It was the health benefits of beets that convinced us to dedicate a large portion of our spring garden to this particular root crop. Beets are mineral rich, and they may also fight cancer with their high concentration of the antioxidant compound betalain. That's the compound that gives dark red beets their deep color.

We planted heirloom beets, which have a slightly higher nutritional punch than the standard commercially available beets. Nutrition in commercial beets has actually declined in the past 70 years, largely due to commercial seed trading nutrient density in exchange for higher yields. (See chart, or check out my other post over here.) The beets at the store are simply less nutritious than the heirlooms I grow in my garden, although you might find comparable ones at your local farmers market.

As I see it, I can enjoy three entire roasted beets, meet more than 15% of my iron requirement, and prevent cancer — all with a root crop that is extremely easy to grow in my garden, and that kids actually enjoy eating. We have planted many heirloom beets in our excitement.

Here in California, our beet harvest is at its peak. Californians ought to make a beeline to their local farmers markets to enjoy the beet bounty before it is over. Throughout cooler parts of the country, beet lovers will feast throughout the summer.

Appreciating the mountain of beets we are now harvesting, we have been experimenting with beet recipes. We ask everyone we know for interesting ways to use our beets, and they've delighted us with ideas. Here are our top picks:

Roasted Beets

This simple recipe tops my list of personal favorites: Peel and cube the beets. Toss them in olive oil and chopped garlic. Allow the beets to marinate for a few hours. Roast them in a 425-degree oven for about 45 minutes. They will become a bit crispy with garlic and olive oil undertones. Roasted beets may be my new favorite snack and get my highest recommendation.

If you are using the roasted beet as an ingredient in recipes, you can save time by roasting them whole. Wrap your washed and dried, unpeeled beets in foil and roast them in a 425-degree oven for about 60-90 minutes (depending on size, smaller ones will be done first) until they are soft through the center. Let them cool, peel them with your fingers, and cube them to use in the roasted beet recipe ideas below. Take the cubes a step further and purée them in a food processor if your recipe calls for a puréed beet.

Beet Citrus Salad

For a dazzling side salad, this combination of beets, orange, fennel, and chives is dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, and mustard and served on a bed of baby greens. It is a great complement to a heavy beef dish but it is also exceptional with traditional vegetarian fare such as falafel and hummus. (My recipe's here.)

Grated Beet Salad

This is a terrific summer side dish. Simply peel and grate your fresh beets (a food processor comes in handy here) and toss with citrus, chives or other herbs, and olive oil for a bright combination of flavors that, like the beet citrus salad above, complements both a heavy beef-based entrée or a simple bed of brown rice pilaf. (Find the recipe at the New York Times.)

Beet and Potato Salad

This idea comes from the Polish countryside, where beets, potatoes, and cream are widely available to small farmers. The beets and potatoes are roasted separately and combined with a dressing of sour cream and dill weed, then garnished with fresh parsley and chives. The heartier flavor of the roasted potato balances the sweeter beet, creating a surprisingly delightful combination. You will be tempted to eat this salad as a stand-alone meal, but it also pairs nicely with with a green salad, cheesy flatbread, or a grass-fed steak. (Find my recipe here.)

Beet Root Soup

Use your roasted beet cubes along with chicken or vegetable broth as the base for a nourishing soup. Simply puree roasted beets and sauteed shallots in a hearty broth and top the soup with cream, chives, and fresh fennel. (You can also peel, cube, and boil fresh beets til tender, but roasted ones will have a much deeper flavor.) The flavors of the soup are delicate and the soup rich and satisfying. Serve the soup as an impressive first course or eat it as a meal with hot sourdough bread. (Find a recipe at About.com.)

Beets for Dessert

Thanks to the health benefits of beets and their natural sweetness, beet-based desserts are the new rage among creative cooks. Use a beet purée as you would a purée of pumpkin -- in muffins, cookies, cakes, and sweet breads. The color is delightful, and the flavor has so far passed the taste test of my 10-year-old, whose pickiness is epic. It helps that he has no idea where the vibrant red comes from. A chocolate muffin recipe (like this one) will get you started.

Got a great beet recipe? Please post it in the comments. We have quite a few beets to eat!

Darrell Frey is one of those conscious stewards.  He started homesteading in the back-to-the-land movement of the 1970s and soon developed an interest in permaculture, a process-oriented approach to agriculture that takes a broader look at everything involved in farm or garden production. In 1983, he and his wife Linda established Three Sisters Farm in western Pennsylvania, seeing a five-acre field “of bare soil and corn stubble” as the perfect blank slate upon which to explore permaculture theory and practice. The results of the Freys’ hard work (to date) are detailed in his book “Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm.”

The bioshelter at Three Sisters Farm

Because their work rests on a permaculture foundation, Frey opens the book by discussing the principles of this “permanent agriculture.” Among the key concepts utilized successfully on the farm are finding multiple and stacking functions for each element of the farm, building redundant systems into farm operations, using appropriate scale design and technologies, and implementing biological rather than chemical resources. Everything on the farm is open to critical review in light of permaculture design, from where to locate various gardens based on topography or microclimate to how buildings are used and powered.

The central point for this permaculture farm, Frey states, is the bioshelter, “a greenhouse operated as an ecosystem.” He likens the bioshelter to a living cell that breathes and replenishes itself from its environment, producing food and wastes in the process. More than just a glassed-in hothouse, the bioshelter contains multiple microclimates and encourages ecological relationships between the plants and beneficial insects as well as chickens and humans.

