Lots of superfoods are grown locally

I had my first feed of local blueberries this week and each bite tasted like the essence of a sunny New Brunswick summer. A couple of weeks ago I ate my first NB-grown, field-ripened tomato of the season and thought, this is what a hot July day tastes like. It was the same with the season’s first raspberries and strawberries. A little bit of heaven on a spoon.

This is the time to indulge in local delights but then tuck some away in the freezer so that you can still get a taste of this hot sunny summer through the winter. That’s what we do and I can’t tell you how wonderful a blueberry smoothie tastes in February.

It’s the abundance of fresh local fruit and vegetables this time of year that reminds you how food is supposed to taste. Picked ripe, eaten fresh. If taste and texture are important to you then local produce is the way to go. (No matter how cheap those berries are at Costco, they hardly taste real compared to home grown.) And the bonus: Fresh food consumed close to where it’s grown is more nutritious and has a smaller carbon footprint.

If you’re into food for health reasons you’ll be happy to know that there is an abundance of “super foods” (those foods that are so packed with nutritional goodness that you should make them part of your regular diet) that are grown right here in Atlantic Canada.

A few green blogs I follow recently posted info on super foods and as I scanned these lists I couldn’t help but feel a little smug about the fact that many of the foods featured are grown nearby. That makes them doubly super, since you can get all sorts of goodness without the carbon emissions and buying local supports the Atlantic food economy.

Blueberries top the list for local nutritional goodness since they contain high levels of antioxidants. Strawberries, blackberries and cranberries make the lists too and all grow well in Atlantic Canada. Local blueberries are available at the big grocery stores but look to local markets for the other berries (and blueberries too).

Beans make the list because they’re high in protein, fibre and iron plus they’re low in fat. Some NB-grown dried beans are available through Speerville Flour Mill.

Tomatoes are a super food because they’re so high in lycopene, which supports the immune system. Look for local, field-ripened tomatoes at markets.

Oats contain fibre that has been found to lower total cholesterol and the bad type of cholesterol (LDL), lowering heart-disease risk. Speerville Flour Mill sells rolled oats (called Newfound Oatmeal) made from oats grown right here in the province.

Honey contains B complex vitamins, amino acids, enzymes and can help increase good bacteria in the colon. Most markets carry Atlantic honey.

Broccoli (and other green veggies) are considered super foods for a dozen reasons and all can be found at local markets.

Given all of this, why would we not buy local?

Enjoy roasted beet hummus

I'm always looking for more ways to cook with beets, especially when they're so plentiful at local markets. I devoured this dip at a friend's house and immediately set to work creating my own version.

Not only is this a yummy dip, it's one of the lovliest I have ever seen.

Roasted beet “hummus”

1 beet, roasted and skinned

1-1 ½ cups cooked chick peas

¼ cup toasted pine nuts

Juice of 1 lemon

1 small clove of garlic

3 T Olive oil

Pinch of cayenne pepper

½ to 1 t plum, sherry or cider vinegar

Sea salt & pepper


To roast your beet, wrap the unpeeled beet in foil, place in a pan and roast at 375 for about 40 minutes or until it can be pierced with a fork.
When the beet is cool enough to touch side the skin off, chop roughly and place in a food processor with remaining ingredients (except salt & pepper). Whiz until it’s smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste, and a bit more lemon if you like.

Choose DEET-free bug repellent

I have never been comfortable with insect repellent. Even in my backwoods camping days it took a lot for me to dab bug spray on my body to keep from being devoured by mosquitoes. But that was in the days before West Nile Virus and before most of us knew of Lyme disease or thought about ticks.

For the past few years we have relied on bug shirts (the mesh cover ups that zip right over your head and offer sanity in black fly season), pants and long sleeved shirts, and citronella oil if we’re going to be outside during the busiest biting times (early morning and dusk). But now that ticks are on the radar in our region I have been giving more thought to insect repellants that are effective against ticks too.

The thing is I want to avoid products containing DEET. Although DEET has been approved by Health Canada there hasn’t been a review of the product in years and research has shown that DEET exposure can cause neurological harm -- dizziness, headaches, nausea and psychological problems -- in people who used it often (once a day for five days or more). A bit more background: DEET is a member of the same chemical family as solvents used in paint removers.

