Organic food myths video

Today I watched this segment from "The Doctors" which supposedly is debunking three organic food myths. So go watch it and then come back . . . it really ticked me off.

Myth #1: You need to buy organic dairy to avoid bovine grown hormone. So the speaker says that some brands are free of rBGH and that they are a lot cheaper than organic so that is what she recommends.

Well, it is true that you can get non-organic rBGH free milk, like the Trader Joe's brand for example. But there is much more to organic than that. With nonorganic milk, you are still getting pesticides from the nonorganic feed fed to the cows, antibiotics, and the cows don't have to have access to pasture. If you consume dairy products, I think it's worth the extra money for a cleaner product and better treatment for the cows.

Myth #2: Whole-wheat pasta is healthier than organic pasta.

Huh? That's like comparing apples and oranges. Are those the only two choices? Why not buy organic, whole wheat pasta. Then you get the fiber without the pesticides and chemicals.

Myth #3: Cage-free eggs do not mean the hens are treated any better than the caged ones.

While I agree that cage-free is only slightly better for the hens than non-cage-free . .. what does that have to do with organic? She doesn't even mention anything about organic eggs.

What a terrible, misleading video. The only thing I thought was good was the little add-in at the end that with lettuce, you don't need to buy the packaged lettuce to get organic. Of course, that's only if your supermarket carries it as I found out a few weeks ago.

So what'd you think?

Whole Grain Sourdough Bread

A friend gave me some sourdough starter about a month ago and I've been dying to use it, but I've been so busy that I hadn't been able to coordinate refreshing the starter and baking when it was refreshed (you are supposed to use it with 24 hours of refreshing). Anyway, I was finally able to get it together this weekend and I am so glad I did. The loaves rose wonderfully and my family is absolutely raving about this bread.

Here is my recipe . . . however I varied it slightly because to use the flour I had from my grain CSA box. My starter was rye starter which made the dough slightly stickier to knead. Then I used 2 cups of wheat flour and 2+ cups of spelt flour. It doesn't really matter which kind of flour you use, just make sure it is glutenous (wheat, spelt, rye are the best, barley has some gluten but is best in combination with wheat or spelt).

Whole Wheat or Spelt Sourdough Bread
I prefer to work with a slightly dry dough and knead with wet hands on a wet board. I find this helps to keep bread tender.

2 cups Sourdough Starter (at room temperature)
1 cup warm distilled or purified water
2 1/2 teaspoons unrefined sea salt
4+ cups whole wheat or spelt flour

Place starter in large mixing bowl and stir in water. Stir in salt. Stir in flour, one cup at a time. If it becomes too thick, mix with wet hands. Place a bowl of water at work station. Wet a large bread board or work surface. Place dough on wet surface. Keeping hands wet, knead for 5 minutes. (Sourdough does not need as vigorous a kneading as yeasted bread.) Wet the board as necessary to keep dough from sticking. If dough becomes too wet, knead in a little more flour. When dough is smooth and elastic, shape into a ball and place in mixing bowl. Cover with damp towel and place in warm, draft-free place. (If it's a cold day, I place my oven on warm while I am kneading and then turn off the heat and let my dough rise in the warmed oven.) Let dough rise for about 2 hours, until doubled in size. Press your finger into the dough. If it does not spring back, it is ready.

Oil two loaf pans. If dough is sticky, flour work surface and hands. If dry, use water as before. Knead dough about 10 times. Divide dough in half and form two loaves. Place one in each pan. Cover with damp towel and place in warm draft-free place to rise. (I rewarm the oven again during this second kneading.) If rising in oven, you may want to set a bowl of boiling water on the bottom.) Let dough rise about 1 hour. The dough should have risen noticeably. Do not overproof or the bread will not rise in the oven. Preheat the oven to 425º. Make sure it is at this temperature before putting bread in. Bake at 425º for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350º and bake for 40 to 45 more minutes. You should hear a hollow sound when tapping on top and bottom of bread.

Remove immediately from pans and cool on wire rack. (Tip: If bread doesn’t drop out of the pan, it is probably not done so put it back in the oven and bake it a little longer.)

Makes 2 loaves

Quick bread made with rye flour

I got a couple of pounds of rye flour in my local grain CSA box this week. Of course, my first thought was to make a few loaves of yeasted rye bread but the day turned out so warm and sunny that I didn't want to spend my day kneading and rising dough. I paged through my Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book and found a couple of recipes for rye quick breads. Based on their method, my daughter Aimie and I came up with this one . . . and boy was it good--moist with hints of orange and spices--and vegan as well. Perfect with a tall glass of rice milk after a walk on the beach.

