Update on fine chocolates

Wow! I sent off an email to Lucienne's last night, and got a very prompt response from one of her business partners, Terry (who it turns out I've met -- he runs sound for several local music venues.) They chose Rainforest Alliance certification because it's broader in scope than Fair Trade USA's -- they're concerned about the long-term environmental sustainability of the business, and its impact on the rainforest ecosystem, as well as the economic considerations that Fair Trade USA focusses on. He shared the name of their supplier, but asked me not to publicize that because they're also a chocolate retailer and a potential competitor. Suffice it to say that I found the supplier's website highly informative, and I'm happy to be supporting them.

In the process, I learned a whole lot about the Ecuadoran chocolate industry. This facebook page contains a summary of the history, which helped to put the supplier's information into perspective. It seems that the Arriba Nacional cocoa trees, native to Ecuador, are a different species than the most common commercial varieties. Arriba trees are -- for obvious reasons -- more compatible with the local ecosystem, but they have much lower productivity, so economic pressures were forcing farmers to replace them with commercial hybrids. Enter the Rainforest Alliance, whose involvement with Ecuadoran chocolate appears to have sparked a renaissance of artisanal chocolate companies that have learned to capitalize on the unique and distinctive flavor of the native beans.

Lucienne's buys already processed chocolate from a small Ecuadoran supplier, who works directly with local cocoa farmers instead of buying their beans on the commodity market. This makes it possible to pay a much higher price for the beans, so the farmers are able to continue using the native trees and to meet Rainforest Alliance standards. They also train the farmers in harvesting and fermentation techniques that improve the quality of the beans, so they are able to compete in the fine chocolate industry instead of selling cheaply on the bulk market.

So, that leaves open the question of why the two certification agencies seem to be involved in such controversy. I found extensive information on Wikipedia about the fair trade debate, including criticisms both of Fair Trade USA and of the Rainforest Alliance. I didn't read them closely, partly because they were dense and partly because they were icky. I guess the gist of the situation is that it reminds me of the stock caricature of the political left, which says we're unable to get anything done because of runaway factionalism. No one person's version of the Right Way To Do Things matches anyone else's, which is a hallmark of independent thinkers, but it also makes for unnecessary conflict.

I've been confused for some time now about the certifications that show up on different chocolate bars, and I feel just slightly better equipped now. As with other foods, it seems to come down to a specific sense of how a specific company does business, which can only be obtained through relationship with the individual. I feel like I've gotten past the advertising copy and into the names and faces and details of what was previously an unknown, anonymous product. And I'm glad I did.

A few discoveries

Well, we learned some things at Greenstar today.

1. Terra Chips, and Garden of Eatin' and Bearitos corn chips, are manufactured in Melville, NY, *almost* within range at 256 miles. HOWEVER, they are distributed through the UNFI warehouse in Chesterfield, NH, which is 248 miles from Ithaca and 222 miles from Melville, which means they travel 470 miles to get here. It's a huge commercial enterprise, anyway, not really the kind of family farm I had in mind to support. Lord only knows where the corn comes from (though at least it's organic.) They're part of Hain Celestial, which also owns Celestial Seasonings and Arrowhead Mills. I suppose we might go there in a pinch, but then again, maybe not.

2. Bilinski's chicken sausages, one of our favorite convenience foods, is manufactured in Cohoes, NY, just north of Albany (170 miles). Their website says they use local ingredients, and some of their flavors are organic. Makes me happy.

3. We discovered a new chocolate bar producer in Jacksonville (8 miles) named Lucienne's. Apparently they've been making biscotti and wine truffles for awhile, but this is the first time I've seen their chocolate bars. Clearly not locally grown, but even so, it means we don't have to make an exception for chocolate :^) We bought three flavors to try -- hazelnut praline, lemon & rosemary, and cinnamon & cayenne.

One possible downside is that their chocolate is certified by the Rainforest Alliance, not by Fair Trade USA. Both are better than nothing, but the Fair Trade standards are more highly regarded. One key difference is that Fair Trade works with small farm cooperatives and guarantees a minimum price for the product, whereas Rainforest Alliance works with larger producers and guarantees a minimum wage. I'd have to look more closely to decide how strongly I feel about the difference; it might be worth starting a dialog with the producer. (One of my favorite things about small local businesses is that this is actually a realistic option. And I've learned a lot the few times I've tried it.) => For more information, please read this update.

4. Brad's Raw Chips, a newish company based in Pipersville, PA (195 miles) makes a gluten free cracker. It's based on sprouted buckwheat groats, which can be grown regionally. Their press coverage says they use local ingredients, and there's a bunch of farm updates on their blog, so I think we're good on that one. They're wickedly expensive, but we got a couple bags to try them out (sweet potato and kale flavors.)

5. We have local barley, too! And the de-hulling seems to be more complete than it is for the oats & rye, so it's more suitable for grinding. We've used barley in the past to make tsampa (a Tibetan snack that we learned about at Judy's Day a few years ago) but it might be time to branch out into more general baking.

Tsampa

barley groats

butter

salt

sweetener

spiced tea (ithaca chai or bengal spice)

Roast barley groats in a frypan, stirring constantly, until they give off a nice aroma. Grind into flour. For each person, mix two or three heaping tablespoons in a bowl with a dab of butter, a sprinkle of salt, sweetener to taste, and enough spiced tea to form a dough. Form into desired shape & bite or pinch off pieces to eat. Repeat until full.

