2014 The Year of Good Food
Fall Farm

GoodFood World

Good food is everybody's business!

Welcome to GoodFood WorldJuly 7, 2014
There are so many ways to find healthy, nutritious, local food! For example, you can get your veggies from a CSA or shop at your local natural food co-op. The each experience is as different as city and country!

A CSA can be a great way to get the very freshest produce direct from a local farm, but sometimes those boxes contain vegetables that are outside your cooking experience. Or, you're just tapped out for ideas about how to prepare one more bundle of kale! Erick and Wendy Haakenson, farmers at Jubilee Biodynamic Farm, and a friend - Terrie Irish - came up with a solution.

At the beginning of the 2014 Summer CSA session, Jubilee unveiled its new kitchen space including triple wash sinks, granite counter tops, and tools like food processors and knives for shredding and cutting. Members can get hands-on coaching and food preparation advice on pick-up days from Terrie, Jubilee's resident food guru. No more wondering, "What do I do with THAT?" Read how food coaching helps CSA members use everything in their weekly delivery in The Newest CSA Benefit: Food Coach

 

NOT Your Parents' Food Co-op!  

On the other hand, if you are a natural food market shopper, food co-ops are changing by the day. Co-ops have always reflected contemporary culture and have changed as society has changed and, let me tell you, the Green Lake Village PCC is clearly NOT your parents' (or grandparents', if you're young enough) food co-op!

 

Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood is one of the city's most popular. What better place to put a new PCC Natural Market?

Anchored in a just-completed urban development, the PCC clearly reflects its location and is working hard to balance its focus and attention between weekly family shopping trips and the convenience of carryout prepared food. Read the whole story and take a "virtual tour" of the new store in PCC Green Lake Village - NOT Your Parents' Co-op!

 

There's more, keep reading! Get a cup of coffee and join us at GoodFood World where we collect and report the news about good food from the source and analyze food operations to determine their merits on the basis of social responsibility, environmental stewardship, and economic vitality - our primary measures of sustainability.

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On the Road with Kate and Ian

After a winter in small-town Vermont, Kate McLean (GoodFood World Good Food on a Budget contributor) and husband Ian packed up the truck and headed to the panhandle of Maryland for a season of farming. In this region it's not uncommon to drive twenty miles to the nearest supermarket, and you'll be hard pressed to find a food co-op or natural grocery anywhere.

When spring came and time to find a "real job," Kate went job hunting in nearby small towns. Her job description now looks a lot like Western Maryland's local food scene at a glance! Kate has pieced together full-time work by reaching out to surrounding small towns. Between the farm, the hotel, the restaurant, and the creamery, it involves a lot of driving, plenty of good people, and a whole lot of good food. Read how she does it in: Eating (and Working) Local in Western Maryland.
Ask Ina: Questions About Good and Not So Good Food

We Need More Protein: Fad or Fact 

Ina Denburg, our Health Eating columnist, answers questions everyday about how to buy, prepare, and eat good healthy food. And now she brings her knowledge and expertise to questions GoodFood World readers have.  

 

Are all the new protein-enhanced foods (protein drinks, bread and cereal with protein added, protein bars, to name a few) lining our store shelves just another marketing ploy appealing to our fears? This week, Ina Denburg - our Healthy Eating columnist - answers this question:

 

"I see all sorts of products on the grocery shelves with labels that say "added protein" or list the amount of protein on the front of the package; do I need to buy those products to make sure my kids are getting the protein they need?"

 

No, you do not need to buy them to ensure you or your children are eating enough protein. Get the whole story here: Is There Such a Thing As TOO MUCH Protein?  

 

Have a question about good food? Trying to avoid "not good" food? Ask Ina! Send your questions about healthy eating and good food to  Ask Ina.
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Food Around the World

One Man's Revolution to Change Farming in Liberia

Bill Tolbert (right) and fellow farmer at Grain Coast Farms.
The small West African nation of Liberia does not usually conjure images of farming. For most, Liberia is synonymous with conflict and brutal guerrilla soldiers bartering diamonds for guns.

Liberia celebrated ten years of peacetime in 2014 and a renewed vow to deliver better infrastructure, economic growth, and progress to over four million inhabitants. 

