People love the idea of backyard gardens and urban fruit trees, but I have to say, as someone who professionally deals with people’s yards, most backyard fruit goes to squirrels, rats, and worms. Which isn’t the worst thing, but it just goes to show how much work it is to take responsibility for your own food.

Our backyard apple tree is basically the reason we ended up renting this place. A few years back we spent months looking for a new place to live when we moved to Berkeley, it was December when we found this apartment, 1/3 of an old house on a busy street on the Oakland/Berkeley border. My (then to be) husband went into the mess of a backyard (then to be garden), picked the last apple off the bare tree, took a bite, and he was sold. For our first fall here the apple crop was overwhelming for us fruit tree newbies and a lot of the apples went to waste (ie garden rats and compost). The second year (last year), heavy Spring rain knocked off almost all the blossoms and we hardly got any fruit at all. This year, the blossoms were incredible. The picture above was actually from trying to capture one of the hundreds of bees buzzing up in the pink and blue. The tree has gotten more love this year, more water and compost and good intentions, and we made out with a decent crop, this time with intentions to use our bounty.

Luckily they don’t all fall at once and we’ve managed to keep up with ripe apples by getting in five very full apple pies in the last month. A pie a week seems like a good run right? Well before October I had never actually made a real deal apple pie. My go to apple gallette has now been replaced with something far more substantial as it uses far more apples (which is the goal after all). This has been a great reminder of how to get a particular dish right- make it once a week for a couple months. Now the idea of throwing together a stellar apple pie for dinner guests coming in two hours doesn’t seem the least bit daunting (and yes, we have been sharing all this pie action with others). Through repetition you learn what you like and what proportions get you there, the steps become second hand and before you know if you’ve mastered a dish and can make it with confidence and ease.

I am pretty set on having a flaky crust, but I wanted to avoid the temptation of a white flour pie. (my mother in-law makes the best tasting pie crust from white flour and crisco…and while I enjoy it, at a pie per week, it kind of crosses the line from indulgence to dietary staple and so I have to make it something more nourishing) I learned “white” and “flaky” don’t necessarily go hand in hand. The heavy whole wheat crusts I’ve humored over the years at hippie pot lucks largely have their fat (or lack of it) to blame. The more shortening the better, but that being said you don’t want a high protein whole wheat.  In the nutrition facts on a sack of flour (if you are buying pre-ground, from a store) will give you the protein content, which for a flaky pie you want to be low and for chewier things like bread you want a higher protein. Whole wheat pastry flour is low protein and really makes a great crust- provided that you have enough good fat.

For pie, butter or lard are the best. I haven’t made a pie crust with lard yet (the ranch I get my grass fed meat from has been out…pie making time they say), but I hear that once you try it, you won’t be able to go back. I also haven’t made pie crust from flour ground at home. I did make a crust from sprouted spelt flour and was really pleased with the results. It is very rare from me to eat grains that have not undergone one of the three S’s (sprouting, soaking, sourdough) but I just wanted to make a “normal” pie. Again, as it it now officially pie season I just couldn’t justify the exception (my tummy and skin agreed). I don’t quite understand why spelt works well because it contradicts the statement above about protein levels- it is high in protein, but I have to assume that there is something different with regular wheat protein and spelt protein- since some people can’t digest the former but are fine on the latter. The sprouted performed well and tastes great, largely to do with how fresh it is. Check out what the Whole Grains Council, a pretty mainstream group nutrition-wise, says about sprouted grains…so good for you.

The lessons of cooking can be learned quickly when you work with a dish consistently. Our first pie ended up shallow which led to my first lesson in apple pie: cut the apples into big chunks and pile them very high. Out of habit from the gallette I am used to I sliced them, which makes for a very shallow pie (and also takes longer). The apples are peeled, which I did hesitantly, but I think it makes a difference for getting the right texture. I should try going un-peeled and see for sure.

The cross cuts are so classic and just make me feel…wholesome. The way the steam comes pouring out into the cool air seems like it will lure neighbors, cartoon-like to our house, floating with their noses on the scent.

With the sprouted flour this pie is a dessert (or snack, or part of breakfast) that stays out of “exception food” territory. Made with at least eight apples, only two tablespoons of unrefined palm sugar, lots of healthy butter fat and a bit of arrowroot powder for thickening its something I’m thrilled to eat week after week all season.

