Gourmet Magazine - Living off the Land

I was surfing on Hulu (internet tv) and found a great show on PBS I had never seen called "Gourmet Magazine- Diary of a Foodie." Of course my eye immediately caught the episode entitled "Living off the Land" and I stayed up way too late watching it last night. I thought the episode and the entire series was worth sharing with all our fellow foodies, farmers and folks.

Enjoy and leave your comments here so we know what you thought about it!

Hey Thats My Bike!

Picture your bike here.

Today's blog is all about bikes- it seems everywhere we look we see bicycles! There is a great move on to use our cars less, spend less fuel and pedal a little more, and the Windmill is in a perfect downtown location to be your next bike trip destination. We wanted to share some of our bicycle encounters of the last few days.

Above is an image of the bike rack at the Windmill. We have at least two employees who ride their bikes to work every day, rain or shine, and many customers who do the same! The bike rack is surfing around our outdoor space at the moment due to the construction, but its here (somewhere) and ready and waiting!

The Windmill also owns a TRI-cycle that we use to scoot around town (when the tires aren't flat), make deliveries or pick up bread. Give us a honk next time you see these flags waving down Fairhope Ave!

But what really got me thinking about bikes this week was the Bicycle Diet. One of our Produce Club customers, Molly Peterson, is on a "bicycle diet" where all her groceries are purchased by bike! She has a great blog that will be following her adventures that we wanted to share. Don't miss the post about the day that Nick Saban caused her to almost miss Produce Club!

http://bicyclediet.wordpress.com/

That's her son testing the weight of his gatorades before leaving Winn Dixie, who just installed a new bike rack at Molly's request! We love to see a small movement effecting big change! Congrats!

And local artist and character extraordinaire Bill Harrison has this fabulous painting for sale at the Windmill as we speak. Love the colors AND the content!

We hope you will use your own pedal power to come see us this weekend!

Recipe Files

It's is past time to catch up on some recipes from the Produce Club! Below are two weeks worth... more to come!

January 23

Sweet Potato and Cranberry Hash

Almond Chicken Soup with Sweet Potato, Collards, and Ginger

Beet, Cabbage, and Carrot Slaw with Caraway Seeds

Spicy Cauliflower

Whole-Wheat Orzo Salad with Broccoli-Pine Nut Pesto

Sweet Potato, Celery, and Apple Salad

Kumquat Salsa Recipe

January 30

Roasted Fall Vegetables with Lentils

Carrots with Chickpeas and Pine Nuts

Penne with Cauliflower and Capers

Braised Mustard Greens with Pancetta and Lemon

Lamb Sausage Ragout with Portobello Mushrooms over Fettuccine

Turnip Hash with Broccoli Rabe

Eat healthy For the New Year / Recipe Files

It is that time of year again- New year's resolutions are made to eat better, exercise more, try to undo all the damage we did from Thanksgiving to Christmas. It should be easy to change our diet and do what we know is best, but it never is!

The Windmill has an easy solution to your worries: The Produce Club. Every week we pack for our subscribers a delicious box full of the freshest local fruits and veggies around! You go home with a week's worth of fruits and veggies that will keep your diet on track by encouraging you to eat more produce and cut out all the carbs, fillers and processed food.

Below are the recipes from the first two weeks of January, including some healthy, detox recipes from Whole Living Magazine to get your New Year's Resolutions off and running!

January 2 Recipes

Grapefruit, Carrot, and Ginger Juice

Beet, Apple, and Mint Juice

Steamed Broccoli and Squash with Tahini Sauce

Roasted Garlic and Beet Soup

Scallion-and-Mango-Wrapped Shrimp

Beet and Brown Rice Salad with Goat Cheese

Chilled Sesame Spinach

Braised Turnips with Poppy-Seed Bread Crumbs

January 9 Recipes

Baked Sweet Potatoes with Citrus

Crispy Roasted Cauliflower Snack

Cauliflower with Orange Zest and Green Onion

Sautéed Green Cabbage with Country Ham

Moroccan Beef Stew 

** We think this recipe would translate well to our lean ground beef!

Stir-Fried Chicken with Radishes, Chipotles, and Lime

Carrots and Rutabagas with Lemon and Honey

Cauliflower and Broccoli Flan with Spinach Bechamel

Where Have all the Good Eggs Gone?

Well, they aren't all gone, just selling out quickly in the Windmill's grocery!

Chances are if you've come looking for eggs in the last two months you might have been disappointed at least once or twice that we were sold completely out of our fresh farm eggs! As soon as we get a delivery they are gone because the chickens just haven't been laying up to their usual amounts of late. The eggs have been trickling in from local producers just a few dozen at a time.

We are so used to our big box grocery stores always having what we want, when we want it. The convenience of that is undoubtable, but the reality of eating local and supporting local farmers is a bit more complicated. When working with small farms and small supplies there can be occasional times when we don't have all we want. Inconvenient... but interesting to think about all the behind-the-scenes of our local food system.

