The week is from June 23-30th, 2010, beginning with a Summer Solstice Kickoff at the Main Street Farmer’s Market on Wednesday, June 23rd from 4-6PM.     The week includes a potluck dinner at Crabtree Farms, a celebration of local restaurants that serve local foods, and ends on Wednesday, June 3oth with a Blueberry Celebration at the Main St. Farmer’s Market, from 4-6PM.

It is exciting that everyone is working together to celebrate local and fresh seasonal foods.     I am going to go to one of the local restaurants on Saturday  myself to try one of the local menus, probably 212 Market.     I will also stop by to get blueberries, but that is the normal pickup day for my CSA box anyway.

Which events appeal the most to you?   Please comment.

The garden has 36 raised beds, which vary in size from 4′ x4′ to 4′ x 12′.     I got a 4′ x 4′ plot because it is almost summer and I don’t really know how to garden.    I want to volunteer and help the other gardeners with their plots and learn from the master gardenders that have plots there.

The garden, which is organic, supports eating fresh, locally grown food and appreciation of the source of food we eat.       A section of the garden is set aside for families with school-age children who would like to garden, to help encourage children to eat more vegetables.

Still endeavouring to live the “Fresh & Frugal” lifestyle, this has become even more of a challenge since my temp booking came to an end a few weeks ago and there hasn’t been a great deal (for that read pretty much none!) going on on the employement front.  So I’ve been forcibly tasked to really stretch everything to the limit in order to attempt to make ends meet.

The first thing I’ve done is to start to really “use things up” that I’ve had festering in the cupboard and freezer.  All too often before I’d buy things thinking they would be “useful to keep in” but then never really used them.  This is very common I think – how many of us can genuinely say ”I’ve nothing in the cupboard/freezer”??  So my mission is to actually have bare cupboards/freezer before I replace anything – the only thing I will allow myself to buy is tins of tomatoes that are a cheap way of making a multitude of main dishes/sauces/soups and  generally useful for “juzzing” things up.  This has meant actually doing a full audit of said cupboards & freezer.  In itself, this process threw up a few surprises…things I had forgotten buying and things I actually didn’t even remember buying!  Let’s just say I have a lot of rice/noodles/quinoa!

So the deal is now that I use things up here and try to only buy things like bread, milk, veggies etc.  And the challenge with that also is to look, and by this I mean really look, at what I need and what is the best value.  Nine times out of ten, this will be the local produce in terms of fruit and veg.  Also particularly cheap can be the ethnic supermarkets I’ve found and I’m lucky to have a few on my doorstep.  I’ve found myself comparing everything – so I’ll not only look online etc for special offers before I leave the house for the shops but actually in the shop, I will compare the prices/weights of, for example, all varieties of tomatoes before I make my selection.  It’s a lot of effort but necessary at this point in time.  I’ve had to abandon my veggie box as, although a bargain at £10 per box, I need to be even more frugal than this and can’t risk anything going off!  I buy probably every few days, in order to combat this.

You’ll be pleased to know that my sprouting is going excellently and providing a pretty much constant supply of sprouting goodies!  Alfalfa this week and I have the next lot in there germinating as I type this – should be ready Tuesday or Wednesday.

This week I have decided to log everything that I spend on food and have challenged myself to have as cheap a week as I possibly can.  I start tomorrow and I’ll let you know how it goes!

• combine coupons with store sales
• stock up on things you’ll need eventually
• play the drugstore game
• don’t buy anything unless you’ll use it (unless it’s free– then you can give it to charity)

Matching coupons with store sales may sound complicated, but Coupon Mom does all the work for you.  Just date the circulars that come with the Sunday paper and login to her site. She lists grocery sales in every state and matches specific store sales with the coupons. Then go through your dated circulars and find the coupon.  No cutting or clipping until you are ready to use a coupon. She explains her methodology in detail in a free ebook on her site. You can also use this coupon database.

Another helpful site is the Grocery Coupon Guide. In fact, they post deals where you can actually make money, like this one I happily completed.

Since many of the food coupons in the Sunday circulars are for products that contain a lot of additives, I tend to stick to the drug store-type items.  However, the Grocery Coupon Guide contains a section on organic coupons. I have yet to go over it in detail, but I plan on it. You can also visit websites of local health food stores and sign up for coupons that way. Right now Earth Fare is offering a free pantry make-over AND several valuable coupons when you sign up at their site.  Fresh AND frugal is the goal, after all.

I got natural peanut butter, natural honey and almond cereal and an organic sundried tomato vinaigrette.        I got some farm raised salmon from Scotland and some delicious watermelon.      I have to say I really like Earth Fare so far.   I found a bunch of coupons online also.   I wish I had had those when I went today, but I will be back.    It is a little far from my house, but I think it is worth it.

