tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9028841117679426802024-02-20T02:53:53.320-08:00Foodcentric -Be-An adventure of bringing food home!
How food production must work it's way closer to our kitchen tables.Foodcentric1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16056115715295565002noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902884111767942680.post-79331233791042354732012-01-28T14:18:00.000-08:002012-01-28T14:18:53.049-08:00Companion Planting Resource by Foodcentric - Be -<b>A Resource For Companion Planting</b><br />
<br />
www.prezi.com/euvmclbtgxft/companion-planting/<br />
<br />
This resource for companion planting is a gathering of B. Santifer's research & observations. <br />
<br />
I've an extensive list of amendments coming for 2012 after a summer of additional research & observation of ecology! Please check back in & share your support for WWW.UrbanFoodProjects.org<br />
<br />
Making only the most of our harvest seasons, <br />
<br />
- Be -Foodcentric1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16056115715295565002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902884111767942680.post-69227074660502348062012-01-28T14:12:00.000-08:002012-01-28T14:12:03.876-08:00Urban Food Projects<b>Urban Food Projects</b><br />
<br />
WWW.UrbanFoodProjects.org<br />
<br />
Is seeking your support & collaboration!<br />
<br />
Urban Food projects is inspiring Everyone to Grow Our Own!<br />
<br />
Please visit often & contact our cultivator at info@urbanfoodprojects.org to enlist your services in web design, writing, instruction, or to share your questions, inspirations & learning resources around sustainable food production! <br />
<br />
www.urbanfoodprojects.org<br />
<br />
http://prezi.com/n7q0g6oavrgd/urbanfoodprojects/Foodcentric1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16056115715295565002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902884111767942680.post-6457887702255845662010-12-27T03:38:00.000-08:002010-04-01T21:08:39.354-07:00Why read this blog?<b>In short:</b><br />
<b>READ THIS BLOG BECAUSE:<br />
MUCH OF OUR FOOD IS COMING FROM: <br />
INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALS, FOREIGN HUNGER, U.S. MONOPOLIES, & EVEN DOMESTIC SLAVERY</b><br />
<br />
<b>Following this blog will enable solutions to bringing food closer to home!</b><br />
<br />
I've spent these past 3years researching sustainable food systems. (Perhaps more appropriate saying these 3 years have been spent understanding our worlds currently unsustainable food production system) <br />
<br />
Spent a dozen years before that in commercial kitchens<br />
<br />
Now, passed through 48 kitchens as full time, on call & consult. <br />
<br />
I bring to your this venture to making dinner like Granny once had!<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>So... What shall you be reading about?</b><br />
<br />
-<b>food sovereignty</b> <br />
______(You can eat sans mad transport & industrial inputs)<br />
-<b>creating community commensality</b> <br />
______(eat family style with your neighbors!)<br />
-<b>child nutrition</b> <br />
______(tips & tricks learned & those shared with me, protect your child!)<br />
-<b>sustainable foods</b> <br />
______(knowing your food's sourcing & knowing it can continue)<br />
-<b>food justice</b> <br />
______(Did you know there is still slavery in your pantry???)<br />
-<b>urban farming</b> <br />
______(we can grow so much so close! We are taking it for granted!)<br />
-<b>alternative food procurement, processing, & preserving</b><br />
-<b>canning, drying, & fermenting</b><br />
-<b>Permaculture</b><br />
-<b>Foraged FOODS</b><br />
-<b>LIVE FOODS</b><br />
-<b>RAW FOODS</b><br />
<b>-REAL FOOD!!!</b><br />
-<b>realities of our new world food system...</b><br />
<br />
So, What does this mean?<br />
<br />
As you check in with - cHEF Be - you will hear about the solutions to bringing our food system closer to home, what obstacles we must over come, the horrid realities of our modern industrial food system, the helpful hints on how to grow more food close to our homes, & the helpful hints on how to avoid the unnaturally produced foods that often find their way to our family's tables from thousands of miles away! <br />
{that well traveled food should be on other nation's tables!}<br />
<br />
<i>In good time I too will make this page all sexy & such with cool tools, helpful links,in text links, book lists, recipe links, & movie roles. </i><br />
<br />
<b>Until when, please continue checking in & help in bringing you & your families meals closer to what Granny might have place on the table!</b><br />
