ColumnLooking for fun things to do this summer that involve food? Look no further.

This week marks the summer solstice, which means your summer planning should be in full swing. Don’t know what to do with your summer months? That’s what Foodie Underground is here for. Every year we come up with a list of fun things to do with your summer vacation, all food related. Let the summer season commence!

1. Of all the things to do this summer, you should probably be making a kombucha cocktail at some point.

2. Write a short story about a vegetable.

3. Use olive oil instead of butter in a recipe.

4.Write a cookbook. Or at least a chapter of one.

5. Pick out your favorite summer food and paint a picture of it.

6. Make a rhubarb shrub. Your friends will love you.

7. Grind your own flour and make a loaf of bread.

8. Throw a dinner party in a field.

9. Make a set of greeting cards with your favorite food quotes.

10. Screw a mason jar onto your blender and make a smoothie. Yup, this actually works.

11. Get a burr grinder. Seriously, you’re still using a blade??

12. Make your own sriracha.

13. Find some friends and go clam digging.

14. Forage berries and make your own ice cream.

15. Sew your own reusable produce bags.

16. Make ice cubes with fruit in them.

17. Since last summer you mastered homemade marshmallows, this summer start infusing them with different ingredients. Lavender and honey anyone?

18. Get a beehive.

19. Take a camp stove to the park and make breakfast outside.

20. Make a set of chalkboard mugs for a friend.

21. Plan an outdoor food documentary festival.

22. Volunteer with a local food organization.

23. Make labneh.

24. Think of a country whose cuisine you know nothing about. Host a dinner party with food only from that place.

25. Stop buying nut butters and make your own.

26. Build a new kitchen storage system using old crates.

27. Two words: frozen watermelon.

28. Build a picnic table with built-in beer/wine cooler.

29. Herbal waters.

30. Host a disco soup party.

31. Open a lemonade stand for a weekend.

32. Make a dip using cashews. They’re surprisingly creamy.

33. Skip the Mexican restaurant and brew up a batch of your own horchata.

34. Pickle cherries.

35. Cook with lavender.

36. Make your own bitters.

37. Build a wine crate carrier on the back of your bike so you can put your vegetables in it when you shop at farmers market.

