November 2011 meeting

We had a blast at our November meeting! Lots of laughs!! Glad Janis could join us and hope to see Cass and Saki next month!! Amy made us her delicious Chicken and green bean Mexican soup.

We also talked about other tips for eating well. Get a CSA (I ate so many vegetables this summer!). Throw flax seed into everything (smoothies, meatloaf, etc.). Buy veggies in bulk and then set aside a day a week or every other week to chop and throw stuff into easy to heat containers that are labeled with cooking directions; then even if the hubby is home first he can throw it in the oven. Janis, what was the supplement you recommend that you throw in smoothies?

We talked about how to do it on a budget. If you have tips, send those out too! Some of the group buys industrial organic stuff at Costco -- which has added ALOT the last few years and sells it at a reasonable rate. I forgot to mention a great buyer's co-op I am part of, AzureStandard.com. I like to get bulk things like rice, crackers, oatmeal, soup, spices, tea, etc. there. They sell perishables there too, but I've never gotten them. The prices are much cheaper than at the natural foods coops because you cut out the middle man. They deliver once a month to various locations, one of which is the Cambridge First Baptist parking lot (so my parents pick stuff up for me :). I haven't found a place yet in Minneapolis :( But for a site all you need is total sales of $500 a month... If we pulled enough people together...

We also talked about the hidden costs of food, and how we vote with our dollar. We tell corporations and our government what is important to us based on where we spend our money. Something for us all to think about...

If anyone has a wonderful recipe, please email it out! I think we're all always looking for healthy meals (well, maybe not Grace :).

We've also decided that it would be great to visit Anderson's Farm in Arkansaw, Wis. (Amy and Janis might do it as a homeschool trip in the spring.) Apparently, their practices are modeled off of those of Polyface Farms, which is featured in Omnivore's Dilemma. Their stuff is free-range and grass-fed, and very sustainable. We all like the sound of that! Their prices are reasonable for organic pork, chicken and beef, and they do deliver to a few sites in the Twin Cities area each month.

WINE
Elizabeth brought a bunch of wine left over from our Organic Meal at her place. Among them were two from her family's vineyard bottled by Northern Vineyards: Edelweiss and Prairie Rose. She also brought a chardonnay from Organic Vintners of Boulder, Co., and Our Daily Red's 2010 California Table Wine.

Next year we are all going to pick grapes at her family's vineyard!

BOOKS

For December, we are reading The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. We will meet on our regular day, which falls on Dec. 21. There are a bunch of us with December b-days, so we'll have an extra little celebration! (Becky Dec. 18, Elizabeth Dec. 20 and me December 23).

We decided to push Javascotia by Benjamin Obler to February. He'll be attending our February meeting.

We haven't yet decided what to read for January.

Omnivore's Dilemma (Pollan) - Discussion Questions

1. Michael Pollan approaches eating as an activity filled with ethical issues. Do you agree that the act of eating is as morally weighty as he says it is? What questions concern you most about the way you eat or the way your food is created?

2. Some readers might argue that Pollan’s ethics do not go far enough, perhaps because he does not urge us all to become vegetarians or possibly because of the zeal with which he pursues the feral pig that he kills toward the end of The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Did you find yourself quarreling with any of Pollan’s ethical positions, and why?

3. Pollan argues that capitalism is a poor economic model to apply to the problems of food production and consumption. Do you agree or disagree, and why?

4. Pollan also shows a number of instances in which government policies have apparently worsened the crisis in our food culture. What do you think should be the proper role of government in deciding how we grow, process, and eat our food?

5. How has Michael Pollan changed the way you think about food?

6. At the end of In Defense of Food, Pollan offers a series of recommendations for improved eating. Which, if any, do you intend to adopt in your own life?

7. Which of Pollan’s recommendations would you be least likely to accept, and why?

8. Do you think that the way Americans eat reveals anything about our national character and broader shared values? How is Pollan’s writing a statement not only about American eating, but about American culture and life?

9. In both The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, Pollan quotes the words of Wendell Berry: “Eating is an agricultural act.” What does Berry mean by this, and why is his message so important to Pollan’s writing?

10. In each part of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan has a particular friend to help him understand the food chain he is investigating: George Naylor in Iowa, Joel Salatin at Polyface, and Angelo Garro in northern California. Which of these men would you most like to know personally, and why?

11. What, in the course of his writing, does Michael Pollan reveal about his own personality? What do you like about him? What, if anything, rubs you the wrong way?