Built in 1988, the bioshelter incorporates windbreaks and earth berms into its structural design as well as solar heating, and heavy insulation, passive cooling methods, and closed bins for composting chicken manure reduce energy costs significantly. By using this “free” heat from solar and biothermal energy, the bioshelter has paid back most of its initial $80,000 price tag in fuel cost savings, thus reducing the cost of energy input for the farm’s crops.

Outside the bioshelter, the farm is laid out in various permaculture zones and gardens. Frey notes that they chose to develop the farm slowly, taking several years to study the climate, topography, hydrology, soils, and solar and wind resources around the five acres. Along with the market gardens that provide fresh produce to area markets, the farm includes teaching gardens that showcase useful herbs and native plants as well as examples of habitat and biodiversity within small ecosystems.

Given the complex interconnections within and between gardens as well as the bioshelter, Frey acknowledges that managing the farm “is a complex task.” He provides one lengthy chapter that guides the reader through the seasons, sharing wildlife observations and weather notes in addition to explanations of what is growing and otherwise occurring on the farm. From winter planning to the maintenance tasks and weatherizing of fall, he outlines a “manageable pattern of activities” that helps keep everything running smoothly.

Though the book explores this particular farm and its unique characteristics, the detail offered gives readers the chance to learn a great deal that can be applied to their own gardens or farms. Various chapters explain Three Sisters Farm’s energy systems, methods of pest control, and garden management in a straightforward way, making the book a useful reference tool for those interested in permaculture on a practical level. And for agriculture wonks, the appendices include numbers, equations, diagrams, and charts for calculating how much compost a garden space will need or how to figure solar gain and energy dynamics in a greenhouse or bioshelter.

While I certainly don’t have the space to create a five-acre permaculture farm of my own, I found a great deal of useful and practical information in “Bioshelter Market Garden.” Of special interest to me was the one-page chart (p.221) that condenses the year’s planting schedule – something I may try to adapt to my own garden plans next year. Beyond the design details and the how-to help, though, Frey describes Three Sisters Farm in such vivid prose that one can’t help but picture a garden Eden. It’s a hefty read, overwhelming at times, but “Bioshelter Market Garden” lights the way for those who want to develop permaculture farms of their own.

Editor's note: The Ethicurean maintains a comprehensive list of books about sustainable food and agriculture and related topics at Goodreads.com. You can see what we're reading via the Goodreads widget in the righthand column (and if you click on one of those book covers to purchase it via Amazon.com, you'll be helping us out financially, at no extra cost to you.) To browse our collective library and read previous reviews, visit our Goodreads bookshelf.

So just what is Slow Gardening? According to Rushing, the idea is to slow down and enjoy gardening for its own sake, seeing a garden in its entirety while understanding the basic principles behind horticultural science. Above all, he notes, Slow Gardening is about ignoring the “should” and “must” from others and “gardening according to your own standards.” Though this sounds like a fairly cavalier approach, Rushing points out that “the practice of Slow Gardening is simply good gardening, which encompasses a lot of basic, commonly shared knowledge and skills” – but done for the enjoyment of the activity itself, not necessarily for a bountiful harvest or a perfect landscape.

Only one chapter is devoted to those general gardening practices, and even then Rushing only covers the basics. This is not a how-to book for beginning gardeners who need their hands held at every step. Instead, Rushing focuses on the psychological appeal of gardening and the creative potential in developing one’s own garden. He notes that the word garden came from the Old English word ghordos, referring to a guarded space, and he adds that the key element in creating garden space is “the mental and emotional aspect of feeling secure, and free.” He offers design tips such as including “hard” features such as walls or arbors that define spaces as well as art that personalizes the garden and adds extra color or texture to the view.

While “Slow Gardening” is short on the practical details of specific plants and their needs, the book does lay out some useful tips, such as how and why to create a meadow lawn space that uses less energy and labor or that a new gardener should look at what his or her neighbors are growing and why to understand what plants might best be suited to their locale. One of the best tips is one I wish I’d heard years ago, before accepting a few starts of gooseneck loosestrife (an invasive species) for my old garden: “Be careful of any plant that someone wants to give you a LOT of.”

Rushing does encourage sustainable garden activities such as composting, recycling materials and things, and encouraging wildlife, and he promotes the joy of sharing or swapping plant starts and seeds with friends and neighbors. He also gives some sensible advice: “The best strategy in the garden, or with any household tasks, is to do a little as you go, instead of loading up all your free days with work and half-killing yourself in the spring.” But I bristled at the admonition to “stop planting like a farmer,” since the joy I get out of the garden comes from how long it can feed me through the year, even once the bugs and other pests have taken their share.

If you’re a beginning gardener in need of a how-to book or a reference tool, this isn’t it.  If you want to enjoy gardening more than you do or need someone to tell you how to relax, “Slow Gardening” might just be the gardening self-help you need.  For myself, I have enough of a lackadaisical approach to my gardens not to need any more encouragement in that area, so I’ll be passing the book along to someone else who might find more use from it.

