Search

Join Culinate! Login or Register

Vitamin D for the masses

Nearly everybody needs more of it

July 29, 2010

Over the past few years, the word has gone out in wider and wider circles: Folks living in the northern hemisphere are pretty much all lacking in adequate vitamin D. Now the New York Times has published a broader look at vitamin D, explaining the wide range of problems caused by vitamin D deficiency and suggesting ways to make sure you get enough of it. Bottom line? You can eat more foods rich in vitamin D — especially wild-caught oily fish such as mackerel and bluefish — but the best way to get it is to soak up more sunshine.

How to be a farmer

Older farmers teach young ones

July 28, 2010

You already knew that America’s farmers were a shrinking and graying population. But as Leslie Cole pointed out recently in the Oregonian, the new farmers espousing small-scale, sustainable, locally focused, and organic farming are generally young people taking up farming for a living: “Where others might see work and worry, Brandon Mazur, 26, sees a life of diverse work outdoors, the ability to make his own decisions, and the chance to be a part of a cultural and economic shift in how we produce and procure food.” Will the youth revolution bring permanent change? Only time will tell.

The Mediterranean diet

Celebrating — and denigrating — tradition

July 27, 2010

Most traditional dishes in the region are great. But songbirds? Not so much. »

White House cooking videos

Watch this, cook that

July 26, 2010

Earlier this month, the White House released its first cooking video as part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign to address obesity. Called Let’s Cook, the video series will feature chefs from across the country making affordable and nutritious food.

In the eye-catching video, Atlanta-based chef Marvin Woods introduces White House chef Sam Kass to his menu of six dinners for a family of four — for $68. (Recipes included.) The dishes involve making a few master recipes, and then riffing on those throughout the week.

Check it out — and stay tuned for more videos in coming months.

Movie not displayed because either Javascript or Flash player is not available.

Oil spills, worldwide

It ain’t just a prob in the Gulf Coast

July 23, 2010

Maybe you thought that this spring’s BP Gulf oil spill was an anomaly? Think again; as a recent reprint on Grist noted, more oil is carelessly spilled in Nigeria each year than has been gushed so far in the Gulf of Mexico. And because Nigeria ain’t exactly the First World, cleanup efforts are sketchy at best:

Though the local inhabitants are still there, struggling for survival . . . they can’t depend on fishing anymore. “The last time I went there, there was a little boy who came with a plastic container . . . [He and his father had gone] to look for shrimps all night. And what they came back with was a paltry quantity of crayfish that could barely cover the bottom of the plastic container . . . The container was covered with crude and the crayfish itself was covered in crude oil. So I was wondering what they were going to do with it, and he said they were going to wash the crayfish, and then they would feed on it.”

That is if, as writer Ellen Cantarow notes, the kid survives the toxic environment of living, eating, and immersing in so much oil.

Cooking contests on Slate

DIY kitchen-offs

July 22, 2010

Traditional media vs. the Web. »

Soy vs. dairy

Which milk is more eco?

July 21, 2010

If you’re trying to save the planet, which milk is more eco: soy milk or cow's milk? The Portland Tribune recently put the two beverages side by side and tackled questions of pollution, local sustainability (here in Oregon, that is), and health. The upshot? The paper plumped for cow’s milk, especially the local, organic, preferably humanely produced variety. But for the lactose-intolerant, of course, soy milk is the way to go.

Local food, on the radio

A five-story roundup

July 20, 2010

The Oregon radio station KLCC recently ran a five-part series on local food, with stories (you can both hear them and read them online) focused on school lunch and food security, food allergies, homelessness and food justice, local food manufacturing, and heirloom poultry. Check ‘em out.

The new provincialism?

Depends on your point of view

July 19, 2010

How important is local eating to you? »

Cancer-prevention tips

From the Environmental Working Group

July 16, 2010

No, none of these are guaranteed cancer-preventers, but according to the Environmental Working Group, following nine simple tips will probably help. Such as? Filter your tap water; avoid greasy packaged foods that may contain fluorochemicals in the packaging liners; and cut back on fatty animal products, since environmental toxins accumulate in animal fat.

Free-range rap

Analyzing an egg study

July 15, 2010

The Sustainable Food blog at Change.org recently assessed a new study concluding that free-range eggs are less healthy than conventional eggs. Why? The free-range eggs in the study sample had more environmental toxins than the regular joes.

But, as blogger Sarah Parsons noted, the Taiwanese study didn’t factor in the other health benefits of free-range eggs, nor the environmental degradation caused by conventional chicken farming. She also pointed out some inherent quibbles with the study itself:

This study was quite small (scientists compared six free-range eggs to 12 regular eggs) and locally specific: Taiwan is an industrialized country with lots of incinerators. The fact that eggs contained dioxins isn’t so surprising given how dirty the nation’s air is.

So don’t toss those free-range eggs just yet.

Can cows save the planet?

