“Slugs Don’t Eat Arugula: Tales Of Whimsey, Woe, And Wisdom From The Kitchen And Garden”

“I enjoy gardening,” writes Chicoan Jeremy Miller. “I enjoy the feeling of being linked to my backyard and the plants and animals that live there, … noting the traffic of insects that zip around the sunflowers, and having the ability to pluck a cherry tomato off the vine and pop it directly into my mouth … not only do I know where my food came from, but I also know that I was a part of that process.”

But for Miller, not every foray into gardening goes as planned (there is, after all, the “Nightmare on Avocado Street” and the “Peach Pit Conspiracy”), and not every culinary attempt is a triumph (“Even butter can’t make bitter beets taste better”). That makes his collection of short essays, drawn and edited from Edible Shasta-Butte magazine over the years, deliciously relatable.

“Slugs Don’t Eat Arugula: Tales Of Whimsey, Woe, And Wisdom From The Kitchen And Garden” ($14.95 in paperback from Memoir Books) is available in Chico at Northern Star Mills and C Bar D Feed. 

Chapters move thematically, from the kitchen to the garden, to a dubious look at natural remedies (“The Witch Doctor’s Pantry”) to Miller’s diet regimen (“Kettle Chips Are My Kryptonite”) and, finally, to recipes that include carrot cake muffins (gluten free) and sauerkraut (makes three quarts and takes three weeks).

Though he has books on organic gardening and “compost care,” Miller admits all the good advice mostly ends up on the compost heap. Instead, he wants “to embrace the simplicity of a ‘Tarzan the Farmer’ mentality: ‘Dig! Plant seed! Water! Grow! Eat!’ Somewhere in between diligence and naivety, my garden turns into a jungle, and Tarzan is happy. And the gophers are happy. And the snails. And the weeds. And the zucchini.”

Some pocket gophers jump over barriers. So “I had yet another gardening excuse … ‘My real challenge is the overland migratory … gophers (“OMG!”), which are actually endemic to west Chico, California.’ I don’t even care if it is true; I intend to use it over and over.”

Get the book. The stakes, as gardeners say, couldn’t be higher.

"Lulu! How Do You?"

When first we visited Lulu, her stomach ache (too much cake?) led to a strange dream in which she climbed inside herself and learned the outworkings of digestion, so to speak. She meets plenty of new friends along the way, all detailed in "Ewww! Lulu Meets The King Of Poo."

Now Lulu is back, a bit older, but even though she's tried to eat what's healthy she also gobbled a bunch of fluorescent gummy worms and now has a tummy ache. Since her earlier dream ended with a sneeze, she sneezes backwards ("Choo-Ah!") and she's back in dreamland where she meets her pal, Emily Enzyme. Her adventures play out in graphic novel format, for kids eight and above, courtesy of Chicoan Jan Condon and friends.

"Lulu! How Do You?" ($9.95 in paperback, self-published), is conceived and written by Janice Maximov Condon (janmaxcon.com), illustrated by Steve Ferchaud, with character design and production by Chris Ficken. The emphasis is on learning about gut microbes--and being kind to them. 

In Lulu's dream, all talk is in rhyme, not just some of the time. She meets Louie Liver, the "deliverer": "Those worms you ate at the end of your meal ... are not real food ... and not a good deal.... When you eat toxins what a risk it poses. It could make you ill from your head to your toeses."

Pammy Pancreas chimes in as do the Kidney brothers, Lefty and Righty ("we make your urine daily and nightly"). Ferchaud's colorful drawings show how everyone really likes what they're doing so long as they don't have to fight against the bad stuff, primarily sugary things, as Abby Acidophilus says ("If you eat lots of sweets, bad microbes attack us. They ruin our hula! They really do whack us"). 

What's good to eat? Fibrous veggies and fermented foods (yogurt, sauerkraut).

Condon writes in an author's note that she joined a Chico group following the nutrition principles of the Weston A. Price Foundation (westonaprice.org) "which changed the direction of my life." An occupational therapist, Condon has a "passion to share my knowledge of gut microbes and healthy food choices."

