It has been a while since I shared a Mark Bittman piece on this blog. It's not that they haven't been worth sharing but I wanted to avoid the trap of simply linking every week to the inestimable Mr. Bittman. Come to think of it, might not be a bad idea. His latest is a piece about a new organization under the arm of the AmeriCorps program called the FoodCorps:

50 new foot soldiers in the war against ignorance in food. The service members, most of them in their 20s, just went to work at 41 sites in 10 states, from Maine to Oregon and Michigan to Mississippi. (FoodCorps concentrates on communities with high rates of childhood obesity or limited access to healthy food, though these days every state has communities like that.)

For a total budget of less than $2 million (mostly from foundations), this crew will be out there teaching kids about nutrition, showing them how to create gardens and generally connecting them with their food so that maybe they start think of food as something that comes from the ground, not from a box. It's a great program considering how moribund and underfunded nutrition education is AND how much cash is poured into anti-nutritious marketing. ($2 million is what McDonald's probably pays for one spot during the NFL's big game.) So where could a co-op fit into this? Time to engage in the "vision" thing for a second. But first, this would be a good time to remind ourselves of the mission of the South Philly Food Co-op:

To open a member-owned cooperative grocery store that provides nutritious food to all residents of South Philadelphia while empowering the local community through sustainable practices, food-centric education, outreach, and community building.

That's the difference with a cooperatively owned grocery store. When the profits stay in the community, the member-owners can decide to put some it towards, say, "adopt a Food Corps" and helping to subsidize part of their $15k annual salary. In exchange, the Co-op would be the base of operations for this foot foot soldier (or squad of them) and become a working classroom where parents and children learn how to find the best food at the fairest prices and what to do with it once they get home. End result: a healthier, fitter community; healthy, active kids whose brains are on full power. Together, we will own not just a food store but a social club, a place to learn, and the best kind of health care facility: one that helps prevent bad health from happening in the first place. Oh yeah... and buy your Garden Tour tickets.

2. You want to feel inspired. The Garden Tour features several urban oases that have murals, mosaics and all kinds of other unique features. One in particular takes the idea of a classic "English Garden" and transports it right to the heart of South Philly. Twenty (twenty!) gardens all throughout South Philadelphia have signed on to be on the Tour which goes from 11am to 3pm on Saturday, September 10. Gardens range from individual backyards to community gardens to parks. You can visit all the gardens or just target a few since they’re all in a 5-mile radius (perfect for walking or biking). Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 on the day of, and can be purchased now at:

• Urban Jungle, 1526 E. Passyunk Avenue
• Grindcore House, 1515 S. 4th Street
• Ultimo Coffee Bar, 1900 S. 15th Street
• Online by clicking here.

Following the Tour, participants are invited to the Cantina (East Passyunk Ave and Morris St.) for an after party from 3pm to 5pm. Anyone with their Garden Tour ticket will receive 20 percent off food and drinks. We’ll see you on the Tour!

1. You are nosy like us and wonder what your neighbor's backyards look like.  One of the gardens on the tour uses an old porcelain toilet tank as a planter! (And no, it's not mine thanks to a survey of Facebook friends that didn't go my way.) Find out which garden on September 10, 2011! Twenty (twenty!) gardens all throughout South Philadelphia have signed on to be on the Tour. Gardens range from individual backyards to community gardens to parks. You can visit all the gardens or just target a few since they're all in a 5-mile radius (perfect for walking or biking). Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 on the day of, and can be purchased now at:

• Urban Jungle, 1526 E. Passyunk Avenue
• Grindcore House, 1515 S. 4th Street
• Ultimo Coffee Bar, 1900 S. 15th Street
• Online by clicking here.

Following the Tour, participants are invited to the Cantina (East Passyunk Ave and Morris St.) for an after party featuring drink and food specials. We'll see you on the Tour!

(Editor's note: Sarah's garden is one of 20 (!) gardens featured on the first annual South Philly Garden Tour on Saturday, September 10 from 11am to 3pm. See what we did there? First Annual. We like to be optimistic. Anyway, if you're a fan of Sarah's garden and want to see it and several of your neighbors' gardens in person, buy your tickets today. Today! And save $5 off the price of what they will be on the day of the tour. All proceeds go to help pay start-up costs for the co-op. Information about where to buy tickets - which can also be purchased online - is available on our home page.)