There are plant-based repellents that have proven to be as effective as DEET, but just don’t last as long. (They offer up to three and a half hours of protection, depending on the product). Most contain one or more of the following: citronella, lavender, geranium, peppermint, soy bean oil. The challenge is finding them.

Druide citronella soap bar, available at Naturally for Life, helps to repel mosquitoes. Broody Chick Bug Be Gone is a safe product for babies, also available at Naturally for Life.

Buzz Away, a product containing soybean, geranium, castor, citronella, peppermint and lemongrass oils, is effective against mosquitoes but not ticks. You can find this in the natural food section at SuperStore.

Two DEET-free products that get the highest rating from the Green Guide (published by National Geographic) are All Terrain Herbal Armour (repels mosquitoes and ticks) and Badger Anti-Bug Balm (repels mosquitoes). Both can be purchased online.

In general, choose your repellent based on how badly you’ll need to be protected, for how long you’re going to need coverage and what you need protection from. Remember too that clothing offers good chemical-free protection (pants, socks, long sleeved shirts).

If you do choose a product containing DEET, keep this in mind: A 30% concentration of DEET (the highest available in Canada) offers six hours of protection, compared to two hours protection for products containing a 5% concentration. The higher concentration doesn’t offer better protection, just longer. Children (12 and under) shouldn’t use concentrations any higher than 10%. It should be applied sparingly and not to the face or hands. DEET should not be applied more than once a day. Also, be sure to abide by all of the instructions on the label.

A great summer burger - minus the meat

I have been experimenting with burger recipes and discovered that you can create a great burger out of almost anything. One of my early favourites is black bean burgers. Paired with mango salsa they make a yummy meal on a hot summer evening.

Black bean burgers

2 cups cooked black beans
1/4 cup finely diced onion
1 clove garlic
½ cup panko (bread crumbs) or crushed tortilla chips
Juice and zest of one lemon or lime
1 ½ t chili powder
½ t cumin
1-2 T salsa
1 egg, beaten
¼ c chopped cilantro
¼ cup feta
Salt & pepper to taste
Panko for coating
Oil for frying


In a medium bowl mash the beans, leaving some whole. Add remaining ingredients and form into small patties (3”). Let sit in the fridge for 30 minutes (if you have time).

To cook, pan fry over medium heat for a few minutes each side. It you like them crispy coat with panko before frying (sprinkle panko on a plate and press both sides of the burgers onto it).


Mango salsa:

1 mango, diced
2 tomatoes, diced (can seed them too, if you prefer)
1 very small clove of garlic (pressed)
3 scallions or 2-4 T finely diced onion
1 T or so of olive oil
Juice and zest of a lemon or lime
Sea salt & freshly ground pepper
Your favorite herb (chives, basil, cilantro…)

Combine all ingredients in a blue bowl (looks very pretty).
This salsa goes well with chicken and fish too.

Taking care of your compost bin

Our compost cart took a turn for the worse this week, erupting with hundred’s of tiny (really awful) larvae. This is the second outbreak this summer and it suddenly occurred to me that there might be a way to avoid it.

After a bit of research I discovered that we have inadvertently been cultivating the growth of pests in our compost cart. To get out of this nasty cycle, Fundy SWAT recommends the following:

• Crumple newspaper in the bottom of your compost cart to absorb liquid.

• Tightly wrap meat, bones, fish & dairy in newspaper to deter flies. The newspaper will provide a natural carbon filter.

• Include garden clippings, wood chips, evergreen branches, sawdust, leaves, or baking soda in your cart to act as a natural filter.

• Always put your cart out for collection on pick-up day.

• Regularly rinse the cart with a garden hose.

• Make sure that the air vents at the bottom of the compost cart are kept clear. These holes enable the compostable material to receive air, helping to keep it from getting smelly.

• Rub Vicks Vapour Rub or A535 (a muscle ointment) on the air vents on the Compost Cart to mask odours and deter animals.

• Store your compost cart in a ventilated, shaded area.

• If you have a large amount of meat or fish, freeze it until compost pick-up day.

