Edible Orange County Endless Summer 2015

edible Orange County

A Member of Edible Communities

Endless Summer 2015 No. 17

SUMMER’S SWEET GARDEN

Summer’s

Sweet Garden

ENDLESS SUMMER 2015 NO. 17

Food Recovery

The Fit Foodie

Buffalo

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Contents Endless Summer 2015

12

20 In Each Issue 6

Editor’s Note

By Gina Mullins Cohen

8 Contributors

Features 12

The Sweet Peppers of Summer

20

The Buffalo Demand

28

Food Recovery: Making Strides to Reduce Hunger in our own Backyard

10

In Season

32

The Fit Foodie®

38

Our Advertisers

By Gina Mullins Cohen

By Mareya Ibrahim

By Eugenia Bone

By Jim Hathcock

By Patti Larson

Cover Photo by Vitalij Lang / Dreamstime 4 Endless Summer 2015

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Recipe Box 15

Eggs Poached on Sweet Peppers and Onions

By Eugenia Bone

16

Marinated Peppers

19

Romesco Sauce

By Eugenia Bone

By Eugenia Bone

35

Grapefruit and Pomegranate Seed Salad with Unsweetened Shredded Coconut

By Chef Mareya, The Fit Foodie

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Editor’s Note edible Communities 2011 James Beard Foundation Publication of the Year

Sweet Summer Memories It is the time of year when kids of all ages anticipate, then mourn the loss of freedom as summer days turn short and back-to-school time approaches. The excitement of new backpacks, sneakers, clothes and school supplies is fleeting when compared to the long haul of work that will fill the days ahead. Summer is magical, but like all things magical, summer disappears quickly.

Fortunately, Orange County has long, endless summers. When the rest of the country grows chilly at dusk, Orange County holds tight to the sun and the evenings remain warm well in to October.

My favorite part of the dog days of summer is the warm morning sun. I love waking up to the bright blue, cloudless sky then eating a breakfast of homemade granola and sweet berries. Late summer snacks such as real fruit popsicles, homemade ice cream bars and frozen blueberries also come to mind… and sun tea, lemonade and root beer floats are favorites no matter where you live.

My favorite memory of summer is going with my dad to watch him play golf. He never used a golf cart.

He walked the 18-hole course, pulling his clubs behind him – and me, his long-legged daughter, straddled on top of his golf bag. I rode that leather bag like it was my own birthday pony. The air was always sweet from the scent of sage and freshly cut grass and as I rolled over the green fairways, I would count Mountain Jays, Horse Flies and Wild Bees. Afterwards, dad bought me a cheeseburger (no pickle, please) and crispy French fries dripping in Del Monte Catsup.

We’d drive home after the golf game and if the neighbor kids were outside, we’d play Hide ’n Seek, Kick the Can or my favorite outside game, Monsters on the Loose. Yes, Monsters was my favorite summer game. The dads on the block would get together and each one would become a monster from the movies. Mr. English, our next door neighbor favored Dracula. Mr. Parsons, from across the street, father to my best friend Jane, was King Kong and my dad was Frankenstein.

All “the dads” had to do, to make the game exciting, was growl and roar with their stiffened arms lifted mid-air. They would walk around bumping in to each other and we squealed, as only kids can squeal, as we ran circles around the fierce ogres. And for a few moments on those warm summer nights as we tumbled in to each other under the summer stars, we’d forget that these same men would soon be carrying our sleepy bodies inside and lovingly tucking us safely in to bed.

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Orange County® Published by Eclipse Media Partners, LLC 108 Hermitage Blvd.

Berryville, VA 22611 Editorial Staff Gina Mullins-Cohen Editor gina@edibleoc.com 310-721-3093 | 949-315-6445 Bill Cohen Editor: Arts and Culture 310-721-3093 | 949-315-6445 info@edibleoc.com Robert D. Mullins Investigative Reporter Editor info@edibleoc.com 310-721-3093 | 949-315-6445 Vi Paynich Editor: Fashion and Design Vi@edibleoc.com 714-504-1825 Kim Lewis Creative By Design Creative Director klewis@creativebydesign.net 951-226-5617 Moe Goode Web Master info@edibleoc.com Ben Marchbanks Alcemy, Inc. Digital Magazine Producer Ben@magazooms.com Advertising Gina Mullins-Cohen Publisher gina@edibleoc.com 310-721-3093 | 949-315-6445 Jennifer Sakurai jennifer@edibleoc.com 310-721-3093 No part of this publication may be used without written permission from the publisher ©2015. Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and notify us. Thank you.

–Gina Mullins Cohen 6 Endless Summer 2015

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Contributors Eugenia Bone is a cook and author whose stories and recipes have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country including The New York Times Magazine to Saveur, Food & Wine, Gourmet, Fine Cooking, The Wine Enthusiast, Martha Stewart Living, and The Wall Street Journal, among many others. She is the author of 5 books, among them Italian Family Dining, and Well Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Food (nominated for a James Beard award); Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms, and The Kitchen Ecosystem: Integrating Recipes to Create Delicious Meals. Visit Eugenia’s blog, TheKitchenEcosystem.com .

Bill Cohen is a writer, musician, cartoonist and humorist. He has a graduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. Bill has worked for The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, The Getty Museum in Los Angeles and Universal Music Group. Bill spends his free time playing classical guitar, bicycling and studying Turkish. Bill learned to eat under the direction of his mom.

Gina Mullins-Cohen became fascinated with nutrition, as a teenager, when she discovered the benefits of organic food. Throughout her 20year career in publishing she has successfully co-launched several domestic and international magazines, as well as two media companies.

Gina is the owner of Edible Orange County and spends her time between Orange County, California and Loudoun County, Virginia where she is Vice President of Marketing, Communications and Publications at National Recreation and Park Association. NRPA is dedicated to Conservation, Health & Wellness and Social Equity.

Lauren de la Fuente runs Pearl Street Marketing. She has worked with Nike, E!, MTV, and currently leads the communications and public relations divisions for Edible OC. Her diverse expertise includes launching brands, forging strategic alliances, developing ontarget positioning and strategy, and producing award-winning creative. Pearl Street Marketing handles B2B and B2C marketing for a variety of clients in the sustainable industry and is based in Santa Monica, CA. www.pearlstreetmarketing.com.

