I don't always find time to be healthy...

Talking to my friend Jennifer who lives in Cincinnati Ohio, about food and shopping on the phone on Sunday morning, I visualize a blog entry.
And even though it's outside my bioregion, it illuminates the work to build local food awareness...

As is our normal pattern, we veer from subject to subject and talk over each other whenever we want to get a point across, as only 2 friends for over 15 years can do.
As she squeezes her organic Valencia oranges with her hand cranking squeezer, we talked about her wonderful nearby small food store, Madison's and how she is back to (happily) using it for her shopping.
Madison's is a well known, well-respected Findlay Market outlet, and opened this second location in Northside (Norside to locals) within the last 3 years. The Findlay Market is an old shed market that has been rehabbed in the last few years. To see what it looked like before, find the Johnny Cash movie called "The Pride of Jesse Hellam", where Cash plays an illiterate miner moving to the city, and gets a job working for Eli Wallach's produce distribution company at the market. Fascinating.

The Over-The-Rhine neighborhood where the Findlay Market located is a neigborhood near downtown, about 3-5 miles from Northside, and is full of beautiful Italianate style brick buildings (actually the largest concentration of this style in the country Jennifer told me), but is also known as a very high crime area with appalling pockets of poverty, which has had its effect on the Market. The market does good business on the weekends, but has not been able to add as many weekday shoppers, which comes as no surprise to market managers around the country.

The Northside Madison's is only about 800 square feet, but attractively designed with a large window and great signs. The sandwich board sign marketing is ubiquitous in Northside, so you can drive down and see right away those who are open by the wooden signs near the street. Madison's adheres to the tradition with a nice version. They have won reader's choice for Best Buy Local store among others, and are known for amazing homemade gelato. (Don't get Jennifer started about the pink grapefruit sorbet...)

Jennifer works at a downtown law firm til 6:00, so doesn't get home til 6:30, which is tricky because Madison's is only open til 7 p.m. She can just make it to Madison's if she is not too tired, or if remembers to take a different exit off the highway on her way home. She tells me she got out of the habit of going to Madison's until recently because she was not buying fruits and vegetables on a regular basis, and instead eating takeout (albeit relatively healthy takeout) foods instead.

When I pressed her on a more specific reason as to why she stopped going, she first puts the blame on herself, labeling herself "lazy". She also mentions that she feels guilty not going to the farmers market on Saturday mornings, although Madison's carries much of the same local produce at this location.

Then she points out some simple customer service issues:

"I used to go to Madison's for the gourmet to go, but when they stopped carrying the soups I liked, I stopped going." she says. "Now, the guy they had working there has left, and now when I ask for stuff they get it in right away. I asked for the soups, and they brought them back."
Later she mentions:
"They also changed their hours; they used to be open til 8 p.m."

Jennifer is a good cook when she has time, and keeps routines for her week and her weekend that allows good shopping to be a part of it, if all the stars align. The more I talk to her about food, the more I see a regular person who wants to eat healthy, but thinks she must buy it in its raw form, or do it all the time to benefit. In other words, all or nothing.
When she gets out of the habit of cooking or has a quasi-junk food bender, it stops the trips to Madison's or Findlay completely for a while, instead of her continuing to supplement with some good food items among some not so great food items.

What I got from that was that outlets like Madison's must be very responsive to their smaller overworked client base, and find ways to be creative to keep these folks coming.
Maybe things like marketing a full healthy take home dinner for the first really cold night in Cincinnati and staying open a bit later for folks to pick it up that night.
Or, having a small nearby delivery service once a week (Madison's night), or even a call in number or email address to pre-order dinner or to have some groceries bagged and ready to go.
A weekly, informational html email newsletter has been a great marketing tool for markets to remind shoppers weekly about what is in season and available. Our small market has thousands of shoppers who subscribe and they tell us how much they appreciate it. Adding simple recipes is a must, by the way.

Overall, the move to these type of locally owned small footprint shops are the wave of the future, just as they were the only way to shop 50 years ago. What has changed is the pace of life for their customers, as well as their ability to know how to use a large number of fruits and vegetables in cooking. If Madison's is (I hope) to be the vanguard, then they will need to continue to adapt and assist their customers in reasons to show up for the next 50 years.

Glean the Planet

Glean the Planet is a web site designed to facilitate the
redistribution of community and individual food resources. The
site—www.gleantheplanet.com— offers both discussion forums and open
source mapping software from Google maps and Platial.com. By allowing
users to map specific locations and illustrate them with pictures and
additional detailed information, this mapping software helps people
facilitate the local sharing of food outside of monetary-based
economies.

A peek into how our buying club works...

