Irvine, California  (Strutts News Services, Opinion Section) –

Everyone knows that Urban Foresters are in great demand today (even though there is no such thing as an Urban Forest) and Tyler Stevenson is one who excels at his trade.

There are no forests or jungles within hundreds of miles of Irvine, California, so he gets to measure the height of a local field of barley, not just eyeball it. He measures it. And he gets paid to measure it with a tape measure and a cameraman in tow just to prove that he’s not exaggerating the growth.

[Stevenson's Tape Measure in action.]

Great Park workers have literally planted the seeds for the park’s first major round of construction, kicking off a $65 million development plan by attempting to reawaken more than 100 acres of once-fertile agricultural fields.

The sprouting of barley seeds planted just before the recent rainstorms marks the first stage in an agricultural plan that will eventually cost up to $1.4 million and encompass community gardens, a farmers market and rows of fresh-grown produce.

Maybe that’s just a typo. Maybe the “agricultural plan” will reap up to $1.4 million to offset $65 million, but remember, this was FRONT PAGE NEWS. No typos are ever allowed on the front page.

We were not able to contact Mr. Tyler Stevenson because we didn’t bother. We do not intend to disparage the integrity of  Mr. Stevenson or the honorable legion of Urban Foresters (heh). But it seems silly to us that in pitiful economic times that the government, local or otherwise, should be getting into the farming business, and taking work away from the folks who need it the most: the illegal immigrant community.

[Photos, italicized and indented captions via the Orange County Register.]

Welcome fellow Netizens of the Blogmocracy!

Well, step right up ladies and gents, have I got good news for you!  You, yes, you can have FREE salad and stewing veg all winter long — if you can identify it, that is.

It’s sprouting from every street corner, alley, empty lot, park, and even every private garden in Tel Aviv.  And most of you probably thought they were just lowly weeds.

An Anarchists’ Amblings

My good friend Moshe invited me to come along on a walking tour being hosted by Salon Mazal, an interesting place that according to Wikipedia is:

an infoshop in Tel Aviv, Israel. Its purpose is to spread information and raise awareness of issues related to social change, including human rights, animal rights, the environment, globalization, social and economic oppression, consumerism, feminism and gender issues. It is run by an open, non-hierarchical collective of volunteers at 32 Yitzhak Sadeh Street, Tel Aviv.

I had actually been inside their premises a few years ago (and two locations ago), when I had no idea who they were…and left quickly when it sank in that I was in what appeared an anarchist bookshop.  Moshe says that they’ve actually branched out from then, hosting lovely events and lectures, and that generally friendly people frequent the place.  I’ll have to drop by sometime for a better look.

Back to the veg – As I was pouring wine all day last Friday (I got to open the Yarden Cabernet Sauvignon, a rare treat), so I couldn’t attend the walking tour.  Lucky for me, Moshe took me on a private post-shabbat nighttime tour of central Tel Aviv’s tiny patches of green, sharing with me what he learned from the experts.  What we found astounded me.

Mallow

Hubezah - Arabic for Mallow - חובזה in Hebrew

The mallow plant has gotten a bad wrap in modern times.  It’s been thought of as a subsistence green, a poor man’s refuge, if you catch my drift.  It used to grow just about everywhere in Israel.  In fact, I think it still does, despite the urban sprawl.  The Arab community cooks with it quite a bit, and it can be found in all of their suks.  The Jewish markets…not so much.  Luckily for us, this very easily identified plant grows everywhere…and I mean everywhere.  This is a great little article in Hebrew about mallow, and if this works, here is the googled-translation of the same story.  My friend Moshe told me to eat it like a salad green, very neutral yet pleasant taste.  The Arabs sautee it with onions, include it in stews, and I’ve seen it used to wrap other foods in (like grape leaves).

Mustard

Mustard

Slightly less obvious, but also quite plentiful is the mustard plant.  For those of you who have never eaten mustard greens, they taste like the condiment.  They really do.  Somewhat brighter, sometimes more spicy, even.  And this bold flavor is marvelous for cooking.  Moshe, who I might add is a vegan, recommended that it also be eaten raw.  Fine for some.  In the States I bought mustard greens when I could find them (the first time was a mistake…I’m a sucker for strange veg I’ve never tried before).  Great for stewing, steaming, sauteing. “Southern greens,” you know the kind that are stewed and drenched in fats and seasonings of all sorts indeed include mustard.  Even the flowers are good, spicier than the rest of the plant.

