Apple Gleaning and Not-So-Random Crap

I went out gleaning in an apple orchard in Ada today. We picked 1,860 pounds of Red Delicious and Gala apples. I wish I could have done more gleaning this summer, since it feels good to get outside and do something, but I was busy driving to Detroit and Lansing for classes.

This past Sunday I cleaned out my vermicomposting bin for the first time. I ended up with about 13 pounds of worm poop, which I divvied up among friends. I counted 160 worms, not including some recently hatched babies. I also found lots of cocoons, which look like tiny yellow bbs (I would venture to say that they were 2-3 millimeters in diameter). Exciting! I haven't decided whether we'll be taking the bin with us to Seattle or leaving it with someone who wants to vermicompost.

The picture above is of the 2006 Michigan Apple Queen. I wasn't aware there was such a thing. Honeycrisps, a relatively new variety of apple, are my favorites, though the apples we had off the tree at the bottom of our hill when I was growing up (Wolf River, I think?) are a close second.

Reset the crotchelator

Well, I seem to have fallen pretty far behind in my blogging exploits. And I haven't posted any food photos in over a month (owing to the fact that, unlike everyone and their brother, I still do not own a digital camera). As many of you know, I've been quite busy lately, what with a new job and upcoming cross-continental move to deal with. So here is a soup recipe to tide you all over.

Red Lentil Carrot Soup

1 1/4 cups red lentils
2 medium-to-large carrots, chopped
3 to 4 cloves garlic, chopped/pressed (too much is never enough)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cups vegetable broth (you can be cheap and use Rapunzel's vegan bouillon cubes instead of the stuff in a can - I won't tell)
3 cups boiling water
salt and pepper

Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot and cook the carrots, onion and garlic over medium heat until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes.

Add the lentils, vegetable broth, and boiling water. Season with salt and pepper and bring up to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes until the lentils are very tender. You may need to add more water as the soup cooks if you don't like your soup thick (I do). Allow to cool for 10 to 15 minutes.

Pour about half the soup in a blender and blend until smooth. Please make sure the soup is sufficiently cool and that you fill the blender less than halfway. I do not want to be responsible for your second-degree burns. Place in a bowl or other clean receptacle. Blend the other half of the soup. Return the soup to the pot and warm until hot enough to eat. Enjoy with homemade bread.

And if you're wondering why the weird title for this post, it's a song from one of my favorite albums, A Society of People Named Elihu, by Atom and His Package. Atom now plays in a band called Armalite, with the awesome vegan/political activist/frontman for many, many bands, (including Lifetime, Paint It Black, and Kid Dynamite) Dr. Dan Yemin, who was just featured in Herbivore magazine. Maybe you should listen to one of these bands while you make soup. It's good music to chop carrots to - just watch your fingers.

Economies of scale?

All this coverage of the E. coli outbreak that's been linked to fresh spinach has defenders of traditional (i.e. corporate) farming pointing the finger at organic farmers, saying their products are less, not more, safe than their conventional conterparts. But is that really the lesson we should be taking away from the recent E. coli outbreak?

Of course not. The lesson we should learn is not that organic produce isn't safe, but rather, buy local and know your grower. As large corporate farms begin to dominate in supermarkets, let's not forget that eating local is a better alternative. For example, I just learned that Earthbound Farms, a large organic producer under Natural Selection Foods, now ships over 1 millions cases of packaged vegetables per week. Obviously, many of us live in climes where it's nearly impossible to buy local produce in the winter, but we should take advantage of our opportunities in the warmer months.

The Grand Rapids Press, thankfully, did cover the story from that angle, as did NPR.

Local Food Week

September 10 - 17th!

Check out these events:

Sunday, September 10 - Organic Harvest Festival at the Blanford Nature Center, with proceeds to benefit Mixed Greens' food literacy programs in Grand Rapids Public Schools.

Monday, September 11 - A Preservation Party sponsored by the Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council (GGRFSC) Want to learn how to can or freeze the summer's bounty? Email Cynthia Price at skyprice@gmail.com.