                          

I added more to this one- oyster mushrooms fresh from the market and a little meat. Sauteed all the fillings, letting the onions get dark and sweet on their own first, then the mushrooms, chard stems, and the slices of meat (I am being generic, because it was a gift and it is called a “beef stick” and I just don’t know what else to call it)- adding a bit more olive oil at this point- and lastly the rough chopped chard (I actually just turn the pan off and then add the greens so as not to cook them down too much). Then all that goes into six beaten eggs along with salt and pepper and more olive oil (also garlic, but I left it out on this one)

Scrape all the bits into the eggs, mix together and then heat the pan again and add it all. This is the part that is key to me, departing from Alice’s instructions. I just let it set and then when it seems like the bottom is done (like you can lift it with the rubber spatula) but the top is still liquidy I put it under the broiler flame and it gets this beautiful delicate bubbly browned slightly crispy layer that clearly defies description. Many recipes tell you to invert the whole thing onto a plate and then cook the other side. I can’t imagine that being successful, and I also have never seen a picture of one cooked this way so I don’t know that it would look nice or have nearly such a unique and pleasing texture as the top flame method

This technique may not work with electric ovens- I don’t know. When I turn my oven on there is a flame in the broiler section, I put it under a medium flame, not the full broiler heat. I think you can also just put it in the oven close to the top as long as it heats from there. All better choices than this ridiculous flip.

                          

This is the tortilla soup from my oft used and recommended Alice Waters Cookbook “The Art of Simple Food.” We’ve been feeling the pull to be a bit more carnivorous the last few days- many vegan meals have come out of our kitchen recently for a number of reasons; meat and other animal products make meals more expensive and we just don’t buy cheap meat, we have been cutting back on dairy just for our general wellbeing, and its honestly felt rather unnecessary in terms of flavor, nourishment, and what we ask of animals/workers/land to go through for sources of protein. So we’ve really cut back more and more. But I’ve always appreciated having flexibility and variety as a part of my eating habits- so I made plans for something with chicken.

I had some pre-soaked black beans in the fridge so I decided to base my recipe search there. I’m trying to get into the habit of throwing a cup of beans in a bowl full of water as soon as I remember to, regardless of what I am thinking about cooking next. After 5 or 6 hours I drain and put the soaked beans in a Nancy’s yogurt container and keep it in the fridge until I come up with a use for them. That way the prospect of using my bulk dried beans doesn’t become such a time commitment right when I need to be getting a meal together and I’ve taken advantage of a dirt cheap protein source.

Far from dirt cheap, the chicken in this soup was the most expensive ingredient. Though the recipe only calls for one chicken breast,and this is precisely why soup is so cost effective. A whole organic free-range chicken breast (with bone and skin on) was a little over 6 bucks. Other uses of this might have required on breast per person, relying on the chicken as the center of the meal which would be way more than I would want to spend on one dinner. The soup lets you spread that 6 dollars over four or five meals. I think we had two dinners (that is dinner for two twice) and three lunches.

To the recipe we added bok choy from the garden and this was also a great way to use our giant and not so awesome (mealy) tomatoes.

best flavors: lime (not in recipe), chipotle chile, anahiem pepper

Last week’s soup (I am detecting a trend) was a testament to the thrifty potential of the combination of soup, a garden, and bulk dried beans. I can’t really come up with a per meal cost for this soup, it was so nominal. Only major cost was the chicken stock- $2.50 for one quart.

Squash and corn from the garden:

(sad garden note however, is that this is the only corn we got from garden- monocrops in the home garden are not easy)

So three cheers for soup, timely for our global economic collapse and just in time for fall! (At least for parts of the country who experiences cold in the fall, apparently this is when the East Bay finally gets summer)

                          

No lettuce required for this purely garden salad. Tomatoes and cucumbers have been our most reliable (and hard to keep up with) producers this month. This salad gets through one cuke per person and a handful of cherry tomatoes. Our bigger sized tomatoes haven’t been ripening quickly and coming out mealy so these small guys are a welcome standby. I just dash some olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper on this and crunch away.

Straight from the source:

Second:

When lettuce is desired. We get our lettuce mostly from the farmer’s market- our garden can’t quite keep up with demand and our greens suffered a dog trample early on. We get one huge head for $1.25. When we get home I chop off the bottom wash the leaves and cut the large ones in half. Then I layer them in a paper-towel lined tupperware. It lasts over a week. No more soggy bags of slimy greens. Cutting down on waste is number one in saving money on food.

                          

But how to make stroganoff? (not a necessity of life, but a craving is a craving) Soy sour cream? We aren’t much for the strategy to replace a whole food product with one with more ingredients in order to accommodate new eating habits, so I opt to omit rather than replace. I had a 1/4 lb of ground grass fed beef and a 1/4 lb of oyster mushrooms and I wanted to sop them up with creamy(ish) egg noodles. Again, I looked for vegan strog recipes (save for the cow I was using) but they all used more processed products, not into it.