<br />
Have fun & Stay well,<br />
<br />
-cHEF Be -<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
P.S. PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS! CHALLENGE ME, TEACH ME, READ ME, CREATE MORE RESEARCH NEEDS!Foodcentric1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16056115715295565002noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902884111767942680.post-55576892048629340812010-12-09T20:53:00.000-08:002012-01-28T20:39:54.455-08:00Films on Food ( Please share your foodie film knowledge )So, Here it is. <br />
<br />
A list of food films to be edited, expanded, commented upon &...<br />
<br />
Last updated 01/28/2012 <br />
[Please send in your synopses of these films for future organization of this thorough compilation of food film.]<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><br />
Food Movies:</b><br />
<br />
(Ron) Urban Homesteading?<br />
? Crazy Sexy cancer?<br />
?humankind?<br />
“Nourish: food + community”<br />
37 Uses for a Dead Sheep<br />
A Community of Gardeners By Cintia Cabib<br />
Against the Grain<br />
American Beer<br />
American Dream<br />
American Fair<br />
American Farm<br />
American Harvest<br />
Asparagus! (A Stalk-umentary)<br />
Back to the Land...Again <br />
Bananas!<br />
Beer Wars<br />
Big River (A king Corn Companion)<br />
Big Spuds, Little Spuds<br />
Big Sugar<br />
Bitter Harvest?<br />
Black Gold<br />
Blood OF the Beasts<br />
Broken Limbs: Apples, Agriculture and the New American Farmer<br />
Brookford Almanac<br />
Bulls*** (*)<br />
Buyer Be Fair<br />
Challenging Impossibility<br />
Chow Down Gage Johnston & Andrew Lipton<br />
Chris Bedford's new film "Getting Real about Food & the Future"<br />
Chulas Fronteras<br />
Coca Cola Kid<br />
Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood<br />
Controling Our Food ("The World According To Monsanto")<br />
Corner In Wheat<br />
Corporate Agriculture: The Hollow Men/Alternative Agriculture: Food for Life (CBC)<br />
Darwin's Nightmare<br />
Death on A Factory Farm<br />
Diet Wars <br />
Dirt<br />
Dispatches: Supermarket Secrets <br />
Dispatches: The Supermarket That's Eating (Britian <br />
DIVE!DIVE! Living Off America’s Waste<br />
Eat At Bill's<br />
EATING ALASKA<br />
Fast Food Nation<br />
Fast Food Women<br />
Food<br />
Food Fight<br />
Food For Change<br />
Food For The Future<br />
Food For Thought<br />
Food INC<br />
Food Matters<br />
Foodimentary<br />
Foodstamped<br />
Forks Over Knives<br />
FRESH<br />
From THe Ground Up<br />
Fuel (bio-fuels argument)<br />
Garbage! The Rovolution Starts at Home<br />
Genetic Time Bomb<br />
GMOs & the Changing Face of Agriculture Series<br />
Good Food: Sustainable Food and Farming in the NorthWest<br />
Growing Awareness<br />
Growing Change: A Journey Inside Venezuela's Food Revolution Simon Cunich<br />
Grown IN Detroit<br />
Hamburger America<br />
Harvest of Fear (NOVA/Frontline)<br />
Home Grown<br />
Hot Potatoes<br />
How to Get Fat Without Really Trying Peter Jennings<br />
How To Save The World: One Man, One Cow, One Planet <br />
http://www.channel4.com/news/dispatches/society/tesco)<br />
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiJ_3JGRgDI&feature=player_embedded#<br />
Hybrid<br />
In Organic We Trust<br />
In Search of Good Food<br />
In The Poison of the Pampas<br />
In The Same Boat<br />
Ingredients<br />
Is Wal-Mart Good for America? <br />
Killer At Large<br />
King Corn<br />
Know Your Mushrooms<br />
LBS<br />
Le sang des bêtes (a.k.a. Blood of the Beasts)<br />
Les glaneurs et la glaneuse<br />
Life and Debt<br />
Living on the Wedge: Wisconsin's Artisan Cheesemakers<br />
Lunch Line (The Movie)<br />
Mad City Chickens<br />
McLibel <br />
Meat The Future<br />
Media That Maters: Good Food Jim Hightower as host<br />
Modern Meat<br />
Mondovino<br />
Mumford Farms<br />
Nature: Silence of the Bees<br />
Nourish: Food + Community<br />
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's<br />
one man one cow one planet<br />
Our Daily Bread<br />
OurTown<br />
Peanuts<br />
Pig Business<br />
Playing with Poison<br />
Polycultures: Food Where we live<br />
Queen of the Sun<br />
Rancho California (Por Favor) *<br />
Red Persimmons<br />
Regenerative Agriculture<br />
Ripe For Change<br />
Robert Fortune: The Tea Thief<br />
Slow Food Revolution<br />
Smokestack Lightning<br />
Still, The Children Are Here<br />
Store Wars<br />
Strong Roots,Fragile Farms<br />
Super Size me<br />
SuperMarkets Inc (CNBC?)<br />
Supper Deconstructed<br />
