Food Revolution Day 2013

Tomorrow is Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution Day!  It is Jamie Oliver’s mission to revolutionize children’s relationship with food.  People have stopped passing down the skills of scratch cooking and home made meals…it’s time to teach our young people who to cook again!  We believe in this mission whole heartedly and believe good nutrition and healthy food service is a path to self sufficiency.  So let’s celebrate that we are having this conversation – and keep your eyes open for opportunities to support this in our community for our children and for our future!

Bitter Melon Juice

  I guess it’s time to grow bitter melon.  I have some seeds from Kitazawa Seed and this article about bitter melon juice potentially fighting pancreatic cancer makes it a must grow! “Researchers from the University of Colorado Cancer Center found that the juice of the bitter melon — a green squash-shaped produce with a bumpy skin — could stop pancreatic cancer cells from metabolizing glucose. This is important because cancer cells need this energy in order to survive — and blocking off their glucose supply kills them.” Read the whole article here.  Look for bitter melon juice at the farm stand this summer…

The Abundance of Summer

Here is a great article about cooking, preserving and enjoying local summer crops.  The onslaught of squash is heading our way now!  The Kitchn has a whole series of tips-I have to have this book titled – The City Cook, Big City, Small Kitchen, Limitless Ingredients, No Time.  Sound familiar?!

The Anatomy of an Egg

SHELL	Bumpy and grainy in texture, an eggshell is covered with as many as 17,000 tiny pores. Eggshell is made almost entirely of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) crystals. It is a semipermeable membrane, which means that air and moisture can pass through its pores. The shell also has a thin outermost coating called the bloom or cuticle that helps keep out bacteria and dust.
INNER AND OUTER MEMBRANES	Lying between the eggshell and egg white, these two transparent protein membranes provide efficient defense against bacterial invasion. If you give these layers a tug, you’ll find they’re surprisingly strong. They’re made partly of keratin, a protein that’s also in human hair.
AIR CELL	An air space forms when the contents of the egg cool and contract after the egg is laid. The air cell usually rests between the outer and inner membranes at the egg’s larger end, and it accounts for the crater you often see at the end of a hard-cooked egg. The air cell grows larger as an egg ages.
ALBUMEN	The egg white is known as the albumen, which comes from albus, the Latin word for “white.” Four alternating layers of thick and thin albumen contain approximately 40 different proteins, the main components of the egg white in addition to water.
CHALAZAE	Opaque ropes of egg white, the chalazae hold the yolk in the center of the egg. Like little anchors, they attach the yolk’s casing to the membrane lining the eggshell. The more prominent they are, the fresher the egg.
VITELLINE MEMBRANE	The clear casing that encloses the yolk.
YOLK	The yolk contains less water and more protein than the white, some fat, and most of the vitamins and minerals of the egg. These include iron, vitamin A, vitamin D, phosphorus, calcium, thiamine, and riboflavin. The yolk is also a source of lecithin, an effective emulsifier. Yolk color ranges from just a hint of yellow to a magnificent deep orange, according to the feed and breed of the hen.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/eggs/eggcomposition.html

The above graphic and definitions is from the coolest site on food and the science of cooking.  Love, love love this website!  It is from the San Francisco Exploratorium…what an amazing treasure of interesting knowledge.

Spring Street Farm’s Sunday Supper

I know our dance cards are getting full with Christmas up next and then New Year’s…but following right behind those events is January First Friday and Spring Street Farm’s Sunday Supper-both events taking place January 4th and 6th at the Expo Art Center in Bixby Knolls!

Consider adding a two seats at the Table to your Holiday giving…bring a loved one and enjoy a gourmet meal, locally sourced and prepared by a community of caring chefs in support of our community of children here in Long Beach.

This dinner is being hosted to raise awareness and a few dollars for our Farm to School Supper Club.  No child should go to bed hungry, but some do-right here in our city.  The Supper Club will help serve meals in the after school hours when kids may not get a hot meal at home.  We are also helping kids learn about making better choices when shopping for food and our teens are working on better access to good shopping options for healthy food!  A gift card and donation receipt is available too.  Enjoy the season!

Surveys and Petitions

From Donna at Long Beach Grows:

As you know, for several years now Long Beach Grows has been promoting food security through urban agriculture, including small scale animal husbandry. We have collected well over 1600 signatures on our pro urban agriculture petition, and have been communicating with city council and its sub-committees to relax the existing rules for keeping egg-laying poultry and goats and bees. However we have had recent resistance from Councilperson Gerrie Schipske, who created her own survey that is now online.

Thank you to everybody who has already signed our ORIGINAL petition and thanks to everybody who has said YES to chickens, goats, and bees on Gerrie Schipske’s survey. If you have only signed one or the other, please take the time to do both. We need power in numbers.

The City of Long Beach already allows keeping goats and chickens and bees in Long Beach. The issue is about changing outdated, prejudicial, misinformed rules about setbacks and zoning requirements.

Whether you already have chickens or goats or bees in Long Beach, or have been doing your research to decide whether this type of commitment is for you, or even if this is not in your personal plans but you respect other people’s rights to have these animals as pets, as a source of wholesome family education, and as a source of wholesome eggs and milk from animals treated humanely with your love and respect, then, if you haven’t done so already,  please sign our petition. This is not the time to be complacent.

Here is the link: http://www.longbeachgrows.org/LongBeachGrows/Long_Beach_Grows_Please_sign_our_petition.html
Plus, it would help me if you would indicate your district in the comment field.

Then, if you haven’t done so already, please take Councilperson Schipske’s survey to support ALL the recommended changes in favor of pro goat, pro chickens, and pro bees. Here is the link: http://conta.cc/Van21a

Thanks so much!

Donna Marykwas
Long Beach Grows
Growing a more sustainable future
donna@longbeachgrows.org
562-912-3364

P.S. Long Beach Grows is on facebook and yesterday I created two events, one to sign our petition, one to take Councilperson Schipske’s survey. If you are on facebook, please share these events with your like-minded friends. Or forward this email to them. Thanks.

Cranberry Lover’s Delight!

All three items are sold together for $25  Available for pick up on Wednesday at the Farm Stand.

This trio of home made goodness is perfect for the Thanksgiving Table.  A terrific hostess gift or a nice way to handle the cranberry category on your own holiday list of to-dos!

1. Cranberry-Corn Cake, very moist, not too sweet, filled with tang and flavor, serves 10-12

2. Cranberry Chutney, 8oz jar of yummy goodness

3. Sweet-Potato Salad with cranberries, feta candied pecans and tossed in an Apple Cider Dressing.  This salad hits all the flavor profiles for the perfect twist on the traditional…I guarantee you will win over previous sweet potato hold outs in your family.  This is one of the best salads I have ever tasted!!  1 quart

Prepared by our Farm Chef, Sean.  An amazing talent!!

CSULB Organic Garden Project

CSULB Organic Garden Project, a set on Flickr.

Boxes built and installed by our Summer 2012 Youth Opportunity Center Farm Interns. CSULB students will grow and prepare vegetables for an end of semester class project luncheon.

Farm Swag

Farm Swag, a set on Flickr.

Roosting

Roosting, a photo by farmdesk on Flickr.

The girls are all jockeying for position…and then they hunker down for the night