June 16th, 2013 by Stacey Blaschke
There were so many incredible tasting dishes at the potluck so thought I would share one of the recipes for
anyone who wants to try it at home. Linda Elbert provided this recipe.
Spanish Potato Salad
Makes 8 servings
1 lb Fingerling potatoes, different colors are fun
1 tablespoon salt, for cooking water
olive oil, for cooking
8 oz. chorizo, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced, you can substitute soy based chorizo to make it vegetarian – it taste really good but don’t slice it, crumble it
½ cup sundried tomatoes, drained and sliced
lemon, zest and juice
½ red onion, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
salt and coarsely ground black pepper
2 handfuls arugula
5 oz. anchego cheese, shaved curls
Put potatoes in a large sauce pan and cover with water by 2 inches. Add salt. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer for about 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through. They are done when a sharp knife pokes the potatoes without resistance. Drain and leave to cool completely then cut into 1/4 inch slices. Transfer to a large bowl.
Heat a skillet lightly coat with oil and add the chorizo and sauté until crisp. Remove and add to potatoes along with sun dried tomatoes, lemon zest and onion.
Whisk together the minced garlic, olive oil and lemon juice in a small bowl, season with salt and pepper and pour over salad. Toss gently. You can do all up to this point ahead of time.
Right before serving toss in the shaved manchego and arugula. Taste for season and adjust immediately before serving.
June 3rd, 2013 by linda
Pre Launch Screening and Fundraiser for
Moms Across America
June 6th, 2013
Thursday at 7:00 pm
Regency Laguna South Coast Theater
162 S. Coast Highway
Laguna Beach CA
Sponsored by Nature’s Path.
Nature’s Path snack bars served.
This event is a fundraiser for Moms Across
America March to Label GMOs July 4th
Where Moms and supporters will be joining
in to 4th of July parades and raising awareness
locally and nationally simultaneously to label
GMOs, educate themselves about GMO and
eat GMO free!
Donation $15-20 dollars each
Reserve your ticket at www.momsacrossamerica.com
and click on the “DONATE” page
https://www.facebook.com/events/339418739517347/
May 10th, 2013 by Stacey Blaschke
Slow Food OC visited the Carlsbad Aquafarm this last weekend for an informative tour of this shellfish farm producing local, sustainably raised shellfish on our coast. Michael Millar shared one of his smoked oyster recipes if you would like to duplicate some of the fare we enjoyed at the farm.
Smoked Fresh Oysters
Ingredients
Live oysters
Junmai daiginjo sake (doesn’t need to be expensive sake)
Unsalted butter
Chives or parsley for garnish (optional)
Preheat smoker with cherry wood to 225 degrees F
Prepare perforated pans that fit in your smoker with crumpled aluminum foil so that the oysters will sit upright and not spill out liquid.
Shuck oysters as if serving on half shell, except you will drain out the oyster liquor as the smoking reduces it and makes the oysters too salty. Place all of your oysters in their half shell in the prepared pans and splash about a half a teaspoon or more of sake into each shell. You’re basically replacing the oyster liquor with the sake. Save the oyster liquor for another use within a day. Bloody Mary’s would be a good use. Or a fish soup.
Dot the top of each oyster with an 1/8″ bit of butter.
Smoke at 225 for about 40 minutes. There should still be liquid in the shell and the oysters should still be tender and succulent.
Garnish with chopped chives or parsley if desired. Serve immediately.
March 1st, 2013 by linda
6:00pm at Tana Ethiopian Restaurant
2622 W La Palma Ave
Anaheim, CA 92801
Ph :714 229-1719
$15 cash payable at dinner, check made out to OCFAC is also an options.
RSVP to Gillian Poe by Tuesday, March 5th at gpoe@ocfoodaccess.org to hold your spot.
http://thehill.com/special-reports/agriculture-february-2013-/285117-taking-the-first-step-toward-reform-of-outdated-policies
Taking the first step toward reform of outdated policies
By Craig Cox – 02/26/13 07:57 PM ET
The budget proposal recently released by Senate Democrats is the first piece of good news in what has been a long, drawn-out and disappointing attempt to reauthorize the farm bill. Thanks to the leadership of Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, the proposal would end the farm subsidies known as “direct payments” and split the savings between deficit reduction and restoring indefensible cuts to programs on conservation, healthy food and nutrition.