Sustainable Table: What's On Your Plate? <br />
Tableland<br />
Terminator Tomatoes<br />
The Chicken Stampede<br />
The Cove<br />
The Dying Fields<br />
The Economics of Happiness Helena Norberg Hodge<br />
The End of the Line<br />
The Farmers Wife<br />
The Future of Food<br />
THE GARDEN<br />
The Gleaners and I<br />
The Global Banquet: Politics of Food <br />
The GMO Film Project<br />
The Golbal Banquet: Politics of Food<br />
The Grange Fair: An American Tradition<br />
The Meaning of Food (PBS)<br />
The Natural History of the Chicken (PBS)<br />
The Organic Opportunity (CHris Bedford)<br />
The Persuaders (Frontline)<br />
The Price of Aid<br />
The Price of Sugar<br />
The Real Dirt on Farmer John<br />
The Soil Solution<br />
The Vanishing of the Bees<br />
The Weight of Obesity...A Balanced Reality <br />
The Wheat Movie<br />
The World According to Monsanto<br />
Think Twice<br />
This IS WHAT FREE TRADE LOOKS LIKE<br />
To Market TO Market to Buy a Fat Pig<br />
Trade Secrets" A Moyers Report (PBS)<br />
Truck Farm<br />
Two Angry Mom's (Food Fight)<br />
Urban Agriculture on the Move<br />
Urban Roots (Detroit Farms..)<br />
Vanishing of the Bees<br />
Victims of Cheap Coffee<br />
Wal-Mart Nation<br />
Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price<br />
Waste=Food<br />
We Feed The World<br />
West Philly Grown<br />
What WIll We Eat (a film by Chris Bedford?)<br />
What Will We Eat?<br />
What's For Dinner?<br />
WHAT's ON YOUR PLATE?<br />
<br />
<br />
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
<br />
Dispatches: The Supermarket That's Eating (Britian <br />
<br />
http://www.channel4.com/news/dispatches/society/tesco)<br />
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/11/15/meat-the-future/<br />
Meat the Future.org<br />
<br />
IN ORGANIC WE TRUST is a feature documentary created by a group of award-winning filmmakers. <br />
<br />
We’re looking for a passionate self-starter and food-loving dynamo to join our little farm to help <br />
<br />
us wrap up post-production and launch an outreach campaign.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
'Growing Change' by Australian filmmaker Simon Cunich, A Journey Inside Venezuela's Food <br />
<br />
Revolution<br />
<br />
<br />
http://guides.library.cornell.edu/content.php?pid=84833&sid=631485#2080119<br />
<br />
<br />
documentary by Rachel Bower - "In The Same Boat" - which draws connections between fishing and <br />
<br />
farming, and a fading way of life<br />
<br />
DIVE!DIVE! Living Off America’s Waste<br />
<br />
Nourish Short Films: 54 Bite-Sized Videos about the Story of Your Food DVD.<br />
<br />
one man one cow one planet<br />
<br />
<br />
Bertram Verhaag’s scenically beautiful film, Science Under Attack, is one of several he produced <br />
<br />
on biotechnology. (Also see David vs Monsanto, Seeds and Seed Multinationals, and Life Running out <br />
<br />
of Control.) In Science Under Attack, he interviews scientists whose careers were ruined because <br />
<br />
they published studies warning of health dangers from genetically modified crops. From smaller <br />
<br />
brain size in rats fed biotech food, to lowered immunity, organ damage, and infertility, the <br />
<br />
information is suppressed by the biotech industry and governments beholden to it.<br />
<br />
<br />
In The Poison of the Pampas, a 22-minute news report by journalist Rolando Grana, broadcast in <br />
<br />
Argentina in April of last year,<br />
<br />
<br />
06/09/2011<br />
<br />
This list is compiled & updated by B. Santifer R. at the below blog address. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
http://foodcentricb.blogspot.com/2010/12/films-on-food-please-share-your-foodie.html<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Bodega Down Bronx http://places.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=12257<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
shorts: EATING FOR THE DEAD, HUNGRY FOR CHANGE, GREENHORNS,DIG THE EARTH, The Meatrix, with these hands, The Bitter Aftertaste, Gefilte Fish, "We Become Silent", <br />
<br />
youtube:"SuperMarket Secrets", <br />
<br />
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiJ_3JGRgDI&feature=player_embedded#<br />
<br />
www.knowyourh2o.org "The Cycle of Insanity The Real Story of Water"<br />
<br />
<br />
Water:<br />
<br />
*Flow<br />
<br />
The Water Front<br />
<br />
Liquid Assets<br />
<br />
*Blue Gold<br />
<br />
Tapped<br />
<br />
<br />
*www.knowyourh2o.org "The Cycle of Insanity The Real Story of Water"<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Fisheries:<br />
