Found a new site I like a lot...

http://vegansaurus.com

Vegansaurus! is a neat site with great recipes. Go over and take a look.

The 10 Worst Things about "Frankenfish"...

What do you know about genetically engineered salmon?

This article was written by the Organic Consumers Association's Political Director, Alexis Baden-Mayer. To take action to stop Frankenfish, please click here.

10. Frankenfish Aren't Animals, They're "Animal Drugs"
Obama's FDA is regulating genetically engineered salmon, a genetically modified organism (GMO) that is the first of its kind, not as an animal, but as an animal drug.
Source: FDA's Guidance for Industry #187 Regulation of Genetically Engineered Animals (PDF)
Normally, a veterinary drug would be used for health purposes, but there's no therapeutic benefit associated with jacking up an Atlantic salmon with the genes of a Chinook salmon and the eel-like ocean pout to make it grow twice as fast. On the contrary, genetic engineering increases the poor salmon's mortality, disease and deformity.
Source: American Anti-Vivisection Society
So, why would the FDA treat a the first genetically engineered animal for human consumption like a drug? The idea came from the biotech industry. They knew that the FDA's animal drug process would keep companies' "proprietary" information secret, while limiting public participation and downplaying food safety concerns. Genius.

9. The GMO Part of the GMO Salmon Isn't Being Safety Tested
Since 1992, the FDA has operated under the legal fiction created by the Bush-Quayle Administration that there is no risk associated with the human consumption of genetically engineered plants and animals. The FDA explains that DNA is Generally Recognized as Safe, so genetically engineered DNA is safe, too, and it doesn't have to be safety tested.
Source: FDA's Statement of Policy - Foods Derived from New Plant Varieties (PDF)

8. Frankenfish DNA Could Change the Bacteria of Your Gut
A human study conducted by the UK's Food Standards Agency found that consuming genetically engineered soy can result in "horizontal gene transfer," where the bacteria of the gut takes up the soy's modified DNA. With GMO salmon, the bacteria of our digestive tracks could take up the engineered salmon genes, but the FDA isn't looking into whether this would happen or how it might effect our health, because...
Source: Nature Biotechnology

7. If It Swims Like a Salmon, FDA Says It's Safe to Eat
Instead of reviewing the safety of consuming genetically engineered salmon DNA, the FDA food safety review is a simple quacks-like-a-duck-style comparison of genetically engineered and normal salmon for hormone levels, nutrition, and allergenic potency.
Source: FDA's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee Meeting Materials (PDF)

6. FDA Lets the Frankenfish Company Test Its Own Product's Safety
The FDA's food safety review of GMO salmon consists of collecting data produced by AquaBounty, the company that wants to sell it. Not surprisingly, that data is seriously flawed.
* AquaBounty did not always segregate, or even collect, data specific to their AquAdvantage GMO Salmon. And, FDA did not require AquaBounty to produce data in the actual conditions under which the salmon will be commercially produced, so we don't have food safety data on the Panama-raised, triploid, monosex AquAdvantage Salmon that people will be actually be eating if the FDA grants approval.
* FDA did not require AquaBounty to show that AquAdvantage and normal salmon were similar when raised under the same conditions. AquaBounty's food safety data for genetically engineered salmon did not have to match data for its control salmon. FDA compared AquaBounty's data for genetically engineered salmon to data for farmed salmon raised under unknown conditions and data for salmon from other scientific studies.
* AquaBounty only tested a few fish, making it less likely that its food safety studies would reveal statistically significant differences between genetically engineered and normal salmon.
* AquaBounty's detection levels were often set too low to produce food safety data for comparison.
* AquaBounty selected which fish to test, and unblinded samples.
But, even with all of the flaws and biases that likely hid differences between GMO and normal salmon, it's clear that Frankenfish isn't same...
Source: FDA's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee Meeting Materials (PDF)


5. Frankenfish Is More Carcinogenic
GMO salmon has 40% more IGF1, a hormone linked to prostate, breast and colon cancers in humans.
Source: FDA's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee Meeting Materials (PDF)

4. Frankenfish Is Less Nutritious
GE salmon is less nutritious than normal salmon. It has the lowest omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of all the salmon in the studies FDA reviewed.
Source: FDA's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee Meeting Materials (PDF)

3. Frankenfish Is More Allergenic
GE salmon have mean allergenic potencies that are 20% and 52% higher than normal salmon, increasing the risk of potentially deadly allergic reactions.
Source: FDA's Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee Meeting Materials (PDF)

2. GMOs Can Mess a Fish Up! (But, Salmon Are Already Deformed by Factory Farming)
The FDA notes evidence of "increased frequency of skeletal malformations, and increased prevalence of jaw erosions and multisystemic, focal inflammation" in the tissues of GMO salmon.
Most people wouldn't be too surprised to learn that genetic engineering can mess a fish up. What might shock you is that the FDA dismisses these findings as "within the range observed in rapid growth phenotypes of non-genetically engineered Atlantic salmon."
The abnormalities FDA found weren't much worse than those currently plaguing the factory farmed salmon selected for rapid growth and subjected to the physiological stress of intensive production. "Screamer disease" deforms 80% of Chilean salmon and "humpback" spinal compression is found in 70% of Norwegian salmon operations.
Thanks, FDA, for letting us know that factory farmed salmon are so messed up! But, that's no reason to turn them into Frankenfish!
Source: GMO Salmon Frankenfish and Screamer Disease