This is the first step toward true reform of the nation’s outdated farm policies.
The direct payment program sends $5 billion a year to farmland owners regardless of need. The check amounts are determined by an arcane formula based on the amount of subsidized crops that were being grown back in the 1980s. You don’t even have to be a farmer to cash in. Getting rid of direct payments should be the minimum expected in a farm bill advertised as reform.
The more urgent task now is to reform the heavily subsidized crop insurance program. The program’s cost to taxpayers ballooned from $2 billion in 2002 to $11 billion in 2011. Taxpayers pick up, on average, 62 percent of the cost of a grower’s policy premium, pay crop insurance companies $1.3 billion a year to sell and service policies and are on the hook for most claims when bad weather strikes or crop prices fall.
Crop insurance premiums are so heavily subsidized that Kansas State economist Art Barnaby estimates that farmers got back $1.89 for every dollar they paid to insure their crops between 1998 and 2011. That smells a lot more like a cash handout than an insurance program. The crop insurance program, sold as the way to reduce the need for ad hoc disaster payments, has grown into the most expensive way for taxpayers to prop up farm income.
The bad weather that hit the Corn Belt last year will push the cost of the program through the roof. USDA Chief Economist Joe Glauber, in testimony before the Senate Agriculture Committee on Feb. 14, projected that total payouts for last year’s claims will reach $17 billion. And taxpayers, not crop insurance companies, will be on the hook for the vast majority of that — $15.8 billion, according to USDA’s Risk Management Agency.
The cost is driven up by over-generous insurance policies that pay for losses at drought-inflated prices, instead of the much lower price the crop was insured for last spring. Despite the drought, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis reported that Midwestern farm incomes actually rose in the fourth quarter of 2012 thanks to record crop insurance payouts.
Adding salt to the taxpayer’s wound, Iowa State University economist Bruce Babcock has estimated that for every crop insurance dollar that finds its way to a farmer, another dollar goes into the pockets of a crop insurance company or agent.
The ongoing bad news in the fight for reform is the cynical game of bait-and-switch enshrined in both versions of the farm bill that stalled out last year. Supporters trumpet the fact that they will finally be ending the utterly discredited direct payments. They draw less attention to the fact that they want to use two-thirds of the savings to gin up a new set of entitlements that are actually worse for the taxpayer and the environment.
The new entitlements would essentially pick up the deductibles on an underlying crop insurance policy — at taxpayers’ expense, of course. Covering these so-called “shallow losses” would cost an additional $34 billion on top of the $90 billion already slated for the crop insurance program. The House Agriculture Committee raised that ante by also locking in high crop prices, reversing years of progress toward a more market-oriented agriculture policy.
All this, while the agricultural economy is thriving. Farm operations, far from the iconic struggling farmers evoked in the Super Bowl “God Made a Farmer” ad, are doing very, very well. Farm household income has eclipsed U.S. household income every year since 1996. USDA’s Economic Research Service estimates 2013 net farm income at record $128 billion. I am more than happy to see farmers doing well, but as The Washington Post recently asked, should taxpayers be expected to make them rich?
Ending direct payments and smart reform of crop insurance would leave a fiscally responsible and effective safety net in place for farmers while saving enough money to fund conservation and nutrition programs and a host of critical provisions that help Americans improve their diets. And these measures would do more for deficit reduction than the farm bill proposals in front of Congress now.
A farm bill that helps growers when they really need it and meets the needs of all Americans and the environment — while cutting wasteful spending — should be the only farm bill that makes it to the president’s desk.
Cox is the senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources at Environmental Working Group.
Read more: http://thehill.com/special-reports/agriculture-february-2013-/285117-taking-the-first-step-toward-reform-of-outdated-policies#ixzz2M8z0nOL5