Jim Hathcock earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Northern Arizona University in 1978. He has worked as a reporter and editor for general circulation and business newspapers in Arizona, California and Nevada. Hathcock recently founded West Coast Flavor. www.wcflavor.com.

Mareya Ibrahim – The Fit Foodie – began her career in the natural products industry as the national marketing director for Wild Oats Market before it became Whole Foods.

She experienced the natural products industry from all angles including food and marketing, retail, and all avenues including being a consumer of whole foods.

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Patti Larson, Executive Director of Food Finders, Inc., earned a BS in Marketing and Business from San Diego State University. Previously, she was owner and chief baker at Patti Bakes where she created and provided cheesecakes and other fine baked goods to local restaurants, events and private parties.

Patti was also senior content writer for Cooking.com. Food Finders is a multiregional food bank and food rescue program headquartered in Signal Hill, CA. They pick up donated food from hundreds of local grocery stores, bakeries, restaurants and produce markets and distribute it directly to missions, shelters and social service agencies to feed the needy and impoverished.

The volunteers and staff drivers pick up and deliver on a same-day basis. On average, Food Finders helps provide enough food for 12,391 meals a day, reducing the amount of food insecurity and food waste prevalent throughout Southern California.

Kim Lewis is the owner and creative director of Creative By Design, a full-service creative agency located in Corona, California. Creative

By Design provides award-winning design for titles such as Parks & Recreation Magazine and Elearning! Magazine as well as city and chamber guides accross the country. Kim has received over 50 awards for magazine design, from the Western Publication Association, Folio and other industry associations during her 24-year tenure as a creative professional. www.creativebydesign.net.

Robert (Bob) David Mullins is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. He is the only journalist ever awarded the esteemed Amicus Curiae Award, presented by the state Judicial Council. The prestigious Robert D. Mullins Excellence in Reporting Award, named in his honor, is bestowed annually to journalists considered outstanding in their ethical efforts to report the news. Mullins was also awarded the Bronze Star for his courageous, life-saving efforts during WWII.

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Jennifer Sakurai has been a writer and editor for more than two decades.

Several magazines under her direction have won Maggie Awards and both regional and national awards from the American Society of Business Publications. She has also earned an MBA with a marketing concentration.

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Endless Summer 2015

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In Season

Endless Summer

By Gina Mullins-Cohen

Apples Collards Asparagus Corn Avocados Cucumber Basil Eggplant Beans, Green Grapes Beets Guava, Pineapple Brussels Sprout Kale Cabbage Kohlrabi Carrots Lettuce Celery Mushroom Chili Pepper Mustard Citrus: Nectarines Okra Grapefruits, Onion, dry Lemons, Onion, Green Valencia Oranges Passion Fruit Oranges Peaches

Pears Pears, Asian Peas, Black-eyed Peppers Persimmons Plums Potatoes Raspberries Sapote Spinach Squash, Summer Squash, Winter Strawberries Tomatillos Tomatoes Turnips

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THE SWEET

PEPPERS OF SUMMER

By Eugenia Bone

I

f you’ve ever planted peppers then you know what overwhelming bounty is. It always amazes me how many peppers a scrawny little pepper plant can produce. And the variety! There’s a flavor for everyone, from hot to spicy to sweet. I love them all, but my heart belongs to the Bell, that stir fry perennial.

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Green Bell peppers are unripe red or orange Bell peppers, and they are great raw, and cooked with fish and shellfish. Red (or orange) sweet peppers are also good raw, and perfect for broiling, marinating, and stewing. Look for wrinkle free peppers with shiny, taut skin. One medium sized

Bell pepper yields about ½ cup chopped pepper, and there are 4 or 5 medium peppers to a pound. They grow in eleven out of thirteen hardiness zones, and from what I can tell, that means everywhere on the continental US. Bells are resistant to most pests, which may be why you see a gazillion of them in farmer’s markets in the summer, usually at pretty great prices. Yeah, it’s hard to just buy one.

That’s what got me started marinating and canning them. I put up a pint or two a week throughout the season, usually while I am hanging around the kitchen cooking dinner anyway. And I eat them like crazy in fresh dishes. I broil and peel them and make salads with boiled shrimp, or warm potatoes, or canned tuna fish. I’ll sauté a mass of sliced ripe Bells with onions and sometimes garlic and from that make multiple dishes: pan cook veal chops with peppers, onions, and white wine; pureed peppers and onions

Green Bell peppers are unripe red or orange Bell peppers, and they are great raw, and cooked with fish and shellfish.

HOW TO BROIL PEPPERS Some recipes will call for the peppers to be charred and the skin to be removed from the pepper. You can do this under the broiler or on top of a gas burner, directly on the heat. Under the broiler is more convenient and faster, but the peppers easily overcook. Cooking on the burner, where you place a couple of peppers on each burner and turn them with tongs until they are blistered all over, is more work, but produces a more controlled result. (If you use this technique the kitchen will fill with a tasty burning smell. I always get calls from my neighbors when I use this method.) I use the

broiler with the door open so I can watch them more closely.

Heat the broiler to hot. Place the peppers on a cookie tray.

Place under the broiler. Turn the peppers as they blister. It takes about 5 minutes for a tray of peppers to roast. Some people like to put roasted peppers in bags to loosen the skin for easy removal. I don’t do it when using the broiler to blister peppers, because doing so steam cooks the peppers. As soon as you can handle the peppers, remove the skin. Usually, the skin will slip off in a few big peels. If some skin sticks, it’s okay. Remove the seedpod, and rinse out the seeds.

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RECIPE

BEN FINK

Eggs Poached on Sweet Peppers and Onions

This is the perfect summer dinner: light, fresh, nutritious, and easy.

It is simply cooked vegetables with eggs poached on top. You can use any vegetable combination you like (zucchini, onion, and boiled potatoes, for example) but if you don’t use tomatoes you will need to compensate for the lack of moisture by adding about ½ to ¾ cup chicken stock, vegetable stock, or water to the vegetable sauté.

