There are days when I literally feel like I’ve been beaten. This action alert from the Center for Food Safety about food labeling flew in under my radar. Congress is scheduled to vote on it March 2. Apparently there is a lot of support for it (read, a lot of money donated to campaign coffers by Big Food).

I just don’t understand why politicians do the things they do. It is disheartening that they have such little regard for consumers and small business people. The only thing that we can do is kick them out in November and try to reverse the damage they have done to our country.
URGENT! Stop the Rollback of State Food Safety and Labeling Laws!

A bill is pending in the United States House of Representatives that would eliminate dozens of food safety and labeling laws. The bill, H.R. 4167, the National Uniformity for Food Act, does this by stripping away the power of states to regulate food safety.

This bill is set to hit the House floor for a vote this Thursday, March 2nd – please contact your representatives TODAY and urge them to vote NO on HR 4167!

Under the guise of promoting “uniformity” of food safety and labeling laws in the U.S., the bill requires all state food safety laws to be identical to the requirements of the Federal Food and Drug Administration. If the FDA has not passed a regulation on a food threat, then all state regulations on that threat would immediately be voided. And, since the states regulate many food safety issues not covered by the FDA, many food safety laws will be voided and replaced with no law at all. For example, the bill would preempt Alaska’s newly passed law to label genetically engineered fish and California’s Proposition 65, a very effective law that requires labeling of food and consumer products that contain substances known to cause cancer or reproductive harm. It would also threaten state laws governing the safety of milk and shellfish. The “uniformity” to be achieved by the bill is in many instances the uniform absence of food safety regulation that the food industry seeks.

If this bill passes, not only will hundreds of current state food safety laws face being overturned, future state food safety and labeling initiatives could be impossible to put in place.

CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE NOW AND URGE THEM TO VOTE NO ON H.R. 4167!

You can also call the US House of Representatives main line to contact your representative by phone (202) 224-3121

Damn it, why is it too much to ask to be informed about what is in our food? And everybody knows that you can’t trust the FDA anymore.

Others that oppose this bill, according to the CFS: “The bill is opposed by the Association of State Departments of Agriculture, the Association of Food and Drug Officials, the National Conference of State Legislators and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture.”

Today I celebrate the first birthday of …slowly she turned. It has been an educational and surprising experience for me. I never guessed how deep this rabbit hole was until I landed with a thump on the bottom.

I’d been on the Internet with a constantly evolving personal web site since around 1997, when I first started taking classes. I was intrigued with the idea of blogging but not savvy enough to figure it out until around the beginning of February 2005, when I read an article about blogging and googled “Blogspot.” Before then I had occasionally updated an “About Us” page on my web site and archived the old entries into a page titled Web Log. Goes to show you that I had the right idea but the wrong information.

I read a few blogs for the first time, and I thought that it was a great organizational tool. The social aspect of it was off my radar screen. I had been known to sneer privately at people who hung out on discussion boards and chat rooms. Then, I set up an anonymous blog, and within two minutes I got my first comment. This was the set-up for some serious disillusionment, since I wouldn’t get another one for two months! Yes, I was hooked and fished in.

That blog was fictional and I abandoned it after I had gotten what I needed from it. I was under an enormous amount of stress about a situation that couldn’t be remedied at the time (or described even now), and my minister suggested that I throw myself into my hobbies to deal with the anxiety. I was taking a class called “The Meaning of Gardens” in which I was to work on a garden project and make a presentation about it. Blogging seemed like a great way to document it, so I wrote my first post introducing my focus, from which I’ve veered off occasionally, but I think I’ve stayed on track pretty well!

The themes of late February, March, and April were dealing with major anxiety, better living through trash picking, seed starting and gardening lessons learned. At this point, I was still isolated and I wasn’t exploring much of the rest of the blog world. I was blissfully doing what I needed to do without a lot of awareness of it being public and this blog served much more as a diary.

In May, my stressful situation had been resolved and I began venturing out. I became aware of an audience and this began to change my writing. For one thing, I went back and deleted and changed some of my earlier entries. I did a little series on going to John C. Campbell Folk School. I was surprised to have been discovered by the Shu and even more stunned at the concept of Blogshares, which still blows my mind. I started reading the local blogs for the first time. I began to get more serious about energy conservation and supporting local businesses.