But the freakiest thing about all of this is ...
1. The Government Wants More Transgenic Fish and Less Wild Fish
The main justification for GMO salmon is that it could "reduce the pressure on wild fish stocks". But, consumption isn't the primary pressure on wild Alaskan salmon, which gets a "best choice" rating from the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program. The biggest threat to wild Alaskan salmon is the destruction of their habitat.
Ironically, as Paul Greenberg, author of the new book "Four Fish," explains, "While the government seeks to boost farmed salmon supplies through transgenics, it is simultaneously letting wild salmon go to pot."
The spawning grounds of wild salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska, are threatened by the international mining giant, Anglo-American, which plans to construct Pebble Mine, the largest open-pit copper and gold mine in the US. Two months ago, a copper mine failure in China's TingRiver killed millions of fish. A similar disaster at Pebble Mine could mean the destruction of a quarter of a billion pounds of salmon, curiously, about the same amount of GMO salmon Aqua Bounty hopes to produce. The EPA could stop Pebble Mine through the Clean Water Act but has failed to act.

Greenberg writes, "More transgenic fish, less wild fish. You have to scratch your head at a government that's planning that kind of seafood menu for its citizens. Instead of endorsing a risky experiment in genetic salmon modification wouldn't it be better if our leaders protected wild salmon habitat? In the end we'd have just as much fish on our plates and a safer environment to boot."

Here's a great article from Business Week...

Bill Clinton

The Rise of the Power Vegans

Steve Wynn, Russell Simmons, Bill Clinton and a comparable cast of heavies are now using tempeh to assert their superiority. A look at what gives

By Joel Stein

Steve Wynn

It used to be easy for moguls to flaunt their power. All they had to do was renovate the chalet in St. Moritz, buy the latest Gulfstream (GD) jet, lay off 5,000 employees, or marry a much younger Asian woman. By now, though, they've used up all the easy ways to distinguish themselves from the rest of us—which may be why a growing number of America's most powerful bosses have become vegan. Steve Wynn, Mort Zuckerman, Russell Simmons, and Bill Clinton are now using tempeh to assert their superiority. As are Ford Executive Chairman of the Board Bill Ford (F), Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, venture capitalist Joi Ito, Whole Foods Market (WFMI) Chief Executive Officer John Mackey, and Mike Tyson. Yes, Mike Tyson, a man who once chewed on human ear, is now vegan. His dietary habit isn't nearly as impressive as that of Alec Baldwin, though, who has founda way to be both vegan and fat at the same time.
It shouldn't be surprising that so many CEOs are shunning meat, dairy, and eggs: It's an exclusive club. Only 1 percent of the U.S. population is vegan, partly because veganism isn't cheap: The cost comes from the value of specialty products made by speciality companies with cloying names (tofurkey, anyone?). Vegans also have to be powerful enough to even know what veganism is.

Read the rest of the article HERE.

Expecting Raw Earth Organics to open in Shepherdstown this weekend...

The most recent post from the long-awaited Raw Earth Organics is November 6 (tomorrow.)
We've been waiting for the last month for this one to open on German Street.

All Organic and Natural Foods... Proactive in the Local Food Movement. Natural Body care, Organic Skin Care, Hair Care. Supplements/Vitamnins and Raw Foods.Bringing the Mind, Body and Spirit to a whole.

Information

Location:

125 W. German St.

Shepherdstown, WV, 25443

Phone:

304.876.0851

Tues - Thurs:

9:00 am - 7:30 pm

Fri - Sat:

10:00 am - 8:00 pm

Sun:

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm    

  ___________

UPDATE: Well, it's Monday morning and they still haven't opened. If anyone knows what's going on here...please post a comment and let me know. -Bill 

I've been unavailable...

...but I'll be putting some new recipes together this weekend and looking into some shopping locations in The Panhandle. Come back soon.

- Bill

Bill's Vegan Biscuits

I needed a biscuit that does not use dairy products and does use whole wheat flour (at my wife's request.) So here's how I made them (recipe makes 10  2 1/2" Biscuits).

Ingredients:
    •    2 cups whole wheat flour
    •    4 teaspoons baking powder
    •    1 teaspoon salt
    •    4 tablespoons vegan butter substitute
    •    2/3 cup unsweetened almond milk
How to make 'em:

Preheat oven to 375°
then...
    1.     Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into bowl.
    2.     Mix butter in with knife or fingers.
    3.     After butter is well mixed, add milk slowly.
    4.     Roll dough out on floured board.
    5.     Cut with biscuit cutter
    6.     Bake on greased baking sheet in oven for 12 minutes.

Enjoy.

Fruit Fly Problem?

If you are like me, you eat a lot of fruit and probably have an exposed fruitbowl full of apples and oranges, etc. This time of year, a lot of fruit flies appear to make your life miserable.

I have been battling with fruit flies for the last week or so... they pop up everywhere... drains, fruitbowl, cutting board area... and, since we don't use any poison sprays, getting rid of them was a real problem. Until I did my research, of course, and discovered how to make "fruit fly traps" which have worked so well that you hardly see any of the little bastards around.