38. Ask your grandmother for her five favorite recipes. Write them down.

39. Bake a chocolate chip cookie serving bowl.

40. Have a rosé and socca night and dream about being in the south of France.

41. Dry herbs.

42. Use dried herbs in your own tea blend.

43. Put your homemade tea blend into homemade tea bags.

44. Cure and store garlic.

45. Oh, hello cold brew cocktails.

46. Grill fruit.

47. Grill greens.

48. Grill avocado.

49. Preserve lemons.

50. See if there are five things in your kitchen that you can live without. Minimize.

51. Print with fruits and vegetables.

52. Use a soda can to make a cookie cutter.

53. Put fruit in your second kombucha fermentation.

54. Stop buying vanilla extract and make your own.

55. Make seed bombs and throw them somewhere that needs some brightening up.

56. Do your own flavored salts.

57. See if you can make a baguette.

58. Drink local.

59. Find a farm you can go and work on.

60. Start an herb garden.

61. If you have a backyard, dig a fire pit.

62. Roast corn in your new fire pit.

63. Make ice cubes out of coffee to use in your cold brew.

64. Forage seaweed.

65. Design a chicken coop.

66. Start using hemp seeds in recipes.

67. Makes popped amaranth instead of popcorn.

68. Read a book on food policy.

69. Pretend like you’re a kid with a lunchbox again and make fruit leather.

70. Paint a set of plates.

71. Get to know your edible flowers.

72. Make tahini.

73. Visit a local cheesemaker.

74. Save your glass jars and use them to serve dessert.

75. Write fortunes for fortune cookies.

76. Make a meal using zero processed ingredients.

77. Infuse something with pine needles.

78. Churn your own butter.

79. Bake your own tortilla chips.

80. Micheladas.

81. Shandys.

82. Shock yourself by making one-ingredient ice cream.

83. Grow herbs in mini planters on your bicycle.

84. Instead of goji berries, buy blueberries.

85. Experiment with kefir.

86. Make a picnic kit (utensils, plate, durable glass) that’s ready to go at the drop of a hat.

87. Go to an estate sale, buy old tea towels, and sew them into napkins.

88. Build your own grill.

89. Forget kale chips and move on to CHARD CHIPS.

90. Soak peaches in bourbon.

91. Go to a U-pick.

92. Do a wine tasting 101 class.

93. Buy spices so you can make your own za’atar.

94. Build a worm composting system.

95. Make your own peanut butter cups.

96. Use avocado to make chocolate mousse.

97. Make zucchini noodles.

98. Brew sun tea.

99. Get your a sourdough starter going.

100. Think of 100 more things to do because you went through this list in less than a month.

Related on EcoSalon

Foodie Underground: 101 Summer Bucket List Items for Foodies

Foodie Underground: 100 Things to Do With Your Summer Vacation

20 (More) Fun Things to Do Without Spending a Dime

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Anna Brones

The post 100 Fun Things to Do this Summer if You Love Food: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

Food, real food, should be a right and not a privilege.

I have spent a lot of time recently steeped in the world of cookbooks and food writing. There is so much passion that goes into this work. A love of food and place. It’s inspiring.

But at times, it can also feel very insular. An insider world where reality doesn’t come to play into the picture. A niche where artistic creation is more important than substance, and the status quo rarely gets challenged.

No matter where you are on the food spectrum, an obsessed foodie or someone who eats simply for sustenance, one thing is certain: our food system needs to change. Honestly, the fact that most of us aren’t kicking and screaming at the current state of food affairs is appalling. We should be arming ourselves for a food fight.

Everyone should have access to real food. But access should also be defined by what is sustainable and not by our cravings.

While most of the rest of the world is restricted in terms of their daily intake – some people really only do have rice to live on – in the privileged world, we often scoff at restriction. We roll our eyes at a market that only offers seasonal produce. We wonder whether the restaurant serving a two-item menu shouldn’t be trying to be a bit more creative. Trust me, I’ve heard people say that. But should it really be your right to be able to go to a grocery store or a restaurant and get absolutely everything that your little heart desires?

Restriction and constraint after all, are fuel for creativity, and while there are many people in the world who need to have more access to real food, there are many of us who need to reduce our ideas of abundance and choice.

We should be restricted. We should be restricted by the seasons, distance and environment. But we are not, and so we continue to eat in a way that is unsustainable.

If you are a food lover, then you have an obligation to think about what you’re eating. You have an obligation to know where your food comes from, and you have an obligation to know how the broken food system is negatively affecting so much of the population. We have to start to learn how to turn passion for food into a passion for improving the food system, taking the pleasure that we get from eating and transforming it into advocating for real food, not only for the privileged, but for everyone.

And maybe that starts with a little restriction. Restricting what we allow ourselves to order or to purchase. Cut out the processed, order in season and not respond to our body’s ever single craving.

If we are privileged enough to be able to make conscious decisions about what we eat, then we should be doing so. Every time. Because it is only in restricting ourselves that we will begin to make real food an option for everyone. And that is the least that we can do as conscientious humans.

Related on EcoSalon

It’s Time We Put Up a Food Fight: Foodie Underground

The Joy of Eating Seasonally and Locally: Foodie Underground

Why We Have to Live Without Fast Food: Foodie Underground

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

The post Why the Food World Could do With a Little Restriction: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnSkip the diet and go for the lifestyle change.

Resolution this, resolution that. As we come closer to 2014 everyone is abuzz with good intentions, and that’s all well and good, but here is one thing you should not do in 2014: diet.

Seriously, don’t do it.

We’re diet obsessed, but we don’t need diets, we need lifestyle changes.

Diets have always had a certain appeal – eat a certain thing for a certain amount of time and lose a certain amount of weight. But this isn’t sustainable in any way shape or form; the only way we stay healthy is if we create an eating lifestyle that we can maintain on an everyday basis. Not just for two or three weeks, but every single day.

In 2013 some of the most popular “diets” that were searched on Google were Paleo, the Master Cleanse Diet, the Juice Cleanse diet and the Mediterranean Diet (what I like to call the “real food that you know you should be eating” diet). You know what all of this diet Googling tells me? We are incapable of finding a food policy that works for us individually. Eating is an evolving process, finding out how your body responds to certain things, and adapting as you see fit. It’s about indulging once in awhile and other times not. All good things in moderation as they say.

