Quantifying Myself

A few weeks ago, I purchased a Fitbit.  As you can see in its description on the left, it tracks one's activity throughout the day.  Lest you call this a glorified pedometer, you might want to know that it also tracks sleep activity.

Yes, it will tell me what my sleep efficiency is given how long I slept and how many times I woke up in the middle of the night.  As a skeptic, I was amazed at its accuracy.  The first night I slept soundly through the night and was awoken only when Eric kissed me goodbye.  The second night, I knew I woke up around 2AM a few times, and it accurately tracked that as well.

But the thing that I realized I most needed was, indeed, the pedometer.  I've heard many times for several years that one should take 10,000 steps each day.  I, for one, had no idea what that exactly meant, but I was sure I was close.  Yeah, I work at a desk, but compared to others, I took the stairs to the 5th floor.  I walk over to my coworkers' offices if I have a question for them.  I'm the one who avoids the moving walkways in the airports, which I think are The Laziest contraption that has been created by society.  So imagine my surprise when I logged a whole 3,000 steps by the time I got home from work on that first quantified day.  I was truly shocked.  So THAT is what I do on a daily basis without working out?  And then I did what the Fitbit was meant for - I was motivated to get my sneakers on and I walked out into the cool, dimmed light of the emerging evening and I walked the Lina Walk - the route Eric and I take when he helps me "get healthy" that day.  Unfortunately, even that walk wasn't enough, so I kept walking around the block until I got to 10,000 steps.  So THAT is what it takes to get to 10,000 steps?  Boy was I living in LaLa Land.

Two weeks later, I'm averaging about 8,000 steps per day and am working toward a 10k average.  My key strategy is to make sure I take several walking breaks during the day so that I don't find myself at 7PM with a lot of walking to still do.  And to make sure I stay on the bandwagon, they've given me badges for steps taken and stairs climbed.  My next strategy is to start "friending" folks to create a leaderboard.  I know I'm of the competitive ilk, and that would get me motivated to no end.

Perhaps in another month, I'll actually get motivated to log my food intake to really take quantification to the next level.  But I've tried that before, and I don't last longer than a week.  So the only solution is to wait for something like the Philometron Patch which is designed to calculate BOTH caloric output AND INTAKE.  Now THAT is something I could get behind...

On a Local Organic Mission

I've talked about how Eric and I have turned into an Organic household.  Now we're taking it one step further and trying to source everything locally, if possible.  Get the freshest stuff just picked at the peak of ripeness and didn't have to travel thousands of miles to me in a freight train?  We're in.  And it can't be that hard, right?  I mean, I'm surrounded by farmland.  Turn left out of my development, and in one minute, there are cornfields.  I'm thankful for this.  With some of the best growing soil in the world, during times of  economic hardship or war, I've read about how this area rises above it all because of its self-sustaining ability.

So a few weeks ago, I took a trip to Root's Market.  Root's is the oldest family-run market in the county, originating as a poultry auction in 1925, which they still do.  If for anything, go just so you can see this take place.  It's such an experience if you're a city slicker.  Naturally, I thought that if I need to find organic goods, this should be a gold mine!

Alas, as I roamed through the vast rows and rows of gorgeous, brightly colored produce for sale, I saw lots of "Natural" and "Home Grown" and "Local" signs, but nothing that said, "Organic" or "Chemical Free" or "No Pesticides."  Whut?!?!  So I started asking the stand attendants.  "No, we spray," was a consistent answer.  I respect the honesty, and everyone seemed genuinely sorry that they couldn't help me.  At one stand, a customer next to me was ogling a beauty of an eggplant with its shiny purple skin.  It was at that moment that I felt like I was looking at that alluringly beautiful red, shiny apple being sold by the old woman outside that woodsy cottage, and I shook my head, thinking, but it's poisonous...

Out of the 200 stands that are at Root's, much of which isn't related to food, to be fair, only 2 stands had organic anything.  One was Chiques Roc Farm, the farm close to where I live.  The other was a Spice shop.  A little disappointing, as I trudged away with my empty canvas bags.