How does one make a fruit fly trap? Simple. Start with a good, widemouthed jar (we always have plenty of old Ball jars around which we use for canning) and put in about an inch or two of warm water with a squirt of dishwashing soap. Then add a shot of apple cider and a shot of red wine. Cover the top of the jar with a piece of Saran Wrap and use a rubber band to keep it tightly sealed at the neck of the jar. Now comes the tricky part... you have to punch a few very small holes through the plastic wrap... small enough for the fruit flies to get in but not so large that they can go right out again. I use a nut pick to punch the holes, but a fork could do it, too.

Then all you have to do is put the jar wherever the greatest number of the pests have been spotted. I made four jars and put them in various places in my kitchen. Now all you do is wait. In about an hour or so you will notice a distinct reduction in the bugs. The next day when you check the jars you will find they are full of little drowned fruit flies. Amazing!

I change the liquid and reseal the jars every few days and my fruit-flies are now nowhere to be found (on the first refill day there were much fewer of them caught in the traps, so we are succeeding quite well.)

An apology and a recipe...

I've been away from Panhandle Vegan for a couple of weeks, for which I apologize. I've been spending most of the time shopping for a car, getting through a theater production at Full Circle Theater, and a pile of other things (I spend what time I have available keeping Under The LobsterScope going and we're in a heavy political season).

But I'm back today and I have a recipe tailored to diabetic vegans out there... Blueberry Coffee Cake.


OK... here we go.

Dry Ingredients:


1 cup old fashioned oats 
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup stevia powder
 2 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon Ener-G Egg Replacer
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt


1 1/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (thaw frozen blueberries after measuring - 1 minute in the microwave should do it.)


Wet Ingredients: 1/2 cup unsweetened almond, soy or coconut milk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon canola or sesame oil


Topping:
2 tablespoons stevia powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon


Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly spray or wipe the bottom and sides of a 9-inch baking pan with cooking spray.


Put the oats into a blender and grind until they are a fine oat flour. Mix the oat flour with the other dry ingredients. Stir in 1/4 cup of the blueberries.


Put the remaining cup blueberries into a blender or food processor with the water. Pulse (quickly turn on and off) to coarsely chop the blueberries, but do not completely puree.


Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in blueberry mixture and other wet ingredients. Stir until moistened and completely combined, but don't over-mix.


Pour into the prepared pan (batter will be quite thick). Mix together the sugar and cinnamon topping, and sprinkle it over the top.


Bake for 25-35 minutes, until a toothpick or fork inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool.

You'll really like it and it will be pretty safe for any diabetic Vegan on my block!

Bill Clinton... Vegan?

There's been a lot of press lately about Bill Clinton having become a Vegan. If so, that's really great. On TV today he looked pretty trim... he's lost a lot of weight (and all the fat that used to be around his neck) and seems like his energy level is pretty high.

There was also some comment that he occasionally eats fish... now, I know this throws a wrench into the Vegan definition, but I think "Bill, do the best you can... you are looking great!"

Wow! Amy's makes a soy cheese macaroni and cheese and it is great!

I'm so glad I discovered this, after reading about it in one of the Vegan mags online. This comes in single serving units and takes about six minutes in the microwave.

And it is DELICIOUS. The Soy Cheddar Cheese actually tastes like cheddar.


For people who can't tolerate soy cheese, they are also coming out with a Non Dairy Rice Mac & Cheeze that uses a non-soy, non-dairy cheese (I think it's Daiya's cheddar)... this should be on healthfood shelves soon!

UTF Type Foundry: I've started using my picture fonts to punctuate blog postings.

UTF Type Foundry: I've started using my picture fonts to punctuate blog postings.
I guess I'll start using them on Panhandle Vegan postings as well.

Goodbye High Fructose Corn Syrup, Hello Corn Sugar (Signed, Corn Industry)

This is part of a longer article in today's Huffington Post which I suggest you read in order to stay on top of the obesity problem.

Cross posted on Under The LobsterScope.

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com The makers of high fructose corn syrup want to sweeten up its image with a new name: corn sugar. The bid to rename the sweetener by the Corn Refiners Association comes as Americans' concerns about health and obesity have sent consumption of high fructose corn syrup, used in soft drinks but also in bread, cereal and other foods, to a 20-year low. The group applied Tuesday to the Food and Drug Administration to get the "corn sugar" name approved for use on food labels. They hope a new name will ease confusion about about the sweetener. Some people think it is more harmful or more likely to make them obese than sugar, perceptions for which there is little scientific evidence. Approval of the new name could take two years, but that's not stopping the industry from using the term now in advertising. Renaming products has succeeded before. For example, low eurcic acid rapeseed oil became much more popular after becoming "canola oil" in 1988. Will shoppers swallow the new name?

Read the rest HERE.

Related Articles

• Goodbye High Fructose Corn Syrup, Hello Corn Sugar (Signed, Corn Industry) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Corn Syrup Producers Want Sweeter Name: Corn Sugar (abcnews.go.com)
• A New Name for High-Fructose Corn Syrup (well.blogs.nytimes.com)
• Summary Box: New name for corn syrup? (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

I just read a really good analysis of McDonald's "real fruit" smoothies...

