Will You Be My Valentine?

Need a last minute gift idea? Consider buying a rose bush online other instead of a bouquet of roses that will die in four days. It will be shipped as soon as appropriate for your zone and will bloom for years to come. Try heirloomroses.com for a great selection of rose bushes.

Orchids are another great choice and about the price of a dozen roses. There are some new easy to care for varieties that are absolutely beautiful. They are available at most local garden centers.

A reusable travel mug and gift card to their favorite coffee joint or just a simple candlelit dinner at home are great choices too.  

And while you're at it, skip Hallmark, go green and make a handmade card with a poem or a picture. Your loved one will appreciate the thoughtfulness and you will save $5.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Local Food and The Farm Bill

This bill could be a step in the right direction for local farmers, but will it pass through the House Agriculture Committee? Considering they passed pizza as a vegetable in school lunches, I'm not confident.
Local Food and The Farm Bill: Small Investments, Big Returns

http://www.ewg.org/agmag/2012/01/local-food-and-the-farm-bill-small-investments-big-returns/

It's CSA Time!

January is a great time to join a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). Many farms throughout the country have CSAs to guarantee revenue for the upcoming growing season.  In a CSA, you pay a set price for a share of that seasons fruits and/or vegetables and pick up produce directly from the farmer on a weekly basis. There is a small amount of risk depending on extreme weather conditions, but the risk is usually minimal. I love broadening my vegetable horizons and learning to cook foods that I normally wouldn't buy. Click on the link below to find a CSA in your area and enjoy the fruits of your local farmer's labor.

http://www.localharvest.org/csa/

Ugh Politics!

I have never been so appalled by our U.S. government than when I heard that pizza is now considered a vegetable. Whether or not the sauce on top of the pizza can be considered a vegetable is even questionable. This is not your grandmother's tomato sauce, this is tomato paste and whatever chemical concoctions scientists have created as cheaply as possible to preserve it for eternity. What a disappointing step back for parents, nutritionists and childhood obesity advocates everywhere.

Broccoli is a vegetable. Peppers are vegetables. Yeast and white flour topped with tomato paste, mozzarella cheese, pepperoni and sausage should never be considered a vegetable.

The processed food giants win again with the help of their deep pockets and political influence. Americans are once again duped into thinking that the government has their best interests in mind when it comes to public health.We all love pizza, but it doesn't grow in the soil. Maybe the White House gardeners should plant some pizza dough and mozzarella cheese and see if anything green comes up.

Rubberbands

After shopping at my local farm market for most of the growing season this year, the only thing I missed from the supermarket were the rubberbands that are wrapped around the broccoli.  They are great for childproofing cabinet doors.

Canning

On a recent Saturday night, I spent the night canning my first batch of tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes from my garden. While other thirty somethings were throwing dinner parties, out on the town or parked in front of the TV, I chose to spend the few precious hours I have after my kids go to bed stirring bubbling red sauce, then waiting for the notorious pop of the canning lids.
Canning seems to be popular again. Is it the dreadful state of the U.S. economy or the many natural disasters in recent news? Regardless of the cause, it is wonderful to see such a time honored tradition come back to life.
My first experience with canning was my mother using her pressure canner for venison, then later apple sauce and peaches. Intrigued and intimidated by the pressure canner, I took a class at the local Cornell Cooperative Extension where they walked us through both the pressure canner and the water bath canner and supplied us with the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving, the best starter canning book you can buy for $5.99. I am still intimidated by the pressure canner and stick to my water bath canner since I only like to can high-acid foods like fruits and tomatoes. Maybe someday I'll break down and buy a pressure canner, but probably not anytime soon. The simple boiling pot of water works for me.
Canning is not just preserving your food, it is a sense of pride every time you open a jar knowing that your hard work goes into every spoonful. It is a reminder of our grandmothers canning to survive a hard northeast winter and knowing what is in the food on my kids' plates. Most importantly, it is passing on this tradition to my daughter who loves to help and especially loves the sweet rewards a few months later.

Check out the Ball website for more information about canning at freshpreserving.com.

Happy Canning!

Making Local Produce Accessible to Everyone

Kudos to New York State Government for supporting New York State growers through their Fresh Connect Farmers' Markets program. According to a Times Union article today, it will provide up to $15,000  to farmers' markets to assist local farmers in expanding their geographic sales areas and farmers' market options.  

More importantly, I think, is the introduction of the system to accept food stamps and WIC at our farmers' markets and a $2 rebate for every $5 in food stamps spent. New York State is finally making fresh, local produce accessible to everyone, which is a wonderful thing. Low income individuals in the State will get local, great tasting produce and local farmers will expand their sales.

It sounds like the best of both worlds. Now if they could just make sure that those without cars have public transportation options to get to the farmers' markets, we'd be all set.

Click on the link for the Times Union article below for more information.

http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2011/08/09/cuomo-unveils-new-farmers-market-program/