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January 2009
Soup Peddler David Ansel: What’s in Your Fridge Friday?
David and his delivery drivers don’t pedal anymore, and they deliver more than just soup to more than 20 zip codes in Austin. The menu changes every week, and you have to order a week ahead. Confused? The FAQ on the Web site will help.
David was always interested in food and cooking. He says he really started getting into soup when he was living in group houses in his younger years. “There were always plenty of rotting vegetables on hand,” he says. After starting The Soup Peddler, he wrote a cookbook “The Soup Peddler’s Slow and Difficult Soups,” but he says he’s getting away from recipes lately. He says he’d rather empower people to cook on their own without depending on the exact measurements of someone else’s trial and error.
The Soup Peddler is doing better than it ever has, he says, but more important, he says he’s happy with where he’s at, working part time to stay at home with his daughter, Mia Rose, who will celebrate her first birthday next month.
What three things are always in your fridge? The first three that come to mind are lemons, scallions, and parsley, although now I keep my parsley in my garden and soon will my scallions too. Whenever people ask me how I can be a dad, business owner, and still cook for my family, I tell them if you have lemons, scallions, and parsley (and of course olive oil, salt and pepper), you’re never too far from a delicious dinner.
What’s your favorite condiment? What’s with the hardball questions? If you consider it a condiment, I always have a batch of sweet pickled cabbage brewing in the back of the fridge. Takes any sandwich to a whole nutha level. For the same reason I always keep pickled ginger too. Two hot sauces pretty much keep me covered, Crystal’s and Sriracha.
If you had to eat soup every day for the rest of your life, which soup would you eat? There’s this interesting soup that’s quite often cooked in a pressurized container, made from the roasted, hulled beans from a tropical plant. I serve it with sugar and half and half, or egg nog when available. So if I had to pick one, that’d be it. If I had another choice, I’d frankly have to go with Soup Peddler’s chicken noodle.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: What's in Your Fridge Friday
Top 10 food Twitter accounts you should follow
Some reputable chefs, bloggers, magazines/newspapers and food companies haven’t figured out that not following other people on Twitter or only sending out a feed of your content isn’t what Twitter is all about. Others — and not to point fingers, but especially food bloggers — treat it like a chat room, creating so much noise that I don’t find them worth following.
So here are my top 10 food follows on Twitter, followed by other accounts to check out if you’re into food.
@homesicktexan — Texas ex-pat living and blogging in New York
@thesmitten — Deb, the blogger behind Smitten Kitchen
@mattarmendariz — Food photographer, MattBites.com blogger
@davidlebovitz — American pastry chef blogging in Paris
@seriouseats — All-around great food blog
@foodimentary — Food trivia
@saintarnold — Houston-based brewer
@alisoncook — Houston Chronicle restaurant critic
@mary_siceloff — Food safety
@amandahesser — NYTimes food columnist, cookbook author
That’s my top 10. Agree? Disagree? Tell me about it in the comments. Here are the best of the rest…
More Texas tweeps to check out: @she_eats, @houston_foodie
Other food bloggers/writers, national: @steamykitchen, @gracepiper, @LDGourmet, @whiteonrice, @glutenfreegirl, @simplyrecipes, @garyvee, @PinchMySalt, @dianakuan, @amandahesser, @freezerburns, @freegan, @wastedfood, @offbeat_eating, @thestew, @slashfood, @ericburkett, @debpuchalla, @warojas, @amateurgourmet, @cookingwithamy, @gourmet,
Food insecurity, safety and politics: @foodsafetynews, @bmarler, @fanaticfood, @obamafoodorama, @mlfnow, @kerri_qunell, @lisa_goddard, @ddavenport
Permalink | Comments (7) | Categories: Hot Links
Win Pace salsas for your Super Bowl party
Plenty has been said around the Internet about the food associated with each of the teams and the host city, but what I want to hear from you all is what you look forward to at your Super Bowl party. Is it the beer or bowl of guacamole? Do you host a barbecue every year regardless of the teams? When I was a kid, my parents’ friends always hosted a food-themed Super Bowl party. One year, everyone would bring their favorite barbecue sauce, the next, a Mexican-themed potluck.
Congratulations, Sharron! I drew your name as the winner of the salsa package. You can pick it up at the lobby of the Statesman.
The biggest compost pile you’ve ever seen
A few weeks ago, I was touring Sunshine Community Gardens, the 4-acre plot near The Triangle that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and one of the gardeners there showed me this heaping compost pile. (She didn’t understand why I got all excited and started snapping photos of rotting food when I hadn’t taken a single photo of the lush winter gardens we’d been strolling through.)