Go here and see if you can take the amount of sugar they put into this stuff:
http://spoonfulofsugarfree.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/mcdonalds-real-fruit-smoothies

If the outrageous sugar content turns you off, Alex puts some great Smoothie recipes in her article... cheaper and MUCH less sugar:

Smoothie Ideas:
~I love making smoothies all the time! They are quick and easy to bring. Just throw the ingredients in a blender, and take it to go in a cup! I make mine by putting frozen fruit (or fresh) in the blender, fill it with juice, water, milk substitute, and add other miscellaneous items like spices, extracts, or protein powder

• PiNa Colada: coconut milk, pineapple, banana
• Chocolate-Dipped Strawberry
• Strawberry Mango
• Chocolate Peanut Butter: cocoa powder (or chocolate protein powder), milk, peanut butter, banana
• All the fruit in your pantry smoothie: and add milk and juice!
• Peachy: peaches, papaya, mango, orange juice
• Orange julius: orange juice, ice, milk
• Chai smoothie: banana, milk, cinnamon, chilled chai tea

The possibilities are endless!

Sustainable Shepherdstown to show "Age of Stupid"

"The Age of Stupid," a British environmental film made in 2009, will be presented by local environmental group Sustainable Shepherdstown on Friday, September 10 at 7 p.m. at the Byrd Center Auditorium at Shepherd University. The film runs 89 minutes and is free of charge.Oscar-winning actor Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off, The Usual Suspects) stars as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055 who asks: Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?

Runaway climate change has ravaged the planet by 2055. Pete plays the founder of The Global Archive, a storage facility located in the (now melted) Arctic, preserving all of humanity's achievements in the hope that the planet might one day be habitable again. He pulls together clips of "archive" news and documentary from 1950-2008 to build a message showing what went wrong and why. He focuses on six human stories: Alvin DuVernay, is a paleontogolist helping Shell find more oil off the coast of New Orleans. He also rescued more than 100 people after Hurricane Katrina, which, by 2055, is well known as one of the first "major climate change events". Jeh Wadia in Mumbai aims to start-up a new low-cost airline and gets a million Indians flying. Layefa Malemi lives in absolute poverty in a small village in Nigeria from which Shell extracts tens of millions of dollars worth of oil every week. She dreams of becoming a doctor, but must fish in the oil-infested waters for four years to raise the funds. Jamila Bayyoud, aged 8, is an Iraqi refugee living on the streets of Jordan after her home was destroyed - and father killed - during the US-led invasion of 2003. Piers Guy is a windfarm developer from Cornwall fighting the NIMBYs of Middle England. 82-year-old French mountain guide Fernand Pareau has witnessed his beloved Alpine glaciers melt by 150 metres.

"This is a signally important film--a very clever and very powerful reminder of exactly where we stand on this fragile, lovely planet."
Bill McKibben, Author, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

"Think An Inconvenient Truth but with a personality."
Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

Wow! Being a Vegan is paying off...

It is now the beginning of September and I am 10 months into being a Vegan... and I have lost 50 Pounds 0ff my 385 pound start (which means I've lost as much as Marie Osmond did on Nutri-System, but I am still not pretty!)

If I continue this way I should have at least 60 pounds off by the end of my first year (my ultimate goal, as folks who read my stuff know, is 150 pounds... at least another year away and probably two.)

Now it's time to increase the exercise (I can actually move around more than I could when I started. Amazing!)

Carrot Cake Update

OK... not too bad after being in the refrigerator overnight.  I think, though, that the next time I make it I'll increase it by 1 cup of shredded carrots and another half cup of erythritol powder.
Also, increase the cooking time by ten minutes.

I'm getting ready to try a Carrot Cake...

I got the recipe from Susan V's http://blog.fatfreevegan.com. I'm replacing a few things: I'm making a stevia tea with the 3/4 cup of warm water (done by boiling stevia in water and straining out) to replace the 1 1/2 cups of sugar in the cake. As a diabetic, the sugar does little for me.

I'm also trying some extra-ground (mortar and pestle) stevia crystals to replace the powdered sugar in the frosting. I'll tell you how it comes out in my next post.

Classic Vegan Carrot Cake

yields 2 8×8″ cakes (or 2 9″ round cakes)

2 1/3 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt

6 tbsp flax seed meal
3/4 c warm water
1½ c sugar
1 c oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 c shredded carrots
1 c walnuts, chopped

Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz vegan cream cheese
¼ c margarine, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 c powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350º. Line two 8×8″ pans with parchment paper. In a small bowl, sift together dry ingredients (flour through salt). In a large bowl, whisk together flax seed meal and water. Beat in sugar and oil. Add vanilla and carrots and mix until combined. Add dry mix and stir until moistened. Fold in walnuts. Pour equal parts into pans. Bake for 18-20 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool in pans 10 minutes.

For the frosting, beat together cream cheese and margarine. Add vanilla and powdered sugar; whip until smooth. (Don’t overbeat; in my experience, store-bought vegan cream cheese has a tendency to get runny.)

