“What does organic mean?” “Is local really better?” “How do I know if something’s sustainable?” “What’s with these high prices?” “What I buy won’t make a difference, anyway…will it?” Understanding the complex spectrum of food choices in today’s world is often more like navigating a labyrinth than walking an aisle. But when it comes to what we eat, we’ve got a lot more power than we think... and it’s time to start taking and talking our food choices seriously. At 6 pm on January 30, 2013 come out and delve into the true value of the food we eat with Temple Professor Bryant Simon, author of Everything But the Coffee and founder of the collaborative “What Is Your Food Worth?” – a unique partnership exploring the choices each of us confronts in our everyday lives as we try to square what we eat with what we believe. During this candid conversation we’ll explore how the price of cheap food is hiding costs and making the “real” prices of organic or local food seem higher. Become a part of this exciting new initiative’s vibrant, roving conversation on food, ethics, sustainability, and eating at this Co-op debut event! South Philly Food Co-op Speaker Series When: January 30, 2013 at 6pm Where: The Charles Santore Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia, 932 South 7th Street (7th & Carpenter Streets) Cost: FREE (but please download tickets from our EventBrite site so we have an idea of how many to expect)

Happy 2013!  After things calm down after the holidays I tend to get really antsy to plant seeds but I still can't do that for another couple of months.  My solution this year has been to plant bulbs inside (and impulse buy cheapo plants while I'm at the grocery store.)  But for now let's focus on the bulbs. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375"] check out that sweet bulb vase[/caption] I don't even know what this bulb is.  I think it's a hyacinth but who knows?  My mother gave me this one a few months ago and for a while I just left it thinking I would plant it outside.  But I forgot about it when I planted my bulbs outside so I decided to do it inside.  This picture is from about a month ago, right after I had put it in the window that actually gets light. You can see I put too much water in it - the bulb itself shouldn't be sitting in water, just the little roots.  I did that on purpose in case I forgot about it (which I did!) but it definitely started getting a little moldy around the parts of the bulb that were sitting in water.  I got worried so I took it out and washed the vase and even washed off the bulb a little bit with some water and a dishcloth and it seemed to work out fine.  Obviously the way to avoid this is to not let your bulbs sit in water. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375"] hello, small friend[/caption] Clearly the mold didn't deter it too much because here it is a month later.  Now that I've gotten used to watering it (and remembering that it's there) I make sure to keep the water level below the bulb itself.  It's not so hard now because check out the roots: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375"] christmas lights reflected in the glass because YES the tree is still up[/caption] These guys are pretty crazy!  I like how they look through the glass. The other thing I do when I'm feeling like I don't have enough little plantlings to care for is Sarah's Yearly Attempt to Grow an Avocado.  This year is no different! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="375"] i believe in you, avocado[/caption] This is what happens with me and avocados:  I love avocados.  We eat a lot of avocados.  And I've tried and tried to grow one like this and without fail I forget about it and it dries out or it gets too wet and is mushy and moldy and either way I end up with no avocado plant.  I mention the eating of avocados not because I want to grow my own to eat - I've pretty much chalked that up to an impossibility in this climate - but because I am ALWAYS tempted by pits lying around and eventually I can't take it anymore and try this again.  This time I did it a little more carefully:  I washed and scrubbed the pit in water to make sure I got all the avocado off.  Then I let it dry for 24 hours to make sure it was nice and dry.  Then I put the toothpicks in at an angle so that more of the bottom would be submerged in water.  AND I have been changing the water in hopes of  discouraging mold growth.  But you can still see in the above picture that there is some weird dark stuff going on around the water line so I may take it out, change the water, and scrub the pit itself a little.  I fully believe that this would be easier if I just planted the pit in some soil in a pot but I have a weird (okay, not weird just proprietary) stubbornness and I want to grow it this way!  I remember doing it as a kid, I remember my friend's mother doing it and I KNOW IT CAN BE DONE.  The nice thing about this, though, is that it's completely free and I can try it again if this attempt doesn't work.  But come on, people.  It's time. Do you grow bulbs indoors?  I always thought it was kind of silly but then my mystery bulb started growing and I got that sense of accomplishment mixed with pride that comes with watching something thrive under my (minimal) care - the same feeling I get from watching my plants grow in the summer.  It's good to feel that again!  And it's a good reminder that spring will come no matter how long winter feels.