Serves 4 INGREDIENTS ¼ cup olive oil 2 sweet red peppers, sliced 2 medium onions, sliced 2 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried Salt and freshly ground black pepper 8 large eggs ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, for garnish 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley, for garnish

DIRECTIONS 1. In a large skillet with a fitted lid, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the peppers and onions and cook until the peppers are almost soft, about 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes and basil and cook until all the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Add salt to taste.

2. With the back of a spoon, create 8 indentations in the vegetables. Carefully crack the eggs in the indentations. Don’t let the eggs touch the bare bottom of the pan or the sides or they will burn or stick. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pan, and simmer until the whites of the eggs are set, 6 to 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the Parmesan and parsley. Serve promptly.

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RECIPE Marinated Peppers Marinated chopped peppers are an incentive to make great food fast. Just the fact that I can spoon the peppers out of a jar and not even have to cut them up has led to spontaneous and delicious dishes. For example, I toss these peppers with boiled shrimp, garnished with parsley, or make a quick dip/spread by mashing the peppers with feta cheese or softened goat cheese and dill or cilantro, or brown sausages, chicken parts, or lamb shoulder chops, add the

peppers, and finish cooking. I love to make pimento cheese (in the food processor, ½ cup homemade mayo, ½ cup grated cheddar, ½ cup goat and/or cream cheese, 1/3 cup drained, marinated peppers), and always, romesco sauce (recipe below).

Makes 3 Pints INGREDIENTS 2 pounds sweet red peppers (8 to 10 peppers) 2 cups white wine vinegar (5% acidity) 1 cup fresh lemon juice (5 large lemons; save the zest—it freezes well) 1 cup olive oil 2 tablespoons minced garlic 2 tablespoons dried oregano 1½ teaspoons pickling salt

BEN FINK

DIRECTIONS 1. Char and peel the peppers (description above). Allow the peppers to come down to room temperature. Halve the peppers and remove the seedpod and stems. Chop the peppers.

2. In a medium saucepan, combine the vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, oregano, and salt and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the peppers and toss them in the marinade.

3. Have ready 3 clean pint jars (or a combination of half-pints and pints) and bands, and new lids that have been simmered in hot water to soften the rubberized flange. Spoon the peppers into the jars and cover with the marinade, making sure the garlic and oregano are distributed evenly throughout the jars. Leave 1/2 inch of headroom. Wipe the rims, place on the lids, and screw on the bands fingertip tight.

4. Process the jars in a water bath for 15 minutes at sea level.

Process the jars for an additional 2 minutes for every 1,000 feet above sea level. Remove from the water, let the jars rest for 24 hours, and then check the seals. If the jars seem a little greasy, it is okay. Just wipe them down with a bit of vinegar. The peppers may float at first but don’t worry; they will settle down.

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BEN FINK

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thinned with a bit of chicken stock and poured over penne, then garnished with Parmesan cheese and chopped parsley; a summer fish stew composed of skate, squid, and mussels, peppers and onions, and seasoned with a dash of vinegar.

But I think my favorite summer pepper dish is sautéed peppers and onions with eggs poached on top. This was the dish that my father dreamt of when he was a frightened infantryman in Austria in 1944, the dish I dreamt of when I was living in a windowless room in the back of a bar in New Orleans in the early ’80s, the dish my daughter dreamt of as she trudged through the Canadian snow to get to class last year. No dish is more personal to me, and I think that’s because it is simple and true and embodies two very important things: summer and home.

No dish is more personal to me, and I think that’s because it is simple and true and embodies two very important things: summer and home.

PRESERVING PEPPERS Peppers are a low acid food and generally have to be pressure canned to be shelf stable. You have to blanch or blister them first, then pack in jars and cover with boiled water, leaving 1-inch headroom. Pints process for 35 minutes at 10/11 psi at sea level, depending on the type of pressure canner you have. Be sure to make altitude adjustments when canning (check http:// nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_04/peppers.html for altitude adjustments). The USDA has developed a recipe for marinated peppers, a kind of mildly pickled peppers that can be safely water bath canned. And of course, you can pickle peppers, from sweet or hot cultivars, and water bath can the jars. Peppers can be frozen raw, halved and seeded, and packed in freezer bags. Sweet peppers dry really well, much like a dried tomato, and can be used in many of the same recipes. Remove the seeds and cut them in quarters. Blanch for 4 minutes and drain well. Dry in a food dryer at 135°F for 8 to 12 hours until the peppers are tough. Store in a jar in the pantry or fridge.

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RECIPE Romesco Sauce Romesco sauce is a lively Catalonian pesto full of roasted garlic flavor. Serve it with grilled shrimp, over cold sliced boiled beets, or with lamb meatballs. The romesco sauce freezes perfectly. You can also cover the sauce with oil and hold it in the refrigerator for about 10 days.

MAKES ABOUT 1 CUP

DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. 2. Place the garlic bulb on a baking sheet in the middle of the oven and roast for 15 minutes until very tender.

3. In a small bowl, soak the dried chiles in ½ cup water until soft, about 10 minutes, then drain.

4. In a separate bowl, soak the dried tomatoes in ½ cup water until soft, about 10 minutes, but do not drain.

5. In a food processor, or with a mortar and pestle, combine 2 cloves roasted garlic, chiles, tomatoes, tomato soaking water, marinated peppers, pine nuts, and salt to taste and puree.

6. If needed, to keep the sauce soft and loose, add the oil reserved from draining the peppers 1 tablespoon at a time.

7. To make the sauce very smooth, press through a fine-mesh sieve. If you are going to serve immediately or freeze, add water to loosen to the consistency of yogurt. Do not add water if you are going to preserve in oil.

