Tonight I got to attend a “lecture” and book signing by Michael Pollan at the West Roxbury branch of the BPL. I’m a major fanboy so this was a pretty big treat. He spoke for about 30 minutes and then answered some questions. Unfortunately, questions had to be submitted on index cards prior to the talk–which, btw, seems like a guaranteed method for increasing the triviality of the questions–and I somehow didn’t get an index card. I tried asking while he signed my copy of In Defense of Food, but I quickly got swarmed and shooed away by the hovering organizers for holding up the line. Here’s what I would like to have asked:

My town, Lexington, MA, has just recently entered in agreement to purchase Busa Farm a family farm consisting of several acres. This land has been productive farmland for 300+ years. The town is now going to begin a long process to decide what to do with this land (with some restrictions due to the money for the purchase coming from CPA funds). In your experience what are the most effective arguments we can use to convince the town and town government that local farmland is more valuable and will provide more benefit to the town than the competing interests, such as ball fields, playgrounds and affordable housing?

So that’s what I really wanted to hear Pollan respond to, but oh well. And, yeah, I’ve spent the past few weeks going to town meetings and trying to help organize a group to save this farm. That’s going to be a later, longer post though.

Great book. Probably you’ve heard of it. Deservedly one of the NYT Review of Books Top 10 for 2006. I also recommend browsing Michael Pollan’s site where he links to lots of online lectures and podcast interviews.

So here’s some decisions/ideas that came about as a result of reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

1. No more supermarket eggs for me.
2. Maybe wild mushroom hunting isn’t really so scary.
3. I will always love corn, but it is difficult now to look at a delicious, grilled ear of corn or a slice of cornbread or a bowl of corn chowder the same way.
4. Those .99 cent cheeseburgers don’t really cost .99 cents–spread the word.
5. How does eating local scale to feed more than just an elite handful of the relatively wealthy and/or an extremely dedicated and hard-working subset of the population? Is “local” and “scale” actually an oxymoron?

Next on my list is a similar book, Against The Grain, by Richard Manning. What I think was an excerpt from the book was published in Harper’s as The Oil We Eat, and I’m really looking forward to the full length treatment.

Although it’s rare I don’t tweak something here, or substitute something there, when appropriating a recipe, it’s still good to give credit where due.

I dig the way JB over at Urban Drivel credits the source of her recipes in the post title, e.g. Basil Risotto | Bon Apetit. I intend to be a copy cat.

What f00die.com aspires to be: Cooking for Engineers.

I’m sure Tufte could improve upon the graphics, but I still thought these charts showing the corporate ownership structure of the organic food industry were pretty interesting.

Well, technically whey, which I sort of knew what that was, but looked it up on Wikipedia anyway to make sure. It is “the liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained.”

I was reading this Slashfood post which linked to this article on how the pickle industry may be in decline (yikes!) when I noticed in the comments someone linked to this article on an interesting description of the process of lacto-fermentation. Apparently the use of a vinegar brine is a recent development brought on by the industrialization of the pickling process.

Lactic acid is a natural preservative that inhibits putrefying bacteria. Starches and sugars in vegetables and fruits are converted into lactic acid by the many species of lactic-acid-producing bacteria.

Sounds tasty! Be careful though: “results are not always predictable.”

There are lots of other interesting food-related articles on the westonaprice.org site, but I’d never heard about this organization. Something about the site seemed slightly… odd. I got curious and decided to dig a little to make sure I wasn’t linking to some weird cult or something. The Wikipedia entry on them is intriguing but pretty tame. The most controversial thing about them seems to be an aversion to soy.

Yes, that’s right: you can help “save Britain’s vegetable heritage” by adopting a vegetable at GardenOrganic.org.

I seem to remember a similar “seed bank” organization on this side of the Atlantic but I can’t find the link right now. And I don’t remember them having such a novel method of raising funds. Reminds me a little of the Heifer Project.

A great Op-Ed in the Globe yesterday by Christopher Kimball, the founder of one of my favorite recipe sources, Cook’s Illustrated.

“[...] human interference no longer makes food cheaper, more plentiful, and safer. It is now more dangerous, more expensive, and less in our own interests to consume it. What consumers should want — good flavor and good health — has been replaced by what the industry wants — an addiction to expensive, highly processed trademarked brands that will burden our health system and lead to a much lower quality of life.”

Some guy spent six years and probably tons of $$ trying to replicate the pies from his favorite pizza shop. He finally succeeded apparently (you may have to follow the “mirrored by” links at the top). It’s hard to blame him; it looks like a pretty damn good pie.

The key things, according to Jeff:

1. High heat, preferably 825F
2. Proper kneading technique
3. The right kind of yeast

I (unintentionally) got my grill up to about 650 degrees during our recent block party. I wonder if that would be good enough…

Bonus: there’s a link to an online shop called Sourdo that sells sourdough starters. I’ve made a couple of psuedo-starters by leaving some yeast, water and flour in the bread machine overnight, but always been on the lookout for the real thing.

In response to a challenge at The Traveler’s Lunchbox, these are in no particular order really

1. Fried Clams @ Woodman’s, Essex, MA
2. Meatloaf w/ Creole Sauce @ Your Mama’s Good Food, Little Rock, AR
3. My Granny’s Biscuits & Gravy
4. Calf’s Liver & Onions @ Trattoria ai Cugnai, Venice, Italy
5. Tasmanian Oysters @ Prosser’s on the Beach, Hobart, Australia