Use a knife to loosen edges of cake from pans. Using parchment paper, lift cakes out of pans. Carefully remove parchment paper from one cake. Frost cake, layer, and decorate with a marzipan carrot (brush a little cocoa powder into the indents for some realism). Serve chilled.

CHANGES I MADE:

In the first recipe (Cake Part) I used the stevia water as I said earlier, plus a added a half a cup of erythritol powder ( a low calorie sweetener that does not effect blood sugar and is about 70% of the sweetness of cane sugar). In the Frosting Part I used 1 1/2 cups of erythritol powder instead of sugar, plus about 20 drops of Vanilla Cream stevia liquid to replace the vanilla.

Vegan diet has led this fatman to a 47 pound loss in 10 months...

The last time I posted an update on my weight loss activities (back in June) I had lost 35 pounds. As of this morning, I'm now down 47 pounds, with 103 to go on my overall goal of 150 pounds.

So that means I've lost 47 pounds in just about 10 months. I know to many folks who watch those horrible nutri-whatever commercials on TV that that may sound like a lot, but when you start out at 385 pounds it is really only s small achievement.

I do feel a lot healthier and have more energy than before. And my blood sugar seems to be easier to control, so I won't complain.

It is also 10 months or so since Elly and I adopted the Vegan Lifestyle (and I started Panhandle Vegan.) Of course, this has a great deal to do with the weight loss... it has caused a complete change in my "eating lifestyle", but that change had been surprisingly easy to pull off.

Someday I am going to head a post that says "Thin Diabetic Vegan is Down 150 Pounds." It will be at least another year and probably more... so please bear with me.   -BT

(Posted in cooperation with Under The LobsterScope)

6 Quart Jars of Organic Kosher Dills

We have had such good luck with our cucumbers this season that I have had to move into pickles four times already. Today it was kosher dills and, where I thought I'd get three quarts I ended up with six.

I have now done kosher dills, a variation on Claussen recipe dills, sweet pickles and a pickled vegetable mix and the jars are decorating the top of our china cabinet.

We'll be remembering our garden all winter.

Here is the Kosher Dill recipe I used today:
1.    Wash cucumbers, and place in the sink with cold water and lots of ice cubes. Soak in ice water for 2 hours. Refresh ice as required. Sterilize 1 quart canning jars and lids in boiling water for at least 10 minutes.
    2.    In a large pot over medium-high heat, combine 8 cups white vinegar, 16 cups water, and 2/3 cup of kosher salt. Bring the brine to a rapid boil.
    3.    In each jar, place 2 half-cloves of garlic, a fresh sprig dill, then enough cucumbers to fill the jar (about 1 pound). Then add 2 more garlic halves, two teaspoons of mustard seed, a teaspoon of black peppercorns and 1 more sprig of dill. Fill jars with hot brine. Seal jars, making sure you have cleaned the jar's rims of any residue.
    4.    Process sealed jars in a boiling water bath. Process quart jars for 15 minutes.
    5.    Store pickles for a minimum of 8 weeks before eating. Refrigerate after opening. Pickles will keep for up to 2 years if stored in a cool dry place.

Did this catch any of my readers?

Apparently the new Tweet button, which I ALMOST loaded on this blog, had a flaw, especially for Firefox users like me.
I'm glad I didn't connect it.

clipped from mashable.com New Tweet Button Temporarily Hoses the Internet Apologies if our homepage looked like the above momentarily, but it wasn’t our fault, we swear! The new official “tweet button,” which was rolled out yesterday, had a malfunction that rendered an error message in Firefox () and essentially rendered Web browsers useless. Lots of other people noticed too, including popular blog host Squarespace () and tech news site Ars Technica. While not a long lasting problem, you can imagine the scale of it being pretty enormous, considering Tweetmeme () reported yesterday that its button (now the official tweet button) is viewed 750 million times daily. Twitter ()’s acknowledged a “momentary problem” and says the issue should now be fixed. Whew. If you’re still seeing the errors here or elsewhere, be sure to clear your cache.

Study shows Organic farming gives similar yield with less environmental destruction,

Take a look at THIS ARTICLE on Organic vs. Conventional Farm Yield. It will give you a lot to think about (and firms up our own belief in Organic Farming.)

A snatch:

The 22-year farming trial study found that organic farming produces the same yields of corn and soybeans as does conventional farming, but uses 30 percent less energy, less water and no pesticides.

The Story of Cosmetics (2010)

A presentation worth taking a look at:



Presented in cooperation with Under The LobsterScope.

Photoplankton declining due to Global Warming...

Which means so is Oxygen and Seafood... here is part of an article in Nature... I recommend you go in and read it all.

Cross Posted in Under The LobsterScope and Panhandle Vegan.

clipped from www.nature.com Ocean greenery under warming stress Marine phytoplankton — the vast range of tiny algae species accounting for roughly half of Earth's total photosynthetic biomass — have declined substantially in the world's oceans over the past century, researchers report in Nature1 this week. The findings add to concerns that climate change is dangerously altering marine ecosystems. Phytoplankton are the basis of the entire marine food chain, and have an important role in the global carbon cycle. Through photosynthesis, they produce around half of the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere and drive the 'biological pump' that fixes 100 million tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide a day into organic material, which then sinks to the ocean floor when the phytoplankton die, or are grazed and digested. Since 1950 alone, algal biomass decreased by around 40%, probably in response to ocean warming — and the decline has gathered pace in recent years.

