Mobile Markets are the new black (at least in my mind)

Have you heard of a mobile market?

I recently started volunteering with one down in DC and I am absolutely loving the experience. I’ve learned that there are many more across the nation – I guess until recently, I didn’t even know to look!

A mobile market is pretty much a farmers market on wheels. The one I work with uses a vehicle about half the size of a UPS truck, which successfully supports three shelving units, two tables, two register systems with scales, two freezers (for meats), two fridges (for milk, yogurt, cheese, eggs, and some produce), a giant cooler, and everything else you need to set up a farmers market – oh yeah, plus food! Using two trucks, the organization I volunteer with reaches 19 communities every week. That’s 19 communities that receive fresh, healthy food on the reg. NINETEEN. REGULARLY.

I think this is tre cool.  For me, this is an amazing combination of using business and technology to help communities in need. I learn something new every week – for example, they have little, if any, food waste, partly due to the detailed procurement process. They help other organizations eliminate food waste as well – every morning they purchase bread from a local bakery who otherwise would have thrown it away (often times they have to bake extra to meet their own orders and leave room for error). Having a market on wheels decreases a lot of the infrastructure and transportation costs that are usually associated with fresh food sales and waste elimination.

Check out these videos to learn more about the markets. The second one talks more specifically the impact on a community.

Peruvian Cooking Class

Wow, I’ve been meaning to post this for so long!

I’ve had the amazing opportunity in the past few months to take a Spanish immersion class on Friday afternoons. We practiced our speaking and reading skills, but also had experiences like meeting the artist who painted the South American-themed murals in a local hangout, and learning to make handmade tamales.

One of my favorite experiences in this class was a Peruvian cooking class, taught by a colleague who is from Peru and still has family there. She had the most amazing spices, grains, and recipes to share with us. Part of what I enjoyed most about the class was seeing cooking from another culture’s point of view. I’ve become very interested in food waste issues over the last few months, and one of the recipes we made used the peel of fresh pineapple (which usually gets thrown out) to make a flavorful drink. I never came across that idea in American culture, and I think it’s cool that Peruvians have been doing this for years and years and years! Also, it was interesting to use foods in different ways and different combinations than I am used to. As Viviana, our instructor, says, “in the kitchen, there are no rules!”

Here’s some photos from our class

The drink we made using pineapple peels, black corn (mostly for nutrition), Peruvian cinnamon (different from what I am used to), and other herbs. The corn gave the drink a pretty, dark color after boiling. We added more fruit scraps and once it cooled, added freshly squeezed lemon juice. Apparently this drink is the start of a great sangria… hmm…. 😉

Yummy spicy apples! These apples were coated with warming spices – maybe some chili and lime/lemon juice as well. This was a great mix of flavors I’ve not had together before!

Popped amaranth. People today think grains like quinoa and amaranth are new developments. Cultures around the world have been eating this amazingly nutritious grains for years.

Some of Viviana’s stash. I love how she stores her foods and would love to see her pantry (she says it is small). Muna is a special variety of mint.

Preparing our main dish for the evening! Ajiaco de papas – you can find a similar recipe here. I love that Viviana talked about the foods based on their nutrition properties and what they offer the body. A welcome change from American / modern culture that talks about how potatoes are too carby, cheese is too full of fat, etc. She really made the cooking and eating experience beautiful and I think if more people felt this way when cooking and eating, we’d have a much healthier America…

Season’s Gleanings!

Ah yes. The sun is shining, the flowers are … flowering … and markets are opening!

Tis the season for beautiful fresh produce. Not that you can’t get it year-round, but I think the spring and summer have the most variety of options for farm fresh produce.

But, farmers markets are expensive. If you aren’t already part of a CSA, you may be wondering how you can support your local farmers market without going broke. Or maybe you work for an organization that provides meals, and are wondering how you can get more variety and fresher quality produce. Or maybe you’re somewhere in between and are wondering what you can do as an individual to help your community access fresh food.

Gleaning is a great option for both the household consumer and the institutional consumer. It helps prevent food waste while supporting farmers, and can help you sneak more fruits and veggies into your diet.

Never done it? Food Recovery Network has a great resource to learn how that is helpful for small and large scale consumers, and touches upon some food safety tips to be aware of. The USDA also offers a good resource for setting up a program.

Not convinced that you should do it? There are a number of reasons to support farmers markets. Gleaning can be a low-cost way to support farmers, prevent food waste, and get healthy food to more people who need it (including yourself!)

Did it, didn’t have a clue what to do with the produce? Applesauce, fruit butters, salsas (fruit and/or veggie based!), jams, pasta sauces, compotes, pies/pastries, blended soups, smoothies, juices, and pickled items are just some of the ways that you can use seconds. Many of these things freeze or store well in a cupboard. Get creative! A simple search on Pinterest or checking out a foodie blog can give you great ideas for your own. Don’t just think in terms of what you can make with it, think of ways you can change already existing recipes – many people have tried adding sweet potatoes to cookies, baking with applesauce, adding greens to sauces and smoothies, etc with much success.