Tuesday, September 12 – Community Gardens Tour. Stop by Mack's Garden next to the South East Community Association offices, 1408 Madison Ave. SE, to join a free guided tour or pick up a map and do your own. For more info, email Tom Cary at tcary@wmeac.org

Thursday, September 14 - Buy Fresh, Buy Local – Select Michigan Day! Celebrate the 2nd annual event by spending the afternoon at the Southeast Area Farmers Market, on the corner of Franklin Street and Fuller Avenue.

Friday, September 15 - Women's Farm Tour, sponsored by the West Michigan Forum for Sustainable Agriculture. Filmmaker and photographer Cynthia Vagnetti will join an afternoon tour of several area farms run by women.

Saturday, September 16 - Local FoodFarmFilm Fest, a food-tasting and screening of films about food and farming presented by Farms Without Harm and GGRFSC at the Wealthy Theatre.

Sunday, September 17 - Annual Heirloom Tomato Festival at Trillium Haven Farm. Taste 45 different heirloom tomatoes, and enjoy recipe tips from chef Amy Sherman.

For more information about events, visit the Farms Without Harm website. See you there!

Apocalypse Now?

I've been reading two interesting, if frightening, books that critique our current system of food production and distribution. In The Long Emergency, James Howard Kunstler, author of a scathing indictment of suburbia entitled The Geography of Nowhere (which I haven't yet read), asserts that we have already reached peak oil production and that the westernized world, which is overly reliant on cheap oil for everything from manufacturing to agriculture to the millions of Americans living in the aforementioned suburbs, is in for a big shock. All those technologists touting the wonders of hydrogen and other future fuels are simply delusional Pollyannas, says Kunstler, since "no combination of so-called alternative fuels or energy procedures will allow us to maintain daily life in the United States the way we have been accustomed to running it under the regime of oil" (p. 100) It is with a grim sort of glee that Kunstler describes the myriad ways in which declining oil production will cause us to descend into what he has deemed the long emergency - a period of increased localism, especially in regards to food production (remember, the current system of food distribution means most goods travel between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to table). Take Kunstler's rants with a grain of salt, however, as he clearly has a beef with suburbia and some of his statements verge on Islamaphobic.

Thomas Pawlick's The End of Food uses a simple question - "Why are the tomatoes you buy in a supermarket like red tennis balls?" - as an entree into a thorough examination of our modern food system. What he finds is shocking: the nutritional content of most fruits and vegetables (not to mention meat) grown on corporate farms has been steadily declining since at least the 1950s. And that's just the beginning. Food additives, antibiotics, factory farms, pollution, loss of biodiversity - Pawlick exposes how the corporate model of agribusiness, with its relentless focus on "efficiency," is costing us all. The solution is to "think locally, fight locally," by planting community gardens, shopping at farmers' markets, and participating in grassroots campaigns, such as efforts to label genetically modified foods.

And just in case Kunstler's long emergency is just around the corner, I've put Robin Robertson's Apocalypse Chow on hold.

Meet Daryl Hannah

You may know her from films like Splash and... well, okay, if you're like me, you're really only familiar with her because of Splash. But did you know that Daryl Hannah is also a vegetarian and environmental activist? Now she can add video blogger to her credentials. What does this have to do with food? Well, in the third episode of her enviroblog, Daryl profiles a funky vegan eatery. I also got a secret thrill from watching her lick her gas cap (no, that's not a sexual innuendo) while discussing the nontoxicity of biodiesel. If I had to criticize her blog at all, I would say that there's not enough supplemental info about the cool things she checks out. Otherwise, it's a well-produced resource for anyone interested in the many facets of environmentalism.

Blue Plate Special

Brandon and I biked to Cherry Deli one sunny evening the other week. They've expanded their vegetarian options, and I had a hard time choosing which sandwich to sample. Luckily, the girl behind the counter recommended the Giddings, an awesome veggie reuben sandwich featuring squash and zucchini. It was a three-napkin sandwich, and I kept wiping at what I imagined was a ring of Russian dressing forming around my mouth after every bite. So good!