So, we order our groceries monthly online (coopshopper.com) and then we work to fill the case minimums when the item in question is only available in larger quantities. This email below is one of our members working to fill her case choices....


Hi coop buying club members,

I am writing to officially "plug" some items I am trying to fill cases
for. You may notice I am essentially trying to get everyone in the club
on a dairy and sugar binge. But isn't that what the holidays are for?
Please consider ordering one of these things to fill out a case:

* Goat milk prodcuts: Every single month I try without any success to
order lots of goat milk products. Why? Goat milk is delicious, AND, more
importantly, goats aren't farmed on the huge scale cows are, aren't
generally given lots of antibiotics and hormones. Goat milk rocks! Widen
your horizons! Try some goat milks products! You will notice I have
started cases of the following delectable items:
- Swiss goat milk: try it, you might like it!
- Euro style Goat milk butter: I have had this and it is AMAZING. Yes,
its pricey, but it's really really good! They sell it at whole foods for $2 more than the
coop charges.
- Goat milk ice cream: Need I say more? Who doesn't want chocolate icea
cream? C'mon folks.

*Soy and rice milk prodcuts:
- I have ben trying for a while to order half gallons of Chocolate Silk,
which is basically chocolate soy milk. Once you have tasted it you will
not be able to live without it. Really.
- Rice dream pies: This is a rice milk icea cream sandwich. You will
love it. Delicious and way less fattening than regular ice cream. (OK,
yes, someone in my household is a major ice cream lover, you may have
figured this out by now.)

* Turbinado/Demerara sugar (in bulk): Do you drink coffee with sugar in
it? I do, every morning. This sugar isn't bleached, isn't refined in any way.
In other words, if sugar can ever be thought of as healthful, this is that
sugar. It's also very tasty and very pretty (large and attractive caramel
colored crystals). You can use it for baking (Thanksgiving pies?) or
anything else for your sugar needs. Whoo hoo!

* I have plugged the Passion Fruit juice in previous months, and people
did order enough for a case. Let's do it again! This is the best
beverage you will ever taste. And you know Nola is a cocktail town. Rum
and passion fruit juice? Hello? Yes!

*Half and half and heavy whipping cream. See a trend here? I love dairy!
The half and half goes along with the Demerara sugar for delicous morning
coffee. And... it's Thanksgiving time folks, and you KNOW you need
whipped creamon your pies.

* Here's something that isn't dairy OR sugar: Canned Tuna! I have
noticed that someone in the coop shares my obsession with Annie's Tuna
Spirals. Don't you need some tuna to go along with it? Mercury poisoning be
damned! We love tuna.

In closing, I must also add I have noticed that since the membership of
the buying club has gotten larger, this doesn't necessarily mean our cases
get filled. It seems like there are more cases opened that don't get
filled. Before you open a new case, check the "sharing items" section and
see if you can help others fill their cases. I've ordered some great stuff that
way that I never would have tried otherwise. That's part of the beauty of
a coop.

Local near and a little far

I just arrived back in town after 6 days out of the city, flying to High Springs Florida for 3 days, then to Houston Texas for the last 2 and half. Interestingly, the ability to stay near the Gulf Coast in or near my own bioregion made for a much easier travel for me it seems. No jet lag or shock over local food options.

I ate at a wonderful restaurant near High Springs called Deneno's (I think) and had a savory pumpkin ravioli with sage butter spiced by much laughter and biographical details being shared around the table with Sharon, AnneMarie, Val and Lucie (more on her later). Lovely evening.
I was also booked by Sharon (the farmers market manager and statewide voice on local food entrepreneurs) in a beautiful B&B called The Grady House run by Paul and Lucie (here she is) Regensdorf, 2 high-powered lawyers late from Miami.
Their story is they went looking for community and a more laid-back lifestyle and found it in this tiny town where outdoor activities like kayaking and hiking are its main tourist draw. (You also gotta see the town sinkhole, where they hold the open air farmers market. I had never seen one or knew they existed.) Lucie is one smart, no nonsense B&B owner, who takes real delight in presenting a gorgeous breakfast with items like croissant French Toast and wonderful filled biscuits.

When I got to Houston, I had booked a basic hotel in an area recommemended by my boss who knows food and knows funky. Even though I was on the edge of one of their godawful highways, I was able to walk in a neighborhood behind and find a great burrito place called Freebird's-where I ate a black bean and veggie with spinach tortilla with very fresh ingredients and a lively staff-and a couple of other local hangouts, one, of course, being the great farmers market off Richmond. Also went to a veggie Thai place with Bayou City farmers market manager, Jacquie (do you see a pattern here? The managers, not the veggies...)

