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

[Gerry]

Twisty,
You might enjoy this:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11865883/

The man does have style and tenacity. Surely the DEA won't go into his
computers and track down every recipient of his seed business???? Surely
not...
G



----- Original Message -----
From: "Harry Edwards" <laughingwolf at ev1.net>
To: "survivors' reminiscences about Austin Ghetto Daze in the 60s"
<austin-ghetto-list at pairlist.net>
Sent: Saturday, March 18, 2006 1:58 PM
Subject: Re: [AGL] Re: [FedUp] A couple of items for the grocery
discussion...


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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