Continuing Education: Recommended Reading on Health and Sustainability

Farm Update

Every year I get excited all over again for our specialty
tomatoes, which are not only delicious but lovely.

Hi everyone!  We've been getting a lot of good rain at the farm lately, and the ground has been absorbing it well despite the sheer volume.  The weeds have really taken off, but Fred has been doing a lot of cultivating and the guys have been making a dent in the weeding that has needed to happen for a while now.  Fred has also been turning under some old plantings.  It's actually been kind of nice, because now the visual reminder of what a rough June we had is gone, and we can replant that land.  We'll plant some of it with crops for the fall (such as lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and cabbage), and some of it with cover crop.  Fred put in several large plantings of carrots over the last few weeks, and some spinach earlier today, in preparation for the last part of the season.  The CSA is exactly half over right now, and in time we'll transition from tomatoes and basil and other summer staples to beets, sweet potatoes, and winter squash, and the year will wane in the familiar pattern.  But in the meantime, we have several more weeks of summer to relish!

What to Expect in Your Share this Week

Here are the options in each veggie station this week!  If you have a half share, you'll choose one from each category, and if you have a full share, you'll choose two.

• Cherry tomatoes
• 4 large tomatoes or lettuce
• Broccoli, beets, or kale
• Green beans or chard
• Cucumber or pepper
• Small cabbage, garlic, or onion
• Potatoes or surprise veggie

If you have your share delivered to your home or workplace, or if you pick up at our East Lansing drop-off, here are your options for this week.  If you have a half share, choose one, and if you have a full share, choose two.

Share A:                                      Share B:

Cherry tomatoes                          Cherry tomatoes
4 large tomatoes                           Lettuce
Broccoli                                       Beets
Chard                                           Green beans
Pepper                                          Cucumber
Small cabbage                              Onion
Potatoes                                        Surprise veggie

If you have a preference for share A or share B, just let me know by noonish the day before your delivery day, and I'll make sure you get your preferred share.  If you don't have a preference, I'll just choose for you. :-)

Continuing Education:  Recommended Reading on Health and Sustainability

Ah, August.  That exciting time of year when the weather is warm, the produce is plentiful, and the days are a little lazier. (Unless you happen to be a farmer.  In which case, not so much.)  This is also the time of year when teachers, students, and parents of school-age kids start thinking about back to school.  Having been a student and then a teacher, late August always feels like a time to make preparations, either for my own education or for that of people I am charged to educate.  That got me thinking:  If I were to teach a course on the organic/sustainable/locavore lifestyle, what would be my assigned reading list?  What books would I have my students read in order to have an understanding of what it takes to be generally healthy and support sustainable food systems?  The following are books that have informed my own understanding of health and sustainability over the last decade or so, so if you’re interested, check them out!

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver:  Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family embark on a yearlong experiment in hyperlocal eating.

 From the book’s website: The family’s year long experience leads them through a season of planting, pulling weeds, expanding their kitchen skills, harvesting their own animals, joining the effort to save heritage crops from extinction, and learning the time-honored rural art of unloading excess zucchini. Barbara Kingsolver’s engaging narrative is enriched by husband Steven Hopp’s in-depth reports on the science and industry of food, and daughter Camille’s youthful perspective on cooking and food culture. 

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life, and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.

French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Giuliano:  Author and CEO Mireille Giuliano recounts her experience as a college student relearning the merits of her traditional French food culture after a year abroad, and applying those principles to her healthy lifestyle for the next several decades.

From the book’s website: Stylish, convincing, wise, funny, and just in time: the ultimate 

non-diet book, which could radically change the way you think and live.  French women don't get fat, but they do eat bread and pastry, drink wine, and regularly enjoy three-course meals. In her delightful tale, Mireille Guiliano unlocks the simple secrets of this "French paradox" -– how to enjoy food and stay slim and healthy. Hers is a charming, sensible, and powerfully life-affirming view of health and eating for our times.

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan:  Author Michael Pollan explains the difference between real food and “edible foodlike substances”, and makes the case for the nutritional superiority of real food.

From the book’s website:  Food. There’s plenty of it around, and we all love to eat it. So why should anyone need to defend it?

Because most of what we’re consuming today is not food, and how we’re consuming it — in the car, in front of the TV, and increasingly alone — is not really eating. Instead of food, we’re consuming “edible foodlike substances” — no longer the products of nature but of food science. Many of them come packaged with health claims that should be our first clue they are anything but healthy. In the so-called Western diet, food has been replaced by nutrients, and common sense by confusion. The result is what Michael Pollan calls the American paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we seem to become.

The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball:  Farmer and author Kristen Kimball recounts the grueling but extremely rewarding first year that she and her soon-to-be husband Mark had their farm.  She chronicles the work, the food, and the ups and downs.  Basically, this girl gets it.

From the book’s website: “The Dirty Life is a wonderfully told tale of one of the most interesting farms in the country. If you want to understand the heart and soul of the new/old movement towards local food, this is the book you need. It's the voice of what comes next in this land, of the generation unleashed by Wendell Berry to do something really grand.”

— Bill McKibben, author Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan:  Author Michael Pollan discusses health, farming, food manufacturing, cooking, economics, and environmental ethics in an attempt to answer the question “What should we eat?”

From the book’s website: In this groundbreaking book, one of America’s most fascinating, original, and elegant writers turns his own omnivorous mind to the seemingly straightforward question of what we should have for dinner. To find out, Pollan follows each of the food chains that sustain us—industrial food, organic or alternative food, and food we forage ourselves—from the source to a final meal, and in the process develops a definitive account of the American way of eating. 

Recipes

It's finally cherry tomato season, and we love to use them in practically anything!  These Sauteed Cherry Tomatoes with Garlic and Basil are a super fast and easy side dish for a busy evening.