Don't forget the oceans

Because of how we live it's often easy to forget about the oceans, despite the fact that water covers about 70% of the earth. John introduced me to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Program a while back and I've been carrying around their seafood guide around ever since.

While at one of my local sushi dives last week I noticed that Atlantic Salmon was on the menu which was a little confusing since I live on the Pacific Coast. You know, that place where you can get all sorts of fish? Why on earth did they need to ship in farm raised Atlantic salmon when there were so many better alternatives? So, when I got home I sat down and wrote to the management.

Dear Management,

I have been a long time customer and love the Blue C experience. However, I was dismayed recently when I noticed that you had Atlantic Salmon on your menu. Farming practices for Atlantic Salmon are harmful to our oceans and the Environmental Defense Fund has issued a health advisory for farmed salmon due to high levels of PCBs and dioxins. Being in the Pacific Northwest we have access to fantastic alternatives to Atlantic Salmon which are both healthier for consumers and better for the environment. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch has great information on environmentally friendly seafood, as well as resources for restaurants. I hope you consider this information in future purchases of seafood.

Thanks from a concerned customer

and I actually got this e-mail in response the next day!

Courtney,

Great email and thanks for sending along the information. I'm going to ask our distributor about their source because you are correct this is something we need to be sensitive to. It's one of the reasons we carry Sockeye Salmon on the belt as well.

Interestingly we are in talks with a new supplier that we think people will be very excited about. It is a long process but at the end of it we hope to have a very clear map of where all of the seafood we serve originates on a consistent basis.

Thank you gain for reaching out to us. I appreciate it.

Best regards,

Steve Rosen
Co-Founder, Blue C Sushi

Woot! I've never had a company respond positively to my environmental requests before so I'm super excited. Yea for encouragement that someone out there IS listening and that maybe I can make a difference!

Urban Foraging (for flora not freeganing)

Thanks once again to the authors of the Urban Homesteader for turning me on to foraging for edible flora in my city. It's amazing the amount of food that is growing around you that will go to waste since no one expects to find their dinner growing by the road. Since starting I have found berries of all sorts, apples, pine nuts and some possibly edible mushrooms. (It probably doesn't need to be said but please don't eat mushrooms you find unless you have been taught by an expert since some species will ET YOUR FACE).

The berries have been frozen and/or made into syrups and jam. The apples aren't big or sweet enough to really eat but we're going to try our hand at making apple butter and canning it. (Can you guys guess what people will be getting for the holidays?) The pine nuts are a little harder. You have to get the really big cones before the nuts fall out. When you look inside you'll see hard black seeds covered in black gunk. You need to pry these seeds out and then crack them to get to the edible pine nuts inside. It's a lot of work but I got a decent haul out of just a few cones.

This Saturday I'm taking a plant ID class given by my lovely friend Seb and John and I are hoping to take some mushroom ID classes soon so we can actually eat some of our fungal finds.

What is really killing me about this is that back where I lived in Austin there were pecan trees everywhere. During the fall the sidewalks would be covered with uncracked fallen pecans and we would just step on them. >.< Now if I want pecans I have to pay out of my ears for them. So do me a favor Austin reader(s), come fall head over to Hyde Park and grab some pecans. They aren't hard to crack and can be stored in your freezer (or can be mailed to your loving Mean Green Girl winkwinknudgenudge).

I'll keep you guys updated as I learn more about edible flora and hopefully won't have any horror stories about getting my mushrooms mixed up.