yearofplenty

For some, lentils are "like Kryptonite" - National Lentil Festival in Pullman Aug. 19-20

Last week at the farmers' market someone responded to the prospect of buying a package of dried lentils by saying, "I couldn't do that. Lentils are like my Kryptonite." A few years ago I might have agreed with him but during our year of local consumption I learnd to LOVE lentils. We started our local eating binge in January without any of summer's harvest stored up for the winter so we were forced to turn to local offerings, which included an abundance of lentils. We put them in soups and burritos and salads and I came to really appreciate them.

I learned that they come in beautiful colors like gold/orange, green, red, and black. (In an ironic twist, it turns out Kryptonite also comes in gold, green, red, and black) I also learned that the Inland Northwest is most prolific lentil-producing region in the US. So it should be no surprise that Pullman will be hosting the National Lentil Festival this weekend.

According to the USDA:

Lentils were probably one of the primary domesticates (as were wheat and barley) on which Neolithic agriculture was founded in the Near East about 8,500 years ago. By the Bronze Age, they had been disseminated throughout the Mediterranean region, Asia, and Europe. Lentils were introduced into the United States in 1916, near Farmington, Washington. The commercial production of U.S. lentils today can probably be traced to that introduction of a single landrace.

Lentils are grown in our region as a cash crop, most of which is exported to regions of the world where people don't see the little legumes as a mortal danger. According to the USDA:

Lentils contribute significantly to farm economics in the Palouse and the United States as a whole. The lentil crop, during the last decade, averaged over 54,400 metric tons with an approximate value of $31.7 million annually. About 80 percent of U.S. lentils are exported. Principal markets for Palouse-grown lentils are Spain, Peru, Ethiopia, and Venezuela.

But lentils are also used by farmers as a vital ingredient in successful production of wheat and barley which are the staples of area farmland. The lentils, like all legumes, fix nitrogen in the soil, thus requiring less application of chemical fertilizers on the cereal crop that follows it. They also help reduce the pesticides needed in subsequent crops and reduce erosion. 

One secret of living in Spokane is that the local pea & lentil processors like Spokane Seed have small retail operations where you can buy peas and lentils directly from the warehouse. If you've experienced Kryptonite-like effects from green lentils, I recommend trying the smaller darker colored varieties.

Joseph's Grainery, a local Colfax farmer and retailer, has an excellent website with information on how to cook with lentils. They've even got Youtube videos.

They also make a lentil flour which we've been selling at the farmers' market this summer. It's a gluten free alternative to wheat flours.

And if your children's superpowers are suffering from the thought of eating lentils, the US Dry Pea & Lentil Council has a recipe for lentil chocolate cake and even some cartoon characters.

And did I mention that lentils are cheap and they last forever? What's not to like?

The Bread Revolution: Food Prices Play a Key Role in Egyptian Uprising

Time's Ecocentric blog has an interesting story about the link between rising food prices and the unfolding revolution in Egypt. 

In the last few days, soaring food prices have been cited as one of the proverbial straws that led Egyptians to take to the streets in frustration over Murbarak's 30-year rule....Global wheat prices are at an all-time high, and other grains and meat prices were up over 20% by the end of 2010. Though some 40% of Egypt's 80 million residents live in poverty, high food prices don't have the same impact in Egypt that they might have in other vulnerable countries. The nation has a huge subsidy program that, when its working right, helps protect its poorest citizens from inflated food prices.

The most telling data point from the article is that bread is central to Egyptian culture and diet and they are in the unenviable position of relying heavily on imports.

In Egypt, the Arabic word for bread — "aish" — is also the world for life. Egyptians are the world's largest consumers of bread and Egypt is the world's largest wheat importer.

To make matters more tenuous, Egyptians spend a very high percentage of their incomes on food. By comparison, Americans spend around 10% of disposable income on food.

Grinding Your Own Flour

I've had a couple of inquiries lately about people interested in either promoting their products or wanting to know about products for grinding your own wheat to make flour so I thought I would combine the two interests on this post.

When we set out to eat locally for a year in the one of the richest grain producing regions in the world we planned on grinding our own flour for the year. We bought a used Magic Mill grinder on Ebay that had been recommended to us by some friends, acquired some whole wheat berries from a farmer, and then never got around to grinding our own flour. Making butter and ice cream and yogurt among other things was all we could handle I guess. We also lost a little steam when we found out that almost all the flour for sale in the stores nears us is not only local but it's actually the same flour no matter which brand you buy. 

But I did investigate enough to know that it's difficult to find the whole grains to grind. They aren't readily available in stores. I was pleased to find out recently about Joseph's Grainery in Colfax Washington, about 45 minutes south of Spokane. They are selling barley, hard red wheat, lentils and soft white wheat. We ought to figure out a way to sell their products at the Farmers' Markets. 

Local Harvest is also a good place to investigate places nearby that sell whole grains. 

The wheat you grind at home is likely almost identical to the product that is ground at the ADM Mill down the street from my house, but there are some advantages to grinding your own wheat. It will be fresher and be free of preservatives and additives that may be in store bought flour. When we asked the folks at the ADM mill if they added preservatives they denied it, but explained that they do add nutritional supplements.

Home ground flour is also free from the industrial environment of a modern flour mill. When we visited the ADM Mill during our year it was a little disconcerting to find out that on that particular day they weren't grinding any flour because they were fumigating the whole mill. Even though they do this in a safe way that ensures safe flour on our store shelves, it is empowering to oversee the production of the flour.

All this has got me thinking I need to break out our old Magic Mill and give it a shot.

When it comes to flour grinders the highly rated Magic Mill that we purchased is discontinued. How about you flour grinding veterans out there. Do you have a machine to recommend to those interested in grinding their own flour?