I found out that twice a week, Whole Foods lets volunteers pick up crates of expired food to bring up to the community garden, where it then is mixed with clippings and leaves to create rich soil that the gardeners use. Workers from Casa de Luz, the macrobiotics place I wrote about last fall, bring Casa’s scraps to Sunshine.
Speaking of waste…
During a road trip earlier this month, we hit Jack in the Box for some grub. I’m having a hard time eating full-on fast food after reading Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” recently, so I ordered a salad (with crispy chicken nonetheless), but look at all the packaging! The salad was pretty tasty, even though the dressing was full of sugar and high fructose corn syrup, but it just seemed like such a waste to have all the nuts, crispy strips and such in their own packages.
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Chewing the fat, Food in your backyard
Learn to grow sprouts, make kombucha
Here’s the basic instructions for how to do it, but you can learn more, including recipes for sprout hummus and sprout veggie burgers, at a class McCleod is teaching at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 7.
To get started, you’ll need a glass jar and a handful of beans, lentils, rice, peas or seeds. If you’re using a smaller jar, such as the ones pictured above, you’ll only need about 1/4 cup of beans, etc., which will triple in size when sprouted. In the jar, soak the beans or grains in water (Cloud prefers unfiltered) for 12 hours. Then rinse them off and put them back in the jar, covered with a piece of cheesecloth, linen or cut-up old T-shirt (clean, please). You want the sprouts to breathe; in the photo above, McCleod was using a mason jar with the removable center. Put the jar in a cool, dark place and rinse again in 12 hours. Do this for 3 days.
Your sprouts are then ready to eat. You can dress them with a vinaigrette, use in place of chickpeas in hummus or toss in a salad. What you don’t eat, you can plant in your garden, McCleod says. They will stay good in the fridge for a week or more, but they taste the best when they are about 3 days sprouted.
So why grow sprouts in the first place? McCleod likens it to taking macaroni and cheese out of the box before cooking it. When you sprout quinoa, beans, seeds, etc. you release amino acids and the life energy that is dormant inside and double the nutritional value of whatever you’re eating, he says.
I’ve been raving about Buddha’s Brew, a locally made kombucha tea, but his pomegranate, blueberry and black cherry kombucha, made with cultures from his mother strain, right, is even tastier. He walked me through the steps, but I don’t dare try to tell you how to make it yourself in a few graphs. Fermentation isn’t hard, but you don’t want to mess it up.
E-mail McCleod at cloudmccleod AT yahoo.com to sign up. The classes costs $25 each, and you don’t have to take both. You’ll get a jar of kombucha culture to take home (the culture itself can cost $20) after the Sunday class.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Cooking
Docubloggers: What’s in Your Fridge Friday?
If you haven’t checked out “Docubloggers” online or on KLRU, you’re really missing out. It’s Austin’s version of Current TV, the channel started by Al Gore in 2005 that broadcasts viewers’ short documentaries, or video pods. Like Current, “Docubloggers,” which airs at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays on KLRU, consists of user- and staff-generated videos on a wide range of topics.
It’s amazing to see Austin through the eyes of people who call this place home.
The show, which launched in May 2007, combines short docublogs, usually three to five minutes, that reflect life in Central Texas and are submitted by people in the community and by producers Domenique Bellavia and Sean Cunningham and others at KRLU.
There have been a number of food-related docublogs, such as videos on the Luling Watermelon Thump, Nubian Queen Lola’s Cajun Kitchen and the Black Star Beer Co-op. Someone has started a series on food called Order Up, and Michelle Greer’s Tweet-up blood drive last year inspired a video. You can watch all of the docublogs online.
Dom and Sean oversee the project, guiding newbies on how to shoot a video and creating their own. The more perspectives the better, they say, and you don’t have to be a documentary filmmaker to participate. Submit your own slice of life in Austin here.
Dom and Sean flipped a coin to see whose fridge would get the spotlight today. Dom won.
What three things are always in your fridge? My fridge cannot live without soymilk, sriracha, and cheap beer. My boyfriend JJ loves his schlitz and natural light beer while I tend to favor fresh veggies and new chapter’s berry green powder. Our fridge is a unique reflection of his habit of going out to eat all the time (hence the to-go boxes) and my constant health food fascination.
What’s your favorite condiment? My favorite condiment is by far sriracha. I put it on pizza and pasta and get a nice kick that’s better then cayenne.