Editor's note: The Ethicurean maintains a comprehensive list of books about sustainable food and agriculture and related topics at Goodreads.com. You can see what we're reading via the Goodreads widget in the righthand column (and if you click on one of those book covers to purchase it via Amazon.com, you'll be helping us out financially, at no extra cost to you.) To browse our collective library and read previous reviews, visit our Goodreads bookshelf.

Not surprisingly, though, given the state of discourse on food and farming today, these two groups of farmers don’t often come together to talk about farming – or when they do, both sides can bring a little defensive tension to the conversation. It’s easy to criticize the commodity farmers for perpetuating a monoculture of chemical-dependent crops, just as it’s easy to deride the small farmer for engaging in a labor-intensive form of agriculture that can’t possibly "feed the world."

Underlying those extreme sentiments, however, it’s also easy to see that farmers of any stripe are struggling to maintain their livelihoods when there is little true social or financial support for their work.

So what would happen if you could get both a commodity farmer and a specialty crop farmer to drop their defenses, talk to each other, and find a way to work together? That was the question raised at last year’s Stinner Summit, an annual roundtable sponsored by the Agroecosystems Management Program at Ohio State’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center and funded by the Ben Stinner Endowment for Healthy Agroecosystems and Sustainable Communities. Each year, the Summit brings together a variety of people interested in promoting local and sustainable agriculture in an effort to develop and fund projects that will explore and promote local food systems in Ohio. The 5^th Annual Stinner Summit is on October 7.

Polyamory or Pollyanna?

At last year’s fourth Summit, the question of bringing together farmers of different crops to find common ground led to the development of the Poly-farming Project.

During the course of the discussion, one participant pointed out that research had found that corn yields, dependent on exposure to sunlight, were increased in fields where more edges of the crop were given full sunlight. By revisiting the method of strip cropping and interplanting corn or soy with strips of specialty crops, the summit participants outlined an experiment to allow a commodity farmer to work with a specialty crops producer, sharing space and ideas without decreasing yields for either farmer. The potential benefits of such collaboration guided the discussion:

• enhance dialogue between farmers who emphasize economies of scale and those who focus on economies of scope and differentiated crops
• diversify income sources for commodity producers by renting land to the specialty crop farmer
• provide new farmers affordable access to land
• enable the sharing of tools and machinery, making more efficient use of investments
• provide the opportunity to share knowledge and experience
• increase crop diversity
• create new opportunities for ecologically-based pest and soil fertility management
• increase availability and variety of locally grown foods
• increase investment in the local community
• promote increased biodiversity, ecological health, soil nutrient management

For the 2011 growing season, the Agroecosystems Management Program organized one test farm for the Poly-farming Project. Roger Gwin, a corn and soy farmer near Shreve (south of Wooster), agreed to vary his tilling and planting patterns in order to make room for two specialty crop farmers: Brian Gwin, his son and Project Manager for the Wayne Economic Development Council, and Bill Boyer, teacher, farmer, and founding member of Local Roots Market and Café. Gwin allotted two acres out of his 700-acre farm for the project’s use, creating precise strips (covering about 1/10^th of an acre) for different varieties of melons, potatoes, squash, peanuts, peppers, a cover crop of buckwheat, and edamame. An additional strip provided space for a cover crop of radishes to test the future possibility of in-field mobile poultry units.

While the growing season has not yet finished, the results are promising. By working out a planting schedule at the beginning of the season, the farmers had no problems juggling the maintenance of their respective crops. The specialty crop plots were tended by hand, but not at times when care of the commodity crops required the use of sprays or machinery in the field. The corn crops in the test field, in fact, were very carefully sprayed (by hand in some areas) to prevent any overlap on the specialty crops.

The first of the new crops – potatoes and edamame – have already been harvested and sold at Local Roots, and though pest and disease reduced the yields of some crops (mildew affecting the melon crop and potato bugs destroying many immature plants), the remaining crops should provide a decent harvest. Boyer discovered that, contrary to what might be expected from a field kept in the conventional corn and soy rotation, the soil in the specialty crop patches lacked compaction, unlike the more loamy soil on his home farm.

Coexistence and cooperation

Relatively few problems arose from the new arrangement, according to Brian Gwin. The corn crop suffered most from the wet planting season, and the space for the specialty crops saw a delay in tilling. Gwin also thought that the specialty crops “were likely more challenged” by the intercropping due to the shade cast by the corn crop, but he did see ways that those crops could be reorganized to make better use of underutilized acreage (especially in the case of vining fruits). He did point out, however, that adequate moisture in July and August – typically months when farmers are praying for rain – helped to produce good yields on the specialty crops. Boyer found that because he lives a few miles from Gwin’s farm, he did not get to the field regularly and thus lost track of the immediate needs of his crops, such as weeding or pest control.

The impact on the individual farmers proved positive. Roger Gwin found value in the weed-suppressing qualities of the buckwheat cover crop and plans to plant an acre of it next year. He has also enjoyed the taste of fresh edamame, cooking it and taking it as a snack to local football games. Boyer appreciated the additional income from the Poly-farming crops sold at Local Roots, and though he recognized that his crops were “not always successful,” he has found that keeping better records about what was planted and grown this year will help him plan next year’s growing season with a better understanding of those crops’ needs.

