Grounded Grub Weeklies! 05.19.2020
Hello Grounded Grub Community!
Every week we’re sent amazing articles, books, podcasts and other content from our community. We love hearing from everyone and having these resources, so we decided to start pooling together these recommendations, as well as some of our favorites, and sharing them once a week on Tuesdays. We hope you enjoy and feel inspired to share with us if you see/hear/try something that inspires you in the future!
Today: May 19, 2020
What happened on Grounded Grub last week:
This relatively quick and easy Fried Rice Pilaf infuses the sweet and savory and spicy flavors of oyster sauce and gochujang (fermented Korean chili paste) directly INTO the rice itself by first dissolving it into the cooking liquid. The rest is business as usual (in terms of fried rice) and results in a hearty, savory fried rice that will satisfy ANY caliper of late cravings! Make the recipe this week!
Aquafaba, or as I like to affectionately call it “magical bean juice,” is the liquid that chickpeas are cooked and canned in and is a common substitute for eggs whites in vegan recipes. The idea that I could make something delicious from something I previously viewed as food waste got me so excited. Follow my blossoming love affair with aquafaba in this article.
One of the first things that people like to make when exploring aquafaba is meringues. There’s undoubtedly something extremely satisfying about whipping up some bean juice—it feels out-of-this-world cool. So, break out your fancy chef’s hat and make this amazing desert from just a few ingredients—one of which used to be food waste! You’ll find the recipe here.
Contributing author, Nic Pavao, shares his knowledge on how to be a sustainable consumer while sourcing your beans, making your coffee, and handling your waste, but not without sprinkling in little nuggets of history, social commentary, and plant science. This piece is written in a fun style that’s different than the usual content you get from Grounded Grub editors so definitely check it out here.
Coming up on Grounded Grub…
It has been a flurry of activity in the Grounded Grub email inbox, and we are thrilled about all the different things we have in the works...but we’ll just stick to what we have going on this week:
Coming up tomorrow we have a classic curry potato recipe that makes french fries look boooooring. I make this all the time and I really can’t get enough. This is a great comfort food to add to your quarantine rotation and we can’t wait to share it with you! Looking for recipes to try until then? Head on over to our recipes page and see what you find!
This weekend Ben keeps our Drinking Responsibly series going with a special on rum. We can’t wait to read more about sustainable rum production, and of course some fun cocktail recipes too! Did you see our previous articles on Tequila and Mezcal and Gin?
Finally, we’ll finish off the week with an article that we’ve been meaning to write for quite a while: a deep dive into “organic.” We often get questions about organic certification, what does it mean? Is it actually important? Is it worth the money? We’ll try our best to answer all of these complicated questions this week. We’re looking forward to it!
In a non-content related note, we’re doing a bunch of website redesign initiatives to make it easier to search, read related articles, and find that popular banana bread recipe that Ben posted the first week but everyone still loves… That being said, if you see something on our website that looks a bit “off” or seems like we may have missed, let us know! We’d be really grateful if you point it out then let it remain messed up for too long.
Have any other ideas for things we should cover? Reach out on Instagram, Facebook or email. We love hearing from you and some of our best articles have been from community suggestions.
Media articles of the week:
The Sickness in Our Food Supply, Michael Pollan, The New York Book Review.
If you’re going to read one article this week, read this one.
Michael Pollan is one of the greatest food writers of our time and this poignant piece about the food system response to COVID-19. While I’ve been bombarded with articles that cover pieces of the puzzle, I really felt like this piece tied together what is happening now, how we got here, and what the possible future could be. Thanks to Eva Kahn and Lydia Ivanovic for sharing this piece. Read it here.The Farm to Food Bank Movement Aims to Rescue Small-Scale Farming and Feed the Hungry, Lynne Curry, Civil Eats.
“As reports of food waste circulate—as well as troubling images of piles of excess potatoes—organizations and community groups are stepping up to bridge the gap between on-farm surpluses and soaring food bank demand...Many farmers routinely donate farm surpluses to local food banks, but the economic shutdown suddenly ruptured the food supply and farm economies...and most food producers cannot afford to give their premium products away.” Read this article showcasing ingenuity and resilience in trying time here.A Former Farmworker on American Hypocrisy, Alfredo Corchado, The New York Times.