We’re diet obsessed because we think if we find the “right” one we will magically drop those extra 10 pounds, miraculously be in good enough health to run a marathon and end up with super glowing and radiant skin that everyone around us will comment on. If only we find the right diet, then all will fall into place in our lives.

Reality check. There is no right diet. Some foods work for some people, and others don’t. Some people choose to avoid certain foods for ethical reasons, others for allergy reasons. At the end of the day, we can incorporate certain diet elements into our everyday eating regimen, but when it comes down to it, we don’t need to diet, we need to relearn what it means to eat well.

Instead of a diet to kick off 2014, here’s what you should do instead:

Celebrate the beauty of eating. Food – and the people that make it – is amazing.

Avoid fast food at all costs. No really, at all costs.

Eat in season. Hybridized, imported, picked-before-ripe watery tomatoes never did anyone any good.

Experiment. Play in the kitchen. Enjoy the process of figuring out what makes your body and mind feel good.

Stop drinking soft drinks. Seriously, what is this, the 1990s?

Eat less meat. Go vegan a few days a week. We all could do with a little less meat and dairy in our diets.

Slow down and take the time that real eating deserves. Eating isn’t a task to put on your to-do list.

Eating well is a process, and if you need a week long detox to hit the “reset” button once in awhile, that’s fine. But if we depend on one-off diets to guide our health, we’re missing out on the bigger picture. Here’s to celebrating a good journey of food discovery.

Related on EcoSalon

“Why Am I Not a Vegetarian?”

The 11 Ingredients That Make Healthy Food Way More Fun

The Joy of Eating Seasonally and Locally

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Dan Zen

The post Why You Should Not Diet in 2014: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnThe year in food, in the form of things you never would have heard a foodie–or anyone for that matter–say. Ever. Or perhaps, only once or twice.

Consider this the official “said no one ever” list of the foodie world in 2013. What did we miss?

1. “When I grow up, I want to be a fast food worker.”

2. “I feel so sorry for Paula Deen.”

3. “The yoga studio stopped serving kale smoothies.”

4. “I am such a fan of Sriracha, I am hoping to get hired at the factory.”

5. “What’s a cronut?”

6. “I can afford my entire juice diet on a week’s worth of food stamps!”

7. “I love that moment of beautiful serendipity when everyone at the table snaps a food photo at the same time.”

8. “My kombucha jar is the best looking part of my kitchen.”

9. “I can’t find a food app for that.”

10. “Cavemen loved coconut flour.”

11. “I love the artisan feel of the shell of the Doritos Locos Taco.”

12. “The fact that I drink Soylent gets me more dates.”

13. “I am already mourning the end of the International Year of Quinoa.”

Related on EcoSalon:

11 Food Trucks That Would Make a Killing
14 Awesome Cookbooks We Wish Someone Would Write
25 Things You Wish You Overheard a Foodie Saying

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: arnold inuyaki

The post 13 Things You Didn’t Hear Someone Say About Food in 2013: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

 ColumnWe know fast food is bad for us, yet we keep eating it. It’s time to stop.

Is it possible to live without fast food?

The answer to that question is simple. You don’t need burgers, fries and milkshakes on a regular basis. But in today’s economy with easy accessibility to fast food chains almost no matter where you are, the question becomes more complex than that: are we willing to choose to live without fast food?

Unfortunately, many of us are not. We are addicted. And even if we choose not to eat fast food, large chains are so commonplace around the world that it’s no surprise that hamburgers and the like are just a part of our subconscious. For example, in France, McDonald’s recently launched an “unbranded” advertising campaign; no text, no logos, just photos of McDonald’s menu items that are so iconic that they are recognizable just by looking at them. Even if you are not a regular McDonald’s consumer, the photos are identifiable, proof that the fast food chain has made its way into our everyday lives, whether we want it or not.

Fortunately, while McDonald’s makes two-thirds of their revenue outside of the U.S., there are 105 countries around the world that don’t have a McDonald’s.  Those countries may have their own homegrown fast food chains, but at least there are still places in the world where you can get away from the Golden Arches.

