Potato Salad with Chard

INGREDIENTS

4 large yellow potatoes, scrubbed
1 small bunch of chard
1/2 cup green onions, green and white parts, roughly chopped
1 or 2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp sea salt, or to taste

DIRECTIONS 

Cut the potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Add them to a large pot of boiling, salted water (enough to cover the potatoes) and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until tender but still firm. Drain the water and set the potatoes aside.

In the meantime, wash the chard, trim off root ends, and rip into large pieces. Blanche the chard in boiling water for about 3 to 4 minutes, then drain.

In a large bowl, combine the potatoes, chard, and onion. In a smaller bowl, mix together the garlic, vinegar, oil, red pepper flakes, and salt. Pour the dressing over the potato mixture and gently toss. Refrigerate. Serve chilled.

Concerns about GM Apples in BC

Okanagan Specialty Fruit has applied to plant genetically modified apples in the Okanagan. This is a concern for organic growers because bees will cross-pollinate between the GM apples and the organic ones. BC growers stand to lose export markets and more if their organic standards are compromised.

The Certified Organic Associations of BC (COABC), the BC Fruit Growers Association, the Regional District of the Okanagan Similkameen, and the Washington Hort Council have all spoken out against the introduction of a genetically modified apple into the Similkameen.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will take the number of letters they receive into account as part of their decision about this, so the more letters they receive, the better. They are seriously considering letting this apple be propagated, which will contaminate all the Organic production within a year or two.

Please go to this link to speak out against the GM apple initiative in the Okanagan:

http://www.cban.ca/Resources/Topics/GE-Crops-and-Foods-Not-on-the-Market/Apple

More information is also available through COABC:

http://www.certifiedorganic.bc.ca/docs/GMOapple%20info%20sheet.pdf

The CFIA's deadline is Tuesday, July 3rd, so please comment at the link above and spread the word!

Weather Watching

Everyone in British Columbia seems to be watching the weather reports pretty closely these days. If you were planning a summer camping vacation or just wanted a day on the beach, the good days have been few and far apart so far. On the other hand, if you don't enjoy hot weather, it has been OK. Looking on the bright side, I do always sleep better when it is cooler outside.

Farmers and other people involved in organic food can quickly become almost obsessed with weather. More or less rain than usual, more or less sunshine than usual, higher or lower temperatures than usual can all result in changes to when produce is available, as well as its quantity, price, and quality.

The recent rainstorms may impact the BC and Washington cherries, for example, though we don't know how much. Hopefully, we will still have a good cherry season. BC blueberries are also delayed indefinitely because of the chilly weather. In addition, local flooding is costing farmers some of their crop, as every day they are losing a few more rows as the Fraser covers more and more land. Dozens of farmers in the Fraser Valley have been affected, with some evacuation orders last week.

Elsewhere, cooler than average weather in California means less broccoli and citrus, so the prices on those will go up, and smaller cauliflower.

The apple problem we wrote about a couple of weeks ago continues to get worse, with a lot of fruit being rejected for quality problems. We are anticipating not having any apples at all in July and maybe not for most of August either, due to the anticipated price increases and quality problems. Hopefully the local apple season will be good for the autumn!

There is some good news. Washington's blueberry season is looking good, so hopefully we can get our hands on some of those while we wait for BC's berries. Grapes are also really good this year, due to very hot weather in Mexico. Pears and nectarines and other stonefruit are also looking good, so maybe we can also keep the doctor away with a peach a day.

Gratitude for Health

Studies show that gratitude corresponds with living longer and with lower levels of depression and other diseases. Natural medicine author Michael T. Murray, ND, has become convinced that cultivating a spirit of gratitude is the foundational secret to health.

“There’s a reason that the practice of giving thanks became so common in the world’s religions,” he says. “When you do it, it opens the door to finding more and more to be thankful for.”

