Bees Without Borders is Sitting in My Kitchen?!?!

So I happened upon this Bees Without Borders video on Time Magazine's website and when watching it, realized that I sampled and then purchased some of their honey at the infamous International Pickle Day on 9/14/08. Who knew?! I thought I was supporting local business, honey making which is vital to agriculture, etc. etc. If anyone doesn't understand that every third or so bite we eat is supported by pollination, they need to get on their science.


What I did not know was that I was supporting the organization which teaches beekeeping to cultures all around the world to propagate fair trade in a nonperishable product that can be produced with little funds, regardless of gender, and add a sustainable source of income to people in poverty. Guess I know where I'm purchasing my honey from now on....

VIDEO


"The only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey....and the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it. " Winnie the Pooh in A.A. Milne's 'The House at Pooh Corner'

Making Pickles Is Kind of Easy....

Really, too easy in fact. We'll see how they taste after the requisite four days of refrigeration. This is the perfect time to find tons of Kirbys, little pickling cucumbers, at the Greenmarket stalls. You, of course, can use all sorts of other cucumbers, or other vegetables, even for pickling.

I got this refrigerator pickles recipe from Cooking Light's website, the only recipes website I will really quote at this point. It reads as follows:

Refrigerator Pickles
Yield ~ 7 cups (serving size: 1/4 cup)

Ingredients
6 cups thinly sliced pickling cucumbers (about 2 pounds)
2 cups thinly sliced onion
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Preparation
Place 3 cups cucumber in a medium glass bowl; top with 1 cup onion. Repeat procedure with the remaining 3 cups cucumber and remaining 1 cup onion.

Combine vinegar and remaining ingredients in a small saucepan; stir well. Bring to a boil; cook 1 minute. Pour over cucumber mixture; let cool. Cover and chill at least 4 days.

Note: Pickles may be stored in the refrigerator for up to one month.

Nutritional Information
Calories: 28 (10% from fat)
Fat: 0.1g (sat 0.0g,mono 0.0g,poly 0.1g), Protein: 0.3g, Carbohydrate: 7g, Fiber: 0.3g, Cholesterol: 0.0mg, Iron: 0.1mg, Sodium: 64mg, Calcium: 7mg

We'll check back in four days and see how they taste. Until then, some pickle-making photos!

Ingredients

Layering

Pickling juices, Garlicky bits!

Apparent subconscious evidence that I crave ribs 24/7....

Ready to go!

~beth

I Heart Pickles: 8th Annual NYC International Pickle Day

When I heard about the 8th Annual NYC International Pickle Day, I cleared the calendar. Beginning as a small child, eating virtually all garden harvest in the form of pickles my mother made and canned on the farm, I have been hooked. My favourites have always been the dilly bean, zucchini pickles, pickled beets, and sauerkraut. Therefore the concept of two full blocks of pickle madness got me really excited. Apparently, it got the rest of the city excited as well as you could almost not walk through the street fair. I know they expanded it to be two city blocks this year, but...next year, they should aim for three or four. There were long long lines to get to the pickle goodness and due to it being the last humidity-riddled hot weekend in New York City (9/14/08), it was a hot mess!

The NYFood Museum (which I must find a day to go explore, to see the past to present of pickle lore) put on the pickle worship session on Orchard Street between Broome and Grand and next year, I am going to earlier and be more prepared! Here are some random photos of pickle goodness. Please to enjoy.

Yes, I bought this shirt, and it so looks better on me!

~beth who is making pickles as soon as this post is finished.

New Scrumptious Food Blog from Miss Kim

So...we have gotten a little lazy here in Foodland. It's all that time spent studying...yeah, right! Anyway, we have found other little blogistas who appreciate food too! Check out Scrumptious Photography to catch some, well, let's face it, drool on your chin and also a lovely photo of pickles taken by yours truly.