One year ago today, I decided to get my Blog On and create this food blog. The idea was to talk about the local food scene in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to provide recipes, and event listings, to talk about food culture and food activism, and to provide the occasional restaurant review.
Check out the Bee enjoying my sunflower garden
151 posts
186 comments
14, 398 views later
And I am still going strong. It has been a fun year. I met a bunch of other local food bloggers, foodies, and local food advocates.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to check my blog this year, and who took the time to comment. There will be more good stuff to come in year two. If you like this blog, please add it to your blogRoll, tweets, and tell your friends.
Readers of this blog will know about The Ann Arbor Sugar Beet Project. The idea of the project is to empower home gardeners to grow their own beets and have more power where their food comes from.
I found this article which reports on the current state of GMO-Sugar Beet Production. The news is not good, and affirms the need for an organic/non-GMO practice of growing sugar beets, and sugar beet sugar.
At the World Association of Beet and Cane Growers (WABCG) conference held in Cambridge, UK July 19-21, US growers, where 95% of beets are genetically modified, admitted that GMO beets showed reduced yields and cost more to produce than last year.
A June 2010 US Department of Agriculture report shows that yields dropped from 26.8 tons per acre in 2008-09 to 25.7 tpa in 2009-10. Worsening conditions for farmers, the cost of production went up after Monsanto raised seed prices 22%.
William Baldwin, a director at the American Crystal Sugar Company, called the price increase “brutal,” reports AgriMoney.
WABCG, which promotes genetically engineered crops, reported that 130 delegates from over 20 nations attended its tenth conference.
Monsanto denied all negative comments about its product, reports AgriMoney.
Monsanto’s GM beets came under fire last year when a Northern California district court ruled that the USDA had unlawfully deregulated Monsanto’s sugarbeets, which are genetically engineered to withstand its herbicide Roundup.
Despite that the court found that Roundup Ready sugar beets “may cross-pollinate with non-genetically engineered sugar beets and related Swiss chard and table beets,” and “may significantly affect the environment,” in March, Judge Jeffrey White allowed planting to go forward while the federal government prepares an Environmental Impact Statement.
The court will hear arguments in August on whether to ban the GM beets.
There were 70 pies. Count them 70 in this pie-o-polluza. This event was a fundraiser to help send 6 people to terra-madra, a slow foods pow-pow in Italy. The room was pack, with eager pie lovers waiting to pounce on the pie table. I brought some of my peach hand pies. Some pies of note: The vegan chocolate mousse pie, the Guinness Beef Pie, the three tier wedding pie, a potato pie, a bunch o fruit pies from blueberry, peach, and berry.
Last One
Here is a picture of my last pie with it’s label flag leaning over in surrender. There is sometime cool, homey, nostalgic, tasty, international, and just nice about pie.
There were way more sweet pies this year, so next year I plan to make a savory. Of course if everyone has that idea then next year will be all savory.
Katz mentioned a secret food buying club that operates under the radar. It consists of a few locals who formed a food club that meets weekly and offers a variety of food products from raw milk (not pasteurized) and dairy products, home baked goods, herbal remedies, and home fermentation products. The food club operates illegally by selling food products produced in kitchens that are not inspected, and in the case of selling raw milk, is illegal to sell in most states in the US in general.
The passage of the Cottage Food Law in Michigan would make some of the products sold at such clubs legal, but this law is barely a week old and not in place through out the country.
The idea was that members purchased a Cow Share. That meant that you owned the cow (in part) with the idea that you therefore had the right to legally drink raw milk from your own cow. My share costed $20 which allowed me to purchase raw milk for pick up at $5 per galloon. They also offered raw butter, raw cream, kefir yogurt, and other products like eggs, lard and meat from the farm. We used to meet at Big Ten Party Store (now Morgan And Yorks) for pick ups.
Around that time, Me and Emily moved to Portland, Oregon. I was surprised to see that the local coop offered raw milk. There was a label on the bottle saying “for pets only” as a way to get around the laws concerning selling raw milk for human consumption. A few weeks later, however, the milk was gone. So I did a little research, and found a farmer who sold raw milk directly on the farm, which was legal to do in Oregon. They offered both raw cow and raw goat milk.
I made my own fresh goat cheese, raw butter, buttermilk, and paneer cheese from the raw milk and cream.
These underground food clubs or direct sell raw milk farms unfortunately often experience armed raid by our federal government.
An article in The Grist talks about armed raids on farms/farmers who sell raw milk. The raw milk issue is double because it is illegal to sell in most places regardless.
It seems that the farmers take the legal brunt of these raids when they get raided. The members also lose out because they no longer have access to the farm’s offerings.
