Related Posts

• Simon & Garfunkel Chicken

  Have you met Barbara McDonald?  She is the founder of Prim and Primal that began with a desire to make a healthy deodorant for friends and family. A couple of months later she decided to share it at the local farmer's market.  From her website she writes, "About a year later when repeat customers were regularly making me promise that I will never stop making it, I decided to branch out further."  She continues, "I’ve always been about finding the healthiest products. When I can’t find any I make them myself and I love being able to share my passion with others."  She’s an incredibly nice person and a fascinating person with whom to converse.  I’ve quoted author, Sophie Patrick, before as I find her writing about healthy lifestyles to be challenging to some of my thinking and to some of my long developed habits that may not be the best for me.  “The idea of … (a healthy) lifestyle overhaul can seem like a gargantuan task … leaving you feeling overwhelmed and defeated before you’ve even begun.”  [Patrick, Sophie ...

• What Exactly Are Microgreens?

  What Exactly Are Microgreens?   Statement about Microgreens from Heather Pritchard:  Part of what a farmers’ market can do for farms or other businesses is product introduction. With direct access to the public, vendors can “test” an item and quickly learn what the public likes, which also helps diversify market products.  Microgreens have only recently been introduced to consumers at Coastal Alabama Farmers and Fishermens Market and the response is amazing. Knowing how super nutritious they are coupled with the many flavors and uses, it is no wonder they are popular. Furthermore, it is an example of alternate ways of growing in the home or small spaces.  With all of the stress and uncertainty in folks’ lives, I believe that purchasing and feeding yourself something like this is a reward that most can afford and enjoy.   What are Microgreens? Microgreens are tiny edible plants with an intense flavor, usually vegetable garden plants, that are grown in quantity and harvested while they are still juvenile plants, generally around 10 days.  (www.growingmicrogreens.com) Popular microgreens are red cabbage, cilantro, radish, sunflower, kale, broccoli, amaranth, Bok choy, arugula, ...

• Fourth of July Brunswick Stew

  Overwhelming Information and a 4th of July Recipe Do you feel overwhelmed with information about “healthy eating?”  In spite of all the advice we receive about healthy eating, Americans still suffer from higher rates of obesity and chronic diseases caused by poor eating habits more so than ever before.  One major problem, in my opinion, is that over the years we have received so much contradictory information that we tend to quit listening.  Fats are bad.  No, wait, we need good fats.  We need high carbohydrate diets.  No, wait, carbs are bad.  High protein diets.  No, wait, meat is bad.  Lots of seafood.  No, wait, heavy metals in fish are bad.  So, we give up and go through the fast food drive-in. What we really should be doing is following relatively simple advice: eat a variety of foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables; whole grains; and farm fresh eggs and meats.  Get more exercise.  And watch how much we eat (guilty).  Stripping away some of the advice that I find difficult to believe, I have found some advice along the way that ...

• Vote with your fork- Pollan

  My wife was a fan of an afternoon television show in which a doctor talked with women in the audience about health issues.  Occasionally, when I walked through the room, I would pause and listen to what he was covering for that day.  A frequent topic of his was to discuss the health benefit of a spice or nut or dried fruit.  He always concluded the segment with something like, “Just put a little on your cereal each morning.”  After about the dozenth time hearing him say that, I commented to my wife, “If we followed his advice, we would need to eat cereal from a barrel and it would take all day with all the toppings he recommends.”  I think I ruined the show for her as she has not been watching it since, but that’s another matter.             Following health advice gets complicated.  Recently, I read an article in which the author attacked the holiest of holies – fruit.  He wrote that fruit should not be eaten alone because of sugar content, but paired with protein or with ...

• Sustainability - Pork Chops and Peaches

  Sustainability Buzzwords enter our language and usually live a short life before returning to the original context of the word.  Currently, one such buzzword is “sustainability” and it can be found in many areas – environment, urban planning, economics, non-profit agencies, businesses, and just about anywhere.  Farmers have always understood the concept of sustainability perhaps better than anyone.  They understand the need to live beyond a single growing season, they understand the need to sustain their crops year after year and even generation after generation.  In many cases, they understand that their farm still produces because of the practices their great grandparents implemented.  [Note: the next five paragraphs contain information I shamelessly plagiarized from the internet about farmers’ markets.  I re-worded the text in a few places, deleted superfluous verbiage, and wrote some original thoughts.  I share these ideas because of the importance our farmers are to us.] Behind the rows of produce, busy vendors, and eager customers, farmers’ markets are a bustling hub of sustainability. Local farmers deliver fresh, local food to a growing number of consumers demanding food that is not ...

• Cooking Fresh Peas

  You toilers of the sea and fields and vineyards meet the weavers and the potters and gatherers of spices   Back in my college days, more years ago than I care to think about, like so many others of my generation, I became enamored with the writings of Kalhil Gibran and I still have several of his books and read them occasionally, particularly when I want a good quote or I want to find solace and quiet in the evening.  The Prophet, which was first published in 1923, is considered his masterpiece, translated into more than twenty languages, and has sold more than five million copies in the United States.  The Chicago Post wrote of The Prophet, “Cadenced and vibrant with feeling, the words of Kahlil Gibran bring to one’s ears (a) majestic rhythm.”  Relating to a Farmers’ Market, Gibran wrote, “To you the earth yields her fruit, and you shall not want if you but know how to fill your hands.  It is in exchanging the gifts of the earth that you shall find abundance and be satisfied. When in the market place you toilers ...