8th April, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
If you’re interested in gardening, you should check out the East Urban farm Tour this Sunday, 1-5. Here’s the official link for more detials. Apparently there are 4 farms just east of I-35 near downtown that are in close proximity to each other. Tickets are $35 advance, $40 at the door, and children under 5 are free. However, there is a charge because this is a fund-raiser for the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, but many of these same farms are open for free visits during their market days. If you would like free admission, they are still seeking volunteers – email region2@tofga.org to volunteer.
And if you’re not interested in visiting the farms but would like to learn more about them, check out this Chronicle link. They also have info on each farm (Boggy Creek Farm, Rain Lily Farm, Springdale Farm, and HausBar Farm).
5th April, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
This is a neat story from NPR about window farming – the article explains that “window farmers use recycled 1.5 liter water bottles, clay pellets, plastic tubing and inexpensive fish tank air pumps to create their indoor gardens.”
Check out the link for pictures of the window farms, but basically it’s a really cool way to grow leafy vegetables in an apartment with a series of clear bottles hanging down your window – it’s just this really pretty display of bottles and greenery, and the materials for a start up system are around $30.
22nd March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
This is old news to most, but a new grocery store opened in North Austin a few months ago, Sprout’s Farmers Market. Not to be confused by our recent comparison of the farmer’s markets in Austin, Sprouts is not really a farmer’s market, but a grocery store that says they specialize in fresh produce, using local when possible. I went a couple of weeks ago and thought the produce did look really fresh, and they had a good variety of organic packaged food and environmentally friendly cleaners. It was similar to Whole Foods, but much smaller and less crowded, and compared to the Whole Foods in North Austin, it was easier to navigate through the parking lot. I would recommend checking it out if you don’t feel like dealing with the crowds at Whole Foods and HEB and you need fresh fruits and veggies. 
19th March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
The HOPE (Helping Other People Everywhere) Farmer’s Market is a fairly new market on the eastside that opened in October. It’s every Sunday from 11-3 at Waller and 5th. I recently bought a Groupon that included vouchers to use there, some yoga classes, and a reuseable bag, so I stopped by for the first time the other day to use the vouchers and check the place out. I found the market to be full of interesting stuff, and I will definitely go back regularly. However, it’s a bit of a misnomer, since there was a limited amount of actual fresh produce. It’s more of a community market, with a little bit of farmers market thrown in. I only saw a couple stands that sold veggies, but the ones they did have were plentiful and very fresh. I bought some kale and collard greens from the Finca Pura Vida stand, and both have been very hardy and tasty. All the other stands had other items of interest, including prepared foods, tea, clothing, soap, recycled yarn, jewelry, candles, etc. They also have free yoga, provided by Empower Yoga at 12 and 1, which I will have to try out soon. I liked the variety of items, and the atmosphere and location were very fun. But if it’s a variety of produce and produce vendors you’re looking for, I think the Austin Farmer’s Market downtown is going to be your best bet.
18th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments
I went with some friends a couple of weekends ago to the Downtown Farmer’s Market. I had never been before and thought it was a really fun experience, and had a great time. There were a ton of people there, causally shopping, eating delicious breakfast foods, and relaxing in the sun. I would say there were probably at least 40 different stands there, and the variety was really great. There were a lot of fresh vegetables, a lot of stands serving hot food, and a few stands with odds and ends, like composting equipment, plants for sale, and honey. There was so much I wanted to buy, but I ended up getting a basil plant, some local honey, and a few amazing tamales. Located at Republic Square Park, 422 W. Guadalupe at 4th and Guadalupe, it’s right in the middle of downtown and is a great place to enjoy a Saturday morning outside. I would highly recommend checking it out – it’s really nice that the Austin community has this. Here are some pictures from my visit, and remember to check back tomorrow for Carsi’s review of the HOPE Farmer’s Market
17th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments
This is the first of 3 posts about farmer’s markets in Austin. (Check back tomorrow for our review of the Downtown Farmer’s Market!) Some general information about the benefits of buying from farmer’s markets can be found here, but juts a few of the environmental benefits are:
They help reduce the miles the food travels, thus reducing pollution.
They encourage using less packaging.
They encourage environmentally friendly production practices, such as organic and pesticide free.