Though this project involved only the one test field, researchers from the OARDC made use of the opportunity to examine several areas of results. The question of corn yields based on increased sunlight exposure, as mentioned earlier, was traced in one study, while another study evaluated the results from planting different cultivars of edamame. One graduate student was able to use a small section of the field for research on nematode movement between the grass border and potato plantings, and another kept track of the specialty crop yields as part of a larger research project. A couple of undergraduate students from the OARDC helped in the field throughout the season, giving them vital practical experience.

So where will the project go from here? As Brian Gwin noted, “Everyone learned something this year and has a few theories and ideas for next season.” While the current field will revert to soybeans next year, the melon and edamame strips will probably be cover cropped over winter for additional experimentation and research. If the project continues at the Gwin farm next year, the farmers will plan to lay out the field slightly differently and give more consideration to selecting a corn variety that has a growing season more aligned with the specialty crops’ growth patterns. (Due to the late planting, the corn grown here this year was a short-season variety; a longer growing season might prove more adaptable to the needs of specialty crop maintenance.) Boyer considered that in future he would like to try growing a squash crop under a low tunnel to prevent pest damage, but as part of that experiment he hopes to place a beehive at the end of the tunnel with access to the crop as well as to the outside. And while he would consider planting different crops the next time around, Boyer decided he would repeat the peanut planting if only for his own enjoyment.

Pollination of ideas

Graduate student Liz Kolbe (whose summary article in the Local Roots newsletter inspired a further look at poly-farming) helped initiate the project and is now involved in wrapping up this season and looking ahead to next year. While definite plans for the project’s future have not been set, she sees potential for an additional test field at the Mellinger Farm, a former corn-and-soy farm now owned by the OARDC for research purposes. If the project does continue there next year, says Boyer, he “would definitely do it again” since this farm lies only a mile down the road from his own.

For now, though, the harvest continues and the farmers share their thoughts on this year’s crops and ideas for next year’s season. The idea behind Poly-farming was not to convert one farmer or another to the other’s way of doing things, and by bringing open minds to the table at the beginning of the project, these farmers learned a great deal from each other and began to appreciate and understand their common ground. As Bill Boyer put it, “You gotta start somewhere.”

Ohio farmers will want to check out this year's Stinner Summit on Oct. 7, which will bring together new faces and old to share the results from the Poly-farming Project and to start new ways to promote sustainable agriculture – and sustainable ideas – in Ohio.

Photos courtesy of Liz Kolbe and Bob Recker.

Today is Labor Day, a time when most Americans think of barbecues and Mondays off, not so much the people who picked the potatoes in that salad and the peaches in the cobbler, or who slaughtered and processed the steer that became that hamburger. Chances are they were paid very little for this hot, often dangerous work.

As the Inventory of Farmworker Issues and Protections in the United States outlined in painful 65-page detail, federal and state laws treat farmworkers differently than other workers. Children as young as 12 can legally work in the fields, with no restriction on the number of hours they can work during non-school days. Agriculture workers of all ages have fewer legal protections against unfair labor practices such as sexual harassment and don’t even have the legal right to organize. Even in California, where thanks to the activism of César Chávez, farmworkers have stronger legal protections than in other states, a lack of enforcement makes it the top state for farmworker deaths due to heat exposure and other risks.

Here’s a small but telling example of the indignities that farmworkers have to put up with. These two photos were taken by a friend visiting a labor camp for a large sweet potato grower in eastern North Carolina.  The picture of the toilets shows only a part of the line of toilets in the men’s bathroom: Only every three or four toilets are separated by a curtain. None of the facilities has a door. The gymnasium-style showers also provide no privacy whatsoever to workers.

These conditions are legal in North Carolina. In other words, there is no requirement to provide workers with privacy, either when using the toilet or showering.

Can you imagine workers in any other industry being subjected to this?

This Labor Day, please join us in thinking about how we can work toward a day when the people on whom we depend to pick our food will enjoy not only basic workplace dignity, but also the same wage and other occupational protections as employees in other sectors. The reality depicted by photos like these really leave a bitter aftertaste.

Wait, let me clear away the cobwebs from the microphone. Is that better? Can you hear me now? All five of you? (Hi mom! Hi Jack!)

What readers remain may have wondered when someone was going to put this blog out of its misery. I certainly have. Unfortunately, as the only person who cofounded it who is still actively working on it — if you can count editing a monthly post as “active” — that decision fell to me, and I just couldn’t bear to pull the plug yet. Not only were Marc, Jennifer, and Amanda still watering the cactus with the occasional new post, but there’s still so much wrong with our food system, and so many great people out there working on fixing it who we should be covering.

Jinx watering the strawberries in our garden

What happened to the Ethicureans? Well, in a word, life. The original team drifted off to write novels and have babies or serve demanding full-time non-food masters. Since we launched in May 2006, I personally have quit one full-time job, started and quit several more freelance ones, and had a daughter, now-18-month-old Jinx.  I also left Grist — where I was working with Tom Philpott, the most dogged and delightful food-politics reporter the food movement could be lucky enough to have — and journalism altogether to go work for a large food-services corporation.

A walk on the dark side

But not just any food-services corporation, mind you. I’d been aware of Bon Appétit Management Company for some time. (No, it is not related to the magazine. Sigh.) I even wrote about it here in April 2009, when it backed the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. I thought it was cool that CEO Fedele Bauccio actually flew to Immokalee to meet with the CIW. I wrote back then that Bauccio “is a charming guy not averse to good publicity, and a businessman first. He has to be — BAMCo is owned by the publicly traded, UK-based Compass Group — but BAMCo's track record indicates a serious commitment to persuading, and enabling, people to chew the right thing.”