But if it’s not McDonald’s, it’s something else. In the United States, it’s not strange to live within closer proximity to a fast food restaurant than to a grocery store; consuming fast food is most often the easy and economical choice. Why drive five miles to buy a head of broccoli that you will then have to cook than going one and getting an entire meal for under $5?

In my bubble, I am always shocked to find that people are still eating fast food. “Didn’t you read “Fast Food Nation” or watch “Supersize Me”??” “Fast Food Nation” may have been published more than decade ago, and we may have come a long way in terms of talking about food and what we eat, but if you think we’re doing well in regards to what we eat on average as a society, you are living in a Happy Meal.

We know all the harm that fast food does. We know it makes us sick, we know it’s bad for the environment, we know that it’s addictive and we know that it’s a major contributor to the global problem of obesity. And yet, we sit back and watch it take over. We let it happen.

Example? Breakfast. Nowadays, the average American eats a takeout breakfast in their car about eight times a year. That may not sound like a lot. But it’s eight times more than necessary. The business response is of course to tackle the breakfast market. Taco Bell just launched new breakfast offerings, which include a waffle that resembles a taco and a “breakfast drink” that consists of 5 percent orange juice and 95 percent Mountain Dew. Eat that for breakfast every day for a week and let me know how you feel.

Seriously, no one in their right mind would ever tell you that a waffle taco and a sweetened drink that’s mostly soda is part of a complete breakfast. But people will eat it anyway. Because we’re seduced by marketing and we’ll gladly take the easy choice. Bowl of oatmeal that needs to be prepared at home or drive-thru breakfast that we can eat in the peaceful solitude of our cars? At some point we made a very wrong turn, and unless we stand up for real food we’re about to drive society off the proverbial cliff.

But until we as a society say no to fast food, we’ll continue to live in a system that’s dictated by the food that they serve. And don’t even think about playing the “some people can only afford fast food” card. The richer you are, the more likely you are to consume fast food. A Gallup poll regarding fast food consumption shows that more than half of people earning $75,000 annually or more eat fast food at least weekly, whereas only 39 percent of those earning under $20,000 do. What’s worse? Only 22 percent of Americans think that fast food has some nutritional value to it, but eight out of Americans admit to eating fast food at least once a month.

Time for a reality check people. Living without fast food is perfectly doable; and it’s not just healthy, but a necessity. It’s easy: you say no. Every single time. Even when you have a craving. There’s always a good veggie burger to be made at home after all.

Most importantly, there’s simply no excuse for eating industrialized fast food, because there’s no replacement for real food, and a waffle taco will never constitute breakfast. Ever.

Related on EcoSalon:

15 Reasons Never to Let Anyone You Love Near a McDonald’s

10 Fast Food Chains to Steer Clear Of

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: ebruli 

The post Why We Have to Live Without Fast Food: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnTo change our food system, eat better and fight obesity we have to think out of the box. Get inspired by these individual and community approaches. 

In a world of agribusiness and fast food it’s very clear that changes from the food system aren’t coming from the top down any time soon. No really, you think Monsanto and McDonald’s are going to team up to encourage children to eat an organic apple instead of a GMO-filled white bread hamburger bun? Doubtful, and if they do, it’s only because eating an apple makes a child want double the amount of hamburgers.

In this food system where big business runs the show, if we want change, we have to make it ourselves. Which is why when it comes to food, community solutions are essential. And the solutions have to be creative.

Take the Food Bank for New York City for example. They’re cashing in on the food truck trend and driving an anti-ice cream truck around the city, also known as their Change One Thing campaign. You won’t find any high fructose corn syrup in this summer vehicle, instead it’s all about promoting healthy eating and encouraging teens to switch out bad eating habits for good ones, even if it’s as simple as one a day. Certainly a start in for those who want to fight obesity.

Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg is partnering with architects and designers to rethink urban planning and design spaces that promote movement. Yes, that means walking. Part of the Active Design initiative also involves “Improving access to nutritious foods in communities that need them most.” When we take a look at the positive changes experienced in food deserts when people are given access to healthy, affordable food options, this can only mean good things.

Small scale is also essential; embracing the idea that one step at a time really does make a difference. In Tallahassee, Florida Claire Mitchell and Danielle Krasniqi, the two women behind, Ten-Speed Greens are growing produce on a farm they built on a vacant lot and distributing it via bike. That might sound like a utopic, hipster fantasy, but remember that this is good ol’ Tallahassee, not Portlandia. Change can take place anywhere.