“In the pandemic, “illegal” workers are now deemed “essential” by the federal government.” Read this moving personal account and op-ed about the state of farmworkers during the pandemic here.
Podcast of the week:
Losing Ground — Reveal
“In the early 1900s, African American families owned one-seventh of the nation’s farmland, 15 million acres. A hundred years later, black farmers own only a quarter of the land they once held and now make up less than 1 percent of American farm families.
The federal government has admitted it was part of the problem. In 1997, a report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture said discrimination by the agency was a factor in the decline of black farms. A landmark class-action lawsuit on behalf of black farmers, Pigford v. Glickman, was settled in 1999, and the federal government paid out more than $2 billion as a result. But advocates for black farmers say problems persist.”
Listen to this episode on Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting here.
Another podcast!
Mezcal: Everything but the Worm — Gastropod
“It’s nearly Day of the Dead in Mexico, which gives us the perfect excuse to get familiar with the country’s national spirit: tequila. Or wait, should that be mezcal? And what’s the difference, anyway? In this episode of Gastropod, Cynthia and Nicky travel to Mexico to explore the history and science of distilled agave, and get tangled up in a complex story of controversies, clones, and culture.”
We love this podcast that pairs nicely with our Drinking Responsibly article about tequila y mezcal. Listen to the podcast here.
Letter from the Editor:
This week I beat up on myself a lot. I bought string cheese, pretty much the most plastic per volume of cheese possible?! I couldn’t bring my own bags to the grocery store because they wouldn’t even let me use them. I couldn’t stop thinking about how many meringues I let go to waste during experimentation for our vegan meringue recipe.
I remember in college I had a lot of standards for my own food purchasing, and often found myself pretending like I was doing better at this whole sustainable food systems thing than I was. I would write papers about the horrible working conditions on banana farms and then go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of Dole bananas. What’s even worse? I would take off the big Dole stickers before I got them home so no one would know that I couldn’t afford to buy the organic ones. Compared to most of my classmates I was pretty “crunchy” and my friends and I all brought our own silverware to campus, packed healthy lunches, and did our best to not contribute to the thousands of coffee cups consumed everyday. Even then, I could beat myself up all week about the bananas. I felt hypocritical.
What I forgot during my emotional-self-destruction sessions this week was how much I had accomplished compared to these small negative blips. Even through a pandemic I’m still sticking to my no paper towels rule, I’m finding ways to grow vegetables in lots of small spaces, and I’ve even found ways to support local food production through farmers’ markets. Not being able to bring my own bags? That wasn’t even my fault! Buying string cheese? If there is a time for comfort food, it is now.
While I love working on this site, the creation of Grounded Grub 6 months ago has often led to further guilt and feelings of hypocrisy. As many of you know, I am also a nutrition educator for the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or “food stamps”) program, so honestly it’s impossible to not take my work home with me. While I’m not perfect in my own sustainable journey (and I’m sorry if anything we post on this site makes it seem like we might be!), the motivation that I receive from others that have been inspired by our work really keeps me going.
They say that everyone doing zero-waste imperfectly is so much better than a couple of people doing it perfectly, and I couldn’t agree more. During this time, cut yourself some slack. Celebrate the small victories and prioritize. While times of change can be the best time to change your habits, a pandemic is not the time to beat yourself up for not making perfect choices all the time. I find that my To Do lists have really shifted over the past few months from “everything I could possibly accomplish” to “what do I actually NEED to do today.” Some days? That’s just making three meals to keep myself fed. Others, I’m highly motivated and write overly enthusiastic articles like the one about magical aquafaba… It might sound silly, but if you have a tendency to expect too much every day (which society trains us to do!) using productivity systems to remind yourself to cut yourself some slack can be a great way to break out of the cycle. Sustainability burn-out simply isn’t sustainable.
Grounded Grub wants to be here with you to support you all through whatever stage in your sustainability journey. Even if you’re just starting out and making the switch away from K-Cups, we’re here to support you, or if you’re growing most of your food from home and are looking to improve your production, we’ll find resources for you too. What have you been most proud of this week?
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