A perfect homegrown tomato



This tomato* is exactly why I grow my own tomatoes. It's vine ripened, a luscious red color throughout and there isn't a trace of white/pink tasteless Styrofoam texture. Every bite is delicious. No ethylene gas ripened tomatoes for me. I'd rather wait all year for this!


Some reading material for those interested in learning more tomatoes:
Why supermarket tomatoes tend to taste bad - LA TIMES
Taking tomatoes back to their tasty roots - NPR
Perfect tomatoes come from unhurried biochemistry - VegetableGarden.com


*This tomato is from our Beefsteak plant. I'm looking forward to seeing how the larger heirlooms compare.

A short history of the Mason Jar

Check out this short and enjoyable read from Sunday's New York Times Magazine. It's about the history of the Mason Jar! The line "...home canning has gained traction among a certain class of urban locavores..." made me chuckle. I didn't realize that Oliver and I had made it to the ranks of "a certain class" of people! Regardless of class, I'm always happy to find people spreading the word about eating local (be it urban, suburban or rural).

What to eat

I'm struggling with posts this week. I've wanted to write something that would convince everyone to give up "food like" substances as well as recipes based on "cream of this or that" - but I've found I'm not that good of a writer. So instead, I'm turning to my old faithful, Micheal Pollan, for his help. 


The following food tips come from his book Food Rules - an eater's manual. These are my ten favorites (in no particular order):
1. Eat foods made from ingredients that you can picture in their raw state or growing in nature.
2. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well. (I like to add "lived well" too).
3. Eat well grown food from healthy soil.
4. Favor oils and grains that have tradtionally been stone ground.
5. Avoid food products that contain more then five ingredients.
6. Treat treats as treats ("...special occasion foods offer some of the great pleasures of life, so we shouldn't deprive ourselves of them, but the sense of occasion needs to be restored...")
7. Pay more, eat less. ("...you get what you pay for. There is also a trade-off between quality and quantity...")
8. If it came from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don't.
9. It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language. Think Big Mac, Cheetos, or Pringles.
10. Plant a vegetable garden if you have the space, a window box if you don't.

My hero, Michael Pollan

If you're not already a fan of Michael Pollan then his appearance on the Colbert Report is a fantastic introduction. Pollan's book In Defense of Food is what set my lifestyle change in motion. Until that point I'd just been thinking about changing. His book gave me all the reasons I did't know I needed.  



Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. - Michael Pollan

"A Year of Food Life" - a must read!


Locavores, foodies and home gardeners have all found inspiration in the true story of Barbara Kingsolver's year long food experiment. In 2007 Barbara Kingsolver (you may already know her as the author of the novel "The Bean Trees") moved her family from Arizona to Virginia with a vow to survive only on food that either they had grown themselves or had been grown in their neighborhood. In her novel "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" she details their family experiment. Over the course of twelve months Barbara, her husband and her two daughters raise heirloom turkeys, perfect the art of daily homemade bread, can hundreds of vegetables and learn to make cheese all while running their own hillside fruit and vegetable farm. If that isn't enough, each chapter ends with a recipe.

If you're someone who is still putting off starting a garden or needs convicing about the joys of eating in season foods then please read "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of food life". This book is the reason our garden went from summer to year round. It also inspired my desire to learn canning and my ambition to eat not just real food but real, local, in-season food.
  • The recipes are on Barbara's website. Click the following for a direct link: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle recipes
  • You can read an exert from the book here.
  • And finally, as I give this awesome book two thumbs, do me favor: click the following link to play aloud the background.  Click here!