FEB12

#mychowshare

We love to hear what you do with your shares, so when you whip up something you’re proud of, please post it on our Facebook page or Twitter. And use #mychowshare!

This week, we shared a pic of a great kale salad we threw together using many of the most recent Chow Share items. Here’s the recipe for that:

Kale, Carrot, Radish, Microgreens, and Parsley Salad with Blood Orange Vinaigrette Dressing.

Salad
7 cups kale, chopped with stems removed
3 carrots, chopped
2 radishes, sliced thinly and halved
1 small container microgreens
1/2 cup parsley
1/2 cup walnuts
1 cup steamed lentils (cold or hot)

Dressing (from allrecipes.com)
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon-style prepared mustard
2 teaspoons honey
1/8 teaspoon cracked black pepper

Prepare all ingredients, toss, eat, and enjoy how delicious sustainable, healthy eating can be!

JUN5

Sweet Potato and Braised Kale Pizza!

Recently, we posted a pic on Facebook of a pizza we were throwing together using items from a recent Chow Share. We got lots of requests for the recipe, so here it is! It’s easy and quick, so enjoy!

(Quick disclaimer: the crusts you see in the pic on Facebook were actually purchased from Gluten-Free Creations Bakery, which has a booth at the Ahwatukee Farmers’ Market as well as a cafe location in Scottsdale. Check them out here.)

Ingredients – Crust (adapted from Alice Waters’s excellent cookbook: The Art of Simple Food)
2 teaspoons dry yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup unbleached white flour
3 1/4 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup olive oil

Ingredients – Topping and reduction
2 sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small bunch kale
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1/8 to 1/4 cup brown sugar

Directions – Crust

Stir together yeast and warm water until yeast is dissolved. Add 1/2 cup flour and stir well. Allow the mixture to sit until very bubbly, about 30 minutes.
In another bowl, mix together flour and salt. Stir this into the yeast and flour mixture and add cold water and olive oil.
Mix thoroughly by hand. Place the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until the dough is soft and elastic, about 5 minutes. If the dough is too wet and sticky, add more flour, but only enough to form a soft, slightly sticky dough.
The dough is the right texture when it pulls away from the sides of the bowl, but still adheres to the bottom. You are looking for a very soft, slightly moist dough.
Put the dough in a large bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 2-4 hours (depending on how long you can hold out).
Preheat the oven to 450 or higher (the hotter, the better).
Divide the dough into two balls and roll out to desired thickness.

Directions – Toppings

Bring water to a boil in a pot.
In the meantime, wash and chop sweet potatoes into 1-2 in. cubes.
Place cubes into boiling water and for roughly 8-10 minutes, or until easily pierced by a fork.
While sweet potato is boiling, wash and remove kale leaves from thick stems. Toss with oil, then place directly into a pan at medium-high heat. Cook briefly (roughly 3-5 minutes) until kale is cooked down and a bit wilted.
Drain sweet potatoes, place in a bowl, and mash.

Directions – Putting it all together

Bake rolled-out pizza crusts for about 10 minutes, then pull from oven.
Spread sweet potato mash evenly on each crust, then top with braised kale.
Return to oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
In the meantime, add balsamic vinegar to a small pan and bring to a boil.
Immediately reduce to a simmer, then add and mix in brown sugar.
Let the mixture reduce until it becomes just a bit syrupy (you’ll notice it sticking to your spoon).
Remove from heat and let cool (it will thicken more as it cools).
Once pizzas are done baking, remove from oven and drizzle each with balsamic reduction.
Serve and enjoy!!

MAY10

Food Label Terminology

For many of us who think a lot about food, how healthy it is, where it comes from, and how it was produced, we tend to rely on food labels to give us at least a little bit of that information. We look for information on nutrition, for instance, in the Nutrition Facts labels, or we read the health and nutrient content claims on food packages. And when it comes to production practices, we might look for terms like “Organic,” “Natural,” or “Farm-fresh.” We might even look for information that might tell us something about animal welfare. The term, “cage-free,” for example, would seem to suggest a hen that has the ability to roam around a pasture and perform its natural behaviors.

The US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration both have a role to play in regulating some of this terminology. The problem is, some terms are well-regulated, some are poorly regulated, and some are entirely unregulated. And that not only leads to consumer confusion, it opens up a grey area for companies to paint a picture of their food that might not be totally accurate.

So, let’s wade through at least some of the more popular terms out there to get a better idea of what they actually mean, and how they’re regulated.

ORGANIC: Let’s start here because it is probably the most well-regulated by USDA. If you see “100% Organic” on a label, that means the product contains only fully organic ingredients. If you see the word, “Organic,” without any other qualifiers, that signifies the product contains 95% or more organic ingredients. If you see, “Made with Organic Ingredients,” then the product contains at least 70% organic ingredients. So, even if you didn’t know the percentages related to the terminology, you at least get a sense of the organic nature of a product.

