Ideas for Celebrating Earth Day!

Watermelon Salad

3 cups cubed watermelon
2-3 cubed avocados
2 cubed cucumbers
1/2 cup minced basil, plus a handful of leaves for garnish
1/2 cup minced mint
1/2 cup crumbled feta 
2 Serrano or Jalapeño Peppers, sliced
3 tbsp olive or avocado oil 
1 lime juiced
1/2 red onion, very thinly sliced 
salt to taste

Prep ingredients as directed above. Toss everything except for avocado. Add avocado and gently toss. 

Prosciutto wRapped Asparagus and Melon 

1 bunch asparagus
1 small melon, cantaloupe, honeydew, or similar (not watermelon)
prosciutto, cut into 1-2 inch thick strips
olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat a skillet with a little oil. Break off ends of asparagus and add to the pan. Cook, flipping at least once for 4-7 minutes until tender. Set aside. 

Cut melon. Scoop out seeds and slice into 1 in slices. Wrap a few asparagus and a melon slice with a strip of prosciutto. Serve cold or room temp.

Jammy Eggs with Paprika Aioli

4 eggs
2 jarred peperoncini in brine
4 springs parsley
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp smoked or hot paprika
salt

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil. Carefully place 4 eggs in the pot and set a timer for 8 mintues. Transfer eggs to an ice bath.

Strain and chop peperoncini, and place in a small bowl. Finely chop parsley and add to peperoncinis.

In another small bowl, combine mayonnaise and paprika.

Cut cooled eggs lengthwise, sprinkle with salt. Top each egg with aioli and peperoncini mix.

Fried Green Tomatoes

1 Green tomato per 1-2 people
Corn Meal
Flour
Salt and pepper
Eggs 
Oil or butter to pan fry

Slice green onions about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. Whisk the egg on a plate or shallow bowl. Combine 1/2 cup corn meal per 1 cup flour, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat a skillet on medium, once hot add oil. Dip tomatoes in egg, one at a time, coating both sides. Then place on flour and flip, coating both sides. Place in the hot skillet. Cook for 4-5 minutes per side, until brown on both sides.

This recipe works as a ratio. Add more flour and eggs as needed. 

This recipe can also be done with zucchinni and other veggies!

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Miso Tahini

2 small sweet potatoes
2 tbsp neutral oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp tahini
2 tbsp white miso
2 tsp distilled white vinegar

1 scallion
1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees F. Rinse 2 sweet potatoes. Cut potates into quaters lingthwise, then cut each wedge in half crosswise into 2”-long pieces. Toss potatoe, 2 tbsp oil, and 1/2 tsp salt on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast, tossing every 5 minutes for about 10-15 minutes. Check frequesntly!

In a small bowl, combine tahini, miso, vinegar, and 1 tbsp water witha fork until smooth.

Trim root end off of one scallion, then thinly slice from bulb to dark green tip.

Spread tahini sauce on a plater. Arrange potatoes over and top with sesame seeds and scallions.

Smoked Salmon Dip 

7 oz smoked salmon (or trout)

7 oz Philadelphia cream cheese , full fat

1/4 cup sour cream

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup fresh dill , roughly chopped

1/2 garlic clove , minced

1 1/2 tsp lemon zest (1 lemon)

1 – 2 tbsp lemon juice

Pinch of salt and pepper

Add all ingredients to a food processor, starting with on 1/2 the lemon and less salt. Pulse until fairly smooth, scrapping down the sides as needed. Add more lemon and salt to taste. Serve with crackers, bread and veggies. 

Artisana Golden Cashew Sauce w/ Roasted Veggies

1/3cup Artisana Organics Cashew Butter
1 small shallot, diced
2 cloves of garlic, smashed/ sliced
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp olive oil, divided
1 Medjool date, diced
2-3 tbsp water
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tsp kosher salt

Sautee the shallot in 1 tbsp olive oil until translucent, add garlic and cook until softened. Transfer all the ingredients into a bullet blender, blend well until smooth, creamy adding a little water depending on your preferred consistency. Store in a airtight container and use to elevate vegetables, meats, as a dressing or a dip.

We love to drizzle on assorted roasted veggies. Roast hot! Higher temp for less time is your new motto. 450 – 475 F. and acknowledge different veggies roast for different times and either. Start denser veggies first or cut them smaller than the others.

Mini Mushroom Pies

1 Pie Crust

Olive oil
8 ounces mushrooms , minced
1 large yello or white onion , minced
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp dried thyme

Preheat oven to 450°.
In a skillet over medium high heat, saute the mushroom
and onion in the butter until tender. Add sour cream,
salt, thyme and flour and stir to combine. Cook for one
minute, remove from heat to cool.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/4”
thick. Cut the dough into rounds with a biscuit cutter,
about 2” in diameter. Fit the dough rounds into muffin
tins and lightly tamp them into place. Fill the tarts with
1 teaspoon of mushroom filling. Bake 12-14 minutes.
Serve immediately.

