No More Toxic Alphabet Soup For Me, Please

BPA, PVC, BFR, DDT... whether we realize it or not, an unfortunate alphabet soup of toxins has insinuated itself into every aspect of our lives. 

From the BPA (bisphenol-A) in our canned tomatoes and water bottles to the PVC (polyvinyl chloride) in our shower curtains and baby toys to the phthalates in our shampoo and shaving cream to the BFR (brominated flame retardant) in our mattresses and our baby's pajamas, we're surrounded by toxic chemicals that raise our risk of developing cancer, asthma, Alzheimers, and also cause a dizzying array of developmental, neurological, immunologic, reproductive, and endocrine disorders. (whew, that was a looong sentence!)

Needless to say, these toxic chemicals need banning! Unfortunately, Congress has not figured that out yet, despite lots of news stories and studies about the dangers these chemicals pose to our health and to our environment. 

To help Congress get the message I've created a petition urging them to reform the lame dinosaur that is the Toxic Substances Control Act (of 1976...) before any more damage is done. Please join me in making sure that they get the message. 

Click here to add your name and then please spread the word via email, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Thanks so much for your help.

A few more posts you might like:

• Got BPA? Switch To Glass Storage Containers 
• Say Buy-Bye To Bottled Water 
• How To Choose The Best Milk
• Forget Free-Range, Buy Pasture-Raised Eggs From a Local Farm
  

Thinking Out Of The Box: A Packaging-Free Grocery Store!

Yesterday morning, I was thinking about what it would be like if the Berkeley Bowl expanded its bulk foods section to fill the entire store. I fantasized about filling up glass jugs with cold, creamy milk, transferring speckled brown eggs from a refrigerated shelf to a plastic egg carrier, carefully wrapping a stick of butter in waxed paper, pouring flour into a burlap sack...

So imagine my surprise when my husband called me over to his computer last night to show me this short article about Unpackaged, a London grocery store that (as the name might imply) sells its goods unpackaged. A simple yet brilliant idea!

Here is what Unpackaged has to say about itself:

Unpackaged was founded in 2006 by Catherine Conway in the belief that there is a better way to sell food. We want to make it easy for our customers to do the right thing – the right thing for themselves and for the environment.We started on a market stall and now have a shop at 42 Amwell St, London, EC1R 1XT. 

You can read more about them here or browse their list of products here.

It seems pretty straightforward: You bring your containers from home (they're willing to fill anything and everything - and, of course, they weigh the heavy containers first so you don't end up paying for their weight), fill 'em up, weigh 'em, pay for everything, take it home, and repeat once you've run out. Reminds me a little of the co-op my family belonged to when I was little but with no membership requirements.

My question is why we don't have one (or several thousand) of these stores here in the U.S.? I could see this working very well in the Bay Area or NYC to start. Reusing your plastic bags is a good first step but this type of business innovation would speed things up considerably. Just imagine, unpacking your groceries without having to feel guilty about all the wasteful packaging. In addition, buying in bulk tends to be cheaper since you're not paying for the design and production of all that packaging.

Since Elephant Pharmacy closed (ah, the sadness), there is even a very nice, centrally-located retail space available in the Gourmet Ghetto here in Berkeley. Could be a perfect fit for the neighborhood!

Please share on Facebook and Twitter -- let's try to get the idea out there.

A few more posts you might like:

• Buy In Bulk
  
• Bring Your Own Bags
• Got BPA? Switch To Glass Storage Containers
• Forget Free-Range, Buy Pasture-Raised Eggs From a Local Farm
  

Greening Your Kitchen: Forget Free-Range, Buy Pasture-Raised Eggs From a Local Farm

A reader recently asked me if I could expand the post I did last year on "choosing the right milk" to include eggs, another food for which there a lot of confusing buying options. Although there are more details below, the short answer is that you should look for eggs that are "pasture-raised" from a farm near you.

Pasture-raised is pretty much what it sounds like -- they are eggs laid by hens that are raised with open access to pasture where they can scratch, peck, bask in the sun, eat and run around to their hearts content.

Unfortunately, "organic", "cage-free", and "free-range" classifications/certifications do not guarantee that the birds are fed a natural diet or that they live the life of a normal chicken, complete with keeping their beeks (egg-laying hens raised in factory farms routinely have their beeks cut off - a truly horrible practice that is done to prevent them from drawing blood in their extremely close living quarters), having enough room not just to turn around but also to run around in, as well as unlimited access to the real outdoors and all the sunlight, yummy grass, and nutritious bugs they desire (see below for a photo of the lucky hens at Eatwell Farm, enjoying some fresh pasture.)

