Chelsea Green Blog
Food & Drink
"Marijuana is Safer” Authors Influence The New York Times
The New York Times has launched a seven-part editorial campaign urging a repeal of the nation’s prohibition on marijuana, making the case that “marijuana is safer” than alcohol. In fact, the bold quote at the center of their editorial stated even more bluntly: “Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol.” Chelsea Green authors, and nationally…
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Grilled Asparagus & Scallions
Switch up your side dishes this grilling season! Next time you fire up your grill, whip up a wonderfully fresh (and easy-to-make) plate of grilled asparagus and scallions. The following excerpt is from The Permaculture Kitchen by Carl Legge. It has been adapted for the web. RECIPE: Grilled Asparagus and Scallions This dish is wonderfully fresh, takes…
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RECIPE: Back to Basics Tomato Sauce
Knowing how to make a few simple and basic recipes is key to staying flexible in the kitchen. You can easily prepare tasty meals with just the seasonal ingredients you have on hand. This hearty tomato sauce recipe (excerpted below) is perfect for pizza, pastas, soup stocks, and more, whether you use tomatoes from the…
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RECIPE: Maple Mushroom Martini
Permaculture designer and author Michael Judd gets really excited about mushrooms. So when he found this recipe for a mushroom infused cocktail, he was barely able to contain himself. It may sound strange, but Judd swears this sweet mushroomy cocktail is magically delicious. The following is an excerpt from Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist by…
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Growing Your Own Herbs in 6 Easy Steps
Author Didi Emmons understands it’s intimidating to work with unfamiliar herbs. In her book, Wild Flavors: One Chef’s Transformative Year Cooking From Eva’s Farm, she takes the simple approach that herbs, like any other plant, need good soil, water, sun, and air to thrive. Just vary the amounts of these four life-giving resources for each…
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Butchery: Reclaiming the Lost Culinary Art
Do you know a butcher? Chances are, the answer is “no.” True butchery has become a lost art, and many people have no idea how an animal gets from the pasture to their plate. In The Gourmet Butcher’s Guide to Meat, master butcher Cole Ward aims to revive this traditional culinary art that is an…
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RECIPE: The Simplest Pot Roast Ever
Beat winter’s chill with this warm and hearty pot roast recipe from Shannon Hayes’ book Long Way on a Little: An Earth Lover’s Companion for Enjoying Meats, Pinching Pennies, and Living Deliciously. The simple secret to this recipe is a good sear, followed by time in the slow cooker with very little liquid, resulting in…
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Red Delicious: Ester’s Apple Strips
Need the perfect companion to your afternoon cup of joe? Hanne Risgaard’s Home Baked: Nordic Recipes and Techniques for Organic Bread and Pastry has just the thing. Cozy up and use your fall apple harvest to make Ester’s Apple Strips! These strips use sweet-tart apples as the filling for a delicious baked treat.
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Recipe: Squash Ravioli
The following is an excerpt from In Late Winter We Ate Pears: A Year of Hunger and Love by Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber. It has been adapted for the Web. Tortelli di Zucca Squash Ravioli Around the elegant northern city of Mantova these ravioli are called Tortelli alla Mantovana, “in the style of Mantova.”…
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Making Yogurt or Kefir Cheese: A Simple How-To
Making your own yogurt is an easy, healthy, and affordable way to experiment with fermentation, make milk last longer, and replace an industrial food product filled with mysterious chemical ingredients with one you know all about. Yogurt itself is a wonderful, versatile food, but you can also turn it into a spread or dip by…
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Make Your Own Root Beer: Celebrate the Wort Moon!