So naturally I had to try to recreate this masterpiece at home. I sauteed some zucchini and yellow squash, and added shredded cabbage and avocado (to replace the cheese) in between two slices of marbled rye. I used the russian dressing recipe from Food Network's Vegetarian Reuben, substituting Nayonaise for mayo. I served it with a side of pretty Terra sweet potato chips. Pretty good, but no Cherry Deli sandwich. Plus, Cherry Deli names all of their creations after streets, parks, and other locations in Grand Rapids. What could be cooler than that? For a list of their selections, click here.

Wasted

Sometimes I am amazed at how much waste two people can generate. I recently threw away an entire head of organic broccoli because I didn't get to it fast enough. It's been so bad lately I've been avoiding feeding my worms because I feel like there's just too much waste food for them to process. And I'm not alone - a study conducted by an anthropologist at the University of Arizona revealed that American households waste on average 14 percent of their food purchases.

To make things worse, food pantries are constantly fighting to get ahold of enough fresh fruits and vegetables for the people they serve. This article appeared in our local paper last week:

Four-year-old Dion Stanton climbed into the back of his family's car, surrounded by cereal, canned goods and juice -- all recently picked up from the Salvation Army's emergency pantry.

His mom, Carolyn Stanton, 24, said she and her son moved to Grand Rapids last week from Detroit and she visited the pantry while getting settled in. She tried to pick out healthy foods for her and her son -- he likes corn and spinach.

But the Salvation Army was out of fresh fruits and vegetables Wednesday, a need many area food pantries expressed.

"If people have excess produce from their gardens your local food pantry would love it," said Terry Cruzan, coordinator for emergency services at the Salvation Army.

Since I don't have my own garden, I'm going gleaning Thursday morning for the Second Harvest Gleaners Food Bank of West Michigan, picking corn out of a local farmer's field. Maybe helping to feed others will make me more mindful of my own waste.

Stuffed

Pattypan Squash Stuffed with Cajun White Beans

Apologies for not posting these past few weeks. You could chalk it up to:

1) Our library system's Summer Reading Club winding down

2) Graduating (thank the good lord I didn't fail cataloging)

3) Preparing for an interview in the Emerald City

... or a combination of all three.

Regardless, I've still managed to have some exciting culinary experiences these past few weeks. To celebrate my graduation, I had a few people over for a sushi making party. My sushi skills are getting progressively better, though there's no photographic proof. We even made dessert sushi, which was incredibly messy and tasty. Along with crystallized ginger, we also had sliced strawberries, mango and chocolate ganache for filling. Ali, Melissa, and I tried rolling it as directed, but we weren't about to bother with chilling it. As a result, the rolls were pretty apt to fall apart. After a couple tries, we decided to switch to dessert nigiri - perfect!

Food from our CSA is still rolling in; this week we got our first eggplant. I'll be making baba ghanoush tomorrow.

We love action shots!

A couple of weeks ago Melissa and I made some stuffed patty pan squash. The blogger whose recipe I tried said the beans tasted like sausage, and sure enough, they did (at least to me). Patty pan squash, like most summer squashes, has a high water content, and unfortunately this recipe does not reheat well. So just invite a few friends over to eat these with you.


By the way, kudos to Melissa (a pastry chef for the posh Sierra Room) for the beautiful photo of her dessert that appeared on the front page the lifestyle section of our local paper recently. There's no picture appearing with the story online, however, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Squashed

It's only mid-July, but already the amount of food we're getting from our CSA is getting ahead of me. Here's a list of what we received this week:

Basil
Beets
Lettuce (Escarole and Romaine)
Sorrel
Squash
Tomatoes (just 2 this week - but I think many more are on their way)

This week we got a patty pan squash, which I've never tried before. I wasn't much of a squash lover as a kid (This is a gross understatement; my parents have a picture of me at age nine, gagging and rolling my eyes while trying to eat butternut squash), so now I'm trying to make up for lost time. Patty pan squash is beautiful - it's like the Miss Universe of squash.

