Portland Foodie

Can You Survive Without a Grocery Store?

There are several reasons why now is the right time to learn to grow your own food...cost savings, certainty of production methods, supporting your local community.  Lots of writing and conversation has come forth about the return of the Victory Garden…and I don’t mean the TV show.

There was a time when we knew how to take care of ourselves in this way. We could grow and harvest our own fruits and vegetables, care for our own chickens, and milk our own cows. Even in the past 50 years or so, the family veggie garden was a common part of life.

 Then we went and got all  “citified”. Stopped relying on ourselves and started buying into the myth that getting our produce from the grocery store was a better idea.  And the more we purchased, the more big agriculture grew, finding new chemicals and genetic modification practices to increase yields and length of storage.

Looking back on it, I can understand why we were eager to embrace “progress”. It was an amazing time saver, particularly for women who were raising a family and working full time. I mean, who had time to put in a full garden?

But in embracing this cultural shift, we’ve lost our respect for food.  We have lost the understanding of what it means to value the earth and the bounty that it provides. We’ve lost touch with small farmers, now struggling to survive. We’ve lost the ability to provide for ourselves. And this is a bad time to not know how to provide for ourselves.

The biggest hurdle we face in returning to some level of food self-sufficiency is overcoming the notion that buying produce at the local grocery is a good strategy for healthy living. It is more than evident that salmonella is sneaking in to food production at many levels. Toxic sprays and other inorganic farming methods are harming the environment and our bodies. And we have no idea what the long term ramifications of genetically modifying our food will be. Quite frankly, that’s the thing that scares me the most.

The good news is that it takes very little to reclaim our past. Anyone can grow their own food, even if it is in pots on a balcony or in a sunny window, you can grow some portion of the produce you need to sustain your life. Seeds, soil and pots can be found for little to no cost. Taking small steps as an individual can make a big difference. By choosing to grow your own food and frequenting local organic farms, you help strengthen your community. And by not buying produce from big agriculture, you are using your money to vote for change.  Together, we can make a difference.

Lemon Chicken Pasta Soup

This week we are fortunate to have a guest foodie post from one of my favorite mamapreneurs right here in Portland! Marlynn Jayme Schotland is the founder of Mamapreneurs, Inc. and the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio Show, Mamapreneurs. She has the most amazing recipe for Lemon Chicken Pasta Soup...sure to cure the sniffles.

And if this inspires you to search for more fabulous chicken recipes, either follow this link, or use the new Google custom search box I added. It will take you where you need to go in a snap!.

 Lemon Chicken Pasta Soup

Ingredients

• 1  (4-5 pound) whole chicken
• 2  carrots, peeled, cut in 1-inch pieces
• 2  celery stalks, cut in 1-inch pieces

• 1  medium onion, peeled and sliced

• 4  garlic cloves, crushed
• Handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 7  cups  water
• 1 1/2  cups chopped carrot

• 1 1/4  cups chopped onion
• 1  cup chopped celery
• 2  teaspoons  salt
• 8  ounces uncooked orzo or other tiny pasta (little star-shaped pasta works well if you’ve got kids)
• 1/4  cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 1/2  teaspoons grated lemon rind

• 1 cup fresh lemon juice

Preparation

1. Remove and discard giblets and neck from chicken. Place chicken in a large Dutch oven. Add 2 chopped carrots, 2 chopped celery stalks, and onion, garlic and parsley to pan. Add water; bring to a simmer. Reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes.

2. Remove chicken from pan; place chicken in a bowl. Chill 15 minutes. Discard skin; remove chicken from bones, discarding bones. Chop chicken into bite-sized pieces; cover and chill. Strain broth mixture through a sieve into a large bowl; discard solids. Cool broth mixture to room temperature. Cover and chill 5 to 24 hours. Skim fat from surface; discard.

