I am in heaven. The farmers’ markets in New York are starting to offer some of the northeast’s most amazing
harvests. I picked up some local, naturally grown strawberries. I had no idea that ‘organic’ labeling was so prohibitive and damaging to small farmers (even if their products are considered ‘organic’). I spoke with some of the farmers whose produce I purchased and was appalled (but not surprised) to find out why USDA hates small farmers. Click here!
VEGAN CHEESE PLATE
Below, I made lunch for a few friends. The starter was a Cheese Plate featuring Dr. Cows raw, vegan, crystal manna blue cheese, toasted local sourdough bread, local strawberries, walnuts, and a Sweet & Sarah vegan coconut-crusted marshmallow. I drizzled some ‘Just Like Honey‘ which is an indistinguishable alternative to real bee vomit! Cheese plates are finally doable with Dr.Cow – for your own spin on this, try doing cheese & chocolate, cheese & veggies, or cheese & fruit! There usually is no way to go wrong with good cheese.
CHIVE BLOSSOM SALAD
I had no idea that a) chives even blossomed or b) you can eat the flowers that c) taste like spicy chives! Yum! Not only is this salad visually delicious, but the hearty mixed greens, NYS apples, powerful sliced radishes and hearty radish greens made an amazingly filling and tongue-invigorating dish. As for dressing, I made a simply apple-cider vinegar with coconut oil and black sesame dressing.
PICKLED RADISH & STEAMED VITAMIN GREENS
In this dish, I sliced some local radish and put them in my pickle jar along side Rick’s Picks ‘bee ‘n’ bees‘ pickles overnight. I steamed some local ‘vitamin greens’ and kale, drizzled a touch of sesame oil on top, and was good to go. Lesson here? Never throw out old pickle juice!
YUM! How did I miss this lunch?
At least I got dinner Friday night, which was ridiculously sinfully delish!
Let’s face it, anything with Dr. Cow’s cheese is magnificent.
xo
…how far down the rabbit hole do you want to follow this USDA organic vs. small farmers story?
Because it goes deep….
When I was working for Whole Foods, we were the first food retailer to be asked to join the USDA advisory board. As a result, Whole Foods basically wrote the USDA guidelines for what could be labeled organic. They made them especially strict in ways that prohibit small businesses (farms & retailers) from selling organic – but in other ways they made them really lax to allow large scale agribusiness to easily label their products as organic (products which don’t meet the European standard for organic.)
And that’s just the beginning….
btw – and more importantly – the food looks GREAT! We just got our first CSA share and the strawberries were beautiful – amazing pea shoots, kale, sugar snaps…. I wish it was every day…
Want to talk about really messed up — check this out;
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0508/521743.html
Whole Foods (frozen) Organics all come from China!!
Why, oh why, can’t we have Dr. Cow cheese in Canada. Why.