Ultimate health

Summer is just around the corner … and dandelions are popping up in the lawn. Make use of them in this Dandelion Tuna Salad, from the HealthHappyCoach.com.

The ingredients include dandelion greens, Pink Lady apple, wild tuna, goat cheese, salt and pepper, and a simple vinaigrette. This is a salad with some bite! And it’s delicious. And if you’re not used to dandelion leaves, then try mixing them with some Boston lettuce or other greens.

And what made us hungry for dandelion leaves and St Jude albacore? Oddly enough this article from The Michigan Citizen and Truth-Out.org by Phreddy Wischusen:

“Though considered a weed by Round Up and many home/lawn owners in the United States, the dandelion is actually an incredibly nutritious food.  It’s a great source of calcium, potassium, iron and manganese. It’s replete with vitamins A, C, E, K, Niacin and Riboflavin. Chock full of beta-carotene. The lecithin in its golden top detoxifies the liver.   The roots can be roasted to make a coffee substitute, or used in soups.  The leaves (tastiest after they first emerge for the season or after the first frost) can be eaten, as can its sweet yellow blossoms.  People use them in salads raw, boil them, fry them with bacon, marinate them in vinegar, and sauté them with fresh garlic.”

The start of summer and the burst of yellow from dandelions go hand in hand, and there’s no reason to spread poison over our properties.

Photo courtesy of Arcanewizard and Wikimedia Commons.

Thank you, Upton Sinclair

Indiana is considering legislation that would ban undercover camera investigations of inhumane treatment of farm animals – chicken, beef and pork. What are they trying to hide?

Owners of farms claim that activists are trying to eliminate meat from American diets. But the elimination of basic First Amendment rights around basic food safety and values will only drive people to avoid all farm products from those states.

These legislators would punish the messengers and not the perpetrators of crimes.  ABC News reports nine states are moving to ban such investigations – joining Nebraska, Indiana, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and California.

More than 20 groups, including the ASPCA and the Humane Society, have formed a coalition to oppose the laws banning undercover investigations.  “A statement from the coalition called the ‘ag gag’ bills ‘a wholesale assault on many fundamental values’ and a threat to health, safety and freedom of the press,” reported Cindy Galli and Randy Kreider with ABC News.

“Use of undercover techniques to expose abuses in food processing operations dates back to when Upton Sinclair, author of The Jungle, spent weeks working at meatpacking plants a century ago to research his groundbreaking book,” reports J.D. Heyes for Natural News.
“His extremely graphic details of the industry led the federal government to adopt safety regulations that made food production safer.”

Meanwhile, cameras of all types are welcome aboard the FV St Jude to view our fishing methods and handling processes.

Photo of Upton Sinclair, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Perfect pair

With Cauliflower and Tuna Salad, The New York Times continues its tradition of printing some of the trendiest, healthiest, most delicious recipes imaginable.

The ingredients:  cauliflower, firm albacore tuna, garlic (which we can always take or leave, or you can try St. Jude garlic-flavored tuna, capers, lemon, olive oil. And we could be tempted to go heavy on the lemon and even add some lemon peel.  We can’t wait to make this …

The recipe comes from Martha Rose Shulman, author of The Very Best Recipes for Health.

Photo courtesy of Anthony DiPierro, the US government and Wikimedia Commons.

Invest in future

Pricing from farmers and other small food suppliers could not be better explained than this article by Shannon Hayes for Yes: “My Prices Are Not Too High: A Farmer Fires Back.”

She writes: “The viability of a small farm is dependent not just on garnering a living wage, but on our ability to steward our land in a way that allows it to stay healthy and productive into the future. Industrial food production, in contrast, currently depends on farm subsidies—and on a license to deplete soils and pollute water for immediate profit with no regard for what happens tomorrow. This is our nation’s cheap food policy: Make the food in the grocery store as inexpensive as possible, so that we can justify lower working wages for Americans.”