<br />
Magnificent Fish, Forgotten Giants<br />
<br />
The Cove<br />
<br />
When the Salmon Run Dry<br />
<br />
One More Dead Fish<br />
<br />
Heading for Shore<br />
<br />
River of Renewal<br />
<br />
Echo of Water Against Rocks<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Foodie Film:<br />
<br />
Tampopo<br />
<br />
Like water for chocolate<br />
<br />
The Dinner<br />
<br />
Babette's Feast<br />
<br />
The Big Night<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
When Do We Eat?<br />
<br />
A Chef in Love<br />
<br />
Chocolat<br />
<br />
Eat Drink Man Woman<br />
<br />
Soul Food<br />
<br />
Soylent Green<br />
<br />
Starving Artists' CookbookFoodcentric1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16056115715295565002noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902884111767942680.post-68434794357656437232010-04-01T20:54:00.000-07:002010-04-01T20:54:25.189-07:00I've been distracted with planting & foraging...Good Day all,<br />
<br />
I've yet to forget about you!<br />
<br />
Still working hard on planning several Food Conferences & just returned from one in Missoula MT. <br />
<br />
I've been delightfully distracted for this past month breaking ground on numerous food projects including a really fun project utilizing my small urban footprint as An Urban Food Project. <br />
<br />
So, please check back in I will so be back online...<br />
<br />
Spring is here, go gather greens & forage morels!<br />
<br />
cHEF BeFoodcentric1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16056115715295565002noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902884111767942680.post-84903892268813726552009-12-25T04:52:00.000-08:002009-12-25T04:52:16.664-08:00Today in celebration of my Mother's birthday...An umbrella to pursue dreams!{Please leave your comments, expand these concepts, correct & create!}<br />
<br />
<br />
Yes, Today is my Mother's day of birth. It too happens to be the most widely celebrated day of gifting. If Thanksgiving has become thankstaking, or perhaps a thankful celebration of the gifts from the earth for us to gluttonously & ravenously ingest then digest as we try to fight turkey induced sleep in front of the big screen with team red & team blue running from one side to the other...<br />
<br />
Christmas is indeed the day for Thankfully giving!<br />
<br />
<br />
So, Today I've decided to begin giving much of what I have!!!<br />
<br />
thoughts,ideas,concepts,ventures,adventures in design,investments & inventions!<br />
<br />
I've long kept a journal of "business ideas & inventions"<br />
(an umbrella to pursue dreams)<br />
<br />
I arrived in Portland 3years ago & told myself after 3years I would settle in & begin fully pursuing my ventures once more...<br />
<br />
After Rolling across this country dumpster diving & beginning my food stamp thriving daily dream life. <br />
I was telling a friend of how I've bought near zero new items since I left my distorted days of Fortune magazine reading & Italian shoes shopping 3 years ago.<br />
I was telling of how much my schtuff is now wearing out. This friend responded by stating simply "give stuff away", new stuff will come.<br />
<br />
So in this spirit of giving... ... ... <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I've decided my favorite way to do this at present is begin by giving ideas!<br />
<br />
So, with no further ado, my first idea? ?Dream?<br />
{share it borrow it change it create it help create it make it happen!}<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b><i>Community Gardens!</i></b><br />
<br />
<br />
Yes, I know what your thinking. That sounds quite antiquated... <br />
<br />
Though, perhaps "Community Gardens" as we know them is the antiquated idea.<br />
<br />
First the issues present in the current manifestation of "Community Gardens"<br />
<br />
Gardens are what began our urban sprawl so many moons ago. <br />
Man arrives in fertile valley, builds a house & plants a garden, neighbor moves in & does the same.<br />
new neighbor comes in builds a house & plants a garden then carves a road to the other two. Look around you, you get an idea of where we've come. <br />
<br />
Our cities were created by many people taking over land & claiming it as their own space. We can better share this space & all prosper!<br />
<br />
-"community gardens" are placed on some of the least utilized land around. <br />
This land is often under utilized for reasons of design. It is private parking, particularly noisy parcels, out of the way of public transit, previous sites of polluting industry, people must travel too far to tend it & on & on...<br />
