blogHarrisburg

This is the guide to buying local, grass-fed beef that was supposed to run with Sue’s story on PennLive. Chapel-Ridge Farm, 680 Barlow-Greenmount Road, Gettysburg, 334-4222 or 334-5684, www.chapel-ridge.com. All-natural beef raised, sold at Chapel Ridge Meat & Mercantile store 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays or by appointment. Landisdale Farm, 838 Ono Road, Jonestown, Lebanon County, 865-6220: Grass-fed beef available at the farm by appointment. Lil’ Ponderosa Enterprises, 44 Ponderosa ...

“Americans have begun to ask why the farm bill is subsidizing high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils at a time when rates of diabetes and obesity among children are soaring, or why the farm bill is underwriting factory farming (with subsidized grain) when feedlot wastes are polluting the countryside and, all too often, the meat supply. “For the first time, the public health community has raised its voice in ...

This summer, I’m doing two things to cook better / eat better. First, I signed up to be a recipe tester for Leite’s Culinaria. Publishers provide Leite’s with the recipes, before new cookbooks are published — in exchange for feedback on the recipe from cooks. As a tester, you have to vet at least one recipe a month, following the recipe exactly, then report on how easy or hard ...

I am not a gardenator. I don’t read seed catalogs all winter. I don’t buy a dumptruck load of mulch in the spring. I try to limit my yard time to a weekly ride on the lawnmower, preferably with cigar in hand. I’m not good at growing things. And yet … I like plants. That is to say, I like herbs. Basil and oregano on a Mama’s pizza? I’m there. It’s ...

  A typical piece of produce at Weis or Giant traveled 2,000 miles to get there. At Broad Street or the West Shore Farmers’ Market, it’s more like 20. A survey reported this month by the Food Marketing Institute shows consumers less likely to trust supermarket products. Done in the aftermath of the spinach scare, the survey found “the number of consumers ‘completely’ or ’somewhat confident’ in the safety of ...

Weird frosts, drought and now ethanol are pushing food prices up. A study by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University found corn prices soaring, and overall food prices up $14 billion from last year because of increased ethanol production. Ethanol is a gasoline “alternative” made from corn. It takes more energy to produce than it saves. The researchers speculate that retail food prices in the United ...

The Waiter at Waiter Rant is standing by the window, pretending the watch the passing scene, eavesdropping on the customers in his station. “No,” the older man says. “If everyone tried following their bliss everyone would be trying to get to the same place at the same time. It’d be a f**king traffic jam. But since no one likes going into the negative there’s more room for opportunity – ...