What I decided to use was the base for my tomato sauce sans tomatoes. Caramelize sliced onions in olive oil to be rich and gooey, use a small pad of butter with the mushrooms because they love it. A good amount of salt, browned meat and a chopped up zucchini from the garden seemed to do the trick.

Second dairy free noodle dish that makes an easy dinner and lunch for two is based on a sauce for broccoli from Farmer John’s Cookbook.

The sauce is 1/2 c of rice vinegar, soy sauce (I use tamari), grated ginger, minced garlic, couple tablespoons of peanut oil, and a bit of roasted sesame oil. I add chili flakes to the cooking tempeh (which I start first). I also steam the broccoli (from the garden!) separately to make sure it doesn’t ovecook. Something about the oil and vinegar in the sauce together makes it so the soy sauce doesn’t stick to the pan- a personal stir fry conundrum now solved. These noodles are definitely a splurge compared to brown rice. But with four meals it works out- be sure to rinse them before mixing with the sauteed stuff (tempeh, eggplant, oyster mushrooms, carrot, cashews, etc)

                          

Michael Dimock, president of Roots of Change discussed prioritizing these fundamental principles while raising these issues to a national and mainstream conversation:

Change the current goals which frame the system- currently the goal is cheap calories, shift this to health (of humans, communities, planet) and food sovereignty; Keep the process of feeding people properly connected to the health care system and ensure local control through national policies that support the regionalization of food.

Secretary of State of Minnesota, Mark Ritchie, had such a deep and broad understanding of these issues there was mention of him possibly filling the cabinet position on agriculture. I will take any opportunity there is to hear him speak again, he is spot on. Great to hear a non-Californian perspective on eating locally, how to make the case for local food systems in difficult climates (hint cabbage and canning). Of particular relevance was his insight into the the ways in which misguided or non-existent regulation is at the source of the crises in the food and financial sectors.

In regards to how the next president might specifically approach the issues with our food system Michael Pollan raised the point, which he will apparently also be addressing in the next Sunday NYTimes Magazine, that though the candidates do not address food issues per se in their stump speeches they do address them in their three main focuses of climate change, energy independence, and health care. Clearly no progress can be made to these agenda items without addressing the failing food system. More on Pollan’s point and specifics about the candidates position (or lack thereof) of food issues, see recent Grist article “Politics and the dinner table”

Judith of Full Belly Farms was very encouraging with her platform for a family farmer for every household. Why not? She also noted that the three newest and growing types of farmers are young people, women, and immigrants. (They have apprenticeships …tempting isn’t it?) Her farm is to be commended for their attention to labor, she spoke very well valuing of those that do physical work for the rest of us to live and also made the important point that a diverse farm like hers (versus a sprawling monoculture) can provide year-round work. This is crucial for allowing workers to have roots (so to speak) in their community and continuity in their lives.

Again, it being a food system reformer love fest the discussion continued to feel uplifting an encouraging (and I can’t say that wasn’t appreciated). Michael Pollan laid out his idea of the Sunshine Agenda, getting food off oil and back on solar power- shocking concept really.

Ultimately, the next administration is unknown so the question of what it should do on food issues was a little open ended and the conversation was all over the map. Eventually it got down to the responsibility of the consumer and, since it was held on a college campus, how to get involved. (Dimock encouraged everyone to work in DC, so props to the Blumenauer team for your hard work).

The take home message for me was not so much about the role of the president, but really about our personal role as consumers. Even, actually I think especially, during a time of great economic uncertainty it is crucial to support the positive aspects remaining in our food system and resist buying into cheap food. We need to convince producers that the bottom line is health and fairness, not cheap calories. Cheap food pays companies who only pay their workers enough to buy more cheap food and we see no progress.

As I try to demonstrate in previous and future posts there are ways to buy into better food by being aware of what you buy, what you cook, and the ways in which these two things can save you money in other areas even though, yes, you may in some cases have spent more on the actual food.

The more of us that do this the more of an impact it will have.

On that note, one more point made at this talk was the call to have the next president turn the White House lawn into a functional organic kitchen garden. More about that can be read here with TheWhoFarm folks and their wacky bus (Which I saw outside the Obama Office in my neighborhood and assumed it was a Burning Man piece)

So, with a eye towards all these issues, Vote with Your Fork at your next shopping trip and Vote on election day.

