Pablito....

I heard a program on KQED this past Saturday, a lecture by a Dr. S. Boyd Eaton discussing the genetics of human evolution, or lack thereof.  (Anytime I get to listen to a significant chunk of a radio program indicates one of two things:  It’s been raining, or something is broken and it took me a long time to fix it.)  An expert in Paleolithic Nutrition, Dr. Boyd’s basic point was how little human DNA has changed since we were Neanderthals.  And his message was pretty clear:  Our bodies were designed to eat wild foods — shoots, leaves, and wild berries.  The meat we ate back then was very lean meat, and since  we had to catch it ourselves, eating it was usually balanced by lots of exercise.

He also challenged the idea that we modern humans live longer.  While we do have a longer average life span than those of early centuries, that is true only because of two accomplishments:  Clean drinking water (i.e. — sewage treatment) and vaccination for highly contagious diseases.  By reducing infant mortality enormously, we have extended the average life expectancy by dozens of years.  (He didn’t mention whether or not the extinction of Sabertoothed tigers gives us an edge over the Neartherthals…)

Unfortunately, in other ways, 21st century human beings may be unhealthier than people at any time in history.  The diseases that kill us now — heart disease, diabetes, cancer — were probably unknown to Neanderthals.  And while he didn’t touch on cancer during the time I listened, he did make a clear statement;  Heart disease, diabetes, and other “lifestyle” diseases are a direct result of us eating foods that we are not genetically programmed to consume.  As recently as twenty years ago, it took a person a lifetime of bad eating for their diet to kill them.  Now, we are discovering that combining poor diet with a sedentary lifestyle of cars, computers and couches will probably start killing off people much earlier in their lives.  Remember, our genetic ancestors had to find and catch their food.  Now, we don’t even have to leave our cars to get it...

Refined sugar, which makes up as much as half of the calories that many people now consume in a day, was a rare and risky find for our genetic forebearers.  To get it, they had to brave beestings and raided hives for honey.  (Maybe the buzz that it gives is a result of having to run like the wind after scoring some.)  Human teeth, gums, liver, kidney, and even muscles were not designed for a constant barrage of sugar.  Same for saturated fats.

Then there are the nutrients we need.  Dr. Eaton detailed how the wild plants that provided early humans with their salad contained an average of 20 times the calcium of milk (and probably 1000 times more than iceberg lettuce) — without the fat and lactose.  Thousands of years of agricultural technology have bred fruits and vegetables that taste good, look pretty, and are easy to eat compared to their wild ancestors.  But human beings haven’t adapted to live on less nutrients.  Our unique ability to change the world to suit our needs has allowed our DNA to slack off.  And all of our medical genius will continue to compound the problem.  From an evolutionary perspective, if individuals with poor genetic survival skills reproduce before dying, their genes just keep getting passed along.

 I ‘m not a New Ager, but I have always believed that if you listen to your body, it will tell you what is good for it — and what isn’t.  Unfortunately, big food companies have spent billions and billions of dollars putting voices inside our heads so we can’t hear what our bodies are telling us.  I had been putting off watching the film “Supersize Me”, about the guy who goes on the McDonalds only diet for a month.  I figured I wouldn’t learn anything.  Instead, I learned that McDees uses the legal argument that “everyone knows that this food is bad for them”.  Funny, I’ve never seen one of their ads say that.  The film also confirmed that fast food makes people feel good while they are eating it, and then terrible afterwards.  If I was going to write a diet book, it would be one page long and it would say this — “If you feel bad every time you eat something, stop eating it.  That’s your DNA talking”.

Human DNA doesn’t change very quickly, but tastes sure do.  I am personally worried that people — over a generation or several — may lose their survival instincts vis a vis the food they eat.  For example, I have experienced teenagers who think a perfectly ripe tomato is “gross”, because they have gotten so used to tomatoes being crunchy and pink.  Could this advertising assisted push towards acceptance of only processed, refined, nutritionless foods actually succeed in eliminating fresh fruit and vegetables from the planet?  Will the next generation feed their kids “Kidfood” from a bag, bought at “KidCo” — the way we feed our pets now?  Promos for ADM’s new Soylent Green on NPR?

IN YOUR BOXES
Leeks are Terra Firma’s onions in the wet winter months.  We harvest our fall onions in August and store them in the barn, cleaning them and sending them to you as the weeks pass by.  We always hope to have onions until Christmas, but it doesn’t always work out that way.  Last year, for example, we had a partial crop failure.  This year, we had a bumper crop of onions, but they began to have problems in storage.  You may have experienced this yourself — an onion that was a little soft under the skin, or that began to mold.  We’re not sure what caused this problem; it may have been the cool weather in August, which caused the onions to take much longer than normal to cure in the field.

Anyway, we have begun to harvest our first planting of leeks and include them in your boxes.  Unlike onions, leeks thrive in the wet winter here, and we can harvest them freshly each week.  That makes them a reliable source of “onionness” for our CSA boxes.  While there are significant differences between the two, leeks and onions serve much the same purpose in cooking — as the basis and background flavor for soups, sauces, stews, and other savory dishes.  Leeks contain less water than onions, so they need to be cooked more slowly, over lower heat unless or until they are immersed in liquid.

They are less pungent than onions, so they don’t cause the chef to tear while cutting them.  However, they require considerably more cleaning than onions, since much of the edible portion grows under ground.  To encourage blanching of the stem, we hill soil around them several times during the growing season.  So before cooking, they should be thoroughly cleaned between layers.  The easiest way to do this is to cut off the leaves where they meet the stem, then cut an “X” down into the stem and rinse out the dirt.  The leaves are edible, but are best used to flavor soups or stocks, and then discarded.

Thanks,

   Pablito

Recipes............................

Butternut Muffins—  Cut a butternut in half and bake at 400 until tender.  Discard seeds and scoop out flesh to make 2 C.
In a bowl, mix 1 C. white flour, 1/2 C. corn flour, 1/2 C. whole wheat flour, 2 t. baking powder, and 1/2 C. brown sugar.  In another bowl, combine 2 eggs, 3/4 C. milk, 2 T. vegetable oil, and the squash.
Combine wet and dry ingredients in a few quick spatula strokes. Don’t overmix.
Spoon the batter into muffin tins and bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, until light brown.  For a special treat, push 2-3 frozen raspberries into each muffin before baking..

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Produce 101: preparation & storage  % — GALA APPLES in your boxes today are certified organic by Oregon Tilth TOKYO TURNIPS are edible from tip to top.  The roots can be eaten raw in salads or cooked -- they don’t need peeling.  And the greens can be sautéed, stir fried, or added to soups.  SALAD MIX & SPINACH are washed twice here at the farm, but during the wet, muddy winter you should always soak these greens once more before eating. PURPLE BROCCOLI turns green when you cook it, and apart from color is identical to regular broccoli.  Remember to peel and slice your broccoli stems and include them in whatever you cook.

Vacations & Billing Inquiries
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Contact Valerie through voicemail at (530) 756-2800, or e-mail Goldenbell@aol.com

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MAILING ADDRESS:
Terra Firma Farm
P.O. Box 836
Winters, CA 95694
(530) 756-2800
www.terrafirmafarm.com
Goldenbell@aol.com
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