MOTHER EARTH NEWS December 2012 - January 2013

Hello, Whole Grains! Whole grains are the whole package: inexpensive, super-nutritious and vastly versatile, bringing to the table a range of flavors and textures that complement dishes both sweet and savory. You can make healthful whole grains the star of any meal, or tuck them into supporting roles in your favorite recipes (even gluten-free fare). They work as marvelously in breakfast muffins and hot cereals as they do in sides, casseroles and as popped snacks. Our Guide to Whole Grains will introduce you to the wide, wonderful world of whole grains — from amaranth, barley and bulgur to millet, quinoa and wild rice — and equip you with the know-how to choose and use these ancient foods to their best advantage. Recipes include Creamy Squash and Millet Soup, Quinoa-Zucchini Cakes,…

This year’s Mother Earth News Fairs in Washington and Pennsylvania were better than ever, with a combined attendance of more than 25,000. We are pleased to announce that next year we expect to add a third Fair in the Midwest. To follow details on the schedules and programs, all you need to do is subscribe to the Fair e-newsletter at www.MotherEarthNews.com/Fair. Also, we have begun plans to eventually offer a DVD series so readers unable to attend the Fairs can learn from the experts who offer workshops. Fairgoers had an almost insatiable interest in attending the workshops (there were more than 200 in Pennsylvania), buying books (the Fair bookstore offered more than 450 items) and visiting the 250 exhibitors’ booths. There is no doubt that the Modern Homesteading and Real…

Earning a Living on a Family Farm In your review of the Farm Bill (“Fight for Your Food,” August/September 2012), the authors define “mega-farms” as those that gross more than $250,000. I would like to point out that most family farms for which the primary income comes from farming easily gross $250,000, or much more. My father and uncle farmed together on a typical Kansas family farm of their era. My father’s 1955 tax return shows their farm grossed $248,000, which would be more than $2 million today, but their net income for that same year was only $5,400. I think many people have skewed ideas of what a family farm looks like these days and what it takes for a family to make a decent living farming. John R.…

Big thanks to everyone who held events as part of International Homesteading Education Month last September. The Event Listings and Speaker Finder will be available year-round at www.MotherEarthNews.com/Homesteading-Month to help you continue to connect with your neighbors. — MOTHER Our New Autumn Tradition Last winter, when MOTHER EARTH NEWS challenged us to hold a Homesteading Education Month event, we decided to plan an open house, but figured it would be a day just like any other. As soon as the magazine came out in spring, we received our first inquiry. A radio station called to learn more about us. Then a local reporter heard us talking about our event on the radio and wrote about it in the paper. Starting early on the morning of Sept. 15, guests began to…

GE has refused to add a warning to their bulbs’ packaging even though it has been known for many years that, when heated, Teflon-coated “nonstick” cooking pans can release a compound that kills birds and causes flu-like “polymer fume fever” in humans. On Page 90 of our October/November 2012 issue, reader Lynn Chong detailed her efforts to convince GE to add a warning label to their light bulb packaging after a bulb killed 19 birds in her coop. Chong’s story prompted us to research the history of Teflon and other perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs). Turns out there’s a great deal more to the story of DuPont’s Teflon than the deadly danger it presents to birds. Here’s the timeline we compiled from reports in The New York Times and The Washington Post…

Most of us long for the authenticity of old-fashioned recipes, in which farm-fresh ingredients contribute honest flavors. Free-range eggs, with their sunny, orange yolks; freshly churned butter sparkling with the last drops of its briny whey: This is the way food ought to taste. Thoughtful shoppers can resurrect some of those flavors by shopping carefully at farmstands and farmers markets. But one great heritage ingredient missing from most tables today is lard. Used in kitchens for centuries, lard (rendered from pork fat) has a unique mix of different types of fats that give it wonderful qualities, especially for baking and frying. If you’ve never eaten foods cooked with lard, you’re in for a lovely surprise when you do. Like most animal fats, lard is higher in saturated fat than most…