For example, the USDA defines "free-range" as meaning "allowed access to the outdoors." Unfortunately, for many "free-range" birds, this merely means that the factory farm leaves a tiny hatch on its shed open to a bare external concrete yard for a certain number of minutes each day, an "opportunity" the chickens have likely never even learned to take advantage of ('cause really, what would they gain from that sort of outdoor access...?)

"Organic" certification refers solely to the certification of the birds' feed and while it is certainly marginally better to buy factory-farm organic eggs than not, organic feed does not a healthy, happy chicken (or egg) make.

In addition to the fact that pasture-raised animals have lives worth living (which cannot be said of most birds raised on factory farms, even the ones that sell "cage-free" eggs), there are a lot of benefits to us, the egg eaters, as well.

Although the results vary slightly for each batch of eggs tested (since pasture-raised chickens' diets do vary by farm and by season, unlike factory-raised birds that eat the same thing all year round), the benefits are clear: pasture-raised eggs contain significantly less cholesterol and saturated fats and significantly more Omega-3 fatty acids, Vitamin E, Vitamin A, and Beta Carotene than their factory-farmed counterparts. If you're interested in the research, check out the results of this Mother Earth News study as well as the additional studies listed in the Mounting Evidence section at the bottom of page 4.

The other criteria, buying eggs that are raised locally, is important for three reasons: 

1. the eggs you receive will be fresher and more nutritious for you and your family, 
2. you will be supporting your local farmers and your local economy, and 
3. the carbon footprint of your egg-consumption will be lower since they only have to be transported a short distance to reach you.

We buy delicious, pasture-raised eggs straight from our CSA, Eatwell Farm. The eggs from their chickens (see the photo of "the girls", as Eatwell calls them, below) have rich golden yolks that "stand up" -- one sure sign of a fresh, nutritious egg. 

If you can't find pasture-raised eggs at your local farmers' market, these sites can help you locate a good local source: http://www.localharvest.org, http://www.eatwild.com, and http://www.eatwellguide.org (if you know of a farm near you that sells pasture-raised eggs, encourage them to submit their listing to these sites as they're always trying to build their databases.)

You can also raise your own eggs! This is as fresh and as local as it gets. Raising backyard chicken appears to be a quickly-growing trend. In addition to the chickens that belong to my back neighbors, Fran and Chip, and the flock at the Edible Schoolyard (see photo of their sign below) two blocks from our house, I know of at least three other small flocks of chickens being raised right here in my little North Berkeley neighborhood. If you're interested in this idea, stay tuned as I will be doing a post on backyard chickens soon.

If you really can't find pasture-raised, local eggs for some reason (they're easier and easier to find), I would recommend buying an organic, free-range option from a more trusted brand, such as Organic Valley or Clover (see my milk post for a review of different organic brands) since they purchase from a network of smaller farms, increasing the chance that the birds are treated more humanely. Also look for a brand that is "Humane-certified".

In case you've missed the earlier entries in this series, see below for more ways to Green Your Kitchen:

• Got BPA? Switch to Glass Storage Containers
• How To Choose the "Right" Milk
• BYOB (Bring Your Own Bags)
• Say 'Buh-Bye' to Bottled Water
• Nix the Antibacterials
• Plant an Herb Garden
• Buy In Bulk
• Grow Your Own Garlic
• Slay the Energy Vampires

Gift From The Kitchen Gods: Better Than Bouillon

Although it's best to make your own stock, it's not always a realistic option.

When I've run out of frozen stock cubes and am too busy to make stock, I turn to Better Than Bouillon.

I have tried their chicken, veggie, beef and mushroom bases and they are all excellent. They've also come out with an organic line of these bouillons recently which makes me feel a little better about using them (the organic ones are a couple dollars more than the conventional but I think it's worth $7-$8 vs. $5-6.) And they also make a vegan base for those of you who roll that way.

They're easier to use than normal bouillon because they have a paste-like consistency and you can scoop out as much or as little as you need, then put the jar back in the fridge. Just boil water, add a teaspoon of base to a cup of water, mix well and presto, you've got tasty broth at your disposal.

If you can't find them in your local grocery store, you can always buy them online from Amazon - they appear to carry them all.

Browse through more Gifts From The Kitchen Gods:

• Fresh, Frozen Herbs
• Ginger Syrup
• Immersion Blender
• Microplane Zester
• Plastic Pot & Pan Scraper
• Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale Mustard
• Soft Skin Fruit and Vegetable Peeler

The Seeds of Summer

Comfort food is not the only way to beat the winter blues. One other sure-fire remedy is to browse through a seed catalog. You'll be instantly transported to a warm, sunny garden filled with all manner of verdant, blossoming abundance.