In June, I really got on board. I don’t think that I will ever be able to top my post on Lake Waccamaw. I added a team blog to the Slow Food Piedmont Triad site. I posted to the Tar Heel Tavern for the first time. I joined the Greensboro Bloggers meet-up group.

July brought this post which still gets a LOT of hits and explains the title - nyuk, nyuk, nyuk. I also did the 100 Things meme, which I think is a really worthwhile exercise for anyone. I waxed rhapsodic about butterbeans.

Sandy and I enjoyed visiting Charlottesville, Virginia and Monticello in August. I started writing more about food politics.

September was the month of a taste of Floyd, planting fruit trees, and the birth of my obsession with labeling.

In October, I had some fun with a particular guy in drag. I began another blog just for archiving my food posts, but focusing on soups and stews called The Mock Turtle’s Song. (Update 2-07: now included in this blog under Recipes.)

This November post titled Sustainable vs. Organic was inspired by the shameful National Organic Standard changes. We celebrated Buy Nothing Day. This post about farming and Daddy makes me sad and happy at the same time.

Since I received a new camera from my husband for Christmas, I did a short series on our after-holiday trip to Sunset Beach. I also wrote up a little something about my cousin Joseph Mitchell.

The winter doldrums began in December and continued into January and February. But I did set up my studio. Broccoli Leek Soup was my best soup ever. There was some verbal vinegar at the beginning of February while I regained my focus, then the healing began.

In the past year, I’ve made more new friends that I would have ever dreamed, learned more about politics that I actually wanted to know, and strengthened my personal philosophy by finding others who share it. Your support has slowly turned me from a constant inward gaze to a more enlightened and friendlier world vision, and I thank you all for being a part of this healing journey.

And, as my special birthday gift to you, I am going to Capitalize All My Blog Titles from now on. But, the ellipsis stays, I will continue to gleefully split multitudes of infinitives, and I promise to begin a healthy percentage of my sentences with “and” and “but.”

Sage gave me the inspiration for this one.

Turnip Green Soup with Navy Beans and Bacon

5 slices bacon, cut into 1″ pieces
1 small sweet yellow onion, chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
6 c chopped turnip greens, with diced roots
6 c chicken stock
3 c cooked navy beans including liquid
1-2 t salt
Pepper
Tabasco sauce to taste

In the bottom of a large soup pot, cook the bacon pieces until crisp. Add the onions and cook until soft. Add the garlic and cook for a minute or two more.

Add the turnips, stock, and beans and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 2-3 hours. Stir in salt and pepper and hot sauce, if desired.

notes:
Preparing the turnip greens - I found this to be the worst part, because I pulled mine from the garden and they were full of dirt and straw. It will be quicker if you buy yours already cleaned, but you miss the wonderfulness of eating your homegrown food. Strictly speaking, I didn’t actually plant these…but it amounts to the same feeling.

You’ll want to donate the yellowed or damaged leaves to your compost pile, and chop up the rest of the leaves. Peel and dice the roots. I stripped the leaves off the stems, but that is probably not necessary. Just one of my little compulsions.

I’ve been on a dry bean kick lately, since I noticed that it is very easy to prepare dried beans. You just have to plan ahead. I put 1 cup of dry navy beans and 3 cups of water in a covered pot last night to soak. Then I drained them this morning, put them back in the pot with 4 cups of fresh water, and simmered them for two hours while I went about my business. Most of the water was absorbed and I was left with about 3 cups of cooked beans including a small amount of the cooking liquid.

Canned beans are great in a pinch, but dry beans are cheaper, use much less packaging when bought in bulk, look pretty stored in glass jars, and like the poem says, they are good for your heart.

According to a hand-out from Deep Roots Market, beans freeze well, so it is a time saver to cook more than you need and store the extra in small portions in the freezer to add to soups and stews.

If you want it to be more “soupy,” add more stock. Some recipes I looked at called for half-and-half.

sources:

• Applegate Farms bacon, onion, garlic, navy beans - Deep Roots Market

• Turnip greens and roots - courtesy of whoever planted my community garden row then didn’t renew their lease
• Chicken stock - from my freezer, made with vegetable trimmings and soup bones from Back Woods Family Farm

Okay, here’s the back forty update for this weekend.

As much as I would have liked to enjoy working in my garden in the nice weather yesterday, what I did instead was to run around trying to get all my necessary tasks done so that I could enjoy my sabbath today. So today I worked in weather about twenty degrees colder with a stiff breeze. Sometimes it pays to be flexible.

In the middle bed that I have designated as my Monticello, Jr. garden, I planted the following today:

“Blue Prussian Pea (Pisum sativum) - Seeds of the Blue Prussian pea, named after the deep greenish-blue pigment so popular in the early 19th century, were sent to Thomas Jefferson by his favorite nurseryman, Bernard McMahon, and planted in the Monticello Kitchen Garden in 1809. The Blue Prussian can be grown fresh peas, or else dried and prepared in soups.”

It seems to be prudent to save some of these peas for seed since you get so few in a packet. Hope I get enough to make a pot of each kind AND save some seed. The Marrowfat peas are not up yet, so I may just be whistling in the wind.

I planted some of the Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage and Early Curled Siberian Kale directly in the same bed. These are coming up in my seedling trays indoors as well.

Other Monticello Jr. seeds:

“Spotted Aleppo Lettuce (Lactuca sativa ‘Spotted Aleppo’) - This 18th-century Romaine lettuce was sold by Philadelphia seedsman, Bernard McMahon, in 1804. The leaves are speckled with a bright reddish-brown variegation that is highly ornamental. Spotted Aleppo is best sowed in very early spring, or in late summer for a fall and winter crip. Sow seed directly in good garden soil in a sunny exposure, and thin seedlings to 8″ to make room for the large, loose heads.”

“Tennis-ball Lettuce (Lactuca sativa ‘Tennis-ball’) - Tennis-ball was among Thomas Jefferson favorite lettuce varieties. He noted that ‘it does not require so much care and attention’ as other types. Tennis-ball, the parent of our modern Boston race of lettuces so popular today, was first sold by American seedsmen late in the 18th century.

“Tennis-ball is distinctive for its delicate pale-green leaves which form a loose head 55 days from sowing. Plant seeds early in the spring, as soon as the ground can be worked, in rich, well-prepared soil. Tennis-ball is also suitable for fall crops that may be planted in late summer. Thin seedlings to six inches apart.”

“Early Blood Turnip-rooted Beet (Beta vulgaris cv.) - Jefferson regularly planted Red, Scarlet, and White beets in the Monticello Kitchen Garden, as well as the coarse Scarcity Root, or Mangel-Wurzel, in his fields for livestock. Early Blood was a popular 19th century beet noted for its deep blood-red, remarkably sweet and tender flesh. Sow 1/2″ deep in early spring or 1/4″ deep in late summer. Prefers even moisture, moderate temperature, deep garden loam, full sun.”

I wasn’t planning on it, but after cooking this turnip green and bean soup today, I might have to plant some turnips. Damn, it’s good.

I went out to my community garden row after work this afternoon, with the intention of planting a few more seeds, harvesting some more turnips, and watering it. However, I found that the water was turned off. I didn’t worry about this last Friday when I planted seeds, because I knew that wet weather was right around the corner. I wouldn’t have planted those seeds if I had known that I could only access water there M-F, 8-5 until the end of March. Now I have to decide whether to haul my own water out there and whether to plant any more until April.

By the way, I simmered the turnip greens I picked last weekend for a long time with some Liquid Smoke, and that was some of the finest eating I’ve had in a while. They were delicate and very mild - silky in texture. I was very pleasantly surprised. So I am a turnip green convert now.

I stopped by the local hardware/garden store on the way back to find that they were out of topsoil and potting soil until at least next weekend. So I have the choice of waiting or visiting a big box store for these items. I did get another bale of straw, though, so I’ll probably throw my energy into newspapering and mulching.

Something is wrong with Sloopy, the half-feral cat from next door. She is always a mess - a long-haired cat who gets so matted up during the winter she looks like she is dragging multiple tails. Now she smells horrible. I think that she must have diarrhea and it is all over her. I hope it is not a disease that she can pass on to Mama Kitty and Miss Peanut. She has a separate bowl and I have been feeding her at dinner since we moved in here. It was easier than trying to run her off.

I headed to Deep Roots, where I tabbed newsletters for an hour and a half and bought a few groceries. I’ll have to get in another 2 1/2 hours this weekend if I am to get my 10% discount next week. SJ was there and I tried to help her troubleshoot her web project, but Adobe Go Live is awful. I don’t know why anybody uses it. It inserts so much unnecessary code, and I’m an old-timey HTML programmer. I always enjoy talking to SJ though. She is another Joss Whedon fan. I haven’t watched the other shows he produced - just Firefly.

