Final Project Blog and Sustainable Events Participation

I have thoroughly enjoyed tackling my personal food project this semester!  I’ve learned so much about the elements that go into cooking and eating sustainable, locally-grown, and organic foods, as well as tried my hand at cooking six of my own dishes.  I’ve discovered that I’m actually a better cook than I give myself credit for, if I just put a little more time and effort into it.  And I’ve learned that it is absolutely worth it to do so, both for my own health and the health of the environment.  Some specific goals that I had when I started this project were to identify the local grocery options involving local/organic/sustainable foods, learning more about food growing and cultivating processes, and researching other facts and ways that I can support local food in Bloomington.  I feel that I achieved these goals well, and laid a solid foundation of knowledge that will serve me well in making food choices in the future.  Here is a sampling of some of the things I learned from my various research efforts:

·         Average miles that non-local food travels to get to your table (over 1,500- the equivalent of 10 trips across Indiana!)

·         How the environment is affected from buying food locally versus non-locally (increased carbon emissions from foods that travel longer distances, increased use of harmful packaging from chain stores, contribute to local biodiversity when purchasing food from local farmers)

·         How the environment is affected through my meat and vegetable choices (greater carbon impact of beef versus chicken, much lower carbon impacts of vegetables, etc.)

·         How the local economy benefits from my food purchases (helping my community by keeping my money local, supporting local jobs, contributing to lasting and sustainable family farms, etc.)

·         Importance of my food choices to the community in general (strengthening of community values, meeting local farmers at farmer’s market, strengthening food security by supporting local farms)

Additionally, I was able to purchase quite a few of my ingredients from the Bloomington farmer’s market to make my recipes.  These were my first trips to the market, and there will be many more to follow after seeing what a unique and wonderful experience it had to offer!  Through cooking my individual recipes (most of which were taken from a sustainable cookbook lent to me from a classmate), I learned a lot more about what types of spices go well together, different methods of cooking meat and vegetables, and just some very basic cooking knowledge that I lacked.  For example:

·         I learned what constitutes a single garlic ‘clove’ versus a ‘bunch’ of garlic cloves… to the extreme detriment of my pasta sauce recipe!!!

·         I learned that I HATE to peel garlic cloves, but LOVE the way they smell J

·         I found that I really enjoy grating things!

·         I learned what lemon and orange zests are, as well as what type of spice ‘mace’ is (one of the ingredients for the sweet zucchini biscuits, which I originally was horrified to see… I’m not gonna put MACE in my biscuits!)

·         You should always allow plenty of time for potatoes to boil… when you think they’re done, give ‘em another couple minutes…!

·         Timing is everything when working with several different mixtures of ingredients… having one thing cooked and ready to stir into something else isn’t gonna do much when the something else is still boiling

As I said, I am very glad I took on this project, because there were some really basic things I needed to teach myself about cooking J.  It’s like 7^th grade home ec. never happened… but you gotta start somewhere, and this project was just what I needed to get going!  I am excited to say that I plan to continue my cooking project, hopefully completing one new dish per week, as well as planning out several home-cooked meals a week instead of eating as much take out.  To this end, I was delighted to find a “Simply in Season: Recipes that Celebrate Fresh, Local Foods in the Spirit of More-with-Less” cookbook at the Fair Trade sale that I went to at the Frangipani room a couple of weeks ago. 

This is what I will be using to cook from and try out even more new recipes… my goal is to be a cooking guru (haha), or at least a much more skilled cook by the summer, so that I can eat more healthfully and spend less money on food!  So, speaking of the Fair Trade sale, here are the three outside sustainable events that I attended through the semester:

·         The Bloomington Farmer’s Market.  I visited several times during the early fall to get ingredients for my recipes and sample local foods available there.  I even found an information booth one Saturday for SIREN’s solar house tour, which provided some incredibly helpful information for my group project, as well.  Can’t say enough positive things about the farmer’s market, I will be going all the time next year, and maybe even stop by the winter farmer’s market as well!

·         A SIREN presentation at the Monroe County Public Library.  This was in the last month or so of the semester, when my group and I were working on assimilating more detailed information for our presentation and thought this talk would be beneficial for us.  It definitely was… I got a much more in-depth understanding of what the process is for solar panel roof installation, what the paybacks are, and what initiatives they suggested (the 50-50 plan was mentioned here, which we included in our presentation).

·         The Fair Trade sale at the Frangipani room in the Union.  This was such a great sale, having goods made from many developing countries, whose sales will go back to supporting these craftsmen and women with their businesses to help them make a living and support their families.  They had all kinds of things, ranging from amazing jewelry and bags, to holiday ornaments, knickknacks, and cookbooks… where I found my new cookbook!

