Kirsten says the purpose of her research is to get a better understanding of how people learn to buy less and what barriers and supports people have encountered while trying to voluntarily buy less. She also says:

It does not matter how long you have been buying less or how successful you have been — I am interested in learning about all the different experiences people have had. Similarly, I would like to hear from people who have chosen to buy less for a variety of reasons. You could be buying less because you are:

• Concerned about the environment
• Looking to save money or be financially independent
• Want to live a simpler, less materialistic lifestyle
• Unhappy with the influence and conduct of corporations or businesses
• Whatever the reason you choose to voluntarily buy less, I am interested in what you have to say.

In order to participate, you need to:

• be currently living in the New York City Metro area,
• have voluntarily chosen to buy less, and
• be over the age of 18.

For more information and to participate, please click here.

Kirsten says the survey takes around 15 – 25 minutes to fill out. Participation is voluntary and all information provided will be treated as confidential. She can be reached at kfirminger[AT]gc.cuny.edu or 718-238-1803.

More remains to be done. As David and Michelle Glenn, NOFA-NJ’s co-executive directors, wrote in an email to me this morning:

On Election Day, Nov. 3, voters can decide whether we will remain the Garden State or be doomed to the Strip Mall State. Now is truly the time to “choose it or lose it!”

Arugula salad with pears. Epicurious gives you several options to combine two of the items in this week’s share, from a salad that combines arugula and pears with Stilton cheese, to an option with the ingredient that I would need on a deserted island, pancetta. The extra ingredient in this latter salad is ricotta salata, which, just like regular ricotta, you can easily make at home. And I think either of these salads would be lovely with a dusting of hickory nuts.

Chinese chicken soup with greens. The Web sites of my favorite Asian cookbooks, “A Spoonful of Ginger” and “Hot Sour Salty Sweet”, are limited and hard to navigate. But both books have excellent chicken soups with greens that can be summed up as follows: Make a big pot of chicken stock, add the coarsely chopped greens of your choice, cooked noodles (I like the thin, mung bean kind), a bit of cooked chicken and a dash of fish sauce. You can build on the pungency of your greens by adding ginger or chile paste, or tamp it down a bit with Chinese black vinegar. Vegetarian? “Washoku”, a Japanese home-style cookbook I have on my shelves, uses a dashi broth with a bit of miso in place of the chicken stock.

Asian greens as a side dish: Cook up more substantial Asian noodles (soba and chow fun are good, as is a noodle I recently discovered that is made from sweet potato starch). Saute the greens lightly in a neutral oil and toss with the noodles and a bit of soy sauce. If you absolutely need a recipe, here’s one from a CSA in Tucson. You could stir fry the greens with gingery sauce.  Easier still: Mark Bittman of the New York Times paired bok choi (Pak Choi in our list) with oyster sauce.

Asian greens in the main course: Take the above, and add protein. Green Your Plate is a wonderful food blog written by a woman who belongs to a midwestern CSA. Earlier this year, she put up a very complete post on Asian greens, and it included several ideas on using them in main courses.

Enough. I’m getting hungry.

Gates spoke at the 2009 World Food Prize, an award created two decades ago to honor work like that of Nobel laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug. This year, the award went to Dr. Gebisa Ejeta, an Ethiopia native and now a professor at Purdue University who was recognized for developing drought-resistant hybrids of sorghum, a key grain in sub-Saharan Africa.

That’s important work, to be sure, but there is much more to be done to achieve food security in the Third World. So Gates, through his Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, announced that he is awarding $120 million to nine institutions around the world for agricultural research aimed at helping small farms grow more food. Just as with Borlaug’s work, not everybody is going to like the projects that Gates is sponsoring because they involve some tinkering with plant biology to improve yields. But when Gates starts targeting money at an issue, it pays to pay attention.

Gates says in his address, which I’ve excerpted below, that productivity and sustainability are not incompatible. For the full video, and a transcript, go to the Web site of the Gates Foundation.

Radishes

Arugula

Hon Tsai Tai

Pears

Mixed Leaf Lettuce

Pak Choi

Baby Leaf Lettuce

Mizspoona

Stir-fry mix (baby Kale, Yokata-Na)

Pumpkins

EXTRAS: Hickory nuts, Green Wave mustard

Thank you all for participating this year in our CSA!