I can spend hours salivating over the gorgeous photos in the Seeds of Change catalog. The names, alone, are enough to fill my mind with explosions of color: Bull's Blood Beets, Eros Endive, Tiger's Eye Bush Beans, Imperial Star Artichokes, Scarlet Nantes Carrots, Skywalker Cauliflower (for all us Star Wars fans), Orange Fantasia Chard, Moneymaker Tomato...

These short, dark days are a great time to plan out your garden and order your seeds for spring. I've already mentioned Seeds of Change, which is a great source for high-quality organic seeds. Many of the seeds come from their extensive network of organic farmers and growers around the country so buying from them helps to support native and heirloom varieties of fruits, veggies and flowers.

I just learned about another great source for seeds from the area where I grew up -- the Hudson Valley Seed Library in Accord, NY. In addition to helping preserve regional seeds, the Hudson Valley Seed Library also celebrates the beauty of heirloom gardening through their delightful "art packs" featuring designs by local artists. These were just too fetching to pass up. Here are some of my favorites, hope you like them, too. Happy browsing!

A few other Garden of Eating posts you might like:

• Greening Your Kitchen: Plant an Herb Garden
• Greening Your Kitchen: Grow Your Own Garlic
• A Birth Announcement: Blossom Is Born!
  

Greening Your Kitchen: Switch to Glass Storage Containers

I've been concerned about the toxins in plastic for several years but, now that I have a baby, I'm a lot more freaked out about them. Not only are there millions of plastic baby products (most of which are made in China, which does not have the best record when it comes to consumer safety) but my sweet, little, 8-month-old son also wants to put each and every one of them in his mouth! This does not seem like the the best combo to me...

So far, the hoopla has all centered around BPA (Bisphenol A), an organic compound that serves as a building block of several common plastics. Unfortunately, BPA also happens to be an endocrine disruptor which can mimic the body's own hormones (estrogen, specifically) and leads to negative health effects including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, infertility, and developmental problems. And, sadly, babies and kids are the most sensitive to its disruptive and harmful effects. Pretty scary stuff...

Although my husband and I ditched our Nalgene bottles in favor of stainless steel water bottles quite a few years back and I seek out BPA-free plastic products when I am buying, I knew there was more we could do to keep these nasty toxins out of our home.

One easy step I took recently was to invest in glass storage containers since the idea of toxic chemicals leaching into our food (and our baby's food) gives me the heebie jeebies. In addition to avoiding the toxic chemicals, there are a couple of other side benefits to using glass instead of plastic/Tupperware.

• Glass is easier to clean and more hygienic than plastic. Since glass does not degrade like plastic, your glass storage containers will not get stained by tomato sauce, nor will it retain food odors.
• You can heat food up directly in it in either a regular or microwave oven. Although I'm kind of anti-microwave, when I do use one, I always transfer my food out of the plastic container and into either glass or ceramic since heat causes plastic to break down and leach chemicals into your food more readily. You can also put tempered glass into the oven without needing to transfer it to another dish which saves time and washing.
• It's pretty! I love the look and feel of the glassware -- it's got a much nicer aesthetic than the crappy plastic that gets stained and pitted fairly quickly.

If you're not sure where to start, below are some companies that make sturdy glass containers of different sizes and shapes (the Crate and Barrel Outlet is also a great source for these things.) I've also gotten good deals on glass containers on Amazon.com.

Some of these companies make containers with glass lids but most of the products you'll find have plastic tops, some of which use safer plastics (no BPA or PVC) but you should check to make sure when you buy. 


I'd also recommend removing the plastic top before heating anything up, regardless of how "safe" the plastic is supposed to be as I suspect pretty soon we'll be hearing that all plastics leach toxic chemicals of one type or another.

• Anchor (plastic lids are BPA free)
• Kinetic Go Green Glassware (lids are silicon)
• Frigoverre
• Pyrex
• Corningware
• Corelle

I also stumbled on a great site called The Soft Landing when I was researching these products - it's an excellent resource if you want to start reducing your exposure to toxins.

I recommend making this switch ASAP. The glassware will last a long time (longer than the plastic) and it will help to keep you and your family safe from the harmful effects of plastic as well as keeping a little more junk out of our landfills.

In case you missed the earlier entries in this series, see below for more ways to Green Your Kitchen.

• Nix the Antibacterials
• Slay the Energy Vampires
• Plant an Herb Garden
• Buy In Bulk
• Grow Your Own Garlic
• Say 'Buh-Bye' to Bottled Water
• BYOB (Bring Your Own Bags)
• How To Choose the "Right" Milk
• Forget Free-Range, Buy Pasture-Raised Eggs From a Local Farm
• Buy BPA-Free Tomatoes & Beans

Maple-Glazed Meatloaf With Rolled Oats and Fresh Thyme

Although I loved winter as a kid, I have not been a big fan since my teens. Chapped lips, dry skin, and an inability to stay warm make it hard for me to like the season. But winter does have at least one saving grace -- it acts as the perfect foil for comfort food. The cold and dark make one appreciate hot, rich meals that fill you up and make you happy, no matter how few hours of daylight there may be. Meatloaf with mashed potatoes is one of them...

In addition to being refreshingly unpretentious and very tasty, meatloaf is also quite fun to cook. To quote the Joy of Cooking, "Part of the pleasure of making meatloaf is that it is entirely unfussy and open to interpretation."

The recipe below is cobbled together from a bunch of different recipes to create a perfect combination of savory meat, flavorful herbs, and sweet glaze. But you should feel free to take the Joy of Cooking's advice and adapt this recipe to meld the flavors to your liking.

We are fortunate to have easy access to excellent, locally-raised, free range, grass-fed, organic beef. I used a mix of ground beef from Bear River Valley Ranch (I actually met Hugo, the rancher, when I went to buy the ground beef for this recipe -- he was giving out samples at our local butcher shop) and Niman Ranch ground pork. I served this meatloaf with mashed potatoes, sauteed spinach with garlic, and butter-braised new turnips - delish!

Stay warm!

Maple-Glazed Meatloaf With Rolled Oats and Fresh Thyme
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

For the meatloaf
* 1 medium onion, finely chopped
* 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
* 1 cup rolled oats (or 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs - you can also do half and half if you prefer)
* 2 tsps fresh thyme, chopped
* 1 1/2 tsps freshly ground black pepper
* 1 tsp sea salt
* 1/4 cup ketchup
* 1 carrot, peeled and finely diced
* 2-3 ribs of celery, finely diced
* 2 tsps Worcestershire sauce
* 1/3 cup minced fresh parsley
* 1 1/2 lbs free range grass-fed ground beef
* 1/2 lb free range organic pork (or Italian pork sausage)
* 2 Tbsp butter

For the glaze
* 1/4 cup maple syrup
* 2 Tbsps Dijon mustard

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a large heavy skillet cook the onion, carrot and celery in butter, over medium heat, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Cover the skillet and stir occasionally until the carrots and celery are tender, about 5 more minutes. Stir in salt and pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup. Cook for 1 more minute.

3. In a large bowl, combine the meat, eggs, vegetables, oats and/or bread crumbs, and herbs. Use your hands to mix thoroughly (but do not over mix as this will hurt the texture of the finished meatloaf). Pour the mixture into a glass loaf pan and mound in the center slightly to make a traditional loaf shape.

4. Make the maple glaze and cover the loaf liberally with the mixture. Bake the meatloaf in the oven for 1 to 1 1/2 hours or until the middle of the loaf reaches 160 degrees.

A few more recipes you might like:

• Baked Macaroni & Cheese
• Basic Beef Stew With a Hint of Moroccan Flavor
• Ratatouille & Sausage Potpie With Cornmeal Biscuit Topping
• Short Ribs With Root Vegetables & Spring Herbs

Simple Sautéed Spinach With Garlic (Eatwell Recipe 46)

This recipe is incredibly simple but so tasty that I'm writing about it just in case it has not yet occurred to you to make spinach this way as I would hate for you to miss out on it.

Fresh spinach, lots of garlic, some shallot or onion, olive oil, salt and pepper - that is it! It's delicious and super good for you, too.

You can also create a variation on this recipe by adding some dried currants, toasted pine nuts and a splash of balsamic vinegar if you feel like getting wild (though it is plenty good without those additions, too.)

Simple Sautéed Spinach With Garlic
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
* 2 bunches fresh spinach leaves, washed thoroughly
* 4-6 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed (you can use less if you prefer, I just really like garlic)
* 1 large shallot or small onion, chopped
* 3-4 tsps olive oil
* Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
* 1 Tbsp butter (optional)

Directions

1. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over a medium flame then add the onion and cook for 2-3 minutes until it begins to soften. Add the garlic and sautée for another 3-4 minutes, stirring often, until the onions are translucent and the garlic releases its fragrance.

2. Add the spinach to the pan in small batches, stirring to help expose all the leaves to the heat. As it wilts, add more handfuls of spinach until it is all wilted. Season with salt and pepper and add the (optional) butter - stir to combine and serve.

A few more recipes you might like:

• Cauliflower Curry With Spinach & Ginger
• Creamed Spinach
  
• Quinoa & Spinach Gratin
• Spinach & Onion Quesadillas
• Spinach, Onion, Cheese & Thyme Quiche
  

Like this recipe? Click here to browse through more Eatwell Recipes.