Sure, I try to write about using the fresh, seasonal, local produce bounty to create dinner. But sometimes, it's about upcycling. I don't make white rice, but I do sometimes acquire white rice. Sometimes it comes along with General Tso's Tofu. And it sits in the fridge. Sometimes I have the common sense to freeze it and make fried rice with it later, other times it sits until we have to give it the old sniff-n-toss. Let's face it, not every meal is a home-cooked treasure. But just like I add spinach or chard to my leftover Chicken Tikka Masala to stretch my takeout into a three day experience, cooked takeout white rice can be turned into a creamy dessert that pretty much comes free with your delivery meal. Recycled rice = instant dessert. So we start with one "pint" white rice. The quotes are intentional. It looked like a pint. It had a pink "16" on the bottom. It weighed 14 ounces and measured into about two and a third cups. Sure, fluid ounces and rice ounces don't take up the same amount of space, and how packed your pint is will vary from restaurant to restaurant and meal to meal. Let's say you're starting with two cups of rice. Scale as needed. Add that rice and an equal amount of milk to a pot. That can be cow milk or vegan milk, whole, skim, whatever. It's your dessert. If you want to go all out, do some milk and some cream. I used whole cow milk. Add two thirds of a cup of sugar. That's a lot of sugar! If you're avoiding sugar, use less. It can be more breakfasty than desserty. Add a tablespoon of butter. And a third- to a half-cup of dried cranberries. The cranberries will rehydrate a bit as they cook. And vanilla extract. A tablespoon or so. More if you're like that. Stir it all together, and bring it just to a boil. Dial it down to a low simmer and stir occasionally for 10-20 minutes, depending on how dry your rice was to start with. This batch took 12 minutes. When your milk is all absorbed and the pudding is creamy, you're almost done. If absorbs all the milk and still isn't creamy, add a splash (1/4 cup?) of milk and give it five minutes, stirring over low heat. If you're into it, and I'm into it, stir in some cinnamon. A teaspoon is a good start. And grate in some nutmeg. I used a half. Bust out your pretty ramekins or martini glasses or a cereal bowl and chill. This makes six small (reasonable) servings. Or, you could serve it hot and call it breakfast. This is cross-posted at SaturdaysMouse.com where I'm working on making food out of food.   Cranberry Rice Pudding Leftover rice turns into a creamy dessert with a balance of sweet and tart. Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked white rice
• 2 cups (more if needed) milk (cow, soy, almond, whatever)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup (more to taste) dried cranberries
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg

Instructions

• Add everything to a pot except the spices. Stir and bring to a boil.
• Dial back to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until milk is absorbed and rice is tender and pudding-like. 10-20 minutes.
• If milk is absorbed before rice is tender, add a bit more milk and give it five minutes on low.
• Add cinnamon and nutmeg, stir and chill, or serve warm.

 Details Cook time: 20 mins Yield: 6 servings

The South Philly Food Co-op had a great year, increasing our membership to 330, organizing a fabulous garden tour, teaching folks to make beer for the holidays and swapping homemade soup.  We’re asking you to step up and include us in your end-of-year charitable giving plans.  Your donation of $10, $25 or $50 will help us reach our goal of $2000.  Thanks to our fiscal sponsor Fair Food Philly, your donations are tax deductible. Donate TODAY through Paypal and not only will you help the Co-op grow, but you'll be able to deduct this from your taxes!

1)    We’re growing FAST – after two years we already have 330 members.  At 600 we will be ready to sign a lease or mortgage for our store. 2)    We organize fun, educational events like Brew Day and the Soup Swap. 3)    Your donation will cover education and outreach expenses so that more of your member equity can go into opening the store. 4)    Your donation will help us do more outreach and grow faster. 5)    Donations are tax deductible, thanks to our fiscal sponsor Fair Food Philly Donate now (it's sooo easy with Paypal) before the end of the year to help the Co-op grow and to deduct it from your taxes. Happy holidays!