Sandy and I watched the Office Special (British version) last night and the extra features tonight. That was a really great show, even though it made me cringe constantly.

Then I began looking over my blog beginning with February 2005. It’s hard to tell (because I entered some old journal entries from my web site under the dates when I originally wrote them) but the first blog anniversary of …slowly she turned is Feb. 27. I thought I might do a bit of a retrospective, as I’ve seen others do, and so far I’ve noticed two things - I’m in considerably better mental and emotional shape now, and I have learned a lot about organic gardening, local food, and conscious consumerism since then.

But that’s for later. I’m hitting the hay so that I can get lots of stuff done tomorrow.

Can you believe it? Somebody stole the HOUSE NUMBERS off my house. Oh, man… They were probably the only outside item that was still original to the house. I don’t know for sure, but they looked old - they were black on ivory ceramic tile set in a metal frame. Nothing fancy, but they looked antique.

It just goes to show that people will take anything that is nailed down, too.
%$^@#&*!

All of my tomato seedlings are coming up now, including the ‘Pomme d’Amour’ tomatoes that I bought at Monticello. Here’s the history on these seeds from the packet:

“‘Pomme d’Amour’ Tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicon) - Thomas Jefferson documented planting this relatively unfamiliar vegetable in his kitchen garden from 1809, the first summer of his retirement, until his death in 1826. In his Notes on the State of Virginia, 1782, Jefferson noted that tomatoes were grown in Virginia gardens.

“A New World species, the first tomatoes grown in Europe were called ‘love apples’ because they were related botanically to the mandrake, or ‘love plant,’ which was noted in the Bible for its reputed aphrodisiac qualities. In 1553, Swiss naturalist Konrad Gessner depicted the small-fruited ‘love apple’ in a watercolor, and identified it in Latin as ‘poma amoris.’

“This variety, Pomme d’Amour (French for ‘love apple’) is similar to these small-fruit tomatoes that were mostly grown for ornament; however, the mild, pinkish-red tomatoes are ideal for garden snacking, salads, and drying.

“Seeds of this indeterminate variety should be started indoors six to eight weeks before the last spring frost. Sow 1/4″ deep in flats or pots, keeping the soil mix moist but not soggy. When several leaves have developed, harden off the seedlings outdoors, then transplant to the garden 18″-36″ apart.”

That’s pretty much the procedure for starting any tomatoes indoors, for those of you who have asked. I planted most of mine in peat pots this year.

In other seed news, the artichokes are emerging. Hooray for artichokes!

Potato Stew provided the local bloggers a bit of fun when he invited us to visit politicalcompass.org, take the survey, and post the results. Then David Boyd, (that guy way over on the right) suggested graphing our results and putting the graph online. I think that we all enjoyed this, although a few people were a bit surprised at some results, for themselves and for others.

I was closest to the libertarian left bottom corner for a while, which made me strangely proud despite my moderate talk. I always knew that I had an inner anarchist hanging out in there. Now I think a latecomer has surpassed me - oh well!

Thanks for the great idea, Potato Stew. If I had an award for best handle, I’d give that to you as well. And thanks to David Boyd for being such a good sport and charting all us liberals! You know, that vast majority of us on the LEFT.

Several events in the universe converged to create this soup. Recently Mel, the food blogger for the News and Record, wrote a post about pantry items. I received an email newsletter from The Splendid Table that had a cream of tomato soup recipe. I wanted to do a quickie soup today, and there’s only one canned soup that I miss: creamy tomato. I thought that this would be an easy soup to redo, except I couldn’t resist throwing in the garlic. I’m just a garlicky kind of gal. This is a good soup to put together with canned tomatoes and just a few other items.

Creamy Garlicky Tomato Soup

2-3 T butter
1 small sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 t dried basil
1 t salt
black pepper
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 c chicken stock
1-2 T honey
1 c plain yogurt
Garnish: shredded fresh basil or chopped chives

Saute the onion, garlic, and basil in butter for about five minutes at the bottom of a large soup pot. Add tomatoes, stock, salt, pepper and honey and simmer for 20 minutes. Whisk in yogurt just before serving. Garnish with fresh basil or chives.

Notes:

Do I have to say that black pepper should be freshly ground? I didn’t think so.