What’s your go-to late night snack? There’s nothing like staying up late and gorging out on carbs and feeling like a kid again with a big bowl of cereal and soymilk. My favorite cereals are cinnamon life and fruity pebbles - although I restrain myself from buying the fruity pebbles now :(
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The hottest dinner parties in town
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Chili, beer and coffee unite at Jo’s cookoff this weekend
Jo’s Coffee, 1300 S. Congress Ave., is hosting its third annual Chili Cold Blood Chili Cook Off on Saturday to let you show off your special creation. If you plan on competing, you have to register by today. If you just plan on eating, show up starting at noon to buy tasting tickets. Enjoy beer from 512 Brewery and music from Chili Cold Blood, Lucas Hudgins & the First Cousins, Woods Boss and Tina Rose and the Jo’s house band. Proceeds from the cook-off will go directly to SafePlace Austin.
Permalink | | Categories: Playing with your food
Owl Tree is keeping Austin caffeinated
To Bingaman, running a socially responsible coffee business means working as closely as possible with the single estates in South America, Africa and Southeast Asia that grow the coffee Kizer roasts. It also means hosting events, such as concerts and coffee tastings, to bring the coffee community together and educate baristas, who are answering more questions than ever from customers about coffee origin and ethos. Owl Tree coffee is available at shops including Dominican Joe’s, Cupprimo, Whole Foods and Blue Marble Java in Pflugerville, or you can buy coffee by the pound ($10-$12) at the roasting facility located in a former gas station at 3421 N. Interstate 35.
Permalink | | Categories: Drinks, Eating locally
Appetizers with Addie to celebrate Shiner’s 100th b-day
Now you can kill two birds with one stone. The Spoetzl Brewery, where every ounce of Shiner is brewed, has graciously offered to give a tour to an Appetizers with Addie group on Saturday, Feb. 7.
After the tour, we might get some grub at a local food stop or maybe Luling or Lockhart barbecue on the way back. Please RSVP on the Facebook event page so I can tell them how many to expect! (If you’re not a Facebooker, shoot me an e-mail.)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: On the road, Playing with your food
Planting my seeds of hope
I chose to sow.
The day before a man who has inspired more hope than any politician in my lifetime is sworn in as president, I sprinkled tiny seeds in rich dark soil, putting my faith in the sun, the dirt, the water and hundreds of thousands of years of botanical evolution. This isn’t the first time that Americans, surrounded by uncertainty, turned their eyes toward the heavens and put their hands in the earth in an attempt to grow their own food.
Victory gardens inspired and empowered Americans during the world wars, during which food insecurity hit nearly every home in America. For millions of Americans, food insecurity hasn’t gone away. Many on Monday gave their time at food pantries and shelters to ease the pain inherent in not knowing where your next meal will come from.
My family is blessed. Like the majority of Americans, we eat too much and buy too much, taking for granted the bounty of produce available at grocery stores every day of the year — and the car that we drive to go buy it.
And yesterday, I planted too much.
Eight romaine lettuce plants, 25 spinach plants, a dozen radishes and only God knows how many carrots. But as I found my rhythm, mixing in turkey compost with soil, smoothing the surface, poking holes with my finger and delicately dropping in the seeds, I realized that I wasn’t just growing food for me, my husband and our toddler. Before the last seed had gone in the ground, I was daydreaming about the look on the faces of my neighbors, coworkers and friends a few months from now when I show up with a basketful of bright red radishes, tall leafy lettuce, stubby carrots and rainbow-colored beets.
I have good reason to believe that my garden will grow, just as we all have good reason to believe that Barack Obama will lead our country, unite it in this unsettling era when just about everyone knows someone who is looking for work or, worse, who didn’t come home from a tour of duty in a foreign land.
During a quick stop by the plant nursery yesterday, I talked with the employee in charge of ordering and stocking the seed packets. The place was buzzing with energy, eager gardeners buying supplies so they could go home and work in their yards. “Everyone seems so hopeful right now,” I told her, alluding to the spring gardening fever that strikes every year. But before I noticed I had used the word unofficially trademarked by the Obama campaign, she explained that this level of hope is anything but ordinary. “I can’t keep seeds on the shelves,” she said, and pointed to an empty space where she said four hours before there were 15 spinach seed packets.
It seems I’m not the only one planting my hope in the ground.
Just like each seed, each volunteer, each eager viewer of today’s inauguration, Barack Obama is one person. However, like Mr. King, the now president has the gift of making us believe that even the smallest seed, the smallest selfless gesture will make a difference, even if it is just one gnarly carrot grown in your very own backyard.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: Food in your backyard
Author and critic Robb Walsh: What’s in Your Fridge Friday?
Walsh was the restaurant critic at the Austin Chronicle in the early 1990s, which is when he started the still-popular Austin Chronicle Hot Sauce Festival. He’s written for the culinary big boys — Gourmet, Saveur, Cooking Light — and voiced pieces for NPR. The Houston Press snagged him in 2000, where he still reviews restaurants and contributes to the Eating Our Words blog.