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="230"] Didn't you always want a diagram to understand how a nutcracker works?[/caption] There's one week left before Christmas and, luckily for shopping procrastinators like me, Girls Can Tell is giving South Philly Food Co-op members a special incentive--a 10% discount on all merchandise. Not a member yet? If you join the Co-op before December 31, than you'll also receive a FREE GIFT (present for you!) from Girls Can Tell and the discount (present for someone else). Pretty much perfect, right? Join using our online form. Girls Can Tell is a unique housewares and gift store located at 1725 S. 12th Street, that sources materials responsibly and prints many items by hand. Featured on the Food Network's 2012 Gift Guide, Girls Can Tell sells adorable tea towels, notecards, napkins that will surely brighten up someone's holiday.

I make a lot of "quick breads." I try to always have banana bread or blueberry bread in the freezer for a quick breakfast. Blueberry bread is just blueberry muffins without the worry about whether they'll come out of the tins properly. I buy extra berries in the summer and keep them in the freezer for as long as I can stand it. I keep whole bananas with their skin on in the freezer (stash them just when they're too brown to eat raw). But sometimes, the season catches up with you and you're out of nanners and blueberries and you're *so over* things like pumpkin and apple. What then? Cranberry bread. Cranberry orange bread. Seasonal, but not squash. I started with two cups of fresh cranberries. Cut in half. I melted 3 oz of butter, which is about a third of a cup. Oh, and preheated the oven to 350. I swished the butter around my unphotographed loaf pans to grease them, then put it in a bowl with 3/4 cup orange juice and 3/4 cup milk. This was whisked together with three eggs and somehow, none of this is photographed, but in the end it looked like this and I set it aside. Then 3 cups flour - 2 cups whole wheat and 1 cup AP. 1 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar. You could do all white, but I like what brown adds. Plus a teaspoon of baking soda. Tablespoon of baking powder. And mix the dry goods together. Then I zested my orange (from the juice) into the bowl - I might have gotten a tablespoon of zest. More is better. This didn't photograph. Stir the eggs/milk/oj/butter mix in. At this point it might be a little curdly looking with the oj and milk, but that's ok. Mix well. Add the cranberries. Pour it into two loaf pans and smooth it with a spatula. Into the oven for 50-60 minutes. I make one loaf to freeze and one loaf to eat, and then quick and homemade breakfast is always just a defrost away. This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food. Cranberry Orange Bread Tart and a little bit sweet (just a little) this quick bread means happy breakfasts in the cold months. Ingredients

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 cups cranberries, cut in half
• 1-2 tablespoons orange zest
• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup skim milk
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1/3 cup melted butter

Instructions

• Mix wet goods and dry goods separately, then together. Add cranberries and mix well.
• Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Cool, then slice and serve or freeze.

Details Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 1 hour Total time: 1 hour 20 mins Yield: 2 loaves

Friends, As we approach the end of 2012, we are offering you an opportunity to support the South Philly Food Co-op in a whole new way! Now, thanks to our partnership with fiscal sponsor Fair Food Philly, you can help the Co-op achieve its goal of opening a community-owned grocery store with a tax-deductible, charitable gift. As you consider your year-end giving, we hope you will include a donation to the South Philly Food Co-op. With more than 320 member-owners, the South Philly Food Co-op is quickly becoming a neighborhood establishment, and we haven’t even opened the store yet! It’s so exciting to watch people connect at events like Co-op Brew Day and the Soup Swap. Says one Brew Day attendee who recently relocated to Philadelphia, “It sounded like the kind of event I could go to on my own, have fun, and meet some cool people — and it was different from all of the other holiday events.” By the end of the night, she told us she had a great time, made some new friends and was now considering a move to South Philly. Talk about building community! So join us in continuing to grow one of the most exciting projects in South Philly by making a donation to the Co-op today! (If you give before December 31^st, you can count the tax benefit for 2012.) Your donation will go toward outreach, events and Co-op education, keeping our community connected and growing the Co-op’s local impact. We’ve set a goal of $2,000 for this end-of-year giving campaign, and we’ll get there with your contribution of $10, $25 or even $50. Making a donation couldn’t be easier. Just visit southphillyfoodcoop.org/donate to make a secure online donation or write a check, made payable to our fiscal sponsor Fair Food Philly, and mail it to us at: South Philly Food Co-op, P.O. Box 31506, Philadelphia PA 19147. In addition to being a member, attending our events, volunteering or offering discounts at your business as part of Shop South Philly, supporting the Co-op with a charitable gift furthers your investment in an enterprise owned and controlled by a pretty awesome group of South Philadelphians! As always, get all the latest information on what’s going on at southphillyfoodcoop.org. We hope to see you at a Co-op event soon! Best wishes for a warm and happy holiday season, Alison Fritz, Board President Maria Camoratto, Board Vice President