Neurological studies have found that “training” oneself to look for positives increases the mind’s ability to experience satisfaction and joy, and can also result in physical benefits. Research has proven that stress weakens the immune system, so working towards a more positive outlook that reduces our worries and anxieties may strengthen the immune system. Some of the studies haven't been able to prove cause and effect, but most of the studies published on this topic support an association between gratitude and an individual's well-being. University of California Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons, one of the leading researchers in the field of gratitude, says: "Grateful people take better care of themselves and engage in more protective health behaviors like regular exercise, a healthy diet, regular physical examinations."

One study of a group of people suffering from various neuromuscular diseases, including post-polio syndrome, divided the participants into three groups, each one making weekly entries in a journal. One group wrote five things they were grateful for, the second group described five daily hassles, and a control group listed five events that had affected them in some way. The people using daily gratitude journals reported more satisfaction with their lives and were more optimistic about the future than the control group. Interestingly, the gratitude group also reported getting more sleep, spending less time awake before falling asleep, and feeling more refreshed in the morning. A similar study showed that people who did the gratitude journal reported fewer physical problems and spent more time working out than did the control group.

Gratitude is also contagious. In an experiment at Northeastern University, Monica Bartlett and David DeSteno sabotaged each participant’s computer and arranged for another student to fix it. Afterward, the students who had been helped were likelier to volunteer to help someone else - a complete stranger - with an unrelated task, creating further feelings of gratitude.

Like so many things that are good for us, cultivating gratitude takes practice, but it doesn't have to be time-consuming to be effective. You can start with a weekly gratitude journal. In the two journalling studies above, participants were instructed to write one sentence each about five things they were grateful for, and the effects were evident after only two months.

Another useful exercise comes from Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania. He tested the impact of various positive psychology interventions on 411 people, comparing each exercise with a control assignment of writing about early memories. When the group's assignment was to write and personally deliver a letter of gratitude to someone who had never been properly thanked for his or her kindness, participants immediately exhibited a huge increase in happiness scores. This impact was greater than that from any other intervention, with benefits lasting for a month.

Researchers also advise people to increase their feelings of gratitude by monitoring their "self-talk" and gently shifting themselves towards more positive thoughts. When you notice yourself grumbling about a negative event or cause of stress in your life, try to think of 4 or 5 related things for which you are grateful. When you notice yourself negatively comparing yourself to someone else who has more, does more, or that you feel is superior to you, try to shift to compare yourself to people who have less than you (which reminds you how lucky you really are), or try to feel gratitude for having people in your life who can inspire you.

Daily reminders can also be helpful in exercising gratitude on a regular basis. Emmons suggests putting notes listing your blessings in places where you will see them regularly, such as on your refrigerator, mirrors, and the steering wheel of your car. Another strategy is to set a computer or cell phone to chime or been at random times during the day and to use that as a signal to pause and count your blessings.

However you choose to recognize it, we have so much to be grateful for, and appreciating that can only benefit us and those around us. Take a moment to count your blessings, and be healthier and happier for it.

Green Onion Pancakes

INGREDIENTS

3 cups flour
2 tsp sea salt
1 1/4 cups boiling water
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 or 7 green onions, green parts only, finely chopped
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

DIRECTIONS 

In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, and boiling water together with a fork. When it has started to combine, knead the dough by hand until it is smooth and no longer sticky, about 5 to 10 minutes. Form into a ball, cover with a damp cloth, and let the dough rest for 30 to 60 minutes.

Divide the dough into 16 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 1/4 inch thick circle. Brush each circle with oil and sprinkle with about 1 teaspoon of green onions. Roll each circle into a cylinder, then coil it into a tight spiral. Roll each spiral flat to about a 1/4 inch thick.

Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 2 teaspoons of oil and heat. Fry each pancake until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes per side. Serve hot alongside your favourite stir-fry or cut into quarters for a delicious appetizer.

Glazed Baby Turnips with Greens

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 lbs baby turnips with their leaves
2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1 Tbsp grated orange peel
Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 tsp lemon juice

DIRECTIONS

Cut the leaves off the turnips. Wash the roots and the leaves thoroughly. Slice the leaves into 1/2-inch slices and toss them with the lemon juice. Set the leaves aside for at least 5 minutes

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the turnip roots and sugar and saute until the turnips are lightly coloured. Add the orange juice, the orange peel, and the salt and pepper and cover. Cook for 5 to 10 minutes, until the turnips are tender when tested with a fork.

