Tainted Lettuce, Sustainable Fish
S/O/L/E food good for the earth, our tummies and our souls.
Sustainable, Organic, Local and Ethical practices prevent tainted lettuce. No need to fear threats like e. coli, species extinction. I'll help you find good, safe food.
More reasons to know your food sources. Lettuce tainted with e.coli; fish species over-fished to near extinction. The S/O/L/E food focus is well worth a little time.
See my Glossary for more on terms like S/O/L/E, including "Sustainable agriculture" and "Organic".
I always say, "If your farmer doesn't have a face, you should be frightened." It's not just a Halloween riddle, I'm talking about all the scary news courtesy of big agri-business. We've just gotten over the Spinach scare when we now hear about a tainted lettuce recall. What do we do, stop eating?
That's where the faceless farmer comes in. Buying from WalMart or your regular grocery store means you do not know who actually grew your spinach or lettuce. You have no guarantees about the quality of their irrigation water, their pesticide use, their chemical use.
The government entities who gave us "mad cow" (bovine spongiform encephalitis) infected meat is reducing their testing, instead of increasing it. Is that the kind of entity with whom you want to entrust your family's health and safety? When you buy from big grocers, the only assurances you have of food safety are those.
Buying instead from local farmer's market means your farmer has a face, you know who they are, you can choose those that are certified organic, you can ask them questions about how they farm and where. Local farmers are trying very hard to keep their business viable. They have every incentive to keep the soil and groundwater clean, the products pure and organic.
Sustainability is another growing problem.
Commercial fishing methods enable huge increases in the volume of the catch. They also use methods such as trawling that catch many unintended fish or dredging the floor which wrecks habitat for many species. We've seen several species threatened with extinction due to such fishing methods.
We can decrease the marketability of these methods and protect the endangered species of fish by choosing to purchase only sustainable-harvest fish. Mary Luz Mejia describes this trend in fish harvesting in her article on Sustainable Fish.
While we're talking about seafood...
Oysters, one of my favorites, have been on and off menus along with other bi-valves due to bacterial counts. It looks like they're back on and you can forget the old adage about not eating them in months with the letter 'R" in their name. That was a bit of conventional wisdom that has long since been overcome by the miracle of refrigeration.
I had written about a "bad" oyster in One Bad Oyster, So What?; it turns out I may simply have had one that was spawning.Or, maybe it just was a bad one. Spawning oysters generally will be identified as soft, sometimes foamy, and have been described as "flaccid". Sometimes trained chefs or shuckers can miss it. Top quality producers and purveyors will reduce the likelihood one will end up on your plate.
What I don't know is if I put one in my mouth, then notice it's off texture or taste...what am I to do? Etiquette tip anyone?
Back to the good bi-valves
I was positively salivating listening to Elizabeth's story of a Salt Spring Island trip where she could pick up oysters of the beach and shuck and slurp. Wow, talk about fresh!
Our local Boston B&G Oysters recently introduced six Wellfleet oysters to Boston Magazine's Jane Black. I confess I never knew how many varieties were to be had from this coast. Kumamotos and other West Coast oysters have long supplanted the East Coast varieties in my diet. You know about terroir in wine, it turns out a similar effect is at work in oyster growing. I can't wait to go to B&G Oysters to see if I can ask for a special flight to discern Pangea from Pat Woodbury's or Island Creeks from Duxbury Jades. Will I be able to differentiate the salty start, sweet finish of a Wianno from the strong briny Beach Point?
I'll ask that etiquette question, too.
- I want to try the cedar papers wrapped around some cherrystones, maybe little bit of chorizo thrown into the mix.
- Duxbury's Island Creek Oysters were on the menu at Grill 23 on a recent visit. I now have an East Coast oyster that I adore. Crisp, clean, not too briny.
- Mmmm...more later!