So when Maisie Greenawalt, Bon Appétit’s Vice President of Strategy, called me up in December of last year and said she and Fedele wanted to meet with me to discuss a new communications position they were creating, I went. They told me they were looking for a journalist who cared about the same things as they did, and who could get Bon Appétit’s story across more effectively in different ways. They thought I might be that person. I listened. We talked some more. I asked Maisie where the company wanted to go, food-wise, and what kept her up at night worrying. Her answers pleased and reassured me.

Bon Appétit Management Company is the rare multi-million-dollar company that doesn’t greenwash — if anything, the company under-states its achievements. It doesn’t even like to use the word “sustainable” about itself, only as a goal that it’s seeking. Here are the three things that most impressed me, although there are many more: 1) It cooks all its food from scratch. 2) It launched its Farm to Fork program back in 1999, more than half a decade before locavoreanism became the new black. The chefs of the company’s 400 cafés in 31 states are required to buy at least 20 percent of their food from small, owner-operated farms within 150 miles of their kitchens, and it thus spends tens of millions of dollars annually on such farms.

Third, Bon Appétit cares about farmworkers. As I've written here before, it really bugs me that so few "foodies" even have labor on their radar. Fedele and Maisie haven’t quite figured out yet how to translate their awareness of how the food system has failed farmworkers into companywide policies, but they’re actively working on it.

Playing field of dreams

So on February 1, I started my new full-time job at Bon Appétit as its new Director of Communications. I work alongside the very talented Haven Bourque, the company’s longtime public-relations consultant, on the usual PR stuff — press releases about company news, journalist pitching and hand-holding. I also maintain the company social media presence (Facebook, @bamco, and the company blog) and edit its quarterly internal magazine, Bravo. And much to my delight, I get to help shape the company’s strategy on the issues that it cares about.

My very first day at work started with a 9 a.m. meeting with representatives from United Farm Workers, Pesticide Action Network, Consumer Federation of America, and Oxfam America about a nascent project they were working on jointly for which they wanted Bon Appétit’s input, and ultimately, support. I was expecting to take notes and not say much. But to my surprise, after they laid out their idea, Maisie tossed me the ball: “What do you think?”

As I told her afterward, all of a sudden I realized that as a freelance writer, I’d been up in the nosebleed seats, watching the action way down on the field. Now I was sitting on the end zone. “Hmm,” she said with her Spock-like smile. “I think you’re actually in the game.”

Seven months later, I’m a little bruised and battered by all the action, but I don’t doubt for a minute I made the right decision. We’ve gotten some great press. We’ve got some cool announcements in the pipeline I can’t talk about yet. And I’m in charge of planning a TEDx conference loosely focused on farmworkers, TEDxFruitvale, to take place on October 14 in Oakland, that the Bon Appétit Management Company Foundation is hosting. I hope you all will watch the live webcast, or consider hosting a viewing party. We’ve got some awesome speakers lined up, including Gerardo Reyes-Chavez from CIW, Nikki Henderson from People’s Grocery, Tomatoland author Barry Estabrook, Wayne Pacelle from the Humane Society of the United States, and several current and/or former farmworkers.

OK, if you’ve read this far, you may be wondering why on earth I am telling the Ethicurean readership (or what remains of it) all this self-indulgent minutiae. I’ll be honest. It’s because I haven’t been sure that I could continue to post here, as myself — with my own unvarnished opinions, good and bad—and yet also do this job, which frankly eats up all the spare time I used to have. (The baby helps.)

Now, I think I can. In seven months, Maisie and Fedele have never asked me to censor myself, or to say or do anything with which I was remotely uncomfortable. I just wanted to be up front with you, dear readers, about where I am coming from. I may write occasionally about Bon Appétit Management Company, but I will always disclose my connection and link back to this post for context. And I hope that you will feel free to call bullshit on me as you all always have.

I also hope to be seeing you all a bit more often around here, now that I have come out of the closet.

Next up: A Labor Day weekend post!

Men can get their PMS education on a new website "Everything I Do Is Wrong." Women may find the site confusing at first glance: "Who's supposed to buy the milk for whom?" "Can milk really help my clueless, bumbling husband?"

To reduce consumer confusion, I offer a tool designed right here in California's dairy country, in an historic brothel that has endured its share of hormonal cycles. This educational t-shirt adds three simple words to the famous "Got Milk?" slogan that should really help the dairy industry get its PMS message across.

Buy the shirt today to help build the market for PMS-reducing milk. Rest assured that t-shirt proceeds will go to a good cause: bulk milk purchases for the women living in the brothel, and six months of therapy for us to recover from the new milk campaign. Available while supplies last, or until we get the cease-and-desist letter!

Goats grazing in Ethiopia (iStockphoto)

Goat meat is already very popular around the world – the Washington Post claims that goat makes up almost 70 percent of the red meat eaten globally – and its popularity could increase in the U.S. because of the convergence of several things:  renewed interest in grass-fed animals; openings of new butcher shops or revitalization of old shops (such as Avedano's in San Francisco's Bernal Heights), and increasing numbers of U.S. residents from Latin America and South Asia. With a bit of education and experimentation by farmers, butchers, chefs and home cooks, this adaptable animal could become a key part of a return to meat raised on pastures.