 

William Tolbert, a Liberian citizen educated in the US, was inspired by the organic movement here and moved back to his home country in 2010 to implement organic farming techniques. He exemplifies the "Triple Bottom Line" - Environment, Economy, and Ethics - in his farming practice.

 

Now Tolbert is raising funds to provide training, support, and microloans, and connections to quality buyers for subsistence farmers so they can grow more and better produce and generate higher incomes and profits. Read how one man labors to launch an agricultural revolution in Liberia.

 

Shiso: The Taste of Summer

Rose Silcox-Quimby, our Changing Food Cultures contributor, explores the seasons of food.

   

Summer for me brings back fond memories of living in Tokyo and discovering new foods to enjoy to beat off the muggy summer heat of such a massive city. Chief among my favorites was shiso.

Shiso, also known as Perilla, Beef Steak Leaf, or Japanese Basil, is actually a member of the mint family.  

 

Though I first experienced shiso while living in Japan, it turns out it is widely used across all of Asia from China to India, most heavily in Japan and Korea. And it grows profusely here in Puget Sound! Read the whole story here. 

Op-Ed: Views on the News

Op-Ed: What Is An Ecological Diet? 

How do we really know what to eat? Perhaps it's environmental. Sure enough! If nothing but markets decide now - and they seem to be careening out of control - and history doesn't count, everybody can be like everybody else and have any kind of food.  

 

Maybe it isn't so much a matter of knowing what to eat as it is regaining a sense of who we are. Perhaps the first step is to reconnect our food to place, good places - not industrial wastelands. Read more in An 'Ecological Diet?'    

The A/V Department

Why Organic Matters

Vermont organic growers on food and farming and building natural webs of biological communities: "We farm plants, we farm animals, but most importantly, we farm microbes."

 

Growing and eating organic is better for the farmer, better for the animals, better for the environment, better for your health. Find out why organic matters here

 

There are more videos on GoodFood World and more coming every week.  

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Farm Talk: Voices From the Farm

Our Minnesota shepherdess, Lea McEvilly, has never been one to back down from a challenge! At 87, she refuses to give in to macular degeneration and a recent trip to Mayo Clinic for new glasses means she will soon be back in fine form! She has been filling us in on her sheep raising adventures and misadventures; this is Lea's most recent installment.    

   

From Ice and Snow to Summer Delight

   

Near the end of April the ewes and lambs went to pasture and it was time to clean up the house yard and get the vegetable garden ready for planting.

 

With fewer sheep to care for there was more time to spend gardening, and despite an overabundance of rain, by June things were pretty much under control.

 

Read Lea's latest update here. Keep reading, there is always more at Voices From the Farm!  Watch for an upcoming interview where Lea tells us how she helped revive the sheep and lamb market in the upper Midwest - one lamb chop at a time!  



We Need Your Help!

 

Publishing an online magazine, particularly one dedicated to deep research and careful coverage - the "long read" - takes a team. It takes writers, editors, and committed readers like you.  

 

We are counting on you to be our partner to help keep good food on our tables and grocery shelves so we can all eat better and be healthy!

 

GoodFood World is an important platform to help re-establish the missing connection with our food and our farmers, fishermen, millers, and bakers - all the people who grow and prepare it. We've sought out sources of local or regional, whole or minimally-processed meat, fish, produce, grain, dairy, and more. We introduce producers who are growing and harvesting good food. We promote food products that we believe are not only good food, but are food produced in a way that is environmentally sensitive and socially responsible.

 

As part of our team, your contribution of $100, $50, $25, or more, will keep GoodFood World online and on the road, working one-on-one with creative, dedicated, and tireless good food producers so they can succeed and thrive; and we never lose our connection with the sources of our food!  

 

Whether you consider it an investment, a donation, or a contribution,  

please make it here.  

Contribute Content, Advice, Input

We welcome photos, tips, observations, and links to stories about the world of good food. Send us stories about what you've seen or heard. Tell us what we're doing right. We like "atta boys!" Got a beef? Send it on... we need to know! Here's the place to do it.   

 

Take care, eat well, and be well!

 

Gail Nickel-Kailing and Ken Kailing

Co-Publishers/Editors

 

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