Bringing Back the Local Country Store

Lately, my synapses have been firing not only around farming, but also around encouraging people to eat and buy locally.  I'm a frequent listener to Greenhorns Radio, a show put on by the founder of Greenhorns and the National Young Farmers Coalition, Severine Fleming.  A couple of times the show has been a hit, and I'm sure you'll hear about those in my blog!

One of the hits was an interview done with a couple that just started a country general store in upstate Maine, Sheepscot General.  Their business plan was around taking the local produce that farmer's didn't sell at farmers markets or canning to preserve the produce so that it wouldn't go bad.  They would then sell whatever they had (canned or non-canned) and give a portion of it to the farmer.  To me, this is a perfect plan.  The food would have gone to waste if something wasn't done with it.  They are in the process of creating their own "local" grocery store in the truest sense!  I love it!

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

Jamie Oliver seems to be taking on a combination of the two biggest issues in the U.S. today:  the education system and food.  He actually has a show on ABC (or has for the last two years) where he actually goes into different cities in the U.S. and tries to make a difference with school lunches.  The first season was dealing with Huntington, Virginia, and the second season - LA.  He yells.  He cries.  He fist-pumps.  I attribute some of his emotional scenes to being English, but you do know that his passionate is true.  Him being so passionate about changing the bad habits of a country he doesn't even live in definitely says something about the guy!  Yeah - it's money.  But it seems like he could be doing fine if he just stayed in England.

I read somewhere that he was actually a "normal" cook in a restaurant's kitchen back in the day (which wasn't that long ago.)  Someone from a local news station showed up with a camera to feature the restaurant or something and liked Jamie's charisma.  And that's how he got his big break!  He got a cooking show on the local television station.  I love that story.  So random and awesome.  And for those of you that know me, I put him in the same category as Cesar Millan.

I actually didn't realize what he was really about until this summer.  I read an interview with him in the WholeLiving magazine.  And his best advice to the readers was, "How you spend your dollars at the supermarket is the most important way to create changes in the food industry."  This makes me think that we may be hearing more from this guy after he defeats school lunches.  I think this guy is working in phases.

Kombucha Instructions

Fran was wanting to get her own kombucha going.  I supplied her with a scoby earlier this summer, and finally got to writing down the instructions for her.  I thought I would document it in my blog!

Utensils you will need:

• Large one gallon or larger stainless steel pot (Second choice glass)
• 3 1/2 quarts of distilled or filtered water
• black or green tea (six tea bags or six tbsp)
• 1 cup raw organic cane sugar
• Large jar (at least a gallon-size)
• distilled vinegar
• 1/2 cup of starter kombucha tea (what your scoby is in)
• Light clean cloth that will fit over the opening
• rubber band

Preparing the Tea

1. Using the stainless steel pot, bring water to a rapid boil. Be sure this water is filtered or distilled.
2. Add sugar and boil 5 minutes longer.
3. Turn off heat and add tea and steep for 15 minutes to overnight. This is a preference, but I usually steep until cool.
4. Cover as needed to prevent anything from getting in the tea. 
5. Allow to cool to room temperature.  This would also be a good time to make sure your scoby is at room temperature as well. If you've had it in the fridge, take it out and let it "warm up". It's not proven, but I feel adding a cold scoby to the tea could add days to your brew time.
6. Place cooled tea in the large jar.  Two things that are important here: Make sure the jar is clean and make sure the tea is cool. The scoby is very sensitive to both! I always make sure the jar is good by rinsing it with distilled vinegar and letting it dry before adding everything to it. With the tea, I always let it completely cool (sometimes let it sit overnight) in order to ensure it won't harm the scoby.
7. Add your starter kombucha tea and the scoby.  The scoby may float or sink to the bottom anything is acceptable.  
8. Place the fine cloth on top of the jar and secure with a rubber band.  
9. Place the jar in a warm area away from direct sunlight and do not disturb for 7 days.  At the end of the week you should see a whitish formation about 1/8 of an inch thick attached to the original scoby.  This is the "mother-baby" combination.

Testing Your Brew

1. Stick a straw in. Place your finger over one end and pull out. Place the other end in your mouth and and then release your finger. The tea will then come out. Or Simply gently press against the scoby with a spoon and taste the brew.  This is usually day 6-8. This depends on your taste and how you like your kombucha
2. When your brew is ready, you should notice an apple-cider aroma. The pH when you began with all that sugar was about 4.0. The sugar is converted as it ferments, so day 6-8 the pH is around 2.7. Store bought Vinegar is about 2.0  Some folks like a sour tea others a sweet tea. The consensus is that a kombucha that's fermented for 6-8 days at a constant 78 degrees F. will produce the best balance of beneficial nutrients as well as a semi-sweet taste.