Right eating is, well, nothing to sneeze at.

Visiting author on America's food crisis

Virginia-based Wenonah Hauter owns a family farm run by her husband as a "community supported agriculture program." The longtime activist is Executive Director of Food and Water Watch and recently was invited to Chico for a book signing at Lyon Books, with her appearance sponsored by the Northern California Regional Land Trust (landconservation.org) and their "Buy Fresh, Buy Local, North Valley" program.

For Hauter, the U.S. "food system is in a crisis because of the way that food is produced and the consolidation and organization of the industry itself. ... Today, twenty food corporations produce most of the food eaten by Americans, even organic brands. Four large chains, including Walmart, control more than half of all grocery store sales."

The implications are detailed in "Foodopoly: The Battle Over The Future Of Food And Farming In America" ($26.95 in hardcover from The New Press; also available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook e-book formats). Hauter explores how political clout from the big food companies has undermined safety standards, promoted factory farming and inhumane treatment of animals, and has unleashed genetic experimentation with inadequate safeguards. "The biotechnology industry," she maintains, "has become so powerful that it can literally buy public policy."

It's impossible, she says, to counter these influences by just buying local or ending farm subsidies (as if such subsidies were propping up only the biggest farming operations). Because USDA statistics inflate the number of small farms (counting operations where most of the income is non-farm), it appears that relatively few farms benefit from subsidies. The truth, Haunter says, is that "82 percent of midsize farmers depend on some support to stay afloat." End subsidies, and full-time family farms collapse, consolidating the food system even more.

Her solution is a "new paradigm" of political activism, based on seeing "the world as a global commons with collectively shared assets, from air, water, soil, and genetics to taxpayer-funded research, libraries, roads, and all of the other resources we share." The bottom line: "Our movement must deepen and expand the strategy for moving people to political action. It must join the broader progressive movement to organize across the country. ... There are no shortcuts to building the long-term political power to reclaim our food system, our democracy, our commons."

Family-friendly Paleo cookbook from a Chico mom

Sarah Fragoso came slowly to the Paleo lifestyle. Robb Wolf, of NorCal Strength and Conditioning in Chico, introduced her to the eating plan, but it wasn't until just a few years ago, after the birth of her third son, and plagued by a host of health issues, that she got serious. "I eventually committed to trying Paleo for thirty days," she writes, "and that was all the convincing I needed."

Now that her three kids, and husband John, have made the move to Paleo, Fragoso is spreading the word. First came "Everyday Paleo" and "Paleo Pals: Jimmy and the Carrot Rocket Ship," and now "Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook: Real Food for Real Life" ($29.95 in paperback from Victory Belt Publishing; also available in Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook e-book formats). Replete with gorgeous full-color photographs by Michael J. Lang, the book is more than just a recipe collection. It's also a realistic guide to Paleo meals on a budget and what to put into the kids' lunch boxes, with more at everydaypaleo.com.

"The primary tenets of living a Paleo lifestyle," Fragoso says, include avoiding "grains, legumes, dairy, vegetable oils, refined sugar" and "highly processed foods. ... Eat meat from animals that lived the way nature intended their species to live--e.g., cattle fed on grass; eat both vegetables and fruit, but eat more vegetables than fruits; eat quality fats like avocado and coconut oil; eat nuts and seeds, but in moderation."

The transition to Paleo can be challenging. "If you grumble and gripe about no longer having cereal for breakfast, your little ones will, too." But "if you hand them a spatula and show them how to crack eggs as you laugh and giggle together, no one will miss the cereal."

Fragoso, a recent visitor to Lyon Books in Chico, draws on the main recipe section in creating helpful lists. There are 15 lunch box ideas, 15 "quick and simple" meals, a one-week meal plan and a week's shopping list. Recipe categories include sauces and dips, slow cooker recipes, soups and stews, "meaty meals," sides and salads, and fruity creations. Most of the recipes have a "something extra" section with creative variations.

And for an energy boost? There's even a recipe for "Rocket Fuel."

