Gone Organic - Need Help!

[Duncan]

Is it the supermarkets, or customs that sprays the imports?

I would be seriously pissed off if I found out it was the supermarkets. Actually, I'd be pretty mad either way.

I don't think it said who actually did the spraying, but I believe it was stated as being a legal requirement.

All I'm going on here though is one remembered paragraph from a weekend paper, so if anyone can point me at further information on this point I'd be grateful.

[slacker]

We (well, she) shop at Tesco. We have a nursey friend who insists we buy organic carrots, which we do (esp for the children). They taste good.

Last night another friend brings Guacamole, Tortilla chips, Carrots and celery for nibbles at our dinner party. The guacamole is great, but the carrots taste absolutely disgusting. They are tender and juicy, which desn't help when the juice tastes of chemicals.

I was amazed.

No more crap carrots. Ever.

(My parents live in Normandy and have a continuous supply of sandy carrotes de Créances. Sweet and tender. Mmm. Parsley Sauce. Mmm. Broad Beans - Grazed Knees - Jumpers for goal.......contd. p97)

[clare h]

Hi MobyP

I got stuck on a similar diet a year ago - had to stay on it for a year but lasted 8 months so i sympathise! I found some of the best stuff i had to eat was japenese type meals - they tend to use more wholegrain type carbs anyway and it seemed that stuff tastes better rather than subbing in wholemeal pasta where you would usually have white! Clearspring do loads of good products. One other word of warning is that if you are detoxing it isnt a good idea to suddnely start eating more past or wheat products than you usually would as lots of people don't feel good when they eat to many 'flour' products - infact it can make you feel pretty horrendous after a while which isnt what you are wanting to achieve (if you start having slightly 'drugged' feeling sleep it is generally a sign that you are eating too many flour products) - brown rice and barley are the best. Also (and you are probably already doing this) avoid dried fruit, particulalrly if you have blood sugar problems as it is the same as fruit juice - like pure sugar (although apple juice is sometimes ok as a fruit juice treat).

Some other things i picked up along the way and talking to various people - it is often better to eat locally produced food rather than organic stuff which has been freighted miles (there is a theory that local food provides us with the correct bacteria for our environment, asthma has recently been treated successfully with local honey), and wild duck would be OK - any wild meats are thought to be better than even organic farm produced (although you have to kind of check things are wild).

Seeds and nuts really help blood sugar - sunflower seeds roasted with tamari are a nice snack.

Although most of the stuff isnt that appetising some specialist cookbooks can give a few ideas - i got a macrobiotic cookbook that had a few good recipes in and wasnt too preachey by a woman called Kristina Turner

Sorry to go on but i remember how tough i found it - i guess you just have to try and see it as an interesting diversion for a few weeks??

[Stigand]

- Farro (spelt) done with a risotto-like treatment

Inspired by Jonathan's post, I picked up some spelt in Sainsbury's (!) and made myself spelt risotto this evening.

Found a recipe online but now can't seem to relocate it, but it basically involved soaking the spelt in cold water (20 mins), straining, boiling it in water and a little olive oil (20 mins), straining again, adding it to soffrito of onion/garlic/celery/parsley and cooking as usual with some good chicken stock and wine (20 minutes), adding thinly sliced fennel and seasoning.

It was fab - very savoury, even without cheese (I left the cheese out in an attempt to be healthy, but it would have been even better with), and very spring-like because of the fennel.

Despite the long cooking, the spelt kept its bite and didn't become pudding-y.

[Behemoth]

I love large-grain bulgar as far as grains go -- quick cooking and nutty. I can add my recipe for mujaddara to the recipe file if you're interested...it is a bulgar and lentil pilaf with crispy caramelized onions...I usually eat it either with a cucumber and yogurt salad (foodman posted a version) or with green beans stewed in olive oil and lebanese pepper mix (garam masala can work as a sub for that).