You can use vegetable stock or water. I had chicken stock in the refrigerator that asked to be included.

Next winter I hope to have my own canned tomatoes, but right now I use canned tomatoes from Eden Organics. Why Eden? Eden Foods has publicly renounced the tactics of the Organic Trade Association in weakening national organic standards. And they produce honest, tasty food products. Other well-known brands of organic tomatoes, such as Muir Glen (principle stockholders include General Mills, Dupont, ExxonMobil, General Electric, McDonalds, and Monsanto), and Seeds of Change (owned by M&M/Mars) are owned by large corporations who are taking over organic processing now that organic food has become profitable. For more information on corporate ownership of organic brands, see this helpful web page: Organic Industry Structure.

sources:

• Butter - Homeland Creamery

• Organic onions and garlic - Deep Roots Market
• Eden Organic tomatoes and yogurt - Earth Fare
• Honey - Quaker Acres Apiary
• Chicken stock - from my freezer bag of veggie trimmings and soup bones from Back Woods Farm
• Basil and chives - my garden

Today I planted the following inside:

The Monticello Jr. seeds:
Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage (Brassica oleracea capitata cv.) “Numerous types of cabbages were planted in Jefferson’s gardens throughout his lifetime, including French, Milan, Savoy, Ox-heart, Roman, Scotch, Sugarloaf, York, and Winter. Early Wakefield forms a compact, somewhat conical head with glaucous-green leaves. It is a fine early heading variety, occupying little garden space and was popular in 19th century markets. Sow 1/4″ deep in early spring indoors or direct. Space 6-12″ apart. Rich garden loam. Full sun.”

Early Curled Siberian Kale (Brassica oleracea acephala cv.) “Jefferson’s Kitchen Garden commonly included various Kales such as German, Russian, Delaware, Malta, and Scotch types. This tender green, also known as Borecole and Headless Cabbage, is a superior source of vitamins and iron, surpassing even spinach. It is best grown as a spring, fall, or winter crop, as cool temperatures enhance the flavor. Sow 1/4″ deep in rich garden loam. Full sun.”

I’m also going to try seeding these directly in the garden next weekend. What the heck is “glaucous-green?”

Cardoon (Cynara cardunculus) “Cardoon is a magnificent perennial native to southern Europe, with spiny, gray-green foliage and purple, thistle-like flowers to 5′. The French first grew it as a vegetable and Quakers brought it to America in the 1790s. Although related to Globe Artichokes - which Jefferson grew throughout his life - the edible part of Cardoon is its thick leaf stalk, which can be blanched with mounded soil. Sow in early spring and plant out after last frost in full sun and deep, rich garden loam. Can be grown as an annual.”

I bought these mainly because the one I have is very pretty. Has anyone reading this ever eaten cardoon? What does it taste like and how do you prepare it?

White Eggplant (Solanum melongena esculentum) - “White Eggplant was listed along with a purple variety in several eastern U.S. seed catlogues by 1825 and Jefferson was growing both types at Monticello in 1812. Early catalogues recommended the White Eggplant for ornamental rather than culinary use, but today some people consider it the superior edible type.

“Also known as Melongena, Eggplant originated in Asia, where it has been grown for centuries. White Eggplant yields egg-shaped fruits, up to 6 inches long, which turn from ivory to golden yellow when fully ripe. (For culinary purposes, harvest before they turn yellow.) Eggplants are easy to grow from seed each year although they are perennial in tropical zones. Sow in sunny, well-drained sites in spring after danger of frost. 30 inches.”

Here are the other seeds I planted:

Yellow Pear Cherry Tomato - Seeds of Change - new! “From the late 1800s with very low acid and a mild, sweet flavor. Produces clusters of 1-2 inch fruits all summer long.” Indeterminate, up to 8′ vines! Yikes!
Jalapeno peppers - Seeds of Change
Early Black Egg Eggplant - SESE from last year
Rosa Bianca Eggplant - SESE from last year
Ping Tung Long Eggplant - SESE - new!
Black Beauty Eggplant - SESE - new!

It’s not that I’m an eggplant freak, but I think that they’re beautiful. And I do like to eat them, especially battered and fried. These will go into pots. I read that the flea beetles don’t bother them if they are planted three feet above the ground. I tried it last year and it worked.

And finally, I can report that the Brandywine tomatoes are emerging. The others may be up by tomorrow, but it appears that I have a bit of a mold problem.