Blueberry Pie and Cherry Pie

I’m about to make a confession.

I make a blueberry pie that everyone–EVERYONE–who tastes it loves. It’s my mother’s recipe, and it’s just the best blueberry pie ever. That’s all there is to say. (This is not the confession.) My friends will vouch for this pie’s sweet taste and bursting blueberry flavor, and not just because they’re my friends. This pie is so good it has caused lovers to fight over the last slice–nay the entire dish. True story. Last year I made my mom’s blueberry pie to give to a friend for his birthday, and his then-girlfriend-now-wife, who is also a friend, wound up eating the whole pie. Every last crumb and lick of indigo filling off the fork. Mike didn’t get a single bite. This pie-hording didn’t go over well with Mike, but Janice couldn’t help herself. The pie was that good. She had to have it all. Perhaps the pie satisfied Janice in a way Mike could not? We’ll never know…

Part of what makes this pie so scrumptious is the crust. People always remark, “This crust is really good.” And I’ve always smiled sweetly yet sheepishly in acknowledgment but never said anything about the crust. The reason? Here’s the confession, folks:

The Economics of a Vegan Diet

I’ll be honest: I’ve always considered the vegan diet insane. It just seems like a recipe for starvation. If you want proof of just how extreme–and dangerous–the diet can be, read the article by Robert Christgau, “Beth Ann and Macrobioticism,” about a macrobiotic woman who died of malnutrition, with carrot juice dribbling from the corner of her mouth. I know I could never subsist solely on roots, nuts and berries. As I’ve said somewhat facetiously before, Give me Oreos or give me death.

That being said, I realize the vegan diet can be extremely salubrious, and I admire individuals like Dr. John Halamka who practice it sensibly. That’s why I try to reserve my judgmental comments for the diet itself and not the people who’ve made it their lifestyle. I’m sure many a vegan would criticize my diet of Pop Tarts, hamburgers, chicken fingers and donuts, and for good reason. What can I say? I love processed foods.

But I’m going to be thinking twice about consuming processed foods and meat, thanks to commentary I heard yesterday on on NPR’s Marketplace. Peter Singer, a professor of bioethics at Princeton University, gave the best argument yet for the vegan diet. What made his argument so effective in my mind was that it was grounded in economics rather than emotion. Professor Singer linked the global food crisis and rising food costs to the increase in meat consumption around the world.

What’s wrong with eating more meat, and what affect does it have on food prices? According to Singer, more people eating meat means more of the corn that we grow for food ends up fattening livestock as opposed to to being produced for human consumption. He writes:

..most corn isn’t eaten by humans; it’s eaten by animals and that’s the biggest part of the problem. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 756 million tons of grain plus most of the world’s soybean crop are fed to animals…

When we use animals to convert grain and soy into food we can eat, they use most of the feed to keep warm and develop bones and other parts we can’t eat. So we’re wasting most of the food value of the crops we feed them. In the case of cattle, at least nine-tenths of the grain they eat is squandered.

The solution to the world food crisis, then, he says, is to “eat less meat, dairy and eggs.”

I recommend reading or listening to Professor Peter Singer’s commentary.  Let me know what you think.  I am prepared to be virtually tarred and feathered by the vegans and macrobiotic practitioners who read this post.

Clear Brook Farm Produce Stand to Open June 13

I ran out to Clear Brook Farm at lunch today in search of plum tomatoes for the gazpacho I’m planning to make for dinner tonight.  I thought for sure Clear Brook had opened its produce stand last weekend, while my summer cold rendered me bed-ridden.  The farm stand usually opens at the beginning of June.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a sign that said the produce stand would open this Friday and that I hadn’t missed the opening day (it’s something I look forward to every year), but alas, I didn’t get my tomatoes.

Anyone have a recipe for gazpacho that calls for canned tomatoes?  I was planning to follow the gazpacho recipe in The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook.  That cookbook has not once failed me.

Workshop on Farming

Bonnie and Oliver Levis of Manchester, Vermont’s Teleion Holon Farm are offering a workshop on extending the growing season in Vermont on Sunday, June 22 from 3 to 5 PM, according to an article in The Bennington Banner. The Levis’s will demonstrate how to grow certain vegetables through the winter by covering plants with plastic on wire frames. They also plan to explain how to grow melons in Vermont.

The workshop costs just $3 and is the last of three workshops on farming. The first two, which were about organic farming practices and raising pigs, took place last weekend. (Apologies for not getting this information to you sooner.)

If you’re interested in attending the workshop at Teleion Holon, call Mary Barrosse Schwartz at 802-362-7235 to reserve a space. I’d like to say I’ll see you there, but I will be entertaining visitors that weekend.

Thanks to Erin McEnaney who told me about the article in The Banner.

Update 6/12: A complete list of the workshops that are available throughout the summer is located on the website for the Southwestern Vermont Eat Local Challenge.

Summer Cold

I’ve been stricken with a most persistent, pernicious summer cold. I came down with it around 5 PM on Friday, May 30th and I spent that entire weekend in bed, dozing on and off between infomercials for the Shark Steam Mop and GT Express 101.  Sadly, I missed my college reunion at the University of Vermont that weekend.

11 days later, the stuffy head and scratchy throat linger.  I’m seeing a doctor today.  I think it’s about time. Don’t you?

Needless to say, I haven’t updated this blog because of this damn cold.  It’s a shame because I have an inspiring story to share with you. Two days before my nose started gushing like the Battenkill during mud season, I met with a couple, Karen and Stephen Trubitt, who gave up their high-powered jobs in the Twin Cities to move to Vermont and start an organic farm.  I will bring the Trubitt’s story to you soon.