Case in point- last summer we experienced a small drought and cattle farmers feared their pastures and hay supplies wouldn't sustain their herds through the fall. They quickly sent their cattle to be processed all at one time, which completely clogged the states one tiny beef processor and the whole supply chain came to a screeching halt. So we were short of local ground beef in July, right when folks wanted to get the grill going and make a nice hamburger in the backyard. Poor timing, but interesting to think about the reason for it all.

Back to the issue at hand: EGGS.
Turns out (for us city-slickers who don't know these things) that chickens can be finicky layers. The slightest change can cause them to decrease their laying or stop all together! The short answer for the recent small supply is the cold weather. With the low temps we experienced over the holidays, and then the drastic ups and downs we've had the past two weeks, Baldwin County chickens are on STRIKE!

And after doing a little reading on the internet, I discovered lots of other interesting reasons a chicken might cut back on laying. One is that they might be hiding the eggs- production hasn't decreased at all! But once you have fished through all the hay and bedding and made sure the eggs are not there, here are some reasons for a decrease in production:

decreased hours of daylight

improper nutrition

disease

increasing age

getting too hot, or too cold

handling or moving the chickens or their coop

parasites

fright (limit the movement of children, strange dogs, livestock and vehicles)

predators such as foxes and eagles stress the birds and create a decrease in production

predators and snakes consuming the eggs

egg-eating by hens in the flock

insufficient nest boxes can cause excessive egg breakage

Click here to read more details...

And keep checking back! Call the Grocery anytime to check our supply and request eggs be put on hold for you, too! 990-8883

Letter: "United in Opposition to GE Alfalfa"

We received the following letter from our organic food distributor that we wanted to share. I also saw it on the Huffington Post and numerous other websites, so it has been making the rounds of the internet world and blogosphere. Thought it was worth sharing as we think about making new food choices for the new year.

We stand united in opposition to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) decision to once again allow unlimited, nationwide commercial planting of Monsanto's genetically engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa, despite the many risks to organic and conventional farmers.

Last spring more than 200,000 people submitted comments to the USDA highly critical of the substance and conclusions of its draft EIS on GE Alfalfa. Instead of responding to these comments and concerns, including expert comments from farmers, scientists, academics, conservationists, and food safety and consumer advocates, the USDA has chosen instead to listen to a handful of agricultural biotechnology companies.

USDA's decision to allow unlimited, nationwide commercial planting of Monsanto's GE Roundup Ready alfalfa without any restrictions flies in the face of the interests of conventional and organic farmers, preservation of the environment, and consumer choice. USDA has become a rogue agency in its regulation of biotech crops and its decision to appease the few companies who seek to benefit from this technology comes despite increasing evidence that GE alfalfa will threaten the rights of American farmers and consumers, as well as damage the environment.

The Center for Food Safety will be suing on this decision. 

In the coming months, we will be seeing USDA proposals to allow unrestricted plantings of GE sugar beets, and GE corn and soy crops designed to resist toxic pesticides, such as 2-4D and Dicamba, highly toxic pesticides that pose a serious threat to our health and the environment. To win these critical and difficult battles, the entire organic community, and our allies in the conventional food and farming community, will have to work together.

Now is the time to unite in action. We need to work together to restore sanity to our food system, stop the deregulation of GE crops and join together against the forces that are seeking to silence hundreds of thousands of Americans.

As we move forward, we are united in opposing genetically engineered organisms in food production and believe that pressure to stop the proliferation of this contaminating technology must be focused on the White House and Congress. The companies responsible for this situation are the biotech companies whose GE technology causes genetic drift and environmental hazards that are not contained as the deregulation of genetically engineered alfalfa goes forward. The organic community stands together with consumer, farmer, environmental and business interests to ensure practices that are protective of health and the environment.

We urge you to join us today.

Sign up to receive action alerts.

Consider making a donation to the legal effort ahead.

Let the White House know that you do not support the deregulation of GE alfalfa.

Sincerely,

Joan Boykin, The Organic Center

Christine Bushway, Organic Trade Association

Jay Feldman, Beyond Pesticides

Michael Funk, United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI)

Elizabeth Henderson, NOFA Interstate Council

Gary Hirshberg, Stonyfield Farm

Liana Hoodes, National Organic Coalition

Kristina Hubbard, Organic Seed Alliance

Faye Jones, Midwest Organic Sustainable Education Service

Robby Kenner, Robert Kenner Films

Andrew Kimbrell, Center for Food Safety

Russell Libby, Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners (MOFGA)

Ed Maltby, Northeast Organic Dairy Producers Alliance (NODPA)

Robyn O'Brien, Allergy Kids

Keith Olcott, Equal Exchange

Michael Pollan, Author

Maria Rodale, Rodale Inc.

Eric Schlosser, Author

Robynn Schrader, National Cooperative Grocers Association (NCGA)

Corinne Shindelar, INFRA

George Siemon, Organic Valley

Michael Sligh, Rural Advancement Foundation International (RAFI)

Megan Westgate, Non-GMO Project

Maureen Wilmot, Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF)

Enid Wonnacott, Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT)

NY Times: Southern Farmers Vanquish the Clichés

Rebecca Bryant of Watershed Consulting just forwarded me this great article from the New York Times on Southern food that I had to share. Something to think about as we take stock of our relationship with food heading into a new year!