He’s also been known to cook a mean rabbit for visiting food bloggers.
Research for his most recent book took him all over the world, picking and shucking nearly every kind of oyster known to man. Instead of getting sick of them, he stocked his fridge with varieties including Apalachicolas, Totten Inlet Virginicas and Gulf giants from Espirtu Santo Bay.
Walsh will tell tales of his oyster-hunting adventures at 3 p.m. Sunday at BookPeople .
What three things are always in your (indoor) fridge? (winter) Saint Arnold’s beer, Boar’s Head natural casing all-beef frankfurters, and lots of mustard.
What’s your favorite way to eat oysters? On the half shell with a squeeze of lemon with a gin martini — three olives and a twist of lemon peel.
What’s your go-to late night snack? (winter) Liverwurst and Ritz crackers
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Bowling for turkeys, greasy fries
I can’t actually remember the last time I bowled a turkey — three strikes in a row — but my friend Chris did last night and my dad did when we went bowling in Missouri over the holidays. I can’t even remember my score from any of the four games I’ve bowled in the past month, but I can remember the delicious food. In Austin, The Dart Bowl has long been known more for its cheesy enchiladas and cheap beer nights than its bowling lanes, but as a rule, food at bowling alleys seems to taste better than it should.
Take, for instance, the fries and bacon cheeseburgers at both The Strike Zone in Aurora, Mo. (left), and Westgate Lanes in South Austin (right). Most fast food places can’t serve a burger with crispy bacon and piping hot fries, but these bowling alleys can. (In fact, I’d venture to say the burger and fries at the bowling alley in Aurora — pop. 7,000 — is probably the best in town.)
Baseball and football stadiums have figured it out, too. Sports are more enjoyable when accompanied with a cold beer (especially when served in bottles shaped like bowling pins) and greasy food.
Just don’t forget to eat with your non-bowling hand. Who knows what’s in those germ-filled finger holes.
What bowling food — and drinks for that matter — am I missing out on in Austin? I’m thinking about hosting an Appetizers with Addie at the Dart Bowl to check out those enchiladas.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Eating out, Playing with your food
Two boxes of dirt of a house full of hope
It’s good to have friends with trucks. In my case, my editor, who balked when I told him I was going to pay $70 to have dirt delivered to my house for our first-ever raised bed garden.
Ian put together two 4’ by 4’ beds, the materials for which he bought at our local hardware story for about $60. (We also needed a hose, sprayer, gloves and shovel. By themselves, the wood and screws for the beds cost about $20.)
On Sunday, we picked up a cubic yard of Hill Country blend from the Natural Gardener, which cost $44, including tax. A cubic yard easily filled the boxes; we have enough left over to top off some house plants and create a small herb garden out of an extra container.
Sunday was such a beautiful day and we were so enamored with our new beds that we fawned over them all afternoon, measuring and marking the square feet with twine and tacks.
Our backyard isn’t filled with squirrels or rabbits — yet — but to keep both the kid and the dog out of the boxes of dirt, we fashioned a cover out of some leftover plastic netting that our old neighbors left behind.
So, all told, we’ve spent about $140 on the raised beds ($60 for supplies, $44 for soil, $35 for seeds). I thought I’d get a chance to plant some seeds and shallots on Sunday, but we ran out of daylight, an unfortunate byproduct of gardening in winter. Now, I’m waiting until after the big freeze on Thursday night.
A funny side effect of starting a garden from scratch: Many of our friends and neighbors are catching the grow-your-own-food bug. We’re all passing around the same copy of “Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew and excitedly talking about things like rotting compost and vermiculite.
Are you growing food this year? Have you already put plants in the ground? Renee of Renee’s Roots sent me to this Texas A&M site for a schedule of when to plant what.
Permalink | Comments (8) | Categories: Food in your backyard
Want to learn more about macrobiotics?
If you are thinking about how to rejuvenate your diet this January, check out this free lecture on Wednesday at Casa de Luz off South Lamar Boulevard and Barton Springs Road. If you need a primer on macrobiotics, check out this story I wrote in November.
From the Natural Epicurean:
How food affects your health and emotions
Wednesday, January 14, 7 to 9 p.m.
In addition to the free lecture at 7 p.m., our free cooking demonstration this month will be presented by advanced student Carlos Moctezuma. He will be teaching us how to make macrobiotic Mexican Mole. Please join us at 6 p.m. in the Cielo Room at Casa de Luz just before the lecture.
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The best bread you’ll ever bake
OK. Let me rephrase. This recipe by Jeff Basom, the chef at Bastyr University in Washington state, makes the best bread I’ve ever baked.
