Entries tagged with 'organic'
Page 3 of 4
Recently, I bought some baby food. This was unusual for me, since my daughter, Iris, is three. "Is this for your baby?" the cashier asked, ringing up a couple of jars of Dr. Susanna's World Baby Foods. "Uh, I'm going to try it myself." Food writer, I explained, while the clerk looked around for the Security button. Dr. Susanna's is based in Seattle, and its shtick is international foods. There are currently six flavors. I tried Tokyo Tum Tum and Lullaby Thai; also available are Sweetie Tahiti, Baby Dal, and so on. They're organic and, according to the website, "favor local farmers," which makes no sense, since the products are sold nationwide. I guess the farmers could be local to...
Continue reading »
Andrew Martin reported in the New York Times yesterday that "the Department of Agriculture, the final arbiter of all things organic, is poised to approve a list of nonorganic ingredients that can be used in food stamped with its green-and-white organic seal." I for one find this whole argument really silly....
Continue reading »
In a piece in Saturday's New York Times about Stonyfield Farms' founder Gary Hirschberg being dispatched to Paris to introduce and market an organic yogurt brand, he said something quite thought-provoking: "If organic is going to be relying on being better for the environment or saving farmers, then I don't believe it's going to be successful in Europe. It has to be about better taste." Does organic yogurt taste better? Does an organically grown tomato taste any better than a conventionally grown one? My experience in trying to answer this question in general has not been kind to the organic movement. In taste tests Jeffrey Steingarten and I did on our regional cable television show a few years ago, organic...
Continue reading »
My friend, Rebecca Blood, is 2 weeks into her month long project of eating on a food stamp budget while maintaining her and her husband's normal standard of eating - organic food and one alcoholic drink with every dinner. Her budget: $74.00/week or $320.80/month, the USDA "Thrifty" standard for a family of 2 adults, aged 20-50 years. So far, so good! She came in under budget in week 1, and based on her photos documenting the project, it certainly looks like they are enjoying some tasty and filling meals....
Continue reading »
Alan Richman's latest GQ column on San Francisco's Ferry Building, "the West Coast's new temple of tastes" is a riveting read until you hit this sentence: "Alice Waters and sourdough bread aside, the Bay Area has contributed surprisingly little to the culinary ripening of America considering its proximity to fertile growing regions from the Central Valley to Napa and Sonoma counties." and then all you can do is shake your head, furrow your brow, and start wondering if he's begun smoking crack. The SF Chronicle's Michael Bauer naturally took exception and wrote about it on his blog, saying, "I simply don't know where to begin. Has he heard of wine? Artisan cheeses? Arugula?" and promises to post a list of...
Continue reading »
It's not every chef who can say they've cooked for royalty, but after this Saturday's Kentucky Derby, Gil Logan will be able to say exactly that because Queen Elizabeth II will be visiting Churchill Downs and choosing from the menu he's put together: "When it was decided that they'd be visiting the Derby and eating here, the queen's staff Googled me," Logan said. "The royal family prefers to eat organic, natural foods, and they travel with their own food service staff."But when they saw that I buy as much as I can from local farmers who are growing and raising food without pesticides or hormones or antibiotics, they were quite happy to eat from our regular menu." Logan actually...
Continue reading »
How do you know your organic veggies are as labeled? Out of this concern, the The Food Standards Agency in the U.K. "funded a study to come up with a test to confirm the authenticity of finished organic foods." The test uses nitrogen content as a measure. Natural fertilizers like manure leave detectable amounts of nitrogen in crops, while synthetic fertilizers do not. In the test's current form, results aren't stunningly accurate, but it can be used to "support or corroborate the suspicion of trading standards commissions."...
Continue reading »
Many dairy farmers are switching to organic methods to beat new federal regulations, according to the New York Times. That's all well and good, but when Jeffrey Steingarten and I did a blind milk taste test on our tv show a few years ago, the organic milks we sampled did not fare well at all....
Continue reading »
Springwise is a site about new business ideas and one they've recently identified is the growing market for both fresh and frozen organic gourmet baby food. I don't know that this is a new idea really, as Diane Keaton's character in 1987's Baby Boom was basically doing this at the end of the movie, and the companies Springwise describes are exactly like hers was: "relatively small and regional start-ups, founded by parents who couldn’t find foods they wanted to feed their babies and toddlers". What really matters is that this provides more food options for parents who eat organic and want the same for their babies, but maybe don't have the time or are just too tired to prepare...
Continue reading »
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Hsiao-Ching Chou talks to Greg Conner, the founder of Eat Local, an area company dedicated to providing frozen microwavable meals made with organic, sustainably-raised seasonal produce and meats that all come from within a few hundred mile radius of the city, cooked in small batches every day for maximum freshness. "The cost runs from about $7 for a single portion to $55 for an eight-person entree. "We're not the cheapest," Conner acknowledges. "But we know the provenance of the food. You pay for the safety in your food and you're having less impact on the environment." [via The Food Section]...
Continue reading »