Buying seconds and gleaning are great ways to make healthy eating more affordable. Go forth and embrace the ugly produce!

Other resources: Some unique recipes and a recipe generator.

Farm Visits! Part 2

I have more beautiful pictures to share with you! After we went to Willowsford Farm last Wednesday, we went to check out one of the Potomac Vegetable Farms‘  sites. PVF sells at our market and at other markets in the area. My first day at this job, we went to the other site, so it was fun for me to see this site, as well.

Here we met with Ellen, who taught us about composting. She was great because she spoke about what they do on a large scale for their farm, but was able to alter the information to make it relevant for someone composting at home.

I have a lot of respect for Ellen because she seems very organized (apparently her spreadsheets are legendary) and spoke knowledgeably about her business. But anyone with training can run a business.  What I liked about Ellen is that she thought critically about what role their farm played in the community. For example, someone in our crew asked about what the toughest challenges are that they are facing on the farm. She said that they have a particular disease on some of the plants that they can’t get rid of, no matter what they try.  She questioned whether the presence of the disease meant that they were “bad” (her words) – bad farmers, a bad farm, bad people. Of course, they weren’t selling diseased produce to others, but she wondered if the disease meant that they weren’t competent or if there was something more they should be doing. After mulling over their practices, working hard, and trying different strategies, she realized that it was literally just a fact of nature, and that trying to eradicate the disease was like “trying to find Nirvana – it’s just not gonna happen, and that’s just life.” I thought this was cool because it was clear that they put a lot of work into trying to solve the problem. But they learned that sometimes you gotta just accept something the way it is, and move on (hint: there’s a life lesson here…)

If you look at the pictures below, you will find poop! PVF gets cow manure from a farm a few miles away as part of their compost mixture (sidenote: we talked in depth about the importance of a proper carbon to nitrogen ratio  in making healthy compost. We developed a scale running from poop to straw.) Someone asked how picky they are about their poop – basically, how much do they care about what the cows eat and how they are treated. Again, I was impressed by Ellen’s answer. She said that they chose cow manure over chicken manure (which would have been the easier, maybe cheaper choice) because they felt better about how cows are treated in the ag world versus chickens. Also, she said that they aren’t concerned with what the cows eat because after visiting the farm, she saw how healthy they were and how much space they were given to roam. Plus, she said that when done correctly, the composting process will burn off any unhealthy ingredients like hormones or GMOs that might still be in the manure.

Here’s some other cool things I learned:

• “Stinky Egg Spray” – comprising raw eggs and water mixed together – works wonders for repelling deer from household gardens. Use a spray bottle to spread the mixture on your plants. You only have to do the perimeter of your garden… apparently the spray is odorless for humans but really bothers deer!
• Ellen feels that vermicomposting is the best type of composting for households, for multiple reasons. One is that the worms are pretty good about eating scraps, and quickly – one complaint that people who compost at home have is that their compost mixture is never “ready”. That’s because they keep adding scraps to it, and don’t stop to give it time to process! The worms help with that. Also, you don’t have to worry about maintaining temperature and turning the pile to get good airflow (essential for healthy compost).

Poop pile next to leaves pile. The poop pile on the left is about $900. The leaves are free.

Machine they use to turn their compost piles – a huge part of the composting process is making sure oxygen gets to all parts of the pile. The microorganisms in compost need air, water, and shelter just like we do.

 

Yup, that’s real life.

Ellen teaching us about some of their cover crops and how they have learned what does and doesn’t work over many seasons. Lesson here: try, and try again, but be willing to let go when something doesn’t work!

Let’s Starve the Landfills!

Did you catch this article recently in the New York Times?

I enjoyed it because it touches on the new vision of food waste – scraps and stems and peels and other things that we are accustomed to throwing out because it detracts from “the good stuff”.

But it’s all good stuff! And it tickles me that when people do this in their own homes, they are viewed as stingy, but when top chefs do it, it’s art!

Food waste isn’t just the apple that sat in the bottom of your fridge for too long and went bad. Food waste is the stems of herbs and greens, and the nutritious flesh that surrounds a bruise on a tomato.  Fancy-pants people in the food movement say that flaws like this give the food character. That’s true, but I think embracing and celebrating these flaws also makes eating healthy more realistic for the rest of the world!

I hope to check out Daily Table someday. I was also rather amused by the term “cucumber butts”. I like cucumber butts and I’m proud of it!

Want more about food waste? This is one of my favorite recipes. I often use the stems of broccoli and other “leftover” foods, like a couple stalks of celery or a few carrot sticks, in place of the veggies listed here. I use as much or as little as I have for the recipe, then blend it all up! Yum! Make it and share it with others! (Tip: keep the veggies in the freezer until you are ready to use them!)

Also, check out this marketing campaign in Europe that embraces the uglies.