Occupy Your Plate

Jan 10, 2012 by Dark Martha

I am so proud of the Occupy Movement! I hope people are getting wise to the contempt Corporate America has for the rest of us. I’m not just referring to the banking industry, either. Corporate goes for all kinds of industry: electronics, textiles, food, energy, etc.., lots of businesses where their primary focus is to make money. Not to serve a community need, to make money. Not to provide a quality product at a good value to the consumer, to make money.

I’ll try to keep this rant to food.

I’ve been preaching about the local foods movement and local business in general, not because it is cool but because it trumps the corporate counterparts by the presence of COMPASSION and that their bottom line isn’t the only line they care about. Have you caught any of the articles tattling on the sometimes disgusting antics of Big Ag and Big Food? Did you hear about the company that re-processed gallons of moldy applesauce to ship to schools? Or the countless recalls of E. Coli-tainted meats and vegetables that somehow still manage to get to the public? Maybe you’ve seen these corporate food lies: your “freshly” squeezed orange juice that has actually sat in a vat for up to a year, your meats that get doused with ammonia , the cellulose and other industrial by-products that find their way into more processed food than you would like to know about. Why isn’t this squawked about on mainstream news?

“So what can I do about this and why should I care?” you might say. “Eating healthy / organic / local is too expensive and I don’t have the time / desire / know-how to cook.”

My shopping reflects my values and I vote with my pocketbook. Start small and don’t try to re-invent the wheel in a week. I would rather spend an hour cooking something for my family than watching TV, but that’s me.

Don’t like factory farms? Seek out a local market and shop there. Spending money with local retailers strengthens the community and is a slap in the face of recession. Start a vegetable garden, and share your bounty with your neighbors – defy the “bedroom community” label and chat in person. Know that if we don’t start giving a damn about what we purchase, and where it comes from – that the quality of these things will continue to tank. The rich will get richer from our apathy. Our economy is based almost entirely on us buying stuff, so make every dollar count!

This video of a farmer addressing the NYC Occupy group nearly got me bawling. I can’t help but feel sickened and a little enraged every time I hear a sound bite about how unorganized the movement is, or the “But what do they stand for?” bullshit. The food lies are as insidious as the lies about “trickle-down economics” – don’t believe the hype. There has been a great interview with Chris Hedges making the rounds that I think hits the mark, and I will leave you with this quote from his book, Losing Moses on the Freeway: The 10 Commandments in America:
“We watch impassively as the wealthy and the elite, the huge corporations, rob us, ruin the environment, defraud consumers and taxpayers and create an exclusive American oligarchy that fuses wealth and political power. We watch passively because we believe we can enter the club. It is greed that inspires us. It is greed that keeps us silent. Our greed is devouring us.”

 

Cheers-

 

Dark Martha

Conscious Urban Living

Carriage House Farm

 

PS – If you are in the Cincy area, and are interested in getting that garden going, join me for my class series coming up in a few weeks.

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Northslice Gone?!!

Oct 4, 2011 by Loki

Some friends and I found ourselves hungry today and decided that is was worth waiting an hour or two in order to go to Northslice.  It’s no secret that I think they’ve got the best pizza I’ve had since I lived in NYC, so it was all about anticipation. As we came up to the storefront on Chase we were greeted by the spectacle of papered in windows.

The doors were locked  and there was no sign of habitation. My first instinct was hope that this was a remodeling that I had missed hearing about, but the feeling in the pit of my stomach was already one of loss. This feeling was confirmed when I ran into Mike, the man who started it, just around the corner. He confirmed that Northslice has closed. I won’t elaborate on what he told me because he was not aware that I write for the public.

I can report that shortly afterwards while we were bemoaning the situation I did overhear conversations to the effect that the building had been sold out from under him. [Edit for Clarity: These were conversations overheard among random customers at Melt, where we had decided to go as our second choice. -Loki] No matter what happened it seems that we have lost the best pizza in Cincinnati. If whoever owns the name and or building reopens under that name it won’t be the same.