I haven’t been baking my entire life; I started with recipes in the beautifully crafted Enchanted Broccoli Forest by Mollie Katzen when I was in college, and although I loved the idea of baking my own bread, I couldn’t find a recipe that actually worked well enough for me to forgo buying loaves at the grocery store.
Fast forward a few years. I’m so enamored with Basom’s bread that I’ve already made it half a dozen times since my friend Shannon passed the recipe — from her copy of “Feeding the Whole Family” by Cynthia Lair — to me in November. The bread freezes well and even though it requires the extra step of cooking, blending and fermenting grains, the texture you get in the end makes it worth it. Plus, by making it with quinoa, you can add protein to what is usually just a carbohydrate-filled loaf.
Here’s the original recipe. My own tweaks and tips are in bold.
Homemade Whole Grain Bread
Starter dough:
2 cups cooked whole grains (rice, quinoa, millet, barley, etc.)
2 cups water
1/4 cup cold-pressed vegetable oil (cold-pressed if you have it. Don’t stress about it if you don’t.)
1 Tbsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. dry yeast
1 cup whole wheat flour
Blend grains and water in a blender or food processor or with a hand immersion blender until creamy; pour into a large mixing bowl. Mix in oil, salt and yeast. Add enough flour to make the mixture look like thick cooked cereal. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel and leave for 12-24 hours at room temperature. Once the dough is fermented, it can be refrigerated for up to a week before using to make bread.
To make the bread:
1/4 cup sweetener (such as barley malt, maple syrup, agave nectar, honey or molasses)
2 cups whole wheat flour
3-4 cups unbleached white flour or whole wheat flour
After the 12-24 hours, add sweetener to starter dough and stir. Add whole wheat flour, stirring it in. As you add the white flour, the mixture will be too difficult to stir. Knead it by hand in the bowl and continue to add white flour. When dough is less sticky, transfer it to a floured surface and knead 10-15 minutes or until dough is soft and springy, but not too sticky. Wash and dry mixing bowl and oil it. Place dough in bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
(This is where I deviate. First, Basom’s technique:) Lightly oil two loaf pans. Divide dough in half. Punch down and loaf the dough in the following way (children love to help with this part): Flatten half of the dough in a square on your working surface. Press all of the air out by vigorously slapping Fold two corners into the center and press again. Fold the top point into the body of the dough an press it down again. Pick up the dough with both hands and begin rolling it into itself. This stretches the outside of the dough and creates a tight rolls with no air pockets. Seal the seam by flattening it with the heel of your hand. Shape the dough into a nice loaf and place in the pan seam side down. Repeat with the other half of dough.
Here’s what I do after the dough has risen the first time: After the dough has risen, punch down and divide in two. Knead slightly on a floured surface and add any herbs or garlic. (I made loaves this weekend with rosemary from our living Christmas tree crushes with minced garlic and olive oil.) Shape dough into a loaf and put into a lightly oiled loaf pan. Repeat with the other dough.
To bake the bread:
1 tsp. water
1 tsp. barley malt, maple syrup, honey or agave nectar
1 tsp. cold-pressed vegetable oil (any oil will work)
1/4 tsp. sea salt
if you want a harder crust, try:
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. water
1 tsp. oil
pinch of salt
Mix water, syrup, oil and salt (or egg, water, oil and salt) in a small cup or bowl and coat the top of each loaf with this mixture. Cover and let rise in pans for 45-60 minutes until the loaves have doubled in size. Test the bread for readiness. If you press the dough and it wants to stay in, but still has a little spring, it’s ready to bake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 45-50 minutes. Bread will come out of pans after 5 minutes of cooling. Let it cool 30 minutes before slicing.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Cooking, Recipes
A presidential treat from Butters Brownies
To represent the “country’s patriotism and unity,” the brownie includes cranberries, blueberries and white chocolate and will be available for as long as Obama is in office, Butters only half-joked over the phone this afternoon.
Some of the proceeds from the brownie will go to Feeding America, the domestic hunger relief organization formerly known as America’s Second Harvest, and the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas.
You can buy the Obama brownie online and at Live Oak Market, Bluebonnet Food Market and Embellish Nails and Boutique.
Tonight just so happens to be the Obama brownie’s coming out party at Irie Bean on South Lamar Boulevard at 7:30 p.m. Join Mary Louise and fellow brownie lovers for food, drinks and music to celebrate the new brownie and the soon-to-be-inaugurated president.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Categories: Desserts
We want your restaurant recession busters
Some restaurant deals are well-known: Freddie’s free brisket during weekday happy hour, half-priced oysters and champagne at Parkside on Wednesday and two-for-1 burgers at Hut’s on Wednesdays.
