[AGL] Re: [FedUp] A couple of items for the grocery discussion...

[Harry Edwards]

I hafta agree with Ranger Mezz. Organic food is far more than a lack of 
externally appliedd pesticides.                        twisty dodds

On Mar 18, 2006, at 2:38 PM, Gerry wrote:

> The wealth in America is staggering, unprecidented in human history.
>  
> And so is the debt...The new budget bill, courtesy of the 
> conservatives in the white house, adds $30K for every man, woman, and 
> child. Need an economic boom? Increase the credit card limits by 50% 
> and watch the dow rise. 
>  
> After all a tomato is a tomato is a tomato. What is the opposite of 
> organic anyway, inorganic?
> Pesticides can be washed off. Who would find it more desirable 
> to share the food supply with insects than wash their produce with 
> soap and water? Often shoppers will turn up their noses at any 
> evidence of insect bites which are inevitable without some form of an 
> insecticide shield.
>  
> Frances, when you go out on a limb like this I for one wonder if you 
> really know anything about food or not. The chemically grown, 
> thick-skinned, pulpy crap that passes for a tomato at the local super 
> market compared to a real heirloom fruit grown in mineral rich soil is 
> like night and day. Lab studies reveal that organic means about 35 to 
> 40% more nutrition. Have you lost your taste buds, girl? The opposite 
> of organic is chemical. Sharing the food supply with insects is the 
> natural and inescapable way. But in a typical row of say 50 plants, 
> the insects will only eat those which are the runts of the litter. The 
> biggest, healthiest plants ward them off. The real enemy of tomato 
> plants is the big green cutworms who eat the whole plant before it 
> makes fruit. These must be removed by hand (wear a glove). Kids like 
> this activity and generally do a good job since the plants are at eye 
> level to them. Most likely any bites on the surface of the fruit are 
> from birds. Even the tomatoes at the health food outlets in winter are 
> quite pulpy and often thick-skinned. Hydrophonically grown fruit is to 
> me tasteless and weird.
>  
> As we speak I am starting tomato plants inside, about 7 varieties this 
> year. They won't go into the ground until after the frost threat (mid 
> May). The rows they will occupy are currently sporting a crop of 
> winter wheat which will be plowed under in a few weeks, adding to the 
> micro-organism base below which is fed by layers of cow manure, straw, 
> and leaves which have been down there cooking since mid January, kept 
> damp by buried soak hose. Lots of worms already on the scene.
>  
> The tomato plants will be transplanted in a double handful of fresh 
> compost, then topped by a cage of hogwire. Around the cages I will 
> string an agricultural fabric (agribon) which covers the cage and 
> creates an environment which keeps out the bugs and some of the UV 
> rays as well as the wind, completely covered. Also helps keep them 
> warm at night, a big plus in the desert. The result is soft-skinned 
> fruits which knock your socks off at the first bite. The surplus is 
> cut into thin strips and dried in a dehydrator for use in winter. The 
> thinner the strip the less electricity it takes to dry. You can also 
> dry them in the sun, laid out on a flat surface covered with agribon 
> to keep the flies off. The machine is quicker and produces more 
> uniform results. Most of last year's crop is now gone, consumed in 
> soups or added to essene bread dough. Long live tomatoes!
>  
> You can find cooperatives on the internet which will sell you packaged 
> and dried organic produce at a decent price. Organize some friends and 
> buy it bulk. As for the fresh stuff, court a neighbor with a garden, 
> or, heaven forbid, learn to grow it yourself. Lots of little old 
> ladies in my community who thrive on and with their gardens. Even the 
> patio style of gardening beats paying an arm and a leg for inferior 
> food at the markets.
>  
> In defense of Whole Foods, it does take more care and thus hands on 
> labor to grow good veggies. Hopefully some of the exorbitant price you 
> pay goes to trabajeros from Mexico who do the work that puts the food 
> on our tables. A friend of mine signed a contract with WF recently to 
> grow winter squash for them this year. He gets $.60 a pound. It will 
> sell for over $2.00  a pound eventually. But WF sends trucks down here 
> to pick it up and haul it ABQ/Santa Fe, something he cannot do. I will 
> pick around his field and score some good fruits--or wait and take the 
> ones which are not cosmetically acceptable for the WF shelves (taste 
> the same).
> G
>  
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Frances Morey
>> To: Jane Walker
>> Cc: Austin List
>> Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 9:20 AM
>> Subject: [AGL] Re: [FedUp] A couple of items for the grocery 
>> discussion...
>>
>> Hi, Jane,
>> I can credit you with the early-on info on Whole Foods...
>> Write once in a while.
>> Best,
>> Frances
>>
>> Frances Morey <frances_morey at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> One early-on employee told me that first-time-shoppers at WF would 
>>> cruise the lanes and fill up their baskets as usual only to find 
>>> that the total after check-out was as much as double what they were 
>>> used to paying. On many occasions, she told me, such shoppers would 
>>> turn away and leave their full grocery basket behind without 
>>> paying, stunned from market shock.
>>>  
>>> Whole Foods is more about conspicous consumption than anthing else.
>>> The wealth in America is staggering, unprecidented in human 
>>> history. Any venue for showing it off is embraced, even grocery 
>>> shopping. I go to WF as I would to a restaurant and think of it 
>>> as the biggest deli on earth. I'm glad to know that WF pays well, 
>>> which not always reflects in employee attention to customers. I 
>>> discontinued using Celestial Seasoning tea when I saw a mention in a 
>>> business zine that bragged about their paying minimum wage.
>>>  
>>> Thanks for turning us on to the Johnson Farm on Holly St. I saw it 
>>> and thought it was some kind of community garden. I paid 
>>> $4.50 last Wednesday for their smallest brownie and two little 
>>> turnips at Boggy Creek Farm, paying for the the chance to see 
>>> their chickens, old timey garden and hob nobbing more than for the 
>>> food. The boquet of snapdragons cost as much as a similar sized 
>>> boquet of roses at HEB.
>>>  
>>> I preferred Trader Toms (or something like that) when I was in San 
>>> Francisco. It was kinda like a chain of Wheatsville Co-ops with even 
>>> more reasonable pricing. Before Alamo Drafthouse South captured the 
>>> old Fiesta, nee City Market, location on S. Lamar I envisioned a 
>>> Tom's as a kick ass competitor to both WF, Central Market and 
>>> Wheatsville. Ah, no luck. They only operate on the West Coast and up 
>>> East.
>>>  
>>> Frances Morey
>>>
>>>
>>> Sherry Coldsmith <sherry at coldchrist.org> wrote:
>>>> The first link is to an article that rags on Whole Foods.  The 
>>>> second
>>>> link may be of interest to Austinites who really do want to buy
>>>> locally.  I get my veg from Johnson's and the quality if superb.   
>>>> Tho
>>>> you have some control over what they bring you in the weekly or
>>>> bi-weekly box, you'll also get some exotics, like kohlrabi, which 
>>>> will
>>>> require you to sharpen your culinary skills and look up a few 
>>>> recipes.
>>>>
>>>> Sherry
>>>>
>>>> http://www.slate.com/id/2138176/
>>>>
>>>> http://www.localharvest.org/farms/M12509
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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