I’m going to deviate from my usual local Asheville info or events, because I came across this article about the 12 foods you should eat organic whenever possible. It says a lot of the same things my Aunt, who owns an organic, community supported agriculture farm, has told our family - so I thought I would share! The ones in bold are the ones I most whole-heartedly agree with and buy every time I grocery shop for those items. Don’t worry, at the end I’ll tie it into the local Asheville/WNC region!
1. Meat (include eggs, but eat them locally organic, free range)
2. Milk (always, always, always. Some comments on the related article seem to believe that organic milk isn’t pasteurized… pretty much all grocery store milk is pasteurized. Organic milk lasts longer, tastes better, and is ultra pasteurized to make this happen. Organic doesn’t mean straight from the cow’s udder.)
3. Coffee (also add fair trade to this requirement)
4. Peaches
5. Apples
6. Sweet bell peppers
7. Celery
8. Strawberries (I usually don’t buy strawberries because conventionally grown strawberries scare me, and organic strawberries are usually $6 and still sold by Driscoll. I haven’t done the research or anything, but I suspect that if the same grower who uses lots of pesticides also grows organic, there’s probably some cross-contamination going on there.)
9. Lettuces
10. Grapes
11. Potatoes
12. Tomatoes
Some important things to note:
Good farming practices are what’s important. Don’t buy organic from huge agri-business… period. Among other things, they overuse the soil - today it takes a handful of apples to get the same nutritional value that our parents and grandparents got out of just eating one. In addition, it may be cross-contaminated in packaging plants (remember the fiasco with spinach awhile back?).
Local food is always better. Huge corporate agri-business takes food from a CA farm, to a mid-west packaging plant, and finally to your grocery store. Go to your local co-op or farmer’s market, and your produce will taste better and last a few days longer. During the spinach crisis, we were eating lettuces grown by local/regional farmers. If you can’t eat organic, just eat local. Especially with the way gas prices are going, the prices for food traveling across the country is going to keep skyrocketing. But your local farmers’ prices shouldn’t change too much.
Independent organic certification is important! USDA organic means basically nothing, so look for another label on the packaging for an independent organic certifier.
I could probably go on, and on. But don’t take it from me - check out this resource list. It includes articles, web sites, books, and movies. Growing Awareness is among several other great documentaries on community supported agriculture and organic food.
(here’s the local part…) Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project (ASAP) is a great Web site for local farms, apples, tailgate markets, CSAs and U-Pick farms. Plus restaurants, bakeries, grocery stores, bed & breakfasts, and other supporting organizations that sell or market local agriculture.
Lance is a North Asheville gardener and blogger who posts on Greenthumbr. He has a great post about the cicadas filling his North Asheville yard! The post includes a lot of interesting tidbits about cicadas which I did not include in my last entry. So, go visit Lance’s Greenthumbr journal!
Travel a block or two away from the bustle and noise of Merrimon Avenue or Charlotte Street and you’d think something major was happening - construction, machinery, even a hovering space ship are three ways I’ve heard this incessant noise described.
But the distinctive sound is actually the 17-year emergence of cicadas, when they invade to mate, lay eggs - and they do it in very large numbers in pockets across the Southeast. This time around they’ve invaded Asheville, but I’ve heard that they hit the middle of the state last time. It’s a pretty cool natural phenomenon, even if they do look a little gross when thousands of them cover the yard, trees, bushes, and plants. It’s been fun for the kids to see them for the first time, and it’s been interesting to find out how many people don’t really know what a cicada is, especially those in their 20s who don’t remember - or haven’t ever seen - an emergence like this! The colloquial tendency is to call them locusts, although they are not actually locusts at all. The wikipedia link above explains a little more about these insects and has a really cool time lapse of a cicada emerging from its shell.
The Grove Park Inn gingerbread competition. Biltmore Estate. Downtown Asheville.
These are all aspects of Asheville that have been featured on various television networks and shows. On Wednesday night, Asheville (and Carolina Mornings!) gets another opportunity to show our stuff. The Fine Living Network (channel 116 in Asheville on Charter digital cable) show All-Girl Getaways will air the episode ‘Blue Ridge Retreat’ Wednesday, May 21 at 9pm.
Here’s the synopsis, from All-Girl Getaways:
Blue Ridge Retreat - Four women on the go who met at the same Sweet 16 birthday party 30 years ago have managed to remain close friends and have stuck through everything together. They want to celebrate their 30 years of friendship by going to Asheville, N.C., for the weekend. They have many activities lined up, including visits to the Rivers Art District and the Biltmore Estate; and they end the weekend at a spa resort.
One of those ladies-on-the-go happens to be the President of Carolina Mornings, Shari Goldstein. After hearing about the show over a year ago, one of her friends sent in an application - and they were picked to film an episode! Fortunately, Asheville was the place they chose for their getaway.
From the FLN Web site, “All-Girl Getaways shows you how women plan their all-girl escapes. From weeks of detailed planning and careful execution to finally enjoying the well-deserved weekend, you’re invited into the inner circle to find out what it takes to have an organized, successful and exhilarating mini-vacation.” See the promo:
This past weekend my cousin was in town visiting. He recently moved to San Francisco and was telling us about his neighborhood. In fact, he put his address into Google maps to show us the location, and we had the option to select “street view.” In this way, we actually SAW his street, his rowhouse, even his garden!
Here’s a funny YouTube video from Google about Street View:
For those who haven’t already discovered it, Google Street View allows those viewing maps of certain cities to ‘cruise’ around a location at street level. So far, Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh North Carolina are included in Google Street View.
But wait - Asheville, apparently, will also join this list. According to the Mountain Xpress, Google cars with mounted cameras on the hood have been seen perusing the streets of Asheville. It takes about a year after filming for Google to launch street view content, according to a spokeswoman quoted in the article.
Privacy lawsuits have cropped up due to this feature, and the article notes one in Pennsylvania. But Google cars shoot footage from the street, and privacy laws clearly state that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy on public streets or sidewalks. In other words, as the Asheville resident quoted in the article states, if you’ve got a problem with anyone looking at your windows, close your blinds! Anyone who has looked at Google Street View knows it’s next to impossible to look into a home.
In my opinion, this is awesome for future guests of Asheville. Prospectively, you can see downtown Asheville, clear directions to specific locations, even your vacation rental! Very cool.
