A very good idea

Findlay Market in Cincinnati, Ohio is the oldest continuously operating market in the state, and it's also one of the most forward-thinking. Last year, facing a shrinking Ohio farming population and a growing demand for local produce in urban farm markets, Findlay Market manager Cynthia Brown and colleagues came up with a solution. They applied for a USDA grant and created the "Cultivating Healthy Entrepreneurs and Farmers" (CHEF) program; with the goal of turning vacant community lots into working urban farms, and in turn providing business opportunities for members of the local Latino immigrant population.

In July 2009, Philadelphia journalist Daniel Denvir produced a story on the CHEF program for NPR's Latino USA. It's a compelling story, and I recommend a quick listen below.

The CHEF approach is both innovative, inclusive and, to my mind, an excellent example of a creative solution that addresses a range of issues facing our communities and food systems. And there is better news. Though Denvir's story ran just last week, in the time since he produced it CHEF has received a $219,000 USDA grant to expand the program, and in August four more Cincinnati lots were donated for use as urban farms. So while in 2009 CHEF employed four farmers on two plots of land, the new grant will allow them to double their impact in 2010; training and equipping up to ten growers on six plots of land.

As I've mentioned here before, it can be overwhelming to consider all of the challenges facing our food system and the people whose lives are intimately connected to producing the food we all eat. Programs like CHEF are a reminder that solutions do exist, and that it's up to us to put them in place.

* A thank you to Emma Kirwan of Millstone Farm in Connecticut, for sending this story our way!

Welcome, fall.

We're running just a few days behind on welcoming autumn with new seasonal artwork, but welcome nonetheless. Maybe it's just me, but I'm having a hard time keeping up with the seasons this year; they seem to be speeding by. That said, I will miss summer's abundance of berries, tomatoes, cukes and basil, though fall is definitely my favorite season for food. I am a sucker for all things roasted, and would be content eating sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips and brussels sprouts with brown rice every day until spring arrives. The cool weather also inspires me to turn on my oven more often, and so I tend to be more creative in the kitchen once fall kicks in.


This fall, because our crazy schedule seldom allows for dinner at home together, Justin and I have been making up for lost time with celebratory Sunday night dinners. Last night was celeriac root soup, poached eggs over sauteed greens and, wait for it, roasted sweet potatoes with rice. Our ancient plumbing failed us halfway through the prep when the kitchen sink clogged, and nearly derailed our dinner plans. There was talk of calling in a pizza but my sweet (potato) tooth prevailed, and I returned to the kitchen despite the dirty, dish-stocked swimming pool in our sink. By the time we were scraping up the last bites of baked apples, vanilla frozen yogurt and caramel sauce that was our dessert, I had almost forgotten the disaster in the kitchen... Almost. A credit to the comfort of fall feasts.

{ View from a speeding car in Shenandoah National Park }

Tonight I'll be picking up a CSA share of sweet potatoes, broccoli rabe, arugula and apples, and then returning home to figure out how to eat it all in the busy week ahead. I guess there is always next Sunday...

Movie. Coffee. Conversation.

On the heels of yesterday's post, I am excited to announce the details of our first Fresh event:

Join us for a community screening and discussion of

Wednesday evening, October 7th
Screening at 7:00pm, Discussion at 8:15pm
at Burlap and Bean
The Shops at Springton Pointe
204 South Newtown Street Rd
Newtown Square, PA
$2 screening donation suggested

*I should take a moment to say that the title of the movie, FRESH, is not related to this blog other than a common interest in food and good taste in names (wink, wink).

For those of you who haven't yet heard of FRESH; it's an inspiring documentary about the visionaries who are making positive changes in our food systems. I caught a screening of it over the summer, and immediately appreciated the film's focus on innovative solutions in the face of challenges. As I have mentioned here, I am sometimes overwhelmed by the complexity of the issues facing our food system, but I left FRESH feeling like there is a way out, and that there is much that each of us can do to make a difference for our own health and the health of our environment... Not to mention for better access to delicious food! After the screening next Wednesday, we'll be opening up the floor to questions and discussion about the film with local organic farmer Rick Fonda of Skunk Hollow Farm and Greener Partners.

As for the location, it's a no-brainer. When I began making plans, it made perfect sense to approach the crew at Burlap and Bean about hosting the film there. Given their own dedication to good food, they were immediately on board and excited.

So if you're interesting in spending an evening with a good movie, good coffee and good conversation, we would love to see you there. And you won't go home empty-handed, take home resources on local and sustainable food will be provided after the movie. Hope to see you soon!

For more information, click here or here.

In a pickle.

You may have noticed an absence of Fresh posts in the last couple of weeks, and I do apologize for those of you who have been checking in. For one thing, I needed to devote more time than usual to an ongoing job search. Yes folks, I am one of the lucky ones to be making a career change during our season of economic discontent. The upshot of the search is that it is an excuse to go out and meet lots of talented, intelligent and driven people. I've been lucky to come across so many kind people in the process, all of whom have helped or advised me in some meaningful way. Almost every day, I learn something new and interesting about the communications industry or a particular organization or company. And I get to eat my lunch at home. Those are the perks. I probably don't have to tell you that there are a few detractors, like an excess amount of pajama wearing in front of the computer, though I imagine that for some that doesn't sound so bad.

But enough about that, the good news is that I've also been busy with lots of Fresh-related activities, though the research meant less time to write. Kind of a pickle, is it not? Not to worry, I'll be sharing what I've found over the next couple of weeks. But back to the subject of pickles...


