The Red, White, and Green

Yesterday, I braved the Hollywood Farmers Market for a little video blog shooting. I made time for some shopping, of course, and scored a few heads of the most magnificent rainbow chard I’ve ever seen for about $1 a piece. That’s one of the advantages of hitting the booths toward the end of the market day — you may not have the largest selection, but what’s left over can usually be had for a relative bargain.

Determined not to let the chard die a wilty death in my crisper bin (which seems to always do the opposite, no matter how many different settings I try), and inspired by the dozen glorious organic, pasture-raised eggs Healthy Family Farms was kind enough to give me at the farmers market,  I decided to whip up a week’s worth of meatless lunches by making a rainbow chard quiche. I was too lazy to whip up dough for the crust, so I decided to make it crustless. I did bake it in a pretty ceramic pie dish, though.

Crustless Rainbow Chard Quiche
1 head rainbow chard
7 eggs (the pasture-raised eggs I used were medium-sized; use 6 eggs if using large)
1/2 cup heavy cream plus 3/4 cup water (or 1 1/4 cup of whole milk)
1/2 cup grated pecorino
1/2 yellow onion, sliced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a pie plate/pan with butter. Thoroughly wash chard, taking care to rinse off the dirt and grit that can become embedded in the folds of the leaves. Cut off stems and chop into small pieces; tear each leaf into large pieces. Heat large skillet on medium-high with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and add sliced onion and chopped stems. Cook until soft and onions are translucent, then add chard leaves and cook until just wilted. In the meantime, crack eggs into large bowl; stir in cream mixture and grated pecorino. When chard is wilted, remove from heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Then, quickly add chard mixture to bowl, and scrape into pie plate with rubber spatula. Cook at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve room temperature or refrigerate and eat cold. Serves 4.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: It’s easy to go overboard at the farmers market and buy too many vegetables. Don’t let them go to waste! Find creative ways to incorporate them into dishes. Check out the Love Food Hate Waste website for inspiration.

More Meatless Monday posts:
Meatless Monday: Dr. McDougall’s BPA-free, vegan soups
Meatless Monday: Al Gore calls out factory farming on SNL

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Since reading The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I’ve found myself thinking a lot about where our food comes from, and this has led me to now question nearly every food purchase I make, from produce to eggs. It’s no longer enough for me to buy organic; as anyone who’s ever seen Chilean-grown organic asparagus at Whole Foods in the dead of winter can attest, sometimes organic food comes with as high a carbon footprint as its conventional cousin. Bottom line: If you want to lessen your environmental impact and eat the freshest — and thereby most nutritious — fare, buy local.

But how to do this in an urban area like Los Angeles? Sure, we’re blessed with year-round farmers markets in every corner of the county, but a lot of Angelenos are wondering why we’re not growing more produce and raising food-producing animals ourselves. Unlike inhabitants of other more densely populated metropolises, we’ve got the land right here in our own neighborhoods — and near perfect weather, year round — to grow and raise much of the food we could ever need. Yet somehow, we’re content to keep wasting precious water supplies on these useless patches of green lawns and spend our hard-earned dollars at the grocery store.

Thanks to the Obamas, who planted the first edible garden at the White House since FDR, there’s been a lot of media coverage about the resurgence of the victory garden. But as the newly-formed Los Angeles Urban Chicken Enthusiasts and its 137 (and growing) members will assert, local and sustainable agriculture doesn’t have to be just about growing fruits and vegetables.

Thanks to Lora Hall and the other LA Urban Chicken Enthusiasts for welcoming me to their meeting.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: Want to learn more about starting your own backyard coop? Check out My Pet Chicken.

Related posts:
CSA concerns?
Portland’s Urban Farm Store: One-stop shopping for backyard chickens

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I have to share a little secret: Since the July launch of my Eco Etiquette column for The Huffington Post, I’ve breathed a sigh of relief with each passing week that no one has yet taken me up on my offer to explain the difference between cap and trade and Cap’n Crunch. The carbon cap and trade legislation being hammered out on Capitol Hill is so complex, and the source of such heated debate, that to distill it into 800 words or less would be a head-scratching task, to say the least. Thankfully, someone else did the work for me: I’ll now only have to refer inquiring minds to The Story of Cap and Trade, a new 10-minute video from Annie Leonard and the other brilliant minds that brought us The Story of Stuff.

[Click here to watch video]

All in all, the video does an excellent job making sense of an issue that only 1 in 4 Americans understands, though it lacks some of the light bulb moments I experienced after first watching The Story of Stuff — but maybe I’m just more jaded now. (The first time I saw that now-famous takedown of consumerist society, I thought: Planned obsolescence? Companies are really that evil? But then again, that was before we bailed out Wall Street firms with our taxpayer money only to have them turn around and hand over $140 billion in bonuses this year.)

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: We can’t afford to profess ignorance about an issue that has the power to change the fate of the world (for better or worse). Email The Story of Cap and Trade to your friends and family, post it on Facebook and Twitter — spread the word!

Related posts:
Senate needs to pass climate bill
Global warming will threaten national security

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Photo via Flickr: Don Hankins

I recently rediscovered running (OK, more like light jogging) over my Thanksgiving vacation in Chicago. The weather was too crisp and glorious to pass up, and let’s just say I had more than my share of pumpkin pie fueling my exercise. What wasn’t so fabulous were the worn-out, five-year-old athletic shoes I brought with me. Time to pick up a new pair!

What to do with the old ones, though? I suppose having to toss an old pair in the trash every couple years (sooner, if you log substantial mileage) could be considered a justifiable evil, considering that throwing on a pair of shoes and heading outside for a run or walk is just about the most eco-friendly exercise there is — certainly when you compare it to the electricity-guzzling treadmills and elliptical machines at your local gym, not to mention the fossil fuel necessary to drive there.

But luckily, I don’t have to calculate the GHG emissions for the shoes-rotting-in-a-landfill scenario, because there’s a great, free recycling program available: Nike Reuse-a-Shoe. Drop off your old athletic shoes — of any brand — at a Nike store or one of 300 drop-off locations worldwide, and every part of the shoe will be broken down into raw materials for athletic surfaces like running tracks and basketball courts. Click here to watch how.

More than 24 million pairs of shoes have been collected through the program worldwide since 1990. But considering that by my rough estimate, over 300 million pairs of athletic shoes are purchased each year in the US alone, clearly the word needs to get out there about Reuse-a-Shoe and other recycling programs.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: Inspired to spread the word to your fellow harriers? Organize a shoe drive through the Nike program.

Related posts:
Reduce, reuse, Freecycle
Green goods

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