The Spoonful Newsletter

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fork seasons grocery & café

Fork Seasons Grocery & Café 72356 Fresh Market Avenue Chattanooga, TN 37408 forkseasons.com

Editors: Mallory Mixon & Rachel Parrish Content: Sebastian Smith & Violet Davis Photography: Gavin Britt Design: Oliver Green Distribution: Murray Harper

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spoonful the

Volume 2

Autumn 2012 a publication of

Fork Seasons Grocery & Café

Healthful can be Hurtful: The Dangers of Pesticides by: Laura Schockler Could an apple a day really keep the doctor away? Maybe, but it may also be coated in pesticides.

The Environmental Working Group, an advocacy nonprofit, released its latest "Dirty Dozen" list of the 12 fruits and vegetables that are most contaminated with pesticides.

And taking first place this year? Apples. The ubiquitous fruit beat out last year's top spot, which went to celery (now at number two).

The health benefits of fruits and vegetables are, without a doubt, a known fact.

But the potentially darker side of fruits and vegetables is centered around concerns about their pesticide loads, which some studies have linked to possible health problems, particularly among women who are pregnant and children.

So when organic foods typically carry a higher price tag, what's a frugal shopper to do?

"Picking five servings of fruits and

vegetables from the 12 most contaminated would cause you to consume an average of 14 different pesticides a day," the group reports in its findings, which were based on data collected by the United States Departure of Agriculture of food samples that often were ready to be eaten (meaning that they had already been peeled or washed as necessary).

On the flip side, EWG writes that choosing foods from their counterpart "Clean 15" list will slash the pesticide volume by more than 90 percent.

Topping the "Clean 15" were onions, sweet corn, pineapples and avocado.

"We have very good data showing that if people eat organic that measurable pesticide levels in their tissues drop, and this has been shown with kids as well," HuffPost blogger Dr. Andrew Weil told EWG when they released the 2010 Shopper's List. "I've always said that it would

see pesticides, page 2

u s e. s i s i h t in Season Eats 2

Gardening 3

The Family Table 4

&5

Desserts to Die For 6

Classified & Coupons 7

483 Possum Trot Rd. Ooltewah, TN 37363

amanda coone Fork Seasons Grocery & Cafe 72536 Fresh Market Avenue Chattanooga, TN 37408

Pesticides, continued: be wise to learn which crops are more likely to carry pesticide residues and in those instance to try to get organic versions or to reduce consumption or avoid the conventional varieties."

Of course, while the EWG encourages going organic when it comes to items on their Dirty Dozen List, they do clearly state that conventional produce is certainly better than none at all: "The health benefits of a diet rich in fruits and vegetables outweigh the risks of pesticide exposure."

Certain members of the produce industry are taking that a few steps further, questioning the validity of the Dirty Dozen list in the first place.

The Alliance for Food And Farming recently released this pesticide residue

calculator online, with the promise of "putting residues in perspective."

"We understand there might be residues present, but … if you look at our calculator you can see how many servings of this would I or my child have to eat and still not have any health effects," executive director Marilyn Dolan told the Chicago Tribune earlier.

EWG's senior analyst Sonya Luder responded in the article, though, saying that the calculator is misleading and doesn't take several health factors into consideration.

And in regards to apples taking the new and dubious number one ranking on the dirty dozen, Luder told USA Today: "We think what's happening to apples is more pesticides and

Season Eats So, what’s in this season? Food.

Well, food is always in season, but what food is season is what’s important!

This season we chose three easy to remember fruits and veggies in three color categories.

Let’s get started.

red green orange

Apples, radishes, chili peppers!

top autumn prod uce

by

color

Kale, swiss chard and pears!

Sweet potatos, pumpkins and carrots!

2 Fork Seasons Autumn 2012

fungicides are being applied after the harvest so the fruit can have a longer shelf life."