Other uses for bulgar -- I make it with sauteed tomatos or zucchini and onions. Nice in the summer since you can eat it at room temp. There are a bunch of lebanese home-style vegetable stews that you don't commonly find in restaurants, which my grandmother used to make to eat with bulgar. I don't have actual recipes but could give a fairly close approximation (at this point I just do it by sight)...my favorites were with okra, one with fried cauliflower, and one with great northern or navy beans. Lebanese stuff is a good bet in general, as you mentioned, but there's a lot more than just the standard restaurant stuff to try.

Oh, also you could make kibbeh out of organic meat and fine grain bulgar (there's an easy baked-in-a-pan version) and also a vegetarian version using pumpkin that people make for lent. Again I can dig up recipes for these, though versions abound on the web.

[Nataliabrau]

I would certainly recommend Quinoa, a cereal that originates from South America, and that can be found in majority of health shop (even some Sainsbury's now have it). Although is a grain it has a very high protein content, particularly good if you’re trying to cut down on meat.

You can cook it as you would with a risotto, and is particularly good if you ad some toasted pumpkins and sunflower seeds, e.v. olive oil, and a dash of soya sauce. In my opinion it is one of the tastiest 'healthy foods' I have ever tried, definitely worth to be on your menu.

[PoppySeedBagel]

In some health food shops you can get Japanese 100% buckwheat pasta - expensive but excellent.

[magnolia]

why oh why do they not stock any BRITISH organic produce

I've posed a similar question (i.e. not specifically about organic produce, but about produce in general) to so many supermarket food buyers that I am thinking of making a tape, bringing it with me, and pressing a button.

Their answer is invariably:

"Our customers want it: they want certain foods all year 'round that we don't grow here. They want blueberries in January. Tomatoes in December. And they want everything - peppers/ carrots/ strawberries/ onions/ tomatoes/ apples/ oranges/ lemons/ etc.etc.etc.etc. to be *exactly* uniform: the same size, colour, texture, roundness, with the same number of surface markings, etc. tc. - as if they were made in a factory." The implication is that "our customers" don't care if a) they are supporting a giant faceless corporate farm at the expense of their next door neighbour, the UK farmer. b)their tomatoes/blueberries/apples etc. don't have any flavour by the time they get them. It just depresses me.

[Marco_Polo]

Hi Moby,

Good luck with your diet and all best wishes for every success!

A couple of links that might be useful:

The Organic Farmers Market I met these folks at the South West Festival of Food and Drink in Exeter in April. Seems to be a good, serious outfit sourcing a range of quality local organic foods, including vegetables, meat (such as outstanding lamb from the deliciously named Well Hung Meat Co), butter, plus dried and other goods, some wonderful organic juices (at least a small consolation if you're off wine), and even some brilliant organic chocolate (ok ok, no chocolate you said, but surely the odd treat is allowed now and then, especially if it's an organic treat, no?).

Riverford Organic Vegetables I know you said that you are trying Abel and Cole, who I know nothing about, but if you're not satisfied, then it would be worth giving Riverford a try. We've had a regular weekly box now for a couple of years and though we get fed up with the stuff from time to time, especially over the winter months, some really good produce is beginning to appear at this time of year. The key with a box scheme, we've found, is that you must approach each week with no idea in mind of what you are going to cook. This adds a certain appetising serendipidity to the week's menus and it makes you have to be creative in making do with whatever you've got. However, if you don't bite the bullet right away and start chopping and cooking the day it arrives, in our experience the stuff has a tendency to pile up. So over winter we ate a lot of delicious root vegetable soups. Now with salads and greens and tomatoes and bags of pungent herbs and deliciously sweet carrots and always interesting varieties of potatoes and odd treats like an avocado or two or a jerusalem artichoke or a fennel bulb thrown in it is really not at all difficult. As for the 'food miles' the majority of the produce is Devon grown and even after transport to London, that's a damn site fewer than most organic produce travels before it reaches the supermarkets.

As for the grains, I'd have a lot of trouble myself giving up pasta (as I'm sure you will too, given your magnificent stuffed pasta masterclass). Pizzoccheri, from Lombardy's Valtellina, are made with a mix of buckwheat flour and white flour and are really no more than an occasional curiosity. I'd put farro in the same category: something to make occasionally as a change, but not really a staple food. Japanese or Korean buckwheat noodles, however, are delicious, nicely flavoured, rather chewy and satisfying and should be easily available. I can send you a recipe if you like. As for rice, I have always despised brown rice, but lately have discovered organic brown shortgrain which is really good, nutty, plump, well flavoured, delicious with both western and Asian foods. I love it.

