Did you know that sweet potato leaves are edible?
Until last year, I didn’t know either. When I got the news, I was inspired to create this Indian-like stew of okra and sweet potato leaves smothered in coconut milk and seasoned with curry spices. As you might imagine, this is one of those dishes from the [...]
Entries from August 2009
Curried Okra Stew With Sweet Potato Leaves And Coconut Milk
August 31st, 2009 · 2 Comments · Recipes, garden
Tags: coconut milk·curry·okra·stew
Heart Association Says Cut The Sugar
August 30th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Wellness, food news
Do Americans really consume 22 teaspoons of sugar a day? That’s 350 calories, and the American Heart Association says that’s way too much. But get this: the mean daily sugar intake among teenaged boys is more like 34 teaspoons. That’s a lot of sugar.
The AHA has issued a statement saying too much sugar is contributing to [...]
New School, With Uniform
August 29th, 2009 · 2 Comments · kids
Here’s a subject that doesn’t get talked about much: What’s it like being the only white kid in your class in an inner-city public school?
From my days as a reporter for the Washington Post I distinctly remember writing a story about race relations in the public schools and interviewing white parents who described the problems [...]
Tags: school·urban issues
Oh, Boy! More Spicy Cajun Pickles!
August 29th, 2009 · No Comments · Recipes, garden
Do you like a spicy pickle? Our 9-year-old daughter especially likes a pickle with a little kick. Go figure. So this particular pickle has become one of our favorites. It gets the “Cajun” moniker because you can use just about every spice under the sun, but especially Italian seasonings and parika and hot pepper.
This is [...]
Tags: cucumbers·fermentation·pickles
Big Night For Neighborhood Farm Initiative
August 28th, 2009 · No Comments · food news, urban agriculture
More than 120 people jammed Georgetown’s Letelier Theater last night for cocktails, hors d’oeuvres and a film screening to benefit the Neighborhood Farm Initiative, the novel urban agriculture program started by Bea Trickett and Joshua Wenz designed to teach people how to grow food.
The event was brilliantly organized, with help from Katie Rehwaldt of Rooting [...]
Tags:
Venison Stew With Garden Vegetables
August 27th, 2009 · No Comments · Recipes, dinner, garden
It had been a long time since I’d opened our long-term storage freezer. When I thought to check it the other day I found a bag of venison stew meat as well as a length of venison sausage from our departed friend Happy. We’d been trading some of our produce for some of the venison [...]
Tags:
Yes, We Have A Farm-To-School Network
August 26th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Wellness
For the last several months I’ve been meeting with the adviory board of a new D.C. Farm to School Network. Like the programs in more than 2,000 other schools around the country, the idea is to find ways to introduce healthful produce from area farms into the District of Columbia Schools. The concept dates to the [...]
End Of The Line
August 25th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Sustainability
The year 2048 is not so far away. Yet that is the year some authorities predict the world’s fisheries will totally collapse if current fishing practices remain in place.
Imagine, 90 percent of the world’s living space is contained in our oceans. It’s an area of incredible size, filled at one time with a seemingly endless [...]
Tags: food films·seafood·Seafood Watch
The Last Fish: Black Cod With Fresh Tomato-Green Chili Pepper Relish
August 24th, 2009 · 4 Comments · Recipes, Sustainability, garden
What’s the difference between a salsa and a relish?
I’m not sure there is any other than the name. The occasion for for this one arose when our friend Ben returned from a trip to New Mexico with an armful of green chilies. I don’t know the variety. He’d just seen them in an open market [...]
Breakfast
August 23rd, 2009 · No Comments · breakfast
Fried egg with “pork pudding” and tomato slices from the garden.
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Shopping: none
Pork “pudding” is made from the odd bits of the pig and contains no grain products, which differentiates it from the more commonly known “scapple.” The ingredients in this pudding from our local dairy, South Mountain Creamery, are listed as “unskinned [...]
We are engaging the concerns of a hungry planet--slowly--right here in our kitchen garden in the District of Columbia, one mile from the White House.