Something to think about as the globe warms up...

"The greenhouse gas emissions from factory farms, deforestation, industrial crop production, food processing, and long-distance distribution make the food sector the biggest cause of climate change, responsible for at least a third of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Factory farmed meat, dairy and eggs alone may contribute as much as 51%!

"But we can change food system pollution into food system solutions. A worldwide shift to local, organic food production would drastically reduce food system emissions and turn the world's farmland into a carbon sink to capture and store 40% of global greenhouse gas pollution."

- Excerpt from Organic Consumers Association's "Food Agenda 2020: The Organic Alternative"

The Organic Solution to the Climate Crisis... article HERE.

We ARE what we EAT!

Good Natured - A Green General Store

I meant to get this article up awhile ago - but then I had that week or so with no computer while I waited for my new one to show up. Anyway, better late than never.

Martinsburg, WV, has what is billed as a "Green General Store" where you can by organic groceries, get vitamins and other health products and find lots of other things for cooking, housekeeping and general good living. Like most of the small "health food" stores you find in the general 75-mile radius, they are happy to order for you, especially since they don't have the space that a MOM's or Common Market has, and this one is also a pickup point for one of the Community Farm Programs.

I talked with Jeff, who was running the store while I was there, and asked him about the construction going on in the back of the building (an old Victorianesque house)  and he told me they were building a cafe which would be serving vegetarian and vegan items. Not a bad thing at all.

The thing that caught my attention though was the prices which were not as high as a lot of the real small health food stores in the area. That was a very pleasant surprise... I just wish they had more items.

Good Natured
209 S Raleigh St
Martinsburg, WV 25401
304-262-9978
304-262-9909
http://www.goodnaturedllc.com
Plenty of parking.

Wow! Cucumbers!

Elly just brought in a pile of cucumbers from our teeny backyard garden... enough to make 3 or 4 jars of dill pickles this afternoon.

This is going to be fun.


----------------


The Results:

Farmers Market

Sunday morning in Shepherdstown is Farmers Market time (even though there are smaller FMs in town on two other days, Sunday mornings are what everyone thinks of here when they think of visiting with our local farmers) and Elly and I are getting ready to head down German Street to pick up some goodies.

It's going to be a hot one this morning, but my guess is that it will be crowded. This time of year it usually is... people shopping, some walking dogs, musicians performing... all between 9 AM or so and 1 PM.

The fruits should be starting to come in and local corn should be there this morning. Green onions are on my list, too.

For the most part we get real organics here... plus the farmers who grow organically but who can't afford all the registry costs of being certified as organic (and this number is growing as the economy gets worse.)

We'll follow up with coffee at Mellow Moods Coffee Shop when we're done... see you there!

Surprising medical study on older women and how weight mass effects brain capacity...

clipped from www.usnews.com Body Shape May Affect Mental Acuity Big apples fare better than plump pears Being fat may diminish mental performance, studies find — a problem that worsens with age. But among elderly women, where fat is deposited may matter. To wit: The big apple is sharper than the obese pear. Genetics dictates where people preferentially accumulate body fat. For most it’s around the belly. Among the obese, these apple-shaped individuals tend to run a bigger risk of developing heart disease than do pears — people who deposit most of their excess fat at the hips and thighs. For a host of reasons, physicians had expected that if body shape affected mental performance, apples would again prove the bigger losers. In fact, the opposite appears true, Diana Kerwin of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and her colleagues report online July 14  in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. Among apples, the fatter they were, the higher their mental-acuity score...

Go HERE and read more...

This article is cross posted on Under The LobsterScope.

Shaharazades in Shepherdstown

The first Sunday evening of the month brings a poetry reading competition to Shaharazades Exotic tea Room in Shepherdstown. John Case and I are going to cover it for the Winners And Losers Radio Program on WSHC (where I co-host with him on Friday mornings... 89.7 FM).

Poetry is one of the subjects near and dear to us, and we are going to record some of it. Maybe we'll see some of you there... 6:30 PM and on.

Although not a perfect Vegan eating establishment, there is a lot that is "Vegetarian" on their menu. You can take a look at it HERE.


Shaharazades Exotic Tea Room
141 W. German St.
Shepherdstown, WV 25443

Drop in or call ahead for reservations.
304-876-1000
Hours:
Tuesday-Thursday 11a.m. - 8p.m. (Closed Mondays)
Friday-Saturday 11a.m. - 10p.m.
Sunday 9a.m. - 8p.m.

 

Pickling Day

Today I am experimenting with pickling vegetables. I've been gathering spices and shopping for the baby peppers, tiny carrots, pickling cucumbers, cauliflower florets and the rest of my ingredients all week.

Right now I'm getting ready to boil my pickle jars to ward off botulism (isn't that exciting?) following ancient instructions in our very old copy of The Joy Of Cooking.

I saw someone doing similar stuff on the Food Channel, but I am making my own changes. Sugar, for instance. As a diabetic, I want to avoid sugar, so yesterday I made a tea of stevia leaves in water which I will use instead of sugar. Have to be careful, though, as stevia is much sweeter than sugar (about ten times) so I have to use less.