Caprese bites

8-16 oz soft mozzarella cheese, balls or log sliced.
1-2 cartons of cherry tomatoes
basil
salt and pepper
balsamic glaze
extra virgin olive oil

Organize on a plate, toothpicks are optional. If the basil is large enough, it can hold the tomato and mozzarella inside! 

Drizzle with balsamic glaze and olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve cold. 

Baked Coconut Shrimp

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 cup Panko breadcrumbs

1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1 lb. large shrimp or prawns (16 pieces), peeled and deveined

¼ cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 400 F.

In a shallow saucepan, heat oil, breadcrumbs, and shredded coconut over medium heat. Stir constantly and toast until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes.

Stir in seasoning garlic powder, paprika, salt and pepper. Mix until well combined and remove from heat. Transfer bread mixture to a shallow plate and allow it to cool down to room temperature.

To prepare the shrimp, cut through the shell along the back with scissors. Remove the veins and the shells (keep the tails on). Rinse to remove the veins and pat dry each shrimp completely with a paper towel.

Prepare another shallow plate with flour, and another with the beaten eggs. Dip each shrimp into flour to evenly coat, then dip it into the eggs, and then coat it completely with the coconut breadcrumb mixture. You can gently press the crumbs into shrimp to adhere as much as possible. (The flour sticks to the shrimp, the egg sticks to the flour, and the breadcrumbs stick to the egg).

Transfer the breaded shrimp onto a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes until fully cooked through and coating is golden brown. Flip the shrimp once halfway through baking if you want both sides to be crispy.

Serve immediately with spicy mayo sauce. To make the spicy mayo sauce, combine mayonnaise and hot sauce in a small bowl and stir well to combine.

Houseplant Chores to do Before Spring

Roots – Soil Health – Relocate – Fertilize

Why Buying Local is Sustainable

Freshness 

This one isn’t really about sustainability but still important! Local produce can be harvested at peak ripeness since it doesn’t have to travel far. Out of state and imported produce is harvested long before it is ripe, so it will still be edible after travel. Many imported goods ripen too quick and often go bad before they are purchased, producing lots of waste. By buying local, this is avoided and food waste is significantly less. Produce that ripens on the vine/bush/tree also taste better! They ripen with all the nutrients and water they need to mature properly. Local tastes better.

Did You Know it’s Compostable?

Why Compostable?

Compostable products are an obvious win when comparing end-of-life processing. When you are finished with a compostable product, you can compost it and turn it into a regenerative product: compost. Compost can be used in a number of ways, mostly as fertilizer for farms. Learn more about the benefits of composting in our blogs: Composting Guide and Regenerative Agriculture: People, Planet, and Profit. 

It is also important to look at the full lifecycle of a product (and by-products) alongside each company’s sustainability practices and goals to make the biggest impact as an individual consumer. Our Meat department, for example, made the switch to prepacking most products in a vacuum sealed plastic film. The plastic film is not compostable or recyclable in Davis but the switch that was made actually reduced the total plastic used. For food safety, meat clerks must change gloves and plastic film often when handling various meats, which adds up quick. So although the prepacked meat comes in plastics instead of butcher paper, much less plastic is used in the overall process. 

Side-by-Side Comparison of a Few Products

Compostable

The compostable bags in the produce section are backyard compostable. You can send them to the City of Davis composting facility or put it in your at-home compost pile. 

Mrs. Meyer’s dryer sheets are made of a brown paper and nontoxic fabric softeners. These are compostable in Davis. 

All of our microwave popcorn bags are compostable. Even better they are all PFAS free. PFAS can sometimes be found in compostable items, which pollutes our compost and waterways. You don’t need to worry about that here! Some popcorn comes individually wrapped in a plastic bag and this is required for food safety, unfortunately we cannot avoid plastic completely. 

Milk and milk alternatives you find in the refrigerator section are not always TetraPaks. This Oatly container and many of our cow’s Milk cartons are made with paper and wax or very thin plastic. Either way the City of Davis will accept. Cut the plastic spout off the top and put in the compost bin. 

Regenerative Agriculture

The Earth naturally has a flow of carbon dioxide. It is stored in large deposits, often called “Carbon Sinks”, as fossil fuels, forests, and in the ocean. It is stored in microorganisms in the soil and in plants. We have accelerated the release of carbon through burning fossil fuels and conventional farming practices, and have slowed near a halt of the reabsorption of carbon dioxide through conventional farming and deforestation. The result, climate change and global warming. The excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere “simply” needs to be put back into the soil.

Regenerative agriculture, also known as “Carbon Farming”, has tremendous global potential and consists of widely available and inexpensive organic management practices. According to the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative at Chico State and the Carbon Underground, “Regenerative Agriculture is a holistic land management practice that leverages the power of photosynthesis in plants to close the carbon cycle, and build soil health, crop resilience and nutrient density”.

Regeneration International claims that “the deployment of all of these regenerative and organic best practices across the world on 5-10% of all agricultural lands…would result in…50% more [CO2 ] than the amount of sequestration needed to drawdown the CO2 that is currently being released into the atmosphere and the oceans” 

Regenerative farming includes, but is not limited to: 

Regenerative farmers also use cover crops. These plants cover the fields while leaving space for the intended crop and keep Carbon Dioxide in the soil. Cover crops provide the microorganisms in the soil with the nutrients they need to keep the soil healthy and balanced.