Whew!  I've had a bit of a whirlwind few weeks and didn't have too much time for my garden.  And after the big storm on Saturday night - I know it was big because it woke me up and I RARELY wake up (ask my friends about throwing boxes at me one night trying to wake me up; actually, don't) - I found my garden in disarray.  Just look at these poor monkeys:

 

Now I understand why people with more room grow their tomatoes along the ground instead of forcing them to stand up:  there is less chance of them breaking and sometimes the tomatoes get too heavy and the ground gets too wet and then you get entire wooden stakes falling over.  In case you're wondering, here are just some of the bunch of tomatoes that caused that plant and stake to fall over:

So I knew it was time to start cleaning things up.  I moved pots, retied tomatoes and got bigger stakes.  Here's some of the jungle I was working through:

but I went pot by pot and took off dead leaves and tried to make everyone stand as straight as possible.  Here are two re-staked tomatoes:

and some more:

That pot above used to have four beefsteak plants in it but one was definitely on its way towards death so instead of trying to coax it back to health I ripped it out!  This is exciting because I used to be super worried and tried to save every one of my plants.  Now I realize I have a ton of tomatoes and losing a few is totally fine.  I think this is the gardener's equivalent of letting go of your children as they grow up.  (Lame joke.)

Another problem I ran into was that sometimes the plants with all the tomatoes were just too heavy for the stakes, no matter how big and strong the stakes were:  even if the stake is a couple of inches in diameter it can still only go down to the bottom of the pot which can be two feet (if I'm lucky) or less than a foot (the majority of my pots.)  Take a look at this one, and sorry in advance for the tilt of the camera:

That tomato's pretty tall but still in its little Germantown thrift store pot (you can just see the white half-circle of it at the bottom.)  I used the biggest stake I could find but it still wouldn't stand up because there just wasn't enough space and dirt in the pot to anchor it.  Then:  epiphany!  Okay, not really, but:  since it was already right against the wall behind it I started looking for ways to tie the stake to the wall and, hey, there was this mysterious little hook just hanging out:

So it's not really the prettiest but it gets the job done.  And now everything is staked and lined up and looking good!

I kind of assumed that my tomato plants were done producing tomatoes but I keep finding more flowers so looks like I'll have more tomatoes!  I also found flowers on the Beauty Queens which are taking a much longer time to grow.  Here are some pretty beefsteak flowers:

And!  More excitement!  My little eggplants have started actually flowering!  Take a look at this cutie pie:

And here's another, with more on the way:

I'm so excited!  These eggplants were so slow-growing compared to the beefsteaks (and the sunflowers...more on that in a moment) but I guess they just needed a little more time.

So sunflowers!  They are so tall.  It's ridiculous, really.  I can't even take a picture that will get the actual flower part and also the rest of the garden, so here are some stems:

There they are!

I know I covered this last week but:  they sure are mammoth.  One of my loyal readers suggested I take a picture from the "room with a view" aka the bathroom so here it is:

Thanks for the suggestion, Sharona!

In closing, please accept this blurry picture of my monster basil plant, Basilmonster.

It got so big and I was on such a staking frenzy this weekend I staked it.  Time to make more pesto!

Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

Alison and I recently went to Frederick, Maryland for a little co-op inspiration.

As part of a Mid-Atlantic Food Co-op Alliance meeting, we joined other food co-ops, buying clubs, and start-up efforts from 6 states (DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA, VA) on a tour of The Common Market.  This Natural Food Co-op has a café, meat department and sustainable seafood counter, specialty cheeses, and a community room.  Not to mention a great bulk section (you know I'm a fan).

The Common Market has been around since the 1970's, they have 3,200 member-owners, and this is their 4th location.  Overall it was great to hear how far they have come.  You can read more about their exciting history here.

Bulk olive oil, soy sauce, vinegar and soap...

It was so inspiring to see what the South Philly Food Co-op could be one day.  We have a lot of work to do, but anything is possible with your help!

