A LITTLE MORE ABOUT FOOD…
Different people seem to have different reactions to the news that a pair of overweight teenagers in New York are suing McDonalds for their weight problems.  Some people focus on the overly litigious nature of our society — a point that I have sympathy for, but ultimately don’t agree with.  Corporations and their supporters love to say that individuals have choices about what they do, but the reality is that most “consumer education” in our society consists of watching expensive ads for competing products and deciding which one better fits your personal image.  Children have fast food pushed on them from an early age at every corner; and when fast food corporations spend millions and millions of dollars on “secret” ingredients that hook people on their unhealthy.  Parents can do everything in their power, short of taping their kids’ mouths closed when they leave the house, to steer them towards a healthy diet .  But when those kids leave the safety of home and are in a peer environment, we all know what they are going to eat.  Calling these brainwashed youngsters “individuals with a choice” is simply irresponsible.  And when an entire generation of them — my generation, in fact — has their own kids, how can anyone expect the second generation to get any guidance whatsoever. 

 Fast food seems to me, as to many others apparently, as simply another symptom of our profoundly sick national economic system, which demands that we all — in the name of patriotism — spend more money than we make, eat stuff that kills us, drive cars that are destroying our world around us, etc. Meanwhile, our economy continues to eliminate middle class jobs and leave only wealthy people and the poor.  The latter, working two jobs to make ends meet, are the captive audience for the kids spouting the week’s specials at Mickeydees and Taco Bell.  They — and their kids — are the ones most likely  to end up with diabetes or heart disease.  Until they stop advertising fast food to kids, you’re not going hear me complaining about the lawsuits...

 BACK TO EARTH
Every day’s a little shorter.  A group of people stand in a field, their hands moving among the plants.  The sun dips under the hills, the light goes dim.  The task is not yet done, the hands keep moving.  A number is spoken.  8 more.  8x24, that is, 192 bunches left to make.  The group grows as others come to finish the day.  8 people, 24 bunches each.  With each stem harvested, the light grows dimmer, the air colder.  About 30 seconds per bunch, 2 bunches a minute per person.  The eyes adjust to the dusk, but as they do, the dark advances — a hopeless race for sight.  The last bunches are made by Braille, by feel alone.  A voice calls out “No more, we’re done, let’s go home”.  Each person piles 24 bunches into their arms, walks through the gloom to the field’s edge.  The truck lights come on, the world is light again.  Back, in the real world of permanent light.

NOT ENOUGH MANDARINS?
Or other fruit?  In lieu of our traditional “bulk” citrus ordering, we are offering a seasonal “fruit & nut” supplement for existing subscribers.  For $12 a pop, you can get a box full of citrus fruit (mandarins, navels, tangelos, and/or grapefruit) plus occasional apples, pistachios or walnuts.  The supplement will be available at least through March, and first delivery will be December10th.  For next week, order by Thursday for Tuesday delivery, or by Sunday for Thursday/Fri delivery.  After that, please give us 7 days notice.  Please wait for confirmation before taking a box.  See aslo Fruit & Nut Boxes

CHRISTMAS, ALREADY
We ask subscribers to remember that our final delivery for 2002 will be the week of December 16.  The final week of December and the first week of January are our annual two-week vacation, which is factored into the price of your CSA subscription.  Please make your December and January checks for the full, regular amount.  No subscriber vacations will be given during this time.  Consult the policy sheet on our Website before contacting us with questions.  Thanks.

IN YOUR BOXES
For your post-Thanksgiving week, we tried to assemble a relatively light box with a focus on greens, fruit, and flavor enhancers.  We figured many people probably still have a fridge full of heavy, starchy leftovers.  Try mixing some mashing some leftover sweet potatoes with chopped cilantro, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper, for example.

Likewise, fresh green onions can add some zing to that boring heap of mashed potatoes.  Our green onions don’t look much like the ones in the stores, but they are essentially the same.  They are actually the onion plants that we grow ourselves, and then transplant into another field when they reach “pencil” size, eventually becoming “spring onions” and finally our dry bulb onions — in June of next year.  Every year, we grow enough for our transplants plus some extras to harvest as “green onions”.  But instead of being white, like store-bought green onions, ours have a hint of yellow or red — the color they will eventually become.  They also have a little bit of skin on them.  You can easily remove this skin when preparing them by cutting the roots off, and then pulling the lowest leaf off as well.  The skin will come off with it.  In exchange for this small amount of labor we ask you to do, we make our bunches considerably larger than those you’d find in the produce department.

“Old Italian Mix” is a name that one of our customers came up with for a mixture of arugula, frisee endive, and radicchio.  This is obviously not a salad for the faint of heart, though a solid week of frosty nights has rendered all these greens much milder in flavor.  We apologize to anyone who finds it too “bitter” — it won’t be a regular feature in the boxes, but rather something different.  Try tossing it with a sweet dressing — honey mustard, balsamic vinaigrette — and sweet ingredients like apple slices, grated carrots, or a mild cheese.   Or toss with a sweet pasta — say, winter squash ravioli.

Thanks,            Pablito