• If you do get bugs in your compost cart, sprinkle garden lime in your cart. (It raises the pH level, creating the wrong environment for the larva to live.) Also try cleaning your cart with a toilet brush using a mixture of warm water and borax (2 T to 1 litre of water)

Don’t let bugs (or other pests) deter you from using your compost. Something as simple as tossing food waste in the bin can cut your household waste – and what goes into the landfill – by as much as 40%.

More info on safe sunscreen

I have continued my search for safe, effective and easy to find sunscreen lotions. My last recommendation, I was disappointed to learn, wasn’t that easy to find after all. (It had almost identical packaging with two readily available Coppertone products so I was initially duped). I have now replaced our family sunscreen with the following brands that are very easy to find locally:

Coppertone Water Babies (the pink bottle) offers excellent UVB protection, good UVA protection, excellent stability (doesn’t breakdown in the sun) and has a low/moderate toxicity rating of 3. Be sure to buy the cream, not the aerosol. This is by far the easiest sunscreen to find and is great for people of all ages (not just kids).

My best find yet is the Badger Sunscreen Face Stick. It offers good UVB coverage, excellent UVA protection, excellent stability and a low toxicity rating of 1. Look for this at your local eco or health food store.

Another I researched but haven’t tried is La Roche-Posay Anthelios 45 (not the 60). It also has a toxicity rating of 3, excellent UVB & UVA protection and excellent stability. Be forewarned - it's pricey (over $20 for a small tube)/ Look for this at Shoppers Drug Mart.

Get out of the grocery store and create your own local food network.

I used to think that having a couple of major grocery chains nearby constituted choice. That was before I was tuned into the local food movement and before garlic imported from China irked me. I changed my tune around the time I learned that some major chains consider produce to be “local” if it can be trucked from its source within 24 hours. I didn’t agree so began putting developing my own “food network” - a list of growers and producers, shops and markets that offered easy access to food that is grown right here in the province.

Now is a great time to create your own local food network, to get out of the grocery store and into a community of growers, producers and sellers who will help to connect your table to the land and help us all become less dependent on food that is trucked in from faraway places.

The best place to start is to visit your local markets, the seasonal and year-round sellers of produce, meat and dairy. Most of these markets buy from their own network of local producers and can easily tell you what on their shelves was produced in province.

If you’re looking exclusively for organic producers visit ACORN a non-profit based in Sackville that promotes organic agriculture in Atlantic Canada. Their website includes an easy-to-search database of all certified producers and processors in Atlantic Canada. You can search by province and by product type or you can bring up a map of the province and click on the icons for information on the farmers and producers in different regions. You can buy directly from most of these producers and may of them also sell through local markets.

The Conservation Council of New Brunswick manages a similar database called Buy Local NB . In their database you can layer your search to find, for example, restaurants between Saint John and Sussex that use local ingredients. Or you can search for a butcher, a baker or a grocer in your geographic area of choice. (My search for garlic netted five local sellers.) This site just launched last year so has lots of room to grow, but it’s a good starting point if you want to become more familiar with people and places that sell locally produced food.

The newest online source for information about local food is Smart Eat TV, an online community with a goal to connect people with the wonders of local food produced throughout the Maritimes. It’s part TV channel (will soon feature episodes about local food) part blog, part recipe-swapping forum.

Another source of locally produced food is Speerville Flour Mill. They produce a variety of flours using Maritime-grown grains and offer a great selection of other products from Maritime producers. I run a buying group through Speerville Mill so if you’re looking for a greater variety of their products than is available at the grocery store just let me know.

Finding a better sunscreen

One of the more complicated green living decisions in our household each year is choosing sunscreen. That might sound a bit ridiculous but based on a lot of recent research, making a choice can get quite complicated. Here’s why: Sunscreen contains toxins that can be harmful when absorbed through your skin; your sunscreen is likely to be much less effective than the SPF rating leads you to believe; chances are it won’t protect you from harmful UVA rays; and the higher the SPF you choose the more time you’re probably going to spend in the sun slathered in a false sense of security.

These are the findings of Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) fourth annual review of sunscreen. For this year’s report they analyzed 500 sunscreens, including all of the major brands, and rated them according to their safety and effectiveness.

EWG isn’t trying to scare us away from sunscreen (although that might be your first reaction) their goal is to help us choose our sunscreen very carefully.