So what's an organic gal to do?  Eric used the Social Network and trawled through the web to find these stellar markets.

Eastern Market isn't new to us, and now it's expanded into the corner block with free parking just a few yards past the market, in its old stomping grounds.  All the produce is organic, beautiful, and very reasonably priced.  Open on Saturdays from 9AM - 2PM, we also stock up on the many ready-to-eat stands that are there also - Nowal and her fantastic Falafels, Victoria's tremendously flavorful Kenyan fare, Awful Good and its panini sandwiches.  Eric got their Cuban today, and it was crusty and full of great ingredients.  Lastly, we grabbed some eats from the Puerto Rican stand today - pulled pork, yellow rice, and stewed onions.  We take them to go and have some great sustenance for the rest of the week.

The Millersville Community Market is where we go when we need something on a Wednesday or need garlic.  This is small, but growing, and I'm most impressed with the Promised Land Farm Garlic stand.  There are so many varieties of garlic at this stand, and I got a really great education, like the fact that I (and probably you) have only eaten the Silverskin variety my entire life.  The Promised Land Farm grows many, many more varieties sustainably and without chemicals.  Lately, we've been enjoying the Siberian, with its spicy pungency and large cloves.

Troublingly, most of the garlic that's being distributed in the US is from China.  And I don't know about you, but when Japan and Korea has banned food shipments from China, I hardly think it's safe for me to have in our house, either.

It was at this market that I discovered Ground Cherries.  What the heck are these?!  Sweet little tomato/berries that was such a wonder to me, I dreamt about them that night.  I also had some of the largest, sweetest chemical-free blackberries ever.  Delicious!!

Last, but not least, the Marietta Market, open on Sundays 9AM - 1PM.  Unfortunately, it's been cancelled tomorrow morning because of Hurricane Irene, which is such a shame, because every other week, they have yoga in the park at 1:30PM, and I was really looking forward to tomorrow.  When we went two Sundays ago, it was pouring rain.  But a little of nature's growth serum isn't enough to stop us from supporting our local community.  We just caught a vendor leaving with her chemical-free peaches, so we managed to snag some of the sweetest, juiciest peaches I'd had in a long time.  

One stand was particularly impressive, with a broad variety of chemical-free produce that was robust and beefy.  It almost prompted me to ask, "Are you sure growth hormones weren't used here?"  In the meantime, someone poured me a glass of tomato-lemonade - pureed golden tomatoes with honey and a squeeze of lemon.  Simple goodness that was bright and fresh.  Just the elixir on a torrential downpour of a day.

These are my three go-to markets.  They're close and give me great options three times a week.  My vision for a Portland, Oregon of the East Coast?  I think it's just playing Hide & Seek with me, and seek it out, I will...

Living Organically - Part 2

I went to visit an old family friend, Lorene.  She's a doctor living in Chicago who got into Eastern Medicine as a supplement to her Western training about 15 years ago, so she's a unique medical practitioner who balances both worlds.  She founded The Whole Life Center in Lagrange Park, IL.  I never remembered her as a kid since her younger sisters babysat me, so I figured she had to be at least 10, maybe 15 years older than I.  But when I actually saw her again, I saw a woman before me who looked no older than 35, 15 years younger than she is biologically.  That was the moment I was really sold.

I went to visit her because I have a mild blood condition that western medicine doesn't have a solution for.  They say they'll jump in if the condition becomes critical.  Really?  Critical?  And then the solution they have in mind has severe side effects.  So it seems like a lose/lose situation all around.  So my mom talked to her mom, and her mom talked to Lorene, and Lorene said there was a TON that could be done from the Eastern medicine point of view.  She's a specialist in nutrition as the first line of defense, so off to Chicago I went for a session with "Weastern" doctor who looks at life holistically.