And then there are the multitude of innovative independent projects and operations that never cease to inspire. An aquaponic shipping container farmer? You could put a farm anywhere. A tarp that simplifies gardening and even encourages schools to launch their own gardens? It’s good to start children early. A program that lets people trade compost for fresh vegetables? Genius.

The solutions are there. We just have to keep supporting them. One food truck, one organic piece of produce and one urban garden at a time.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: paul bica

The post Improving the Food System and Fighting Obesity, Creatively: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnExploring natural wine in the heart of Provence.

It’s the middle of July. The Provencal sun is intense, and finding shade under an oak tree is of the utmost importance. The vineyards are dry, and at times dusty, but the bright green of the vines pops against the blue sky. The color is even more intense when a lavender field makes its way into the background. Sleepy small villages dot the countryside, 12^th century castles and cathedrals rise high out of the landscape. The smell of lavender hangs in the warm air.

This is the region known for peaches, apricots, honey and wine. Roadside stands offer up fresh picked fruit and down every winding road you’re sure to find at least one sign for a tasting room.

“Ah, aren’t those vines beautiful?” says my French friend and truly wine savvy friend Alain. He did five years of oenology study after all. This guy knows his wine.

The bright green leaves burst from the knobby brown vines that twist out of the ground, each one surrounded by a patch of grass. “Looks organic,” says Luc.

“How do you know that they’re organic?” I ask.

I would consider myself an amateur wine lover, and there is much to learn.

“Normally the organic vines have much more grass and greenery growing around the base. No pesticides to kill everything off,” responds Alain.

Of course. That seems simple enough. We pass another vineyard, here the vines are eerily straight and exactly the same size. There isn’t any grass to be seen. The ground underneath the green vines is clean, as if someone came through recently with a broom. The difference to the last vineyard is visually quite clear.

In the quaint town of Seguret we stop at the tasting room of Domaine de Pourra, one that Alain ensures is a good bet. The white wine is complex, thick, and has nothing to do with any white wine I have ever tasted in the United States. The red, a small-run production made predominantly with Syrah grapes is smooth but strong, and the after taste is sweet. Try to describe these wines and you’ll have a difficult time; there is a lot going on in each bottle.

Here in this region there are plenty of viticulteurs, and among them a handful of organic. But if you know your wines, you’ll know that it’s not just about the regular labels.

Natural wine has been on the market for quite sometime, and in France it is popular with the same crowd that believes in buying local and seasonal; but in the United States has, for a long time, gone under the radar.

I once heard an explanation of natural wine that likened it to an heirloom tomato. You can go to the supermarket and buy a perfectly round, red tomato and you know exactly the taste you will get. Or you can buy an heirloom tomato, a fruit that is rich, diverse, and whose taste can be completely different depending on which variety you end up with. In a good heirloom tomato, picked fresh from the garden, you can almost taste the soil it was grown in. Such is the case with natural wines, drinks that pay homage to their terroir, and are always a little different with each season, and sometimes even, bottle.

“Natural wine?” you say, “isn’t all wine natural?”

Well, yes. But much like most things that we consume, wine has become hugely industrialized, big name vineyards producing large amounts that can be exported around the world. Profit and production go hand in hand, and costs are minimized and output is maximized. That’s how the world works in the global economy after all.

But there are still small productions, especially in wine heavy cultures like France, and in the wine industry, just like in agriculture and the food industry, there is a return to a production more artisan; the craft of making something, and making it well. We see it in cheese, in honey, in olives. A love for the production of something, making it as it should be made, a return to a more natural process, one where human interference is minimized and the raw elements are allowed to do what they do best.

Grown in organic, low-yield vineyards, and harvested by hand, one of the main differences between them and a more traditional wine is that you have none or very little sulfur added to the end product. Although naturally occurring during the winemaking process, it has become standard to add in even more sulfur so that the wine preserves better.

A natural wine doesn’t necessarily mean a better wine, just like an organic label won’t always ensure better taste, but choosing one means choosing a product that is made as it should be, with passion and commitment to bottling one of nature’s most amazing libations. In fact, many winemakers won’t even mention the word “natural”; for them it is simply a question of making good wine. Which means knowing your winemaker, knowing the region and knowing your grapes. That’s the kind of research any food lover should be able to get behind.

