The James Beard Foundation has up a list of trends for the coming year from a chef's perspective. They include: New Nordic Pantry Chefs are hopping on the Noma-inspired New-Nordic-Cuisine train and are reaching for these ingredients: sea buckthorn (a tart orange berry), wood sorrel…
I stumbled across a few articles this week that offer some helpful thoughts on the New Year. Anne Lamott offers some good advice at Sunset Magazine where she implores us to find time for creative expression. Lamott is one of my writing inspirations. I just…
In all of our local eating exploits it has never once dawned on me to trap and eat the squirrels that frolick in our back yard, but Melany Vorass in Seattle has done that and more. This according to the Seattle Times: In a city…
This is a long overdue. As reported by Detroit News: The United States has ended a 30-year tax subsidy for corn-based ethanol that cost taxpayers $6 billion annually, and ended a tariff on imported Brazilian ethanol. Congress adjourned for the year on Friday, failing to…
I have an article that posted today at CNN's Belief Blog that explores what we're learning as we follow the Orthodox Nativity fast. Go here to read it. Go here for the description of our food & faith project. The article title is a little…
A friend passed along this interesting visualization of the world's calorie consumption. Below is a screen grab showing the U.S. leading the pack in calories consumed. It's interesting to see that the whole western world appears to be eating too many calories while much of…
A recent ruling from the World Trade Organization has got me feeling like I need to initiate an "Occupy Your Grocery Store" movement. The WTO has declared that current U.S. food country-of-origin labeling laws for meat and produce are "illegal." Bloomberg News reports: Canada and…
This from the Associated Press: Congress wants to keep pizza and french fries on school lunch lines, fighting back against an Obama administration proposal to make school lunches healthier. The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the…
Alongside their Architecture and Water Fun badges, Girl Scouts can now get a Locavore badge by learning about local food and cooking up a meal with local ingredients. According to Alisha Niehaus, Executive Editor, Program Resources: "All of our badges reflect what today’s girls said…
This week saw the final harvest of our garden. There is a small mountain of potatoes, tomatillos, green tomatoes, cucumbers, and spaghetti squash in the garage. It got me thinking about what the dollar value of this year's harvest and I came across this infographic…
I tend to focus on food on this blog but the wider context is consumerism and gaining awareness of how our products get to market, and how people and land are impacted for good and for ill on that journey. My assumption is that the…
Gary and So Angell from Rocky Ridge Ranch are offering an 20-week winter CSA starting the first week of November and going up to Christmas. After a break it starts back up the first week of March and goes through the end of May. You…
John Muir's writing and approach to life have had a big influence on the way I see the world. Muir is the iconic naturalist who helped pioneer the concept of national parks, founded the Sierra Club, and shaped the early contours of America's appreciation for…
One of my hobbies this year has been to learn about edible wild plants. The spring season was abundant with porcini mushrooms and fiddlehead ferns but the heat of summer slowed my outdoor foraging adventures to a halt. Most of the edible green plants are…
This is worth watching.
An enterprising restaurant in New York has developed a farm to table garden on the dormant construction lot next to their location. According to a Fast Company article, "The farm now contains 7,400 milk crates and over 100 types of plants. Riverpark currently gets about…
Last week at the farmers' market someone responded to the prospect of buying a package of dried lentils by saying, "I couldn't do that. Lentils are like my Kryptonite." A few years ago I might have agreed with him but during our year of local…
New Scientist is reporting that oil-seed rape (aka canola) has escaped cultivated land and become a tenacious weed. The battle against weeds is an age-old story, but this new problem comes with a twist. These "feral" canola plants have acquired a resistance to two of…
The Spokane County Fair is a wonderful educational opportunity for children and a great way for connecting with others around important and meaningful skills. You can enter photographs, vegetables, animals, crafts, homebrewed beer, and more. Go here for the scoop on the competitions. While most…
Here's a VFYG submission from Cat. You can read more about her garden at her blog Growing on the Swan Slough. I was practically raised in the farmers market scene, coming along with my mom while she sold her homemade soap and home harvested honey…
I'm reading Scripture, Culture, and Agriculture: An Agrarian Reading of the Bible by Ellen Davis. In the book she argues that agrarian perspectives offer a helpful lens through which to understand the Bible, especially the Old Testament. She writes; "agrarianism is the way of thinking…
The SFGate has the story on what some people are calling the "Slow Bike Movement." The gist of the trend is that instead of getting suited up in spandex, leaning over your aerodynamic racing bike, and starting the day covered in sweat more bike commuters…
Northwest Food News has a great story on NPRabout mushroom hunters. I love the quote that Guy uses to open the piece: Many cultures, including our own, once considered hunting mushrooms aberrant behavior. They are, after all, a sometimes filthy and occasionally deadly fungus. William…
The United Nations has released their World and Economic Social Survey for 2011 and on cue from myblog post a few days ago about the need for and emphasis on food self-sufficiency to address global food crises, the report states: ...the main policy focus on…
Deer Park and Kettle Falls have recently been asked to change their zoning ordinances to allow backyard chickens within their city limits. After public meetings and planning commission deliberations, the city council of Deer Park chose last night to take no action to allow backyard…
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
| Dec. 2011 | Nov. 2011 | Oct. 2011 | Sept. 2011 |
| Aug. 2011 | July 2011 | June 2011 | May 2011 |
| April 2011 | March 2011 | Feb. 2011 | Jan. 2011 |