One of the main things that she recommended was getting more Greens into my diet.  She recommended a book called Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko.  Downloaded it from Amazon onto my iPad's Kindle app and was reading it voraciously the very next day.  Isn't technology spectacular sometimes?  Such a simple, old concept that in this modern day and age we've forgotten all about.  The premise is this: we don't eat enough organic greens.  Not vegetables, mind you, but the deep leafy greens that you've heard time and time again when you get into the mode of wanting to be healthy in your life, and then you don't do it.  Why?  Because let's be honest.  McDonald's fries taste so much better!  In Boutenko's book, she facilely outlines why greens are just so important, and if someone had told me that while he or she perfunctorily said, "Eat more green vegetables," I would have heeded the advice much more ardently.  Boutenko's gig is to get the greens via smoothies.  Blend it all together and voila!  All the greens you're supposed to have!

Today, I ran to the local supermarket and for $20 got an organic smorgasbord of collard greens, mixed salad greens, swiss chard, green apples, bananas, and lemons.  We've now switched almost exclusively to organic produce, and we're now purchasing grass-fed, free-range meat and eggs.  Whoo hoo!  We're finding that we're not buying as much food because organic is more expensive, but we're also not wasting as much.  So our food bill evens out.

Into our Cuisinart went the whole lot of collard greens, 2 green apples, 1 bananas, the juice of half a lemon and 2 cups of water.  And as I'm wont to do, I didn't follow one of the myriad of recipes outlined in the book and thought I'd wing it.  Well, I didn't add enough water to the mixture and it came out all pulpy and fibrous.  But it was my first time "drinking" it and I didn't know what the texture was supposed to be.  I poured both Eric and myself a healthy glassful, and we sat there looking at each other as we sipped, and chewed at it like cows on the range.  Not bad, I thought.  At first.  Upon reaching the midpoint, I looked up and declared, "I can't do this.  I think I may throw up."  

I went back to the concoction, threw in another apple, another banana, and 2 more cups of water.  Alright, this is starting to look and taste more like a smoothie!  Thank goodness for the sweetness of the fruit, I say.  

But what to put it in?  Eric had an empty beer growler hanging around the kitchen.  Fair game.  Lorene told me that I had to keep my body's pH in balance.  Beer, she said, was acidic and if I could stay away from it, it would do my body good.  Ahhh....  so if I can't drink beer, I may as well replace it with this!!

A glass a day is supposed to keep everything away.  And this should take us a few days to get through.

I'd like to think we'll stick with this.  Eric actually really loved drinking it, and he proclaimed, "I think this is more greens that we've eaten all week!"  I'm sure that's true.  So check back, and I'll let you all know how it goes.  And wish me luck.

A Strawberry Awakening

I never loved strawberries growing up, and now I know why.  The ones I grew up with came from the grocery store, might have looked nice and red... actually, nice and red for the bottom 2/3s which graduated into a white color at the stem... but tasted disappointingly sour.  It was like being really excited to go out on a date with a gorgeous guy only to find that the person within was totally vapid and that conversation was futile.  So can you blame a young girl for not wanting anything to do with it?  

I recall being confused by the paradox.  I mean, strawberries were heralded around me and by the media as being the fruit of the beginning of summer, a fantastic sweet that could replace dessert.  Strawberry Shortcake was one of my favorite cartoons and dolls, and it was supposed to represent all things good.  And yet, it tasted so marginal, so incomprehensibly empty.

Today, I stopped by the Chiquies Roc Farm near my house.  The farm is run by an Amish family and is chemical-free.  Tis the season of strawberries, and as I bite into these little ruby jewels, it's red all throughout and there's a sweetness that I have never experienced in a strawberry before.  

Here's the criminal part.  Until recently, I did not know that strawberries could be red throughout.  It's so stupid, isn't it?  I believed it could be red all the way to the stem on the outside, but that one would still bite in and see white streaks of what I know now to be unripened fruit with its big dry core.  But it's what I grew up with, sadly, and every single strawberry I'd ever had up to that point met that criteria.  It really begs the question of what our food system has become and what it has done to our ability to understand what nature intended food to be.  Since we're already more than 80% urbanized in this country and this is projected to increase, even, I feel for the kids who will grow up just like me and never understand or appreciate the real essence of a strawberry. 

