Jakob's Bowl

The Misplaced Farmer's Market Tote Deliverance

It's been a busy autumn, and I am way, way behind on my posting, as evidence by the late-season tomatoes shown in this picture. It was the last Sunday in September, and I was at the Ayers Creek Farm Booth putting these amazing looking tomatoes into a paper bag, when a bright yellow canvas Ayers Creek shopping bag was suddenly placed into my free hand. I was so focused on the tomatoes that I didn't notice Anthony Boutard walk over the the bag (Made In The USA.). As he turned to return to his check out station he told me that he had read my sob story blog post from earlier in the summer, what a friendly gesture!!! This surprise however, wasn't the highlight of the trip as I discovered later.

I had received Anthony's newsletter a few days earlier and his comments about their Astiana variety of tomatoes - "our culinary tomato for making sauces. We found this tomato at a market in the town of Asti in the Piedmont of Italy." - had me excited. I expected plum tomatoes, not these giants, so my anticipation was even greater. Although he had forewarned us in the booth that morning that the tomatoes were not 'sweet,' I got a bit scared when I was peeling them and tasted a piece...he, wasn't kidding...nice acid, very good tomato flavor, but virtually no sugar! I began to doubt its value as a 'sauce" tomato. As they began to cook down with some garlic and olive oil, the aroma permeated my apartment, and got more enticing as time went on. After about 45 minutes of cooking, I took my first taste, and the sauce was simply amazing, bursting with rich tomato flavor...my Tiger Striped Romas couldn't even compare. I was truly annoyed as I finished the last of the sauce later that week, annoyed that I had only bought four pounds.

Anselmo's Organic Farm: The Last Hurrah

About a month ago I bumped into Marie from Anselmo’s Organic Farm (now defunct) at the Sunday Farmer’s Market in Ballard. As part of the process of closing down the operation, they were in the process of pulling and drying all of the garlic they had planted early this year, and the Market officials were going to let her sell some at her husband’s doughnut booth. They brought in the first batch several weeks ago and it included two varieties that they had never brought to the market before, Polish Hardneck (left) and Thai Fire (right).

The Polish Hardneck is a very hearty and easy to grow Porcelain variety known for its pure white outer wrapper, large cloves and intense heat when raw. I can vouch for the heat and the ‘big’ garlicky flavor when raw - I let you know what happens when it’s cooked. The Thai Fire is a Turban variety has a head that almost looks like it’s ‘blooming’ when you peel away the outer wrapper - the brown skinned cloves spread out like petals from a flower instead of clinging to the central stem like most other varieties. It is supposed to have a complex flavor and a nice heat that slowly builds. I’ll be tasting and cooking with this one tomorrow, so I will let you know. Hopefully there will be more varieties to come.

To see more heirloom garlic varieties in the flesh just click Garlic Anyone.

Kirby Craze 2011

Based on the number of hits I've been getting every day on my post Will The Real Kirby Cucumber Please Stand Up from last year, I would say that people have gone Kirby crazy. My guess is that most people searching for them have heard the name but never actually seen or tasted them! Well in last year's post, I neglected to include a picture of the standard pickling cucumber often sold as a "Kirby." In the above left photo are some National Pickling Cucumbers (Not Kirby Cucumbers), and in the right photo are the real things (Kirby Cucumbers).

Looking For A Few Frills?

When I first spied these frilly bunches at the Local Roots booth at the Farmer's Market several Sundays back, I thought they were just another member of the curly endive family, but I was oh, so wrong. Siri informed me that thy were bunches of Golden Frill mustard, and this was the first year they planted it. Apparently it is a recent, 10 to 12 years ago that is, cross between a Violet Moss Curled kale and Green Wave mustard. It gets its lacy/frilly structure from the kale, along with a nice touch of sweetness. It gets its spicyness, a moderate level of heat and a 'bright' mustard burst from the mustard. This makes for a delicious flavor profile - I was stunned on my first taste - and leaves that are on one hand tender enough to be used in salads, and strong enough to withstand a very quick stir fry without turning to mush. I've used it in salads and pasta to date, and for my next experiment I intend on using it to wrap a piece of rich/oily fish before cooking. What a pleasant spring find.

The Value Of Organic Certification?