I just finished making stuffed squash from a recipe I found on VegWeb. I used a pale green summer squash as opposed to zucchini, and substituted oregano for marjoram, but otherwise followed the recipe pretty well. The filling is slightly spicy and garlicy, and complements the squash well. I asked Brandon what kind of squash it is exactly, but he doesn't know, he just picks up the vegetables and doesn't ask questions (Brandon's philosophy of not asking also applies to news like friends moving or having babies, but I still pepper him with questions).

I've decided to tag all past and future recipes that I find on the web using del.icio.us. Just search under "flooovde." Maybe I can incorporate the ability to tag my posts into this blog somehow, but that might take a while, techsavvy individual that I am.

NOLA photos

Canal Street Trolley

So I'm going to indulge a little off-topic post here and put up some pictures of New Orleans. I wish I had more (and better) pictures, but I'm still holding off on purchasing a digital camera. Brandon and I went to look at digital SLR camera bodies the other week -- mighty expensive, I tell you. These were taken with a cheap disposable camera, since I didn't feel like lugging the big manual around.

Street Music Alive and Kickin'

Also, if you haven't given money recently to aid in rebuilding after Katrina recently, here are two good causes:

1) Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence
As of March, only two domestic violence shelters in New Orleans have reopened. News reports indicate that incidents of domestic violence have spiked since the hurricane, perhaps as much as 80 percent. With nowhere else to live, many women may be choosing to stay with their abusers.


2) Plan B: The New Orleans Community Bike Project

A volunteer-run DIY bike shop that provides a work space, recycled bikes and parts, and assistance with repairs. I saw many people riding AWESOME bikes in New Orleans -- lots of cruisers and bikes with customized paint jobs -- and I hope next time I visit I'll see even more.

So please consider giving either organization a few of your hard-earned dollars. If you're the type of person who thrives on recognition, let me know about it and I'll cook you dinner, or send you a mix CD or a zine or something.

How to Make a Blueberry Pie in 4 Easy Steps

Step 1

Get up early and go eat a blueberry scone from Wealthy Street Bakery. Do not skip this step! Realize that it's almost blueberry season and decide to find a place to pick.

Step 2

Since your internet connection isn't hooked up yet, grab your laptop and head over to the public library. Compile a list of local blueberry growers and start making calls. While you're at it, grab a bunch of books on baking pies.

Step 3

Call your friend Hilary and invite her to go blueberry picking. Drive up north to Sandy Bottom Berries, where early u-pick blueberries are $1.00 a pound. Listen to crazy soccer/ballet/horseback riding moms talk about their kids. Get carried away and pick 4 pounds of blueberries, 6 quarts of raspberries, 3 pounds of sour cherries, and 1 bunch of flowers.

Step 4

Drive back home and make a blueberry pie. Eat messy but very tasty pie while watching Flight of the Navigator. Resolve to make at least one seasonal pie a month.

The coolest thing about going to pick berries was the series of visceral memories it has triggered. I remember picking those tiny raspberries (so much smaller than the ones Hilary and I picked!) with my brothers for what seemed like hours, because we each had a quota to fill. We'd sing or talk loudly to ward off bears, since we'd occasionally stumble a patch of trampled down grass with a large mound of bear scat in it. The long grass would tickle our legs, and the tips of our fingers were red from so many mashed berries. I complained about it then, but now it seems almost idyllic.

New Orleans and a new apartment

As you can see, I have two good reasons for not updating this blog often enough these past few weeks. Now that we're settled in to our new apartment, upstairs from Jen and Seamus and around the corner from Wealthy Street Bakery, it should be easier to share my latest culinary adventures.