 

It's August, and that means tomatoes, so the first word that comes to mind whenever I'm trying to pull together a simple dinner is caprese. There are few food combinations that work as well as mozzarella, basil and tomato. You can melt them all together in a sandwich. You can toss them all together with pasta. You can stick them on skewers and call them appetizers, or just stack them in slices and call it a side salad.

I wanted to make a more substantial meal of it, and one easy answer for that is polenta. I had beautiful basil that I got at the farm market because I have officially killed my fourth basil plant of the season.

You can buy your polenta pre-made in a tube, or you can make it very easily with cornmeal, water and salt. Butter if you're fancy. Stock instead of water. I buy the cornmeal that's actually marked "polenta" because it's milled more finely and I prefer the texture, but really, it's just cornmeal. You can add herbs and cheese and all sorts of stuff while you're making it. I tend to make it boring so it's ready to be used in any application. You can make it up, cut it into cubes or slices or whatever and freeze it so it's always ready, but it only takes 20 minutes to make from scratch.

So start with some made up polenta, and let it chill a good while so it firms up. At least an hour, but a day works great. I set mine up in a pie pan, but whatever works for you. I aim for 1-inch cubes, but I don't bust out the ruler or anything.

So cube up the polenta (I used about a third of a recipe for this salad - I made two cups dry and used way less) and freeze any extra.

Coat the bottom of a pan with olive oil and turn up to medium high. Add polenta when the oil is hot (drop of water pops).

And shallow fry, turning to brown each side. About 3 minutes per side. Touch the polenta to check for crispness. It should have a nice toasty feel on all sides.

Drain the polenta on a towel and discard any remaining oil.

While the pan is warm and just slightly greased, add some tomatoes and turn to med-low.

 

Toss them around in the hot pan a bit, to warm them up, but not enough to make them mushy.

I used massaged kale for the base, because I have a kale addiction, but you could do this over any sort of lettuce.

A few pieces of polenta,

a good bit of fresh mozzarella,

 warm tomatoes,

 and lots of fresh basil.

Toss that together with some reduced balsamic vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper and you have a chunky and filling salad.

This made three nice servings, and of course we had leftover polenta to freeze.

This recipe is cross-posted at Saturday’s Mouse, where I’m working on making food out of food. 

Ingredients

• 12 1-inch cubes polenta


• 1/2 cup basil, chopped


• 2 large tomatoes, cut into pieces


• 2 tablespoons olive oil


• 1 cup fresh mozzarella balls, cut in quarters


• 3 tablespoons balsamic reduction


• kosher salt to taste


• 2 cups massaged kale or other salad greens

Instructions

• Shallow fry polenta in olive oil until lightly browned and crispy on all sides.


• Remove polenta to towel to drain.


• Drain remaining oil from pan and add chopped tomatoes. Toss to warm.


• Add polenta, tomatoes, mozzarella and basil to greens or kale to make salads.


• Drizzle with balsamic reduction and sprinkle with salt to taste.


• Makes three servings, serve warm.

Details

• Prep time: 5 mins


• Cook time: 15 mins


• Total time: 20 mins


• Yield: 3 servings

According to this essay on the Rodale's Institute's website, the state of New Hampshire gets only 6 percent of its food from in-state production. We've known since 3rd grade American history that the early settlers had a tough time in New England but by necessity they always seem to be able to scratch out enough to live. (Back before trucks and planes, all farming was "local.") Young New Hampshirites are trying to reverse the trend but running into a similar problem as their colonial forebears - lack of land. In the present time, this is because what land there is already has owners and those folks are unlikely to sell it anytime soon. So what's a young, wannabe farmer to do? Borrow the land. The essay tells the story of four cases (including the author herself) in which the farmers have worked out innovative and mutually beneficial deals with the land owners to be able to grow crops on their property. For most landowners, it's not even a matter of getting money out of deal as much as it a sense of satisfaction and pride in seeing their land being used productively and sustainably. Now, anyone in South Philly have a quarter acre they want to lend me?

We have been working hard this summer and have some exciting news to share with you! The Wharton Community Consultants have accepted the South Philly Food Co-op's application and will be working with us for approximately three months starting in October to help answer the following questions: - What approximate size should our co-op be? - What locations should we consider? - What can we learn from other co-ops to be successful with our store opening? This is a great opportunity to get an independent opinion of how we should proceed at     no cost and will be used to help guide our future decisions when opening our store in 2013.  A Board Member will meet regularly with the WCC team and will update us when possible.  We can't wait to share the outcomes with you! One step closer for our Future South Philly Food Co-op Shoppers!