Carsi and I went to the Farmer’s Market at the Triangle last December. The Triangle Farmer’s Market takes place each Wednesday. Neither of us had been before, and we wanted to check it out and eventually get to all 3 farmer’s markets in Austin and compare them. I ended up buying some green bell peppers and 2 tacos. There were probably about 10-15 stands, and there wasn’t much to choose from – it was a little disappointing. But the lack of stands was probably in large part due to the time of year and the low temperatures. I’d like to check it out again now that it’s warmer and see if it’s any bigger.
If it’s on the way home from work and you need some veggies and aren’t picky about needing something specific for dinner that night, it’s a nice way to support local farmers!
the row of stands
peppers!
15th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I’ve always wanted backyard chickens for the fresh eggs, but according to this Statesman article, while Austin currently allows an unlimited number of roosters and chickens per household, city officials may be considering a change. I think the irritation of neighbors dealing with multiple roosters crowing next door at all hours is understandable – but hopefully the rules won’t change so drastically that roosters AND chickens will be banned from backyards.
The article notes that “[a]dvocates say chickens should be raised locally, as opposed to in industrial poultry operations criticized by animal rights activists.” City officials have stated that the city already prohibits pets that disturb neighbors and neighbors are free to report noisy roosters to the police, but that “[t]he police always have a quandary in a city where serious crime and even murders take place…They have to be judicious about how much attention is paid to things like quality-of-life issues.” The Statesman article notes that city council will probably consider the matter this Spring.
4th March, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments
If you are interested in planting your own garden this spring, check out this Travis County planting calendar to figure out what will grow best at this time of year – what better way to eat local than to grow your own veggies!
3rd March, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
As you may know by now, Austin Restaurant Week is here! Today is the last day to go this week, and it will resume next week from the 7th through the 10th. Lots of fancy local restaurants provide fixed price meals costing $10 – $15 for lunch and $25 – $35 for dinner. This is a great way to try out some of the pricier places around town for not as much cash as you would normally spend there. Plus, 5% of the sales from Restaurant Week goes to the Sustainable Food Center, which is a wonderful organization dedicated to strengthening the local food system and improving access to nutritious, affordable food. Be sure to try out some of the restaurants that utilize local food in their menus.
26th February, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Here’s a cool idea for a hanging garden I saw at the San Antonio Rodeo – all you need is an old canvas shoe organizer. You can grow small plants in each little shoe compartment, such as herbs.
This seems perfect for someone living in an apartment – my only concern is that it may dry out too quickly in the Texas summer sun, so a spot that only gets partial sun may work best. I also found this website with more tips on this project.
26th February, 2010 - Posted by carsi - 1 Comment
The other day, I dropped by Daily Juice to grab a salad for lunch. This place has delicious smoothies, but the food there is also really good, if a bit expensive. I had the Avocado Caesar, which didn’t taste much like a caesar salad, but it was tasty, vegan, and raw. The raw food movement is something I’m pretty unfamiliar with, but some people are pretty into it. These people believe in eating only an uncooked, unheated, unprocessed, and organic plant based diet. This belief centers around the idea that raw foods have more nutritional benefits than foods that have been cooked. There are some drawbacks to this type of diet, including the possibility of food poisoning, nutritional deficiencies, and the fact that some foods, like carrots and tomatoes, release more nutrients when cooked. Check out the Wikipedia entry on raw foodism if you want more basic info. Also, Daily Juice has a list of recommended reading on their website if you’d like to delve deeper into the topic. If any of our readers have tried out or are currently practicing this kind of diet, feel free to share your experiences and thoughts on the topic.
23rd February, 2010 - Posted by carsi - 6 Comments
Katherine and I shared Greenling’s Local Box a few weeks back, and I used most of the ingredients in the following delicious meal. I got this recipe from the weekly Greenling email providing a recipe or two for the contents of the Local Box. I feel like I am always making recipes that are some variation on rice and veggies mixed together, but this one is better than most. The broccoli pesto is so tasty, and I had extra that I’m going to save to use as a salad dressing. For the quinoa, I made a box of it that came with spices to add to it, so that probably added extra flavor. Although I’m sure the recipe would be fine using regular unflavored quinoa, my boxed quinoa turned out really yummy. Also, instead of regular garlic cloves, I substituted in the green garlic that came in my Local Box. I sliced up some avocado to serve on top, but I didn’t make the chili sauce. Let me know if you do!
Ingredients:
- 3 cups cooked quinoa*
- 5 cups raw broccoli, cut into small florets and stems
- 3 medium garlic cloves
- 2/3 cup sliced or slivered almonds, toasted
- 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 2 big pinches salt
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
Optional toppings: slivered basil, fire oil (optional)**, sliced avocado, crumbled feta or goat cheese
Instructions:
Heat the quinoa and set aside.
