Rooftop farms have been enjoying growth of attention and resources as innovators look for creative ways to bring fresh, affordable food into highly populated areas where fresh produce isn’t always readily available. Gotham Greens, a company that started in New York, has announced that it will be expanding to Chicago to bring the nation’s largest rooftop farm to date to the Pullman neighborhood, where fresh produce can be tough to come by.
Category: Best of the Web
School Nutrition Reading Roundup
The new rules about school nutrition have been a battleground at many different levels. Change is slow and the back and forth about to what degree the nutrition standards have to be implemented by local school districts has taken shape differently in different places. Here are a few articles that give a glimpse into what’s happening with this fight across the nation:
The State of CSAs
As we’re taking October to consider responsible food trends, community-supported agriculture is next up, particularly farm shares. The idea is simple: to help farmers even out their income throughout the year and to make sure they have the cash on hand for repairs and the up-front costs of planting, community members purchase a share of the crop, to be picked up on a regular (usually weekly) basis throughout the growing and harvest seasons. It’s the easiest way to make sure that you’re eating local, in-season produce and is often a good option for eating organic as well. Interested in learning more?
Edible Packaging: Brilliant or scary?
We all love our planet, which means that when we buy food at the grocery store, we’re bound to ask the question: “What do I do with the packaging?” Can it be composted? Recycled? Reused for a cute project? Is there any way I can keep it from adding to a landfill of materials that won’t break down? One option that manufacturers have been exploring is edible packaging.
Stock a Make-Ahead Pantry
Are you on board with cooking less? Is your kitchen equipped for make-ahead cooking? Great! Now let’s talk pantry. Allrecipes.com has a nice list of good items to keep on hand in your pantry. If you routinely keep your kitchen stocked with their recommendations, you can feel quite confident of your ability to make a wide range of recipes from your cupboards any given night. Here are a few tweaks we’d recommend to cut down the time you spent in the kitchen.
Equip a Make Ahead Kitchen
Get in on the make-ahead movement to make family dinners less stressful! Last week, we highlighted some great advice for planning to cook less frequently during the week. This week, we recommend that you take stock of your kitchen equipment with the help of America’s Test Kitchen, which has a thoughtful and nicely explained list of essentials for eating on a make-ahead schedule.
Cook Less, Eat at Home More
Home cooked meals are better for your health. It’s no secret that when you have handled every ingredient going into a dish, you have completely control and knowledge about what you’re feeding your family. When we don’t cook at home, it’s often because we don’t have the time or energy on a given night. Andrea Dekker has a wonderful blog post detailing her tricks for cooking less while still getting home-cooked food into her family. Here are a few tips we particularly like:
Sportsmanship Across the Net
We’ve been looking about bringing tennis home for your family during August, and as with all competitive sports, tennis presents an excellent teaching moment for good sportsmanship. The abilities to lose graciously, win humbly and, perhaps most importantly, persevere under challenging circumstances are all skills that will serve your kids in life and in sports. Dr. Darrell J. Burnett has shared a list via P.E. Links 4U designed to help parents and teachers alike discuss good sportsmanship.