Goats were the focus of a recent one-day festival at the Rockridge Market Hall in Oakland – an upscale European-style collection of food shops with a bakery, butcher, fish shop, and more. The "Go for the Goat!" festival included tastings of goat milk ice cream, goat milk caramel, goat cheese, a butchery demonstration, and a panel discussion about goat cheese, milk and meat. I attended the panel, which was moderated by Sibella Kraus, director of Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE), and comprised panelists Bob McCall, Sales & Marketing Manager for Cypress Grove Chevre (maker of the legendary Humboldt Fog); Lynn Huntsinger, Professor of Rangeland Ecology & Management, UC Berkeley (and owner of two goats); David Evans, owner of Marin Sun Farms.

Pasture's little helpers

David Evans, who raises grass-fed cattle in northern California, depends on lush pastures to put weight on his animals and keep them healthy. Goats can play a part in that by improving the quality of pastures, he said. While cows and sheep are basically biological lawnmowers – eating grass almost exclusively – goats are browsers, eating bits of grass, bits of brush, bits of trees.  And since goats happen to like consuming certain problem species for rangelands, herds of goats can be deployed to areas of pasture that are being overrun by milk thistle or poison oak, giving grass a fighting chance to return.

Goats don't like water, so they cause little damage to stream beds, according to Evans, and therefore can be released close to waterways.  Although Marin Sun Farms’ lease with the federal government (through the National Park Service) doesn’t currently allow goats on their lands in Marin County, through co-production arrangements, Evans sources goats from a partner in Dixon, CA, that follows Marin Sun Farms’ strict protocols for animal and ecosystem treatment.

Meaty matters

Goats and humans have been working together for about 10,000 years, so it's not surprising that we've developed particular breeds for particular purposes: the La Mancha and Nubian breeds excel at producing milk; Boer goats put on weight quickly, making for a superior meat breed, and other breeds have highly efficient digestive systems that make them excellent for vegetation control. (Goat World says that “a brush goat is generally a goat that has been produced by breeders experimentation with mixing different breeds, or, a goat that is just a goat that has never been registered, or, a goat that is just a goat.”)

Although goats make up a tiny fraction of the U.S. meat market – data from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) shows that there are less than half a million milk goats and about 2.5 million meat goats in the U.S., compared with the upwards of 90 million cattle and calves and more than 60 million hogs and pigs – Evans said that supply can't keep up with the demand in the Bay Area. Part of this demand is from ethnic communities that have long traditions of eating goat (e.g., Mexico, the Middle East, South Asia) and part comes from high-end goat-loving restaurants such as Camino and Pizzaiolo in Oakland. (A 2008 San Francisco Chronicle article also mentioned such places as Oakland’s Oliveto, Berkeley’s Café Rouge, and Kokkari in San Francisco.)

We eat goats at various stages of their life cycle. One source is what Cypress Grove’s Bob McCall called the “male surplus” – the male offspring of milk goats – animals that are sold to processors before they reach one year old, mainly for a Mexican stew called birria and for Muslim communities (at the goat and sheep slaughterhouse in Dixon, one day each week is dedicated to halal slaughter). In general, however, McCall said, it's hard to find a market for the male surplus, and they're money losers.  For goats that are meat breeds, the main market is also animals that are less than a year old that have been given a diet that allows them to develop plenty of fat (pasture with supplements of grain).

Yet another another supply is milking ewes at the end of their productive years. Evans said that the taste is pleasant if the animal has been well fed, a bit like venison. The sheep-derived name he's been using – “mutton” – is problematic, as most people have negative opinions of that product, so he's looking for a new name.

Why don't we eat more goat?

So why is demand for this meat outstripping supply, even with the "male surplus" from California’s robust goat cheese and milk industry? The panel gave a few reasons.

Evans said that goats present an economic challenge for butchers and restaurants because they are generally available only as whole animals – there is no "boxed goat" supplier from which a retailer or chef can order a box of shoulder, a box of legs, and so forth. Therefore, butchers and restaurants need to know now to sell every part of the animal. Or they need to know how to cook a whole animal, using a tool like La Caja China, as a segment of KCRW's Good Food recorded at Tender Greens in West Hollywood recounted (audio is available for streaming or download).

An article in the Washington Post called “Goat meat, the final frontier” offers an additional bit of complexity: “Goat is still the Wild West of butchering in this country. While other animal carcasses are cut up based on standardized charts, goat has, by and large, escaped the bureaucracy. One butcher’s goat roast can be another’s goat steaks. ”

In some regions, it can be hard to find a slaughter and processing facility.  The Post article notes that the small size of a 6-to-9-month goat might yield only 40 pounds of meat, which can be an impediment to operations that normally handle much larger animals.  The Bay Area and Sacramento area don’t have that problem, Evans said, because goats are processed in facilities set up to handle the large number of sheep raised in the region.

Professor Huntsinger, who grazes two elderly goats in her backyard in Oakland, provided two additional reasons that goats that aren't more widely adopted as meat animals: they need really good fences and are a favorite prey of coyotes. For protection, some ranchers use llamas, some use a certain breed of dog (no one on the panel could remember the name), and others use donkeys.

The panel didn't have much to say about cooking goat meat, but from my reading and listening, I learned that one key element is that the very low fat content of the meat means that you can't just substitute it in a recipe designed for another meat. The above-mentioned article in the Washington Post gave some tips, as does one from the San Francisco Chronicle.

