August 14, 2007
Local Légumes: From Regional Raspberries To Civic Cabbages
We Californians are spoiled when it comes to many things - the mediterranean-like climate alone makes the Central Valley ideal for producing a variety of crops almost all year long. However, this summer I've had a rather rude awakening - the rest of the country doesn't have it so good. It seems now like Santa Cruz, California, is the epicenter of organic living, sustainable farming, and a year-long spread of fresh, yummy produce.
Let's start back in late March, early April... my husband and I were considering purchasing a piece of property in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. After deciding we liked the house itself, we did some local research, including going to the local markets. Ironically, the organic rasberries we saw in the markets of New Hampshire were from: *heh* Santa Cruz county, California.
My first thought: I didn't come 3,234 miles (says Google Maps) to eat my own (I believe I used the word "freakin") California raspberries. And they've not traveled well. And, oh, look, they're almost $8 for a pint?!
Now I've spent most of the summer in New Hampshire and the produce has gotten better as the Northeastern growing season has produced its first crops for the summer, the peaches from New Jersey aren't bad. I've had some fantastic lettuce, blueberries and apples from some family friends' gardens in Vermont, and my herb gardens are out of control due to all the rain.
Still, I haven't found great produce in regular supply, but I know it's around. Farmers' Markets are around but not as close as I would like. However, recently I have been looking into CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) in the area.
Basically, a CSA is a program where people in an area buy "shares" of a farm's produce for the year. Sometimes you have the option of actually doing a little community work on the farm as well. In return for your share, you receive a portion of the farm's bounty, usually weekly. Most CSAs are organic in nature, but they may include fruits, veggies, eggs, and even fresh meats - depending on your region. The produce is brought to you super-fresh and virtually free of packaging.
Growing seasons vary greatly in the United States. For example, in Santa Cruz, CA, the CSAs may run for 33 weeks - from March to November. However, in New Hampshire, they tend to run July through October, which is only half as many weeks. Think of it as a farm subscription.
A great resource I came across while searching for CSA's was LocalHarvest, a web directory of farmer's markets and CSAs, and other organic retailers. I could research some of the CSAs in my area and even see what kinds of produce they grow yearly. One last note - CSAs work on the principle of paying for your subscription in advance. From what I've seen, this generally works out to between $15-40 a week, so don't let the overall subscription numbers phase you immediately.
Posted by sorsha at 2:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 19, 2007
Olallieberry! What Does Organic Actually Mean?
Santa Cruz is famous for its olallieberries. Olallieberries are used in pies, in syrups, in preserves. We even had olallieberries in our wedding cake from a local Santa Cruz bakery.
Inevitably, people ask: What is an olallieberry? Or maybe they ask: What is an ollalieberry, olallaberry, olalliberry, ollalaberry or an ollaliberry? No one can agree on the spelling.
Our answer has always been: A cross between a blackberry and a raspberry.
The truth, you see, is not that simple, but then it never is. At least not on this blog.
Olallieberries are hybrids of other hybrids. Some were created on purpose to make super berry bushes and others happened accidentally, resulting in a very yummy berry.
Olallieberry | ||||||
| / | \ | |||||
Loganberry | Youngberry | |||||
| / | \ | / | \ | |||
Raspberry | Blackberry | Blackberry | Dewberry | |||
A Dewberry is a blackberry-like berry, and let's not go there, ok?
I wondered, then what the heck is a Boysenberry? Supposedly its some mix amongst blackberry, red raspberry and Loganberry.
Why am I telling you this? Well. It all started last week when I was trying to figure out how to grow our own olallieberries. I also wanted to know if they could be grown in the Northeast, where my parents live.
When I told my husband about the interesting hybridization history of the olallieberries and boysenberries, he had a rather amusing reaction. First, he got this really hurt look on his face, and said something to the effect of "but my mother said we had wild boysenberries when I was little".
I told him I didn't see why he couldn't have had wild boysenberries when he was younger and he responded with "but they couldn't have been organic". I didn't see how you couldn't have a "wild" hybrid, but I suppose I was thinking hybrid "gone to seed" or left to fend for itself. I also didn't see how berries growing on their own in the forest wouldn't be organic.
And that's how our strange discussion of organic came about.
Just what does organic mean?
My understanding is that organic has nothing to do with what species you're growing (plant or animal) but the dictates the process by which it is grown. The process has to be free of artificial pesticides and additives, hormones and such. The post-harvest processing also may have regulatory requirements, like not adding preservatives.
Organic produce can be hybrids like the olallieberry or boysenberry. Organic does not mean native varieties of plants and animals, nor does it mean that the species grown wasn't modified some way or another. The USDA hasn't really taken a stand on the definition of the word "organic" yet, but so far, cloned meat, for example, could be called organic if it was raised with organic feed and not given hormones, etc.
Organic crossbreeds appear to be very common, ranging from the obvious cattle and chicken species that have been bred for production markets (naturally hardy, disease resistant, larger, etc) and range to more exotics like beefalo (Cows X American Buffalo/Bison). Plant varietials have the same sort of thing going: various berries, fruits especially, considering the truly wild versions of these plants don't fruit nearly as plentifully as the ones people have "improved" for centuries. In California, organic tangelo (mandarin-orange X grapefruit) crops are plentiful despite being natives of Asia. Organic honey comes from bees that aren't native to North America. Basically, the short answer is, you could cross a chicken with a boysenberry, and call the result organic, provided it was fed and cared for properly.
I certainly support organic farming (especially strawberries cause they taste way better). What's this all mean to me?
(1) "Organic" needs a clear definition to farmers and consumers
(2) "Organic" isn't descriptive enough on its own to be "healthy"
(3) "Organic" doesn't really cover other good farming practices (sustainability, cage-free)
(4) "Organic" is rather short-sighted. It *appears* to me that its a grey area when a parent isn't organic but the offspring is raised that way... So can you feed a mommy chicken sewage waste provided you take her chicks away as eggs and raise them organically?
(5) "Organic" alone isn't as beneficial as buying local organic produce (hopefully more natives)
And with that, I'm off to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Cooking For Solutions, a dining and wine event composed entirely of edibles produced in ways that preserve the soil, water and ocean wildlife.
Posted by sorsha at 8:37 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack