BailOut
05-25-2008, 10:06 AM
For some local residents it is none to soon. (http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11359) ;)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Organic_Sour_Dough_Bread.jpgBrian Morris – CleanMPG (www.cleanmpg.com) – May 23, 2008
Locally grown means less than 150 miles from the field to your home and that in and of itself is a win win for all our sakes. That the food is also organic is a thick layer of icing on the cake. -- Ed.
While attending the Food breakout session of the 2nd Climate Change Cafe three weeks ago, thrown by the Nevada Coalition for Climate Protection (NC4CP.org (http://www.nc4cp.org)) and hosted at the McKinley Arts & Culture Center on the Truckee River in downtown Reno, I learned that Reno now has a local (meaning that everything sold there is produced within 150 miles) and organic food coop (Great Basin Food Coop (http://www.greatbasinfood.coop)) as one of its board members was at my table. Doug (sup'd) found a link to the coop when he visited once last Winter but there wasn't much information as it was still forming up and it had slipped from my mind since then.
I discovered just last Thursday night when I attended another event I learned about during the Cafe, a pot luck dinner and tour of interpretive gardens at the River School (http://www.riverschool.info), also on the Truckee near the township of Mogul (Northwest Reno), that there was also going to be a seedling sale at the coop this morning.
It's been raining and overcast for 3 days now so the bicycle ride my Little Brother (Bobby) and I had planned had to be delayed until next weekend. Instead I took him with me for our first visit to the coop.
It is a small shop, about the size of a large kitchen and family room, but it is incredibly well stocked. Someone put a lot of thought into it. I was able to close out 95% of my grocery list at the coop while simultaneously saving roughly 25-30% over Whole Paycheck - I mean Whole Foods - prices (which puts it on par with Trader Joe's prices), and also while putting money directly into local farmer's pockets.
The eggs were still warm when I grabbed them from a basket in the chiller (Bobby got a kick out of that... heck, so did I) and I got some raw mil... oops, I mean light colostrum supplement. :flag:
I didn't need any seedlings as I'm trying to start with my own seeds this year but Bobby and I got to chat with many local farmers. I ended up getting a cream of mushroom soup recipe from one lady and the mushrooms to make it from another guy with a booth next door, and bought a spider plant from her in gratitude which my wife can take to work for her cubicle (she has a window as she's currently sharing a cube with her Manager). I also got some ideas to replace the dead ornamental bushes in the back yard with some aesthetically pleasing shrubs that produce fruit (Nanking Cherry, Gooseberry or Currant) and bought some raw honey in thanks for that.
Bobby somehow ended up with a potato bug (roly poly) on his sleeve that we brought back to my house and placed in my garden, and he chewed on some Golden Fennel (it tastes like black licorice... a nice lady had given a sprig to him) the whole way to the house.
We then prepared a lunch using the organic whole wheat loaf of bread I made on Thursday which was not only my best loaf yet (about a foot long and 10 inches wide in an oval shape, 3.5 inches tall, perfect texture, golden light brown crust with a split top) but also made totally from my own yeast. I had made a sourdough starter using nothing but whole wheat flour and water (Sourdough Baking (http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm)) and found that if you use the sponge early in the proofing process (as soon as it froths up) it just makes regular bread instead of sourdough. Yay! No more store-bought, industrially-produced yeast required!
I'm not where I want to be with food yet (I doubt I ever will be self sufficient but it's nice to have goals) but I have come so far from my days of eating processed crap from Wal-Mart Super Centers that the memory of it barely seems real anymore.
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Organic_Sour_Dough_Bread.jpgBrian Morris – CleanMPG (www.cleanmpg.com) – May 23, 2008
Locally grown means less than 150 miles from the field to your home and that in and of itself is a win win for all our sakes. That the food is also organic is a thick layer of icing on the cake. -- Ed.
While attending the Food breakout session of the 2nd Climate Change Cafe three weeks ago, thrown by the Nevada Coalition for Climate Protection (NC4CP.org (http://www.nc4cp.org)) and hosted at the McKinley Arts & Culture Center on the Truckee River in downtown Reno, I learned that Reno now has a local (meaning that everything sold there is produced within 150 miles) and organic food coop (Great Basin Food Coop (http://www.greatbasinfood.coop)) as one of its board members was at my table. Doug (sup'd) found a link to the coop when he visited once last Winter but there wasn't much information as it was still forming up and it had slipped from my mind since then.
I discovered just last Thursday night when I attended another event I learned about during the Cafe, a pot luck dinner and tour of interpretive gardens at the River School (http://www.riverschool.info), also on the Truckee near the township of Mogul (Northwest Reno), that there was also going to be a seedling sale at the coop this morning.
It's been raining and overcast for 3 days now so the bicycle ride my Little Brother (Bobby) and I had planned had to be delayed until next weekend. Instead I took him with me for our first visit to the coop.
It is a small shop, about the size of a large kitchen and family room, but it is incredibly well stocked. Someone put a lot of thought into it. I was able to close out 95% of my grocery list at the coop while simultaneously saving roughly 25-30% over Whole Paycheck - I mean Whole Foods - prices (which puts it on par with Trader Joe's prices), and also while putting money directly into local farmer's pockets.
The eggs were still warm when I grabbed them from a basket in the chiller (Bobby got a kick out of that... heck, so did I) and I got some raw mil... oops, I mean light colostrum supplement. :flag:
I didn't need any seedlings as I'm trying to start with my own seeds this year but Bobby and I got to chat with many local farmers. I ended up getting a cream of mushroom soup recipe from one lady and the mushrooms to make it from another guy with a booth next door, and bought a spider plant from her in gratitude which my wife can take to work for her cubicle (she has a window as she's currently sharing a cube with her Manager). I also got some ideas to replace the dead ornamental bushes in the back yard with some aesthetically pleasing shrubs that produce fruit (Nanking Cherry, Gooseberry or Currant) and bought some raw honey in thanks for that.
Bobby somehow ended up with a potato bug (roly poly) on his sleeve that we brought back to my house and placed in my garden, and he chewed on some Golden Fennel (it tastes like black licorice... a nice lady had given a sprig to him) the whole way to the house.
We then prepared a lunch using the organic whole wheat loaf of bread I made on Thursday which was not only my best loaf yet (about a foot long and 10 inches wide in an oval shape, 3.5 inches tall, perfect texture, golden light brown crust with a split top) but also made totally from my own yeast. I had made a sourdough starter using nothing but whole wheat flour and water (Sourdough Baking (http://www.io.com/~sjohn/sour.htm)) and found that if you use the sponge early in the proofing process (as soon as it froths up) it just makes regular bread instead of sourdough. Yay! No more store-bought, industrially-produced yeast required!
I'm not where I want to be with food yet (I doubt I ever will be self sufficient but it's nice to have goals) but I have come so far from my days of eating processed crap from Wal-Mart Super Centers that the memory of it barely seems real anymore.