Why GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) are a Bad Idea

An astounding amount of food produced in this country is now genetically modified - especially corn and soy products, which are used in almost all processed foods. The idea behind GMOs is to make food resistent to pesticides and diseases, while simultaneously promoting their growth. While this sounds like a good idea in theory, in practice, we don't actually know what the effects of GMOs on humans are - there haven't been adequate studies. Studies that have been done on rats and hampsters, however, have shown that animals fed diets high in GMOs had significant reproductive problems and growth retardation.

Not only are there very real potential health problems, we have no idea what the long term effects of GMOs on the planet are. Rapidly changing the genetic makeup of plants and animals will effect the ecosystem. Just think about how devastating the effects of introducing new species of plants and animals to stable ecosystems that have no way of dealing with the newcomers has been. Entire species have died out, as well as new ones taking over and becoming horrible pests.

One of the worst aspects of GMOs is that in the US it is not required that products are labeled as being genetically modified, so unless you are actively avoiding them and know what to look for, you are consuming GMOs all the time. An article in the Huffington Post lists the top 10 reasons why we should be labeling GMOs (click on the links in each picture to read more).

For a downloadable guide to non-GMO shopping, go here. The best way to keep yourself GMO free is to eat organic, non-processed foods, and to make sure that the animal products you eat haven't been fed GMOs.

Chicken Stock

I'm not particularly adventurous in the kitchen - mostly because cooking has always been somewhat intimidating to me. I am, however, making an active effort to cook more often. When you cook from scratch, you have complete control over what goes in your body, and it's the only way to guarantee that what you're eating comes from places that you're ok with.

Last night, I made chicken stock for the first time. I had eaten part of a roasted chicken from Whole Foods, and I didn't want the rest to go to waste. Now bear in mind that I don't have any of the appropriate equipment for making stock. A friend asked me if I had a stock pot, and I said, "What's that?" She looked at what I did have and suggested that I split the chicken in half and use my 2 largest pots to make the stock, so I did, which made it possible for me to make a reasonable amount.

I had no idea how foolishly simple it is to make chicken stock. Put the chicken carcus (skin and all) in the pot. Cover with cold water. Add vegetables, salt, pepper, and any herbs and spices you want, and then simmer for hours and hours. I took a trip to the farmers' market where I bought carrots, spring garlic, shallots, spring red onions, and spring Walla Walla sweet onions. (Only in Seattle are there spring onions at the end of July). The spring onions had the stems still attached, so those got thrown in the pot. I didn't use the Walla Wallas in the stock - just their stems. I want to eat the onions themselves because they are the tastiest onions in the universe. I bought cellery from the store - unfortunately, I went to QFC, which has the worst selection of produce in the world so they didn't have any organic available, but it's within walking distance of my apartment, and sometimes you have to make compromises. I also threw in some fresh rosemary from the garden.

Once I was done cooking the stock, I tasted the result, and other than not having enough salt, the stock was amazing. I added the necessary salt until it was to my liking (which is still pretty low soduim), strained the stock into gladware containers, and put them in the freezer.

I feel rediculously accomplished for having successfully made something that always intimidated me. Now that I know how simple it is, I'll be making it much more often.

In Which I Discuss my Garden (WARNING: if you don't care about the state of my garden, don't read this. You will be bored)

My garden looks like a jungle. My plants are all growing at rates that far exceed what I would have ever expected - especially since I haven't used any fertilizer yet beyond what was in the potting soil. Although everything is growing well, not everything has proven to be successful (due to user error, not because of the plants themselves). My broccoli, for example, produced a beautiful floret that was perfect for eating right when I went on vacation. My roommate, who watered the plants while I was gone, didn't cut it off, so it flowered. I also learned that 2 broccoli in the same pot doesn't work well. One of the plants grew to be enormous, while the other just stopped growing because the first was taking all the nutrients. Some of my herbs (my oregano, cilantro, and catnip) are producing flowers so quickly, I can't keep up with them. This is particularly bad for the cilantro, which when it flowers, stops produing the useful and tasty leaves that are used for seasoning. I got two varieties of lavender, one which hasn't flowered at all, and the other which turns out to have the wrong kind of flowers for harvesting. It's really pretty, but it's purely ornamental. My oregano got some sort of oregano disease. I separated it from the rest of the plants, and it hasn't spread to anything else, which is good.

On the other end of the spectrum are the plants that have done exactly what I wanted them to do. My strawberries gave off a nice amount of fruit. To be truly worthwhile, however, I think I would need twice as many plants as I had this year. My everbearing plants produced a small amount, while my June bearing variety had the highest yield - plus, they just tasted better. My sugar snap peas have given me enough peas for 2 small side dishes, and there's enough on the plants for one more. Once they start to bear fruit, they look horrible - the leaves all start to die as the plants give all of their energy and nutrients to the seeds. I planted a second round of peas - this time with about 2 1/2 times as many seeds as I used for the last batch. They're one of my favorite foods, and as far as I'm concerned I can never have too many sugar snap peas. My cherry tomatoes have far surpassed what I was expecting. My balcony gets partial shade, so I figured I'd be lucky if I got anything at all from the plant. It just keeps growing and growing and growing. The first cluster of tomatoes ripened on the vine - there were too few to make anything from, so I gave them to friends (I hate raw tomatoes, but love them in sauces). Currently, there are dozens of green tomatoes that all appeared at the same time, so they should ripen and provide plenty of fruit for cooking.