BEN FINK

INGREDIENTS 1 garlic bulb, peels on 2 small dried chipotle chiles 4 dried tomatoes 1 cup chopped marinated peppers, drained, oil reserved 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts Salt

8. To freeze, pour the sauce into a freezer container leaving ½ inch of headroom. To preserve in oil, spoon the sauce into a sterilized jar (boiled in water for 10 minutes at sea level, adding 1 minute for every 1,000 feel above sea level). Tap down the jar to eliminate air pockets and cover the sauce with a layer of oil. Refrigerate. Pour off the oil (it can be use to recover the sauce) and spoon out the sauce as needed.

9. Note: Even though I only need 2 garlic cloves for this recipe, I roast a whole bulb to combine with butter and smear onto grilled meat. Yowee.

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By Jim Hathcock

I

to conceal f you live in Southern California, it’s easy n it comes to your some of your secret cravings. But, whe th and tell your diet, it might be time to take a deep brea like buffalo.

You t. friends the truth. You like red mea

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You aren’t alone. Demand for buffalo (American bison) is outpacing supply. Buffalo’s nutritional profile, not nostalgia, is driving the trend. Health conscious consumers are eating less meat. When they do eat red meat, they look for lean, grass-fed beef or better yet, grass-fed buffalo.

Nationally, the price for prime cuts of buffalo jumped 17 percent in August 2015, according to U.S. Government data. You pay a little less than $6 per pound for quality ground beef. Ground buffalo sells for $9.50 to $14 per pound. Prime buffalo cuts such as rib-eye steak sell for as much as $37 per pound. Despite higher prices, specialty grocers in the United States are selling more buffalo than ever. Their sales are driven by United States Department of Agriculture studies which show that grass-fed buffalo is better for you than beef, pork, chicken and some types of fish.

Orange County residents are buying buffalo burgers at Fuddruckers. They buy buffalo to cook in their own kitchens at The Butchery in Costa Mesa and Whole Foods at the District in Tustin.

Their growing appetite for buffalo meat as a healthy source of protein and other vital nutrients drives the market, according to data compiled by Great Range Brand Bison, a Henderson Coloradobased company.

Nutritional studies conducted at North Dakota State University show that bison meat is nutrient-dense. It has a healthy balance of protein, fat, mineral and fatty acids. Strictly by the numbers, buffalo meat is similar to halibut in its nutritional profile as demonstrated in the following table.

Ranchers and chefs claim buffalo is lean and shrinks less than beef when cooked. So, a pound of uncooked buffalo has a higher cooked weight - 20 to 30 percent more - than a pound of uncooked beef, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

Ramona California resident Ken Childs, founder of the Western Bison Association, has been raising and marketing buffalo since 1980. He and his family have 30 buffalo on their 1,200-acre Star B Ranch in eastern San Diego County. Childs, his wife Denice, their daughter, son-in-law and their grandchildren, tend to the land that supports the buffalo.

“The market for buffalo meat will keep growing faster than ranchers’ ability to produce it,” predicts Childs. “Though it takes about the same amount of land to graze a buffalo cow or an angus or Hereford cow, there are some major differences that drive up the cost of producing buffalo.”

“Fences have to be built higher and stronger for buffalo than

Health conscious consumers are eating less meat. When they do eat red meat, they look for lean, grassfed beef or better yet, grass-fed buffalo.

SPECIES

FAT GRMS CALS

CHLST

IRON

VIT B-12

PROTEIN

BISON

2.42

143

82MG

3.42MG

2.86MG

28.44

CHOICE BEEF

18.54

283

87MG

2.72MG

2.50MG

27.21

SELECT BEEF

8.09

201

86MG

2.99MG

2.64MG

29.89

PORK

9.21

201

84MG

1.0MG

0.68MG

27.51

SKINLESS CHICKEN

7.41

190

89MG

1.21MG

0.33MG

28.93

SOCKEYE SALMON

6.69

169

84MG

0.50MG

5.67MG

25.40

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cattle. I have seen adult males jump a five-foot fence panel without a running start,” Childs says. “You can’t crowd buffalo into trailers as densely as cattle. The squeeze chutes that you use to immobilize them while you give them shots have to be stronger than the ones you use for cattle.”

And buffalo are more athletic than cattle.

“I‘ve been chased by buffalo. When you see them shake their heads and start swishing their tails and paw the ground, that means they are getting ready to charge you,” Childs says. He was shooting video recently of two adult males challenging each other at what he thought was a safe distance. “All of the sudden, they started running sideways toward me. They didn’t see me and they weren’t trying to harm me. But if I hadn’t gotten out of the way, they would have trampled me,” Childs explains as he reviews the video that gets shaky as he rushed to open the truck door and jump to safety in the cab.

Childs and his wife Denice came to the Star B in 1979. It was owned by Denice’s

Eric, Brody, Violet and Amie March pose for a quick photo with Denice and Ken Childs father, Bert Boeckmann. He is the president of San Fernando Valley-based Galpin Ford, which has been the largest Ford dealership in the country for 25 consecutive years. The same skill that helped Boeckmann build a successful car dealership played a key role in bringing buffalo to California consumers.

“I didn’t know anything about ranching at that time. Denice and I came down here with Bert. He was boarding about 120 horses on the property at the time. He decided he wanted to put the land to better use and started researching the market for buffalo.

“We went to a big buffalo round up in South Dakota (in 1980) and started buying stock for The Star B. We bought seven pregnant cows and a bull to start our herd. As we learned more about buffalo and expanded the herd, we became active in the The Western Bison Association,” Childs said.

The Star B Ranch was one of the first to sell USDA-inspected buffalo meat to a Von’s Pavillion. Soon, he was selling buffalo meat to 33 of their stores.

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The Star B Ranch was one of the first to sell USDA-inspected buffalo meat to a Von’s Pavillion. Soon, he was selling buffalo meat to 33 of their stores. Childs constantly had to travel to states where they raised more buffalo than were available in California.

The growth took him further away from his ranch and family.

“It got to be too much work, too many headaches and not enough fun. We sold out to our biggest competitor, Rocky Mountain Natural Meats in 2002. Now, we just raise between 30 and 40 animals,” Childs said.

Star B Ranch also is becoming an ecotourism destination. They drive visitors through their ranch so they can see buffalo grazing in a natural environment. Ted Turner, who owns more buffalo than anyone else in the United States, conducts tours at some of his ranches as well.