My heart goes out to Mike, he seemed crushed. I know I am. This is a horrible loss to the neighborhood and to Cincinnati in general.

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Mayberry Foodstuffs Grocery Closing

Oct 4, 2011 by SpaethC

As you may recall from my Downtown Grocery post, I’m a big fan of the Mayberry Foodstuffs grocery. While they don’t have enough to completely replace a trip to Kroger, they helped fill in the Downtown grocery void. I usually make a visit once week on my walk home from work and often chat a little with the person working. A couple of weeks ago he notified me that Mayberry will start grocery delivery in the Downtown and OTR areas. I figured business must be good. Sadly today our chat was not as positive as he told me Mayberry Grocery will be closing in late October. When I asked “closing? for good?” he said yes, unfortunately business has not been good enough to stay open. Some of the specialty products found in the store will be available in the other Campbell owned properties such as Skinny Pig and World Food Bar.

While I have noticed a reduction of hours and I’m typically the only customer when I do visit, I am surprised by the news. It seemed like a lot of money and work was put into the renovation of their space. I also thought the previous conversation about delivery was a sign business was ok. Unfortunately I guess it was not to be. At least we can still enjoy Josh Campbell’s food creations at Mayberry, Skinny Pig and World Food Bar.

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The Skyline in Skyline

Aug 23, 2011 by Ben Sherman

I know, there’s a “Yo dawg” joke in here somewhere, but bear with me, because I think that the issue asks a couple of important questions about how our city works.

According to WCPO and the Enquirer, the Skyline Chili in Oakley is trying to build an expansion onto their existing building. Their plans don’t conform to zoning regulations regarding the square footage of transparency (read: windows) on the front of the building. There are currently two windows on the front of the building, but the regs require a third. The issue is that the only space there is for a third window is currently occupied by a 1940′s mural of the city’s skyline that is very dear to both the owner and customers. This regulation is not a ironclad rule, but any variance from it requires a public hearing with 14 days notice to surrounding property owners.

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An Interview with Hilton Cincinnati Chef Megan Ketover

Aug 22, 2011 by SpaethC

Cooking competitions have become a big business for food related TV programming. There are Iron Chef’s, Top Chef’s, Hells Kitchen, Cupcake Wars and so forth. Now they are becoming so popular spin-offs are being created. Bravo TV will introduce “Top Chef: Just Desserts” on Wednesday August 24th and a local chef will be one of the contestants. Megan Ketover, the Pastry Chef at the acclaimed Orchids at Palm Court (located in the Hilton Netherland Plaza), brings her talents to this competition in hopes of winning $100,000 furnished by KitchenAid, a feature in Food & Wine magazine and a showcase at the Annual Food & Wine Cayman Cookout. In 2009, she won the American Culinary Federation’s Northeast Region Pastry Chef of the Year award.

Megan will be serving deserts to celebrity guest judges including: Beastie Boys’ Adam “Ad Rock” Horovitz, The Cast of Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, Renowned Pastry Chef Francois Payard and Acclaimed Chef Cat Cora among others. Megan recently took some time to chat with me about the competition and her life as an acclaimed pastry chef in Cincinnati.

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Grocery Shopping Downtown

Aug 15, 2011 by SpaethC

Whenever I tell someone that I live downtown one of the first questions I hear is “where do you do your grocery shopping at?” Typically I do my shopping at the Newport Pavilion Kroger. It’s about a 5-8 minute drive so I don’t have to travel too far to do my grocery shopping. However, this Kroger is not my favorite place in the world, and I would love an actual grocery store in the Central Business District. There are some grocery options downtown. I would place the downtown grocery options in three categories: grocery store, deli, and drug store. I decided to take a break from Kroger for a couple of weeks and see what the stores downtown have, what disadvantages there are and if it’s feasible to do my weekly grocery shopping in the city. (Note: this is solely about the Central Business District and does not include options in OTR, such as Findlay Market)

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