so I'll understand if you don't want to look.  Many of the people I talk to don't want to know but if you do stay posted.