At the end of the day we drive to the base of the Dentelles, a top spot for climbers and a popular hike for the view over the landscape. It’s quiet and blazing hot, we’re comforted by the shade of the trees. Near the trailhead, on just the other side of the gravel parking area there is a vineyard. The vines are twisted and knobby, plenty of grass underneath them. They seem to stretch for miles, happy to be soaking in the warm sun.

“Pourra,” says Alain.

Farm to table, vineyard to glass. The process is almost as beautiful as the drink itself.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Images: Anna Brones

The post Natural Wine, S’il Vous Plaît: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnThere is more to micro-gardens than just food.

Have a few plants that you tend to? Then you have a micro-garden. It’s a thing, of course.

As NPR’s The Salt explains, “The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has lately been talking about micro-gardens as critical way to help the urban poor get more food on the table. The FAO defines micro-gardens intensively cultivated small spaces — such as balconies, small yards, patios and rooftops. Many rely on containers such as plastic-lined wooden boxes, trash cans and even old car tires.”

While most of us aren’t going to base our entire diet off of the small harvest we get from our plants, contributing in some small way–no matter how small–to what you eat, is a rewarding thing. Basil, mint, kale; these plants aren’t going to keep me fed all summer long – and if my homegrown kale was required to save the world, we’d be waiting for a very long time – but every morning when I wake up and look to see if they have grown a bit overnight, I feel happy.

Just like with food, there is beauty in simplicity, and as such, the payoffs are always greater than what you envision as you set off on your planting adventures.

Although I grew up with a large garden, I am not a gardening master. My small potted plants that constitute my urban micro-garden are a foray into trying to grow at least a few things that are edible and partake in the amazing process of watching something go from seed to food. But this also means that whenever a new bud pops up in one of the pots, I am hesitant to pull it. Anything that manages to grow on a 4th floor window balcony is a sacred thing. So I give it a few days, and if it appears to be a weed I will then get rid of it. But if it looks interesting, it stays.

This has, of course, been the unexpected delight of tending plants with homegrown compost; you never know what seeds from the food you eat are going to make it into your dirt. Which is how a little green spurt that was deemed “not a weed” soon grew to larger proportions.

I had to send a photo to my mother for verification: “is this a tomato plant?”

The fact that maybe I had a tomato plant randomly growing on my tiny urban window balcony seemed to good to be true.

“Definitely a tomato plant!” my mother the well-trusted gardener wrote back.

Great.

While the poor little red-leafed basil plant that I have been trying to nurse into adulthood sits looking depressed with its tiny little leaves, a tomato, whose planting I had nothing to do with, decides to take root and flourish. Obviously I have much to learn about gardening.

That little red-leafed basil had been purchased a couple of months earlier at the weekend organic market. With a small window balcony for planting, trying to get basil going is more of a comfort than a food thing. If you want to make pesto, you’re going to have to go and buy full bunches at the market. But having a basil plant is pleasing, and adding a few leaves here and there to a few dishes is very satisfying. Hence the desire for a little basil plant.

But the red-leafed basil never did very well. For the last two months it sat there, on the verge of death, but refusing to completely die off. I was determined though. I propped it up, I watered it, I talked to it; nothing helped. It remained a depressed looking little plant.

Until the tomato showed up. Now, the tomato plant is almost a foot tall and the basil plant is thriving.

“Do you think they have some kind of symbiotic relationship?” I asked my friend Emily.

“Well yeah, plants need friends too,” she responded.

It’s true.

Plants do need good companions to do we well in life (it’s called “companion planting“). And just like us, they need the right ones. As the seed company Burpee out it “relationships between plants are varied – similar to relationships between people. In plant communities, certain plants support each other while others, well, just don’t get along.”

Luckily, as it turns out, tomato and basil are best friends in the plant world.

Funny how this little micro-garden is a reminded of how we’re not much different than plants. We need to be taken care of, enough sun, enough water. And we all need a companion to thrive. Be it a friend, a partner, or just someone to drink coffee in the afternoon with. Life lessons from your micro-garden.

