Container gardening, particularly growing vegetables in containers, is new to me. Oh, I knew it could be done. I’d just never done it. A couple of weeks ago I moved from a house into an apartment. With the move went any hope I’d had of creating a garden that could keep my family in vegetables all summer long.
A Sneak Peak at Wardeh’s E-Course
Earlier this week, I wrote about the exciting new online course in the basics of how to prepare traditional foods. Your response has been overwhelming. Nearly two hundred of you have already signed up for the course!
For those of you still wondering if the 14 weeks of interactive learning is worth the shockingly low price, Wardeh’s released a new sneak peek at one of her videos from the class. (And no, that’s not just sales copy. The classes are less than $10 each — far less than you would pay at your local community college.) Check out the video below:
Michael Pollan On The Daily Show
Michael Pollan interviewed by Jon Stewart. How can that be anything but perfectly entertaining?
Pollan is promoting his newest book. Yes, you loved him for The Omnivore’s Dilemma. And you probably enjoyed In Defense of Food. His newest book is more like a pamphlet. It’s called Food Rules, and is on sale at Amazon for mere $5.50. The new book contains 64 food rules which Pollan collected from people around the world. The few I’ve read are simple, funny, and fairly well on-target. I can’t wait to get my hands on the rest to see whether they’re all as good.
The segment began with Jon Stewart asking a straightforward question: Name one over-arching rule that summarizes the book.
Inside The White House Garden: A Video
When Michelle Obama decided to plant an organic garden on the White House lawn back in March, Big Ag shot her a quick letter saying they were disappointed she didn’t “recognize the role conventional agriculture plays in the US.” Despite industry opposition, Mrs. Obama plowed ahead.
Now there’s a new 7 minute video telling the story of the White House garden. Of course, the word “organic” is mysteriously missing from the video, despite the garden being 100% organic. But, who cares? The video tells a noble tale: that of children being empowered to grow and eat their food, families choosing to eliminate processed foods and refined sugars from their diets in favor of fresh fruits and vegetables, and people choosing to sit down around their kitchen table at night rather than eating out.
Coconut Water Is Nature’s Gatorade
Coconuts have been so maligned in dietary circles that those of us who’ve jumped on the coconut bandwagon and started singing it’s praises are often maligned ourselves.
Coconuts are mostly saturated fat, so surely we must be absolutely crazy to promote it as a healthy food.
But — wonder of wonders — coconut is making a comeback! And it’s not just in circles like ours where we challenge politically correct nutrition in favor of traditional food wisdom. You’ll never believe what I just saw. ABC News NOW ran a story on coconuts in which they interviewed a registered dietitian, and the dietitian only had positive things to say.
Paul Roberts on The End of Food
Did you know that it’s possible to be obese and still be starving? It seems counter intuitive, doesn’t it? Yet that’s what’s been happening for the last hundred years or more, all around the world, particularly when we watch traditional people groups start eating the nutritionally empty foods of industrialization.
Paul Roberts, journalist and published author, foresees a world where we won’t be able to afford nutrient-dense foods — a world where empty calories make us fat and kill us off. He calls it The End of Food, and in the video below he gives a brief overview of his position.
Chipotle Restaurants And The Pigness of The Pig
Chipotle is one of the handful of places I can eat out without any guilt. 100% of the pork carnitas they serve in their 870+ restaurants come from free-range pigs, like the ones Joel Salatin raises. Over the last decade, they’ve also worked hard to incorporate more grass-fed cows and pastured poultry.
Last night, ABC’s Nightline aired a piece interviewing Chipotle’s founder, Steve Ells, and Joel Salatin (the self-described Christian, Libertarian, Environmentalist, Lunatic farmer and hero of The Omnivore’s Dilemma who recently wrote a guest post here on Why Local Food is More Expensive).
You’ve gotta watch this story.
Food Inc. Director Rober Kenner Speaks
By now, you’ve probably all heard about the new film Food, Inc. directed by Robert Kenner. (And if you haven’t, it will be my pleasure to introduce it to you.) The documentary about our nation’s food supply has been released in selected theaters in the U.S., and will have a wider release within the next month.
From all I’ve heard, the film is like a cross between the two most influential food journalism books of the last decade, The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Fast Food Nation, and the documentary film The Future of Food. It even features frequent voice overs by Pollan and Schlosser.
The Washington Post ran an interview with Rober Kenner, the film’s director, in yesterday’s paper. I loved a couple of Kenner’s point blank answers to the criticism the film’s received from giant agribusiness, and thought I’d share some excerpts from the interview with you:
Meet A Grass-fed Beef And Pastured Pork Farmer
Farmer’s markets are festive places. What’s not to love about artisanal foods, hand-crafted goods, and down-to-earth farmers? My all-time favorite reason for going to farmer’s markets is to meet farmers.
I like to ask them questions. Lots of questions.
Most farmers, contrary to popular stereotype, are an articulate, well-educated group. They have well thought out reasons for why they do what they do (which is why I like picking their brains). In the video below, you’ll get to meet a farming couple who raises grass-fed beef and pastured pork.
Truth And Lies About Fats And Obesity With Gary Taubes
Gary Taubes isn’t a household name (unless you’re a big reader of Science or The New York Times Magazine). But this scientific journalist has done as much for the cause of understanding obesity and fats as the food journalist Michael Pollan has done for understanding our food and where it comes from.
If you want to understand the obesity epidemic, if you want to know why you or a loved one is overweight, if you want to know the truth about healthy fats and what they are, if you want to know the true cause of coronary heart disease, Gary Taubes has the answer.