BlogHer - Food Politics - Comments

great ideas

lisalawless — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:06:18 -0500

There are some great ideas here. I attended a slow food feast last weekend that benefited a nearby school that teaches children about garden science. The meal was made entirely from locally grown and raised food.

lisa from lisa is cooking

http://lisaiscooking.blogspot.com/

Oh no! You'll have to

greenlagirl — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:14:33 -0500

Oh no! You'll have to balance them out with your own backyard garden!

green LA girl

Adding to my list

confusedhomemaker — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:12:16 -0500

Thanks for the informative post. I'm adding these to my list of reading & watching. Since I've had many people mention Food Inc. I need to get my tush in gear to see it.

beth aka confusedhomemaker

http://theconfusedhomemaker.com/

HLIC NYC is giving boxes of food

JackieforHLIC — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:25:41 -0500

From now until November 4th, HLIC New York (www.hlicnyc.org) is hosting a “Dine In” event (http://bit.ly/JBZaI) to raise enough money to sponsor 7,000 Boxes of Love for families in need. To donate one box is $36.71, and food is delivered to hungry families just in time for Thanksgiving. Each Box of Love feeds a family of six and includes a ham or chicken along with vegetables, potatoes, juice, yams, apple or cranberry sauce, bread, fruit, dessert, and more (http://bit.ly/gBu8Q). Thank-you for your blessings!

Warm Wishes,
Jackie (for HLIC NYC)

Facebook: HLIC NYC
Twitter: HLIC NYC

Cheap is not always a bad thing

Beth Terry — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:20:47 -0500

Hey Lisa. Glad your Blogher bag is getting some good use. Unfortunately, they had run out by the time I dragged my sorry ass down to the registration table, so I missed out.

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
FaceBook

Hey - just bringing them home is the first step!

the veggie ignoramus — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:28:19 -0500

At the very least, you supported the farmer! Keep your eye out for the baby artichokes, it really is a great way to get started with this veggie! Thanks for reading!

Cristin (aka the veggie ignoramus)

Dining In to Donate for Thanksgiving

JackieforHLIC — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:12:26 -0500

Hi,

From now until November 4th, Here's Life Inner City New York (http://www.hlicnyc.org) is hosting an event, called "Dine In" to sponsor a box of food (love) to be given to hungry families just in time for Thanksgiving.(http://bit.ly/gBu8Q). Each "Box of Love" feeds a family of six and includes a ham or chicken along with vegetables, potatoes, juice, yams, apple or cranberry sauce, bread, fruit, dessert, and more...plus Scriptures and children's literature. Since this is time sensitive information, I am asking if you can help spread the word, donate, or even volunteer?

Warm Wishes,

Jackie (For HLIC)

Facebook: HLICNYC/ Twitter: HLICNYC

You did better than my first (and only) attempt

sassymonkey — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:17:39 -0500

I brought artichokes home from the farmer's market once last year and did...nothing with them. I let them intimidate me and they sat in the fridge until they couldn't be used. See, you did better than me, you actually cooked them.

Maybe I'll try them again soon. :)

Sassymonkey and Sassymonkey Reads.

No Bags at All

Condo Blues — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:14:19 -0500

My summer farmer's market doesn't offer bags at all so we skip the plastic bag problem all together.Although I think they do it because they are cheap, not because they are trying to be green.

I keep a bunch of reusable shopping bags in my car at all times but most of those bags are too heavy to weigh items in. Fortunately I found a great alternative to buying a reusable shopping bag just for tiny produce. My BlogHer09 conference tote is light enough that it doesn't change the weight of the produce scale when I use it for small things like green beans.

Condo Blues Green living and money saving tips http://condo-blues.blogspot.com/

I guess we're lucky in the Bay Area

Beth Terry — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:14:13 -0500

@Chitra I'm surprised that there is so much non-organic food at your farmers market. Where I live, most of the farmers sell produce that is either organic or at least pesticide-free. What if all farmers market patrons got into the habit of asking the vendors for organic produce each time they shopped. Do you think consumer advocacy would make a difference?

MC, I actually put most of my produce onto the scale and into the bag directly with no additional bags. The only time I need any kind of extra bag is for small things... berries, cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, etc. I just use small organic cotton EcoBags produce bags for those.

Cheese... I have been trying to get No Impact Man Colin Beavan (http://www.noimpactman.com) to give me the name of his farmers market in NY City because in his film, it seems that the cheese vendor sells in bulk and cuts whatever amount the customer wants. Hey, maybe you could email him too. He keeps promising to find the name for me, but he's so busy he keeps forgetting. I just want the name so I can contact them and find out how they do it so I can use them as an example for my own local cheese vendor which shrink wraps everything in plastic.

Seriously, leave him a comment and ask about cheese. It would be kind of funny if I got everyone to do it. He might even laugh.

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
FaceBook

First off, I miss Berkeley!

chitra — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:34:33 -0500

First off, I miss Berkeley! I also bring cloth bags to my farmer's market now in Brooklyn. I have spent much time in India with my parents where we would always bring a cloth or some other kind of bag from home when going to the markets. I just don't understand the obsession these days with plastic bags. Maybe it is just a force of habit.

What surprises me though is the amount of food that is not grown organically though. I guess it is that dilemma of choosing what is local versus what is organic but grown farther away.

/Chitra/

http://abcdsofcooking.blogspot.com

What we did long ago

mcmilker — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:17:49 -0500

Great Post Beth-

Ever since you first started talking about this I am vaguely uncomfortable at my Farmer's Mkt. I keep trying to think what people did before plastic.They used cloth bags or just dumped the vegies/fruits in a cloth bag or basket

As I recall, cheese was wrapped in....cheesecloth, I think perhaps what comes next would be bring a wooden or metal bowl in which to place the cheesecloth wrapped cheese. The open question is...what did we do before Tupperware and plastic containers for prepared food?

MC Milker - The Not-Quite-Crunchy Parent

Soft cheese in compostable package?

Beth Terry — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:42:44 -0500

Just a thought. I don't know the answer to the goat cheese packaging dilemma, but I do know I don't want my cheese wrapped in plastic, which many times contains hormone-disrupting phthalates. I just don't think it's worth it.

Amber, please let me know what your market society has to say. There are plenty of examples now, and the Berkeley farmers market, run by the Ecology Center, is willing to help and give advice.

Beth Terry
www.fakeplasticfish.com
@fakeplasticfish
FaceBook

Avoiding plastic

AmberS — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 01:18:36 -0500

I bring re-usable bags, including re-usable produce bags to the market. However, I do see a lot of products with plastic or styrofoam packaging. I opt not to buy those products, and frequent vendors who use no packaging, or sustainable and re-usable packaging when absolutely required (like, say, salsa in glass jars). However, I had not considered asking the market to go plastic-free. It is a good idea, and I will definitely be in touch with my local market society.

~ Amber

www.strocel.com

Hmmm - But what about items

SpendWiselyTexas@gmail.com — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:11:45 -0500

Hmmm - But what about items such as soft cheese. More and more items are being sold at farmers' markets (which is great). How do we carry this stuff home. Not arguing, just asking as my new favorite farmers' market purchase is creamy goat cheese. i would like to see the markets in my area go plastic free.

Spend Wisely Texas - Living and Spending Wisely in Texas