The trade association for the produce industry, United Fresh Produce, countered in a statement to CNN, writing, "At a time when medical experts strongly urge Americans to realize the health benefits from eating more fruits and vegetables, it is irresponsible to mislead consumers with a sensational publicity stunt disguised as science."

Fork Seasons Grocery & Cafe is proud to provide and serve only pesticide free produce.

Gardening for the Body, Mind, and Soul. Ahhh...

By: Jess Richardson It's easy to scoff at the idea of gardening as exercise until you've actually grabbed a trowel and dug in. More and more, scientists are confirming what avid gardeners have known all along: wrestling with stubborn weeds, trimming hedges, and spreading mulch are all good ways to work up a very respectable, healthy sweat. Doing work around the garden also tends to be more mentally and emotionally rewarding than trudging away on the treadmill at the gym.

"Gardening is a great way to maintain flexibility and tone muscles," says Melissa Roti, an assistant professor in the department of movement science, sport, and leisure studies at Westfield State College in Westfield, Massachusetts.

Bending to pick flowers or reaching to prune a vine, for example, can help you stay limber. Digging, hoeing, and lifting build core body strength, which protects against back problems and helps prevent falls.

The more you exert yourself, the greater the benefits. "Household and yard activities increase metabolic rate threefold to fivefold," says Steven Blair, a professor of exercise science at the University of South Carolina and coauthor of "Active Living Every Day" (Human Kinetics Publishers; 2001). That's enough to reduce blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels when a gardener works for at least 30 minutes five days a week. Tasks that are strenuous enough to leave a gardener

feeling slightly winded will improve cardiovascular fitness. Gardening, like more traditional forms of exercise has been shown to lower the risk of heart disease and help ward off type 2 diabetes. Calorically speaking, an afternoon of raking, trimming, and weeding rates as high as more serious workouts.

On average, gardening burns about 265 calories an hour, more than brisk walking.

Less strenuous forms of yard work have pluses, too. They are appropriate for people with arthritis and can actually ease their pain, says Joy Harrison, executive director of the American Horticultural Therapy Association.

The benefits of being active in the garden go beyond physical health. Studies show that almost any kind of moderate exercise reduces stress. But gardening may have an added advantage. "Instead of blowing your top at your boss, you can attack those weeds to release your aggressions, and have a beautiful garden to enjoy when you're done," says Roti, who grows and tends to perennials. Another bonus: A good workout in the yard may help you get a better night's sleep.

Simply enjoying a patch of green, even from afar, can be therapeutic. When Texas A&M University researcher Roger Ulrich compared hospital records of patients recovering from gallbladder surgery, he discovered that the ones whose rooms had a view of nature recovered more quickly than those who looked out at a brick wall.

Ultimately, what may be best about flexing a green thumb is that it's such a pleasure it hardly feels like exercise."

When the first good weather arrives, the

biggest problem we see is people overdoing it," says Sandra Mason, a horticulture educator at the University of Illinois Extension in Champaign County. "Once people get started, they don't want to stop."

A Few Tips for Getting Started: Carry With Care: According to Britain’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, flowerpots are the second most dangerous object in the garden (lawn mowers top the list). The reason: Lifting heavy pots can cause sprains and strains. Whenever you hoist or haul, bend your knees and keep heavy objects close to your body to avoid straining back muscles. When you’re done for the day, prevent soreness by taking a few minutes to stretch.

Get A Shot: Be sure your tetanus vaccination is up to date (experts recommend getting one every 10 years). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 31 percent of tetanus-related injuries occur in yards and gardens or on farms. The bacterium that causes the disease resides in the soil and can enter through cuts in the skin, putting gardeners at particular risk.

Dress for the Task: Wear gardening gloves, long-sleeve shirts, and pants to protect skin from branches, thorns, insects, and sunlight. If you’re going to be in the sun, wear a wide-brimmed hat and use a broad-spectrum sunscreen (SPF 15 or higher). Hydrate frequently, particularly on hot days. Wear goggles when working with chemicals or when using tools that generate flying debris. If you’re going to kneel for a while, wear knee pads or use a foam mat.