In Pennsylvania, we've hit our bumper crop of squash and cukes. At a nearby farm*, until about a week ago when a nasty bacteria devoured the remaining cucumber plants, we couldn't eat these crops fast enough. For my part, I was dumping handfuls of shredded zucchini into chocolate chip cookies (which is a really good idea, though it wasn't mine), eating plenty of raw zucchini and cucumber salads and generally fretting about the still looming pile of cucumbers in my crisper drawer. I knew what had to be done, but to be honest, it scared the crap out of me.

What exactly was I so afraid of? In a word, preservation. Dehydrating. Pickling. CANNING. Sure, I've frozen large batches of pesto, pumpkin puree and tomato sauce, but when it comes to the more advanced preservation tactics, I chicken out. Maybe it's the multiple rounds of blanching for pickles or the exacting nature of perfecting the PH level for safe canning, but the idea has always intimidated me. But not this year my friends.

I decided to start small with refrigerator pickles. Using the basic outline from this recipe, I sliced up my cukes, prepared the brine and anxiously waited 24-hours to taste the transformation. The result was crisp, tart and tasty. Not the perfect pickle by any stretch, but they certainly perked up our sandwiches and were good enough to inspire me to take the next step.


Before the end of the summer, I'm determined to conquer this recipe for pickled red onions, and can some of the crushed heirloom tomatoes that Justin can't get enough of during the summer. Wish me luck, and I'll keep you posted.

*Skunk Hollow Community Farm is operated by Greener Partners, a sustainable farming organization that I've been volunteering and working with for the past year. I'm looking forward to telling you more about their mission later, but feel free to check out their site in the meantime.

Kitchen notes + See you in a week!

In about an hour, my hubby, JK, and I are unplugging from the world and heading up to his family's cabin to enjoy an entire week of swimming, hiking, relaxing and soaking up the sun (if the weather holds out). In fact, as I type JK is behind me haphazardly tossing most of his clothes into a duffel bag. The fact that he can do that in about five minutes, while I have to spend two days carefully planning everything I will need, is another story entirely.

Before I go, I wanted to leave you all with a fun and functional recent addition to our kitchen. Lately, I've found that by sitting down and making a meal plan each week, we eat healthier meals and have a happier wallet. The list doesn't have to be hard and fast, just an outline that helps me incorporate all the goods from our CSA share and figure out what else to shop for. Until this week, I scribbled the list into a little blue notebook and carried it to the grocery store with me. But now....

{ our new chalkboard, in all of its glory. jk said it made him feel like he was in a restaurant }

Yes folks, after months of searching, we have acquired a vintage chalkboard for our kitchen. Granted, it's less portable than the blue notebook, but seeing this chalkboard hung in our lilliputian kitchen makes me very happy. Already, it's inspiring me to find new ways to use the bounty of our bi-weekly produce share. If there are others of you out there with little things that make you happy in the kitchen, I would love to hear about them here!

So on that note, have a lovely week all and I will look forward to seeing you again next Tuesday! In the meantime, check out this awesome story about the growing trend of roof gardens from The New York Times earlier this week... And a thank you to my dear friend Jo for pointing it out to me!

One Step at a Time

At its simplest, food is a good thing. The right kind of food nourishes us, comforts us and sustains us. But right there, we’ve already run into a hitch. The right kind of food. It’s not always easy to define, and filling my shopping cart with it can be even trickier. Loosely, many of us define the “right kind of food” as Seasonal, Local, Organic and Whole, having also been raised humanely and with respect for the land. My preference would be to always buy this kind food straight from the farmer, warm from the sun and still covered in dirt. During the Pennsylvania growing season when our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share starts up, I’m lucky enough to do that. But when that isn’t an option, I find myself at Whole Foods.

It’s there, standing in the entrance, that the seemingly infinite number of nutritional philosophies, environmental factors, political motivators, personal food preferences and cost issues that influence my food choices overwhelm me. So much that I am left paralyzed at the door, shopping cart idling away from me as tornado of competing priorities whirs through my head. When I regain consciousness, I’m left frazzled and feeling guilty for not doing enough to support the local food economy that I badly want to help build. And this is just after considering the short list of food choices for myself and my family. At other times I worry about all of the other people who do not have the time, energy or resources to devote to sorting out the issues of where to shop, what to buy, and what they can afford. Granted, I come from a long line of worriers and it has been said that I worry too much. But I wonder if there are any of you out there with some of the same concerns?

In a recent short essay on Superhero Journal titled, “Good Enough,” writer Andrea Scher aptly points out that many of us don’t allow ourselves to be satisfied with what we have done, and instead end up focusing on everything that we haven’t done yet. The result is constant stress and a nagging feeling of never being “good enough.” In the case of eating healthfully and contributing to a local food economy it’s easy to be overwhelmed by this feeling. The obstacles standing in the way of a network of local, organic and environmentally responsible food economies are large. For this reason and others, buying seasonal, local, organic, whole foods 100% of the time is simply not an option for most people. But this shouldn’t mean that we can’t enjoy our food, or take pride in the steps we are taking to support sustainable food systems.

Which brings us to One Step at a Time. This Fresh category will introduce manageable steps to providing the healthiest food for ourselves and our families, supporting local producers of organic, humanly raised food and even improving our environment and access to good food for our wider communities. You may find some of these ideas doable for you or you may find that you already use many of them, in which case please share! Others you just won’t have time for, and that’s okay too. The reality is that a huge number of factors influence our food systems. To this end, some of us may be most comfortable writing a letter to our congress person about the change we want to see, while others prefer to shop at organic farmer’s markets and let their consumer dollars do the talking. Either way, by focusing on one step at a time and taking stock of what we’ve already done, we can let go of the “never having done enough” feeling and start enjoying our food. Because in the end, it really is a good thing.

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Does this all sound familiar? Do you all have ideas or specific concerns that you would like for me to address in upcoming One Step at a Time posts? If so, feel free to share them below.