You may have already read our blog about composting and it’s environmental benefits. Composting some of the cover crops or main crop residue can be used to sequester carbon quickly and improve soil health. According to the Rodale Institute, “the benefits are significant and accrue quickly: after only one application season of amending with compost, soil organic carbon and aggregate stability increase significantly compared with non-amended soils.”

Crop rotations, switching the crop seasonally or yearly, has shown to “increase soil biodiversity and sequester Carbon” according to Rodale Institute. Keeping plants in the soil year round keeps a high amount of microorganisms in the soil, which we already know means healthy soil and higher crop yields. 

Residue Retention is the practice of keeping the roots and base of the original plant, whether it be the cover crops or the main crop. Removing the plant residue by tilling or for bio-energy removes the Carbon from the soil and puts it in the atmosphere.

The intersection of these practices gives you regenerative agriculture. They all intertwine and improve each other. Rodale Institute claims that “recent data from farming systems and pasture trials around the globe show that we could sequester more than 100% of current annual CO 2 emissions with a switch to [regenerative agriculture]”. All of these practices are widely available, inexpensive to use, and result in a healthier soil, planet, and crops.

Regenerative agriculture is a win-win for the planet and farmers.

Resolutions and Traditions of our DFC Staff

Ryan V. 

Ryan is cynical and thinks New Years is arbitrary. 

Sterling

Tradition: Get a very fancy wine and watch the NYC 9:00 pm pst ball drop, then bed by 9:30 pm.

Resolution: Buy more good wine

Michele

Tradition: It is her partner’s birthday, so they go to a movie and have a mellow day. 

Resolution: Does not make one. Why put off till tomorrow what you can start today. 

Charles

Tradition: Watch the eastern ball drop, then sleep 

Resolution: To never make a resolution

Julissa

Tradition: Stay up with family and celebrate. The kids scream and run around with sparklers and blow horns. 

Christine

Resolution: My resolution is to stick to my monthly budget so I can save more money!

Learn how to minimize your Food Waste during Thanksgiving

In the United States, 40 percent of food goes to waste. This is a time of family, friends, and food. Unfortunately, because of our individual habits and struggles of our national food systems, in 2013, $277 million worth of turkey ended up in the trash after Thanksgiving. 

Why Reducing Waste is More than Just Saving Food

Wasting food wastes more than food, it wastes all the resources needed to make the food. The EPA elegantly explains all the great things that reducing food waste does for the environment:

• Saves resources: Wasted food wastes the water, gasoline, energy, labor, pesticides, land, and fertilizers used to make the food. When we throw food in the trash, we’re throwing away much more than food.
• Reduces methane from landfills: When food goes to the landfill, it’s similar to tying food in a plastic bag. The nutrients in the food never return to the soil. The wasted food rots and produces methane gas. Methane is a strong greenhouse gas with more than 21 times the global warming potential compared to carbon dioxide. Learn how to start your own compost pile in our blog: https://davisfood.coop/composting-guide/
• Returns nutrients to the soil: If you can’t prevent, reduce, or donate wasted food, you can compost. By sending food scraps to a composting facility instead of to a landfill or composting at home, you’re helping make healthy soils. Composting improves soil health and structure, improves water retention, supports more native plants, and reduces the need for fertilizers and pesticides.

So as part of showing thanks to our American food bounty, consider the following strategies to help you avoid wasting it this year on Thanksgiving.

What you can do while you shop

• Coordinate recipes with friends and family so you don’t end up with 3 green bean casseroles (unless if you want 3 green bean casseroles!). Setting up a shared Google Doc is a great way to simultaneously plan the meal with the friends and family you’re sharing the day with.
• Prepare less by cutting recipes in half. If you can’t have Thanksgiving without sweet potato casserole, but like me also “need” to make at least five other traditional side dishes, consider making a half recipe for one or all dishes, instead of full recipes.
• Plan ahead, make a list and compile ingredients from different recipes to avoid over buying. Be prepared to make conversions in the store, you may need 10 cups of flour, but it is sold by the pound. 
• Resist the temptation to impulse buy, and buy in smaller quantities. Don’t be tempted by the big bag of pecans that are on sale when you only need a ¼ cup! Our Bulk Department is great way to only get what you need for recipes. 
• Save a turkey! Instead of eating a turkey as the main course, consider adopting one from Farm Sanctuary! The Natural Resources Defense Council estimated in 2013 that $277 million worth of turkey ended up in the trash after Thanksgiving. The resources wasted from all that turkey is “equivalent to the amount of water needed to supply New York City for 100 days and greenhouse gases equal to 800,000 car trips from San Francisco to New York.”

What you can do when it’s time to eat

• Serve smaller portions, you can always go back for seconds! This will reduce the wasted scraps of food on all the plates.

Additional Reading and Sources

https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/wasted-2017-report.pdf

https://refed.com/downloads/refed-2020-annualreport-final-optimized.pdf

https://greenblue.org/ways-to-avoid-food-waste-over-thanksgiving/