Fork Seasons

Autumn 2012 3

The Family Table and the Death of Dinner By: nancy gibbs

Having Fun With Fall Food By: mallory mixon

Close your eyes and picture Family Dinner.

June Cleaver is in an apron and pearls, Ward in a sweater and tie. The napkins are linen, the children are scrubbed, and even the dog listens intently to what is being said. This is where the tribe comes to transmit wisdom, embed expectations, confess, conspire, repair. This ideal runs so strong and deep in our culture and psyche that when experts talk about the value of family dinners, they may leave aside the clutter of contradictions. Just because we eat together does not mean we eat right. Just because we are sitting together doesn’t mean we have anything to say: children bicker, fidget and daydream; parents stew over the remains of the day.

But there is something about a shared meal that anchors a family. And on those evenings when the mood is right and the family lingers, caught up in an idea or an argument explored in a shared safe place where no one is stupid or shy or ashamed, you get a glimpse of the power of this habit and why social scientists say such communion acts as a kind of vaccine, protecting kids from all manner of harm. Studies show that the more often families eat together, the less likely kids are to smoke, drink, do drugs, get depressed, develop eating disorders or consider suicide, and the more likely they are to do well in school, eat their vegetables, learn big words and know which fork to use.

“If it were just about food, we would squirt it into their mouths with a tube,” says Robin Fox, an anthropologist who teaches at Rutgers University in New Jersey, about the mysterious way that family dinner engraves our souls. “A meal is about civilizing children. It’s about teaching them to be a member of society.”

The most probing study of family eating patterns was published by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University and reflects nearly a decade’s worth of data gathering. Reasearchers found that 45% of those surveyed said the TV is on during meals and nearly one-third say there isn’t much conversation. Such kids are twice as likely as those who have frequent family meals

We know Mom always said never to play with food, but sometimes breaking the rules can be okay, and needless to say, it’s fun too.

So let’s break some rules!

This season we’ll be crafting some fancy t-shirts using fabric paint and carrot sticks. Sounds easy enough right?

Let’s get started!

Here’s what you’ll need: A crafty craft station! (aka your kitchen table covered with newspaper) Next you’ll want to make sure you have shirts to paint on. We used white shirts.

Since it’s fall time and we love pumpkins, we decided to put a good ol’ jack o’lantern on our

to say there is a great deal of tension among family members.

Researchers have found all kinds of intriguing educational and ethnic patterns. The families with the least educated parents eat together the most: parents with less than a high school education share more meals with their kids than do parents with college degrees.

Foreign-born kids are much more likely to eat with their parents. When researchers looked at ethnic and racial breakdowns, they found that more than half of Hispanic teens ate with a par-

“

Dinner is about

civilizing children...

teaching them to be a

”

member of society.

ent at least six times a week, in contrast to 40% of black teens and 39% of whites.

In the 1950s, family dinner in the Norman Rockwell mode had taken hold: Mom cooked, Dad carved, son cleared, daughter did the dishes. All kinds of social and economic factors then conspired to shred that tidy picture to the point that the frequency of family dining fell about a third over the next 30 years. With both parents working and the kids attached to their screens at home, finding a time for everyone to sit around the same table and eat the same food and listen to one another became quaint.

But something precious was lost, anthropologist Fox argues, when cooking came to be cast as drudgery and meals as discretionary.

“Making food is a sacred event,” he says. “It’s absolutely central. Food comes so easily to us now,” he says, “we have lost a sense of its significance. When we had to grow the corn and fight off predators, meals included a serving of gratitude. It’s like the American Indians.

When they killed a deer, they said a prayer over it. That is civilization. It is an act of politeness over food. Fast food has killed this. We have

4 Fork Seasons Autumn 2012

reduced eating to sitting alone and shoveling it in. There is no ceremony in it.”

