getting edumakated...

I spend a lot of these grey mornings meandering on the web. It's amazing where you can go in a couple hours with tea and a bowl of fruit and yogurt in your lap. I've been to goose farm in Spain, a sustainable organic farm in Connecticut and I fell in love with the rural east coast again, watching lambs and cows and pigs happy in grass fields surrounded by woods. I hung out with renowned chef Dan Barber at TED and he took me to a goose farm in Spain where the goose whisperer has his flock call wild geese to their utopia for the winter. I actually considered trying froi gras for the first time in my life (something I have found so deeply offensive that it detoured me from taking being a chef seriously - the disgusting practices that chef's celebrate and support - don't even get me started) but you'll have to watch the whole 20 minute TED lecture to understand why . I took a trip down memory lane to my favorite secret Northern California cherry find off highway 1 and revisited my young lover's dream to restore an old stage coach stop and turn it into our own Whistle Stop Cafe. We lingered around this one shop town for hours walking up and down old roads imagining planting a kitchen garden and serving prefixed dinners to the folks around the area (Neil Young most notable among them)....

Anyway, one of my favorite new discoveries today is Blue Hill Farm. Please go explore their site. Go to the know thy farmer farms map and click on the video interviews of the farmer's this restaurant buys from. It's a weekend away in a morning. It made me want to drive all the way there from here just to visit a mushroom farmer while he inoculates tree trunks with psyllium (I didn't know those terms before this morning)

Have you seen Food Inc. yet? You must. If you haven't read Omnivore's Dilemma or Fast Food Nation or seen Super Size Me you must. Really, nothing is more important. Everything stems from good health and good food is the obvious first step. It's astonishing how far away from common sense we've gotten.

Tell me what you find....

Schwartz falls short

More Fruits and Vegetables for Seniors: Low-income seniors will find it a little easier to buy locally grown fruits, vegetables, honey and cut herbs starting in May thanks to California’s Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program. The California Department of Food and Agriculture teams up with California’s 33 Area Agencies on Aging to distribute check booklets to eligible seniors who will receive one booklet per year. Each booklet consists of 10 checks worth $2 each to be redeemed at certified farmers’ markets. Checks may be used to purchase fresh, nutritious, unprepared, locally grown fruits, vegetables, honey and cut herbs. Seniors interested in participating in the program can find their local Area Agency on Aging (listed by county) by contacting CDFA’s Federal Funds Management Office via email at grants@cdfa.ca.gov, or via phone at (916) 657-3231. The list and other information about the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program are also available online at www.cdfa.ca.gov/seniorfarmersmrktnutritionprgm/

i don't mean to be negative. I really don't but come on. Really?! $20 in $2 coupons a year for elderly people (who qualify) to get some fresh produce at local markets? Have you ever spent $2 at a farmers market? I'll tell you what you can buy for $2; 1 bunch parsley and 1 bunch chives. You can buy 1/2 a head of lettuce. You can buy about 10 mushrooms. You can buy 2 or 3 carrots or 1 loose beet. And though they put honey on the list I've never seen honey priced so low. Maybe a honey stick? It's paltry and insulting.