There’s a tomato plant popping up in my kale planter now, too. And in the other basil pot. I’ll let them stay.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Anna Brones

The post The Magic of the Micro-Garden: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnEven if you’re not sticking to a specific diet, constraint can breed a creative kitchen. 

“Are you a vegan?”

“No.”

“Are you a vegetarian?”

“No.”

“Then why do you cook like one?”

I laughed.

It’s true, most of the time my creative kitchen experiments have some element of gluten-free, raw, vegan madness, and I rarely launch into making meat myself (although I would love to master a lamb roast, because it seems like something Julia Child would approve of). But I don’t have a diet that’s 100 percent defined by one or the other.

I like attempting vegan baked goods, but I also have a hard time turning down the local eggs we get from our CSA farmer, with which sometimes bits of feathers and traces of dirt are included. If a recipe calls for butter, I’ll switch it out for olive oil, not because I have some low-calorie-I-need-to-stick-to-a-crazy-strict-diet-of-only-kale-and-lemon-wedges attitude towards butter (I do find pleasure in eating after all, and sometimes that pleasure comes in the form of lots of butter), but simply because I like the challenge. And let’s be honest, if you’re going to be consuming a fair amount of it, you might be better off with the olive oil.

Cake made with eggs, butter and flour? Follow a recipe and anyone can be a traditional baker.

Cake made with quinoa and olive oil? Now that’s a challenge.

Give someone a blank slate and they may feel overwhelmed by the options. Give someone some limits and they are forced to come up with a creative solution to work around said limits. This holds true for many domains, far beyond the kitchen. We are human beings, we like overcoming obstacles. When we finish something that was challenging, we feel a sense of accomplishment, and that fuels our desire to do even better next time. Something along the lines of, “I managed to make that AND it was good.”

A close friend who has recently been on a vegan diet for health reasons wrote an email about an unexpected effect the change in eating habits was having: “For me, my interest in cooking has been rejuvenated. Cooking without meat and dairy is challenging and dare I say ‘fun.'”

Exactly.

It’s fun, because success doesn’t seem like a given. Changing what we are used to is hard. The options at first feel limiting. But then, as you jump in, you quickly realize that the options are endless, albeit the limitations. And cooking should be fun. Otherwise you’d be eating microwave dinners every night.

Mastering a creative kitchen with limitations, even if they are self-induced, is like playing a game. One point for every time you don’t use regular flour, two points for trying ground flaxseeds instead of an egg, and five points if you manage to use avocado instead of butter. I don’t know what the points lead to, but if you’re competitive in nature like myself there’s a little voice in your head that says “winner!” every time you master a new level of culinary creativity.

There are the days when we just want to make the classics – I will for one never attempt to make a gluten-free, vegan version of my favorite Swedish cinnamon rolls, because they simply won’t be the same – but for all those other days, it’s important to inspire creativity. Bored with what you’re doing in the kitchen? Take out a few main ingredients. Without even launching into the health benefits of doing so (that’s another article entirely), a change in ingredients can be the kick in the pants you need to enjoy cooking.

If we don’t have fun with food, we’ll never eat well, and to find enjoyment sometimes we need to give ourselves some constraints. You never know what will happen. Olive oil cakes for example, and there certainly are worse things in life.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Anna Brones

The post Foodie Underground: Constraints Breed a Creative Kitchen appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnThe official Foodie Underground summer bucket list guide to your favorite season.

So you checked off last year’s list of food-related summer bucket list? Good. Now here are 100 more things (plus an extra one, because 101 is just more fun) to keep you busy all summer long.