So now I savor the juices of these ripe, tender, sun-warmed morsels of delight, and I think I might just have to go and find my Strawberry Shortcake doll.  I owe her an apology.  

Portion Control Issues

I'll admit it.  I have serious portion control issues.  I am married to a man who is a foot taller than I am, and yet, I often find myself eating as much as he does.  And then I wonder why my pants are a little too tight...

It's also kinda hard for the mind to adjust with the slowing of one's metabolism as we age.  Not that I'm old or anything, mind you.  Anyway, Eric and I went to Iron Hill in West Chester for their Belgian Fest a few months ago, and I decided to do the sensible thing and get something off their Healthy Selections section of the menu.  Its tagline is "Big Taste, Smaller Portions, Under 600 Calories."  I felt an excited anticipation when I ordered the Char-Grilled Angus Top Sirloin with Garlic-Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, Asparagus, sun-dried tomato portabella relish and a dark Belgian ale sauce.  And then, a rude awakening...

So THIS is the right portion size, huh?  3 asparagus, 2 fingerling potatoes, and oh yes, that IS about the size of a deck of cards.  Ever since my Weight Watcher friends told me about the card trick, I never quite understood how that could possibly be.  It just didn't seem like it could be enough.  It was a good lesson and I was thankful because I had to do something to offset all the BEER we drank!  *Sigh*  It's hopeless...

Fast Food Gluttony

Eric administers the SATs every year.  And every year, he goes to BK to get a Whopper, Shake, and Fries.  This year, I thought I would commemorate the event with him, but I suggested we get fries from McDonald's, because everyone knows Mickey D fries rule.

While Eric was getting himself a Double Whopper with Cheese and a Whopper with Cheese for me, I drove out to McDonald's for two large fries.  When I got there, I took a look at the fries sizes and I thought, you know, why be so gluttonous?  I'll get myself medium fries instead.  I know - it's like deciding to get the diet coke instead of regular...

The last time I had a burger and fries as a meal was in the Chicago airport on a layover with Eric like a year ago.  I got a regular hamburger and small fries.  When I unwrapped the hamburger, the patty was so puny I got rid of half the bun because gosh darn if that was going to be all I tasted.  That's all I had, and I was perfectly satiated.

This time around, I was partaking in some serious fast food, man.  And I'm not talking about the 6 grams of fat in a 6-in Subway sandwich.

The first bite was, I must admit, incredible.  I could see why someone would want to eat this everyday, every meal.  But by the time I was 3/4 way through the burger, I was, I must admit, a little bloated.  And then I poured out the rest of my fries and was feeling completely uninspired.  Those fries are the BEST when they've just come out of the fryer.  Saturated in its full fat glory with salt galore, it's perhaps the most heavenly thing I can think of to eat.  But give it 10 minutes, and it's not unlike the fry you find on the car floor.  It looks amazingly fine, but there's no glistening fat sheen or granules of salt for that glorious hit of savoriness.  Instead, it's kinda blah.  The external layer is no longer crispy, the inside is no longer hot and soft.  It's all reversed - spineless outside, hard inside.  Despite all these thoughts going through my mind, I just had to see if every single one of them were like that, so yes.  I ate them all anyway.

I'm glad to say that Eric and I took a walk after that monstrous meal.  But we suffered because of it.  The spring in our step was gone.  We trudged around the neighborhood feeling like ogres, if we didn't look the part.  I think we may have shuffled, for actually lifting our feet would have been asking for way too much.

Hours later now, I think I'm finally getting over it.  But just to make sure I never do this again, I took a look at the Nutritional Value of those Whoppers on the BK site.  A Double Whopper with Cheese is a body-slamming 950 calories.  Eric's large chocolate shake was a godzilla-sized 960 calories.  McD's large fries are a mammoth 500 calories.  Eric's intake of food was an awesome 2,410 calories.  One meal!  Add to that his beer, and I don't care how tall he is.  No one should be eating like that.  Mine was a bit better, but I don't feel better.  My Whopper with Cheese is 710 calories and the medium fries is 380.  I had half a beer, and that is basically my caloric allotment for the entire day.  Boy I'm glad I didn't touch any kind of shake.