Or at least there wasn’t for many families until researchers in the 1980s began looking at the data and doing all kinds of regression analyses that showed how a shared pot roast could contribute to kids’ success and health. What the studies could not prove was what is cause and what is effect. Researchers speculate that maybe kids who eat a lot of family meals have less unsupervised time and thus less chance to get into trouble. Families who make meals a priority also tend to spend more time on reading for pleasure and homework.

The enemies here are laziness and leniency: “We’re talking about a contemporary style of parenting, particularly in the middle class, that is overindulgent of children,” argues William Doherty, a professor of family social science at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis.

The willingness of parents to let dinner be an individual improvisation: no routine, no rules, leave the television on, everyone eats what they want, teenagers can take a plate to their room and keep IMing their friends.

Beyond promoting balance and variety in kids’ diets, meals together send the message that citizenship in a family entails certain standards beyond individual whims. This is where a family builds its identity and culture. Legends are passed down, jokes rendered, eventually the wider world examined through the lens of a family’s values. In addition, younger kids pick up vocabulary and a sense of how conversation is structured. They hear how a problem is solved, learn to listen to other people’s concerns and respect their tastes. “A meal is about sharing,” says Doherty. “I see this trend where parents are preparing different meals for each kid, and it takes away from that. The sharing is the compromise. Not everyone gets their ideal menu every night.”

When kids help prepare a meal, they are much more likely to eat it, and it builds self-esteem.

So pull up some chairs. Lose the TV. Let the phone go unanswered.

And see where the moment takes you.

shirts.

After you’ve picked your stencil and have printed and cut it out, grab the paint colors you would like to use.

Lay out the newspaper over your crafting surface, and lay your shirts out flat with a piece of cardboard separating the front and back of the t-shirt on the table.

Next place your stencil on your shirt.

Fill a paper plate with your selected paints.

Cut the top of the carrots off and dip them in your paint. Use the top of the carrot as a stamp to cover the stencil.

After the paint has dried you can take off the stencil and see your masterpiece!

You can find our stencils and other awesome fun with food ideas online at forkseasons.com/thespoonful/funwithfood

Fancy Fall Stew Baked in a Whole Pumpkin By: alanna kellog 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon cumin 1/2 teaspoon oregano 1/2 cup water 1/2 pound tomatillos, husked and chopped 15 ounces canned hominy, drained 3/4 teaspoon table salt Let’s stuff a pumpkin with vegPumpkins: (per serving) etarian stew made with peppers, Small pie pumpkin, 1 to 1-1/2 tomatillos and hominy, then pounds bake it in small individual pie 1 teaspoon olive oil pumpkins or one large pumpkin! 1 ounce grated cheddar cheese This would make a great vegetar- Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a ian entrée for Thanksgiving, it’s rimmed baking sheet with parchhearty, it’s filling, and isn’t it ment. pretty!

In a large pot or Dutch oven; heat Stew: the olive oil on medium high 1 tablespoon olive oil until shimmery. Add the onions, 1 large onion, chopped peppers and garlic as they’re 1 red bell pepper, chopped prepped, stirring to coat with fat.

2 cloves garlic, minced Cook, stirring occasionally, until

the onions and peppers begin to soften. Stir in the spices and cook for about 3 minutes.

Add the water, tomatillos, hominy and salt, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to maintain a slow simmer and cook, partially covered, until the tomatillos soften, about 10 minutes. If needed, uncover and let the liquid cook off a bit.

While the stew cooks, wash the pumpkins well. Insert a knife at the “shoulder” of the pumpkin (this makes the widest possible opening while preserving the greatest height) and cut around the pumpkin to form a lid. With a grapefruit spoon or something similar, scrape the seeds and strings out of the pumpkins.

Rub the interior of the pumpkins

with olive oil. Sprinkle a halfounce of cheese in the bottom of each pumpkin. Fill the pumpkin halfway with the stew mixture, add another half ounce of cheese, and then continue filling.

