A few things to cover today.

First, I went to meet my friend and sustainable guru Simran Sethi at the Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Big Food for Farmers Rally yesterday. Simran is an accomplished journalist and has been covering the green/susty/traceable game longer than most. Though I missed it, she spoke at the rally.

Here is Simran getting interviewed after her speech. She's like the Angelina Jolie of sustainability....only with some really impressive greem credentials that don't include Gone in 60 Seconds.

There were farmers from all over the country and far reaches of Canada. They came to bear witness to the court proceedings that are to determine if the case against Monsanto terrorizing small organic farmers for saving their seeds, seed companies for not bowing down to Monsanto, citizens taking a stand against a company that controls over 86% of our food system will go through to the next level of the justice system.

They had their own suit.

Even OWS farmers need a suit to take care of business.

Food Democracy Now! was fully present.  Speaking about how living in Iowa surrounded them by GMOs all day, every day. Seed cultivators were there to stand by their products.  There was a chef jumping up and down with an anti-GMO sign. (wasn't me but hey, I was screaming)

This woman with this great sign was one of the more vocal in the support for our American farmers.And there was farmer after farmer making their case with the Occupy Wall Streeters repeting everything said to create a human microphone.

 A farmer from Vermont was there with her husband and toddler daughter.  She was crying as she spoke. She said, "Monsanto doesn't want my daughter to ever bear children." Couldn't disagree or call her extreme.  She wasn't exaggerating.  All toxins put into our food system and environment affect the female reproductive system first.  No joke.  It's proven.  It's scary.

Simran and I went back to Print to have lunch and talk about the projects we're both working on. It was really interesting to hear about the companies that are legit in the organic/traceable/sustainable dept. No surprise we talked about the news about Whole Foods, Organic Valley and Stoneyfield all giving in to Monsanto.

She said her head was going to explode while I thought I was wiping mine off the wall. We're brainstorming on a way to work together.  Cannot wait.

On a more intersting note, check this out

Interesting things afoot

I found this on a Murray's Chicken.  It's a way to go to their website and find out the farmer that raised this chicken. So I bought it.

I went to the site and it gave me five possible farmers. Well, it's better than nothing and an interesting concept. They just need to hone this. Give me one farmer with this arm around that one specific chicken I bought with the two of them smiling and giving peace signs to the camera, and I'll be happy.

Sherwin and I had a shoot today.  We're working on a bunch of videos where I cook from a mystery box of greenmarket items with a special mystery guest.

Today was a dry run without the extra special guest in the kitchen with me.

We had Claire Marin the beekeeper and owner of Catskill Provisions put the box together at the market this morning.

Claire with her mystery box of items at Union Square Market

Here are three of the dishes I made.

Multigrain baguette, goat's milk, queso blanco, cherry tomatoes w rice wine vinegar and olive oil, honey comb

Ostrich steak marinated in soy, olive oil and red onion, sauteed oyster and button mushrooms, baby garlic confit

Maple sauteed golden crisp apples, creamy chevre with spring light honey

Have a wonderful day. It's 55 degrees outside for the millionth time this winter.

Go figure.

TedxManhattan opened with this great clip featuring Birke Baher (Age 11) speaking at last year's TedX Asheville. He really does say it all... 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Id9caYw-Y&feature=relmfu

Back in another life, I was an art student.  If you know a lot of pastry chefs, it's not unusual. I went.  I think I made it through a year though I wasn't in class at all the second semester.

Having to tell my parents that I had a back up plan, I decided culinary school sounded cool.

No one back then went to culinary school, there weren't that many of them and at the time I was in Philly and there was one not far from my apartment. Yes, I went into it for all the right reasons.

Early on, perhaps still in art school, I fell in love with Ethiopian cooking. Today at the Union Square farmers market, I saw that Hot Bread Kitchen was selling Injera, the bread that is used as the utensil. Rip off a piece and grab the food with that. Here's an Ansel Adams quality photo of the bread that barely made it through the day in my bag.

Injera is usually served round and flat, covering a big plate.

When I got home, I started looking for the African cookbook I bought back then. Still have it. Always will. Love this book.

Really, more cookbooks should be published this way.

I've see this book around quite a bit over the years.  Same design, same spine. I like that a simple book like this that probably was someone's baby and took not a lot to publish, has lasted in the universe.

So many big, fancy books come and go now.

Here's a sample recipe of the Eggplant Chuney

Yes, I'm getting lazy. Photos of recipes. Last week it was a drawing of eaten food...photographed.

When we talk about traceability and sustainability and all the other hot abilities right now, it's also good to talk about the traceability of culture and traditions.  I think this is where we lose the tracing.

New things come out all the time. Seems not so special anymore. So much of what was really special about finally having your own cookbook, is now quite often, just special to you.

They publish and then they don't. We use the recipe and then it's over. I've been going nuts these days trying to find my aunt's struffoli recipe. It's the traditional Italian honey balls that you see a lot of around Christmas.

I'll post it when I find it. I think it's lousy of me not to know where it is, with her handwriting. Like everything else, I still want to tell my daughter that I know where it came from.

On that note, I'm off to the TEDxManhattan conference today.  The sub-title is "Changing the Way We Eat".

You can view it in real time online. www.tedxmanhattan.org Tweeters and the like will be going social media crazy in the back row keeping everyone up to date and we'll be sitting there, watching the speakers, getting inspired, eating sustainable food and listening to music. If I'm not mistaken, it's the only TEDx about food.

So get your Birkenstocks, get your butt to a viewing party and get those idea flowing.

Happy Snow Day,

Heather

From Farm Aid:

Incredible news—more than 500,000 supporters have commented on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) petition to have genetically engineered (GE) foods labeled!

If you haven't commented on the petition yet, it's not too late.

As family farm supporters, you and I want to know what's in our food and how it was grown or raised. We try to be informed eaters.

But here in the U.S. there's no requirement that food with GE ingredients be labeled.

That's why Farm Aid has joined hundreds of organizations across the country calling on the FDA to mandate labeling for all GE foods.

Already, more than 500,000 people have signed the petition—will you help us get to 1 million and protect our food supply and our family farmers in the process?

This campaign isn't just about our rights as eaters—it's critical for farmers too. Farmers should have the right to purchase, plant and save non-GE seeds, and grow their crops without fear of GE contamination. Lack of regulation of genetic engineering violates basic rights of both farmers and eaters.

We know that mandatory labeling of GE foods will not fix all that's wrong with genetic engineering, but it's an important step. Labeling GE ingredients will let you and I decide what kind of food we eat and feed our families. Labeling GE food will help family farmers who do not plant GE seeds have a stronger market for selling their goods.

Tell the FDA that it's our right to have mandatory labeling of all GE foods.

Sincerely,

Hilde Steffey
Program Director, Farm Aid

501 Cambridge Street, Third Floor, Cambridge, MA 02141
Toll Free: 1-800-Farm-Aid Fax: 617-354-6992