Orange-Spiced Rye Quick Bread
This is wonderfully moist and flavorful. Great for breakfast, tea, or with a soup or salad.

1 cup whole rye flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 1/3 cups water
3 tablespoons oil
grated rind of 1 orange
juice of 1 orange
1/2 cup chopped almonds, toasted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Oil a loaf pan. Sift flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spice together. In a separate bowl, whisk maple syrup, water, oil, orange rind and juice until combined. Stir in flour mixture. Reserving 2 tablespoons chopped nuts, gently fold in the almonds. Pour the batter into to the prepared pan and sprinkle reserved almonds over the top. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in center comes out dry. Remove bread from pan and let cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Makes 1 loaf

Local Grain Box #2

I got my second CSA grain box. This week:

- hard red winter wheat flour
- spelt flour
- Khorasan flour
- cracked hard red winter wheat (for porridge)
- rolled soft white wheat
- rolled spelt
- thick rolled oats

We made vegan blueberry-lemon muffins for breakfast with soft wheat and spelt flour. While they were baking started some bread. I used 2 cups hard wheat, 2 cups spelt flour and 2 cups Khorasan. I used my own recipe this time rather than the one from Laurel's Bread Book. I like this recipe because it is dry and you incorporate water while you knead rather than the opposite. I find this is much easier to work with then the sticky dough that needs flour added. My daughter Emily and I took turns kneading. After the first rise, she rolled out half the dough and added raisins and cinnamon to make raisin bread.

Here's my recipe:

Whole Wheat-Spelt Bread

1 tablespoon yeast
2 tablespoons brown rice or agave syrup (or honey)
2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 cups Whole Wheat Flour
2 cups Spelt Flour

Stir yeast and sweetener into water. Let sit 5 minutes or until it froths. In large bowl, mix flours and salt. Add yeast mixture and stir until combined. Pour into board to knead. With wet hands knead 10 to 15 minutes, or until soft and stretchy. Rinse bowl out with water and leave wet. Form dough into a ball and place in bowl. Cover with damp towel. Let rise 2 hours, or until doubled in size. Gently press down dough and knead into a ball. Divide the dough in half and form into logs. Place in oiled loaf pans. Cover with damp towel and let rise about 1 hour, or until dough rises over the edge of the pan. Preheat oven to 375. Bake loaves 50 minutes. When done they should drop from the pan easily and have a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom. Let cool before slicing.

Makes 2 loaves

Cinnamon Apple Scones

More baking with my local grains. Today I made these scones.



Cinnamon Apple Scones
I found these really quick and easy to make using my food processor. If you don't have one, just cut the butter into the flours using a pastry cutter or two knives, and grate the apple with a hand grater.

2 cups soft whole wheat flour (or whole wheat pastry flour)
1/2 cup Khorasan wheat flour (or whole wheat flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup natural granulated sugar (evap. cane juice)
6 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter or nonhydrogenated margarine)
2/3 cup plain yogurt (dairy or nondairy)
1 large baking apple, coarsely chopped or grated

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet.

Put the flours, baking soda, cinnamon, and butter in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture looks like course crumbs. Add the yogurt and pulse to mix. Pour the dough into a bowl. Core and slice the apples (I use one of those hand apple slicer-corer things.) Place the apples in the food processor. Pulse to chop. Add the chopped apples to the dough and knead them gently into the dough. Form the dough into a disk and place on prepared baking sheet. Press it into a 9-inch circle. Use a sharp knife to score the dough into 8 wedges. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden brown. Place on wire rack and cool 5 minutes before serving. These are best warm but if you save them, you can heat in a toaster oven before eating. They can also be frozen.

Local Grain CSA

Well this is exciting. We now have a local grain CSA here on the Central Coast of California. It's called With The Grain and run by John DeRosier in Paso Robles. Every two weeks I'll get a box with an assortment of local grains. My first box contained hard winter wheat flour, spelt flour, soft white wheat flour, Khorasan wheat flour, rolled oats, and cracked millet.

We had the cracked millet cooked into a porridge for breakfast Friday. We often have whole millet porridge but this cooks a lot faster and was creamy and delicious. This weekend, my daughters and I made some bread using the recipe from Laurel's Bread Book. We used a combination of the winter wheat and spelt flours and made one plain loaf and one cinnamon raisin. Both were absolutely delicious!

Grow Your Own Wheat

It's easier than you might think to grow your own wheat and transform it to flour -- check out this great article with instructions on how to do just that.