Wholesome food is an investment in your future.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Biswarup Ganguly

 

Wicked?

It’s not the tuna that’s wicked.  Tonight is the season premiere of Wicked Tuna. National Geographic describes the show: “Fishing is a hard life, and harder with bluefin stocks depleted…. Over the next 10 weeks, the most skilled fishermen will set out in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic in hopes of catching the valuable bluefin tuna. When one bluefin can bring in as much as $20,000—they’ll do whatever it takes to hook up.”

At least they use rods and reels.  And at least National Geographic addresses the controversies behind the bluefin tuna harvest: a population in decline, overfishing, trawling and wasteful fishing methods, and habitat destruction.

The F/V St Jude targets albacore, using hook and line. The fights in the open Pacific are intense.

Photo courtesy of National Geographic.

Nature

Bankrupting Nature compares financial bubbles and crises to the depletion of natural resources – and that includes oceans:

“Depletion of fisheries in world’s oceans is particularly serious. Research reports have determined that by the middle of this century the world oceans could be left completely empty. However, there is light in the tunnel: reduced fishing quotas in the Baltic Sea and a more resolute grip on illicit fishing have led to the recovery of cod stocks, and Iceland and New Zealand, both countries with large fishing industries, have shown that it is possible to create favourable conditions for sustainable fishing.”

Sustainability is survival for individuals and businesses. Nature will survive, but we may not like the new forms it takes.

Year’s end

The entire crew of F/V St. Jude wishes everyone beautiful holidays, a merry Christmas and a perfect 2013!

Photo of rescue tug courtesy of Johnny Durnan and Wikimedia Commons.

Couscous

Here’s an easy, make-ahead dish for the busy holiday season: Israeli Couscous and Tuna Salad.  Thank you, Ina Garten and the Washington Post!

The ingredients include couscous, canned tuna, lemon, olive oil capers, black olives, roasted red peppers, garlic, scallons and basil leaves (usually we still have herbs wintering over in our kitchen, but this busy year, our thumb was not green …) -  and as you know, tuna can hold its own against this great array of flavors.

Photo of couscous courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and Josefine Stenudd

Casserole update!

We have always thought of tuna casseroles – any casserole – as challenging to make. Yes, a cook can’t go wrong putting a jumble of ingredients into a casserole dish. But casseroles do require some planning and time.

And food writer Ellen Brown and Melissa Gray of North Country Public Radio prove our point with “Tuna Noodle Casserole, A Hot Dish in Need of an Update, Gets One.”

Check out the list of ingredients: egg noodles, dried porcini mushrooms, stock, butter, onion, celery, whole milk, sherry, fresh thyme, mozzarella, canned tuna, peas and potato chips. That’s a lot of ingredients!

And now you busy cooks out there, do you agree with Gray? “Desperation, laziness, overwhelming craving: I say these are three conditions that drive a person to make a tuna noodle casserole.” Craving yes, but laziness no!

Farming intrigue

Okay, the book is not about tuna. But Fear of Beauty is about love of farming, tight families and friends, human rights, the individual empowerment that comes with curiosity about other cultures and the ability to read and write and understand our complex world. It’s about sustainability in how we eat and live and regard families and friends. In short, the novel covers a wide expanse of topics we can all relate to – even though the mystery novel is set in a remote village of landlocked Afghanistan!

Here’s how the cover describes the book: “The battered body of an Afghan boy is found at the base of a cliff outside a remote village in Helmand Province, on the day he was supposed to leave for school. Most villagers blame an accidental fall. Others wonder if the death is not the work of unwanted newcomers—US troops and aid workers at a nearby outpost. Sofi, the boy’s mother, finds a paper not far from the cliff. After a lifetime of wanting to learn how to read, she’s desperate to uncover the truth about her son’s death and whether the paper is connected.”

And do check out Goodreads  - where you can sign up for a free signed copy of Fear of Beauty and many other great new books that are soon to be released. We’ll admit it – we’re hooked on signing up for the free books!