NATURAL or NATURALLY RAISED: Things get pretty dicey from here on out. For instance, the term “natural” is really poorly regulated. The Food Safety and Inspection Service of USDA maintains a legal definition for “natural”: that the product contains no artificial ingredients or added coloring and is only minimally processed. There are some requirements to using this term: the food product label must explain what is meant by using the term “natural.” BUT, this definition only applies to meat and poultry products…and that’s it.

“Naturally raised” is a similar term used on food products, but one that means even less than “natural.” Another branch of the USDA maintains the definition for “naturally raised,” meaning an animal is raised without growth promotants or antibiotics. This definition, however, doesn’t require any sort of label with an explanation of the term. AND, an animal can be raised without the use of antibiotics or growth promotants, but could still be raised on feedlots and can be processed into a product that is in no measurable way any “healthier” or more sustainable than a comparable product. So, even though you might think “naturally raised” would proffer some sort of health or other benefit, it doesn’t necessarily.

FARM FRESH: “Farm-fresh” is all together unregulated. It’s just a marketing term, so really if a product originated at a farm and wasn’t spoiled when it was bought, it probably could be considered ‘farm-fresh.’ This is a very nice example of what some people call ‘green-washing.’

GRASS-FED, CAGE-FREE, and FREE-RANGE: Terms like ‘grass-fed,’ ‘cage-free,’ and ‘free-range,’ are all dubious in their usage. Each has some regulation behind it, but that regulation is lax and doesn’t reflect the image most people have when they see these terms on food packaging. ‘Grass-fed’ only means an animal was fed 100% grass (it does not have to be out on pasture all the time; rather it could be fed harvested grass within a feedlot). It could also have been fed hormones and antibiotics. So, even though the term ‘grass-fed’ suggests a cow out on a green hill munching on grass, this is probably not close to the reality in many cases.

‘Cage-free’ and ‘free-range’ are both poorly regulated terms as well. If a hen is cage-free, it is raised and lays eggs outside of cages. However, it is still likely living in a barn or warehouse, quite possibly in very crowded conditions (which often require de-beaking, or the unanesthetized cutting off of the birds’ beaks). It might or might not have actual access to the outdoors, and if it does, it can just as likely be an enclosed concrete area as actual pasture. Similarly, with ‘free-range,’ outdoor access must be provided the animal, but the length of time and the quality of that outdoor area is not regulated.

TAKE HOME MESSAGE: Since we buy food far from where it was produced, we can probably rely on organic labeling to tell us at least a little bit about how a product was produced. But we can’t rely on terms such as ‘natural,’ ‘farm-fresh,’ ‘cage-free,’ or ‘free-range’ to tell us much about the healthfulness of a food product, its environmental impact, or how animals were treated in the production of the food product. I would go so far as to say you should avoid putting any stock in these green-washing type terms. Instead, and especially for animal products, the best thing to do is to try to purchase from local producers who you can question about production and animal handling practices. When it come to fruits and vegetables, relying on organic labeling is at least a step in the right direction. But better yet, knowing where they come from, who produced them, and how they were produced, is the absolute ideal.

APR25

It’s hot! Drink locally!

The groans were audible this week as we entered the triple digit zone. Summer is just around the corner, and that means we’re turning on the A/C, cleaning up the pool, and frantically taking advantage of those last few temperate days before Mother Nature cranks it up to “broil”.

Eating locally is our specialty, but today I want to remind you how important it is to drink locally. I mean water, of course! It’s a precious resource in these parts, and it’s important to use it wisely. Water in plastic bottles is exposed to bisphenol-A, a hormone disrupting chemical. BPA is especially prone to leaching into fluids in plastic bottles when it is hot, so if you must drink from a plastic bottle, please do so without exposing that bottle and its contents to the heat of your locked car.

Find a BPA-free plastic bottle (they are marked as such), or a metal bottle, and carry filtered local water with you throughout the day. Be sure to drink proactively. It is so dry in our climate, especially in late spring and early summer, sweat evaporates before we see it and we are not easily cued that we are losing water. If you wait until you’re thirsty, it may be too late.

And, as summer drags on and it gets hard to drink enough plain water to stay adequately hydrated, here’s a suggestion from customer Erica Goble. Her first Chow Share was the one with the beautiful bag of herbs. She has been using them, even the bay leaves, to flavor her afternoon water! “My coworkers now ask me what’s going in the water today,” she shared, “but I think they are intrigued. I am starting to look forward to the fresh flavors and I find it to be a great, refreshing break.”

We’ll get into other hydrating ideas like gazpacho, fun beverages, etc., as summer progresses. If you have any you’d like to pass along, please do! We love to hear from our customers.