Local author on sustainable living with native plants

 

An author's note says that Alicia Funk, who lives "off the grid with her husband and three children," "first learned plant based medicine in 1990 from an indigenous grandmother in Ecuador's rainforest." With her co-author, landscape architect and Nevada City resident Karin Kaufman, Funk has crafted a full-color reference, "Living Wild: Gardening, Cooking and Healing With Native Plants of the Sierra Nevada" ($29.95 in paperback from Flicker Press).

A recent visitor to Lyon Books in Chico, where the volume is available locally, Funk facilitates "living wild" workshops. According to the authors, "our modern-day American diet relies upon a mere 30 or so plant species, while 200 years ago an indigenous Californian's diet would have included about a thousand. We have lost the Native Californians' valuable 'user's manual' that could guide us to the plants we would enjoy eating and help us to learn the best ways to prepare them."

The largest part of the book is a color compendium of native species for the garden, from the White Alder to the evergreen shrub Yerba Santa (which is deer resistant). Each listing points (as appropriate) to the Foods, Medicine, and Cultural and Functional Arts sections. For the Manzanita, one can fix Manzanita Blossom Jelly for breakfast. Manzanita has been used to treat Poison Oak; its wood has been fashioned into kitchen utensils.

The section on making medicines (including teas, herbal syrups, salves and poultices) notes that the process "is a fun, relaxing experience that provides a way to personally engage in health and wellness." The authors carefully note that the uses listed often come from Native lore and haven't been tested scientifically; and in many cases the preparations shouldn't be used by those who are pregnant. Yerba Santa tea is considered a decongestant by "by Miwok, Pomo and Yuki tribes and by doctors who listed it as an official remedy in the US. Pharmacopoeia in 1894." The Maidu "used the dried and powdered inner bark (of the White Alder) as an astringent to clean wounds."

There are some 70 recipes in the food section. Elderberry wine, anyone? Oak Nut Gingerbread? (Oak nut flour is gluten-free.) It's a way to "enjoy nutrient-rich, carbon-free food from the plants growing around our home. ... We allow the wild in."

New Mia King/Darien Gee novel has baked-in goodness

Independence Day celebrations evoke images of small-town America, so it's easy to imagine Avalon, a place that "isn’t more than what it seems to be—a small, simple river town in northern Illinois." In the midst of buzzing cell phones and economic downturns it is also a place of broken marriages and fractured relationships. And then one small act of kindness, its origin a mystery, turns the town upside down.

Best-selling author Mia King, writing under her real name, Darien Gee, weaves together the lives of several women in Avalon in "Friendship Bread: A Novel" ($25 in hardcover from Ballantine Books; $12.99 in Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook e-book format; and an audio book version narrated by Nancy Linari). Gee's husband, Darrin, has relatives in Chico. The couple lives on the Big Island of Hawaii with their three children.

It begins on Julia Evarts' front porch with a Ziploc bag full of starter for "Amish Friendship Bread," instructions, and a note that says: "I hope you enjoy it." But for Gracie, her five-year-old, Julia would have tossed the strange substance. Now she is prepping it for baking in ten days, thinking of her husband Mark's sweet tooth. But she is thinking, too, of Josh, their son, who died tragically at the age of ten in the care of her younger sister, Livvy. She doesn't talk to Livvy anymore, can't forgive her, or herself.

Hannah, a master cellist, has settled in Avalon with her husband, but the marriage is not going well. Madeline, an older woman, has opened a tea salon in Avalon, and when circumstances bring Julia and Hannah together, Madeline provides the emotional glue. All the time, loaves of Friendship Bread continue to multiply as new starters are passed from person to person.

The novel is about finding true freedom. As Julia realizes, "I want to be free. Only it wasn’t the freedom she had toyed with before, that singular independence that excluded Mark and Gracie. It was a freedom that included them. She wanted to be free to love them, to be with them."

Readers can download a free PDF booklet with more than 50 Amish friendship bread recipes from now until July 10, 2011. Visit www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/pantry/chicoer. The password is er.