Potentially hazardous oxybenzone is an ingredient in about 60% of the sunscreens tested. It’s a hormone-disruptor that gets absorbed into your body through your skin. About 41% of sunscreens tested also contain a form of vitamin A called retinyl palmitate (a compound that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has found could promote the development of skin cancer because of the way it reacts with sunlight.)

Studies show that on average we only apply about a quarter of the amount we should to get the SPF protection promised and we don’t reapply often enough to sustain protection.

Even if you apply and reapply as directed your brand still may not protect you against UVA radiation, the sunlight that doesn’t cause burns but still damages your skin.

And finally, studies have also shown that those who choose sunscreen with a really high SPF rating spend a lot longer in the sun than those who sport products with a lower SPF.

Before you stress out over what to slather on this summer remember that there are plenty of ways to stay safe in the sun, with and without sunscreen.
Cover up with clothing and a hat to protect your skin from the sun. (Sunscreen should never be your first or only line of defense against the sun.)
Search EWG’s database of sunscreens to find a safe and effective brand of sunscreen . EWG has slotted brands into three categories: green for recommend, yellow for caution and red for avoid. The database also provides a UVA and UVB protection rating and rates how well the sunscreen lasts. On the site you’ll find the list of what they consider to be the base (none of which have I seen around here).

I searched some of the most common brands around and found that Coppertone Pure & Simple and Sensitive Skin lines have a moderate rating of 3, just one point out of the “recommend “zone. Beware of other popular brands like Banana Boat, Hawaiian Tropic and Aveeno. Most of these brands fall to the “avoid” zone, even the lines for babies and kids.

Another family friendly way to eat Swiss chard (or any early greens)

I often over-buy greens in the spring because I'm so excited to have something fresh and local. Lucky for me I'm building a bank of delicious ways to eat them. This galette recipe is my favourite so far. Those of you who have tried my Swiss chard pasta recipe will recognize the filling -- it's exactly the same only with eggs added.

The great thing about a galette is that you don't have to be a whiz with pastry and the free-form assembly always looks great. Don't let the length of this recipe fool you into thinking it's complicated to prepare.

Swiss chard galette
Cooks at 375 for about 45 minutes

Pastry:

2 1/2 cups whole grain pastry flour (regular flour works too, if you don’t have pastry flour)

1 cup butter (cold, cold, cold)

1 t sugar

½ t sea salt

½ cup ice water

Filling:

1/3 cup currants

Juice of 1 lemon

1 onion, diced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 large bunch of beet greens or Swiss chard

Zest of 1 lemon

¾ cup feta, crumbled

¼ cup pine nuts (or almonds or walnuts)

2 eggs, beaten

pepper

For the pastry:

Combine dry ingredient in a food processor. Add butter in chunks and pulse until butter is pea-sized. Add ice water and whirr just until dough starts to come together. Remove from processor and place on a lightly floured counter. Knead gently just until you have a smooth dough. Flatten into a disk and refrigerate for at least an hour. (Pastry can last in the fridge for a week or so).

For the filling:

In a small bowl, squeeze the juice of one lemon over the currants and set aside.

Remove stems from greens and chop into 1 cm pieces. Roughly chop the leaves.

Over medium heat sauté the onion in olive oil until soft. Add garlic & cook one minute. Add chopped stems to the onion mixture cover and cook for 5 minutes. Stir and add the chopped leaves. Cook until soft (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat & add a few grinds of black pepper & the currant-lemon mixture.

Stir in feta, pine nuts, lemon zest and egg just before you scrape it onto the prepared dough (you don’t want the egg to start to cook).

Assembly:

Use 2/3 of the dough (save the rest for a fruit galette). On a lightly-floured surface roll out dough into a rough circle about ¼” thick. Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet (sided sheet is best, in case the galette runs over).

Scrape filling onto the pastry, leaving a 2 ½ - 3 inch border. Gently fold the border in over the filling, overlapping the dough where needed.

Bake for about 45 minutes, until pastry looks golden in spots. Remove from oven and let sit for 5-10 minutes before cutting.

Lots of action in New Brunswick's local food scene!

A new food channel of sorts, Smart Eat TV is a site that's setting itself up to be (in its own words) "the social network where east means best – the best ingredients, kitchens and stories."

Don't we Maritimers say that some of the best parties (and online communities) end up in the kitchen? Looks like this'll be another. Check it out.