                          

I sliced them up, dipped the small slices in milk then patted them in half flour half corn meal with salt and pepper mixed in. Fried in olive oil, took maybe a minute.

They were so good there was no chance to photograph the result. This is to encourage you to try these for yourself.

                          

An emerging lesson on things like bread, pizza dough, and homemade pasta is that is takes half as long to make twice as much. I didn’t do this here, but if I had, it would have cheap, fast(er), and delicious.

                          

The reader’s question was originally posed to Michael Pollan and I assume was a response to this Earth Day article on the bothering to do ones part for the world by growing a garden. On the first read of this essay I thought it was a bit offensive and not as meaningful as he has the potential for. His use of a Chinese ‘evil twin’ to illustrate the futility of going green addresses the difficult fact that growing nations are becoming as limitless in their resource use as we are in the US but seems to shift the blame from our own communities’ contributions. His next door neighbor likely offsets any good his green efforts are making. And anyway it just isn’t helpful to think about your small individual efforts of conservation and sustainability compared to others who are living wastefully. Because forget evil twin, it’s way beyond a one to one canceling out- the negative lifestyles so outweigh the positive ones, it’s too overwhelming to even go there.

So Pollan was working to extol the virtues of growing a garden despite how insignificant it may seem. And this reader wonders what the practicality is of everyone growing their own food. As if we are there yet! Wouldn’t it be grand if this was an issue we had to deal with. There are lots of ways to rationalize yourself out of growing a garden- its hard work, you have no space, you don’t know how, it sounds boring…but not by wondering if its really so efficient for you to grow a garden, concerned that if everyone did it would be a wasteful use of their lawns.

Unlike the Freakenomics guys, I really don’t think the biggest concern with food should be efficiency. This is the kind of bottom-line thinking that got us into the wasteful and problematic system we are trying to reform today. The top concerns for food production should be health, flavor, and fairness. Using this reductionist analysis of the number of motions made towards the quantity of food we produce apparently works out that specialization and centralization is more efficient- but what does it mean for our society that most of us take no responsibility for what we eat all day? I don’t know that anyone would argue that this system of measuring success by the least number of motions required has gotten us anywhere desirable.

I’ve been thinking about these issues over the summer while creating our first substantial kitchen garden. While first starting out, heaving the dirt into a pile through the age-old practice of double digging under the hot and blue July sky I certainly felt inefficient. I am not great at shoveling and we are just learning the requirements of producing a reliable vegetable garden. But is it any more efficient for me to be sitting in my lawn chair reading a book eating tomatoes grown hundreds of miles away by someone who doesn’t have the opportunity for leisure? I could work on my tan and maybe later drive to the gym rather than wielding a shovel out in my yard. If we are measuring efficiency with the few bearing the bulk of work for the many it becomes necessary to weigh efficiency with fairness, with sharing the burden of everyone’s needs. I don’t really enjoy pulling the cat tongue textured green beans from awkward vines, but better me than anyone else right? Because I work in an office all day does that give me some kind of pass for not taking responsibility for my own food because I am not that good at it?

Specialization may work out on paper, but the fact that most of us do the same thing all day doesn’t make for the happiest and most fulfilled populous. I’m with Pollan that you should try growing some of your own food, because you can- for all that this ability means in today’s world.

                          

Here are two that turned out well. The first with a few things from the garden and the second have only vegetables exclusively grown in our backyard!

The zucs and snap peas are from the front yard. This was when our backyard was just getting going. Eggplant and bok choy from the one super cheap booth at the farmer’s market. Have you found this booth at your market? They don’t have a name or apprenticeships or goddess hippie girls working for them. It’s just a couple (though only one shows up to each market, they go to at least two per week, maybe more) and their teenage kid growing enough veggies to sell close to cost and make it work. They sell a lot of asian cooking greens and veggies perfect for stir fry. (including bitter melon which we thought we could handle putting in, but totally wimped out) We love them and always stock up there- checkout the simple booths at your market in case you have this bargain gem.

Let’s see, we’ve got the bok choy, eggplant, zuc, carrot, onion, snap peas, oyster mushrooms (also from the market at $3-$4 per pint, not exactly dirt cheap but also the only thing of much cost in this vegan dish except my next favorite…) cashews,

and tofu which was marinated and then broiled in a baking pan. The marinade came out before the tofu went in and helped to cook the veggies and stew up those cashews which are such a treat!

I resisted this, but a house guest insisted we be included with the shot of our produce.

Not an overflowing bounty but a little effort in the garden goes a long way in the pan. Pretty nominal cost for a dinner for three, with leftovers to spare.