Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 32

 weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• What the Pork Fairy might get as a tattoo, on the cover of Lucky Peach food journal.

• "Driven by a growing awareness that the only thing local in most “local” beers is the water, microbrewers all over the country have begun using regional hops, fruits and honey. Now, many are taking the next logical step and snapping up local grains." Malters Bring Terroir to the Beer Bottle: Mr. Stanley (profiled in the article) "hopes the malt revival can stem the tide of hop-heavy pale ales, enabling craft brewers to focus on malt’s sweet, rich character and, in turn, open up a new kind of terroir for American craft brewers to explore."

• Terroir aside, the future of farming may be up in the air. Microbiologist Dickson Despommier talks about the concept of skyscraper farming. (audio clip) With increasing problems of soil pollution in China especially, many people worldwide may have no other choice.

• June 11 was World Day Against Child Labor. Consider The Children in Our Fields and The food movement’s final frontier: Taking care of workers

• Put you money in bottles? French funds turn to wine as safe-haven investments. "Numerous studies have shown that great wines have, since 1950, consistently outperformed financial markets."

• AgLocal wants you to have meat from small-scale farms, accessible by smartphone. KC-based Startup Takes Aim at Meat Distribution Paradigm

• It's Pastured Poulty Week in Atlanta and Athens, Georgia with over 30 chefs serving pastured birds to introduce them to the public. Chefs explain, that means new education for both customers and staff: “A few years ago we were able to get a very small supply from a gentleman in South Georgia, and when we would serve it, people would say things like it, ‘It’s too flavorful’ — which was funny to me, because, you know, this is what chicken actually tastes like. It made us realize that,  if we were going to change people’s minds about the product, we would have to do it with some education attached.”

• The Guardian asks: Should we be eating more goat? "When goats are bred for dairy farming, the billies are killed at birth. Why not rear them free-range for meat instead? Says one farmer: "The idea of treating my billies as a waste product doesn't sit comfortably."

• For those who want to eat less meat, or none at all, there may be better options in the future. Twitter cofounders Evan Williams and Biz Stone are investing in a vegan meat company called Beyond Meat.

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 31

weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• If your eyes aren't burning from the French Orangina ad to the right (a play on words, Poulpe=Octopus / Pulpe=Pulp....she is "pulpeuse" or...poulpeuse perhaps...), check this out. You may never look at sushi the same way again. Fugu & Tako, Short Film About A Man Who Turns Into A Pufferfish

• Producing our food is more dangerous than being a stunt man or police officer. The most dangerous occupation: fisherman. Farmers and ranchers came in at number four.

• An amendment to the 2012 Farm Bill would make commercial fishermen eligible to qualify for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Services Administration (FSA) Farm Operating Loan Program. The proposed amendment includes “commercial fishermen” within the definitions of “farmer” and “farming.”

• Small-Scale Slaughterhouses Aim To Put The 'Local' Back In Local Meat including new facilities owned by a co-op of farmers or ranchers. The whole idea is to have quality control and humane processing for local cattle, hogs, sheep and goats that provides consumers in the state with [the] locally produced products they are demanding. Having a producer-owned plan will help keep dollars, ranchers and farmers in our communities."

• Tom Philpott of Mother Jones joined Fresh Air (click through to listen) Assessing Consumer Concerns About The Meat Industry

• We're fans of the Michael Pollan approach that if a food has health claims tacked on it, it isn't real food, but big companies like Nestle are fighting that. "The unit is due to work closely with the Nestle Health Science company and research institute set up last year that is pushing a drive into medical foods at a time of growing overlap between "Big Pharma" and "Big Food" as many drug companies are investing in non-prescription products including nutrition."

• While not a strictly food news item, our minds are reeling with the possibilities of showing consumers where their food comes from with augmented reality systems that can make print look like Harry Potter's newspaper.