Additionally, The Star B Ranch is a case study of a ranch coping with the California drought. Childs had to cut his buffalo herd from 49 to 30 during the last four years.

Statewide, The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association reported 50,000 fewer head of beef were produced in California in 2014 than in 2013. Therefore, wholesalers and grocers must bring in beef from the Great Plains and Midwest. The increased transportation costs drive up the price of beef and buffalo.

Even if it rains and snows more than normal this winter, it will take farmers and ranchers years to bring back the range and replant their fields. The drought has caused California farmers to idle 400,000 to 450,000 acres, about 5 percent of California’s farmland, for the past two years. That’s an area equal to 75 percent of the land in Orange County.

Increased demand for buffalo has helped bring it back from the brink of extinction.

In the early 19th Century, millions of buffalo inhabited much of North America.

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About 150 buffalo live on Camp Pendleton, at Orange County’s southern border. The herd was started in the 1970s with animals donated by the San Diego Zoological Society.

Increased demand for buffalo has helped bring it back from the brink of extinction.

In the early 19th Century, millions of buffalo inhabited much of North America. But, as a major ploy in driving Native American tribes off their ancestral lands, European settlers killed all but about 2,000 head of the great buffalo herds. Millions were killed for their hides. Thanks to conservation efforts, the North American Bison population has rebounded from a few thousand in the late 1800s to more than 500,000 today.

About 35,000 to 40,000 bison are harvested each year in the United States, according to industry research.

Orange County and Southern California played important roles in bringing back the buffalo. In 1924, 150 buffalo were ferried over to Catalina Island, due west of coastal Orange County.

They were needed to make the grassy hills look like the great plains for the silent film version of Zane Grey‘s The Vanishing American. The animals were turned loose when the film crews left the island. Over the years, the heard grew to 600 and started devastating the range. The Catalina Island Conservancy, which manages the herd, ferried half the buffalo off the island. Some went to the Morongo Band of Mission Indians, the Tongva (thought to be Catalina’s original inhabitants some 7,000 years ago). The rest were shipped to the Lakota tribe on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota.

Across the channel from Catalina Island in Newport Beach, Bison Street runs between MacArthur and Jamboree just east of Fashion Island. In 1954, a contractor from Kansas built a western-themed amusement park 115 acres he leased from the Irvine Family.

He brought in 100 buffalo. Visitors rode a narrow gage railroad around the acreage and watched the buffalo graze. It was called The Newport Harbor Buffalo Ranch. They served buffalo burgers and staged old west re-enactments. . They sold Buffalo burgers for 55 cents. That’s expensive when you consider that many of the fast food restaurants sold their basic burgers for about 19 cents at the time. By the end of the 1950’s, the Irvine Company had plans to develop the property and the buffalo

ranch closed. All that’s left of it today is a road called Bison.

About 150 buffalo live on Camp Pendleton, at Orange County’s southern border. The herd was started in the 1970s with animals donated by the San Diego Zoological Society. Commanders of additional U.S. Military bases are evaluating the feasibility of grazing buffalo to make better use of their land.

Food writers and scholars play an important role in promoting grass-fed buffalo.

During an address at the Spring 2015 Natural Food Expo West in Anaheim, food writer Mark Bitman urged attendees to “Eat more plants each day than yesterday and eat more plants next week than last. And when you do eat meat, make sure it comes from animals that are raised without the use or growth hormones, antibiotics or grains,” Bitman said. A trend in that direction would put the population of California and the world in better cumulative health, he added.

E.W. Askew, Ph.D. Professor, Division of Nutrition, College of Health, Health Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, agrees with Bitman. Askew’s studies show that when humans consumed

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Increased demand for buffalo has helped bring it back from the brink of extinction.

In the early 19th Century, millions of buffalo inhabited much of North America.

just under a pound of cooked grass-fed bison meat, their arteries dilated. This caused their blood pressure to drop. When the same group consumed the same amount of grain-fattened beef, their arteries constricted and their blood pressure went up, according to Askew.

Those who are serious about their health and fitness listen to Askew. He includes buffalo and other lean red meats in the diet he recommended to professional and Olympic athletes. Until buffalo becomes available at more stores, Askew suggests eating grass-fed beef rather than grain-fattened beef.

Ted Turner raises more buffalo than anyone else in the United States. Ted Turner bought his first buffalo in 1976. Today, Turner Enterprises, Inc. has two million acres of personal and ranch land in 15 U.S. States and three in Argentina. Some 51,000 buffalo graze on those lands. All of the Turner ranches are managed for one or more of the following: bison ranching, commercial hunting or fishing and limited sustainable timber harvesting. It’s part of a trend toward using more of The

West’s public and private land to graze buffalo instead of cattle.

The buffalo herds owned by Turner are handled as little as possible. They graze on grass most of their lives. The code of ethics of the National Bison Association bans the use of growth hormones in bison production.

Bison industry protocols prohibit the use of sub-therapeutic antibiotics and animal byproducts in feeding the bison.

On a smaller, more local basis, Mark Nelson, runs 50 head of buffalo at his Bison Rock Ranch in Siskiyou County California, at the foot of the eastern slopes of Mt. Shasta. He says the market for buffalo is growing in Northern California. He tends to his herd on the weekends and during times when he isn’t running his Bay Area construction company.

His fascination with buffalo and early knowledge of buffalo’s nutritional benefits drew him into the business.

“I learned about the American Bison from Doc Jarvie, a friend I made while attending Cal State Davis. He would take me out

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26 Endless Summer 2015 www.edibleorangecounty.com

Increased demand for buffalo has helped bring it back from the brink of extinction.

In the early 19th Century, millions of buffalo inhabited much of North America.

to observe them grazing and explained they are not at all like domestic cattle. He stressed handling them with caution. He would share experiences and knowledge and start to walk me through various procedures of handling them. Every once in a while, if I wasn’t paying attention , he would shout at me, ‘And then they kill you!”