So this was my first and my last time celebrating the SATs with Eric.  It's just not worth it.

Beauty of an Irony

When I was in grad school, I had a clear complexion and full head of thick healthy hair.  It was easy, really.  I used Dove bar soap and Pantene shampoo.  I did little else.


Then I started working for a large and successful beauty company.  I had all the best that beauty could buy at my disposal.  Tubes and tubes of goop that women would pay through the nose for, and it was all there for the taking.  So of course, I started in on all sorts of complicated skin regimens.  There were creams that were going to prevent wrinkles, lighten skin tone, even skin tone, remove age spots, chemically peel off surface-y dead skin cells, remove redness of the skin, firming and toning, cellulite disappearance.  And then the hair - who knew there were so many issues with hair!  I decided that my hair was oily, so I had started using the best haircare products for oily hair.  I was going to look like a supermodel by the end of this all!


Instead, my hair became incredibly dry - not unlike having sticks of hay on my head.  It also became oili-ER and I couldn't go a day without washing my hair what with the grease puddle that would form from the roots and make its way down the hair shaft.  Totally disgusting, I'm telling you!  My skin started breaking out and for the first time since puberty hit, I had this mask of red and pimply agitated skin that let me and every else know how much it hated life.  


All that time, I thought I was hitting this weird younger-than-mid-life-crisis.  Years later - yes, that's right, years later - I finally bought some bottles of Proactiv, and it only served to make my face worse.  More irritated, redder, more agitated.  


As I slowly moved my way into the local, pesticide-free food culture, it dawned on me that my SKIN is the LARGEST ORGAN of my body, and what was this nonsense of continuing to expose it to chemicals all day long?   So a year ago, I started playing around with a more natural way of cleansing.  Today?  Here's my new very effective, very inexpensive skin and hair regimen:

Organic Raw Honey is unadulterated and unpasteurized, so its enzymes, vitamins, and minerals are all intact.  Honey is also a mild antiseptic.  It's a great facial cleanser!  I know, it's totally crazy to think about smearing honey on one's face, and I had a lot of questions around how this actually went down - like how do I keep everything from getting sticky?  I have a little butter knife that I use to scoop out about a quarter teaspoon.  I dampen my skin with warm water, easily spread the honey in my wet hands, and then onto my skin.  It applies smoothly and feels quite nice.  Then I rinse it all off thoroughly.  You'll know if you missed a spot because it will become sticky again.  So be sure to rinse everything well.  Raw honey cleansing is thorough and non-drying.  And if you get some in your mouth, it tastes great!!  This jar costs about $6.50 and it lasts me for half a year.  Plus - I use it in the kitchen to sweeten things up.  

For washing my hair and the rest of my body, I now use this shampoo bar.  I know, a shampoo BAR?!?!  It seemed that it wouldn't lather up, that it might leave my hair all limp and gross.  But it's really hard to find a liquid shampoo that doesn't have a bunch of stuff I can't pronounce even though it purports to be "All Natural."  Really?  

When I used this shampoo bar for the first time, I could hardly believe it.  There was a richness in the lathering - now, it wasn't sudsy like a washing machine exploded on my head, but there was a nice thick lather with just a little bit of the soap on my hair.  The experience was really quite nice, and it was comforting.  The rinse was surprisingly squeaky clean.  After drying, my hair felt really healthy.

With just these ingredients:  Olive oil, coconut oil, castor oil, fresh pure new hampshire spring water, sodium hydroxide (a binder) and essential oils for fragrance, I feel really good about this product.  This bar of soap is about $3.50 and is equivalent to a 24 oz bottle of shampoo.

And then for the moisturizing.  I've started to use organic extra virgin coconut oil.  If you read all the literature about coconut oil, you'll see that ingesting and using for external purposes has great benefits, not the least is actually being able to clear up the skin because of its antibacterial properties.  It's also a great hair conditioner.  Around $7 for a 15 oz. jar.  Lately, I've been cooking with it.  It lends a pretty strong coconut flavor that has been difficult for me to get used to, but if I use it for Thai or other coconut prominent foods, it's awesome!

