First, I’d like to congratulate Well Fed Flat Broke for her first place finish in the Food and Drink category of the Canadian Blog Awards. It’s a great blog and I really encourage you to check it out and add it to your feed. Also thank you for everyone who voted for The Mindful Table. Your support is really appreciated and we finished third in a pretty close race for the top three spots!
And now to my semi-regular Friday round-up of articles, websites or videos from across the world wide web that caught my attention.
With Meat, Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder. I can certainly relate to a lot in this article from Grist, which talks about the experience of eating meat after being vegetarian, and how to eat less meat. Somehow, a meat meal seems more special when we eat meat less frequently. Check out the recipes at the end of the article. I’m looking forward to trying the spicy squash and chorizo soup. Yum!
The (Un)Usual Suspect: Why Organic Spices Aren’t Always Safe. An interesting article on a topic I never thought about: the safety of spices in the spice chain. Apparently there have been a few recalls of organic spices recently. Irradiation plays an important role in ensuring the safety of spices from countries that may not have the same sanitary standards as us. Spices are often dried outside in the sun where it is possible to get contamination from insects, birds and other sources. However organic spices are not irradiated. The article also gets into the safety of organic food in general. One thing the article fails to do is put the safety issues into perspective with the large-scale industrial food manufacturing. I’d love to know how recalls between organic and conventional food compare.
Life for Egg-Laying Hens in the US May Improve. Now this is big. The US Humane Society and the United Egg Producers are lobbying together for legislation that will ban the use of battery cages in egg production. Strange bedfellows indeed!, but definitely a match that may force a well-needed change to how eggs are produced. The EU has already gone cage-free. Like the US, almost all Canada’s eggs are cage eggs, which is the main reason I only buy organic eggs. Hopefully we won’t lag behind for long!
Eating out Organic and Local in Guelph. This week was the organic food conference in Guelph, ON. The conference website provides a list of local establishments serving local and organic food. If you’re planning on being near Guelph, bookmark it! Great resource.
Roasting Vegetables 101. Root vegetables, winter squash and cauliflower are seasonal staples at this time of year. Simple Bites has some great tips for roasting up these veggies, which brings out and enhances their natural flavours. Not to mention, your home smells great!
Image credit: Animal Rights Advocates Inc, Creative Commons License.
Congrats on the 3rd place finish! I’m really happy in particular to know you’re that popular.
In re the meat article, we ate a lot of beans last year, and I was working physically. Every so often, I really craved the texture of dead flesh, the same way my wife really gets in the mood for a salad when she hasn’t had greens in a while. The body’s way of telling us things, that’s my take on it. Also, when I’m sick, the two things I want most are garlic, and a meat texture. (Thick meat sauce, heavy on the vampire repellant.)
“I’m looking forward to trying the spicy squash and chorizo soup.”
Yeah, me too!
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Love that first article. It pretty much sums up my own philosophy on eating meat.
Wow, good news for once on the ethical eating front! It would be such a huge step forward for caging laying hens to be banned … let’s hope the legislation goes through!