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 KGI Newsletter: January 2007

Contents:

 

Gardening:

 

Food and Cooking:

-If parsnips were good enough for Tiberius . .

-Braised Chard with Roasted Garlic

 

Food for Thought:

-Circular food logic

-Ethanol: the looming battle between fuel and food

 

Short and Sweet:

-Visualize whirled peas

 

Calling all KGI Fans !

 

KGI has been selected as a semifinalist for a highly competitive social change fellowship and grant offered by the Echoing Green Foundation.

 

The odds are still quite long but we'd like to give the next phase of the competition our best shot.  We're looking to collect as many statements of support as possible from different parts of the US and the world. 

 

We'd greatly appreciate any nice words you'd care to write our our behalf.  If you want a quick refresher course in what it is we're trying to accomplish, please refer back to our mission and activities page. 

 

Tell us why you're a member or a moral supporter.  Tell us why you think our approach is innovative and needed.  Tell us your hopes and dreams for KGI and how you might be involved in our activities down the road.  

 

Clearly, this is no time for restraint and modesty, so please send us an e-mail and lay it on thick! Please be sure to include your name and where you're from.   You may also offer a testimonial online here (scroll down to the bottom of the page and fill out the comment form).

 

Thanks!  Merci!  Gracias!

 

Not a supporting KGI  member yet?  Become one today!

 

-Join by online payment

-Join by mail-in check

aditi102006.jpg

Dear Kitchen Gardener,

Political scientists talk about the United States as a closely fought battle between red and blue.  From a climatologist's perspective, though, the red is clearly winning. 

The map above recently released by the National Arbor  Day Foundation shows changes in US Hardiness Zones over the course of the past 16 years.  While there are a few pockets of bluish gardeners who have actually lost a zone, the vast majority of the country has seen its climate slip into the red. 

I am located in the southern tip of coastal Maine which has gone from Zone 5 to a Zone 6.  I can't deny that there is a selfish and opportunistic side of me that fantasizes about what these few extra degrees will do for the grape vines and peach tree I planted last spring.  But then I wake up and remember that climate change is not simply a few extra vineyards here and a few less sugar maple groves there.  We are talking about an extreme global makeover, the impacts of which no one can accurately predict.  What is clear is that we all need to do what we can - as individuals, communities and countries - to reduce and offset our global warming causing activities. 

This will not come as much of a surprise, but I am convinced that we kitchen gardeners have an important role to play in this challenge.  The highly industrialized food and agriculture systems of North America, Europe and Japan do not run on compost, sweat and hope,  but on fossil fuels.  According to Richard Heinberg, author of the highly acclaimed book "Powerdown", over 400 gallons of oil equivalent are expended to feed each American each year.  Clearly, we can and must bring that number down by increasing the amount of food produced locally. 

Who is more qualified than we  - the "localest" eaters of all - to the lead the way towards this delicious new food system? 

PS: Did you know that you can comment on stories posted on our website?  Give it a shot and let us know what else you'd like to see and do on the site!

Calling all organizers!

 

KGI is forming a new "local organizer" e-mail list for people interested in organizing food and garden related activities in their own communities. 

 

Our goal is to play our own unique and innovative part in the effort to "relocalize" the global food system.  We expect the e-mail traffic to be quite light in 2007 as we gear up, perhaps 4-6 e-mails in all. 

 

To sign up to this e-mail list, please click on the "update your user profile" link located at the bottom of last e-mail message we sent you. 

 

That will take you to your user profile page where you can sign up for the new list.

 

You may also be interested in printing out and posting our flyer somewhere in your community. 

 

Download the flyer here (PDF document, guaranteed virus-free!)