Check out some of what they're saying:

Coconut Research Center

Organic Facts - Coconut Oil

And that's it!  Skin feels good, hair feels good, pocketbook feels good.  Love it!  I get all these items on Vitacost.com.  It's a pretty good site with good prices.  Let me know if there's a better one out there!

Working through the CSA share

2010 marks the first year we are participating in a CSA - Community Supported Agriculture.  It works like this - a farmer will sell shares to the people of the community, and those folks will pick up whatever is being harvested weekly over the summer months. 

We chose to do a CSA to take advantage of Lancaster's agricultural strengths, and also because most of the farmers who participate in CSAs are organically minded.  And I'm all about not using chemicals on my food.  We chose Prescott's Patch because Steve had a nice breadth of vegetables and uniquely had fruit, too. 

This week, on a beautifully sunny day, I picked up our share.  Bunch of beets, broccoli, cauliflower, parsley, basil, carrots, swiss chard, kale, scallions, lettuce, and berries!  Blue, Red, and Black! 

The thing about getting stuff that's fresh from the farm, you are also signing up for dirt and bugs.  Yikes!  So when I got everything home, I immediately started laundering the greens.  Found a caterpillar, cobwebs, and a bug in the broccoli.  Gross.  So I ended up going through every branch of that bad boy.  Even after I cleaned it with some tender loving care, lifted a Rachael Ray recipe and roasted the heck out of it with oil, chili powder, garlic powder, and steak seasoning, which ended up being quite delicious, I might add, I still found myself tossing up a bit of bile after eating a bit of it.  The hubby won't mind eating it, I'm sure...

After washing everything, it's all systems ready to go.  Check out my lovely vege-bouquet...

In the meantime, I did all my roasting - beets and carrots, unpeeled, tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper, and in the oven at 400 for 40 minutes.  And then I have a field day with eating everything - peel and all!!  I LOVE ROASTED BEETS!!!

Roasted the broccoli and cauliflower, as I mentioned above, so those are done.  I've cut and readied the beet greens and kale for braising in garlic, perhaps some bacon, and some chicken stock.  Yum.  I set aside some kale for some hearty soup that I might want on a hot summer day.  Hey, you never know...

Lastly, I'm going to do some experimenting with the carrot greens.  Really pungent flavor, it's like a carrot-flavored parsley, so shouldn't I be able to use it in such a way?  Who knows.  Wish me luck...

Lancaster's Eastern Market is not to be missed

I’ve just had the best Falafel sandwich I’ve ever had in my life. I found it at the Eastern Market where Hamid Hamid has a fresh produce stand. He and his family are from Palestine, and they’ve moved to Lancaster, where Hamid had been a foreign exchange student. Now he farms and custom butchers meat, selling the fruit of his labor at Eastern Market while his wife, Noel, occupies a portion of the stand with her Falafel station.

For $4, Noel will scoop out her readied chickpea, cilantro, and spices mixture onto a Falafel-making tool that is akin to a flat-top ice cream scoop. After deftly shaping it into a ball, she drops it into a small vat of hot oil to begin the frying process. Once golden brown, crispy, and sizzling, she stuffs 4 of them into a pita pocket along with tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, hot sauce, and the sesame-based tahini sauce. The result is a wonderfully moist, immensely delicious, artfully-made sandwich that is arresting. The juxtaposition of the cool vegetables with the piping hot falafel, spiciness of the hot sauce with the chill of the tahini sauce makes it a provoking eat, and all in the palm of your hands.

The day I ate it, it was 27 (degree) F outside and windy. But the sandwich was so good, I would have tolerated 0 degrees in a blizzard, and I would still have been happily chomping away, while chatting with the gregarious Hamid about the latest and most unique produce he has available. This time, he had Romanesco Cauliflower, a light green cruciferous vegetable with a lovely spiraled and geometric look to it. Who knew Eastern Market would be so Martha?