So, what's it like being a vegetarian in New Orleans? In two words, not easy. After five days it the Big Easy for the ALA annual conference, it was pretty easy for me to spot the other vegetarian librarians. We were either eating overpriced, anemic-looking salads at the convention center or standing outside of restaurants, studying their menus quizzically. And what do you mean collard greens aren't vegan? When I asked the locals for advice, they told me that vegetarian restaurants in New Orleans generally go under, and that my best bet was to stick to the higher-end establishments and ask them to prepare something for me. Since I'm notoriously cheap, I decided to ignore their advice.

Nevertheless, I managed to get some good eats in NOLA, so I thought I'd share some of the highlights:

Eggplant soup at La Boucherie, 339 Chartres St.
Walking around the French Quarter shortly after my arrival, I spotted this little cafe. The soup was deliciously spicy, in an Italian sausage sort of way.

Portobello club at Rosie's Diner, 200 Magazine St.
Thinly sliced portobello mushrooms served with tomatoes, carrots, and baby spinach in a club sandwich. The diner had an awesome art deco clock on the wall.

Eggplant po-boy, somewhere in the French Quarter
I met Ahmed, who is from Cairo, Friday while working the International Registration desk. The topic turned to food, and he said he won't eat meat in the U.S. because it isn't halal (permitted). Saturday night we wandered around the French Quarter till we found a neat looking restaurant with veggie options. Ahmed had a vegetarian muffaletta, which was made of olive salad and loads of cheese. The fried eggplant po-boy came slathered in marinara and prolovone. Very tasty, but I only finished half!

Gumbo z'herbes at Gumbo Shop, 630 St. Peter St.
Yes, Virginia, you can find vegetarian gumbo in New Orleans. And their garlicky mashed potatoes were just that. Mmm, pure vampire-killing power. If I would have had more room, I would have tried the maque choux (corn smothered with tomatoes and green peppers). We ate outside in the shade.

And of course I went to Cafe du Monde to watch the other tourists over beignets and an iced coffee. I didn't get out of the downtown area, but even so, there were still signs of Katrina's lingering effects. For one thing, every other restaurant I passed had signs in the window looking for waitstaff. I suspect that the people who held those jobs have relocated since they can no longer afford to live in New Orleans.

Hooray for our CSA!

I've never been to California, but that's where the nectarine I had as an afternoon snack a few days ago came from. The nectarine was delicious, but as I was eating, I couldn't stop thinking about the events that led to its cross-country trip. Who grew my nectarine? When had it been picked? And by whom? How much were they paid? (The nectarine cost a paltry 18 cents, and I can't help but think that shipping must eat up much of that cost.) Had it been picked firm-ripe, or was it picked green and gassed?

Since I can't answer any of these questions, early this spring I decided to join a CSA farm. The premise of Community Supported Agriculture is simple: each member purchases a "share" of the harvest, and over the course of the growing season gets local, organic, sustainably grown food. There are only two of us in my household, so I'm splitting a share with my friend Ali.

What have we received in our first two weekly pickups? Lots of salad greens: romaine - both red and green, sorrel, and frisee (curly endive). Scallions as long as my arm. Beets and bok choy. Later in the summer we'll head out to Trillium Haven to pick beans, peas, and tomatoes. While I'm excited about trying new varieties of foods and new recipes, and maybe learning how to can, most of all I'm looking forward to having a relationship with the people who grow my food. Plus, with Wal-Mart pushing to get organics on their shelves, eventually industrializing the industry and cheapening the concept, I guess it's safe to say that local really is the new organic.

For a good overview of the CSA movement and its promise, check out this article. To find a CSA farm or farmers market near you, click here.

When Life Hands You Lemons...

Turn them...

Into this!

Lebanese Potato Salad

... you could make plain old lemonade, or you could try one of the following dishes: Lebanese potato salad, light and luscious lemon bundt cake, or lavender lemonade.

I've been buying lots of organic lemons as of late. For a while, they were sitting in a bowl with some grapefruit, looking pretty. But then I decided to put them to work.

