A long way off: seafood at farmers markets that is fresh, local, and sustainable

“Ideally, farmers market customers would like a vendor to offer:

  • Wild fish that is freshly caught, rather than frozen.
  • Caught in local waters.
  • Sold directly by the fisherman, his family or his employees.
  • Available regularly and reliably in a diverse range of products.
  • A reasonable price.

“Realistically, however, it is virtually impossible for one vendor to fulfill all of these criteria, any more than one person can be both a top-flight ballerina and a football linebacker.”

“Many farmers markets do have fish vendors, but almost all of those are resellers who readily tell customers that they bought their fish wholesale. If a certified produce vendor at a farmers market were doing that, they’d be violating the direct-marketing regulations that govern farmers markets.”

“Looking back at the fish vendors who have sold at the prestigious Santa Monica farmers market since she started managing it in 1982, Laura Avery says she can think of only one, a shrimper who no longer operates, who she was sure sold only what he caught.”

From LA Times Market Watch

The same goes for me. I have visited markets all over this country and only found one who sells what they catch. That is Buster’s Seafood at the Dupont Market in Washington DC.

Becoming A Soup Master

This Fall, I started doing something extremely rare and extraordinary (for me)…cooking.

After months, okay years, of me partaking in (he calls it mooching off) @robotchampion‘s culinary creations, he challenged me to literally start bringing something to the table. So I have, in the form of soups.

I’m a little surprised to admit this, but I’m loving it for several reasons:

  1. It’s the perfect food for the fall and winter months.
  2. I typically avoid ordering it at restaurants and buying it at stores because they add so much salt.
  3. We get a weekly delivery of CSA produce and I’m able to use a lot of it in one recipe.
  4. Finally, I’ve been cooking in the afternoon when I need a break between writing away at my laptop. I turn on NPR and use it as an opportunity to get off my ass and experiment like a mad scientist in the kitchen.
So far I’ve experimented with:
  1. Butternut Squash: For this I just remove the skin, bake the squash for an hour, then throw it into the blender with some water and cream. It’s super yummy and simple.
  2. Tomato: http://www.formerchef.com/2009/08/02/how-to-make-fresh-tomato-soup/
  3. Acorn Squash, Turnip and Apple: http://redhookcsa.com/2011/10/29/winter-squash-and-apple-soup-with-turnips-and-walnuts/

If you click on the recipe links, you’ll notice these are all blended soups (there’s something about using the blender and pureeing that delights me).

Next I’ll be trying out this Roasted Cauliflower and Red Pepper Soup.

If you have a favorite recipe or site, please let me know. NOTE: I prefer minimal effort recipes that yield maximum taste:)

My Family Thanksgiving 2011 – Organic, Local, and Sustainable

The Lineup

Butternut Squash Soup
Turkey
Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Bread/Rolls
Vegetables (corn on the cob)
Cranberry
Stuffing
Pumpkin/Apple Pie
Whipped Cream

Sourcing

Butternut Squash Soup: Farmers Market. Gourd. Cut in half, remove seeds, bake till a knife slides out easily. Usually 40+ minutes at 350-400. Then, remove the skin, add water, and blend. Also, consider nutmeg and cinnamon for flavor. The perfect Thanksgiving appetizer.

Turkey: Whole Foods sells Free Range, Organic, and Heritage turkeys. All are way more expensive than the $5 dollar supermarket birds, but buying a smaller bird makes it okay. Not as many leftovers but a better conscience.

Mashed Potatoes: Potatoes aplenty at the farmers market.

Bread/Rolls: Every farmers market has a bread vendor, pick your favorite and go. Ours are the Straight Eight Rolls from the Bread Gallery

Vegetables (corn on the cob): This changes every year. For this one I’m thinking corn on the cob, barbeque-d, reminds me the most of the original Thanksgiving meal.

Gravy, Cranberry, Stuffing: Unfortunately, I haven’t found a local or organic source for these items. I think it’s because they are complicated to make and they never sell cranberries at the farmers market. Have to save that for next year.

Pumpkin/Apple Pie: Yumm. Every market has these.

Whipped Cream: Milk by the glass. Every Whole Foods in the nation sells this now and so do most natural food stores. I like Straus Family Creamery from Mother’s Market.

Seafood

Knowing my Mid-Atlantic roots, I hope to one-day introduce some seafood into our Thanksgiving meal. The closer to the pilgrims and natives the better!

From Wikipedia:

“According to what traditionally is known as “The First Thanksgiving,” the 1621 feast between the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag at Plymouth Colony contained turkey, waterfowl, venison, fish, lobster, clams, berries, fruit, pumpkin, and squash.”