• A loving homage to rhubarb, Rhubarb’s Ruby Submission: Hard, acid rhubarb reliably softens with heat. If only people did the same. "Trust the English, who are in many ways the masters of both pudding and perversity, to take something so unpalatable and turn it into dessert."

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 23

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

• Chocolate magic (right) is an Alice in Wonderland take on sweets.

• With Easter coming up, we have eggs on the brain. The continuing popularity of the urban chicken trend and other city farm pursuits has prompted a new agrarian product line from Williams-Sonoma that includes stylish chicken coops, as well as DIY cheese kits and shitake mushroom-growing logs.

• Backyard chickens have resulted in an egg surplus for some: "When the whole coop starts laying, she said, the supply of eggs quickly turns into an “I Love Lucy”-style conveyor belt scene, bringing absurd, unmanageable excess." Quiche, custards and meringue — oh my!

• Not only can you eat eggs, but you can turn their shells into works of art.

• And not only can you eat marshmallow Peeps, you can turn them into art. Curious about where these crazy Easter icons come from? Take a peak behind the marshmallow curtain.

• A Pork Fairy approved app for iPad that walks cooks through making bacon, pancetta and more: The Better Bacon Book.

• Good coverage on the "Eat it to Save it" argument for conservation: "Are we willing to make complex and multi-layered choices to respectfully protect something so it continues to survive and even thrive?"

• Daredevil eating in Tokyo will get even more exciting as regulations on who can serve fugu ease. "I don't want people to forget that you can actually die from eating blowfish...I feel the government's awareness of this has diminished."

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 21

a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• Have cheesey dreams in a tent inspired by food (above).

• There may not be an app to satisfy your nutella cravings, but Dutch designer Julian Burford has translated popular food packaging into the style of iPhone apps.

• Why not give cookbook ghostwriters credit? Let's not pretend that everyone can do everything.

• Officials in Linköping, Sweden broke ground on an 18 story greenhouse located in town to be built by Plantagon. It will be "A new type of greenhouse for vertical farming; an international Centre of Excellence for Urban Agriculture; a demo-plant for Swedish clean-tech and a climate-smart way to use excess heating and CO2 from industries."

• Chipotle discusses its use of social media: "Likes and retweets are great, but what matters most to Chipotle is genuine conversations with customers. Through these conversations, the social media team can share knowledge and gain insights that will ultimately make Chipotle restaurants even better."

Friday Faves — notes from the new gastroconomy, No. 9

 a weekly round-up of our favorite finds from the front lines of food

 

• Talk about a recipe that's set in stone, this ancient Babylonian tablet (left) contains 25 recipes for soups and stews intended for royalty or the gods.

• “There are only so many ways that food can be explored through technology...The opportunities are finite.” Start-Ups Mixing Food and Technology Vie for an Edge, but what are they leaving on the table? We don't think the dead end is anywhere in sight.

• "I spent the first two years of college with one question in mind – basically, how can I have the greatest impact in my life in the world. And the thing that I kept coming back to, that everyone connected to, was food." A great NPR story profiling the new, young crop of farmers. The word from an experienced farmer — to make it work, you have to be serious about running the business.

• We firmly believe in picking up promotional ideas from other industries and movements. Entertainment is a great place to start with Six Secrets To Branding, Ripped From "Raiders Of The Lost Ark."

• Is a caramel ever just a caramel? "Modern Britain is bizarrely food-crazed, and cultural indigestion is the sure result. What if we began to care a little more about what we put into our minds than what we put into our mouths?" asks Steven Poole in The Observer in a rant on the food porn phenomenon. Why should it be minds vs. mouth? Food, and the world of ideas it inspires, nourishes both.

• The Pork Fairy had an active week, spreading larded joy: Chef Richard Garcia pairs a cider glazed pork belly with pumpkin gnocchi coated in eggnog froth. New pig sandwiches are turning up in DC, from a pâté melt at Bourbon Steak to a fried pig's head between Parker house rolls with red onion and sauce gribiche.  at Poste Moderne Brasserie.