1. Learn about natural wines. It helps with the headache the morning after, trust me.

2. Make a cake with kale in it.

3. Find 10 different ways to use rhubarb. To start: rhubarb and mint.

4. Make your own yogurt.

5. Roast your own coffee.

6. Infuse something with geranium.

7. Write a story about a food experience.

8. Ride your bike to the market or grocery store.

9. Plan a dinner party with food sourced from within a 50-mile radius.

10. Try to buy all local for one week. And I mean all.

11. Eat lunch on a sailboat.

12. Grow your own lentil sprouts.

13. Stuff your face with ice cream cake. The vegan kind of course.

14. Make your own sorbet.

15. Two words: kombucha smoothies.

16. Make your own chips out of anything other than potatoes and sweet potatoes.

17. Start a vintage cookbook collection.

18. Go through your grandmother’s or mother’s recipe cards.

19. Plan a picnic on a bridge.

20. Serve wine in actual wine glasses and not mason jars.

21. Make your own picnic basket.

22. Learn how to homebrew.

23. Volunteer on a farm.

24. Don’t look on the internet for a recipe for an entire week and see what happens. Constraints breed creativity.

25. Put seeds (sunflower, poppy, sesame, hemp, etc.) in your salad.

26. Go geoduck hunting.

27. Sew your own reusable produce bags.

28. Make a beer cocktail.

29. Pick berries.

30. Host a “homemade BBQ,” ie: homemade ketchup, homemade chips, homemade sausage, homemade buns.

31. Skewer berries on a toothpick, freeze them and place them in glasses of bubbly for a more festive drink.

32. Beer slushies.

33. Serve a chocolate cake topped with salt and vinegar chips.

34. Make a dish with lavender.

35. Design your own coasters.

36. Date a farmer.

37. If that doesn’t work, date a vegetarian.

38. Find a video projector, hang up a white sheet and watch a food documentary outdoors.

39. Pretend you’re a wine connaisseur. Better yet: just drink the wine you like.

40. Plan a road trip in search of good street food.

41. Keep a coffee journal.

42. Go through all of your kitchen supplies and reduce them by half. You really don’t need it all.

43. Beach picnic.

44. Park picnic.

45. Mountain picnic.

46. Backyard picnic. You don’t have to go far after all.

47. You need to stay hydrated, add fruit and herbs to a pitcher of water to add a little flavor: cucumber, thyme, lemon, apple, etc.

48. Bake something for your neighbors, just because.

49. Read a food book that isn’t a cookbook.

50. Grab a glass jar with a screw on top, pour in some sugar, add in a vanilla bean. Voila: vanilla sugar. Good for sprinkling on summer pies.

51. Master campfire bread.

52. Cut watermelon into cubes, freeze. Eat.

53. Visit a vineyard.

54. Visit a brewery.

55. Visit an urban garden.

56. Improve your table manners.

57. Start juicing.

58. Spend at least five minutes on this website.

59. Serve ice cream or sorbet in something other than bowls, like lemon shells for example.

60. Grill s’mores with your own homemade marshmallows.

61. Go vegetarian for a week. Just to see how you feel.

62. Never serve store-bought guacamole ever again.

63. Build a beer bottle holder for your bike.

64. Make a berry pie, but make a crust with ground hazelnuts instead of a regular one.

65. Produce batches and batches of your own Nutella.

66. Keep an ongoing collection of food quotes.

67. Write a poem about food.

68. Teach someone how to cook.

69. Buy an ingredient at a farmers market you have never tried before.

70. Eat salad for breakfast.

71. Grill zucchini.

72. Make goat cheese ice cream.

73. Put a dash of salt in your cold brew coffee.

74. Find a tree. Build a treehouse. Host a dinner party in it.

75. Put something other than water in your ice cube trays.

76. Guerilla garden.

77. Plan your summer vacation around food destinations and not tourist sites.

78. Cheese tasting night.

79. Pick blackberries and infuse some vodka.

80. Eat a meal blindfolded.

81. Go crabbing.

82. Use zucchini instead of pasta.

83. When you can’t take a vacation, host a round the world dinner party.

84. Cook with saltwater.

85. Start seaweed foraging.

86. Experiment with chilled fruit soups.

87. Roast your own red peppers and serve them on everything.

88. Go to a food festival.

89. Master a sangria recipe.

90. Make a classic dish from all 50 states.

91. Put fruit in your sparkling water.

92. Build your own fire pit and cook something over it.

93. Expand your spice collection.

94. Bottle cold brew in a mason jar and give to your friends.

95. Learn how to make your own fish tacos.

96. Go a week without referencing a cookbook.

97. Make mead.

98. Put basil into a sweet dish instead of a savory one.

99. Consider learning how to pit cook.

100. Eat outside at least once a day.

101. Keep your own sun tea on hand… at all times.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Ginny

The post Foodie Underground: 101 Summer Bucket List Items for Foodies appeared first on EcoSalon.