It's true, you know, but luckily planting bulbs is hardly any more work than planting seeds.  I believe it was Beverley Nichols who said (I'm paraphrasing here) that the best way to plant bulbs is to have your friends throw them around your yard and then plant them wherever they land.  I don't have too much yard space for bulb throwing so I planted mine in the already-existing beds. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] this is an awesome picture of some dirt. just kidding, it's the bed prepped for bulb planting![/caption] I bought a lot of bulbs.  I ordered some (lots) online, forgetting that I had already bought some at the Lansdowne K-Mart back in September.  So now I have quite a variety.  Here's a list of what I planted:  daffodils (all yellow), crocuses, muscari (grape hyacinths), irises, snowflakes, blue squill, starflowers and winter aconite (eranthis.) It didn't really take that long to plant all that, though.  Since I was planting so many, I didn't really worry about rows or anything - just kind of sprinkled them all around and then covered them with dirt.  Did you know that it doesn't matter which way you plant bulbs - they will always turn right-side up as they start growing!  At least I think that's true.  We'll see! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] here's some more dirt, this time with bulbs! I know it looks just like the last one; just go with it.[/caption] One big difference between this garden and my old garden is that this one is a lot more open and therefore has a lot more...wildlife.  Of course in a city, wildlife has a slightly different meaning than I'm used to...okay, it's mostly stray cats.  I saw a possum about a block from my house once, too.  But mostly cats and squirrels.  The cats tend to use whatever dirt they can find as a litter box but I'm actually more worried about the squirrels eating my bulbs.  There were like five different squirrels watching me plant my bulbs, probably thinking about what a tasty snack they were about to have.  I asked them nicely not to eat my bulbs but I still have the sneaking suspicion that maybe I was just planting squirrel food.  Some bulbs, like daffodils and crocuses, animals don't eat as much but I know something back there is eating things because something ate all my little carrot seedlings.  ALL of them!  Rude, I say.  Selfish. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] LOOK MORE DIRT[/caption] Okay, I know these three pictures look strikingly similar, but the above one is after everything was planted.  This is, again, a bed that was here when I moved in and I'm planning on changing everything around come spring (or summer or fall) so I'm only planting things here temporarily.  But here you can see some of my other plants.  From the left side of the picture:  a gingko turning yellow for winter, some rosemary and lamb's ear in the front left corner of the bed and a burning bush (burning!), a blackberry and a raspberry, a hibiscus (uh, I think) and the fig I got at the Rittenhouse farmer's market two years ago.  Everything else will (hopefully) be bulbs! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500"] this is also dirt. variation![/caption] Lastly, I planted this elephant ear I got at Greensgrow earlier this summer.  It was never really happy in the pot I transplanted it into after buying it and kind of drooped sadly in my window until I put it outside.  I decided I'd put it in the ground to see if it would make it through the winter.  It already weathered a few frosts outside this year so I may be too late. I'm still getting used to my new backyard - I find it takes at least a full year to fully understand the bright spots, the sheltered spots, the windy spots and things like that.  It'll be interesting to see if these bulbs make it.  I'm ROOTing (get it???) for you, bulbs! Sorry, I'll let myself out.

GirlsCanTell, a housewares and gift store at 1725 S. 12th Street, will be serving up great shopping and light refreshments for the Co-op on December 13th from 3pm to 8pm. Current members can come out to meet other members and use their 10% discount (compliments of Girls Can Tell's participation in Shop South Philly) on wonderful locally made gifts. Not-yet members who become Co-op members between now and December 13th will receive a free gift from GirlsCanTell, redeemable at the event. Now is the time to become a member! Join using our online form or come out and join in-person at Girls Can Tell on Thursday, December 13th. If you are already a member, stop by and say hello on December 13th - and bring any of your friends who might be interested in joining!