We’re gathering all the restaurant deals we can for an upcoming story. Do you have a favorite standing special? Shoot an e-mail to Mike Sutter at msutter@statesman.com with your favorite deals.
Permalink | | Categories: Eating out
Casserole Queens: What’s in Your Fridge Friday?
Casseroles never really stopped being cool. Austinite Sandy Pollock realized this one Christmas a few years back and, over cocktails with her longtime friend and former coworker Crystal Oakes, decided to start Casserole Queens, a casserole delivery service. Not even three years after the company started and the Casserole Queens have already caught the attention of Bobby Flay, who competed against them in an as-yet-unaired episode of “Throwdown with Bobby Flay” last year at Speakeasy. (Sandy says the episode is currently slated for April, but you know how quickly tv production schedules can change.)
The Queens are still going strong, with orders coming in from all over the Austin area. Customers can choose from about 20 casseroles, including breakfast and vegetarian dishes and, of course, King Ranch casserole, and place an order online. The casseroles are delivered the following weeks by the two smiling chefs, who make deliveries in 1950s attire.
From Sandy: What three things are always in your fridge? Hot sauce (the hotter the better), string cheese and cream (for my coffee)
What’s your favorite condiment? Jalapeños (pickled). I always have them on hand.
What’s your favorite casserole? I’m a South Texas girl and for me the casserole that makes me feel the happiest is King Ranch Casserole that originated from the King Ranch is South Texas. We make the best!
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: What's in Your Fridge Friday
How much does it cost to start a backyard garden?
Garden naysayers use the cost of soil, seeds, water, equipment and time as an argument against starting a backyard garden. Since it has been years since I gardened — and I wasn’t the one paying for the supplies when I did — I didn’t have a clue what it would cost to start up our own raised bed garden.
Prompted by Renee of Renee’s Roots to go ahead and get started on these beds (don’t you just love Texas’ year-round growing season?), Ian and I made a quick morning run to the Natural Gardener today.
A very nice employee helped me figure out that in order to fill one 3’ by 10’ by 8” raised bed, we’d need about a cubic yard. One cubic yard (about 1400 pounds) of the Natural Gardener’s Hill Country soil mix is about $40, but to deliver it costs a whopping $70. She told me I could fill 20 70-pound bags myself for free, but I quickly decided that it was worth the extra money to deliver it.
Because we plan on planting lettuce, carrots, parsley and several other cool weather vegetables, we bought $35 worth of seed packets (14 vegetable and herb packets, 3 flower packets and a handful of shallots).
Once you figure in the tax, we’ve spent a little more than $150 on the garden so far. Not too bad, considering the majority of the cost is for building the beds, which you can use year after year.
We haven’t bought the lumber or screws yet to build the beds, and we still need a shovel and garden gloves.
The soil gets delivered on Saturday. Hopefully we’ll have the seeds of our first home-grown food in the ground by Monday.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Food in your backyard
Much ado about composting
So I’ve resolved to waste less food this year. In addition to meal planning and leftover eating, composting will be a big part of keeping food we don’t eat out of landfills. Here is a three-minute primer on starting your own compost pile:
Two months ago, we didn’t have a backyard. Apartment living not only means you don’t have an easy place to compost, you also don’t have access to the single stream recycling program the city offers. We used to take out a bag of trash a day. (An entire bag of trash a day for three people is unacceptable — even if one of them is in diapers — but we couldn’t find the space to store the recyclables, which, unlike the city’s program, had to be separated and couldn’t include glass.)
Now that we have a big blue recycling bin out front and a brown cage of compost out back, it takes three or four days to fill up a trash bag, diapers and all. We’ve already cut our contribution to area landfills by nearly 75 percent.
Good news for apartment dwellers, however. The downtown farmers’ market at Fourth and Guadalupe Streets is now offering a compost bin on Saturday mornings for people living in apartments or for those who don’t want to make a compost pile themselves. You can bring in your compostable materials (see list below) and the market will give the garden goodness to one of the farmers, who will then use it to help grow more food.
Here are more tips on getting your compost started:
Don’t compost: feces, human or animal (unless you’re like my friends in Missouri, who have a very large, very hot compost pile), bones, diseased plants, chemically treated wood or sawdust
Compost, with care: meat, dairy (Meat, dairy and greasy food items are more likely to attract critters, but a little meat or cheese here or there isn’t going to be a big deal. Animals are probably going to be sniffing out your compost anyway.)
Keep your pile moist by adding water. Ideally, you want the material to feel like a wrung-out sponge. Water is necessary for decomposition, plus it attracts worms, which are a compost pile’s best friend.
To turn or not to turn your pile: My professional composter friends in Missouri don’t turn their massive beds. They are trying to generate hot beds (more than 130 degrees) and want to keep the bacteria colonies intact. Many backyard composters, however, swear by aerating their pile every so often, some as often as every few days.
My next step is to get a hold of a compost activator (alfalfa meal, barnyard manure, bonemeal, cottonseed meal or blood meal) and maybe a few worms to help get things going.
Renee Studebaker has lots more composting and gardening advice on her blog, Renee’s Roots. I’ll be chronicling my composting and gardening adventures here on Relish Austin, but she’s the one with the green thumb and expert advice.
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In a crowded kitchen, Food Network stuck on the line
Interesting statistics on the biggest food Web sites today. Food Network, which was once the granddaddy of food Web sites, has fallen slightly behind Allrecipes.com in unique visitors. ComScore, which tracks online traffic, said that food sites attracted about 45.6 million unique visitors in September, a 10 percent increase from the same month in 2007.
Allrecipes, which boasts nearly 300,000 recipes, drew more than 8 million of those visits, a sliver more than the longtime leader, Food Network.
It seems the economy is pushing people back into the kitchen and therefore online for inspiration on what — or how — to cook.
Where do you go to find recipes? Do you search by ingredient or by recipe? I find myself doing a bit of both, and instead of going to a specific Web site, I generally do a Google search, with mixed results. I’m pretty surprised that About.com is up there; the (un)usability on that Web site makes me crazy.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Chewing the fat
Bastrop farmers’ market adds Tuesday hours
Starting tomorrow, the Bastrop 1832 Farmers Market will offer a Tuesday farmers’ market in addition to the regular Saturday market. The Tuesday market will go from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. (Saturday market hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.) Both markets are at 1302 Chestnut St. in downtown Bastrop. For the winter months, the market has moved into a metal building in the back lot of 1302 Chestnut.
Cool weather crops such as mustard greens, Chinese cabbage, broccoli, spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard, salad mixes (spicy and mild), radishes and snow peas are now available, say market organizers. Bradshaw Farm is also selling vine-ripened greenhouse tomatoes and peppers.
Permalink | | Categories: Eating locally
You say poppy seed loaf, I say moosebread
I’m not sure the origin of moose mania on my mom’s side, but it’s likely to be my 6’4” uncle (her younger brother, the only person — besides his two strapping offspring — above 6’ in the whole clan). Predictably, he was a football player in high school, but he was one of the few who stepped out of the locker room to play piccolo in the marching band. (He later turned down football scholarships to study dance.)
Uncle Moosie, as he became known to, led moose-calling contests and gave out moose ride on his back when the family would get together. He’s still Uncle Moosie, but now he’s giving moose rides to my little one instead of me.
Moosebread is a favorite any time of the year. My grandmother, GaGa, says it freezes well; I’ll add that it travels well, too. She wrapped up a half loaf for our long drive back to Texas. I nearly ate the whole thing.
Moosebread
3 cups flour
2 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 Tbsp. poppy seeds
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
3 eggs
1 1/8 cup oil
1 1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. butter flavoring
1 1/2 tsp. almond flavoring
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
For glaze:
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp. almond flavoring
1/2 tsp. butter flavoring
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Mix flour, sugar, salt, poppy seeds and baking powder in a bowl. In another bowl, mix eggs, oil, milk, vanilla and flavorings. Combine with dry ingredients until smooth. Pour into greased pans and bake at 350 degrees for 60 minutes. While the bread is baking, mix together ingredients for glaze in a small bowl. When the bread is done and still hot, poke small holes in the top of the loaf with a fork and pour glaze over. Cool before serving.
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Guest Blogger: Beth Goulart of Texas Locavore
Beth Goulart of Texas Locavore has eggs on her mind as she looks ahead to food in 2009.
The Chicken Comes First
2009 may be the year of the Rat according to traditional astrology in China, but in my Texas backyard, it’s going to be the year of the chicken. I’m looking forward to the freshest, localest eggs ever in 2009.
I started doing homework back in July, when Boggy Creek Farm’s Carol Ann Sayle gave a talk about raising chickens out at Natural Gardener. Start out with small numbers, she advised, but get at least three chickens, as that’s the minimum number it takes to make a flock, which is key for these very social birds. I took pages of notes and came away inspired, then only got more excited when my mother-in-law gave me a book called, “Keeping Chickens: The Essential Guide to Enjoying and Getting the Best from Chickens.” Chock-full of everything from breed information to instructions for crafts involving eggs, the book is a joy to read. “Chickens quite literally add ‘life’ to your life, providing a source of joy and relaxation after a stressful day,” begins the introduction. How could anyone NOT want chickens? (Well, I suppose being alektorophic — afraid of chickens, I learned on page 6 — could be one explanation.)