So why join or start an underground food club?
I guess the idea of being in on an underground food scene has its appeal, and in the case of raw milk, underground is usually the only option.
Until the Cottage food Bill passed, the ability to create a small food product start up was out of reach to most because of the access and expense to the a certified kitchen.
And the expanse of the reach of Farmers Markets is a relatively new thing, so small communities might have opted to start a secret food club to share locally produced food. The range of Farmers Markets is growing all of the time, and it seems that every town that can support a farmers market has/will have one.
Even if there is a Farmers Market, some still might opted to go underground and forgo the expense of renting a space, insurance, or the challenge of getting space at a popular market.
The reason for the armed cracked down (why is it armed?) is supposedly to protect willing adults members of a farm/ food club from getting sick from unregulated food products. I can see the government point. They want to keep us safe. Why they need all of those guns is beyond me…but.
Are these raid keeping us safe? I would like to see data on food illness outbreaks from secret food clubs compared to commerical food operations.
The thing is however that there are plenty of “regulated food products” produced and processed from supposedly a safe big ag system turns out unsafe.
Today it may be peanut butter, tomorrow it can spinach, and when their is a mess up, it is big. Millions of pounds of product is recalled, and we later find out that our countries regulation arm is under staffed, and under funded, and questionably affected at times.
So am I a fan of secret food clubs?
I favor a system where small local food producers can make certain foods like baked goods in their homes without being certified, which is what we have now in Michigan. I also think that there needs to be affordable access to certified kitchens, and refrigeration, so a wider variety of food products can be produced locally to grow region specialties, and food systems.
I say why go underground when you do not have too. The reality however is that most states do not have a cottage food law, or access to affordable certified kitchens, which means people choose the underground option or not at all. Most choose not at all which results in a massive lost of opportunity.
As for raw milk, I am a big fan of raw milk, and I feel that adults should be allowed to purchase and consume raw milk from a farmer, on the farm if they are willing to take the risk, which from my research is not much of a risk at all.
My only question is why all of the arm raids? Have any of these secret foods clubs, or farm posed any armed threat or resistance.
I have attended several charity dinner parties host by Tammy Coxen of TT Super Club. I was always a guess for those events, but this time I had the honor of helping host the event to support my local food project The Ann Arbor Sugar Beet Project. The idea around the Sugar Beet Project is to bring back local home garden non-gmo/organic sugar beet growing, and home sugar beet sugar making. Growing beets, and making beet sugar was a tradition that most Michiganders used to do. Sugar was not alway the cheap, and easily available product it is today. I and several other gardeners and farmers are growing sugar beets with the hope to produce sugar from them. The further goal is to increase our production in order to provide a viable source of local, non-gmo (and even organic) Brand of Michigan Beet Sugar.
We raised $316 for the project. The money will go toward securing more non-gmo seed, and purchasing equipment for sugar making like a juicer extractor, a large stock pot, a seltzer bottle, milk of lime, and a large food grade container.
I also brought over two trays of sugar beet starts, which I am happy to say were all planted.
Here are the pics from the meal:
Raspberry Gazpacho
Salad of Haricot Verts w/chive oil, Tomato Tartare, Microgreens
Fave Bean Agnoletti w/curry emulsion
Rabbit Rillette, warm potatoes, w/shallot vinaigrette, and home pickled vegetable
Bison Tenderloin, w beets, blueberries, and fennel
fresh Mozzarella, Banon Capriole, Fiore Sardo, Blue d’Auvergne, w/pickled raisins, creamed raw honey, and sour cherry perserves
The picture above shows several nice trays of microgreens growing. But there seemed to be some new challenge and lesson every week of my first season as a microgreen farmer.
-Poor germination
-poor drainage in trays until I cut more holes in the bottom
-Buying the wrong seed
-dealing with rain
-dealing with heat, and frying a few batched of trays with the plastic lid covers
-varieties that flopped like lentil, chic pea, and corn shoots
-trying a supposedly fail proof indoor system that failed
-Then there were the chipmunk attacks
-And even when I had a bumper crop, a rainy day at the market resulted in slow sales
I set up a fence to protect my microgreen trays from deer and wood chucks, but I never thought about chipmunks. They can get in anywhere, and they love sunflower seeds. The real problem is that they like to dig around in the trays, and once they uncover the seeds, the seeds dry up and die. They ruined a weeks worth of trays.
I set up this system of a brick frame with some hardware clothe on top, and bricks on top. If you are more of handy person than me, you could build a wood frame. Once the seeds sprout to about an inch they are safe because the chipmunks only seem to like the seeds, and not the sprouts.
