Dear [FIRSTNAME],

Spring greetings and Happy Mother's Day! The past month has been one of the fullest yet. Before departing to France, I would like to share some of this fullness with you.

Firstly, I am pleased and proud to announce that my husband, Patrice, founder of the organic farm Foundation Farm, has been invited to speak as a panelist at the Organic Summit in Boulder, Colorado next month. He will be speaking at a session entitled, “Conversations with Organic Groundbreakers.” A friend of mine from our old days in Los Angeles recently said, “leave it to Patrice to make a career out of farming.” I am very proud of him for sticking to his values and dedication to his passion of farming, despite the challenges.

In this issue of my newsletter, I announce my trip to Provence in 2009, and share with you the fun & productive corporate culinary team building event we held last month, as well as recipes from my chef demo at the farmers' market, where I enjoyed cooking outdoors and meeting new people on Thursday. The Eureka Springs Farmers' Market would like to thank the Bank of Eureka Springs and The Eureka Market for sponsoring the event. You will find these recipes at the bottom of the newsletter:
Mediterranean pasta with spinach, pine nuts & capers
Greens & sorrel miso soup
Rhubarb compote with sweet pastry crust & whipped cream

I would also like to take a moment to discuss the importance of healthy food sources and a healthy environment, as I am deeply concerned about the dangers of genetically-modified foods (known as GMO), especially as it relates to our children. See the section, News on our Food.

A team for Procter & Gamble came out to participate in Culinary Team Building with Cuisine Karen at La Lavande. With my supervision and instruction, they prepared a spinach & gruyère tart, slow roasted tomatoes, Mediterranean braised chicken with olives and carrots served on arugula; and for dessert ~ Vacherin, a layering of French meringue, berries, red raspberry sauce, and whipped cream! (pictured left with Vacherin)

Teams are created and recipes are broken down into task lists by team. Cooking comes to life as everyone participates in the making ~ and eating ~ of a 4-course meal paired with wine. Culinary team building builds employee relations and trust. Consider planning an event for your company or department! Find out more about team building events with Cuisine Karen.

It is coming to my attention more and more that we all must start to consider not only to the health of our food sources, but also the health of our environment. Sadly, I recently lost a close friend to cancer. At only 43, she left behind a devoted husband, and 3 precious children. Cancer is surrounding all of us, and no longer attacking the elderly, but also children and young adults.

Shortly after my friend's death, my family & I watched The Future of Food, a documentary providing an in-depth investigation into the unlabeled, patented, genetically-engineered foods that have quietly filled grocery store shelves for the past decade. (see San Francisco Chronicle). I hit a low point while watching the film, as it spoke of the health implications of such practices. If you would like to see the movie, please contact me, we are happy to lend our copy to you.

Genetically modified (GMO) foods are a health risk for many reasons, but what I found particularly unsettling is that the DNA in certain seeds (at present, corn, soybeans & canola) are modified to be able to thrive with applications of pesticides, herbicides and insecticides. These dangerous toxins can no longer simply be washed off ~ they become part of the food itself. Still more unsettling is that the GMO crops are actually subjected to more and greater doses of these chemicals, as pests, weeds, and bugs become resistant (see Business Week). Several herbicides contain 2,4-D, a chemical similar to Agent Orange, known to cause birth defects. Despite numerous protests from the FDA, GMO-produced foods line our shelves; there are no regulations restricting the biochemical engineering industry.

As we discussed during my culinary classes last weekend, it is vital to our health and the health of our environment (which in turn affects our health) that we buy local and support the organic foods industry. The consumption of corn is more prevalent than we realize. It is particularly frightening that corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup are in countless products marketed toward children ~ everything from ketchup to juice, not forgetting corn starch, found in many baked goods. Wheat and sugar beets are currently being crop tested, amid much controversy, for GMO production in the United States.

WORLDWIDE CONCERN
Countries around the world are alarmed by genetically altered seeds. A trade representative for Japan stated, “We will watch the children in the United States for the next 10 years [before making a decision about GMO].” French courts upheld the ban on corn produced by American seed company Monsanto, a unit of the chemical company DuPont (The European market represents a loss of $300 billion annually for Monsanto.) The European Union's Council of Ministers upholds a ban on engineered corn and rapeseed (canola) that has been maintained since 1997. Read The New York Times “French Court Upholds Ban on Gene-Altered Corn Seed.”

Fortunately, there are solutions to the large-scale industrial food model ~ organic farmers, farmers' markets, and community supported agriculture (CSA) are three of several solutions. Organic fresh food and organic processed foods are gaining shelf space in our conventional supermarkets. Your local natural food stores, Ozark Natural Foods in Fayetteville, The Eureka Market in Eureka Springs, Cook's Natural Foods in Rogers, Aikins and Whole Foods in Tulsa continue to be excellent places to find high quality organic food. Where you shop will make the difference in the future of our food. If you are concerned about the higher out-of-pocket cost of organic foods, consider that you are quite likely saving on long-term health costs. I truly consider our food to be not only a major source of sustenance and enjoyment, but also our medical and heath insurance.

Go Wal-Mart! Last month, Wal-Mart announced that it's store brand milk will come exclusively from cows not treated with artificial growth hormones. Wal-Mart is the largest retailer of organic milk in the United States, and offers us great hope for change, as it is indeed hearing the demand from it's customers for milk that is free of genetically modified hormones. See Canadian Globe and Mail (full article) “Wal-Mart Move 'Tipping Point' for Non-Hormone Milk.”

What can you do to ensure the health of yourself and your family? In addition to employing an organic/buy-local way of life, you may visit Citizens for Health, the voice of the natural health consumer, where you may sign-up to receive updates about natural health news, important policy and legislation, and opportunities to take action.

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Pour the pine nuts onto a dry cookie sheet, and toast in the oven for 5 minutes. Do not overbrown or they will become bitter.
2. To cook pasta, bring a large pot of salted water and cook pasta as directed on package, reserving a little of the cooking water upon draining. Set pasta aside in bowl with ¼ c. of cooking liquid, stirring occasionally.
3. Melt the butter in a pot. Add olive oil, whole spinach leaves and garlic; salt and pepper lightly. Sauté until spinach wilts, add pine nuts and capers, cook 1 minute.. Add pasta, tossing well with a serving fork. Season again with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
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My French friend Céline inspired this recipe. Traditional French sorrel soup is made with a light chicken stock. I find that miso makes a fun alternative. Miso is a very nutritious traditional Japanese food produced by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and a fungus called kojikin. It can be found in the refrigerator-section at your natural food store.

This soup is FAST (how fast can you boil water?), it takes all of 15 minutes to prepare, including washing the greens!

Serves 6-8