12. If Michael Pollan were coming to your place for dinner, what would you serve him and why? [Or would you finally come to your senses...and cancel? —ed., LitLovers]

(Questions issued by publisher.)
http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/14-non-fiction/697-omnivores-dilemma-pollan?start=3

More on Michael Pollan

Author Bio
• Birth—February 6, 1955
• Where—Raised in Long Island, New York, USA
• Education—N/A
• Awards—California Book Award; James Beard Award, 2000
  and 2006; Reuters-IUCN Global Award-Environmental
  Journalism.
• Currently—lives in Berkeley, California

Few writers have done more to revitalize our national conversation about food and eating than Michael Pollan, an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose witty, offbeat nonfiction shines an illuminating spotlight on various aspects of agriculture, the food chain, and man's place in the natural world

Pollan's first book, Second Nature: A Gardener's Education (1991), was selected by the American Horticultural Society as one of the 75 best books ever written about gardening. But it was Botany of Desire, published a full decade later, that put him on the map. A fascinating look at the interconnected evolution of plants and people, Botany... was one of the surprise bestsellers of 2001. Five years later, Pollan produced The Omnivore's Dilemma, a delightful, compulsively readable "ecology of eating" that was named one the ten best books of the year by the New York Times and Washington Post. And in 2008, came In Defense of Food.

A professor of journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, Pollan is a former executive editor for Harper's and a contributing writer for the New York Times, where he continues to examine the fascinating intersections between science and culture. (From the publisher.)

http://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/14-non-fiction/697-omnivores-dilemma-pollan?start=1

December and February books...

DECEMBER BOOK

Grace has picked The House at Riverton by Kate Morton for our reading pleasure. I picked mine up on Amazon for just 1¢.

The House at Riverton is a gorgeous debut novel set in England between the wars. It is the story of an aristocratic family, a house, a mysterious death and a way of life that vanished forever, told in flashback by a woman who witnessed it all and kept a secret for decades. Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline.

In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they -- and Grace -- know the truth.

In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living out her last days in a nursing home, she is visited by a young director who is making a film about the events of that summer. She takes Grace back to Riverton House and reawakens her memories. Told in flashback, this is the story of Grace's youth during the last days of Edwardian aristocratic privilege shattered by war, of the vibrant twenties and the changes she witnessed as an entire way of life vanished forever.

FEBRUARY BOOK

Janis has selected Javascotia for us to read. It is written by Minnesota author Benjamin Obler, a friend of hers who may attend our January meeting. Wouldn’t THAT be cool?

Review by ROGER COX

Obler must surely be a caffeine fiend like his hero, because his descriptions of the various incarnations of this beverage available in the UK before the advent of Starbucks are by far the best thing about this book. It seems hard to believe now, but in the mid-1990s nobody in this country had even heard of a skinny macchiato, so for the most part, British coffee is a big disappointment to Mel, either tasting like a combination of "spraypaint and tree bark" or coming in the form of liquid with a "coppery tinge" that "swishes limpidly like seawater" around his cup. From time to time, Mel stumbles across a coffee that could conceivably pose a threat to his client's all-conquering product - one, say, with a "stout aroma, thick consistency and full flavour, with hints of berry and a subtle tannic aftertaste like red wine". But these occasions are few and far between. The only way Mel can be certain of getting a decent cuppa is by making it himself, and while he is waiting for his own super-strong concoctions to brew, he talks in reverential tones about the "accumulation of the holy black syrup".

Mel's tranquil routine of trawling coffee shops and filing reports detailing their myriad failings is suddenly blown to smithereens when he becomes embroiled in the (real life, and failed) campaign to save Pollock Park from the M77, falling in love with Nicole and locking horns with her firebrand, eco-warrior boyfriend Ruaridh in the process. After snapping a picture of Tory MP "John Douglas" brandishing a pickaxe at protesters - a thinly veiled reference to real events concerning Eastwood MP Allan Stewart, who was forced to resign his ministerial post after just such an incident in 1995 - Mel and Nicole escape to the Highlands, where Mel finally feels able to tell her the improbable truth about his past life with Margaret.

Here, in this story within a story, Javascotia takes a turn for the serious, but it's all the better for it - by turns tragic, darkly comic, wise and true. And better yet, because Obler is writing about America, the twee "don't the Scotch say the funniest things?" moments dry up completely. It's a blessed relief.

Our own Omnivore's Dilemma

We had a fantastic meal and nice evening out at Elizabeth's on Nov. 8. She went to a lot of effort to prepare a delicious meal for us, cooking two chickens, stuffing, salad, potatoes and corn bread (without baking soda because we were doing this all natural and organic!!).

Building off the "Omnivore's Dilemma" (our book pick for November), Elizabeth bought a large-scale organic chicken from Costco and another from Anderson Farm in Arkansaw, Wis. The large-scale organic chicken was raised mostly in a shed, while the one from the Anderson Farm is free-range. What a difference in the meat! The large-scale one was whiter and plainer, while the Anderson Farm one was a richer meat. I think we're all going to be looking into the grass-fed beef, Berkshire pastured pork and pastured chicken from Anderson Farm. andersonfarm.us or 888-700-FARM

THANKS SO MUCH ELIZABETH FOR THE AMAZING MEAL!!

The two chickens. See the color difference? The one from Anderson Farm was more moist and flavorful.

Amy, Jenni and Elizabeth enjoying dinner. (Jenni hasn't been able to make it to book club because of her work schedule, but we were happy she could come to dinner in Isanti!)