Sorrel

Sorrel with the lovely sour yellow flowers

My new favorite green!  I’ve already written about this green extensively, and now I don’t even have to hunt it down in the markets…it’s right out front!  With delicate little leaves that look like flat folded clover, the stems are sturdy and snap crunchily when you bite into them as the lemony sour taste pours into your mouth.  Lovely!  Every part of this plant is edible – leaf, stem, flower.  All sour.  It packs great punch in a salad, and as I’ve demonstrated a few times this year, it’s extremely wonderful in soups and stews.

There are a few more edible greens in my public urban garden, according to Moshe, but they are more difficult to identify and are supposedly far more boring in flavor.  For now, I’m going to stick to these three and see if I can come up with a creative recipe with them.

If I have the guts to go foraging, I’m going to have free soup and free stew and free stir-fry all winter long.  You should try it too.  Just wash these greens very, very, very well.  You’ve got a good imagination, you can figure out why…

Moshe munching on sorrel

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Check out this cool blog I found on the New York Times called “The Urban Forager”

The first section of the article cites the new City Manager Greg Sundstrom who says the city has no money to implement the recommendations that came out of the Green Gathering meetings hosted by the City of Grand Rapids. Also cited in the first part of the article is one of the Green Grand Rapids Committee members Jack Hoffman. Hoffman thinks that the volunteers in this effort can create a “Green Power movement.”

The rest of article is a summary of the six areas that Green Grand Rapids has identified; bicycling, local water, local parks, the Grand River, urban trees and local food.

Bicycling is the first theme presented and the Press story tells readers that the demand for more bike paths has resulted in a Bike Summit and a local bike coalition, but there are no plans offered on how the City will become more bike-friendly. The section ends with City Planner Suzanne Schulz saying, “A design team that reviews all city street projects will make sure bicycles are considered.” Not exactly a clear commitment.

The section on Parks and Recreation cites Steve Faber, the Executive Director of Friends of Grand Rapids Parks. Faber states that for the City to protect the existing urban green space “This is going to take an investment from private and public dollars to make this dream come true.” The organization asks people to spend time in the parks, participate in park clean ups and to contribute money.

There are two sections that deal with water, one specifically for the Grand River and the other for local streams and water runoff. The focus of this section is on efforts to make the river more accessible for Kayakers and cites someone with the group Grand Rapids Whitewater. The group is focused on recreation and not on improving the water quality of the Grand River.

The other water section deals with contributing streams and storm water runoff. The West Michigan Environmental Action Council is sourced in this section, since the group makes local stream projects a priority. WMEAC does stream clean ups, education and some stream restoration such as planting trees near streams. Nothing was mentioned about the current condition of the streams and whether or not local industry contributes to contamination.

WMEAC is also the lead group for the urban forestry section. The article cites a member of the Urban Forestry Committee about the importance of protecting and expanding trees. “Green Grand Rapids wants the City to add 500 trees a year plus replace the ash trees that die.” However, there is no information about how this will happen and if there is any money available. The article does provide a link to the Save Your Ash Campaign, but that link does not include information on how saving trees or planting trees will be funded.

The last section to be dealt with is local food. The emphasis here is on the need to have more community gardens and local farmers markets. Some ideas are listed in the article but the only concrete plan seems to be to have a year-round farmers market downtown that is being spearheaded by a group called Grand Action. Grand Action was founded by local businessman such as John Canepa, David Frey and Dick DeVos. This “non-profit development group” was behind the construction of the arena and the convention center. Here the reporter doesn’t ask any questions about whether or not the effort to bring a year-round farmers market to downtown Grand Rapids would benefit the downtown business community primarily, particularly the friends of DeVos, Canepa and Frey.

While there is certainly a great deal to be done to make Grand Rapids a more sustainable community, the Grand Rapids Press needs to do a better job at investigating the claims made by such efforts as Green Grand Rapids in order for residents to be better informed about what is really being done in their name.