Once he purchased the ranch, Nelson bought eight mature animals each from a ranch in New Mexico, One in Wyoming and one in Colorado. “I wanted to keep the genetic pool diversified,” Nelson says From the time they are born, it takes 30 months for a bison to mature. “You get 390 to 590 pounds of meat from a mature bison. “In addition to the grass they graze on, we only feed our buffalo alfalfa hay. We don‘t

feed them grain, hormones or any other additives,” Nelson says. He stresses that the nutritional profile of bison or any other type of venison, as with beef, depends largely on the animal’s diet.

Will American Bison ranching become the next big thing in agribusiness? Consumer behaviors show that it may already be on its way. For now, buffalo is still more expensive than beef and prices are rising. Nevertheless, consumers see buffalo as a healthier choice for meat. Sales remain strong and will continue to grow as more consumers learn about its benefits to their health and sustainable agriculture in California and The West.

If you are interested in trying buffalo, check with the following restaurants and markets in Southern California.

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FOOD RECOVERY: Making Strides to Reduce Hunger in Our Own Backyard A New Kind of Foodie— Philanthropy Starts in the Kitchen

By Patti Larson

I

n 2011, when a little known nonprofit named Food Finders was invited to be a part of a Coalition to reduce hunger in Orange County, there were 1 out of 6 residents going hungry at any given time. Not just homeless people, but children, seniors, college students, and families, many working more than one job. It might have been your next door neighbor who was regularly visiting the local food bank—those who were hungry that nobody really knew about, but constituted part of the 400,000 food insecure people across one of the richest counties in America.

While the hunger issue may have been the focus of a local PBS feature, what was less evident to most people was the enormous amount of excess of food that could have been diverted to local pantries and shelters—rather than being tossed out--to feed people who were struggling to find their next meal. There was still reluctance on behalf of many restaurants, hotels and other food venues to donate, and the reasons for not donating were understandable, but often unsubstantiated.

Logistics—another common concern--was addressed by the system Food Finders already had in place. And finally--storage. How to package food being donated? Who would purchase the materials? But with statewide mandates to reduce and divert waste, increased disposal costs loomed and vendors began to realize the possible savings from simply having a better handle on their inventory and donating what could still be served. Food Finders had already been rescuing and redistrib-

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uting food surplus, primarily perishable food, for more than 23 years by the time it joined the Waste Not OC (WNOC) Coalition in 2012—which included Orange County Public Health and Environmental Health officials, local restaurants and caterers, food banks and hunger activists—so the voice was now a collective one.

Word started to spread that, yes, you can donate food; and even better, it’s simple.

Business owners typically cited liability as their foremost concern.

Orange County Environmental Health Services with support from Public Health, began to systematically address the perceived issues through various educational fliers and restaurant inspections. Legislation has been in place statewide that supports food donations to nonprofits, so education the businesses was a priority.

Mike Haller, Program Manager with OC Environmental Health Services, states, “The same laws that govern the health and safety of our food also have provisions for donating food…donating food is not just OK, we encourage it.”

The incredible potential for increasing donors was not lost on the WNOC group. Donations were not limited to just restaurants and caterers, but included any establishment that featured cafeterias, banquet halls or mass meal production. Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and Kaiser Permanente, two major healthcare providers, have since joined in the program, along with the Anaheim City School District, Theo Lacy Central Jail system, and the Honda Center.

Four years later, there has been measureable impact made in the county. In just a concentrated area of Orange County, primarily Anaheim, Orange and Costa Mesa, more than 160,000 pounds of donated food have been recovered and redistributed to local nonprofit pantries and shelters, including Lighthouse Outreach in Costa Mesa, which receives food from Sprouts Farmers Market and Kaiser Permanente on a weekly basis.

Lindah Miles with Lighthouse Outreach started feeding the needy and homeless 11 years ago. Food came in spurts initially, and often they were hard pressed to get much more than coffee or rice.

By recently partnering with Food Finders, Linda gushes when she shares, “We have amazing breakfast food with eggs and bacon and milk, meat to cook for the elderly on fixed incomes, plus fruits and vegetables that are offered to families in our neighborhood who do not have enough for their children. At this point, Lighthouse Outreach now provides close to 2,200 meals a week, or over 114,000 meals per year.

Waste Not OC plans to engage each city systematically, and with local councils’ support where possible. Meanwhile, Food Finders connects each donor with a local nonprofit agency, keeping the food in the immediate community. But whether the donor is from Anaheim, Tustin, Laguna, or Seal Beach, no food is turned away.

“We make every effort to connect all donated food to one of our partner agencies or pantries, or sometimes another food bank. We are in the business of recovering food, so if it’s available, we’ll take it. There are too many hungry people out there to turn food away,” said Diana Lara, VP of Operations for Food Finders.

Lighthouse Meal Service

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Initially there was concern that there may not be enough drivers to get the food from donors to nonprofit pantries or shelters, but for those rare occasions when a volunteer was not available to pick up, the solution was just a phone call away. Yellow Cab stepped up and offered its drivers to be dispatched in the event of a late night or last minute request, where the usual team of volunteers or staff drivers might not be available. Each Yellow Cab in Orange County now has a WNOC seal in its window to indicate the partnership and show their support.

The potential growth for this Food Recovery effort is still enormous. Many would-be donors are still untapped, but it’s a gradual process.

Mike Learakos, owner of Katella Grill in Anaheim and also part of the WNOC task force, is a participant in the program. His bottom line has already been affected by donating food. He not only has better understanding of production shortfalls or overages and has adjusted inventory accordingly, but has also reduced his disposal fees, cutting out one disposal bin and cutting his bill by 25%, much of which had been due to food waste. “Now it just a matter of trying to change the culture in the kitchen…before good food gets thrown out, someone could be fed,” said Learakos.

As more and more small and large businesses along with public entities like school districts, see the clear benefits of donating food,

Natasha Dyer (far right), Food Finders Board Member and Poly High students who understand the need to volunteer

other donors will come on board. But the greatest need to keep growing the donation program is volunteers. Agencies who serve our community often work with little or no funding—and many don’t have extra hands on deck to pick up or even receive food dropped off at their agencies.

