New Year's Eve Sunrise
May parent's place on Lake Sawyer south of Seattle has the best sunrises.
Year of Plenty archive for Jan. 1, 2010
FRIDAY, DEC. 31, 2010
TUESDAY, DEC. 28, 2010
Genetically Modified Food in the News: Wikileaks, Catholic Church, US Gov, Washington Apples, Golden Rice
Photo: old coal mining railroad bridge from the 1800's in Black Diamond, WA. There are a series of recent intriguing stories on genetically modified agriculture and bio-technology. I was surprised to learn via the most recent Wikileaks cable release that the U.S. government has, for…
MONDAY, DEC. 27, 2010
Top Ten Posts of 2010 at Year of Plenty
According to Google Analytics these were the most popular blog posts on Year of Plenty in 2010. 1. Newsflash: Dairy Industry Wants You to Eat More Dairy - What's So Controversial About That? This post created quite a stir. It got picked up by the…
MONDAY, DEC. 20, 2010
Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) Brought Back From the Dead, Passes Senate
You might be wondering if that headline isn't an accidental repost from weeks ago when the FSMA passed the Senate the first time. It isn't a mistake. Unless you're a real food legislation geek you probably don't know that when the legislation originally passed the…
SATURDAY, DEC. 18, 2010
Amazing New Google Books Ngram Search Tool - Foodie Index, Fast Food Index and More
The geniuses at Google have put together a search tool that allows you to search through a good portion of the books they've scanned into Google Books. Here is how it works: The service draws on the absolutely massive Google Books corpus. Google estimates they've…
FRIDAY, DEC. 17, 2010
Sante Restaurant in Downtown Spokane Offers Healthy Mix of Local Food
Sante is the French word for health. Jeremy Hansen, owner and chef of Sante Restaurant and Charcuterie exemplifies a holistic health in the way he runs his pioneering establishment next to Auntie's Bookstore in Downtown Spokane. Jeremy grew up in Spokane and has been in…
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 15, 2010
"Year of Plenty" Book Cover Design is Done
THe publisher ended up using pictures that I've taken at, or nearby my home in Spokane.
MONDAY, DEC. 13, 2010
The Agri-Culture Wars - How Complex Food Issues Turned Simple Red and Blue
There is an interestng article by Marion Nestle at Atlantic Food explaining how issues of obesity and junk-food have fallen into the well-worn ruts of American politics. Politicized? Of course they are politicized. Junk food and obesity are key indicators of political divisions in our…
SATURDAY, DEC. 11, 2010
Spokane Area Locavore Gift Giving List
The folks at Liberty Lake Farmers' Market and Slow Food Spokane River have put together a list of gift ideas for the foodies in your life that are into local food. Here's the list and thanks for including the Year of Plenty Book. Thank You…
THURSDAY, DEC. 9, 2010
From Forest to Table: The Rise of Wildcrafting in the Local Food Movement
When I read Michael Pollan's book Omnivore's Dilemma a few years ago, the chapter on foraging for mushrooms in the forest didn't capture my imagination like the other chapters on farming. At the time, there was a default mechanism in my mind that believed harvesting…
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 8, 2010
Winter Farmers' Markets A Growing Trend
Obama Foodarama has the story: The National Farmers Market Directory lists 898 Winter Farmers Markets across the US, which stay open from November through March. That's a brave 14 percent of the nation’s 6,132 Farmers Markets. (Above: The First Lady and Kass, during their historic…
TUESDAY, DEC. 7, 2010
A Video Response to Critics of the Local Food Movement
I put together a video response to critics of the local food movement. It portrays an encounter between a local food advocate and a local food skeptic. For background on this fast evolving food fight you can go here, here, and here.
MONDAY, DEC. 6, 2010
Lessons I've Learned as a First-Time Author
For the last ten months I've been on an unexpected journey writing a book based on this blog. I remember being enamored with the idea of being a writer when I was in high school. At one point in graduate school I had what I…
SATURDAY, DEC. 4, 2010
Yale Study: Best Fast Food Meals for Kids (Few and Far Between)
Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has done a great service by doing a detailed analysis of nutritional content in fast food meals for kids and the ways the foods are marketed. The reality for most parents is that fast food will play…
FRIDAY, DEC. 3, 2010
Wendell Berry | Christmas presents are no basis for relationship, love is a practice
I'm recovering from completing my Doctoral dissertation earlier in the week so I don't have a lot of inspiration for the blog right now. Between the book and the dissertation I've pumpled out 350 pages in the last 6 months. I'm looking forward to switching…
FRIDAY, NOV. 26, 2010
Study: Buy Local = 73% $$ Stays Local | Buy National Chain = 43% $$ Stays Local
It makes sense intuitively that when we buy from a locally owned store, that more money would stay in the local economy. Well, it turns out there is hard empirical evidence to support that intuition. A study commissioned by Michigan's Local First showed quite a…
THURSDAY, NOV. 25, 2010
The Onion's Guide to Surviving Thanksgiving
Here's some wisdom from the Onion for getting through the day: - To keep your mother happy, seat her directly across from her one good child who actually did something with his life. - Splurge and get the more expensive turkey; then, make sure to…
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 24, 2010
Could Your Thanksgiving Turkey be Laced With Arsenic? Short Answer - Yes
NPR has an eye opening report on the common use of roxarsone in poultry like that big Thanksgiving turkey that's thawing out in the sink right now. Roxarsone has been widely used in the poultry industry to help meat birds grow faster and to fight…
Wendell Berry, Thanksgiving, and the Pleasures of Eating
Some helpful words for a Thanksgiving feast from Wendell Berry: People who know the garden in which their vegetables have grown and know the garden is healthy will remember the beauty of the growing plants, perhaps in the dewy first light of morning when gardens…
TUESDAY, NOV. 23, 2010
Sweet Potatoes Making a Comeback at the Dinner Table
As the above chart shows, sweet potatoes at one time had a small niche in the American dining repertoire. But after WWII for, some reason they fell out of favor. It could be because we started eating so much cheese: and chicken... But there are…
MONDAY, NOV. 22, 2010
From Black Friday to Buy Nothing Day - Subverting the Consumer Culture
Friday, November 26 will be celebrated by most as a way to get the Christmas shopping season kicked-off. A lesser known way to celebrate the day after Thanksgiving is to pay homage to Buy Nothing Day. It's not that complicated. It just means buying nothing…
SATURDAY, NOV. 20, 2010
UK Gardeners Start Community Garden in a Graveyard
Go watch this lovely video that offers a window into how the Incredible Edible program in Todmorden, England is transforming the city's food culture, which happens to include a community garden popping up in a graveyard (at around 4:07 in the video.) I love the…
Washington State Artisan Cheesemaker's Battle with FDA a Case Study in Food Safety Debate
The New York Times has done a great service by writing a story on the Estrella Family Creamery in Washington State, as an example of how the current national debates about small farms and food safety land in the real world. (Go here, here, and…
FRIDAY, NOV. 19, 2010
"Year of Plenty" Book is Now On Amazon and Available for Pre-Order
I was surprised yesterday to find that Year of Plenty, the book based on this blog, now has a page at Amazon and all the other major online outlets. I guess the publisher is getting things in place even though we're still a ways out…
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 17, 2010
New USDA Farmers' Market Mapping Tool Illustrates Growth of Local Food Movement
The USDA has created a new tool to map all the 6200 farmers' markets in the U.S. The snapshot below shows a map of the country with a red dot for every farmers' market. Here's one for Washington State.
The Year of Plenty blog was created by Craig Goodwin in the winter of 2008 to chronicle the experiences of his family as they sought to consume everything local, used, homegrown or homemade. That journey was a wonderful introduction to people and movements in the Spokane area who are seeking the welfare of the community through local foods, farmers markets, community gardens, sustainable transportation, and more fulfilling and just patterns of consumption. In 2009 and beyond the blog will continue to report on these relationships and practices, all through the eyes of a family with young children. Craig manages the Millwood Farmers' Market, is a Master Food Preserver and Pastor at Millwood Presbyterian Church. Craig can be reached at goody2230@gmail.com
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