Place the lids back onto the pumpkins and transfer to the baking sheet. Bake for 1-1/2 to 2 hours until the pumpkin flesh is fork tender. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Nutrition Stew Per Cup: 216 Calories; 9g Tot Fat; 9mg Cholesterol; 855mg Sodium; 27g Carb; 11g Fiber; 12g Sugar; 7g Protein.

Pumpkin Per Cup: 30 Calories; 0g Tot Fat; 1mg Sodium; 8g Carb; 1g Fiber; 2g Sugar; 2g Protein.

Fork Seasons

Autumn 2012 5

Jezebel Brownies 1 2 3 4 5 6

b

b

b

Dying to try ‘em?

Thought so.

Let’s bake.

Perfectly crispy brownie crust Gooey goodness baked just long enough to kill the salmonella Only slightly crispy Oreo crust Warm Oreo cream filling Melt-in-your-mouth melty chocolate chunk Oh-no cookie dough deliciousness

u

Luckily these fancy brownies are fairly easy to make. First get yourself some Oreos, a brownie box mix, and a cookie box mix. Mix the cookie dough and the brownie mixes according to the package direction. Line a 13x9 pan with wax paper and spray the wax paper with cooking oil. Spread the layer of cookie dough out. Next add a layer of Oreo cookies, and then top those two layers with the brownie mix.

Bake at 350F for 30 minutes and top these delectable brownies with vanilla ice cream if your little heart desires!

6 Fork Seasons Autumn 2012

Looking for Classifieds and Coupons? Here you go!

People are looking for:

People are trying to sell:

Babysitter: CPR certified, okay with working on the weekends. We have two boys, ages 6 and 8. Contact Connie if interested.

423.598.5751.

Kittens: We had a litter of 5. Ready for their homes May 1. $5 each, 3 boys 2 girls, first come fist serve. Please contact Bruce for more details.

423.548.9845.

Bunk beds: Our kids are getting bigger and need some bunk beds! Please call Jim if you have or know someone who has bunk beds! 423.787.1447 Tent: Looking for a large tent for family camping. Please call Steve 423.541.1669

Various gardening tools: Shovel, plow, and watering can. Prices negotiable. Please call Sally if you’re interested at 423.875.2349.

Hand-made pottery: Bowls, cups, vases, etc.

Made to order in color of your choice. Call Rhonda for more information.

423.555.1201

50% off a pound of your choice of autumn seasonal vegetable!

Limit 1 per customer

Need something knitted? Scarfs, hats, mittens, blankets! Call Cathy at 423.998.4163 for pricing and availability.

002012Fsaut Free side salad and beverage when you purchase one sandwich at the cafe!

Limit 1 per customer

Quilts: Made to order, you choose your fabric and size. Very cozy and warm, great gifts! Please call Tina for more information at 423.487.3649

012012Fsaut

Who is Fork Seasons Grocery and Cafe Anyway?

The best place to begin is the beginning.

Founded by the Greene family in 1936, we have grown from a small corner market to a larger grocery store, café, and garden. The Greenes had a passion for fresh, tasty food and believed in giving back to their neck of the woods.

Here at Fork Seasons, we believe in four seasons, and each season should have its own fancy fork.

Food grown in each season should be eaten in season to gain the high-

est level of nutritional benefits.

We believe in growing deliciousness straight from God’s green Earth and equipping you with the tools to do just that.

We believe that everything is better local: music, restaurants, shops, people - that’s why we buy and sell everything locally.

We want everything authentic and real, just like our customers.

We believe in community.

We love you and want you to love us; that’s why

we give back to our neighborhood through seasonal food donations.

We believe in providing yummy, balanced meals when time is short, or when you just don’t feel like cooking.

We believe knowledge comes best in spoonfuls and hope you’ve enjoyed ours.

Top Photo: Fork Seasons in 1936 with Mr. Greene out front Bottom Photo: Selling fresh vegetables after the first harvest in 1947

Fork Seasons

Autumn 2012 7