In the meantime, steam the turnip leaves for 5 minutes.

Arrange the turnips in a bowl with the leaves in a circle around the edges and serve hot.

Tomato Tarte Tatin

INGREDIENTS

Crust:
About 1 cup unbleached flour, lightly spooned into measuring cup and leveled with a knife
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
2 Tbsp ice water

Filling:
8 to 10 roma tomatoes
2 to 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
Scant ½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

To make the crust, combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor and pulse until combined. Add the chilled butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add ice water, and pulse again until the mixture forms clumps. Gently press the dough into a 6-inch circle on heavy-duty plastic wrap; cover and freeze for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Boil a few inches of water in a pot. Fill a bowl with cold water and about a half dozen ice cubes. Slice an “x” into the stem top of the tomatoes (go only about ¼ inch deep). Put the tomatoes into the boiling water for about 15 seconds. Use a spoon to remove the tomatoes and put them into the water. One at a time, take them out, peel them, half them lengthwise, and scoop out the seeds. Discard the seeds and skins.

On medium heat, melt the butter in the pan. Sprinkle the sugar over the butter. Lay the tomatoes on the sugar, cut-side up. Cook until the butter browns (caramelizes) and the tomatoes are soft but not shapeless.

Remove the pan from the heat. Dot the tomatoes with vanilla.

Working quickly, roll the dough into an 11-inch circle on a heavily floured surface. Place dough over tomatoes; fold edges under. Cut 4 (1-inch) slits into top of pastry using a sharp knife. Bake for 40 minutes or until crust is lightly browned. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Place a plate upside down on top of pan. Carefully invert tart onto plate. Serve warm.

That Old Standby: The Apple

I grew up in a small town in Northern Ontario. Being a small town near only other small towns, fresh produce wasn't always plentiful, particularly in the winter, so we grew up on a lot of frozen veggies. However, there were always apples available. My Dad took an apple in his lunch every day until his retirement.

British Columbia produces about 30% of the apples grown in Canada, mostly in the Okanagan-Similkameen valleys. BC apples are only harvested from August to October, and the apples we get the rest of the year are from elsewhere or from special storage facilities where the apples are preserved through careful control of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and other conditions. Though these specially designed facilities control the amount of ethylene produced by the fruit and otherwise slow its possible deterioration, some people do notice that apples that have been stored a long time are softer or have a less pleasant texture, especially at this time of year when they have been off the tree for such a long time.

Luckily, BC's weather so far this year have not impacted the apple trees. This is not the case elsewhere: farmers from New Zealand are struggling due to wet weather, and a very hot December and January period in Chile has impacted their crops. In fact, across all southern growing regions, record-breaking temperatures forced the fruit to ripen before it was fully grown, and some producers had up to 18% of the apples cracking because of this. In New Zealand, producers are opting to spray previously organic fruit and sell it as conventional because of an increasing problem with the apple moth. Shortages of organic apples, especially the very popular gala apple, are resulting, meaning an increase in prices across the board, even for locally grown stored apples.

What this means for apple fans is that you will probably see fewer varieties of apples and slightly higher prices for the next couple of months. We will continue to bring in local apples whenever possible, but when the California harvest begins in about 6 weeks, we may bring some of them in to increase the variety and quality of fruit. British Columbia's harvest shouldn't be far behind: we're expecting the first BC apples (usually Early Golds or similar) in about 8 weeks.

I'm so used to thinking of apples as being a dependable year-round standby that the idea that apples have a season is taking some getting used to, but that's been one of the hard lessons of climate change: when weird weather patterns change food production in another part of the world, we feel the impact here too, even if we're eating locally. In the meantime, the BC cherry and berry crops are predicted to be fantastic this summer - maybe my Dad will have to eat them instead of his apple.

