The SPFC crew at the Mid-Atlantic Conference for Start-up Food Co-ops at Lutheran Theological Seminary.

On which committee do you serve?

I serve on the Outreach committee and am currently helping to recruit and organize people to contribute to our blog and other social media outlets. Through this we hope to stay regularly connected to potential members and shoppers, build a community of co-op supporters, give frequent updates on our progress and generally keep the co-op on everyone's radar until we have a physical presence to go along with the virtual one.

What do you do for a living?

Advertising/marketing for Democratic political candidates.

How did you get involved with the food co-op?

I married into it (or actually, the co-op married into me). Alison Fritz, chair of the steering committee, is my wife and inspiration. At first I came on board to help out because the project was so important to her. Since then I've seen how this local, food-related effort really ties into many of the issues that I'm very personally interested in (sustainability, awareness of the environment, responsible capitalism, energy conservation) and which I hope to move toward professionally as well.

Why do you want a food co-op in South Philly?

Economics 101 (or Ec 10 as it was called in college). I'm not a foodie in particular, though I would love to learn how to cook. I am, however, keenly aware of waste and inefficiency and have been turned onto the amount of waste, inefficiency, inequity and just general badness that exists in our current industrial food system. I'd like there to be a place where I can go and KNOW that everything I pick up was carefully selected to be on that shelf because it was locally grown, sustainably raised or harvested and produced in such a manner that doesn't exploit the humans or animals who worked to make it - truly guilt-free meals.

Why should people join a food co-op?

Everyone will have their own reason and the people who hear the term "co-op" and think "I know what that is. Awesome. Sign me up" probably don't need me to tell them why they should join. However, for folks who are less familiar and might not otherwise be inclined to do so, I would appeal to their pride in their community and their neighborhood - South Philadelphia. There are plenty of folks who go way back in these neighborhoods and who have plenty of reason to be proud of the area. A locally-owned, community-owned food store (and one that we hope is wildly successful) will not only bring and keep more wealth into the community, it will also be yet another reason for people to think of this area as progressive, forward thinking and part of the solution.

What is your favorite meal to cook and why?

I love rolling out the dough and making a nice pizza with extra cheese, kalamata olives, and artichoke hearts. It's my favorite food to eat and I can never quite get it as well as my favorite pizza place in the city (FrancoLuigi's at 13th and Tasker) but I love to try. Plus a badly made pizza can beat most well made dishes any day of the week so I can't really go wrong.

Please join us Wednesday, April 27 from 5pm - 7:30pm at Hawthorne’s Beer Boutique (738 S. 11th Street) for our next fundraiser: an appetizer tasting and growler happy hour. Meet your fellow co-op supporters and enjoy a sampling of Hawthorne’s tasty appetizers as well as $5 off growlers and $1 off drafts for our event. This event does not require the purchase of the growler container and growlers can be consumed on-site (about 4 pints per growler). So grab some friends and come out and partake in this fun happy hour event. Loaner growler containers will be available for on-site consumption. The suggested donation for this event is $15 and includes butlered appetizers. To make it easier for our host, this will be a CASH ONLY event. Please be sure to visit an ATM machine before you arrive. For more information and to RSVP please visit Facebook or contact [email protected].

If you are like me, at the end of a long day you love to kick back with a beverage. With the warm weather peeking its head up every few days, a cool refreshing drink is certainly in order.  Root has created a great drink for those hot summer days that are just around the corner. This Raspberry Lemonade is a wonderful way to cool down.

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon raspberry jam


• 1 1/2 cups soda water


• The juice of 2 lemons


• Several lemon slices


• 1 handful of fresh, chopped mint


• 4 parts ROOT


• Ice cubes

Directions:
Muddle the jam, lemon juice, and mint in the bottom of a large jar. Fill the jar halfway with ice cubes. Add ROOT and soda water. Stir vigorously. Top with lemon slices and more fresh mint, to taste.
Makes 4 servings.

I was informed shortly after posting the announcement about the 1st City Council District candidates forum at Neumann-Goretti this coming Thursday evening that there is also a forum for all of the 2nd District candidates that night as well. Our friends at the Newbold Neighbors Association are sponsoring the forum along with the South Broad Street Neighbors Association. Details: Date: Thursday, April 14, 2011 Time: 6:30 - 8:30 PM Location: St. Agnes Medical Center Auditorium, 1900 S. Broad St. All residents are invited to come and learn about the candidates for City Council in the 2nd district. Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions, register to vote (remember, deadline is April 18), and meet your neighbors! Like I said before, I had a chance to see most of the 2nd District candidates at the Urban Sustainability Forum's candidate night last week. To put it mildly, they could stand to be questioned a bit more on sustainability and food access issues. We strongly encourage co-op members who live west of Broad Street to attend and, if possible, report back to us on what you hear.