Grass-fed, that is

July 14, 2010

There’s been much debate in recent years over the role livestock play in climate change. On the one hand, livestock (chiefly cattle) are responsible for a great deal of greenhouse-gas emissions. On the other hand, as a recent Time magazine article pointed out, if we raised livestock without the modern crutches of corn, feedlots, and the like, the animals could actually help sequester carbon instead of increasing it:

It works like this: grass is a perennial. Rotate cattle and other ruminants across pastures full of it, and the animals’ grazing will cut the blades — which spurs new growth — while their trampling helps work manure and other decaying organic matter into the soil, turning it into rich humus. The plant’s roots also help maintain soil health by retaining water and microbes. And healthy soil keeps carbon dioxide underground and out of the atmosphere.

The big problem? Some 99 percent of beef cattle produced in the U.S. aren’t raised in this way.

Height of the season

Summertime gardening tips

July 13, 2010

The New York Times has been featuring much summertime gardening content lately, ranging from a feature on old-school gardening (Thomas Jefferson's gardening techniques, still being used at his Monticello home in Virginia) to regular blogs focused on starter gardens and beekeeping basics. As the Jefferson article noted, in matters agricultural, everything is cyclical:

New gardeners smitten with the experience of growing their own food — amazed at the miracle of harvesting figs on a Brooklyn rooftop, horrified by the flea beetles devouring the eggplants — might be both inspired and comforted by the highs and lows recorded by Thomas Jefferson from the sun-baked terraces of his two-acre kitchen garden 200 years ago.

The gushing Gulf

Illegal fishing, and the big picture

July 12, 2010

The Gulf of Mexico oil gusher has spilled plenty of media ink, including NPR’s recent report on illegal fishing in the Gulf. Most devastating of all, though, might be Tim Dickinson’s multipart exploration in Rolling Stone of the history, politics, industry, money, and more behind the story.

Scariest news? That the current oil spill has done nothing to deter future drilling. As mag founder Jann Wenner explained in an editor’s note in the July 8-22 edition, “The time has come to put a complete stop to all high-risk offshore drilling and to take away, once and for all, the oil industry’s huge tax subsidies.”

Summer reading

From the American Farmland Trust

July 9, 2010

The American Farmland Trust recently revealed its summer-reading list. It’s got a little food-focused something for everyone, from straightforward nonfiction (the recent Edible Communities compilation) to a children’s book about farms and even a murder mystery set at a farmers’ market. Who knew the local market could be so deadly?

Chicken-keeping controversy

The anti-hen backlash

July 8, 2010

So urban chickens have been trendy for a few years now — long enough for a backlash to develop. Bob Young, in the Seattle Times Sunday magazine, recently explored what he calls "the chicken-resistance movement," tagging urban chicken-nesters as “locavores gone wild.” And when Leslie Cole interviewed New York Times food writer Kim Severson in April, Severson declared that chicken-keeping wasn't such a great idea:

There’s kind of a dark side to the backyard-chicken phenomenon, which is a lot of chickens end up in shelters. They’re not cared for very well, they get sick, they die. It’s not easy to keep chickens.

True, that. But their eggs sure are tasty. And if you really aren’t into chickens, you can always follow Young’s suggestion (via Novella Carpenter) for the next urban-livestock trend: rabbits.

Michael Pollan Q&A

A revealing chat

July 7, 2010

We liked Rebekah Denn’s recent thoughtful chat with Michael Pollan in the Seattle Times. Highlights? Pollan reveals that he struggles to follow the rules laid out in his most recent book, Food Rules: “Stopping eating before I’m full; I really struggle with that. I really enjoy food.” He also says it’s time for the food-reform movement to move beyond “chefs and writers” to real political activism: “There are a lot of young people getting into the food movement now; they ask me how to get involved. I tell them to go to law school and do things like that.”

Chemical McNuggets

Synthetic food, redefined

July 6, 2010

As if you didn’t need another reason not to eat Chicken McNuggets, here comes the news that, at least Stateside, the McDonald’s staple is full of unexpected chemicals, including a petrochemical and an ingredient also used in Silly Putty. As CNN reported:

Marion Nestle, a New York University professor and author of What to Eat, says the tertiary butylhydroquinone and dimethylpolysiloxane in the McNuggets probably pose no health risks. As a general rule, though, she advocates not eating any food with an ingredient you can’t pronounce.

Michael Pollan would certainly agree.

Bittman gets grilling

Post-Fourth suggestions

July 5, 2010

Sure, July Fourth was yesterday. But because it fell on a Sunday this year, plenty of folks also have today off. Which means yet another summer day at home, fooling around with the grill. Need inspiration? Mark Bittman — he of the Summer 101 Lists, such as 101 Quick Summer Suppers or 101 Easy Summer Salads — has come out with 101 Fast Grilling Recipes.

The grilling recipes are broken down by ingredient, from Vegetables and Fruits to Meat, Fish and Shellfish, Kebabs, Salads, Burgers, Sandwiches and Breads, and Dessert. We’re amused by recipe number 41, which just reads simply, “Bacon-wrapped hot dog. You know you want one.”