Did You Know: Behind the Scenes at Green Earth Organics

"Did You Know" is our series of blog posts about Green Earth Organics: how it works, how you can do more with your account, etc.

One the side of our new Green Earth Organics' delivery van, it says "Organics and more delivered to your door".  Here's a look at how your order goes from your computer screen to your door:

On Thursday afternoon, the owner of Green Earth Organics starts designing the next week's Small, Medium, and Large Bins, using price sheets from a variety of suppliers and farmers. Based on what's available in sufficient quantities, what's of good quality, and what is a good price, he creates the bins and decides what other fruits and vegetables to offer in the coming week. This information is posted to our website on Thursday evening, all updated in time for members to log on anytime after 6 PM to start creating their next orders.

When you log on to our website, you are updating your bin live; the information will be saved right on our website and doesn't have to be sent anywhere. Starting on Sunday, Melissa in member service starts creating the paperwork for the first orders of the week by logging on to the website and printing the orders that were saved there.

The deadline for ordering on our website is 9 AM the day before the delivery because we adjust our orders with our suppliers according to the numbers of bins for the next day. So each day, we generate the driver and warehouse paperwork for the next day, then we call our fruit, vegetable, and bread suppliers and order what we need for the next day.

Each delivery day, our suppliers deliver our bread and our produce very early in the morning. The warehouse manager is as early as 6:30 AM to receive those deliveries and wash all the bins returned the night before. While the bins dry, the warehouse staff begins setting up "the line" - the counter where the big cases of apples, potatoes, lettuce, and more, are set out to pack from. The empty bins are hand-packed with the fresh items as they are pushed along the line.

Some of those bins will be what we call "no subs" - the default bin contents for a Small, Medium, or Large Bin. More of them will be "sub" bins, and the substitutions (whether made by the website or by the member), special instructions, and/or additional items will be printed on a slip of paper that the warehouse will follow, then tape to the outside of the bin to make sure it goes to the right person. Custom Bins also have a piece of paper, listing all the contents for that bin.

Since we receive fresh produce from our suppliers every day, sometimes there are unexpected complications. Maybe they give us a case of apples where all of them are bruised, or maybe they run out of English peas... if we can, we will send someone to pick up a replacement from one of the other suppliers, but if that's not possible, we will send a different item in its place with an explanatory note.

While fruits, vegetables, and bread are delivered daily, other items are ordered on other schedules. We order our milk twice a week, many of our less-perishable items once a week, and other non-perishable items only every month or two. As a small company, it can be tricky to keep everything in stock at all times, especially since sometimes our suppliers are out of stock, so if something is unavailable as the bins are packed, the warehouse puts it on a grocery list.

The delivery drivers arrive at the warehouse shortly before the deliveries start at 2 PM. They load the vans with the freshly packed bins, check their delivery routes for new members, address changes, and special delivery instructions, and receive their grocery lists from the warehouse manager. Then they head off to a local store to try to fill any unavailable items. We don't make any money off those items, of course, but we'd rather fill every order. If they are unable to find the item in the store either, they include a note in the bin and make a note on their delivery paperwork. Then they head out to make their deliveries, aiming for the most efficient routing possible.

In the meantime, Melissa and/or Esther in the office are answering emails and phone calls, adding bottle and cold pack return credits to accounts, processing payments, and working on the paperwork for the next day. We aim to answer every email within the same business day that it is received and to return every voicemail from overnight by noon the next day. We do not generally phone anyone before 10 AM, though, unless it is urgent. Between the daily tasks, Esther takes care of our FaceBook and Twitter pages and works on the monthly email newsletter, and Melissa does inventories, researches new products, and works on the weekly paper newsletter and blog.

The warehouse staff is usually done by about 3 PM, and the office closes at 4 PM most days, but the delivery drivers are out until 9 PM. When they finish their rounds, they leave their paperwork, covered in notes about bin, bottle, and cold pack returns, any unavailable items, any delivery instruction changes, etc., on Melissa's desk, and they put the bins they picked up out in the warehouse, ready to be washed. The next morning, it all starts all over again!