100 Years of Eating in America in Four Handy Charts

The USDA's Economic Research Service now has a full century of data on food availability in America.

This one-of-a-kind data set measures which food commodities are available to eat at the national level and provides the foundation for estimating if the nutrients available support a healthy, well-nourished citizenry. The data date back to 1909, allowing researchers, marketers, and policymakers to examine historical consumption trends and shifts in food demand.

The four charts below from the linked article are great ways to absorb the data and see the trends in what foods are available per/capita. I'll take a stab at giving the charts names.

The "Have You Ever Noticed that Half the Items
on a Restaurant Menu Have Chicken" Chart

The Cheesehead Century Chart

The "Sweet Potatoes, We Barely Knew Ya" Chart

The "I Wonder What Foods the Government is Subsidizing
and Throwing the Whole System Out of Whack" Chart

Feel free to offer you're own "lame attempts at humor" chart names if you like.

New "Find the Farmer" Website

Stone Buhr flour has put together a nifty web site to locate the farmer that grew the grains that go into your flour. Go here for our research on local flours in the Inland Northwest. Just remember that the same batch of flour used for Stone Buhr is likely the same that went into Western Family and the other brands. It's like milk in the way that the commodity is pooled together on the wholesale/processing side and then separated by marketing on the retail side. Shepherd's Grain flours are processed separately from the rest.

Spokane Seed and Other Inland Northwest Specialties

Some people have asked if our region is a good one for eating locally. My response is to say, it depends on what you like to eat. But in general, the Inland Northwest is a place of food abundance. Eastern Washington produces the following percentages of our country's food items according to the 2007 USDA report; 77% of hops, 74% of spearmint oil, 42% of lentils, 22% of potatoes, 8% of wheat & barley, 60% of apples, 47% of concord grapes and 40% of niagara, 60% of sweet cherries, 43% of pears, 28% of prunes and plums, over 20% of our countries carrots, sweet corn, asparagus, green peas, onions.

When we eat a can of Campbel's split pea or lentil soup, the peas and lentils are likely from Spokane Seed in the Valley. When we down a can of Budweiser, we're likely partaking in Yakama hops. When we eat a granola bar with dried cherries, we're likely biting into a little bit of sunshine from the Wenatchee area. When we chew on Doubleday spearmint gum, we're likely freshening our breath via the fruitful soil of the Wapato area. When we make pancakes from a box of Krusteaz Pancake Mix, we're likely consuming wheat from our state's vast dry field farming resource.

The Inland Northwest is a place of plenty.

If you want to skip the can of Campbel's soup, you can go straight to the offices of Spokane Seed in the Valley and get some manageable and inexpensive bags of peas and lentils (pictured above). They have four or five varieties of lentils.   

Dinner at De Leon Foods

We met tonight with Ben, a photographer from the Inlander. They are doing a story on our little experiment in the Dining Guide and needed a picture. I guess it comes out on Wednesday. Nancy says she hopes we don't look weird. We'll see. It's hard to cover up the obvious.

Ben wanted to meet at a restaurant that fits with our plan and De Leon Foods was the first thing that came to mind. It is a local Mexican grocery, bakery, tortilla factory, and restaurant all in one. A bonus for us is that they get their flour for the tortillas from Shepherd's Grain, a co-op of Eastern Washington wheat farmers. It's hard to find Mexican food outside of the Azteca genre in Spokane so this place is a real treat.

We have been getting a steady supply of their tortillas and chips but hadn't had a chance sit down for a meal at their cafeteria style restaurant. Someone told me they were kind of expensive but we were able to feed the whole family four tacos, a burrito and enchilada for around $12. I highly recommend the tacos.

The surprise treat for the night was born out of a recurring dilemma. The kids wanted dessert and were hovering around the grocery store mini freezer filled with all kinds of non-local treats. These situations are real moments of truth for sticking to the plan. Nothing weakens my knees like the whiny defiant chorus of my daughters, saying "Pleeeeeeeaaaaase." Something deep inside my parental cortex yells, "Please make it go away. Give them whatever they want. Just make it stop."

Real Bread

With wheat fields as far as the eye can see and grain silos standing like towers of Babel all over Spokane, it's no surprise that there is a lot of locally made bread in the Inland Northwest. There are huge operations like Franz in Spokane Valley and medium sized bakeries like Hearthbread Bakehouse north of the Gonzaga campus. But until I got involved in the Millwood Farmers' Market last summer I had forgotten about the joys of "real" bread. I'm talking about bread with crust that bites back at you and with texture and body that speaks of hands that have worked the dough.

We've started making a couple loaves of whole wheat honey bread each week and I would put it in the "real" bread category. On a side note, we bought a flour grinder on ebay to grind our own flour. We plan on getting our whole grains at URM Cash & Carry. Spokane Bakery Supply also sells them but you have to order it in bulk. Maybe someone knows more about locally sourced whole grains. I've been surprised how many people in Spokane grind their own flour.

While it's great to make our own bread, there is something really satisfying about buying a freshly made loaf a "real" bread. Tom and Louise Tuffin of Arabesque Farms & Bakery are the deans of Spokane's artisan breadmakers. They add a little extra "realness" to every loaf. 

"Flour is Flour."

We stopped by the old Centennial Mills ADM flour mill today on Trent Rd. It's one of many old mills in the Valley that we pass by everyday without giving a second glance. We did a little investigating and were able to get the scoop on Indland Northwest flour. It turns out almost all the flour in the Spokane area is processed at this one mill. It has storage capacity for 4 million bushels of wheat. Its largest customer is Snyder's bakery in Spokane Valley. They package the flour for retail use as Western Family, Fred Meyer, Albertsons, Stone Buhr, and on and on.