Announcing Tub-to-Table: locally grown organic ingredients for delicious recipes

If you made it to this page, then you saw my Instagram story posted on April 1st 2019. Of course, you hadn’t checked the date and you’re probably realizing this is just another brilliant April Fool’s joke. (I’ll give my hilarious husband credit for the idea). Rest assured, bananas will live on. So will mangoes and coconuts.

That said, it’s a pretty serious story. The food industry has become aggressive, unhealthy, and senseless. It’s all about the bottom line and making margins. This goes through intensive use of pesticides that are dangerous to humans and the planet alike. And it doesn’t stop there. The meat and fishing industries have expanded beyond reason and the waste they produce is extremely toxic. I should know: I grew up on a conventional farm. At least, my family only dealt in grain.

That said, there are things we can all do to minimize our impact on the environment and our bodies:

• Choose organic of course. That’s a given. I know it’s not always affordable but we are better off buying fewer things of a higher quality. Major retailers have their own organic brands such as Kroger’s Simple Truth.
   
• Choose local. I finally switched part of my grocery shopping to a community-supported agriculture farm (aka a CSA). Ours is Tomato Mountain Farm in Brooklyn… Wisconsin (yes, that Brooklyn, not the NYC borough). They are organic and work with other farms to source items they do not grow themselves or ingredients such as wonderful eggs (we get a share every other week). Your vegetables won’t have to travel halfway around the world to make it to your plate. They’re 136 miles from downtown Chicago. They have a referral program too. Click here to sign up.
   
• Choose what you eat carefully. I read Michael Pollan‘s amazing book, In Defense of Food, where he details his plan to a healthy and sustainable diet. His mantra? “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Minimizing our meat intake reduces our risk of cancer and limits our impact on the environment. Livestock emissions (methane mostly) weigh in as much as cars according to the EPA.

All in all, I am obviously still very much in love with food. I am fortunate that I can choose what I shop, where, and how. I want to give you the opportunity to do as much. For your sake… that of your loved ones… and for Planet Earth’s health.

So, don’t expect my tub to be become a vegetable patch anytime soon. That said, we do grow our own mint, courtesy of our friend Mark, and we bake our own bread. One small step at a time…