If you have an Earth Fare in your area, I would encourage you to sign up on the website and do the pantry makeover.

If you order from the webstore, enter the promo code LARNEW10 and you can receive 15% off of the new flavors from June 15th – July 15th.

I first found Larabars at a yoga store in Nashville about 4 years ago.  They are really delicious, but what I like about this most is that they have all natural ingredients–no added sugar, salt, preservatives or other additives.   I think my favorite flavors are lemon, key lime, and cherry pie.    My husband loves the banana bread bars as well.

You can find Larabars at Whole Foods Markets and Greenlife, and possibly at other health food stores.    They are worth the money and a great alternative to candy bars or other types of sweets.   My husband eats them for breakfast.

I bought some Larry’s Beans coffee from Greenlife in Chattanooga today and I hope that qualifies as a true fair trade coffee.

I think this comment taught me a lesson:  you can’t rely on labels or take them at face value–further research is needed to find out exactly what you are buying.       My post on eggs and labels on egg cartons is a good example of this issue also.

If a gardener or farmer spots an infected stem, the plant needs to be pulled because the chances of survival for the plant are slim to none.   To avoid spreading the disease, the plant should be double-bagged and placed in the sun all day–after that put the bags in the garbage.     A typical pesticide called Bravo, could be used to kill the blight, but is not recommended as it is believed to be a human carcinogen.    For organic growers who do not wish to use toxic pesticies, copper could be used, but it has its own health issues.

The spores from Tomato blight are easily spread by wind and can travel long distances.    UV radiation should kill the spores, but cloudy conditions will allow the spores to spread.   Rain helps spread the spores also.   

 The original source of the outbreak started last year and is believed to be from a nursery that supplied plants to many major stores, such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

The tomato varieties that seem to fight blight the best include Golden Sweet, Juliet, Legend, and Matt’s Wild Cherry.

• Check out Threadless’ peliCAN t-shirt. Costs 10 bucks and all proceeds go to the Gulf Restoration Network. I bought one.
• Six useful kitchen gadgets for under $10. I might have to pick up the Microplane Stainless Steel Zester. Is it really that much better than the old fashioned box grater?  I’m intrigued.
• HealthFoodForum’s blog helps you choose the best milk substitute, listing the pros and cons of milk alternatives, including soy, almond, rice and hemp.
• Tightwad.com reveals thrifty beauty secrets of the stars (including Kylie Minoge and Catherine Zeta Jones).
• Get Rich Slowly has a story on a man who’s been challenged to eat healthy on one dollar a day.  Yes, one dollar.  Talk about frugal! It’s an interesting read.
• Bizzare:  A woman in Boise was arrested for pouring mayo in a library’s drop box. An isolated incident?  No, she’s a person of interest in ten other condiment-related crimes. Mmmm kay.

Expect a more organized list in the future.  I had many other links, but didn’t save them and naturally they went vamoose!

The specific foods that were found by the ELF to be contaminated include different brands of apple and grape juice, packaged pears and peaches (including baby food), and fruit cocktail.  The notices were sent out to companies based on testing performed on 398 samples of 146 products in the five categories listed above.   A list of all products tested and the results can be found on ELF’s website.

Under Proposition 65, the notice of violation has to be delivered to the alleged violater and law enforcement officials.   On June 9, 2010, the ELF delivered the Notice of Violation to the California Attorney General, 58 county District Attorneys, and the manufacturers, retailers and distributors of the suspect foods.   The companies will basically have 60 days to either reduce or eliminate the lead in these foods or to place warnings of lead contamination on the food products.   If, at the end of the 60 day period, no law enforcement agency is prosecuting these violations, ELF claims that it will file a lawsuit to enforce Proposition 65.

What was of even more concern to me as a consumer was that a number of the brands found to be contaminated are organic brands.    As ELF claims, organic does not equal “lead-free”.

Maria Rodale has recently blogged about this issue herself, and claims that based on her own research for her book, Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe, lead arsenate was used as a pesticide for over 100 years and that lead could very well still be in soil being used by organic producers.   It is unknown how long it will take for various pesticides we have used in modern-day farming to be eliminated from the soil.

And as Maria points out, there are other reasons not to give so much juice to our children anyway.     The American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended for many years that amount of juice for children be limited.    Most juices are high in sugar and contain no fiber and are not a good fruit substitute.   Healthy habits need to be started early.

I don’t think that the ELF is saying that the amount of lead in these products is going to kill your children or cause major health issues, but their point seems to be that lead exposure is cumulative and there are plenty of sources  (lead-based paint, pesticides, leaded gasoline) of it.    ELF thinks it is important that consumers have the knowledge that products contain certain levels of lead in them, and then be able to make informed decisions about what to feed their children.