<br />
-These "community gardens" are generally divided into individual plots <br />
Once again partitioning community!<br />
<br />
-These community gardens often consist of virtually a singular micro climate.<br />
Yet, We try growing everything. Being jaded by only marginal success when most everything we want to try growing will better flourish when more properly placed.<br />
Proportionally spread throughout the broader neighborhood instead of being pushed into a hidden parcel. <br />
<br />
<b><br />
A COMMUNITY AS GARDEN, A SOLUTION!<i></i></b><br />
<br />
<i>Dispersed microplot gardening!</i> <br />
<br />
<b>Your Community Can Be Your Garden!</b><br />
<br />
So, The concept is that our communities should indeed BE our community gardens!!!<br />
<br />
Many of us have front back & side yards we spend countless dollars hiring others to maintain. Some even feel obliged to spend their scant free time beyond the 8-6 sodding, fertilizing, aerating, edging, mowing & ?weeding?!? <br />
<br />
OUTRAGEOUS! <br />
<br />
In overcoming all these issues & costs in maintaining land near our homes we form a gardening collective. "Community Gardening"<br />
<br />
We embrace the unique micro climate of each & every <i>dispersed micro plot</i> near our homes, businesses, telephone poles, fire hydrants, drainage ditches, & yes, Still the "community gardens". <br />
<br />
We plant window boxes, <i>container</i>ize fruit trees, place portable palletized garden beds & hang baskets. <br />
<br />
In super urban areas we plant rooftops, raise flag pole plantings, install strawberry pipes on freeway supports, engineer ferris wheeling plants in buckets & always put out another <i>potted plant</i>. <br />
<br />
We can start seeds inside our homes & disperse them come spring!<br />
<br />
There is so much we can grow with even the simplest of synergy. <br />
<br />
<b>Ask your neighbor if they enjoy paying to mow their lawn or if they might prefer <i>you help care for their land</i> & share the abundant harvest!<br />
</b><br />
So many spaces can be planted. Potted plants put into place. portable Palatized planters & more!<br />
<br />
So, simply put <br />
The solution is planting exceptionally function plants EVERYWHERE!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Further breaking down this solution:</b><br />
<br />
-communicate with your neighbors! <br />
I reckon "neighborly" is adjective for good reason!<br />
<br />
-utilize all available space for what it can grow!<br />
Everywhere has a microclimate that a particular plant will thrive within!<br />
<br />
-Plant only what grows best at your location<br />
Since you've been "neighborly" you have plenty to share with your neigbors & they too share from their unique microclimates. <br />
{imagine you have a side yard getting less light, okay.. Potatoes it is.<br />
your neighbor has a front lawn getting scorched, okay.. tomatoes it is. <br />
your neighbor has a back porch for entertaining, okay.. herbs it shall be.}<br />
<br />
-Observe your private planting, select what is growing best & share your abundance!<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Recapping The Two Key Steps</b><br />
<br />
Through utilizing each micro plots micro climate; we create abundance by allowing nature to specialize & growing what grows best. <br />
Through "neighboring" we create an environment for sharing the abundance our micro plot produces & too experience providing & being provided for by our community.<br />
We then allow each specifically planted micro plot to contribute to the grander<br />
<b><i>"COMMUNITY AS GARDEN"</i></b> <br />
<br />
So, Once again in closing... <br />
<br />
We plant small plots & pots all over the place & <br />
<br />
view our <b>community as the garden!<br />
</b>Foodcentric1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16056115715295565002noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902884111767942680.post-19335047887523071332009-12-09T02:08:00.000-08:002009-12-09T02:11:42.513-08:00What gives life.<b>-Mushrooms<br />
-seeds<br />
-sprouts<br />
-pollen<br />
<br />
These are what fuel this world.</b><br />
<br />
Where does food come from?<br />
<br />
well, it was once a mixture of these...<br />
<br />
<b>-mushrooms<br />
-seeds<br />
-sprouts<br />
-pollen<br />
<br />
All is created near home.</b> <br />
<br />
Where does food come from? <br />
[maybe isle 6?]<br />
[perhaps isle 5?] <br />
[then again, just past isle 4 is where..<br />
WAIT, what's it about all these isles?<br />
