Food Fight

After dinner of Wilson Creek Garden's chicken breast and steamed green beans last night I went to work again at the stove top. The Baby rearranged my cabinets while the Boy had "arts and crafts" (which basically entails mixing every paint in his crayola set the same shade of baby-poop brown and glueing himself to the kitchen table) while Mom simultaneously perfected the white sauce for the crock pot roast while boiling the applesauce down to a watery slop. Instead of the usual water/apples/sugar/cinnamon I nixed the cinnamon and sugar and substituted Jasper's pure maple syrup and didn't adjust for the added liquid when figuring in my water. Without the cinnamon aroma wafting through the kitchen to tell me when it was close to done, I let it all overcook and by the time it went into the blender, it was all over but the crying. The Boy did try it and Baby gobbled it up as usual so it wasn't a complete loss.
I did score some local booty yesterday at work; Kara brought me some pork liver to try from Millan's Custom Butchering and I bought some Menominee-grown garlic from a veteran- not those itty bitty cloves they sell at the supermarket, but seven giant bulbs with stalks attached and held together with bailing twine. Finally, the onions and butter have a companion.
After the cooking was done, the applesauce cooling and the glue scrubbed off the children, I decided to wield veto power over the nightly "Wild Kratts " cartoons, commandeered the remote and
 watched Chris Taylor's documentary  "Food Fight " about the history of our nation's food supply and the role government, agribusiness and local farmers have had on it. The documentary highlights the rising popularity of organic farmers markets in providing produce directly to restaurateurs and gourmet chefs, and specifically, the success of California-based Chez Panisse restaurant and its founder, Alice Waters. 
Some key points of the documentary:

1. The commercial food industry's goal is to turn a profit- not to meet our nutritional needs.

2.The value of food as defined by the food industry is how well  it ships, not how well  it tastes.

3. Farm bill subsidies favor a select few agribusiness giants; leaving little opportunity for small farmers.

4. Farmers markets have succeeded on their own merits without government lobbying or funding. 

 I highly recommend this documentary, which is available instantly on Netflix. The music, the history, the commentary and the food make it an easy, enjoyable film.