No alcohol? Jeez, that really is a tough one. Not even the occasional glass of organic or biodynamique wine? If the latter is allowed, then the dry white Loire Savennières made by Nicolas Joly at La Coulée de Serrant is one of the great white wines of France, while the big Rhône house of Chapoutier is producing a full range of wines following biodynamique precepts.

In bocca al lupo

Marc

[Suzi Edwards]

moby, how was the first box?

farmaround have come up trumps for me. oyster mushrooms (which i would never buy, so i am very excited by these) onions, carrots, potatoes, courgettes, a HUGE box of green beans, tomatoes, aubergine and a couple of things i can't remember. the fruit bag had strawberries, pears, apples, oranges and a grapefruit.

with the eggs, water and juice i feel well set up for the weekend!

[Dan Ryan]

What have you got against buying oyster mushrooms tarka?

[Suzi Edwards]

nothing against them at all, but i have a bit of a blind spot with mushrooms. i just end up with button mushrooms!

[MobyP]

I can't believe how brilliant everyone has been. My thanks to all.

As to the importation of foreign organic goods, I think this might be part of a wider political discussion that I'd like to develop on the boards, perhaps a series of them, but I'm not sure where a good starting place would be. If anyone has any notions, feel free to PM me. I'd like to open up the UK boards (or maybe TDG) to the politics of European food production and consumption. Over the Summer period, perhaps.

Marco - fantastic, thank you. I'd love that recipe (as I heard that you happen to know a thing or two about Korean food).

BTW, I cheated recently with a bowl of pasta, and felt absolutely terrible afterrward. Drugged. My system was so unaccustomed - after only a few weeks - I might as well have drunk a bottle of champagne for the effect it had on me.

The first organic box arrived, and apart from the selection being slightly dull, the quality of the produce was far superior to anything I've seen in the supermarkets. The broccoli - fleshy and firm. The carrots and apples - really vivid and sweet. Good, firm onions. Everything was clean, and packaged so as not to cause any damage - and the package is returnable to the driver on the next pickup. I was secretly hoping for some broad beans, but no luck. Still, a good investment, I think. And I'm looking forward to finding unfamiliar ways to use of all this stuff. I've become a compulsive soup maker for some reason - my new hobby of the moment - as I always have plenty of chicken stock in the freezer (and my butcher saves me the organic bones).

Tarka - I had the same problem with mushrooms when I first started cooking; the flavours are so pronounced, and the price high, it seemed like a commitment to jump in at the deep end. Then I became completely besoted by them at exactly the same time that Kate became intolerant. Oh well.

Edited May 29, 2004 by MobyP (log)

[MobyP]

I already made the announcement here, but I thought you'd like to know, after all your great help with support and dietary conundrums, that Kate is now three months pregnant...

With twins!

[curlywurlyfi]

I thought you'd like to know, after all your great help with support and dietary conundrums, that Kate is now three months pregnant...

With twins!

Moby that's great. hurrah for the Mobilettes! or do you prefer the MobKats? or perhaps the miniPoms?

[Suzi Edwards]

eGullet babies....*sigh*

huge congratulations mobes. still terrifies me that eating organic has such a huge impact on fertility...i mean, you ended up having two babies. if you hadn't sneaked that trip to yauatcha you might be having four ;-)

[MobyP]

Damnit - I'm holding out until I get the full brigade!

I want at least one sous, one saucier, a prep, and full time pasta maker.

These kids are gonna have asbestos fingers before they can write!

[PoppySeedBagel]

Congratulations - remember the first year is the worst...

[Blondie]

Congratulations, Moby! That's wonderful news.

[PoppySeedBagel]

I'd have thought it would be nicer, as the eggs will give lightness, and richness, and if you find 100% wholemeal too heavy, you could always add a bit of good quality white flour. At least you'd know what went into it!