Easy All Natural Spaghetti Recipe

Spaghetti from scratch is a lot easier to make than most people would imagine.  It's great because it's an easy one to make from 100% local/natural/organic ingredients, and it's even better the day after you make it.  Here's how I make mine.

I collected tomatoes from my tomato plants all week.  I have found that Italian strains of many vegetable species excel in my area.  For instance, Rosa Bianca eggplant, Roma tomatoes, and Italian Rose beans are some of my favorites.  Most of the tomatoes that I used are Roma, but I supplemented with Black Krim and a few others.  I cut each tomato in half and tossed them in a pot on low-medium heat.  In all, I used about 6 cups of halved tomatoes.  I added about 1 cup of water for them to simmer in.  Add seasoning to your taste.  I like to go heavy-handed with whole peppercorns.  I also add a dash of salt and a tablespoon of honey.  Add a dash of balsamic vinegar.  Later on, I'll add fresh herbs.  Cover the pot, and stir occasionally.

I browned 1 pound of ground beef with ground pepper and chopped garlic.  Drain the fat and mix into the tomato mixture.  Turn the heat to medium.  Mix together and mash the tomatoes a bit.  They should liquefy somewhat as you stir in the beef.

Here is where I get kind of creative with my ingredients.  Basically, I just clear veggies out of my fridge and throw them in the pot.  I really like using mushrooms, peppers, squash, and eggplant.  I've even tried beans, which I thought was great, but wasn't very popular with the boyfriend.  Add lots of garlic and fresh herbs.  Oregano, basil, and scallions are my favorites.  Tonight, I used some cubes of pesto that I had frozen in an ice cube tray.  I used 3 cubes of pesto.  (My pesto ingredients were just olive oil, garlic, and fresh basil.)  I like to add about 1 glass of red wine to my stomach while I cook, and 1 more to the sauce while it simmers.

Gradually turn the heat up to medium-high as the pot gets full of ingredients.  Let it simmer for as long as your stomach allows.  The sauces get richer and more flavorful the longer they cook-- just make sure that it doesn't burn as you turn the heat up.  Enjoy with noodles the same night, and make sure to leave enough for lunch or dinner the next day.

I Found Out What Happened to Los Tres Hermanos Grocery

I grew up in Atlanta, Georgia.  When I was a teenager, it seemed as though there was a Mexican grocery store in practically every neighborhood.  Atlanta had many Hispanic communities, so it made sense that these chains of grocery stores were so successful.  I moved out of Atlanta in 2009 to go to college.  I rarely went home during my first year away from my motherland.  Honestly, I didn't start feeling homesick until 2011.  During my frequent visits to Atlanta in 2011, I gradually realized that former Mexican grocery stores were no longer in business.  I always assumed that they had lost their markets or given way to competitors, but I recently found out that there's a more complicated reason for the closure of Los Tres Hermanos groceries.  It involves the Tyson corporation and exploitation of human workers in industrial food manufacturing.  Naturally, I was intrigued.

Steve Striffler explained the history behind Los Tres Hermanos in Chicken: the dangerous transformation of America's favorite food.  To understand why the groceries closed, you must know a little bit about food production in the USA.  Amador Anchondo-Rascon is a Mexican immigrant who slipped the border to pursue agricultural work in California.  Finding season work and high living expenses, he eventually moved to Florida where married and became a US citizen.  In 1990, he began working for the Tyson corporation in Shelbyville, Tennessee.  Shelbyville experienced a boom in its Hispanic population in following years.

Amador opened the first Los Tres Hermanos in Shelbyville.  In addition to selling groceries, he sold illegal documents for immigrants.  Striffler says, "If a town's Latino population is large enough to support a Los Tres Hermanos, then it is almost certain that this sort of store will either provide these kinds of services or know where to arrange for them."   His business was so successful that he became a wealthy man who owned 5 homes, until some of the false documents caught the attention of local authorities.  He sold illegal documents to undercover INS agents.  Subsequently, he cooperated with the authorities and confided that Tyson offered him up to $200 "recruitment fees" if he furnished illegal workers with false documents.  In a sting, a Tyson executive asked Amador and an undercover agent to provide 2,000 illegal Guatemalans with documents.  They were offered either $100 or $200 per head.

According to United States Justice Department, 15 Tyson plants conspired to smuggle and provide illegal documentation for Mexican immigrants.  They exploited the workers' fear of deportation to force them to work intolerable conditions for low wages.  A meat-packing supervisor even expressed that he preferred his workers "right off the bus."  Initially, the senior vice president of the Tyson corporation denied the company's involvement with immigrant smuggling.  Three Tyson managers eventually confessed, and one committed suicide.  Ultimately the case passed without much distinction.  Although the company was caught paying for large numbers of illegals workers (fortified by 3 confessions), the highest levels of management were able to evade the accusations.

Ultimately, small business owners like Amador pay the price for the corruption of the Tyson corporation.  The case and publicity force small businesses to close, an additional grievance on top of the exploitation of immigrant workers.  However, I would be willing to bet that you didn't hear about Tyson's transgressions in the news nor did their business suffer as result of their actions.

St. Catherine's Island

St. Catherine's Island is one of Georgia's barrier islands that sits between the mainland and the open ocean.  It has an enthralling history as it was inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years before it was colonized.  In fact, shell circles facing the sea are still visible.  The location of the shell circles has a distinctively soothing atmosphere.  Perhaps this is a relic of the people past or maybe it's the reason they selected this space for their ceremonies.  Additionally, St. Catherine's Island is the site of the first Christian church in the United States.

The island is about 50 miles south of Savannah- the drive takes about an hour.  However, the island is only accessible by boat.  Although it's a private island, I was able to tour the entire thing with a salt marsh ecology class.  Staff from the island picked us up and ferried us across before turning us loose on the island with some antiquated trucks.  If you're not lucky enough to get invited on a tour, don't fret.  Although the island is private, its beaches are public.  You may not be able to check out the interior of the island, but you can still enjoy the beaches if you can find a boat to take you to them.  Any one you can get to it, St. Catherine's hosts possibly the most beautiful beach in Georgia.

Possession of the island changed handy many times, especially in the colonial era.  At one point it was a plantation.  It's rumored that student interns are housed in the old slave quarters.  I found the plantation history of the island especially interested because of my interest in both historical and modern methods for producing food.  Remnants of relics like hog ditches reveal time-tested strategies for maintaining crops.

This photograph shows me looking across the marsh with binoculars.  The beaches at St. Catherine's are surrounded by salt marsh dominated by smooth cordgrass.  Wildlife is abundant in the marsh, and contains a number of unique species like diamondback terrapins.  Salt marshes are characterized by vertical zonation which means that species are found in bands of distribution according to the vertical distance from the water.

St. Catherine's has live oak forests beyond the salt marsh.  Within a very close proximity, you can see 3 distinct ecosystems: the marine environment, the salt marsh habitat, and the hardwood forest.

This is a piece of driftwood that I found on the beach.  I thought it had an exceptionally beautiful pattern.  Because the beaches can only be accessed by boat, they are virtually untouched.

Diamondback Terrapins in the News

This morning, the Savannah Morning News featured an article about diamondback terrapins on the front page.  Diamondback terrapins are a protected species of turtle in the state of Georgia, but TERPS (Terrapin Educational Research Program of Savannah) has observed a rapid decrease in their estimated population size.  The article was written by Mary Landers, who met with me and Andrew Neidlinger to collect some information about the turtles and watch us release 4 captive baby turtles.  The article is available online, and includes a video interview with Andrew.  Here's the link for it.
http://savannahnow.com/news/2013-06-23/crossing-us-80-treacherous-trip-savannah-nesting-turtles#.Uch_G9hByjc

It's a fortuitous day for the turtles for sure.  Not only are they in the news today, Andrew, Samuel Peabody, and I collected a dozen eggs from wild females last night.  We will hatch them in captivity, conduct research on them, and release them next summer.  Here is a photo of one of the clutches of eggs.

We collected data from the wild females that we caught, and marked them before releasing them.  One of the females was actually a survivor of a traffic accident.  We could see damage on her shell, but obviously she is continuing to thrive in her natural habitat.  Click on the link above to read Mary Landers's article and watch a video of Andrew's interview.  You might even see me as I release some of the baby turtles.

Guide to Savannah Area Farmers Markets, Part 2: Bethesda Farm Stand

The next market I want to talk about for my Guide to Savannah Area Farmers Markets is a very stark contrast to the Forsyth Farmers Market.  The Bethesda Farm Stand is a totally different pace from the Forsyth market; it's way quieter and more remote.  The Bethesda Academy for Boys originated as an orphanage in 1740.  Now it is a boarding school where kids come for classes and live during the week, but go home on weekends.  One of the school's programs includes an on site organic farm that grows produce, raises free-range egg-laying chickens, and breeds Nigerian dwarf goats.  They use the goats' milk to make soap through a partnership with Nourish.  They sell produce, eggs, soap, and fresh flowers at the farm stand.

Bethesda's prices are reasonable and the quality is exceptional.  Another advantage of visiting the farm stand is that it's usually not too crowded, whereas the Forsyth market is consistently thronging.  At Forsyth, it's nearly impossible to get in and get out quickly with your groceries, but it's easy to shop at your own pace (whether that be in a rush or taking your time) at Bethesda.  Also, you can practically hear the goats and chickens from the stand.  It's refreshing to to be in such close proximity to the source of the food that you're buying.

Another great quality of the stand is that it's in a pretty unique location.  To my knowledge, there are no other markets or organic groceries in this neighborhood.  It's very convenient for people in both Sandly and Southside Savannah.  It's only a 10 minute drive from both Savannah State University and Armstrong Atlantic State University, so it's very accessible to students.  Check out the Bethesda Farm Stand on Thursdays from 3:00-5:30 in the afternoon.  Here's the link.

http://www.bethesdaacademy.org/academics/work-experience/bethesda-farm-gardens/

Why I Killed a Chicken on Friday

I killed a chicken on Friday because I wanted to prove to myself that I really am ok with eating meat.  I recently read a book called Chicken: The dangerous transformation of America's favorite food by Steve Striffler which discusses the commercial methods for raising, butchering, and selling chicken as an industrial product.  After reading this book, I realized that I am uninterested in supporting industrial chicken manufacturers and that I'd rather grow my own or purchase meat from small scale local farmers.  Unfortunately, buying pasture-raised chicken from local farmers can get expensive.  Realistically, I'd like to raise my own.  Before investing in a coop and some birds, I wanted to make sure that I could stomach the process of killing and cooking my own food.

There are many reasons why industrial chicken is less healthy and less humane than free range, organic fed chickens.  Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) certainly don't keep the animals' welfare in mind.  According to Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal Vegetable Miracle, "If you can envision one thousand chickens in your bathroom, in cages stacked to the ceiling, you're honestly getting the picture.  (Actually a six-foot by eight room could house 1,152)"  CAFOs also use methods like antibiotics and hormones to produce plump birds fast.  Operations like these not only exploit the chickens, but also their laborers.  They seem to have neither the animals', laborers', nor customers' safety in mind.

That being said, I love eating meat, especially chicken.  Although the animals obviously have to die to produce meat, I feel better about consuming meat that I know lived a happy, natural existence and died in the least painful way possible.  So I learned to slaughter and dress a chicken from a one year old free range rooster at my job on an organic farm.  He lived with about 300 hens and was the king of the roost until his spurs began growing in.  When his spurs started growing, he became more like the dictator of the roost.  He got increasingly aggressive with both the hens and the people on the farm.  So we decided that it was time to overthrow this dictator rooster.

We put him upside down in a cone and cut the arteries in his neck so he would bleed out quickly.  If you sever the esophagus by cutting too deeply or removing the head, they struggle to breathe while they bleed out and this causes additional pain and panic to the bird.  While he died, I felt a distinct sadness for the animal and the process that I was apart of.  It certainly wasn't a pleasant experience, but it was a respectful and peaceful one.  We'll be cooking him in a coq au vin recipe this week.  After having this experience, I will not stop eating meat, but I will have a greater appreciation for the animals that produce it.

Guide to Savannah Area Farmers Markets, Part 1: Forsyth Farmers Market

If you ask anyone in Savannah about the Forsyth Farmers Market, they'll probably be happy to tell you about the farmers market.  This market is certainly well-loved in the community and is the best known and most widely attended farmers market in the greater Savannah area.  It's popular for good reasons.  The Forsyth Farmers Market ensures that the products it sells area organic and the market does not permit resale.  It also takes place in iconic Forsyth Park, which is both beautiful and historically significant.  It's also a central location- easily accessible for urban pedestrians.  For these reasons, the Forsyth Farmers Market is a natural first in an upcoming installation of posts about this region's markets.

One of my favorite things about farmers markets is how they cultivate healthy communities.  This one is certainly no exception.  In fact, I'd say it goes above and beyond in multiple ways.  In the United States, it is commonly accepted that impoverished communities suffer diminished health as a result of dietary factors.  Even NBC News acknowledges this fact in an article entitled "Living in poor neighborhood can hurt health."  There's the link if ya don't believe me.  There are certainly many causes for poor health in a community, but access to fresh and healthful foods is crucial for maintaining a healthy body.  Impoverished neighborhoods don't often provide access to these types of food, especially for those that walk or ride public transit.

The Forsyth Market accommodates these under-served individuals in several significant ways.  Anyone can purchase directly from the farm stands with cash, but the market also provides a service for those paying with a card.  If you use a regular debit or check card, you get tokens equivalent to the dollar amount that you choose to spend.  If you pay with EBT (essentially the new face of food stamps and other government benefits), you get twice the token value of the dollar amount you spend.  I'm proud to support a market that makes quality food affordable for anyone, despite the caveat of serving luxury organic products.  How's that for cultivating healthy change??

Speaking of cultivation, this market ensures that buyers (anyone who visits the market with money to spend) connect directly with growers.  The market forbids resale.  Resale occurs when a distributor purchases goods from a grower or even another middleman and then sells them to the public.  While this is not an inherently bad method of doing business, it creates a separation between the grower and the customer.  Banning resale makes farmers directly accountable to their customers and keeps the produce local.

Whether you live in the town or visit, the Savannah experience is incomplete without visiting the Forsyth Farmers Market.  Check it out this summer on Saturdays from 9:00 am until 1:00 pm.  You'll love the fresh flavor of local veggies, meat, honey, and more and you'll feel good about supporting the people who grow them.  Plus, look how gorgeous these fresh veggies are!

Here's the link if you want some information about the market directly from the source.
http://forsythfarmersmarket.com/