Another prepared foods vendor of note is Gursha, who specializes in organic Ethiopian cuisine. She had a smattering of dishes warming in chafing dishes. Still, with the bitter cold of the wind, it was difficult to keep things as warm as she would have wanted. For $12, we got a sampling of the 4 dishes she had that day – Injera bread mixed with spices and clarified butter, served with a cooked egg and a spicy condiment, a yellow split pea stew, a red lentil stew, and braised cabbage and carrots.

Now, I won’t even pretend to know all of the spices that went into Gursha’s dishes. I’d guess that she used the most common of Ethiopian spices – berbere, turmeric, garlic, ginger, and that her Injera bread was likely made with Teff, its traditional grain. Yes, I need a much more in-depth lesson in the cuisine. But what I do know is that Gursha’s dishes were wholesome, tasty, and comparable to the Ethiopian food I’ve had in Washington DC and in New York City. My particular favorites were the spicy Injera bread mixture, flavorful lentil stew, and comforting cabbage dishes.

The unfortunate thing out of all of this is that Eastern Market is only open on the first Saturday of the month from 11AM-2PM from November through May. From June to October, they’re open every Wednesday and Saturday. Thankfully, Gursha’s food can be found at Expressly Local on King St. at any time. But it means I can only have Noel’s Falafel sandwich just once a month until June. Sigh. Just one more thing that makes winter seem to last so long.

Note: Definitely check out the website to get a feel for Eastern Market's mission. It's cool.

Eastern Market

308 East King Street

Lancaster, PA 17608

(717) 358-9368

Are you taking too many vitamins?

So I keep reading about the phrase, "Americans are overfed, but undernourished." Seems that at least some of the population is over-vitamined, too. While the attached article isn't exactly alarming since it's so rare to do, I just know that most of you, my friends, are good about watching your health and take multi-vitamins. So just keep an eye on it, yo.

http://www.latimes.com/la-he-nutrition25-2010jan25,0,3921584.story

McDonald's Going Green?!?

Yes, it's true. At least in Germany. Link to the article below.

From rainwater for the toilets to solar energy to heat and cool the building - Who knew the Germans cared so much for the environment? And what's with McDonald's? Does it seem strange that a company that brought us the Big Mac and the most delicious French Fries ever on the face of the earth is going green? I don't know about you, but at first blush, it seemed to be a complete contradiction - apple slices in their happy meals aside. But there's no doubt Mickey D's is a corporate machine and is known for giving the people what they want! In Germany, they want sustainability.

Now, if McDonald's is doing it...

http://www.iconoculture.com/SMART/public/view.aspx?DocName=go_GermanyLeadingbrandc_217572

Do you really know what ORGANIC is?

Great article in the Lancaster Sunday News today on Organic and what it really is - see link below. Not all is what it seems, and I've been saying all along - I could care less that the food is labeled with "organic." I care more about the fact that the farmer didn't use chemicals or hormones, and is practicing sustainability. I've been working in marketing long enough to know that these labels mean little to nothing.

That's why it's so important to understand the source of your food. It's why I'm a strong proponent of buying local; I can talk to the farmer and learn what his/her farming practices are. Let's face it - organically labeled food is expensive. Know what you're buying.

This is a two-part series. Will post the next one when it comes out!

LancasterOnline.com:News:ORGANIC ... OR NOT

Nutritional Info on Menus

Hallelujah! Philly just passed a city ordinance that requires chain restaurants, c-stores, and other food establishments to have nutritional information on their menus. Right on. As someone who eats out a LOT, I have been waiting, cajoling, begging for this information. Now if only the rest of the country would get in on the action...

Yummy Broccoli?!!?

Who knew that broccoli could be so sweet?  Those of you who have been eating organic broccoli know this already, but those of us who haven't, something great has been kept from us.  