Food Finders, which is primarily volunteer driven, engages students, stay-at-home moms and retired men and women who make weekly, or sometimes daily, pickups and deliveries in their city.

Church groups often establish rotating routes, along with volunteers of the partner agencies.

Rescuing surplus food and using it to feed the hungry in our own communities was identified by the Environmental Protection Agency as one of the best ways to reduce the amount of food we throw away every year. It is also considered the best way for everyday people to make a difference—and it is simple!

There are plenty of counties that have adapted some sort of food donation program, but to build the collaborative spirit and then carry through with the effort, that’s unique. That’s where Orange County has really made a difference!

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The Fit Foodie®

HOW TO MAKE EATING RIGHT A STRESS-FREE EVENT

BY CELEBRITY CHEF AND INDUSTRY EXPERT MAREYA IBRAHIM, THE FIT FOODIE Mareya Ibrahim is The Fit Foodie. She is the creator of EAT CLEANER® and the Cleaner Plate Club, teaching families how to enjoy cleaner, safer, longer lasting fresh food. She is also a featured chef on “Everyday Health’s Recipe Rehab” and hosts “Fit Foodie” Fridays on Channel 6 San Diego. This time of year, she can’t get enough of golden beets, butternut squash and Branzino.

I

t’s so simple, but hard to always remember. Food Feeds Us. It gives us energy, vitality, and strength. It nourishes our complex muscular and vascular systems to perform miracles daily. Food is one of the only things we actually need to survive, and it’s something we need to do at least three times a day.

So why is that so many have an unhealthy relationship with it? It seems like the word ‘diet’ is a permanent part of many people’s vocabulary, and they’re either trying one, on one, or have fallen off of it and trying to get back on. On the more extreme side, it is estimated that 8 million Americans have an eating disorder – seven million women and one million men. As people are bombarded with different information from ‘experts’ on how to manage their weight, the pounds continue to pile on and people are more and more confused on how to achieve balance.

About 10 years ago, I finally beat a severe eating disorder that

I had lived with from my late teens into my twenties. I never admitted it to ANYONE, including my own parents, because I thought it meant I was a complete failure. You could say my fear of food was eating me alive. When you come from a family that plans lunch while eating breakfast and has conversations about dinner at the lunch table - where you’re not supposed to leave the table without stuffing yourself to the gills - it’s easy to get crazy about the subject. My eating disorders started in my late teens. Somehow, I lost my way from the dinner table. I swung from gluttonous overeating binges where I’d make myself sick from excess to a starvation diet because I got tired of making myself throw up.

I would fast until 3:00pm everyday then maybe eat a bagel, some rice, celery sticks, a few rice cakes and a green salad, washed down with a bottomless supply of black coffee. I counted every bite as though my life depended on it and if I indulged in anything that I perceived as excess I’d kill myself at the gym until late in the evening so I would avoid eating dinner.

After a few months, I became too weak to exercise and cut back my intake even more. At my lowest, I reached 87 pounds. In a twisted way, I thought this was an incredible achievement, and in my mind, restricting my calorie

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intake and getting to that new low showed discipline. But my body was clearly in distress.

I started losing clumps of hair. I became an insomniac and began having panic attacks and memory black outs. One night, I was out with some friends and had a panic attack with hallucinations so intense that I was rushed to the hospital because I felt like I was going to die. I had such an unhealthy relationship with food that I avoided any social events where eating was involved, which alienated me even more from friends and family. Birthdays, anniversaries, weddings – life’s most cherished events – I found an excuse to get out of them every time. When I missed my best friend’s wedding and felt so guilty afterwards, I knew it was time to make a change.

The road to healing was long and winding, but the pivot point was my newfound knowledge in sound nutrition. Once I understood how to combine macronutrients, eat smaller meals more frequently and focus on nutrient dense foods, it all fell into place. As soon as I started eating regularly, it was like I had gotten a shot of adrenaline. I looked forward to waking up in the mornings and I had an insane amount of energy and enthusiasm. The insomnia began to turn into hours of deep sleep. The panic attacks went away. I felt comfortable showing up at food functions and even began hosting dinner parties to flex my culinary muscles.

I learned and lived what it meant to feed my body at the cellular level. I didn’t have to be tempted by a sponge cake filled with cream and a 20 year shelf life. What was that going to do for me, anyway? Food was meant to keep my body moving and thriving and even though there were a lot of choices out there, I learned which ones were

best for me inside and out.

The recipe to happiness turned out to be by creating a real strategy around being prepared for good food choices so I wouldn’t be in a ‘Food 911’ situation – starving with nothing but the fast food lines flashing at me, trying to lure me in.

These 5 tips can help you achieve success and pure bliss in the kitchen.

#1: Ditch the diet mentality How is it that the number of people dieting has increased, and so has the percentage of obesity America? Because dieting doesn’t work. Diets come from a place of deprivation and no one likes to feel that way. If you’re not eating enough of the right foods in the right combination, it can actually undo all the good, including burning muscle instead of fat.

There is nothing more stressful, mentally and physically, than trying to reinvent what your body requires you to do to survive and thrive daily. The better and more consistent your habits become concerning what you eat, when you eat, the quantity of food you eat, the quality of food you eat, and how those foods combine, the easier this concept of health maintenance becomes.

When you eat cleaner and exercise effectively, you are living a sustainable lifestyle the Cleaner Plate Club Lifestyle - that feeds your sanity.

Being too restrictive, not eating the right combination of lean protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates, and not eating often enough, can all sabotage your efforts to get slim and healthy.

This is exactly what diets do.

Being too restrictive, not eating the right combination of lean protein, healthy fats, and complex carbohydrates, and not eating often enough, can all sabotage your efforts to get slim and healthy.

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The Fit Foodie

#2: Eat more often

If your goal is to get leaner, you must start by eating cleaner, not by going on a diet that focuses on deprivation and what you can’t have.

One of the most important and overlooked keys to controlling your weight that I learned is managing your blood sugar. If your blood sugar levels and insulin levels are spiking and dropping, it puts an enormous strain on your metabolic system and signals to your body the “I’m in distress mode” message to store fat and energy. Your body is pre-wired to take care of you in the event of an emergency. Stop telling your system that it needs to store fat and you can turn your body from a fat storing machine into a fat burning machine.