I first tried Lebanese potato salad at Marie Catrib's, a phenomenal restaurant in the East Hills neighborhood, where I used to live. I'll admit that their version is a little better than mine, but every time I make this, I end up eating it as I go instead of waiting for in to chill in the fridge.

Lebanese Potato Salad

6 medium red potatoes, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 bunch parsley, rinsed and chopped
sea salt

Boil potatoes until tender. Drain and allow to cool. In a large bowl, mix together potatoes, garlic, lemon juice, and parsley. Add salt and adjust seasonings to taste. Chill and enjoy.

I made the lemon bundt cake from a recipe in the latest issue of VegNews Magazine. I'm not posting the recipe because a) you should pick up a copy at your local independent bookstore and b) I made more than one substitution in the recipe, and although the flavor was good, the cake was more dense and doughy than light and luscious.

To wash everything down, I made some lavender lemonade. Simply steep 1/4 cup of dried lavender in some simple syrup for about 20 minutes, strain, and add to your lemonade.

Chew on This

So in lieu of cooking a lot lately (it's too darn hot right now for that), I've been reading about food. Here are two of the latest books to grace my shelves:

Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson. At first glance, this seemed like a scaled-down version of Schlosser's 2001 expose, Fast Food Nation. However, this book is more than just an attempt to cash in on the success of the previous title. Several chapters in Chew on This deal with how the fast food industry has affected young people in particular. A twelve-year-old girl in Alaska starts a Stop the Pop" campaign at her school. A teenager in Quebec helps successfully unionize a McDonald's, only to have the restaurant shut its doors soon after. And a young man in Chicago who is morbidly obese must decide whether or not to have gastric bypass surgery. I'm happy to say that our library system's copies have several holds on them (and they're not all from staff members). If you want more info about the book, check out Houghton Mifflin's press release.

I'm just finishing Jane Goodall's Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating. Goodall's tone throughout the book is conversational and she includes many personal anecdotes, which sometimes seems detremental to the book's effectiveness (Her parenthetical asides in particular are distracting - just like this!). However, the chapter on genetically modified organisms is not to be missed. Goodall rails against the misconception perpetuated by large corporations like Monsanto that genetically engineered seeds are the answer to world hunger. Here's an excerpt:

"Even if world hunger could be solved with more food, we haven't seen any solid evidence that genetic engineering is restoring the world's depleted farmlands or increasing food production. Given the speed with which Monsanto, DuPont, Dow, and other multinational corporations are buying up the world's seed supply, some suspect that the main incentive for genetic engineering is financial greed, an attempt by corporations to secure, through patents, control of the world's food supply" (p. 52). Go Jane!

Okay, must go and grill veggie burgers and asparagus at Hager Park with some friends.

They're Alive!

Since Mary asked about my worms, I thought I would give everyone an update on my vermicomposting efforts. Having left them alone for almost two weeks, I ventured down into the basement a few days ago with a small bucket of kitchen scraps (mostly banana peels and coffee grounds, but also asparagus, potato skins, and a few other tasty things) and a feeling of trepidation. Had I managed to kill my worms through neglect, as I am wont to do with the occasional houseplant?

But no! Not only were my worms wiggling away, but the food at the bottom of the bin was black and looked like it was slowly being eaten away. A quick check earlier today, and there's still no noticable smell coming from the bin. However, I did see worm mites at the top of the bin, which means the worms aren't eating quite fast enough (I think). I'm going to try cutting back on how much food I'm adding, and turning what I do put in the bin into compost soup beforehand (this can be accomplished by giving it a quick whirl in the blender).

Bonus: I don't think we've had to put our garbage out for three weeks!

Hungry

Whenever I work from noon until 8:oo, I end up eating really early in the evening, usually around 4:00. It's not quite lunch, and too early for dinner, I've decided to call this meal linner. Whatever you call it, the result is the same: by the time I get home I'm ready for another meal. But I'm not willing to put much effort into whatever I make, which usually means I end up eating tofu dogs. Tonight, however, having run out of tofu dogs, I took stock of what I had in the fridge - one very small and sad-looking zucchini ("Eat me before I putrify!"), the remainer of a can of vegetarian refried beans, some leftover onion from Sunday, tortillas, and potatoes. Bingo! 15 minutes later I had myself a tasty vegetable quesadilla.