Okay, so I don't have an aversion to broccoli to begin with, nor do I seek it out for every meal.  I always thought it was an unremarkably benign-tasting vegetable that was supposed to have super-powers, and that's why all kids were made to eat it.  The thing is, though, if kids were fed organic broccoli, they might actually LIKE it.  Why?  Because I just had my first dose of organic broccoli tonight, and it was sweeter, greener, and altogether tastier!  I just threw some salt, pepper, and chili oil onto it, steamed it, and I was a happy little kid, sitting on the counter, swinging my legs as I shoved its cruciferousness into my anticipating mouth.  No, this wasn't a went-hiking-all-day-and-even-the-packaged-ramen-tastes-great moment.  It was genuinely, remarkably tasty.  

Tomorrow, Eric and I are headed to Lancaster's Central Market to try out more organics.  I'm excited.

Living Organically

For a few years now, I've been reading about the food industry and just how insipid its workings are in Fast Food Nation, In Defense of Food, Omnivore's Dilemma, etc.  I'd always been in the camp of observing on the sidelines, wondering whether these folks were just kooky left-wingers who were about to embark on "the world's ending" campaign, but now I think I'm ready to make a move.  I think these people are speaking the truth.  They're looking for food that is sustainable and locally grown, and really, it seems to be the most sensible, most logical way to nourish my body.

So the Bierker household is in transition.  We know just enough to be dangerous, but we're both excited about embarking on this new way of eating, this new lifestyle.  So here we go.

Early this morning, Eric headed out to the York Central Market where our friend, Dave Dietz, has an organic produce stand.  He came back with a box of goodies, along with a "receipt" written out on a piece of cardboard.  Yeah, we want to eat more healthfully, but we also want to know how much it's going to cost us.  And it's going to cost us a lot.  Here's the jaw-dropping list of produce purchased this morning:

1 pound of fair-trade organic Peace coffee from Sumatra  $10.75 

Bunch of Cilantro  $1.75

Loaf of Big Sky Bread  $5.00 (this is when my heart started pounding)

2 medium heads of Broccoli $4.00

7 small hot peppers $1.25

1 large beet  $0.80

1 large sweet potato and 2 med red onions $4.25

1 small head cauliflower $3.95

bunch of bananas $1.85

block of garlic & chive cheese $4.00

2 pounds of red grapes $8.70 (angina-inducing, man)

If we were to go to the supermarket down the street, we would probably pay half this amount, maybe even less.  The trade-off is that we would have no idea how many chemicals we would be ingesting and whether anything was even ripened appropriately before being picked and shipped.  But I would know how much it would be impacting my wallet.  And the thing is, consumers care a lot about the wallet.  Money is a huge motivator; you see obvious and immediate impact.  And yeah, health is something that almost everyone will put at the top of "things that matter to me most", but the impact is less obvious or immediate, and therefore, less of a motivator.  

While the large farms of the country are being held hostage by Big Agra, who in turn, lobby for enormous subsidies, which pump out very inexpensive, but freakazoid, poisonous food, the farmer who wants nothing to do with it sits out there all alone, without governmental help.  Their only hope is that people continue to buy their goods to stay afloat.  My fear is that increasing demand will only increase cost in the short term since I'm not sure how well the supply side will be able to catch up.  

But while I ponder the economics and health issues, I'm snacking on the very expensive organic grapes.  They're plump, juicy, and with a sweetness I've never tasted in a grape before.  It's simply delicious, and occasionally, I'll stare at a grape, wondering why it tastes so good - is it truly because it's organic? 

Fishy Fish

I recently switched from eating Atlantic Salmon to Wild Alaskan Salmon. Really, you might ask, what's the big deal? The big deal is that anytime society has decided to "farm" something, be it cattle or fish, it bastardizes all that it could be nutritionally.

We've all heard that Salmon is packed with great inflammation-reducing Omega-3 oils, so I'm sure sales have skyrocketed. The thing, though, is that because of the diet they are getting, the farmed salmon, aka Atlantic Salmon, has developed a higher level of inflammation-CAUSING Omega-6s. It's not horrible stuff, we just need to be careful about how much we eat of it. The Wild stuff? Still stellar, giving you a better ratio of Omega-3s to Omega-6s.

For other fish tales, visit http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/ It's a great resource and will tell you which fishes (yes, you can pluralize fish as a species) are dangerous, which are not, which are endangered, you get the picture.