(In the interest of blogger etiquette, you'll have to click through the links below to see the charts since I didn't create them myself. But keep reading for even more fuel for the why we need to change our food system argument and how a co-op can do its small part.) I've been meaning to share this post from Grist's food section for a long time. You can see the date, I've had it sitting in my queue since April. Better late than never! The main point is that from 1970 to 2008 the American food system has gone from producing 2,168 calories per day per person to 2,673 calories per day per person. As if consuming about 500 more calories per day weren't bad enough (not to mention the toll that producing 500 extra calories per day per person for about 105 million more persons takes on the environment), the portion of those calories that come from added sugar and added fat (the sugar and fat not naturally found in whole foods but added to food during its processing) has gone from 37 percent to 41 percent. Basically, on average, we're producing/consuming 300 more calories from added sugar and added fat per day than the average bell-bottom wearing, Grand Funk Railroad listening 1970 American. So if you click through to the Grist post it will take you to another post that has a fun (wait, I mean horrifying) chart that shows the change in the make-up of the American diet between 1970 and 2008. 2008 is the last year of available data. I have a feeling it hasn't gotten better since then. Silly Grist even suggests that if the food processing industry simply cut the number of calories per person per day that it produces down from 1100 to 550, our total caloric intake would be back around where it was in 1970. You know... when everyone was skinny (though, in fairness, a lot of the skinniness was achieved by smoking). As if those numbers and charts weren't enough to send you into a rage for change, Vegansaurus rages on about another pretty well known inequity in our food system: the percentage of agricultural subsidies that go towards meat and dairy (that would be 63) vs the percentage that goes towards fruits and vegetables (that would be 1). Grains, sugar, starch, oil and alcohol combine for 35 percent. I highly recommend that you click through to read what she has to say if you're looking for some colorful language to take with you to your next cocktail party when you can preach to your friends about these issues (which probably explains why I don't get invited to as many cocktail parties as I used to). She says something about a breast pump and social change that you won't want to miss. So, loyal readers, any idea what we can do about this situation? Even more importantly, how can a co-op become an agent of this change? This isn't a quiz so there are no wrong answers. Fire away in the comments. (Oh yeah... and if you haven't done so already "Like" us on Facebook and vote for us in this great contest sponsored by Intuit. We could part of $50,000 in grants toward start-up costs!)

Hello!  I found something exciting in my garden this past week, and it wasn't (another) animal skull.  It was far more exciting!  It was...

That's right, the beginnings of some flowers on my eggplant!  Woo hoo!  These eggplants sure are delicate little things (the variety is Black Beauty for anyone interested) but luckily they like it hot hot hot!  So go, little eggplants, go!  I am so excited to eat you!

The other things that have taken off with this massive amount of heat are the sunflowers:

Seriously, I guess I should have researched this a bit, but these sunflowers are super tall.  I'm gonna guess they are about 8-9' tall.  When I got these seeds I was all like, I don't want a dwarf variety cause I want TALL sunflowers!  I want them to be really TALL!  Well they are definitely tall so Sarah of a few months ago needn't have worried.  To top it off, this variety is Mammoth Russian which I chose over all the other varieties with things like "giant" and "large" in their name.  "Mammoth" is clearly bigger than "giant," right?  Yeah so the moral of this story is that these sunflowers are really really tall.  So tall, in fact, that it's hard to see the flowers.  But there are totally flowers coming!

See the flower starting in the middle of the picture?  Yes, sunflowers, yes!  Even though you're towering over the rest of the garden!  I guess I'm lucky we have a nice big window on the second floor overlooking the garden because that's pretty much the only way to get a nice view of the sunflowers.  Unfortunately (or not?) that window is in the bathroom.  Hey a nice view is a nice view, right?  I can't complain.  Next year, however, I might not be so aghast at the idea of a dwarf variety...

So although that recent heat wave was pretty unbearable for me apparently it did wonders for some of my slower-moving plants.  Keep it up, plants!  I'm rooting (pun intended) for you!

Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.