Much of what we know about the moon consists of when it’s waning, when it’s waxing, and that a full moon makes people do strange things. And while it’s common knowledge (and not just on cheesy astrology websites) we have a connection to the moon, it’s hard to know exactly what it is, without sounding…
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Traditional Italian Sponge Cake Soaked in Liqueur
Is your happy hour missing something? You’re sitting there, enjoying a glass of wine, a pint of beer, or a snifter of scotch — depending upon your tastes. The cares of the week are melting away as you slip under the spell of alcohol, one of the human race’s most ancient and most reliable methods…
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Blood Moon Recipe from Full Moon Feast: Swedish Meatballs
The following recipe was adapted for the Web from Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection by Jessica Prentice. In midautumn, when the air is growing colder and the nights longer, comes the Blood Moon. Also called the Hunter’s Moon by indigenous peoples in the eastern woodlands, it was a time when northern…
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Fermented Foods: Health Benefits & Cultural Rehabilitation
When we talk about “culture,” we’re talking about everything humans have ever created to make their lives a little nicer, from painting, to music and literature, and including food traditions. We also use the word “culture” to describe foods that are alive with beneficial bacteria. It’s no coincidence. Humans have been working together with health-giving…
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A New Kind of Pickles! Hurray, Hurrah!
Your pregnant girlfriend loves them. Your mother loves them. Your friends and your house guests and your children love them. They store well, they last long, and they’re perfect in potato salad. Pickles–the magical fermented sour (or sweet) treat. But have you ever made a pickle a la Sandor Katz? Because, ehem, he’s sort of…
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Old Nalgene Bottles: 5 Ways to Reuse Them
The water bottle that (kind of) defined a generation…is really a killer. Last year, toxic plastic struck close to home. In April 2008, the FDA deemed Nalgene water bottles—those awesome, never-break, never-leak containers you had come to depend on—as unsafe for use, due to dangerous levels of toxicity in the plastic. Durability, in other words,…
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A1 Cow’s Milk May Account for a Range of Serious Illnesses
The following is an excerpt from Devil in the Milk: Illness, Health, and the Politics of A1 and A2 Milk by Keith Woodford. It has been adapted for the Web. What North Americans should be concerned about is that North American milk is very high in A1 beta-casein, and no one is doing anything about…
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5 Things You’ll Need to Get Back on Your Bike: Spring Is (Almost) Here!
It’s mud season in Vermont—also known as late winter/early spring in other parts of these here United States—but spring is just around the corner. That’s the thought that keeps getting me out of bed every morning. It’s time to get the ol’ bike out of mothballs, grease up your chain, fill up your tires, and…
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Grow Berries in Your Low-Light Urban Space
The following is an excerpt from Fresh Food from Small Spaces by R. J. Ruppenthal. It has been adapted for the Web. A central problem for many of us who garden in the city is a lack of light. This is covered extensively in the vegetable chapters. I mention it again here only to note…
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Raise Bees in Your Apartment: Urban Apiculture
Not everyone is a fan of bees, but when you get down to their level, you start to appreciate all that they do for us; pollinating the flowers and giving us delicious honey. Beekeeping is a noble profession or hobby to take on as you are providing a habitat for your colony to thrive. But…
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Creating Community While Reducing your Food Bill
Sick of expensive groceries? Grow your own food with your community to cut costs and build lasting relationships! The following is an excerpt from Chapter 2: Urban Ecology in Heather C. Flores’s Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard Into a Garden and Your Neighborhood Into a Community. Many people see ecological living as…
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Replace Your Soap with Soapy Plants
Sick of chemical-filled soaps that leave your hands feeling dirtier than before you washed them? Then we’ve got the project for you! Do it yourself soap with soapy plants! It’s as simple as adding water. The following project is from When Technology Fails by Matthew Stein. It has been adapted for the web. There is…
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Good Food Corner: Spicy Fried Egg and Tomato
Add some punch to a bland winter afternoon. Dust off your frying pan and whip up some Spicy Fired Egg and Tomato for yourself or your family.
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10 Sheep Cheeses, An Excerpt from The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese
Until the end of the month, all of our tempting cheese books are 25% off. One of them is The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese by Jeffrey Roberts. Below is an excerpt from the book, featuring 10 cheesemakers who work with sheep: The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese is available in our bookstore–25% off until…
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