2013 Food Challenge: Parsley and Cilantro

Parsley and Cilantro

I have not been doing too well with the 2013 Food Challenge, and I apologize. With the last stages of divorce unfolding, injury, loss of job, looking for job, getting ready for school and my 13-year-old to remind me daily of how bad I am just-in-case-I-forgot among other life events, a food challenge was not something I thought I could keep up with any longer.

But I was wrong. If I can keep up with a fucking burpee challenge as I travel across the country, getting on my hands and jumping around on filthy gas station grounds from Florida to Colorado to Florida in 9 days, then I can certainly keep up with my own food challenge.

And that was the challenge this week. Living in a hotel for 6 days with a hot plate, a microwave and the bathroom sink. True to the principles I learned at the Climbers Ranch, I had a cooler-full of ready-made foods like soup and beans, and a cast iron pan at hand. Eggs, garlic, broccoli, butter, kale, parsley and cilantro.

Why parsley and cilantro? Just like kale, those two incredible greens need no knife in order to be eaten. Hold them by the stem, and pluck the leaves out using the same technique used for kale: take two fingers, and run them through the stem. Wherever the stem breaks, that means the part that is left with the leaves is soft enough to be eaten. Then I can decide: eat the leaves whole, or chop them up as finely or coarsely as I wish.

Use them on eggs, meat, soups, pasta, beans, quesadillas... such an easy way to add freshness to a meal. Color, vitamins, life. Just sprinkle at the end of cooking, on top or on the side, and watch a monochrome meal come to life. Or sautée it with garlic, salt, olive oil or butter, and add it to pasta or polenta, with or without tomatoes, with or without onions. Cheap, simple, beautiful.

Keep the unused parsley and/or cilantro on a glass with water on the kitchen counter, and notice how it enlivens the kitchen as well. They give freshness in the spring and summer, and life during fall and winter.

Down to Earth Farm

Brian and Kristin Lapinski started Down to Earth Farm in November of 2007.

Brian always felt a calling to the sustainable food movement. After graduating from the University of Florida (UF), where he earned a Bachelor's Degree on Sociology, and a Master's Degree on Community Development, he travelled as far as New Zealand and Australia in order to internship and learn more about organic agriculture. The Lapinskis then returned to Jacksonville, their hometown, and moved into 2.5 acres on the Westside, where they started their farm.

Brian is committed to farming sustainably; he uses cover crops and composted animal manures for fertilizers, uses no synthetic pesticides, and practices crop rotation to improve the soil and fight bugs and disease. All of Down to Earth's planting, weeding and bug squishing are done by hand. Down to Earth is not certified organic, but if you visit the farm you will see for yourself how their food is grown- as opposed to relying on labels and stickers. I have visited the farm, picked and eaten straight from the plants, as well as purchased eggs from them. Their vegetables, and eggs, are beautiful, tasty, and grown with care.

It is well worth it to take a trip, on Saturdays, to the Riverside Arts Market, and find Brian and his assistants there between 10am to 4pm... or the Beaches Green Market, from 2 to 5pm.

Brian will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have. And he is willing to discuss- and educate those interested at any time, on the different kinds of kale selections;  beet, sweet potato, turnip and collard greens... radishes, green beans, broccoli... arugula, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes... eggs and flowers.

I am grateful for the work of farmers like Brian that make it possible for us to enjoy the bounty, and beauty, of locally grown vegetables.