<br />
Where has food gone?<br />
<br />
Have we forgotten from where food comes? <br />
<br />
Invention took seed & industry took over.<br />
<br />
Invention took over & Innovation will take us further...<br />
<br />
<br />
Now is always the time to respect the groundwork we & those before us are building & continue to<b>INVENT!</b><br />
<br />
So, until we have innovation to share.. <br />
<br />
Look back to seed & learn from growth!<br />
<br />
Share with me how we simplify!???!<br />
<br />
How can we grow from what grows?<br />
-mushroom<br />
-seed<br />
-sprout<br />
-pollen<br />
<br />
These are what fuel our world!Foodcentric1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16056115715295565002noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902884111767942680.post-22765350636015877872009-12-04T03:52:00.000-08:002009-12-08T23:14:29.358-08:00Yes, Nearly finished talking about me, then on to more food!On second thought, I'm thinking telling more of my story of how I got here will come with time, &/or be added to my profile...<br />
<br />
So, Managed to spend these past two hours baking after midnight.<br />
It's now 2AM. <br />
<br />
It is not my intention to become a source for recipes. <br />
<br />
In fact, I would delight if your visits here push you away from recipes & towards a closer relationship with creating from soil to spoon that which nourishes you. <br />
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Though, tonight I felt the need to ?relax? by playing in the kitchen. <br />
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feeling the relaxation part has further to go. Might need to finish snacking on a muffin with a hot cup of tea & then cozy to this relaxation before dream state takes over. <br />
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So, It's late.<br />
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2AM.<br />
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I always find playtime in the kitchen notably zen. <br />
<br />
just committed myself to eating quick bread for a few. <br />
<br />
created 3 varieties of zucchini quick bread:<br />
-ginger lemon w/ lavender cream spread<br />
-cherry orange w/ a surprise kick of rosemary<br />
-classic muffins w/ crumbly tops<br />
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<br />
So, No. <br />
<br />
I'm not generally up at 2AM baking..<br />
I'm however no stranger to late night food play.<br />
<br />
Quite often awake come 2AM feeling full from feast or relaxing with a cup o'...<br />
<br />
Yes, I've come to feel a manifestation of culinary gluttony can truly play a role in self care. <br />
-cast iron fried red potatoes topped w/ a quick fried Organic egg <br />
-oatmeal w/ almond meal & drizzled w/ grade B maple syrup<br />
-scramble w/ wild foraged mushrooms & a generous taste of locally cured bacon<br />
& tonight, zucchini bread w/ candied bits n pieces>(ginger/lemon & cherry/orange) <br />
<br />
<br />
This is my comfort zone, how I feed myself when few are watching. <br />
<br />
So, Tonight I whipped together a batch of zucchini bread at midnight.<br />
<br />
all to maintain my sanity...<br />
<br />
Meh, It's fun. It will be tasty at a Saturday Potluck, it's always an experiment!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I'm still sifting what it is I really care to share here with you...<br />
<br />
Though I feel my food ventures will keep some of you coming back. <br />
<br />
<b>A taste for what has been on my mind this week:</b><br />
<br />
<b>-Are seeds more nutrient dense than the fruit meant to nurse these seeds?</b> <br />
-seems 1oz pumpkin seeds nearly holds the punch of nearly 3cups pumpkin meat...<br />
-funny most of these nutrient packed seeds are scooped to trash or compost.<br />
<br />
<b>-In place of cranberries Should we be eating more lingon berries?</b><br />
-during harvest flooding cranberries might use a glut of water>>><br />
-cranberries too depend on un-sustainably harvested peat for production>>><br />
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<b>-How can I grow more food near my home?</b><br />
-I walk past South facing garden beds over run w/ voracious ornamental plants.<br />
-Wow, How amazing it will be tending micro plot gardens on my way to n fro! <br />
-These same garden beds filling out w/ "invasive species" can grow food!<br />
-every garden bed has a workable micro climate & shadows walking near.<br />
<br />
<i>So, these are my daily quandries. {Community Food Sovereignty}<br />
-How to produce more food close to home? <br />