As January’s chill settles in this year, I’ll be making drawings of coops and listing possible chick names. In spring, after the passing of any threat of cold too severe for new chicks to endure, we’ll bring some little ones home. Then, if we’re lucky, before year’s end I’ll triumphantly call out to my husband to start a pot boiling with water and a splash of vinegar. The best poached-egg breakfast starts with the very freshest eggs.
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Guest Blogger: James Bickham of James Eats
Time for James Bickham of James Eats to answer: Food-wise, what are you looking forward to in 2009?
So much food to eat. With luck, I will consume my weight in barbecue several times over, discover a new cuisine, and master the art of pastry making—or at least eat better than I did in 2008. I don’t know the future, but those are my predictions and desires. In order to get a better picture of what is to come, I look to the recent past.
There has been a steady trend in my eating habits during this past year. More vegetables are making a daily appearance on my plate. As a result, I have had less moments of food-induced agony from overeating. With less immediately regrettable decisions, I have become a happier person.
My policy used to be if something was “awesome,” it went down the hatch. This policy still stands, I’ve just changed the definition of “awesome.” I’ve also stopped ragging on vegetarians. Must be something with getting older and wiser—or something like that. The truth is that I’m becoming more mature in diet and opinions concerning food and people, and I like it. If there’s anything to look forward to in the new year, it’s having a better understanding and outlook on the world around you, and my world happens to be centered around food.
I was a contender. Burgers topped with hot dogs. Frito pies topped with corn dogs. Nowadays, it’s more like kale and squash with grilled fish. What happened, you ask. Informed choice? I would like to think so, but the simple truth is that it hurt. I quit smoking for the same reason. Cigarettes are great, but they hurt. And they kill you, which hurts even more. Chili does the same.
Pain fostered a sense of mortality in my daily choices. My body was lecturing me on personal bioethics by retaliation. And if you can’t beat them, join them.
Enter days without tons of red meat or globs of cheese. I’ve changed the definition of “awesome” to things that my body wants: greens, beans, squash, beets, sweet potatoes, whole grains, and a ton of fruit. Meat and cheese didn’t disappear, they just got a makeover. Cheap cheddar transformed into a ripe chevre and the hamburger into grassfed steak and local poultry. It doesn’t take much chevre to satisfy, and the price of organic and grassfed meat keeps my consumption down. I’m eating more like an adult.
Remember when your parents first left you alone in the house? What did you eat? Broccoli and granola? If so, you’re weird. I ate macaroni and cheese and Lucky Charms. Things didn’t change for a while, but I seem to be growing up. It has nothing to do with age; my father still binge-eats ice cream and cereal each night after everyone has gone to bed. I actually like “healthy” foods these days and am starting to open up on a lot of issues.
Dating two lactose-intolerant vegetarians with a dislike of eggs (honorary vegans) softened me in my campaign against those who didn’t utilize their canines. Now, any annoyance at vegetarians stems from having to change a dinner party idea from a literal sausage fest or from preachy vegetarians or vegans. The latter people are annoying because of their personality, not their individual preferences.
Individual preferences? Who is this wimp? We’re omnivores, and vegetarians aren’t any fun!
Oh, how the young act. It’s like I’m looking back to teenage James and remembering how he viewed someone my age, or, gasp, older. Maybe teenagers wouldn’t be so angst ridden if they realized that your opinions might change because of added knowledge and experience, not because you have dulled or sold out.
My outlook has changed because I made an excellent mistake: I became curious about where my food came from. I always said that in order to enjoy food, you must not think. This was in reference to the fact that your hamburger was a cute and mooing cow before it was shot in the head with a bolt gun, or that that tasty rabbit has little cutesy wootsy eyes. After reading “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” I began researching the origin of what was on my plate. It was rarely a pretty picture. Each meal presents a different story with many of the same plot lines: Chemicals, unnatural agriculture, and even more chemicals. People wonder why we get diseases. It just takes one look at our food industry to realize that we treat our bodies horribly.
I’m not riding on some moral high horse. I still eat conventional meat. Torchy’s tacos are simply too delicious to pass up. And so is that goat at Teji in Round Rock. But more and more of my choices are becoming increasingly informed and responsible. The most recent step was joining a CSA. I get to help support a local farm, eat veggies I would avoid previously, and am forced to eat at home more nights. It’s a win-win situation: healthy farmer, healthy me, healthy wallet.
All of this adds up to an improving future. Veggies and understanding? I know it sounds pretty lame and boring, but it’s starting to look better and better. As it turns out, growing up isn’t as bad as it seems.
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