It's still too early to tell if my carrots and zucchini will be successful. The zucchini looks like something from the Jurassic era - huge leaves that just keep getting bigger and bigger. They haven't flowered yet, but I'm confident that I will soon have more zucchini than I know what to do with. Zucchini grows really well in this part of the world. My carrots are growing, and I think they will turn out well. I had to separate a few that were growing too close together (if you've ever tried to plant carrots, you know that the seads are absurdly tiny, and it's hard to avoid accidentally dropping a couple of seeds in the space where only one seed is supposed to go). I tried transplanting the carrots, but they don't seem to be doing well. I might just have to give those up as a lost cause and just be happy for the ones that made it.

Then there are the plants I bought from my school's plant sale (Bastyr has a wonderful medicinal herb garden, and they sell herbs and seeds whenever they are available). I decided on a mugwart plant - specifically the Chinese variety that is used for moxa, a calendula plant, and a valerian plant. All three are doing amazingly well. There are 3 baby mugwart shoots in the pot that were really unexpected since it hasn't flowered. The Calendula keeps on flowering, and the valerian is looking good. I need to research how to harvest valerian becuase the root is what's used for medicinal purposes.

Overall, I would say that my garden experiment has gone extremely well. At some point, I seem to have developed a green thumb. I managed to kill almost all of my plants last year, so the difference is impressive. Plus, it's a lot of fun.

Killing Ourselves with Speed

Here's a great article about the current trends in cooking. "It’s time to take a step backward when it comes to technology and get better acquainted with our ingredients."

I know I'm guilty of being lazy in the kitchen, but when I do cook, I make every effort to use fresh, organic, local ingredients, and it's amazing how much more delicious it is than getting something pre-made.

Fresh Flour

My whole life, I've never given much thought to flour. You just buy it at the store and put it into whatever you're cooking. I always thought it was basically idiot proof. Recently, I learned that the amount of gluten in the flour makes a huge difference in how it should be used. Bread flour should really be used for making bread, and cake flour should be used for making light fluffy baked goods. Still, all that information is basic mostly idiot-proof information that is readily available on the internet.

A stand at my local farmer's market has started selling fresh ground flour. I bought some after my friend E had tremendous success with it, even though it's more expensive than what you buy in the store. This is the sort of flour that requires a good sifting (or even two) before you use it to get the larger hulls out. It is worth every extra penny, and the extra work of sifting because holy crap, it makes the most delicious baked goods ever. Apparently, flour goes rancid after a few weeks if you don't freeze it. It doesn't taste bad, but it stops tasting amazing, and it becomes harder to digest. It also loses qi pretty quickly. The stuff available in the grocery store was probably several weeks (if not months) old before it even left the processing plant. What shows up at the store is perfectly functional, bland, uninteresting, difficult to digest, but easy to use flour.

When you use fresh flour, it turns a good recipe into a phenominal recipe. I made whole wheat bread in my bread maker - something I do on a regular basis. I used bread flour from a bag because I didn't have fresh bread flour. In place of my usual whole wheat flour, I used fresh flour. The recipe only calls for 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, so I didn't think it would make that much difference, but I don't think I can ever go back to using regular flour again. I have also had the same success with pancakes and muffins. Having this flour makes me want to bake. I think I'm going to have to try making cookies with this stuff.

Canning

E and I made strawberry jam yesterday, and it's amazing.
Washington has a short window when the best strawberries in the universe are available, and we took advantage of that. We used local, organic, delicious strawberries, and local, organic honey to make the jam, which incidentally, was really simple. It's a little on the runny side, but otherwise, it's perfect. It makes me absurdly happy that I'll have local June strawberries available to eat all year. There is something very satisfying about canning, and I hope to do more jams this summer. I'm really looking forward to canning Ranier cherries when they're at the peak of their season. Yum.

Help Save the Ecology Program at my Nephew's School

The Pepsi Refresh Everything program is giving away money to some awesome programs. My nephew's school is in the running to get $25K to keep their ecology program running. They're currently 33rd place, but only the top 10 get money. If you help out and vote for this, you'll be supporting a public school in Chicago (the majority of the students are from minority and low-income families). This program is particularly relevant in light of the BP fiasco. Regardless of whether you want to plug the oil leak with BP executives or Sarah Palin, this is something that kids can benefit from for their entire lives. I know I wish I'd learned more about ecology as a kid.

The program has a heavy focus on gardening and teaching the kids how to eat well. They get hands on experience in the edible garden and get to eat the fruits of their labors. If they win, the money will go toward the salary of the teacher, putting up a greenhouse, and paying for gardening supplies.
So please, please, please vote for this program. (It's easy, just click the following link and hit the Vote button). Unless you request it, Pepsi won't send you any emails, so you don't have to worry about spam. refresheverything.com/watersecology

Please pass this to anyone you think might be willing to help.

Thank you so much!