This class has been a thoroughly enjoyable one, where I felt challenged to think more deeply about the sustainable issues affecting our world.  Being able to put these ideas into practice as well, through my group and individual projects, provided invaluable lessons that can only be learned by doing: trying new things, using new ideas, and evaluating the results.  Thanks so much for a great class!

Personal Project Update

The last two recipes I made for my food project were a dill-lemon chicken, and the sweet zucchini biscuits that I brought to class.  Here are the ingredients and cooking instructions for both:

Dill-lemon chicken:

·         1 cup fat-free sour cream

·         1 tbsp fresh, minced dill

·         1 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning

·         1 tsp lemon zest

·         4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Combine sour cream, dill, lemon-pepper, and lemon zest.  Spoon one-quarter of mixture into slow cooker.  Arrange chicken breasts on top in single layer.  Pour remaining sauce over chicken and spread evenly.  Cover and cook on low for 3-4 hours.

 Sweet zucchini biscuits:

·         ½ cup margarine or butter, softened

·         1 cup packed light brown sugar

·         2 eggs

·         1 tbsp orange or lemon juice

·         2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

·         2 tsp baking powder

·         ½ tsp ground cinnamon

·         ½ tsp ground mace

·         ¼ tsp salt

·         1 ½ cups shredded, drained zucchini

·         ½ cup chopped pecans

·         1 tbsp grated orange zest (orange part of rind only)

·         Powdered sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees; grease 2 baking sheets.  Beat margarine until fluffy.  Beat in sugar, eggs, and orange or lemon juice.  Combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt; stir into egg mixture.  Stir in zucchini, pecans, and orange zest.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets.  Bake about 10 minutes.  Cool on racks.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.  Makes 5 dozen biscuits.

The dill-lemon chicken was a recipe I’ve been wanting to make for a long time, both to see how it tastes and to utilize the crockpot I got for Christmas last year!  It turned out pretty good, maybe a tad bit less flavorful than I expected, but dill is a rather mild spice.  I took the chicken and put it over a bed of brown rice, with extra sauce spooned over it, and a salad.  It was pretty good overall, and nice to save for leftovers, too! 

Dill-lemon chicken ingredients

Mixin' the sauce

Cookin in the crockpot!

Pretty good meal!

I wasn’t able to document my zucchini biscuits with photos, because my camera charge had run out… but at least I was able to bring them in to share!  I’m glad everyone seemed to like them.  I personally thought they were a bit too soft, but they were tasty overall.  It was very fun mixing the dough for them, and I also bought a really nice grater to shred the zucchini with, so I am slowly but surely adding to my culinary utensil collection, as well!  If any of you are interested in trying this recipe out, I recommend it- they were fun to make and good to eat!

One last bit of research I’ve done in regard to my project is to investigate the specifics of free-range, pasture-raised chickens.  I have considered a vegetarian diet in the past, but have come to the overall conclusion that I would miss eating chicken too much.  I do also enjoy hamburgers… BUT, through this project, I’ve realized that there are multiple ways to still enjoy my carnivorous habits, while reducing the impact that my food choices make on the environment.  I am going to try to drastically cut my meat consumption down, leaning towards a vegetarian diet whenever possible; but, when I am craving meat, choosing chicken more often than beef (which I do anyway, most of the time).  To this end, I wanted to ensure that I informed myself as much as possible about the type of chicken I should be purchasing, what my money is buying and supporting, etc.  I found this article online, (it provides the full, download-able version near the bottom) which goes into detail about the myriad of benefits of raising poultry on pasture, as well as providing tips to livestock farmers that include best raising methods, breeds of chicken that thrive  on pasture-raised methods, types of food and housing that are best for your poultry, different processing methods, etc.  Some of the most interesting facts I gleaned from this article:

·         50% of the sale price of each chicken goes back to the farmer and his/her family; chickens sell at $1.75 per pound (average weight of 3.5 pounds), and turkeys sell for $3 per pound (average weight of 18 pounds dressed); whereas, for conventional growers under contract, they only receive about 22 CENTS per pound for a 3.5 pound bird!

·         Housing costs for local, pasture-raised chickens are typically much lower than for

                   conventional growers

·         Chickens raised on pasture make it easier to graze other livestock there, because chickens deposit nutrients through their waste, and work it into the soil; this makes vegetable production easier as well, because you don’t have to use chemical fertilizers; this method leads to a more diversified operation that earns money from several markets, contributing to a stronger farm and environment

·         “Vertically integrated” corporations control almost every aspect of chicken production, and have monopolized almost 100% of this multi-billion dollar market

·         Efficiency in poultry production has sacrificed both the autonomy and independence of farmers, the welfare of flocks, and the taste and quality of meat and eggs

Such a breadth of information in just one article!  A very important read for those who are interested in streamlining their diets and knowing more about where, exactly, their food comes from and how it’s processed.  Buying and supporting local food and farmers is just a good practice, for everyone involved.  BOOOO to corporate producers!!!