Please stock up on animal protein. We will have available for purchase, seafood, chicken, and beef all on a first-come, first-served basis. Place your order by clicking on the appropriate link.

And then someone figured out what the problem was: no kale. “We can’t function without it,” somebody quipped.

Yes, 2009 has been The Year of Kale. The software behind the “What we’re writing about” box to the left of this page renders the blog’s most frequent post tags in the largest type, and the largest of the large is … drumroll, please …. kale. For those of you keeping score, we have had kale–WhiteRussian, Red, Curly, Siberian or Lacinato–in weeks 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20.

And yes, there does seem to be a connection between kale and cognitive function. Take a look at this article (headline: “Brain Food”) from Rodale’s Men’s Health magazine.

The last distribution for Upper Meadows’ 2009 CSA is just days away. I’ve got some kale stockpiled in the freezer, but not nearly enough for the winter. So I guess the bottom line is this: Don’t ask me to do any serious thinking until next spring.

Radishes

Pears

Mixed Baby Lettuce

Parsley

Dandelion/Chicory

Pumpkin

Pak Choi

Green Wave Mustard

Purple & Red Mustard

EXTRAS:
HICKORY NUTS
LETTUCE
CHIVES
GREEK OREGANO
BABY LETTUCE BUNCHES
SURPRISES!

But I do like pumpkin used in other dishes, and I’ve been trying to expand my repertoire. Two weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Serious Eats with a recipe that fit the bill: Pumpkin Turkey Chili. I know that sounds like a Thanksgiving dinner that collided with a tailgate party, but it really works. (Translation: I liked it, and the kids ate it.) The pumpkin kind of melts in with the tomato and gives the whole dish more substance, which I think you need in a poultry-based chili.

I have also finally found a gnocchi recipe that I can make without turning the potatoes to glue and, surprise, it calls for pumpkin too. The recipe’s title, Pumpkin Gnocchi with a Brown Butter Sauce, Crisped Sage and Shaved Parmigianno-Reggiano, is long, as is the process for making them.
And the recipe’s call for cinnamon and allspice will leave you scratching your head. But those slight, pumpkin pie notes elevate the gnocchi and, to my mind, make it possible to do away with a lot of fancy saucing. A nice side dish for dinner and, if you are my younger son, a breakfast choice as well.

Kale

Swiss Chard

Radishes

Baby Greens (lettuces & arugula)

Apples

EXTRAS: Parsley, Chestnuts or Hickory nuts, Collards, Squash, Lettuce, Flowers

CHICKEN WILL BE AVAILABLE AS WELL AS OUR OWN ALL-BEEF HOT DOGS. PLEASE USE THE ON LINE ORDER FORM FOR CHICKEN

Distribution ends the last week of October including November 1st. Please plan accordingly. There are a number of members who have not yet fulfilled their volunteer time commitment. Please contact your distribution coordinator directly to coordinate your volunteer time. IF you are not in a position to meet your volunteer obligation there is a ‘Buy-out’ option. This option provides very necessary dollars directly to offset labor expenses. If you want to exercise this option please click here to make an on line payment. Find the PayPal in the left column in the ‘JOIN HERE TODAY’ section, or make a payment at your next distribution.

Mount Vernon could be held up as a model organic farm, except that, in the mid-1700s, that was really the only kind of farming around. No synthetic pesticides to run off into the picturesque Potomac below, no fungicides on the fruit trees. Of course, Washington’s success as a farmer–he had 8,000 acres and was highly successful–was due in no small part to the fact that he was also a major slave owner. He freed his slaves only upon his death.

Mount Vernon today is a fraction of its old size, but several colonial-era farming practices are still in evidence. There was a deep, straw-lined manure pit next to the stables, much to the dismay of a group of visiting teenagers. And yes, I did try to explain why that was a good idea until my older son rolled his eyes and moaned “Mommmmm”. There were also several beautifully maintained garden plots, with rows of lacinato kale, cardoons, and several kinds of winter squash and cabbage.

None of which, alas, was for sale in the gift shop. But I did pocket a walnut or two.