Potato and Zucchini Quesadilla

1 very small potato
1 small zucchini or summer squash
1/2 red onion
2 6-inch flour tortillas
olive oil
chili powder
salt and pepper

Cut potato, zucchini and onion into 1/8-inch slices. In a medium saucepan, heat 1 to 2 tablespoon of olive oil. Cook the potatoes over medium heat until they begin to look a little translucent. Add the zucchini and onion. Season to taste with chili powder, salt, and pepper. Cook until vegetables are almost soft. Place veggies in a bowl.

Now spread a layer of refried beans on one of your tortillas. Place it (beans side up, obviously) back in your saucepan. Spread veggies on top of the beans and cover with the other tortilla. Cook until light brown on both sides. Serve with salsa.

Terribly simply to eat well, isn't it? You only need one pan for this recipe, and cooking the tortillas after the veggies means that some of your spices end up on the outside of your quesadilla, which actually looks quite nice. I'll make this again when I finally buy a camera and post pictures.

To Market

It's a happy time for those of us living in West Michigan, since the Fulton Street Farmers Market opened last week. I decided to stop by on Saturday afternoon, and although there isn't much produce yet, I found a bunch of lovely rhubarb for $1.25.

Now I'd never cooked rhubarb before, even though it grows in my parents' garden. So I decided to make the easiest thing I could think of - rhubarb crisp. Let's face it, you can make a crisp out of almost any fruit (I thought bananas might be an exception, but there are several recipes out there for that as well). Five ingredients (rhubarb, oats, honey, magarine, and cinnamon) and 30 minutes later, my brother and dug in to our still-warm dessert. Mmm!

I live where I do (and deal with my goofy landlord) partly because I'm so near the Farmers Market. Walking or biking to a place where you can buy fresh, local ingredients and even talk to the people who grew them, well, it changes how you think about food. Americans are used to cheap, abundant food, but we don't seem to put much emphasis on quality, or even think about how many miles our food may have traveled before it ends up on our plates. Perhaps rising gas prices will change how we view food and help us put the emphasis back on eating locally and seasonally.

Asparagus de Mayo

What Lovely Presentation!

These fajitas are a staple in our house, and since May is asparagus season, what better dish to bring to my friend Melissa's Cinco de Mayo party? We started making this from a recipe in Kitty Morse's now out-of-print 365 Ways to Cook Vegetarian, but our fajita recipe has undergone a few revisions and is spicier and tastier than the original.

Asparagus Fajitas

Filling:

1 pound asparagus
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 red onion
1 serrano or jalapeno pepper

Marinade

1 packet taco seasoning*
2 to 3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Juice of 1/2 to 1 lime

Cut asparagus into 1-inch pieces. Slice bell peppers and onion into 1/4-inch strips. Chop up hot pepper (deseed and depith the pepper if you don't like things too hot). Place the vegetables in a large bowl.

Mix the marinade ingredients together. You may need to add more oil or lime juice if the marinade is too thick. Pour over vegetables, stir, and set aside to marinate for 30 to 60 minutes.

Cook over medium heat in a large frying pan or wok for 6 to 8 minutes. I like my asparagus to be just a little on the crunchy side - yum! Serve in warm flour tortillas.

*Note: If you want to make these vegan, be careful which brand of taco seasoning you choose, as many contain whey solids (Since I like to serve these with cheese, I'm usually not picky about it). According to PETAKiDS accidentally vegan page, Old El Paso makes a vegan taco seasoning mix.

If you're looking for asparagus facts, recipes, and cooking tips, or maybe an answer to the age-old asparagus pee question, check out the Michigan Asparagus Advisory Board (yes, there really is such an institution).