Now barely cook the broccoli by pouring 3/4 cup water into a large pot and bringing it to a simmer. Add a big pinch of salt and stir in the broccoli. Cover and cook for a minute, just long enough to take the raw edge off. Transfer the broccoli to a strainer and run under cold water until it stops cooking. Set aside.
To make the broccoli pesto puree two cups of the cooked broccoli, the garlic, 1/2 cup of the almonds, Parmesan, salt, and lemon juice in a food processor. Drizzle in the olive oil and cream and pulse until smooth.
Just before serving, toss the quinoa and remaining broccoli florets with about 1/2 of the broccoli pesto. Taste and adjust if needed, you might want to add more of the pest a bit at a time, or you might want a bit more salt or an added squeeze of lemon juice. Turn out onto a serving platter and top with the remaining almonds, a drizzle of the chile oil, and some sliced avocado or any of the other optional toppings.
Serves 4 – 6.
*To cook quinoa: rinse one cup of quinoa in a fine-meshed strainer. In a medium saucepan heat the quinoa, two cups of water (or broth if you like), and a few big pinches of salt until boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until water is absorbed and quinoa fluffs up, about 15 minutes. Quinoa is done when you can see the curlique in each grain, and it is tender with a bit of pop to each bite. Drain any extra water and set aside.
**To make the red chile oil: You’ll need 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil and 1 1/2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes. If you can, make the chile oil a day or so ahead of time by heating the olive oil in a small saucepan for a couple minutes – until it is about as hot as you would need it to saute some onions, but not so hot that it smokes or smells acrid or burned. Turn off the heat and stir in the crushed red pepper flakes. Set aside and let cool, then store in refrigerator. Bring to room temp again before using.
22nd February, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
Getting in line for deliciousness
On Friday, Katherine and I and a couple other local-food-loving friends went to Greenling’s monthly Local Food Tasting Soiree at Rio’s Brazillian Cafe. So fun! Free entry, free beer and wine, free delicious and healthy food, and just an all around fun atmosphere. The event was an optional pot luck, and while I didn’t bring anything, quite a few people prepared creative and yummy dishes, along with the food provided by the restaurant. The idea of the soirees is to vote on the most creative, best tasting, and healthiest dishes around, which will all be collected and put into Greenling’s upcoming seasonal local food recipe book. Keep an eye out for the next soiree by following Greenling on facebook or reading their weekly newsletter.
19th February, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 3 Comments
I recently tried out the new Torchy’s Tacos location on Spicewood Springs. Torchy’s is part of the Go Local program Carsi wrote about, which promotes local Austin businesses. Additionally, Torchy’s buys all of its food products from local Texas-based businesses (with the exception of their green chili’s from New Mexico), so it’s a cool business to support. I went on a Saturday afternoon around 3:00 and it was still packed at that hour. It was worth the wait though -I had the fried avocado taco for $3.25 and it was a delicious, inexpensive lunch. The employees there were very friendly even though they were up to their hips in taco orders, and the restaurant was very clean.
5 stars!
18th February, 2010 - Posted by carsi - 2 Comments
Saving money by buying local–how great is that? The Go Local card gets you discounts at a ton of local businesses, which not only saves you money but supports the Austin economy and saves paper by replacing paper coupons with this one card. It’s only $10 and is good for an entire year with no restrictions on how many times you can use it at any place. You can buy your own card at the Austin Farmer’s Market on Sundays downtown or at most of the businesses that accept them.
16th February, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
Carsi had mentioned that the last time she got the Greenling box it was too much food for her to use, so we decided to split up everything from one delivery. This all happened in January, so I’m sure the contents of the boxes are different now, but we each got 3 potatoes, 1 lemon, 1 orange, 1 tomato, and some garlic root. In addition, I got a bunch of kale and a box of salad, and Carsi got a bunch of spinach and some broccoli. You don’t get to pick what’s delivered to you, it’s just what’s in season and available. Carsi found out a few days before delivery what we would be getting for the week.