-How to most ethically & cost effectively purchase that being grown by others? <br />
-How much nutrition am I getting from what I choose to call food? <br />
-How can I play with this food diversifying my nourishing creations?<br />
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*Disclaimer this is not a recipe. merely an ingredient list* CREATE!<br />
<br />
What happens when finding a 3# bag of zucchini for sale for $1 at a produce stand...<br />
<br />
-~6 cups <i>Organic whole wheat flour</i> (a blend of pastry & all purpose)<br />
-~2 cups <i>Organic brown cane sugar</i><br />
- 7 medium <i>Organic</i>ally Humanely produced <i>eggs</i><br />
- 5 cups shredded <i>zucchini</i><br />
- 1 cup <i>expeller pressed canola</i> (what else can I use?)<br />
- 1 cup <i>apple sauce</i> (local & chunky! Yum)<br />
- 1 cup <i>bakers sugar</i><br />
- a handful of <i>candied:ginger, rind of orange/lemon & dried sweet cherries</i><br />
- 3 teaspoons <i>baking soda</i><br />
- 3 teaspoons <i>baking powder</i> (What about this aluminum in our food?)<br />
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt ( I ran out, probably could have used 2 or 3tsp)<br />
* a dash of <i>Mexican vanilla extract</i> (from my guerrilla foods grocery)<br />
* a dash of ?"natural"? <i>Almond extract</i><br />
* 1 teaspoon finely minced rosemary<br />
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crumbly topping: (to be edited later today, tis late!)<br />
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lavender cream cheese spread: (to be edited later today, tis late!)Foodcentric1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16056115715295565002noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902884111767942680.post-32181873894860506822009-12-02T00:03:00.000-08:002009-12-02T23:11:28.366-08:00I find my Mecca<span style="font-style: italic;">So, here I am in Portland Oregon</span>. A city which boasts of its progressive food culture; more eateries per capita than Paris, France. More breweries than any city in the world.. <br /><br />I've come to view this lush green place as "A Botanist's Wet Dream". <br />Imagine how conducive 7months of grey drizzle are to snuggling up with a micro brew, sipping a locally roasted cup of bean juice, nibbling an artisan crafted hazelnut chocolate, or for that matter... munching on most anything that can be munched under the banner of Localvore holding comfort in gustatory delight as self care.<br /><br />What a god send for me to have arrived here. Upon my check engine light blaring back at me, I told myself "I will pass 3 years in the PDX before digging in." I had little desire to immediately become a carpet-bagger in a city who's sends many more packing than it swallows up with it's amazing taste for bohemian culture embraced as the grey drizzle descends with no hasty exit. <span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">[ read: America's Bourgeoisie proletariat, the lost middle class, is finding home in Portland, Oregon. ]</span><br /></span><br />Since doing time in America's Natural Foods Grocer & the hatching & nursing of a corporate restaurant franchise, I've been in search of a more real existence.<br />I've settled into what I've come to consider a "bastion of like-mindedness". <span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />Portland, Oregon.</span><br /><br /><br />Here, growing my understanding of who my neighbors are, who my neighbors can be, where our food can come from, & how to create community with these understandings is helping me now feel well rooted.<br /><br />I've had doors opened to me that have allowed for condoning or even cultivating, what before I could only describe as, my food neurosis.<br /><br /><br />I've been embraced by community where beliefs of: <span style="font-weight: bold;">A community garden BEING your community</span> amp; A Community Garden not merely being a forgotten piece of errant land under utilized & being reborn with the vigor of lost tomato plants but a concept to weave into our sustainable existence.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Portlanders want to grow their food!</span><br /><br />Well, My three years of coy observation is coming to a close & I'm now still here to act & spread roots!<br /><br />Please,<br />Remember to check in with & share with me as I share this story of: How Portland & this moment has allowed not only to accept ?foodcentric neurosis? but embrace it as creating a community environment ripening to give back its surplus.