Organic Eating Daily

Making the Switch to Organic Wine

We are all aware of the organic revolution that has overtaken most of the country, involving organically-grown food and body products. This has begun to transfer over into many different realms, including the wine market — a product that some may have assumed difficult to make organically. However, the new health boom that is taking place has led to different theories as to what constitutes “healthy” living.

According to the National Organic Program, organic wine is a “wine made from organically grown grapes without any added sulfites.” Before this specific definition, many organic wines were made from organic grapes, although they also contained [Read more →]

What Are Flax Seeds and How Do They Help My Diet?

Flax seeds come in two basic varieties, brown and yellow/golden, with most types having both similar nutritional values and equal amounts of short-chain omega-3 fatty acids. The exception is a type of yellow flax called Linola or solin, which engages an entirely different oil profile while also being very low in omega-3.

Although brown flax can be consumed as readily as yellow (and has been for 1000s of years), it is better known as an ingredient in fiber, paints and cattle feed. Flax seeds produce a vegetable oil known as flaxseed oil (or linseed oil); Flaxseed oil is one of the oldest commercial oils; this solvent-processed flax seed oil has been used for centuries as a drying oil in both varnishing and painting. [Read more →]

Earth Hour 2009

On March 28, at 8:30 pm local time, one billion people will go dark for Earth Hour. World Wildlife Fund is asking individuals, businesses, governments and organizations around the world to turn off their lights to make a global statement of concern about climate change and to demonstrate commitment to finding solutions.

Sign up to turn your lights off for Earth Hour 2009 and join groups associated with and representing major cultural landmarks and institutions around the globe including the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Sydney Opera House, Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens among others.

And all you foodies, cooks, gourmets and general lovers of all things in the kitchen or at the table — why not go the extra mile and turn off the oven, the toaster, the coffee pot and whatever else you might have appliance-wise in the kitchen. C’mon. It’s only an hour and we’ve only got one planet.

Copyright 2009 Matty Byloos & Easy Ways to Go Green

Food Nutrients Made Easy With Calorifica

In case you haven’t noticed, search-engine based and directory-based web destinations are popular, mostly because they are useful tools the rest of us find handy, and things we can’t easily make but maybe always wish they existed. Calorifica, the Food Nutrient Search Engine, is another such project.

Search engine based and brought to us by the same creators of Blackle, the Energy-Saving search engine powered by Google Custom Search, Calorifica is really a handy, neat tool to have at your disposal. [Read more →]

How Do I Know the Proper Temperature for Cooking Meat?

When you cook meat, roast chicken, fry up a porkchop or barbecue a steak, it’s always tough to know when you’re done. You don’t want to undercook a chicken. Similarly, you do not want to burn your barbecued tri tip. So how do you know when you’ve hit the perfect spot?

[Read more →]

About Pom Wonderful Pure Pomegranate Juice

Many of you, especially around Los Angeles, have probably seen the recent advertisement blitz on billboards throughout the city. 1950’s-style cartoon explosions ala Superman comics, exhibiting the “blast” of healthy power sure to be dropped into your life when you drink Pom Wonderful pure pomegranate juice.

The kind folks at Pom Wonderful reached out to Organic Eating Daily, and offered to send over a case of the juice. We thought — sure! Why not? And boy were we glad. The juice is great, the bottles are shaped in an interesting way, the portions in each little plastic jar aren’t too big, and there is no sugar added: just 100% authentic pomegranate juice. [Read more →]

What Is a CSA?

CSAs, or Community Sponsored Agriculture programs and sponsors, ultimately end up benefiting us all in that they support local farmers in a way that is meaningful and immediate. CSA subscribers purchase what amounts to shares of a farm’s crop, purchased from the farmer who owns the land. In turn, the farmer gets help with his or her work expenses. In trade, the CSA shareholder gets a box of organic, local, freshly grown and harvested produce.

This box can be picked up at a designated location and at a specific time, according to each individual program. Currently, there are three such programs supporting local southern California farms and farmers. [Read more →]

Making Blog Friends With Other Foodies and Greenies

So recently, I’ve been reading a lot of other online sources of information, mostly in the form of blogs, regarding organic eating, health and wellness, and going green. One of the real standout blog resources / new friends has been the group over at Muse Green. With kind permission, I wanted to signal my readers to a recent post of theirs. Below, a summary and a link over to read the rest of this great post, and to meet the team over at Muse Green. Great stuff over there! Become a loyal reader.

Experts Hail in a New Era of Disposable Dinnerware

According to Muse Green, “VerTerra, THE company to go to for disposable, leaf-based plates and platters have just completely revamped their line for 2009! What better than disposable plates made from a 100% renewable source? …. fallen leaves!” Sounds like amazing news to us here at Organic Eating Daily.

All in all, VerTerra sounds like a pretty great company, based on Muse Green’s analysis: “VerTerra (based on the Latin phrase Veritas Terra or ‘true to the earth’) are on a mission and that is to produce the highest quality products using sustainable production methods and fair wage labor for the environmentally and socially conscious consumer. The end result is pure genius. Using pure materials that they borrow—and then return—to the earth.”

Another note from VerTerra on their newest line of Disposable Dinnerware

“From start to finish, the impact we make on the earth is our top priority. We start by collecting fallen leaves from plantations without cutting down any trees. Normally, these leaves would be burned on the side of the road. Instead, they are brought to our factory, sprayed with high pressure water, steamed and UV sterilized. We recapture over 80% of the water we use. No chemicals, lacquers, glues, bonding agents or anything toxic are ever used. The entire process uses only a fraction of the energy used in recycling.”

Now read the rest of the article on disposable dinnerware at Muse Green.

Post Copyright 2009 Matty Byloos

Tender Greens in Culver City, California

One of my favorite casual dining experiences, locally, is Tender Greens in downtown Culver City. Unpretentious, healthy and moderately-priced, a couple can have a great dinner and a glass of wine for around $40, and actually get full in the process.

The menu is simple and the produce is of a very high quality at Tender Greens. They offer “Simple Salads” all for around $6 in the small version, while the “big” version goes for around $11. If you like meat or fish, you can have a hot plate or add meat to your salad, including flank steak, herb brushed local albacore or salt and pepper chicken, which all are available in a “Hot Plate” version (Yukon gold mashed potatoes included for $10.50) or on a ciabatta roll, making a delicious sandwich (also $10.50) [Read more →]

Seed Kitchen in Venice Beach, California

After a nice day at the beach last Sunday, and on the way back to my car, I happened up on a new-seeming cafe in Venice Beach that appeared clean, advertised itself as staunchly organic and promised a delicious meal judging by the menu hanging in the window.

Though the line was a bit slow, it ended up being only because the staff at the counter was very attentive to the customers, and made polite conversation with all. They apologized and thanked us for being so patient. The food that people were taking back to their tables looked excellent, which is often not the case at very healthy eating establishments. [Read more →]