I enjoyed both cities and the people, probably because I was able to be around local farmers, managers, food people who use their time and talents to further their sustainable food system. I found a fascinating connection in that all 3 areas grow satsumas, but view them quite differently: the High Springs area consider them lower quality citrus than other citrus, Houston has many varieties that I had not heard of on their market tables but only in very small amounts and, of course, New Orleans is in the middle of satsuma-mania right now. How illuminating to see the end result of now-unknown reasons for the valuing or de-valuing of some foods and how that changes modern selection and tastes?

I arrived back in Lagalou in the afternoon of Sunday; and dropped my bags and immediately got on my scooter to reabsorb my city's air, my city's smells (driving by Lil Dizzy's chicken aroma made me smile), and my city's peops; am going to drop by friends to see if I can find some leftovers in someone's fridge to get the local spices back in my system.

Stove sitting

I housesit for a lot of people. As a MidCity-er who is still working on building a new home for me and Maddie the dog, I have carefully dropped hints to all of my housed but traveled friends that I can be your eyes and ears for a few days or weeks when needed.
I must be convincing, because many generous people hand over their keys and tell me to have fun. Lucky aren't I?

When I am about to go housesit (or really I think of it as kitchen-sharing), I tend to daydream for a few days before about a real kitchen with an oven and a place to sit to eat that does not require me piloting my legs around the pole that holds up the FEMA trailer table. My trailer table is even more interesting than most as the things that the poles fit into are not spaced correctly, so one pole leans and is barely useful, so the table is not even secure. People tend to get up from the table, with the palm of their hand on the edge of the table as support-and everything goes flying off to the right. Always a interesting moment.
The FEMA stove top is fine. Powered by propane, it works well for the many days of stir fry or sauteeing I do for most of my fresh farmers market vegetables, and then I use a crockpot or a pot for beans and rice. Fine really.
But when I first opened the stove, I groaned. Literally too small for most dishes, each of the 2 rack levels are either right on the propane burner or an inch from the top of the stove.
still haven't found a good Calphalon dish 1 inch deep and 8 inches wide to fit...

So, no baking. No pears with honey and cloves, or eggplant and tomato casseroles, or persimmon bread (recipe thanks to Charlie Ramos of Lakeview who used to give his friends a week by week update on his front yard tree's ripening fruit), or even a place to keep one dish warm when I cook the other part.
So, when my friends go away, I am sad, but then not so much. Cuz I get to bring my 2 mesh bags of knives, woks, wooden salad bowl, spices and bags of produce from Saturday or Tuesday's market, find the cd player and get chopping. I feel good about using my time in my friend's house to decorate it with great cooking smells and to make a nice meal for myself and a friend or two (yes, visitors okayed by owner!) who I can finally treat to my food, as they probably have done with me.

I often wonder how the lack of ovens among New Orleanians for the last 2 years has affected our annoyance level. If we communicate through food, then the lack of it around the kitchen must explain some of our voting choices and maybe even the Saints issues. I see tons of tiny little kettle grills on front steps now that it is fall, but even that cannot make up for a big old gas stove in a kitchen with lots of counters and a open back door leading to some chairs and a cooler full of beer and cold drinks. Will it take us generations to reclaim the stop-by Sunday bbq, Monday red beans get together (Hey Dave and Anna!), or anyday crawfish boil,and if so, does that mean that until then we will we lose our easy city-wide camaraderie, our multi-generational connections-and worst of all- our greens with pickle meat recipes?

Sign Up for Dig This!

So, you want to grow food, but have a fear of composting? A uneasy sense of lead levels? Can't figure out what pruning is for?
Well, meet the experts thanks to New Orleans Food and Farm Network. Anne Baker, Grant and Noel are full of information, funny and happy to anwer stupid questions (well, they've always answered mine!). And of course, Dan Gill is a gem too.
so, get on the ferry, and get to the Dig This. It's right down the street from the ferry.

I highly recommend spending the time meeting your fellow greenies!


* The Dig This! topics include: Soil health and testing
* Caring for fruit trees
* Selecting and growing varieties of veggies for our area
* Organic pest and disease control
* Landscape mapping and planning
* Raising chickens

At the end of the workshop, head over to the other event at Common Ground and and try some hands on garden work and learn worm composting. There you get to work with Macon Fry, Garden Guy and Super Amy from LongueVue and the cool folks at Common Ground.




For reservations, information, or scholarships please call The New Orleans Food & Farm Network at (504) 864-2009, or to reserve a space now online, email info@noffn.org.

Broadmoor Farmers Market Every Thursday!

Every Thursday from 3-6 pm on the Corner of S. Claiborne & Octavia.

For more information or to participate as a vendor, call Rusty Berridge at 601-918-8625.