I apologize for interrupting the flow of great recipes and praise from food writing superstars to bring a little dose of civic engagement to the blog. Since we are as much about community as we are about food, we want to make everyone aware of an upcoming event that will have huge ramifications for this area for at least the next four years. That's right. It's election time. But wait, you might ask, I thought elections in November and in years when we get to see our formerly dominant U.S. 4x100 relay team get schooled by the Jamaicans? That's not this year, is it? While we wait for 2012 and the grand national Bobby Flay-style Throw Down between Barack Obama's grilled endive and roasted pepper with a side of arugula and fava bean crustini and Sarah Palin's grizzly bear pot roast wrapped in wild boar bacon, we have our local, municipal elections for mayor, city council, sheriff, commissioner, and register of wills. Since the mayor's race has effectively been canceled this year by the lack of serious opposition, South Philadelphia is left with the important task of choosing new city council representatives for the 1st (east of Broad) and 2nd (west of Broad) Districts. Longtime incumbents Frank DiCicco and Anna Verna are retiring after a combined 328 years in public office leaving us with a situation that occurs about as often as you can find a vegan cheesesteak at Pat's or Geno's - two open seats. And if you're waiting to see extensive news coverage of these races on television or hear it on the radio or read in the newspaper, you may be waiting until Charlie Sheen decides to enter the race and his opponent is a structurally deficient Southwest Airlines 737. It's going to be up to you (a) to figure out which candidate to vote for and (b) show up at the polls on May 17th for the Democratic primary (oh yeah, all the declared candidates are Dems so if you want a say, better get that voter registration in order... deadline for that is April 18). I'd be more than happy to help with (b). Let me know and I'll knock on your door to remind you when the polls open at 7am (you'll want to beat the lines). As for (a), the civic associations in the area - Passyunk Square Civic Association, Lower Moyamensing Civic Association, East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association, the South Broad Street Neighborhood Association and Columbus Square Advisory Council - are sponsoring a candidate forum for the four guys who are running in the 1st District. They are Vern Anastasio, Joe Grace, Jeff Hornstein, and Mark Squilla. Those of you who attended our Spring Community Forum should be familiar with the location: What: District 1 City Council Candidates Night Date and Time: Thursday, April 14, at 7 pm Location: Neumann-Goretti High School (11th & Moore) Attendees will be able to submit questions for the candidates in writing on the night of the meeting. We hope at least a few of those questions will be about supporting a food co-op. Thanks to the folks at LoMo civic for asking us to post about this! Here's an extra link to their post about the event. As an aside, I had a chance to attend the Urban Sustainability Forum candidates night for districts 1-5 at the Academy of Natural Sciences, which basically turned into a forum for the 2nd Council District since that was the only race in which all the candidates showed up. Each of the candidates seems earnest though it's evident, judging from the way they talked about these issues, that none of them necessarily has sustainability as their top priority. Sustainability, access to fresh and local foods, food co-ops... these are issues that most candidates are only going to pay attention to if they keep getting questions about them from potential voters. Though it applies to everything contributors to this blog write, it should be expressly stated that any opinions above are solely those of the author and DO NOT reflect any policies, rules, or decisions made the South Philly Food Co-op’s steering, legal/finance, or outreach committees.

On Thursday April 14 at 7:30pm we are hosting an Event Planning Workshop. One of our volunteers is a former community organizer with experience in event planning and fund raising and will lead the workshop, showing us the model for planning a successful fundraiser. Workshop Details Goals of Workshop:

1. Discuss general principles for fund raising and event recruitment
2. Learn the How To! We will discuss setting goals for recruitment and fund raising, tactics to use along the way, and walk through the step by step process for creating a roadmap/plan to accomplishing specific fund raising and recruitment goals.
3. Generate ideas for fund raising/recruitment events

Who should attend this workshop:

• Anyone interested in learning more about fund raising and event planning to help the South Philly Food Co-op
• Anyone interested in planning/organizing South Philly Food Co-op fund raising and recruitment events

If you are interested in attending this workshop, please email southphillyfoodcoop.events (at) gmail.com for more details.

Mark Bittman, once more hitting on all cylinders, and today praising our fair city, Mayor Nutter, and the fine work of the Food Trust.

Foodwise, among the most progressive cities in the country right now is Philadelphia, where the alliance of a forward-thinking mayor and a 19-year-old non-profit is moving things forward. Within a year or two, Philly might be funding better access to real food for its poorest citizens by taxing soda. And if you accept the notion that childhood obesity and the accompanying Type 2 diabetes are big problems, and you’re aware that soda is a major cause, you’ll agree that’s a huge step in the right direction.

Even the present is encouraging, because Philadelphia is figuring out its residents’ food needs and demonstrating that government and non-profits can lead the fight against diet-related diseases by putting real food into the hands of people — especially children — who have trouble finding and affording it.