This system is also great for sprouting seed starts outside. Stadium Hardware sells hardware clothe by the foot/yard.
My Peach Pocket Pie, Picture from RealTimeFarms.com
Just a few days out from Jennifer Granholm signing the Cottage Food Operation Bill, Inchworm Bakery (That’s me) is happy to announce that we sold out of our local peach pocket pies at the Westside Farmers Market. Many were amazed that this bill became a law so quickly. There was a buzz with other farmers, and venders about food products they would like to make and offer at the market. I was the first one out of the gate, but more will soon follow, and thanks to this new law, a diverse and exciting range of Michigan Made food products will be available.
We plan to use as many Michigan ingredients as we can. All of our baked goods will use organic Michigan Flour.
Next weeks offerings will feature Michigan peaches, cherries, a chocolate pie, and local apricot pocket pies. And Emily will be featuring shortbread cookies.
So what does this mean to local food venture in Michigan? Amanda talked about how the passing of this bill into law will mean that more people can start their food business. The cost and access to a commercial kitchens will no longer be a barrier to starting certain food businesses. The hope and the potential is that some of these small start ups will lead to larger local food product businesses that will provide greater access to local food, put Michigan on the map for food tourism, and create more jobs from small businesses.
I can confirm first hand about the bill is creating new jobs because it help to create one for me and my girlfriend Emily. We are happy to announce our new business thanks to this new law: Inchworm Bakery.
This new law affects me directly and instantly because I plan to bake some pocket pies, and cookies as early as Thursday and have them packaged, labelled and ready for sale.
Come visit me at the Westside farmers market to get a sample of the new Inchworm Bakery’s baked goods of pocket pies, and shortbread cookies.
It was a rainy day at the Westiside Farmers Market today. The rained cleared just as the market was closing. Most vendors will tell you that rain is great for growing, but not so much during market days, which results in people staying home.
So I ran over to Selma to donate some of my extra pea shoots for the thursday night work party supper, and for the friday morning meal. I got talking to Jeff and he told me that HB 5837, the cottage food bill passed the michigan state senate.
I was surprised that it passed so quickly. In fact I am surprised it passed at all. Readers of my blog might have followed this ongoing saga, which looks like it will have a very happy ending for local food producers.
When this bill get signed into law by Jennifer Granholm, my plan is to make and sell hand pies at the Westside Farmers Market. I am also playing around with making a organic energy bar.
Thanks to everyone who worked to make this happen. I know I was on the phone bugging my state reps to pass this bill.
Readers of this blog will know about my BP Boycott. My previous post went into a lot of the why’s, of the Boycott. I addressed a major criticism with a BP Boycott, which is how it will affect the Independent BP Station Owners. It has been suggested by various articles (See Newsweek), and even from people on the street when I protest that Boycotting the BP stations only hurts the independent owners, and not BP, and thus taking the whole point away from the BP Boycott.
I considered this then I saw this pie chart printed on another gas stations pump. Note where this information is coming from. It is from the NACS, the National Association of Convenience and Petroleum Retailer. The idea behind the this chart from the gas station retail industry is to say:
Don’t blame the gas station for the high gas prices. It is not our fault because we do not make much money.
Lets look at these numbers:
58% for the crude oil (Which will go to BP)
17% for refining (Also going to BP)
14% in taxes (to pay for the up keep on road we drive on)
9% retail and distribution cost with %20 of that going to credit card companies
1% Lastly, the station owner will take in only %1 income from the sale of gas
So this means that of the $20 I spent today to fill up at a non-BP station, the owner takes in $.20.
So really the station owners do not make their money from the gas. They make way more off of the slushees, chips, beer, wine, lottery tickets, soda, candy, cigarette, ice cream, pork rinds, and hot dogs etc…
BP or other gas companies by contrasts will take in %75 from the sale. In the case of my last gas purchase $15 of $20. Of course not all of that is profit, but the record profits that all oil companies have seen come from these numbers.
And how did oil companies like BP make record profit and keep as much of my $15 dollars as possible? Their profit comes from in part from saving money by not spending it on safety R&D, and by hiring lobbyist to pay off politician to keep the profits coming.
So if all the oil companies are lax on safety why demonize BP right?
Because of the oil spill disaster in the gulf, and BP as far as the US is concern, is the worse oil company by far. The economic and environmental impact for the US will far out shines all other oil companies.
So if you are mad at BP, but do not want to hurt the gas station owners get your gas at another station, and buy your convenience stuff at an independent BP stations if you must. But won’t that just hurt the other gas station whose company did not create the worse environmental disaster in US history?
Last One Eating 