Caloric intake will vary based on your sex, age, activity level and pre-existing health conditions. But if your goal is to get leaner, you must start by eating cleaner, not by going on a diet that focuses on deprivation and what you can’t have.

Tune In, Turn On, Eat Up

#3: Focus on whole foods

Human beings are amazing machines. Keeping our engines humming is a pretty clear-cut science, but most people don’t eat enough whole food and don’t eat often enough for their bodies to work efficiently. The way to real, effortless, and permanent weight loss is a proven formula of eating the right combination of foods – or what I call “the Fit Foodie Triangle” – at regular intervals throughout the day. This will rev up your metabolism higher than you ever thought possible. While the point is not to be a slave to calories, this proven formula of eating cleaner, unprocessed meals and focusing on the right combinations at the right times will help get you where you want to go and keep you there for life.

The key is fill up on foods as close to what you would find

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RECIPE GRAPEFRUIT AND POMEGRANATE SEED SALAD WITH UNSWEETENED SHREDDED COCONUT

INGREDIENTS 2 medium Grapefruit 1 Cup Fresh strawberries, sliced ½ Cup Pomegranate seeds (arils) 1 Whole orange, juiced or ¼ C pure, unsweetened orange juice 1 tbsp Shredded coconut, unsweetened Optional: Fresh mint leaves DIRECTIONS 1. Cut grapefruit in half and scoop pieces out with a serrated spoon. Save peels and set aside.

2. Remove pomegranate arils from pomegranate. To do this without the mess, place cut pomegranates in a bowl of water and deseed. You can also buy pomegranate arils ready to eat.

3. In a mixing bowl combine fruits and shredded coconut; add the juice of one orange or 1/4 cup of orange juice.

Mix well.

4. Spoon fruit back into grapefruit peels and serve chilled for breakfast or as an afternoon snack. Top with optional fresh mint leaves. Enjoy!

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The Fit Foodie

wash and chop fruit and veggies with our Eat Cleaner Fruit + Vegetable Wash to help make them safer and last up to 5 times longer, cook a batch of brown rice and grill off some chicken breast or salmon, you have endless combinations of meals to enjoy throughout the week.

Invest in good set of BPA-free containers and turn your fridge into a salad bar with all your pre-made, healthy options. Make snacking a ‘fast food’ event by having some cut-up veggies with hummus or some nut butter with cut apples, pre-portioned and ready to grab and go. Carry a bag of nuts with you and keep something in the car. You never want to be caught without something in the case of a food emergency.

For a well-balanced plan, I created the Cleaner Plate Meal Prep Club to show you how to do it effortlessly right from home, every day. This includes a shopping list, meal planner, prep tips and clean recipes to help you get through the entire week.

#5 Make it a habit

in nature - items recognized by our grandparents. A balanced meal would look like this: ½ the plate filled with fresh fruit and vegetables, ¼ of the plate filled with lean protein, including natural meats and poultry, wild caught seafood, eggs, nuts and seeds; and ¼ of the plate filled with slow burning carbohydrates.

Single ingredient grains like farro, buckwheat and brown rice are all good choices.

#4: Prep ahead My favorite quote of all time and my mantra for life is ‘Fail to plan, plan to fail.’ There’s nothing more distressing than being hungry and having a bare pantry and nothing but ketchup in the fridge. By taking a couple of hours on a Sunday to shop,

Your body needs regularly scheduled care. Not sporadic, when stuff starts to break down kind-of-work. It’s the little things every day that will keep your engine humming like the well-tuned machine that you are. Make proper nutrition a habit, and your relationship with your plate will never be more fulfilling.

Once I got the hang of how to put it all together, it took preparation and practice to be consistent. They say it takes 21 days of repetition to create a habit, but when it comes to food I think you need 31 days – enough days to get you through even the longest months of the year.

My book, The Clean Eating Handbook: 31 Essential Rules for Health, Wellness, and a Fabulously Fit Life, are bite-sized approaches that, when practiced every day, will help you establish the most important habits you’ve ever wanted to make – the ones that will carry you through your months and years of the fit life. I call them my Fit Foodie Filosophies because, as guiding principles, they are a mindset for your new, cleaner lifestyle.

They literally saved my life.

Just like anything new, don’t worry if there are days that don’t go as planned. That will happen because life happens every day. The idea is to just get back on board and keep practicing, eating, repeating and doing it all over again. Soon enough, you’ll be making some beautiful music in that kitchen of yours. Your body, mind and spirit will thank you for your new vitality, unprecedented energy, and fabulously fit body. Are you ready to sink your teeth in?

For more recipes and fit food for thought, visit www.eatcleaner.com

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OUR ADVERTISERS CELLAR,THE (P. 5) 156 Avenida Del Mar San Clemente, CA 92672 949.492.3663 www.thecellarsite.com Visit our original shop and restaurant in San Clemente or try our newest locations in Costa Mesa and Anaheim. The Cellar is a wine bar, a restaurant and cheese shop that features live music, nightly. The goal, at The Cellar, is to offer customers a wide selection of perfectly ripe cheeses in a friendly environment that will entice both a novice and veteran cheese lover.

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edible DC

Celebrating the Local Food Culture of the Capitol Region, Season by Season

Mick Klug on Peaches

Refresh: Cold Summer Soups T H E H E I R LO O M TO M ATO

SUMMER 2014

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A MEMBER OF EDIBLE COMMUNITIES

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ISSUE 24

Support Local Community, Food & Drink Member of Edible Communtiies

Good food. Good drink. Good read. • No. 25 • Summer 2014

Javier Plascencia | Organic Beer | Smit Farms | No-dirt Gardening Tulloch Farms | Crime in the Fields | Native Plant Gardening

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AND THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE

No. 15 • Spring 2011

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Inspired | Informative | Influential

Spring’s Bean Sprung!

Overindulge in Asparagus while the Local Pickings are Good Romance the Palate, Latin American Style Taste Prince Edward County Resurrect Tradition

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