Click here to see the entire article on nytimes.com. They posted a number of photos to accompany the article. The text of the article is copied below.

Southern Farmers Vanquish the Clichés
By Julia Moskin
Published December 27, 2011

IT’S not hard to get Emile DeFelice riled up. Just mention Paula Deen, the so-called queen of Southern food, who cooks with canned fruit and Crisco. Or say something like “You don’t look like a Southern pig farmer.” He’ll practically hit the ceiling of his Prius.

Because there are a few things about Southern food that the man just can’t stand: its hayseed image, the insiders who feed that image and the ignorant outsiders who believe in it.

Home Sweet Home: The New American Localism

Home Sweet Home: The New American Localism

by Linton Weeks  - December 13, 2011 by NPR

You can talk about the global village, a mobile society and the World Wide Web all you want, but many in our country seem to be turning toward a New American Localism.

These days, we are local folks and our focus is local. We are doing everything locally: food, finance, news, charity. And maybe for good reasons.

"One bedrock thing that is going on," says Brad Edmondson, founder of ePodunk and former editor of American Demographics magazine, is that "because of aging and the recession, people aren't moving around as much."

The U.S. Census Bureau backs him up with a news release — based on a recent report — titled "Mover Rate Reaches Record Low." The bureau found that only 11.6 percent of Americans changed their living spaces between 2010 and 2011. That is the lowest rate on record since the Current Population Survey of the United States began tracking geographical mobility in 1948. In 1985, for instance, the changed-residence rate was 20.2 percent.

"With homeowner mobility at an all-time low, more people are putting down roots and getting to know their neighbors," Edmondson says. "At the same time a lot of households have seen sharp declines in discretionary income. They are looking for ways to relax that don't cost as much, and they are substituting cooperation for cash."

The new version of the popular bumper sticker "Support Your Local Sheriff" could become "Support Your Local Everything."

Michihili - Oh My!

What in the world is michihili cabbage? What we thought was going to be regular chinese cabbage (the nice crisp, tight heads of crinkly cabbage we see at big box grocery stores) for our Produce Club this week turned out to be a softer, loose leaf cabbage more resembling a thick lettuce or greens. So of course all our cole slaw recipes flew out the window and we were left scratching our heads about what to do next!

The farmers tell us it can be eaten raw mixed with lettuce in a salad, or used in any way you would use collards or kale: stir a handful of chopped leaves into a bean or vegetable stew, use with eggs for a frittata or quiche, or just boil with some sausage or ham and served as a side dish!

On the blog written by JWS Farm, who grows michihili, we found a bit more info worth sharing. See below.

Michihili (mi-CHE-he-lee) – Chinese Cabbage
When we first planted the seeds for this variety of Chinese Cabbage, we were expecting small, oval ’bok choy’ sized heads… but we soon realized we were in for a BIG surprise!

This tall Asian green has coarse, dense, narrow leaves with a deeper green outer color and lighter green interior with wide, flat white ribs. A quick internet search revealed that it can be used for fresh, raw salads or braised/stir fried as a cooking green.

It was very good stir fried , with a little olive oil, some onion, and soy sauce to taste. Quick, healthy & delicious… BUT we still had quite a bit more in the fridge & began looking for a way to use this gigantic veggie at least a pound at a time… so, with the change in weather, we started thinking SOUP!
The recipe below can easily be adjusted down, using 2-3 leaves of michihili cabbage (or a smaller head of cabbage, such as bok choy or napa cabbage) and 1/2 the amount of the rest of the ingredients, incase you don’t have a large enough soup pot. When we made it, we used ground turkey for the “meat”, but next time we are going to try some ground pork or pork sausage, which we expect will have even more flavor. If you are vegetarian, you can leave the meat out and add an egg or two, if you are not vegan.

CHINESE CABBAGE SOUP
1/2 onion diced
1 lb. ground meat
2 Tablespoons sake
10 cups water
3 Tablespoons chicken stock
2 Tablespoons soy sauce
1 lb. Chinese cabbage chopped finely
2 teaspoons sesame oil
dash of white pepper
pinch of salt or more soy sauce (optional – season to taste)

In a pot, pour some cooking oil, (use whatever you normally use – we use olive oil and it doesn’t affect the taste) and saute the onion until golden brown. Add the ground meat and brown.
Add the sake and the water. Bring it to a boil and then add the chicken stock and soy sauce. Add the chopped Chinese cabbage, sesame oil and finally, the white pepper. Simmer until cabbage is done.
Onced served, you may find it needs a little bit of salt or more soy sauce, (but taste first, because most chicken stock and soy sauce have a pretty high sodium content.) Season to taste and enjoy!

Produce Club Makes its TV Debut!

We made our TV debut today talking about the Produce Club and whipping up some delicious Farm Stand Shrimp and Grits on Fox 10 News. You can watch the video below... we ain't no Paula Dean but it turned out pretty well! Thanks for all the folks who tuned in!

Farm Stand Shrimp & Grits: fox10tv.com