More about goats and goat meat

• The National Agricultural Library has a page about sheep and goats.
• “Future outlook of meat goat industory (sic) for the U.S. small farms,” by Sandra G. Solaiman, PhD, PAS, of Tuskegee University. PDF, archived at the Boer and Meat Goat Information Center
• The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) Goat 2009 project contains results from a survey of people who raise goats for meat, milk or fiber.
• Illini SheepNet & Meat GoatNet is a collection of information about raising animals.
• The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service has an online fact sheet about goat meat.

As the local food movement expands and the numbers of small farms, CSA programs, and farmers markets increase, so grows the crop of cookbooks aimed at helping people make the best use of that seasonal bounty. Following in the path of Deborah Madison’s excellent overview of America’s farmers markets, Local Flavors, two new cookbooks share the joys of regional harvests throughout the year.

The first, Cooking Close to Home: A Year of Seasonal Recipes, bases its recipes in the old and new traditions of New England agriculture. This collaboration between dietitian Diane Imrie and chef Richard Jarmusz combines a healthy approach to eating with simple preparations that enhance the fresh flavors of local fruits, vegetables, herbs, and meats. While many recipes take old favorites and spruce them up for locavore palates, others offer intriguing pairings, such as Lamb and Pumpkin Quesadilla with Cilantro Sour Cream, or Kale and Fennel Salad with Apples and Cinnamon.

The book is arranged by course and then by season. Recipes are very well-organized and clearly written, and most require fairly simple preparation. “Harvest Hints” following many recipes provide information on basic handling of unfamiliar produce, nutritional information, variations on the recipe, or preparation tips. Though not every recipe has a corresponding photo, those that do appear add a rich, sometimes glamorous but often home-spun flavor to the book.

One bonus to the book is the final chapter, “Filling the Pantry.” Beyond the usual recipes for immediate consumption, these recipes offer a handful of suggestions for keeping some of the seasonal bounty for later use (such as Maple Blackberry Barbecue Sauce). Freezing and canning are represented, and a handy chart at the end of the section indicates which preservation method works well for different kinds of produce.

Overall, Cooking Close to Home is a lovely book with many recipe ideas that I hope to try this year. But for me, it’s lacking a little something. The added information throughout the book is useful, though much is geared toward readers who are new to the reasons and joys of local foods, but I can’t help but miss a more individualized touch. A quote found toward the beginning of the book – “Good food is a story, best told at the dinner table” – highlights that loss for me. The recipes sound wonderful, but I miss the stories behind them.

Perhaps that’s why I’m more drawn to the second book, Cooking in the Moment: A Year of Seasonal Recipes. Written by chef Andrea Reusing of the restaurant Lantern in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, this book captures that sense of history behind the foods and the recipes that I so crave. Arranged by season, Reusing’s work rambles through the year, interspersing recipes and gorgeous photos with long passages about the origins of those recipes, from farm and woods to kitchen.

Wednesday, mid-April

Every year in early April, I start hoping for rain and checking my voice mail until I finally get the word from Graham Broadwell that his asparagus are up. It can happen at any moment – in perfect conditions, asparagus spears can grow nearly a foot a day.

Most recipes are straightforwardly organized, but occasionally you’ll find a recipe so basic, it’s written in prose with room for improvisation. For example, the recipe for Charcoal-Grilled Asparagus simply describes the process, with no measurements save for the suggestion of “8 to 10 asparagus per person.” Commentary, where found, provides a clear and vivid glimpse of the recipe and process: “When you put just-picked asparagus on a hot grill, they are so juicy they actually jump as they start to cook.” Other recipes display more complexity, with additional recipes required to explain special ingredients (such as the Salt-Cured Chiles added to the Roast Moulard Duck with Kumquats and Salt-Cured Chiles).

These recipes reflect some of the Asian influence Reusing incorporates into the Lantern menu, such as Pea Greens with Ume Plum Vinaigrette and Chive Blossoms, but they also reveal the traditions and even whimsy of her home cooking (like the Campfire Bacon and Eggs in a Bag she shares with her children). Recipes for different courses jostle each other amid the storytelling passages, and tips about seasonal produce tend to be woven into the tales about local farmers, family wanderings, and special meals. The aforementioned section on asparagus is followed by the story of Fickle Creek Farm and their chickens, which itself is followed by a recipe for Hen and Dumplings, with specific information about cooking old laying hens when you may be used to the younger birds found at supermarkets.

This lack of traditional organization may frustrate some home cooks, but if you really need to find salads or soups, you can do so through the detailed index. I find it difficult to object to this unusual approach when my meanderings through the book reveal quirky little gems like this: “Corn belongs on the cob, and if you run into it somewhere else, there had better be a good reason.” Comments like this highlight the true difference between local, seasonal food and average supermarket food: fresh food straight from the garden or the farm, superior in flavor and nutrition, requires a more intimate approach in cooking.

The secret to eating great tomatoes all summer long lies not in which variety you plant or what stand you buy from, but in watching them – making space for them to lie flat someplace cool near the kitchen, checking them daily, eating the ones that need eating, and continuously making plans for the ones that are getting there. Even tomatoes that are picked ripe need a little time out at room temperature to reach their peak flavor.