Once everything is done, the jars will go a few weeks and then they should be ready to eat. I haven't gone into most of the details here... blanching vegetables, layering spices, etc.... but maybe I'll get into that later.

Cross posted at Under The LobsterScope.
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Update:
Well, the three big Ball Jars in the picture at the start of this post display the results of my pickling expedition. It looks like everything came out OK (the lids lost their air bubbles and sucked down when I boiled the jars at the end of the process). Now they are sitting on the kitchen windowsill where, sometime in August, we'll try one.

Sorry for lack of new posts...

They are coming soon.
We have a downtime due to a dead laptop battery, but will be back as soon as Amazon delivers.
- BT from a borrowed machine.

Getting ready for a Vegan 4th of July?

If you are, you should take a look at the new section on VegWeb entitled Happy 4th of July. You'll find all sorts of grilling recipes from Black Bean Burgers to BBQ Ribs.

There's also a section for dealing with meat eaters at your 4th celebration... sure, we can all get along together.

As one of the articles listed says:

When the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, they probably never imagined that someday Americans would celebrate their freedom by drinking Budweiser while grilling veggie burgers in their backyards—but hey, we’re not complaining. As with every holiday penciled into our planners, the Fourth of July offers the perfect chance to throw a fabulous, patriotic fête complete with vegan spare ribs, dairy-free ice cream sandwiches, and fantastic firework displays.

You will also find contributions from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen like a wonderful recipe for Red, White and Blue Fruit Terrine which I can't wait to try.

So, here at Panhandle Vegan we hope you all have a great holiday.

Yuan Fu Vegetarian Chinese Restaurant

When Elly and I are driving to Washington DC from Shepherdstown, Rockville, MD, is at the halfway point and, if it's lunch time, the place to stop is Yuan Fu.


It is located in a small strip mall at 798 Rockville Pike. If you are driving too fast and don't see the sign it is easy to miss.

There is plenty for vegans as well as vegetarians... I don't know another restaurant with so many choices for a vegan diner.  This from their promotional material:

Yuan Fu Vegetarian Serving Montgomery County Rockville City for 11 years.  For the most wholesome healthy delicious homemade Chinese-style Vegetarian and Vegan dishes.

Chef Tai has more than 30 years of experience in Vegetarian Cuisine & uses the freshest ingredients available to create entrees sure to please the most discriminating critic. We welcome you to come enjoy our fabulous and healthy Vegetarian and  Vegan Chinese cuisine. 

Take a look at their fantastic menu HERE.


Tel: 301.762.5937

Business Hours:
11:00 a.m to 10:00 p.m (Sun - Thurs)
11:00 a.m to 10:30 p.m (Fri - Sat)

No Checks Accepted
Credit Cards ($10 minimum order)

Not all organic food is "organic"

Here's a clip about food imported from China... Click on the pri.org address for more.

clipped from www.pri.org Think those "organic" strawberries from China are better for environment? Think again. The organic label is meant to signify that a food is relatively environmentally friendly: Organic producers are forbidden from using many synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. When that organic food comes from China, that label may not mean much. "When I see organic food from China, I question," environmental journalist Michael Pollan told PRI's The World, "how organic is it?" Organics are a $26 billion industry in the United States, and an increasing amount of that is coming from China. Pollan points out, "organic is a very big global business now. People don’t realize it." A Chinese grocery chain owner who spoke with Global Post estimated that "maybe 30 percent of farms that put the organic label on their food produce the real thing." Consumers should look beyond the label and consider the real environmental cost of their foods.

There's a lot you can do to make sure safe, organic food is available...

One of those things is to join the True Food Network / The Center for Food Safety.

Go to http://truefoodnow.org/category/organics and sign up. There is no charge. You'll just be expanding the number of people who are fighting Monsanto and the other chemical companies effecting our food.

Their National Headquarters is within our operating area and you have an excellent chance to get involved with things Vegans are really committed to.

National Headquarters
660 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, #302
Washington DC 20003
phone: (202)547-9359
fax: (202)547-9429

It's time to support Dennis Kucinich on GMOs

Four days ago, Congressman Kucinich came out with this statement as a response to the Supreme Court's 7-1 decision to allow the experimental planting of genetically modified alfalfa seed before an environmental review is completed:

"Why do we continue to throw precaution to the wind?"

"Today the Supreme Court ruled that when it comes to genetically modified organisms, we as consumers have to wait until the damage is done and obvious before we can act to protect health and the environment, even if that damage could be irreversible."

"Haven't we learned from the catastrophe in the Gulf of the dangers of technological arrogance, of proceeding ahead with technologies without worrying about the consequences? Why do we continue to throw precaution to the wind?

"Tomorrow I will introduce three bills that will provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for all Genetically Engineered (GE) plants, animals, bacteria, and other organisms. To ensure we can maximize benefits and minimize hazards, Congress must provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for all GE products. Structured as a common-sense precaution to ensure GE foods do no harm, these bills will ensure that consumers are protected, food safety measures are strengthened, farmers' rights are better protected and biotech companies are responsible for their products."

There's more information at the Organic Consumer's Association.

Watermelon Berry Banana Smoothie

I was experimenting with various smoothie recipes and ended up with this one... It was yummy.