—

P.S. – My 2010 post on Thanksgiving

Artificial insemination and too-fat-to-fly – the real Thanksgiving turkey

Something scary is happening in the turkey world. Our scientists and farmers have created a Frankenstein-like beast called the broad breasted white. This creature is created in a lab, through artificial insemination, and then grows fat so fast that it often cannot walk. It usually needs antibiotics to survive to be butchered.

Needless to say, it cannot fly. It can also barely walk, but it does create the biggest turkey breast you could ever imagine.

If that wasn’t enough these creatures are shoved into tight pens with thousands of other birds. All of them too fat to walk around, struggling to survive, and sometimes even injected with butter and salt.

“These birds are grown in large grow-out barns that are fully automated and may house as many as 10,000 birds.” (Wikipedia)

Why is this happening?

Profit, pure and simple. Americans want $5 turkeys and don’t care how they get it. When there is a will there is a way, and this way has been found.

The only thing I can think to say…is it worth it?

Photo credit: INSADCO Photography/Alamy

West Coast and Atlantic Northeast dominate U.S. in Farmers Markets (map)

A recent study from the USDA released this map of farmers markets. Notice that the Northeast and West Coast dominate (dark blue).

From the report:

“Direct-to-consumer sales are highest in the Northeast, on the West Coast, and around a few isolated metropolitan areas throughout the country.”

“Farms with direct-to-consumer sales are most likely to have neighbors who also participate in direct sales—this is a neighborhood effect”

…choosy moms choose farmers markets and the whole neighborhood improves?

“The West Coast has a long-standing system of farmers’ markets and farmerto-grocers’ marketing channels dating back to the 1970s. Small-scale farmers began selling organic and high value-added niche foods to upscale restaurants in the late 1970s (now a national trend) and are now part of farm-to-school marketing arrangements.”

“Another U.S. hot spot for local food sales is the Atlantic seaboard, particularly the Northeast census division. Local food sales farms in the Northeast generated 14.4 percent of U.S. local food production.”

Source: Direct and Intermediate Marketing of Local Foods in the US, USDA (page 11)

From zero to 100,000 miles in eight years

I bought my 2004 Acura RSX as a new car back in November of 2003. In the eight years since I have driven 100,000 miles.

That’s 12,500 miles/year which is 31% below the national average of 18,000 miles/yr.

It also includes four cross-country trips from Los Angeles to Washington DC (10,560 miles). Of which, the milestone was reached on the fourth trip on a night drive through Marshall, Illinois.

I still love my car but sure hope to drive much less in the future!

New iPhone app: Bloomberg Radio+

There is an awesome new iPhone app out called Bloomberg Radio+.

If you’re a finance geek like me, then you’ll love these features:

– Bloomberg Radio live 24-hours a day
– Bloomberg shows and interviews available on demand
– Offline listening. Save/download shows and interviews
– Latest market data on companies
– Charts as they are referenced during a show or interview
– Bios of guests
– Customizable scrolling ticker

Plus, it has some surprisingly cool graphics and design.

MF Global shows Wall Street is ready for the good old days

If you don’t think Wall Street is chomping at the bit to get back to the good old days, take a look at MF Global. This financial services company was taken over by John Corzine, the former governor of New Jersey, a 24 year veteran of Wall Street, and the CEO of Goldman Sachs for 5 years.

The company was involved in a wide range of services and doing well for itself. Then Corzine came in with support from its leaders and promptly leveraged it to the max. Including a $6.3 billion dollar wager on European debt.

That obviously went south but that’s not what is interesting here. Rather, it’s that MF Global made the bet with its own money. A process called proprietary trading that is highly controversial.

Mostly because banks are not supposed to use their financial wizardry for themselves, but for us the customers. When they do start making their own bets it puts our money at risk. If one of those bets goes sour and the entire bank goes down, so do we.

It also makes the FDIC step in and we are back to square one with Wall Street making bets and Main Street cleaning it up.

Obama’s financial reform, called the Dodd Frank Act, largely ignored proprietary trading. Only at the last-minute did Paul Volker fight for some legislation on this, which is why the result is called the Volker Rule.

For the past year, U.S. Regulators and the major banks have been negotiating on the terms of this important rule. A spicy topic because proprietary trading accounts for up to 25% of all bank profits.

The rules are expected to go into effect next year (2012). Which is why I think Corzine went so fast, he was only CEO for 19 months, and went so huge. He wanted to get into the game before the rule set in.

I think he figured that if his bet worked then he would have turned MF Global into a Wall Street powerhouse to compete with Goldman, Citi, JP Morgan, etc.

Of course, he failed and now regulators have a fresh example to guide them in drafting the rules. This collapse rattled many of them and the rules will certainly be tightened.

The whole situation is like a throwback to the pre-recession days. It shows that firms will still take massive risks with other people’s money (and their own). We just have to hope that, going forward, those who do will be small enough to not take down our whole system.

source: Bloomberg