Bottling

1. Carefully remove the culture and place it in a clean glass bowl.  (Once again, I clean with vinegar and let dry.) Cover with some of the finished tea.  Now you are ready to make a new batch.  Follow same directions.
2. Pour the filtered kombucha tea into a clean bottle and fill to the brim and cap. 
3. Allow the bottles to sit at room temperature for 1-5 days for a secondary anaerobic (without oxygen) fermentation. The  activity of the bacterium is stopped because the bottling excludes the air,  while the yeast continues to work the  gas produced by the yeast's activities, is unable to escape. Thus an  effervescent drink is produced. 
4. HINT  Some folks add one or two raisins, or a sliver of ginger, Stevia, or 1/4 tsp fructose per quart, before bottling to sweeten and for a second fermentation. This fermentation will continue until the remaining sugars are used and then refrigerate to stop the process and the ferment go dormant. 
5. Refrigeration is not needed for long term storage but KT should be maintained in a cool dry place similar to storing fine wine.

Fighting for the cause

Since I have taken some time off recently, I've been spending the majority of it reading.  Two books in particular caught my fancy, both recommended by friends knowing my interests:  Alejandro Junger's Clean and Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food.

(Sources:  Clean and Michael Pollan)

These two books actually portray the exact same message:  you are what you eat, and we as Americans are not eating well.  

Alejandro Junger is an M.D. that developed a detoxification program for clients that were having health issues, no one issue in particular.  He has several testimonials claiming success and his detox essentially consists of no meat, no caffeine, and no alcohol!  He recommends juicing twice a day and then eating a healthy meal for dinner (from his suggested recipes).  There are also interesting tidbits about eating raw garlic daily to boost immunity, letting your body rest from eating for at least 12 hours a day, and getting enough sleep.  None of his concepts really seem like rocket science.  

Junger's belief that we need to follow our human nature has stuck with me.  Our ancestors didn't have food available every season of the year.  There were months during the year where fasting was necessary due to the lack of food available.  With commercial farming and transport, we have every type of food available 365 days out of the year.  If we eat these "unseasonal" foods, we are not eating them at the peak of their ripeness and are losing key nutrients that our bodies need.  Michael Pollan also mentions this when he speaks of Aboriginies in Australia going "back to the bush".  By eating the foods that their body has evolved to accommodate, they lost weight and were in remission from diabetes.  This story also coincides with a conversation we had at the Yoga Oasis with someone who personally experienced going "back to the bush".  All of the effects were positive!

Michael Pollan made several good points in his book.  The one that I thought to be the most interesting is the amount of money Americans spend on food as opposed to other countries (% of income in ~2008):

• Americans:  9.9 
• Italians:  14.9
• French:  14.9
• Spanish:  17.1

He makes the point that if Americans spend more money on food, maybe they would be less likely to eat as much.  The Italians, French, and Spanish eat less food than us, but spend more.  

More money, higher quality, better health.

Initial Inspiration

I gave myself an excellent quarter-century birthday gift - 3 plane tickets to the Big Island of Hawaii. One ticket was for me and the other two were for my sister and cousin. We spent two weeks in paradise!

For one night, my sister and cousin agreed to stay at a yoga retreat that I had found online. None of us really knew what to expect, but I've found that for at least one night on your "vacation" it's good to get out of the comfort zone. The yoga retreat I found seemed pretty secluded in the middle of the Hawaiian jungle. I was really excited! The retreat was called Yoga Oasis. Everything is eco-friendly: the mosquito nets that cover porches, the electricity, the water system, the food. We ended up staying in the Coconut Cabin. My cousin and sister didn't seem to be too thrilled about the accommodations at the time. I think it was mainly due to the bugs and bathroom situation. (The outdoor coconut showers seemed a little too out in the open. It's a little weird being able to hear people and cars on the road, but not able to see them. The tub room also did not have any curtains, but you were in a screened building so no bugs! The picture is the view through the "windows" in the tub room.) All of the noises in the night were a little frightening, as well. I think not having locks on the doors was also a source of anxiety for us city-folk. But in the end, we all loved the Oasis.

There was no TV in the Coconut room. Just sitting space, a porch, and a book on the Dalai Lama. We were enough company for each other, so none of that mattered. We talked, read, and slept until our yoga session in the morning. At about 7:30 we took a walk up to the main building (through the chickens scratching in the yard) and sat drinking some tea before our yoga session. There was only one other person besides us at the yoga session with Hayward. The other person was a techy from LA that had just gone through surgery and was recovering at the Oasis. It seemed like a pretty cool place to concentrate on health and recovery.

The studio was amazing. And I will never forget the chant (now featured on their site) that Hayward said before the session:

"Good Morning Sun!!!

It's Great to be Alive!!!

And thanks for those rays, I needed that"

It was the most intense yoga session I've ever had in my life. I still remember the feeling of great exhaustion afterwards while walking down the stairs to breakfast. We had fresh eggs from the chickens and about two hours of great conversation. We talked about everything - from Nebraska's corn population to the kids who were breaking the toilets the week before we got there. Ever since I've left Yoga Oasis, I can't stop thinking that we need more places like this! More places to concentrate on health, local sustainability, and eco-consciousness.