APR6

Wheat berries…a not so unusual grain

This week’s Chow shares include a brand new item — wheat berries from Ramona Farms. We’re excited about this, and hope you enjoy some new adventures in the kitchen! Many thanks to ASU nutrition student Sarah Jones for her research and writing about them. We hope this information launches you on some new adventures in your kitchen!

Unless you have Celiac Disease or are gluten intolerant, you likely consume wheat (Triticum aestivum) in some form on a regular basis. Whether it is bread, bagels, English muffins, cereal, tortillas, crackers, cookies, etc., it is a common staple in a typical North American diet. Wheat is thought to have been first cultivated in the Nile region and is the world’s third most common cereal crop, second to rice, with corn being the most common. Unlike other grains, wheat has a relatively high amount of gluten, the protein that provides the elasticity necessary for breadmaking and produces the “highest-quality bread and baking flours.”

What you may not be so familiar with is the term “wheat berry,” which is the entire unprocessed wheat kernel (minus the hull) and is comprised of 100% of the original kernel. In order for it to be classified as a TRUE whole grain, all of the bran, germ and endosperm must be present.

The bran, which is the rough covering, has very little nutritional value, but is packed full of insoluble fiber (insoluble fiber acts as a sponge as it moves through the digestive system). The germ is the main concentrated source of vitamins (particularly vitamin E and some B vitamins), minerals and protein. It should be noted that the germ contains polyunsaturated fat, therefore unless it has been “defatted”, should be refrigerated or it will quickly become rancid. The endosperm is full of starch, protein, niacin (vitamin B1) and iron. According to the World’s Healthiest Foods website, one cup of cooked wheat berries has 151 calories, 5.6 g of protein, 34 g of carbohydrates and 8 g of total fiber. There are also other types of whole grain berries related to wheat. I have experimented with barley, spelt, kamut (kah-MOOT) and rye berries. Kamut, in particular, is two to three times the size of most wheat, is high in protein and has a delicious nutty flavor… but that is for another blog!

Perhaps now you are saying, “I want to incorporate wheat berries into my diet, but I don’t know what the heck I do with them?!” This chewy, dense and nutty grain can be used in salads, as a breakfast cereal, pilaf (in place of rice), in chili, as a base for pudding, in risotto, etc. – wheat berries are incredibly versatile! This week you were lucky enough to receive Ramona Farms durum wheat berries in your Chow Locally box, so be sure to check out some of the links to recipes that use the ingredients in your box! On a final note, I found this quote by Julia Child that sums up how I view cooking and with Chow Locally providing the tools to make it happen, you cannot help but be inspired to get in the kitchen and start creating, “You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces – just good food from fresh ingredients.” I could not have said it better myself!

BASIC COOKING INSTRUCTIONS:

Rinse and boil (with or without a bit of salt) for about an hour; drain and rinse once more (some instructions I found said to soak overnight, but some others said they do not need to be soaked overnight). If they are too chewy for you after one hour of cooking, add more water (if needed) and just cook them a bit longer! Here is a basic recipe for cooking wheat berries from Eating Well magazine.

RECIPE INSPIRATION:

Wheat Berry Salad with Raisins, Beets and Citrus Vinaigrette

Ingredients used from Chow Locally box: wheat berries, beets, spring onions and carrots. This salad would also be a great over Maya’s Farm magenta Batavian head lettuce and/or the Agritopia Farm spring salad mix.

Roasted Root Vegetable and Wheat Berry Salad

Ingredients used from Chow Locally box: wheat berries, turnips and carrots (possible recipe additions from the box include: chopped red Russian kale and spring onions). This salad would also be a great over Maya’s Farm magenta Batavian head lettuce and/or the Agritopia Farm spring salad mix.

Wheat Berry Black Bean Chili

Ingredients used from Chow Locally box: wheat berries (possible recipe additions from the box include: chopped red Russian kale, carrots, turnips and top the chili with spring onions). Pair this with a green salad drizzled with extra virgin olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice and S/P to taste.

Creamy Orange Spiked Wheat Berry Pudding

“An intensely vanilla and orange flavored pudding made with chewy wheat berries and spiked with rum.” Citrus is still in season and this would be a perfect spring dessert!

References:

Herbst, Sharon. Food lover’s companion. Third Edition. Hauppauge, NY:Barron’s. 2001, 667-668. Print.
Brown, Amy. Understanding food principles & preparation. Fourth edition. Belmont, CA:Wadsworth. 2011, 350. Print.
“Wheat: in-depth nutrient analysis.” The world’s healthiest foods. 2012. The george mateljan foundation, Web. April 5, 2012. <http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=nutrientprofile&dbid=133>.

Pictures: