North Coast Cafe, South

Collards: The World's Healthiest Food?

Who knew? 

The lowly nutrient-dense collard is named the world's healthiest food. The claim is contained in a research study undertaken by the George Mateljan Foundation. 

Mateljan is the founder of Health Valley Foods.

Over a hundred foods appear on the list,  each selected because they are especially rich sources of essential nutrients needed for optimal health.

Collard greens are broad-leafed relatives of the cabbage family, related to kale—another high ranking nutrient rich vegetable.

The peak season for collards in the American south is January through April. Collards have a strong connection the Southern cooking.

Collards are thought to have a Scotttish origin, but the Southern style of cooking greens came into its own with the arrival of African slaves who boiled the greens with ham hocks or neck bones.

Origin of Potatoes

A team of researchers have confirmed what I have known for a long time—all modern varities of potatoes can be traced back to Peru where small, purple tubers were gathered and eaten by native people as long as 7,000 years ago.

Led by horticulturalist  Dr. David Spooner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Department of Agriculture study analysed the DNA of about 360 potatoes, both wild and cultivated.

"In contrast to all prior hypotheses of multiple origins of the cultivated potato,”  Spooner said, “we have identified a single origin from a broad area of southern Peru," said the scientist, who spends two months a year collecting wild potatoes on treks in South America's mountainous regions.

Potatoes were taken from Peru to Spain by the conquistadors around 1570, and spread throughout Europe.They were later introduced in North America by British colonists. Source

Score One For Organic

Contrary to conventional wisdom as put forth by anti-environmentalists and  most of the main stream media, researchers at Cornell University in a 22-year farm study have found organic farming produces the same yields of corn and soybeans as does conventional farming—and does so using 30-percent less energy, less water and no pesticides.

David Pimentel, a Cornell University professor of ecology and agriculture, the lead author of a study that is published in the July issue of Bioscience (Vol. 55:7) analyzing the environmental, energy and economic costs and benefits of growing soybeans and corn organically versus conventionally says, "Organic farming approaches for these crops not only use an average of 30 percent less fossil energy but also conserve more water in the soil, induce less erosion, maintain soil quality and conserve more biological resources than conventional farming does..."  Link

Eat Wild, Grass Fed, & Humane Farming

What a disappointment to read the many wingnuts on the Web who are blaming "the liberal media" and environmentalists for blowing out of purportion the threat of BSE (Mad Cow Disease) in the USA. Bush makes a point of saying how he continues to eat beef. Well, fine. But, until just a few months ago America's beef were eating beef--ground up carcasses of diseased, 'downer' cows in the feed fed to them by profit-driven factory farms.

As I've mentioned here earlier, contemporary methods of producing meat in America are loathsome. I can't help but conclude that the only reason we tolerate the inhumane conditions animals destined for our tables are kept is the inexpensive prices we pay for our food.

Americans are spoiled. We pay very little for our food as compared to other nations. American's, for instance, pay about 7.5% of household income for food. Europeans average about 18%, the Japanese pay nearly 40%.

What good news then it is to read today, finally, about an intelligent approach to preventing future contamination of our food supplies; and what a nice change for the cattle who will be allowed to roam on grassland in fresh air and sunshine.

Grass-fed beef, no doubt, will cost more than factory-farmed meat, but if a few pennies out of my pocket can influence the success of humane, wholesome, dare I say natural, production of beef I shall happily cough up a bit more money.

Let's hope it starts a movement. Better for animals, better for farmers, better for the environment, better for our health.

Supersweet Corn

Is it cynical to think that farmers hoping to support their living by selling produce at farm markets do themselves a disservice by growing the new supersweet varieties of sweet corn?
This corn is always sweet, if not tender, no matter how far it's been shipped or how long it has been refrigerated. But, other than sweet it has no taste at all.
Late August I stopped at a popular, prosperous local farm market for some corn. It was a hot, humid day. I asked a young employee when the frigid corn I was examining was picked.
He said, "Just 10-minutes ago."
"Then why is it so cold?" I asked.
He stumbled a second or two and then explained,
"We just rinsed it off with cold water."
The corn was completely dry, too cold to have been so deeply chilled by a spritz of cold water.
I drove on to another market. But I found no fresh picked flavorful variety of sweetcorn anywhere--this in a region renowned for agriculture.
Why have farmers done this to themselves? Weeks old supersweet corn I can buy (but never do) at the supermarket. The reason I go to my local farm market is to enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables with old-timey flavor and optimal nutrition. If, at the same time, my few dollars help preserve local agriculture, and the farming families producing our food, so much the better. I'd rather my dollars stay on the North Coast keeping its economy moving, than send it to the economies of California, Florida, Chile or China. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)
Today in my local paper there's a short "cooking tip" in the "living section." It was obviously written from a press kit handout mentioned, The Fresh Supersweet Corn Council ( Who knew?!) The 'tip" suggests consumers add flavor to their supersweet corn by glazing it with orange-honey-soy sauce, or mustard butter, herbed oil & Parmesan cheese, etc.
Wouldn't be better if farmers just grew sweet corn of the old-fashioned, flavorful, fresh picked kind?