My initial reaction was disappointment at the quantity I got for the price. We split the cost so it ended up being $17 for this (minus 1 potato and 1 green onion which had already been used when I took this picture):
I know that supporting local, organic farmers is admirable, but I think it’s just too expensive for me to do every week. Additionally you don’t know what you are going to get till a couple of days before and my struggle was to find recipes so that I didn’t waste anything. I did think though that the flavor of the kale, green onion, and garlic root were really great, but I’m not a foodie by any means so I can’t say if it was better than what I would get at H.E.B.
As I mentioned, it was a little bit more challenging to plan meals around using up everything in the box, as opposed to just deciding what I am going to cook for the week and going out and buying what I need. Since that’s part of the challenge of using the Greenling boxes, Carsi and I both thought it would be interesting to document whether we were able to use up everything in the box. It was difficult to make use of everything, but also sort of fun.
Here’s what happened with everything from my half of the Greenling box:
My husband made me a great egg scrambler for breakfast with a potato and a green onion mixed in – the green onion had a delicious flavor.
I had been nervous about what to do with the kale – I’ve never purchased kale before and only had it a few times. But my mother has used it in a recipe she found online for the soup they make at Olive Garden. I used this recipe I found online here and modified it a little to this:
1 lb ground Italian sausage (hot, from Whole Foods, $5.99/lb)
½ tsp crushed red peppers
1 medium diced white onion
2 stems of diced garlic root
6 cups of chicken broth
2 cups of water
1/4 cup heavy cream
½ cup 1% milk
3 red potatoes
Entire bunch of kale
Sautee Italian sausage and crushed red pepper in pot. Drain excess fat, refrigerate while you prepare other ingredients. In the same pan, sauté onion and garlic for approximately 10 minutes. Add broth and water. Bring to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until soft, abut 20 minutes. Add heavy cream and milk. Stir in the sausage and kale and cook until heated. It was very easy and my husband said it was the best soup I have ever made.
cooking onions and garlic
after cream and milk have been added
finished!
I also used the lemon and green onions to make a chicken lemon soup recipe I’ve made before, but I had to buy 2 more lemons to make the recipe, plus all the other ingredients. I used the salad mix and tomato for dinner one night after work – since it was packaged in a plastic container and already cut up, I assumed it was washed. I thought about washing it because it looked slightly suspicious, but I was tired and just divided it into two bowls with sliced tomato and avocado on it. After my husband ate most of his salad, he asked if I had washed it first. It was at that point I noticed dirt on the salad leaf I was about to eat. I checked and the information that came with the veggie box said that it was ready to eat…he ate the rest of his salad anyway but I wasn’t interested in it after that. Finally, I ate the orange for lunch – very tasty – and used up the rest of the garlic root for a chicken dish.
So in conclusion, I wasn’t crazy about the experience, but I may try splitting the Greenling box with Carsi sometime in the future. We all have different measures of what we are willing to do for the environment, and for me, while I really like the idea of local, organic produce, I’m not willing to pay that much each week for it at this point, especially since I could go to one of the Austin farmer’s markets and be able to choose what I’m paying for.
16th February, 2010 - Posted by carsi - 3 Comments
I started using Greenling after I saw it listed as the Best Local Food Company in the Chronicle’s Best of Austin list. They deliver everyday groceries, and they also provide a Local Box, which is awesome. It’s a box of locally and sustainably grown fruits and vegetables that are in season, fresh, and yummy. It’s just like a CSA box except it comes from lots of different farms, so there is always a variety. Also, you don’t have to commit to getting a Local Box each week for six months or anything like that; you can sign up to get it just once or however often works for you. Each time I get a box, I’ve enjoyed the challenge of making dishes with food I normally wouldn’t have purchased. Eggplant, black eyed peas, radishes, wax beans, interesting squashes, some weird melons, persimmons, bok choy, etc. I like that it’s local, I like that it’s from organic and sustainable farms, I like that it forces me to step outside of my normal cooking box. One drawback is that it’s a bit too much for just one person. When I get the box, I am usually excited and a little overwhelmed. I don’t want to be wasteful, but I also have no idea what to do with a lot of the stuff or the time to cook and eat it all. It might be a good idea to share the box with a friend if you are single or don’t think you’ll be cooking a lot that week. Also, I am a fan of Greenling on Facebook, and each week they post a video with the contents of the boxes, so that is helpful in guiding what recipes I use. However sometimes what they deliver is slightly different than what’s in the video. Whether I can plan ahead or not, I usually end up having to go to the grocery store anyway to get other items to round out a recipe. I would recommend trying out the Local Box–it’s a challenge and a good way to get a variety of healthy local foods delivered to your door.
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