Local Grains

New York is not part of the grain belt. Sure, you can grow grain here, but the weather is kind of a crap shoot. We don't have reliably hot dry summers for ripening the way they do in, say, Kansas. Wheat is readily available, but the range of local alternative grains is pretty limited. It doesn't help that most commercial wheat-free products are rice based: the closest place I know of where rice is commercially grown is Arkansas, and the closest place I know of where processed rice products are produced is California. Mostly it's grown overseas; it's not uncommon for rice to travel more than 10,000 miles to get to upstate New York. Rice is going to be one of our five exceptions, but even so, there's a huge delta in food miles to be had if we can reduce our dependence on it.

Most grain is purchased in processed form, so there are two parts to the "local" equation for grains: where the grain is actually grown, and where it's converted into a convenience food (bread, crackers, cereal, pasta, cookies, cakes, etc.) If we ate wheat, we could satisfy the locavore challenge through local bakeries: we can readily find locally produced wheat bread, crackers, cookies, and cakes. We can also find a variety of local wheat flours, but chances are none of the local wheat-based convenience foods are made from local wheat.

So, we have a choice about where to focus our efforts: supporting local bakeries (which Greg can do, since he does eat wheat,) or supporting local alternative grain farmers (which Sophia and I are going to attempt.) We do eat other gluten grains (oats, rye, barley), which is a big help. I think a realistic goal for the two of us - given the challenge of replacing a lot of ready-made products with home-made ones, and my limited knowledge of rice-free recipes - is to use 2/3 to 3/4 local grains for the month (with rice and rice products for the rest.)

The Known Options

So, here's what we already know we have available:

Local processed products:

Greenstar/Oasis gluten free bread (available on Thursdays. Main problem: contains milk, which we avoid for the same reasons we avoid wheat.)

macaroons (cookie substitute.)

granola (variety of products available; all much sweeter than what we normally eat for breakfast.)

Local whole grains:

buckwheat, corn, live oats (has some hull fragments)

Local flours:

buckwheat, rye, corn (flour, grits, polenta)

What can I make with that?

I can make corn bread and tortillas with 100% corn, and flapjacks with 100% buckwheat. We eat grits, and I know how to convert tortillas into corn chips. I have made rye bread with 100% rye, though I haven't yet managed to get a consistent result.

I have the equipment to roll and grind oats, though the hull fragments make the process more labor-intensive than I would like. I might be able to figure out sprouted oat bread; it's possible that the hull fragments would just slough off if I sprouted the oats before baking with them. I've done something analogous with rice and lentils (soaking the grains, then wet grinding them in a blender.) (see updates: Progress Report I and Clean Oats!)

If I can work out a good local flour mix, I can make a variety of quickbreads. This will be experimental at first, but quickbreads are pretty forgiving. And if I add rice to the list of options, I know how to make crackers and sourdough bread; both contain a mix of rice and local grains.

This is starting to feel almost doable. I think it's time to do a shopping run.

The Challenge

So, I signed up for the NOFA-NY Locavore Challenge. The specific challenges I chose include:

#1 - for the month of September, eat only foods grown or produced within 250 miles of Ithaca, NY. (exceptions: salt & seasonings, plus any 5 items that are not locally available.)

#2 - blog about it

#3 - eat at a locavore restaurant

#4 - host a locavore book discussion (the book I selected: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver)

Greg is planning to participate, too, though I'm not sure yet which challenges he will take on. Sophia (who is about to turn 11 and enter middle school) thinks it's a cool idea, and she's game to give it a try, but I'm not convinced she has any concept of what it actually entails. So I'm committed to following the challenge rules for my own personal meals, and all shared family meals, but I'm not sure yet how local her breakfasts and school lunches will be.

Why do it?

For NOFA-NY, there's an obvious customer-base motive for organizing the challenge: local business is good for local farmers.

For the locavore movement as a whole, the rationale includes arguments about the quality of the food, the quality of the local economy, the quality of the social ties between producers and consumers, and the overall sustainability of our food system.

This is a 250-mile regional food challenge, which for an average US consumer would cut the distance food travels to get to their plate by more than 75%. In our case, products from the farmer's market are all locally produced, and Greenstar, our food co-op, puts a LOCAL label on food produced within 30 miles, which makes local food much easier to identify than regional food. If we were to limit ourselves to those sources (plus home grown,) our average food miles would be reduced by more than 97%, and our total household consumption of fossil fuels would be reduced by more than 30% below the national average.

For my household, the challenge is more specific. We already eat mostly local fruits & veggies, meat, dairy, eggs, and some varieties of beans. We already grow and/or process a lot of our own produce. But we have continued to rely heavily on commercial grains and grain products. We avoid wheat as much possible, for health reasons, and local wheat-free or gluten-free products are *very* hard to come by. So we haven't yet taken the challenging and labor-intensive step of localizing our grain supply.

We could simply "cheat" and make rice one of our five exceptions, and continue to buy rice cakes and rice crackers and rice bread -- and we may break down and do that, to some extent -- but my personal goal here is to stretch our household toward increased reliance on local grains, and to explore what changes that would entail. According to the challenge rules, local bakery bread is acceptable even if the flour comes from a non-local commercial source. But because of our family's current dependence on grains that can't be grown locally, and the difficulty of finding local producers of gluten-free products, I'm more interested in the total farm-to-table distance. So: local grain is a lot of what this challenge is about for me.