A true comparison between the two books is as difficult as deciding whether I prefer a warm rhubarb-ginger crunch or an unadorned juicy peach: the different approaches and regions represented have their own individual strengths. And being very attached to my northern roots, as much as I loved curling up with “Cooking in the Moment” and savoring the stories (and drooling over the photos!), I am more inclined to cook from “Cooking Close to Home,” given the similarities to the offerings from my local markets. Both books share that joy that so many of us find in shopping for fresh, seasonal foods, and I can only hope that these books help more people to appreciate their own local treasures.

Editor's note: The Ethicurean maintains a comprehensive list of books about sustainable food and agriculture and related topics at Goodreads.com. You can see what we're reading via the Goodreads widget in the righthand column (and if you click on one of those book covers to purchase it via Amazon.com, you'll be helping us out financially, at no extra cost to you.) To browse our collective library and read previous reviews, visit our Goodreads bookshelf.

* Updated on June 2, 2011 by Marc R.*

It’s official: We really are fishing to extinction a fish that has sustained us for millennia, the bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus). Last week Canada’s scientists declared the Atlantic bluefin tuna endangered, meaning it faces imminent extirpation or extinction. The scientists found the populations at an all-time low, having declined 68 percent over the past two-and-a-half generations.

This science-based assessment is the first step in which the Atlantic bluefin tuna could be protected under Canada’s Species At Risk Act (SARA). The assessment will be given to the federal environment minister in August, who has nine months to make a decision. Given the political nature and economic of the process, It’s highly unlikely that Canada will give any protections to bluefin tuna. Canada has never protected a commercially fished species under SARA (including cod) and seems unlikely to start with bluefin; the country exports $6 million to $10 million a year of Atlantic bluefin tuna, almost entirely to Japan and the United States.

It’s clear bluefin tuna badly need help, though. Since 1970, western Atlantic bluefin tuna have declined by more than 80 percent due to overfishing. Halfway through a 20-year “rebuilding program” for the severely depleted population, there are no more fish than at the beginning of the program. Also, the population took a hit with the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010, when oil and toxic chemicals coated some of its most important spawning habitat and killed an estimated 20 percent of young bluefin in the Gulf of Mexico.

So why is the news out of Canada so important? Canada is a powerhouse of bluefin tuna fishing. Prince Edward Island (yes, home of Anne of Green Gables – another major export) bills itself as the “Tuna Capital of the World.” Canadians fish bluefin tuna “derby style” and caught their allocated fish in two days in 2010.

Canada’s North Atlantic waters are home to the “giants”: large bluefin tuna weighing hundreds, or even a thousand, pounds. Unlike in the United States, where fishermen have struggled to catch their quota in the past decade, landings in Canada have remained steady for the past 20 years. This is the home of the exotic, high-price bluefin tuna, exported straight to the Japanese and U.S. sushi markets.

Thus, along with Japan, Canada has been at the forefront of opposition to bluefin tuna conservation measures. In March 2010, the United States supported banning trade in bluefin tuna at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). Canada, Japan and 66 other countries voted to defeat the proposal, which may have been the most effective measure to combat rampant illegal bluefin tuna catch.

It’s exciting, then, to think that this proclamation could turn bluefin tuna into a national conservation issue in Canada rather than the politicians’ pet industry (the United States is not immune to this problem either, as a recently-introduced bill by Rep. Guinta (R-NH) that would forbid Atlantic bluefin from being added to the endangered species list illustrates). If Canada cared as much about rebuilding bluefin tuna stocks as it does about how quickly it can catch bluefin tuna (see above, two days), it would literally make a world of difference for the bluefin. Without Canada as an ally, Japan’s opposition would be weaker. With Canada as an ally, the United States could take aggressive steps to reduce fishing in the western Atlantic without worrying about forfeiting its fishing rights to its northern neighbor.

The United States is poised to make its own endangered status determination, due next week. Unlike Canada’s SARA, the U.S. listing determination under the Endangered Species Act must be based on science, not taking into account economic factors. But politics play a large part in U.S. listings too. For example, when the National Marine Fisheries Service undertook a bluefin tuna scientific status review late last year, a half dozen New England politicians from both parties opposed the review itself.  Update: On May 27, the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service declined to add the Atlantic bluefin tuna to the endangered species list.  More information about the decision can be found at the NMFS (PDF), in a press release from the Center for Biological Diversity, a post by Barry Estabrook at the Atlantic and a post by Jaeah Lee at Mother Jones' Blue Marble.

The best way for the public to reclaim bluefin tuna — as a symbol of the power and majesty of our healthy oceans — is to speak up as consumers. A Canadian newspaper’s poll showed more than 90 percent of readers said Atlantic bluefin tuna should be listed. Although vocal, the minority — the industry that profits from bluefin fishing — has not set the bluefin’s fate in stone. Ask your local restaurant not to serve bluefin tuna and pledge their commitment. Write your congressperson supporting protections. Let bluefin tuna off the hook.

Catherine Kilduff is a staff attorney in the Oceans Program at the Center for Biological Diversity. Her grandparents fished for giants in the 1950s in New England; she’s hoping bluefin tuna return to their former abundance in her lifetime for her grandkids to enjoy. The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 320,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places. For more information, visit www.biologicaldiversity.org.

Bluefin tuna illustration from NOAA, via Wikimedia Commons.