3. Add enough water to broth to equal 9 cups; place broth mixture in a large Dutch oven. Add 1 1/2 cups carrot, 1 1/4 cups onion, 1 cup celery, and salt to pan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Add reserved chicken, and simmer 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Keep warm.

4. Cook pasta according to package directions. Add pasta to pan with chicken and broth mixture; stir in parsley, rind, and juice.

 

 

Cool Foodie Resources from Rebecca Gerendasy of CUPS

Recently, I had lunch with my friend Rebecca Gerendasy of Cooking Up a Story (CUPS). She is such an amazing woman, dedicated to sustainable food and farming, and an all out foodie. And, she is a tremendous wealth of knowledge. We talked about a ton of things, but she left me with some resources I just have to share. In fact, they are so great, I am cross-posting this information on Gardener to Farmer and Portland Foodie...

I want to start with CUPS' new contributors, The Two Junes. These women are urban homesteaders with a ton of knowledge...the kind we seem to have lost along the way to industrialization. Check out the first part of their bio:
 

"We cook every day, from scratch, a life that seems perfectly normal to us. Doesn’t everyone tend a vegetable garden? Compost? Make stock and preserves? Save bacon and duck fat? Make dog food? Put up kumquats and crab apples? Well, no, apparently not. Jaws drop when we describe anything related to our kitchen life."

Um, hi Two Junes, can I be your new best friend? No seriously, can I?

Tune in to the Two Junes on CUPS every Tuesday morning...their latest post, Sustainable Food Movements' Dirty Little Secret is bound to get you talking...

On to Rebecca's next recommendation: Friends of Family Farmers. This groovy site is about promoting and protecting socially responsible farming in Oregon. Seriously?? How did I not know about this? I swear, I have to start leaving the house more often...

Here's their mission:
"We are a grassroots organization promoting sensible policies, programs, and regulations that protect and expand the ability of Oregon’s family farmers to run a successful land-based enterprise while providing safe and nutritious food for all Oregonians. Through education, advocacy, and community organizing, Friends of Family Farmers supports socially and environmentally responsible family-scale agriculture and citizens working to shape healthy rural communities."

I love that they are fostering a conversation about sustainable farming practices. We can feed people without giant agri-businesses that use environmentally irresponsible methods.

And finally, she recommended the Pacific Northwest Cheese Project. This is an amazing site dedicated to the lovely artisinal cheeses produced in the PNW. Seriously, Tami Parr (site owner) is a cheese lover from day one. She spent quality time on a dairy farm in Wisconsin, need I say more? Here's what she has to say about her site:

"My family originally hails from a small farming community in southern Wisconsin. Growing up, I visited Wisconsin just about every summer and while there, spent a lot of time on my aunt and uncle's dairy farm. It was there that I learned about the hard work that goes into creating the food that goes onto the dinner table, the relief of getting the milk check in the mail, and the joy of a good harvest.

In Wisconsin cheese is a way of life so perhaps some of my passion about cheese came from there. Mostly I'm fascinated by cheese as a living, breathing food and a complex intersection of animal, land and craft. This is what I'm exploring when I think about, taste and write about cheese."

Tami is also participating in the Oregon Food Bank's Blog for Food. In the month of February,  Oregon  Food Blogs are asked to participate in the Blog for Food campaign to help raise money and awareness for the food bank. We all know that times are tough...but now is the time to step forward and make sure that everyone in our community has access to food. Please consider donating by going to the Oregon Food Bank's secure donation page. If we all pull together, we can make sure that Oregonian's have access to the most basic of needs: food.

Whew...that was a lot of information, but like I said, Rebecca is a wealth of knowledge! Be sure to check out Cooking Up a Story on a regular basis...she has the most awesome foodie videos!

Man v. Food Comes to Portland!

Hey all, I was contacted by a very nice person at the Travel Channel...her name is Wendy Ricci...Anyhoo, she let me know that the Man v. Food Portland episode airs Wednesday, Feb 4th at 10 pm EST on the Travel Channel. Tune in to see our foodie fabulousness!