What A Difference A Year Makes! It was about a year ago that I posted about the USDA Inspector General's audit of the USDA’s enforcement of the National Organic Program (NOP) (Certified Organic: Whom Can You Trust?). The results while shocking to some, were not unexpected by those who followed the letter of the law in growing and producing their organic products. Real organic producers had been paying the price for lax and even non-enforcement by not being able to compete on an even playing field with those who gamed and cheated the system. My main concern at the time was the lack of inspection of food products labeled "organic" coming from China. I assumed that the 'organic' risk in this country was a lot lower, and I was apparently wrong.

On March 2nd, the USDA took some long overdue steps to actually enforce the National Organic Program and in the process increase the value of 'real' organic certification...they revoked the accreditation of two - now formerly - organic certifying agencies, Certified Organic, Inc. (COI) and Guaranteed Organic Certification Agency (GOCA) for failing to comply with the National Organic Program regulations, including a failure to "ensure adequate training for employees about the regulations." Hopefully, this is just the first step in reversing the effects of Gresham's Law on 'real' organic food products and reestablishing their true value in the marketplace, as well as allowing the consumer to have more faith in the stamp on the back of the package.

 

Just Greasing The Pole

No, I haven’t disappeared…I’ve just been preoccupied. But earlier this week just as I was about to return to my examination of fish sauces, I received an email with the subject line "Hi From Frito-Lay." I assumed it was some sort of response to my post, The Slippery Slope, from a few weeks ago. Sure enough, it was:

Hi Michael-

I wanted to reach out to you because I recently read your article, "The Slippery Slope". I work at Ketchum PR and Frito-Lay is one my clients. I saw that you had some questions and concerns about the natural ingredients found in our snack chips.

I wanted to let you know that currently, Tostitos are made with only three ingredients - corn, healthier oils such as corn and sunflower and salt. In addition, what you mentioned about Frito-Lay announcing that approximately 50% of their products are being made with all natural ingredients is actually completely correct. And this includes three of their biggest brands- Lay's® potato chips, Tostitos® tortilla chips and SunChips® multigrain snacks. These products will not contain any artificial or synthetic ingredients, artificial flavors or artificial preservatives, or ingredients such as monosodium glutamate (MSG).

If you have any additional questions about Frito-Lay or its products and all natural portfolio, or would even like to sample them, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Jessica Defilippo
Senior Account Executive

Ketchum. Passion and Precision in Communication.
A proud partner of Room to Read; World Change Starts with Educated Children®
Our goal is to reach more than 10 million children by 2015.

Given the fact that she did not provide any information that wasn’t in the press release referenced in my post or address any of my sarcasm tinged comments about the value of the Frito-Lay announcement, I am not quite sure why she took the time to send me the e-mail!!! However, I am grateful she did, since her corporate signature just serves, ironically, to add more fuel to the fire.

This PR firm seems to have a noble goal, but I wonder how many of those 10 million children that they hope to reach by 2015 will be taught how to read and understand the nutritional labels and the ingredients lists of those bags in the well stocked vending machines into which they keep pumping their dollars. How many of those children will be able to understand the relative and absolute nutritional merits of a bag of Tostitos versus a bag of Doritos, and why the latter are even being offered for sale???

Tostitos Ingredients: Whole White Corn, Vegetable Oil (Corn, Soybean, Canola and/or Sunflower Oil), and Salt.

Doritos (Nacho Cheese) Ingredients: Whole Corn, Vegetable Oil (Contains One or More of the Following: Corn, Soybean and/or Sunflower Oil), Salt, Cheddar Cheese (Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Maltodexrin, Wheat Flour, Whey, Monosodium Glutamate, Buttermilk Solids, Romano Cheese From Cow’s Milk, Cheese (Part-Skim Cow’s Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes), Whey Protein Concentrate, Onion Powder, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and Cottonseed Oil, Corn Flour, Disodium Phosphate, Lactose, Natural and Artificial Flavors, Dextrose, Tomato Powder, Spices, Lactic Acid, Artificial Color (Including Yellow 6, Yellow5, Red 40), Citric Acid, Sugar, Garlic Powder, Red and Green Bell Pepper Powder, Sodium Caseinate, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, Non-Fat Milk Solids, Whey Protein Isolate, and Corn Syrup Solids. (emphasis added)