Back from Tour and Green Uses for Trees

My family and I just got back from a 4 hour tour of local foods and recovered resources. First, we went to the Resources (Recycling) for Rhode Island Education, where teachers and members can buy industrial cast-offs for 40¢ a pound.  I loaded up on 20 felt sheets for a dollar special, as well as some odd foam and cardboard pieces, plastic sheeting, embossed paper, wallpaper, and several handfuls of felt/cardboard hybrid circles.  Some of these materials will become characters in my upcoming show: "The 100 Mile Lifestyle", which will air on Cox local access channel 14 starting in April.  I'm on the look-out for bubble wrap so I can recreate the octopus costume from "Love, Actually" and plan to make some reusable sandwich wraps for our "Waste Free Lunch" segment in our second show.  Two bags of materials: $3.80.  Educating the world?  Priceless!

After that, we drove down Elmwood to 1577 Westminster to finally check out the local food supermarket Fertile Underground.  The store is alive and kicking, with a coffee/sandwich bar, fresh and mostly local produce, and a pantry that looks like they raided my house.  So yes, stuff I like.  The murals look great, also done by local artists including my friend Mac.  There's also a kid's play area that is visible from most of the store, so I was actually able to have an adult conversation while my daughter played with the blocks and moving parts pull grasshopper.  I picked up a turnip, rutabaga, carnival squash, dry navy beans, and Narragansett Creamery's Atwell's Gold.  I  will be making a frittata with the squash and cheese later this week.  The coffee was exceptional.  I picked up a bottle of Mrs. Squibb's ice tea which I first tried at a Festival Fete event.  Yummy stuff.  They also carry Yacht Club sodas (with returnable bottles), Trappist Monk jams, many local value-added products (more jams, honey, sauces, etc.) and Farmacy products.  I was able to stock up on mullein for Ryk's asthma. 

Then it was off to the winter farmer's market.  It was PACKED!  More cheese.  Granola.  Brussels sprouts.  We tried some gluten and sulfite free sausage.  My daughter picked out bok choy.  Ryk picked out squid.  I'll be making my "Baby's Got Bok Choy" this weekend, trying the squid instead of the shrimp this time.  The exciting thing was to see how much the market has expanded since last year.  More vendors.  More variety.  More people shopping there.  Now you can get kits to grow your own microgreens or oyster mushrooms.  If you still have a Christmas tree hanging around your house, New Urban Farmers will take it: they are recycling the trees into compost, mulch, and a substrata to grow the oyster mushrooms.  The stumps will be used for raised beds, tomato supports, and other landscaping projects.  Smithfield even brought all their curbside pick-up of trees to them.

Finally home, I noticed it was beautiful outside.  I got one shot of a nuthatch in the tangle of forsythia and bittersweet before the cat decided to join me.  Finding ice in my daughter's sand and water table, I popped it out and we played "Block of Ice" on the deck.  (Think "catch", but using your feet like hockey sticks.)  Surprisingly, the garlic chives are still out.  Then it was swing time and looking for critters under rocks.  We found slugs.  

Well, I have lots of cooking and sewing to do.  I'm close to having a low-income recipe for the recipients of the basil plants my after-school Eco-Warriors grew.  It will be garlicky and full of beans, with fresh basil mixed in.  Meanwhile, there's "Mercy Brown Bread" and fish tacos to make and chicken and worm puppets to sew.  Later.

Gluten-Free/Low Sodium/Vegetarian Option

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Baby Got Bok Choy

Taste of Thai

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Prep: 15 minutes  Cook: 30 minutes  Serves 4

1 cup vegetable or chicken broth

2 tbs. mirin or local white wine

2 tsp. corn starch

1 tbs. sesame oil

1 lb. shelled, de-veined local shrimp or firm tofu

1 small yellow onion, diced

1/2 cup chopped white mushrooms

8-10 washed baby bok choy, chopped into 1/2” pieces

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro*

2” peeled, minced ginger**

2 tbs. lime juice (about one lime), plus lime for garnish

Spice it up: 1 tsp red pepper flakes or Sriracha sauce (found in Asian markets) (optional)

Whisk broth, mirin or wine, and corn starch.  Set aside.  In a large sauté pan with lid, heat sesame oil on medium-high and stir-fry shrimp until cooked through, 3-5 minutes.  Set aside.  Sauté onions and mushrooms 2-3 minutes.   Add bok choy and pour broth over all.  Cover and cook 6-8 minutes, stirring up from the bottom occasionally.  Reduce to simmer.  Add shrimp or tofu, lime, and ginger, stirring well.  Heat 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.  Serve with jasmine rice and lime wedges.

* I find it easier to cut cilantro with kitchen scissors I only use for herbs.

** Ginger can be easily peeled around its unpredictable curved using a spoon.

The Fertile Underground

My first "garden" was a five gallon bucket precariously balanced on a ledge outside my third story apartment window in a very urban supposedly "artsy" neighborhood in the west end of Providence.  The district promised to become the "it" spot.  The bucket contained one glorious sunflower.  Mostly what I saw growing was trash.  Occasionally I could hear my neighbor's illegal rooster.  Sometimes I would see storyteller Len Cabral walking down the street.  (We later met through our church.)  The word "community" was tossed around a lot, but I did not see much forward motion in the 13 months I lived there.

Later, I lived for seven years in another urban neighborhood and my tiny back yard became what my friends called the "Providence Oasis", full of flowers and herbs, buzzing with blue and purple bees, bedecked with huge black and yellow "Charlotte's Web" spiders, and mantids hiding on the leaves.  It wasn't enough sun to properly grow vegetables, but we had fresh and dried herbs in large supply.

Today, I have the luxury of a 1/4 acre and lots of sun.  We grow many foods, can, dry, and freeze them, and donate bumper crops through AmpleHarvest.org.  Now the news and media have spread the word about the importance of local food for our health, the health of our planet, and the economy.  We that agree with them don't have to hide.  I'm excited to use my new mesh produce bags next time I shop, hoping like reusable shopping bags, they become the norm over plastic.  Plus, I want to shop less at chains but want the convenience of them.  Farms and farmers' markets are one of the few growing businesses in Rhode Island.  And it's not just the artists and hippies who frequent them.  Nor is it only the upper classes buying organic.

While there are local groceries that buy locally, now there will be a grocery that provides only local and sustainable foods.  I was at the opening of this new and long-awaited site, recently opened by the West Broadway Neighborhood Association.  As I drove down the street I used to take to that apartment with the one defiant sunflower, I saw three community gardens.  I talked with people there: home gardeners, parents with young children, older folk, all looking forward to getting healthy food locally and sustainably.  With funding efforts underway, The Fertile Underground hopes to open this June.  They've been running the Pearl Street community garden for three years, which will supply the "store brand" for the grocery.  They will also be creating a garden in the back, a cafe with sustainable coffee, and "pick your own herbs."  They've established relationships with local farmers and dairies to stock the store and are open to more local vendors.  The store currently is walled with local art.  When I told them about my cookbook using local foods, they were very interested.  (A book release there may be in the works...)

A grocery with all local and sustainable foods has been a long time in coming.  I think this could be a very good thing.  But don't take my word for it.  Go check out their location at 1577 Westminster Street, Providence RI 02909 and follow their progress at Kick Starter.