Meanwhile, the Food Trust is also gearing up for the 15th annual Stroehmann Bakeries Walk Run Against Hunger. The Food Trust will receive 80 percent of funds donated through supporters, and the rest goes to more than 100 food pantries, soup kitchens and hunger-relief agencies in Philadelphia area. Please help them reach their fundraising goal! Mayor Nutter would want you to:

I spend a lot of time talking about how I don't bake.   Part of it is my disinterest in most sweets (can we have french fries for dessert instead?) and the other part is the precision and the measuring.  I like to cook by smell.   And yet, I made pita bread.

This was part of this weekend's big time falafel dinner - a series of recipes on my blog Saturday's Mouse.

I read through maybe 20 pita bread recipes to get here, and many said that you can't really make pita at home and that the traditional way required an oven hotter than home ovens were capable of getting.  I figured if it didn't work, I'd have some sort of flatbread that would be just fine, and if it REALLY didn't work, I had tortillas in the fridge.   Spoiler alert - it totally worked.

I pretty much used a recipe this time - this recipe here at The Fresh Loaf.  This is more than "inspired by" or "based on" this recipe - this is how I made it.  New bread, yo, I'm gonna follow something.

A couple of the recipes put me off by asking for 3 hours of rise time.  I don't have three hours.  So I planned to make this one that requires 90 minutes - but things got in the way and I actually gave it closer to 2 and a half hours to rise.  I guess I have three hours after all.

I started with the yeast proofing in the some warm water.  I pulled 1/4 cup of water from the total needed for the recipe, and let my yeast sit in there until it bubbled a bit.  I put the flour in the mixer (you can do this by hand).  I used 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat.  The worry with using all whole wheat is that your breads can get tough.

I added the salt

and olive oil

and honey

and finally the water, including my proofed yeast.

I stirred it with a spatula

until it came together like it started to want to be a dough.

And then I got to mixing.

Ten minutes by hand, or ten minutes in the mixer set on 1.  When it was all one thing, it was ready.

I shaped it into a ball,

and put it in a bowl that I had coated in olive oil, and gave it a few tosses in that oil.

I dampened a towel with warm water and wrapped the bowl in that, and then stashed it in my china cabinet.  When I'm letting dough rise I either go for the china cabinet method, or if I have the heat on, I put it in the basement near the boiler.   No heat, so china cabinet is fairly warm.

The recipe calls for 90 minutes of rise-time, but I got distracted by the rest of life and came back to it after a little more than two hours.   It had more than doubled in size.

This is a good time to get to pre-heating.  I was worried my oven wouldn't get hot enough, but with about 20 minutes advance prep at 500 it was just fine.  I preheated a baking sheet as well - many recipes recommend a pizza stone, and I bet that'd be great, but I don't have one.

I tore it the dough into eight pieces, and rolled each one into a ball like this

and then flat with the rolling pin.  I wasn't good about keeping them round - but I'd recommend putting some effort into that.  Roll horizontally, turn the dough 90 degrees, roll horizonally, turn the dough 90 degrees, etc.

Once it was flattened, I ...ok, I got off track. I let them sit all shaped and ready for a while, and when I put them into the oven they got all droopy and misshapen and they came out unpoofed.  This made a fairly tasty flatbread, but was not at all a pita.

Sous Chef Brian (my husband) to the rescue.  He floured the cutting board quite a bit, re-rolled them out into perfect discs and they went in.  I guess the added flour really helped (or maybe the perfect shape).

Look how poofy!  And totally hollow inside.  Here's one in action!

I froze the leftovers and they defrosted as good as new, so I'm definitely going to make some extra of these next time to keep around.

I'm not going to post the step-by-step recipe, because I used exactly the ingredients from someone else's - go to The Fresh Loaf for the details.

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

Have you ever noticed the absurd amount of plastic and cardboard you return home with after a trip to the grocery store?  And it's not just food, it's everywhere.  Thousands of products are over packaged which is bad for our environment and a waste of resources.

The solution to over packaging for my family is buying in bulk (and I don't mean going to Sam's Club!).  We have dozens of mason jars and fill them with nuts, oatmeal, rice, popcorn, lentils, granola, coffee, sugar, salt, etc. and display them on a bookshelf in our dining room.  It's easy to see what we have to eat, usually means we are consuming unprocessed foods and it doesn't break the bank.  There are a few stores we use to stock up on these food items, including Essene Market and WholeFoods.  You just have to be sure to find a friendly cashier to mark the tare weight on your containers before you fill them (we have the weight memorized by now).  

In addition to food, we buy our cleaning products in bulk from Big Green Earth Store on 10th and South Street.  We are partial to the Sun & Earth products they carry (the company is based in King of Prussia) which are excellent at removing grease and the best part is that they are non-toxic and biodegradable.  We purchase the hand soap, dish liquid, floor cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, and laundry detergent.  They all smell like citrus and really work, unlike some other eco-friendly products, ahem.  You can bring your empty containers and have them filled up and they also have a program where you can pre-pay for a large quantity and come back as needed.

My hope for South Philly Food Co-op is that we will not only support local food sources but also choose to sell products from companies who make it a point to package their products responsibly.  And maybe install our very own bulk bins!