Ingredients :

    1 frozen banana, break into 4 chunks
    1 heaping cup mini seedless watermelon, chopped up
    2 or 3 frozen strawberries, or 1/2 cup frozen blueberries
    10 drops of Sweet Leaf liquid stevia (I used the Berry flavor)
    Water if needed (keep a cup of cold water next to the blender)

Directions:

Basically throw all your ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Add a little water if it seems necessary, but you want your smoothie to be thick.


Makes: 1 Serving in about three minutes.

MOM's - My Organic Market

I just got back from Frederick where I was doing Wednesday grocery shopping (there's a 5% discount for people over 60 on Wednesdays at Common Market)... and the things I couldn't find at my first stop, I got at my second: 

MOM's - My Organic Market

5273 Buckeystown Pike

Frederick, MD 21704  

(240) 566-1444

MOM's is a very good grocery... a chain that is turning up all over he place (boy, I wish they would open a branch in Shepherdstown, Hagerstown, Martinsburg or Charles Town... I'd spend a fortune there.) Their prices are very good, there is a good fresh fruit and vegetable section and you don't have to worry about "is it organic or not" like you do in the "health" sections of the regular groceries. 

I used to shop at a MOM's outside of Greenbelt, MD, and I found it a good place five years ago. It only seems to get better.

Searching Charles Town for a Vegan or Vegetarian Lunch...

Charles Town, WV, with the track and the slots and (soon, I guess) table games, is loaded with fast food and meat, meat, MEAT restaurants. Finding a place there to have lunch is something that I spent a while researching.

What did I come up with? Jumpin Java at 109 West Washington Street was the winner.
You can check out the lunch menu HERE (Breakfast menu, too... they are not open for Dinner). Salads, wraps, other sandwiches all fall into place.

Why is it that the coffee shops in our small towns are the first to appeal to vegans and vegetarians? More power to 'em.

-BT

Bill's Vegetable Soup Recipe

I've been making a fresh vegetable soup once a week using organic vegetables and storebought vegetable broth. It takes under an hour and it tastes great. Serves two to four people (depending on how much you eat... I can't resist a second bowl.)

Ingredients:

1. package of liquid vegetable broth (comes in quarts)

2. Small can of tomato paste

3. Frozen organic peas (1 or 2 cups)

4. three carrots cut up

5. three green onions chopped

6. 1/2 dozen shitake mushrooms (or brown mushrooms) chopped up

7. 1 small sweet potato peeled and cubed

8. 1 cup of brown pasta (or 1/2 cup of brown rice)

9. seasonal vegetables (I love things like teeny baby corn ears, fresh green beans, etc.)

10. 1/2 cup of shredded fresh cabbage

11. Spices: basil, oregano, salt, black pepper, sage

12. 2 cups water.

Chop and prepare the vegetables. Pour about 1/2 of the quart of vegetable broth into a saucepan and set burner to high.

Add the vegetables, spices, tomato paste and water. Stir until the tomato paste is blended in. By this time the broth will have come to a boil.

Add the pasta or rice.

Add the spices, turn the burner down to low, cover and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

That's it. You can refrigerate what you don't eat right away. It will get sort of thick in the refrigerator, but if you pour in a cup or so of the vegetable broth left in the package you will thin it right out again.

E-Mail from Friends

From Liz Gallery at Stone Soup Bistro:   Hi Bill- That is awesome.  Thanks so much.  Vegan's will save the world.   Thanks-Liz _______________________ From Blue Moon Cafe:

Bill,

Thank you so much for including the Blue Moon in your blog.  We strive to appeal to all diets and are currently switching to organic when possible.  We have switched from Basmati rice to organic brown rice and looking forward to more transitions in that direction.

Charmaine Landers, owner

 

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The Common Market CoOp in Frederick has a neat Deli

When I'm in Frederick and shopping for organic foods, I love it when I'm there at lunchtime. The Common Market is a great grocery with a wonderful "mostly vegetarian" Deli that has a half-dozen or so vegan selections.

 Here's the information you need:

Address: 5813 Buckeystown Pike (Rt 85)
Phone: 301-663-3416
email: host@commonmarket.com
Web site: www.commonmarket.com

Hours: Monday to Saturday 9 am to 9 pm; Sunday 11 am to 5 pm; closed on major holidays.

Natural Food Store and mainly Vegetarian Deli. Organic produce. Vegan options. Not pure vegetarian.

 Menu has salads, wraps, burritos, baked goods, soups and sandwiches. Fresh juices.

Comments: Local organic produce used when possible. Large selection of organic herbs. One of the best natural food stores in the Baltimore area. Has a good selection of bulk goods, teas, herbs, etc. Has a bulletin board to exchange information.


Accepts AMEX, MC, VISA.

Directions: From I-270, take Market Street exit (#31) and go north on Route 85 and this place is 1 mile down on the right in the Point Plaza shopping center. This place is located on the left end of the shopping plaza. From Rte 70, take South Market Street exit (#54) and go south onto Rte 85 and when you get to fork in road, stay right and go a half-mile, then turn left at the first traffic light into Point Plaza shopping Center.

BTW: there is a 5% discount for shoppers over 60 on Wednesdays... and it includes the Deli.