I recently watched King Corn - it was good, a bit slow in parts (they could have cut out a bit of the inbetween parts - them playing wiffle ball in a cornfield for example). Interesting - did you know that 90% of the corn grown in Iowa is inedible without processing?! Inedible. No just grabbing a husk of corn off the stalk and munching away.
After watching that documentary I've got High Fructose Corn Syrup on the brain. I am all for product development, engineering, advancing science to benefit the greater good, but this is one that has gotten a bit out of control. Recently I went to buy applesauce at the grocery store - Lorelai is getting into it and the last jar I have from when I made it last fall is rather watery. I picked up Motts. A brand I have known since I was a kid and of which I (used to) think positively. Know what's in applesauce? High fructose corn syrup. HUH? I was livid. I started looking at the other brands, the grocery store's "organic" line as well and then had an internal debate over paying more for less product that didn't have the HFCS... and luckily I found the Mott's Natural line. No HFCS. Apples, water and one other thing (ascorbic acid maybe?) Crazy. I also heard from another blogger somewhere that Jell-O individual cups have HFCS in them but the box stuff you make yourself doesn't. You really have to pay attention if you want to try and avoid it. Full disclosure: As I still here and type and ramble, I'm nibbling on keebler E L Fudge cookies - their ingredient list says it has less than 2% HFCS. Hrm. Well that's probably better than HFCS being the first ingredient. These were a complete impulse buy.
There were two great blog series over at ReadyMade.com (as if they didn't already provide so much inspiration for all sorts of projects!) - Amy went a week without processed foods...great links in there! And Katherine did a week without plastics. So interesting - imagine your daily routine and what would change if you went without plastics or processed food. I would love to try it for a day, maybe. Toddlers make things like that even more of a challenge.
Have you heard about the latest BPA issue - I'm quite annoyed - I bought 2 SIGG bottles thinking I was doing a good thing and because they were promoted as being BPA free. They have the old liners in them. I'm working on an email to them; what they did is very much not cool.
On the positive side of things I am able to grow my own food - some produce at least. No plastic, no processing (actually coooking, with minimal ingredients), no chemicals added. I think in the end, all my garden veggies are a variety of the $64 tomato!
No blight here!!
I've harvested my potatoes - I will certainly do these again - we've had them smashed and roasted and probably will have one more meal with them - I've even given 2 bags to my parents and in-laws. I've got cherry tomatoes all over the place - likewise - I've given them to my parents / in-laws and just been popping them as a snack. I am thinking about trying Wife, Mom, Knitter's roasted tomato sauce... Even with all that other environmental hoo-hah, it is satisfying to know that I can provide a little something for my family to eat. And it tastes better too. I even got my husband the tomato hater to eat more than one cherry tomato!! That's something!
Knits next time.
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