The Beet: Volume 12, Issue 7

 THE BEET : VOLUME 12, ISSUE 7

In this week’s BEET:

1. CSA FYIs
2. Recipes: Peach Frozen Yogurt, Beet, Citrus and Avocado Salad
3.  Sustainability News: Compost Bins' New Frontier

CSA FYIs

CSA Pickup Thursday 5-7:30pm at PS 56 at Gates and Downing (enter on Downing)

• Lewis Waite Meat Share--next delivery August 8th Using Lewis Waite Farm’s online ordering system, you can order farm fresh, locally produced meat, poultry, cheese, honey, jam, bread, granola, flour, dried beans, grains, juice, syrup, and other delicious foods, all free of antibiotics or steroids. Please check The Lewis Waite Farm page on the Clinton Hill CSA website to order. The next delivery is August 8th and the deadline to order is Sunday, August 4th.
• Reminder: Due to school regulations, children are not allowed in the PS 56 courtyard and please, no dogs in the school.
• Sign up here for a shift! Every household must volunteer for four hours each season.
• Save the Date: Windflower Farm Open House August 24th-25th. More information to come.

 Recipes

Peach Frozen Yogurt (From The Perfect Scoop, via Taste And Tell Blog)

Makes about 3 cups1 1/2 pounds ripe peaches 1/2 cup water 3/4 cup sugar 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt a few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juicePeel the peaches, slice them in half and remove the pits. Cut peaches into chunks and cook them in water in a medium nonreactive saucepan over medium heat, covered, stirring occasionally, until soft and cooked through, about ten minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in sugar and chill in the refrigerator.

When peaches are cool, puree them in a food processor or blender with the yogurt until almost smooth but slightly chunky. Mix in a few drops of lemon juice. Freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Beet, Citrus and Avocado Salad (from New York Times)

For the dressing:

2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice

1 teaspoon cumin seeds, lightly toasted and ground

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon walnut oil

2 tablespoons canola oil

For the salad:

1 bunch beets (about 1 pound), scrubbed and roasted

1 pink grapefruit

1 medium-size or large ripe but firm Hass avocado, sliced

2 tablespoons slivered fresh basil

1. Mix together the lemon or lime juice, the ground cumin seeds, salt, pepper and Dijon mustard. Whisk in the walnut oil and canola oil.

2. Peel the roasted beets, and slice or cut in wedges. Toss with 2 tablespoons of the dressing.

3. Cut away both ends of the grapefruit so that it sits flat on your work surface. Cut the skin and pith completely away from the fruit, following the natural curve of the fruit from top to bottom. Hold the grapefruit in your hand over a bowl to catch the juice, and cut away each segment from between the membranes.

4. Arrange the beets in the center of a platter, and surround with the grapefruit and avocado slices. Drizzle on the remaining dressing, and drizzle any grapefruit juice in the bowl over the grapefruit and avocado. Sprinkle on the basil, and serve.

Yield: Serves four.

Advance preparation: Roasted beets will keep for three to five days in the refrigerator. If you have them on hand, the salad is very quickly thrown together.

Nutritional information per serving: 231 calories; 18 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 milligrams cholesterol; 18 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 77 milligrams sodium (does not include salt added during cooking); 3 grams protein

Sustainability News:

Compost Bins' New Frontier Mayor Pushing Food-Scraps Program Into Bronx, Brooklyn

From The Wall Street Journal: 7/29/13 by Josh Dawsey

With five months left as New York City's mayor, Michael Bloomberg is pushing his food-composting program into the Bronx and Brooklyn, in hopes he can prove that more New Yorkers want to save their food scraps.

But Mr. Bloomberg will need to convince reluctant New Yorkers like Ruther Miller that environmental benefits of composting outweigh its challenges in an urban setting. Ms. Miller lives in Morningside Gardens in Harlem, where the city's test of composting in a high-rise has played out for the past month. While hundreds of her neighbors have embraced the program, throwing their corn husks and fish bones into 12 large containers, Ms. Miller hasn't—and doesn't plan to do so.

"Rats, rats, rats, rats, rats," she said. "I have a 4-month-old puppy, and the rats are sometimes bigger than him outside the containers."

Mr. Bloomberg has used the waning months of his third term to push a host of sustainability initiatives, vowing to divert 30% of the city's trash from landfills by 2017. Critics previously said he didn't spend enough energy on recycling, which dropped during his tenure. He has placed large recycling bins in Times Square and plans to place advertisements about recycling and composting across the city.

Now, his final push to take food composting citywide is one environmental advocates say could make the most difference in raising the city's waste-diversion rate. But it also is likely to face the biggest hurdles. He faces a complex and aging housing stock, particularly outside Manhattan and in that borough's far reaches. And while recycling paper and plastic is one thing, his administration must convince the public that composting won't be smelly or attract pests.

"This is not the easiest program when it comes to recycling, and so much is based on what the people of New York City do," said John Doherty, the city's sanitation commissioner.

In an interview last month, Ron Gonen, the city's recycling guru, said the city will evaluate results after two years, looking at whether it saves significant money and how much food is collected. Mr. Doherty said Monday it was too premature to give specific metrics on how the program would be judged.

Results have been promising, according to city officials. Trash has plummeted by 35% in Morningside Gardens, the mayor said Monday. Schools participating in the composting program have achieved average diversion rates of more than 30%. Some 43% of Staten Islanders targeted in the city's pilot agreed to collect and compost their scraps. And only 5% of the city's composted material has been contaminated with nonorganic matter.

At Morningside Gardens, residents gathered outside Monday to greet the mayor and hail the program. Skip Delano, a 65-year-old teacher who spearheaded the program, said about 500 of the co-op's roughly 980 residences have picked up compost buckets. City workers pick up the large buckets daily Monday through Friday, and Mr. Delano played down any concerns with rats or filth. There has been so much participation that six extra containers were added for residents to dump scraps, he said.

Others were willing—yet less enthusiastic than Mr. Delano, who pumped his fists and hoisted a composting bucket in the air, drawing a grin from Mr. Bloomberg.

"I don't love it, and it's kind of become my husband's job," said Hilary Maxwell, 49. "I want to believe it's a good thing, but I'm afraid of the pest ramifications."

Mary Taylor, 82, has picked up a bucket but hadn't disposed of any scraps. She quizzically looked at the bins, wondering if animal bones could be composted. Ms. Taylor said she suspected some New Yorkers, especially in public housing near her, would be loath to compost.

Mr. Bloomberg said there will certainly be a learning curve and that New Yorkers will face challenges, depending on where they live. "Is it a little bit of work?" he said. "Yeah, but everything is a little bit of work."

One New Yorker probably won't be learning. Mr. Bloomberg said he rarely eats at home—not once since the composting idea surfaced—and hasn't tried the composting bins.