<br /><br />This may even,<br /><br />someday... <br /><br />Help me succeed in achieving my real story board of:<br /><br />a "simple" homestead B&B?<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:78%;">[read: Stay with, & learn this way to idealizing our un-sustainable food system</span></span><span style="font-size:78%;">]</span><br /><br />or... as I might rather view it: <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></span><span><br />{</span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> Saving the World by cultivating family commensality!</span> }<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />I'm hoping to bring you along with, from 7 year old brown sugar delight to 27 year old idealist cross pollinating ideas & action as ?food activist? <br />I cringe as I still use "food activist".<br /><br />Is "food activist" really even a role? <br /><br />I feel it a survivalist obligation. <br />After all, <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">FOOD, aside from community, FOOD IS OUR ONLY NECESSITY! </span><br /><br />How are you helping ensure you & yours are nourished?<br /><br /> Until next time, Keep on smilin,<br /><br /> cHEF -Be-Foodcentric1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16056115715295565002noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-902884111767942680.post-26806883323652657692009-12-01T20:36:00.000-08:002009-12-06T20:45:05.423-08:00*sigh* & Thus it begins...Yes, So...<br /><br />I'm cHEF -Be-. <br /><br />I've been playing with food since I was ~7.<br /><br />I've been working with food since I was 12. <br /><br /><br />Now I'm ready for you & all others to play with food again! <br /><br /><br /><br />One hot n humid Tennessee afternoon in 1989 I walked out into the backyard of the family apartment & realized I could over load wild oats with brown sugar, butter & a dash of 2% pasteurized homogenized milk & call it ?oatmeal?. <br />After all, My red headed Father might make me an Irish lad. <br />I recall being so proud that I had created this sugary buttery concoction I could now share with my playmates & we would smile while slurping the silliness down. (Thanks Jamie & Gina) <br />Who wouldn't smile eating foraged food, when our summers were still only playtime & brown sugar was only gonna rot our baby teeth?<br /><br /><br />Well, time passes & I now live in my urban apartment with a mere 30 square feet of cultivatable soil surrounded by manholes & asphalt 4,000 miles away from my immediate family & the fertile soils of the Mississippi Delta. <br />I have learned to scoff when my sugar is lacking "cane sugar" & Genetically engineered beet is the saccharin substitute.<br />or worse more if that sugary flavor came from the genetically modified enzyme churning out Cargill's HFCS (High Fructose Corn Syrup). <br /><br />I now find myself not only reading ingredient labels, but wondering what this lable is missing...<br />if this tasty bite of $%*$# is being created as ?food? by the same folks that sell us cigarettes, if this sugary snack is a by-product of chemical warfare(aspertame), or if even my apple's skin is full of poison?<br /><br />How did I get here? Where am I going with this?<br /><br />A belief in an ad hoc life & serendipity is what guides me. Well, That is unless I account for my amazing luck, or a firm belief in my keen ability to manifest.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">So, my story begins...</span> (starting with what may be my latest & most reaffirming chapter)<br /><br />After a few months pirating grease & ?sustenance? from dumpsters to fuel myself & a 14,000 pound short SVO (strait veggie oil) chool bus rolling on a dump truck frame, I somehow managed to break down here in Portland, OR.<br /><br />I was on my way to enjoy & take up an understudy with Creole Chef Alex Patout in New Orleans, LA. when I somehow found myself taking up residence in the land of Wild berries, foragable mushrooms, old growth forest, & to my total delight, HOT SPRINGS!<br /><br />How can I break down in the Pacific North West while driving to The Big Easy en route from the Music City of Nashville, TN?<br /><br />I imagine it happens about the same way I quit my corporate computer gig bought a plane ticket to Zurich & six months later found myself in the midst of my first full on culinary gig taking in eternal darkness & 3AM sunshine in of all places, The Arctic Circle.<br /><br />Well, I did mention serendipity right?<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(next post at 12AM PST Dec.2, 2009)<br /></span>Foodcentric1http://www.blogger.com/profile/16056115715295565002noreply@blogger.com1