The post Wood is the New Plastic: Sustainable, Educational Toys by Tree Blocks appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

HELLO FRIENDS!!!! I know I have been gone for a long time since my last interview, but this one was definitely worth the wait. Today I’m talking with my friend Lander Oppen, the owner of the toy company Tree Blocks. Lander inherited Tree Blocks after his father’s passing and is carrying on his legacy: an eco-friendly, educational toy line made from natural wood. Tree Blocks makes toys that will last decades and will teach your children and your children’s children math concepts, building principles, spacial reasoning, coordination, physical balance and creativity. Tree Blocks’ toys are guaranteed for life as long as you own them and each toy (as you will read in this article) is made with love and has a special story behind it. There are no rules when imagination and building blocks come together, and speaking from personal experience these beautiful, sustainable, wooden toys are a lot of fun!

IN THIS INTERVIEW YOU WILL LEARN:

• How a passion for wood working and childrens’ education blossomed into a beautiful company
• How natural, wooden toys can inherently be the most imaginative, educational and timeless gift
• What makes a wood source sustainable
• Why it is important for children to be connected to nature
• How ethical businesses forge mutually beneficial relationships with manufacturers
• The struggles of small businesses to afford production costs
• The duties of ethical businesses owners towards everyone working under them
• How truly sustainable businesses cannot expect exponential growth

LANDER OPPEN OF TREE BLOCKS:

Kelsey: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and how Tree Blocks came to be?

Lander: Of course, my name is Lander Oppen and I took over Tree Blocks, a company my dad started, when he passed away a couple of years ago. He loved working with wood and was always doing various wood projects. I mean, he had me working in the wood shop with him since I was 4 years old. In 1995 he decided he wanted to be done with the corporate contractor life and take his wood working in a different direction. He had a lot of wood scraps left over from various projects so my mom started collecting them in bags and selling them to parents at the local Waldorf school. Kids used them for all sorts of things- gluing them together for crafts, coloring them, stacking them- it was the students’ creativity that inspired my dad to envision them as blocks. After selling them for a bit my mom told my dad, “People just want the natural looking sticks”. So he went into the garage for two days and came back with a version of unit blocks that were made out of natural wood and that’s how Tree Blocks came to be. 24 years later we still make the same blocks.

Kelsey: Can you explain what unit blocks are for those who don’t know?

Lander: Sure. Unit blocks were invented in the early 1900s. Another term for them is Kindergarten blocks and they were basically made for young children to have really easy, physical representations of basic math skills. So there are a few different ways to make unit blocks, but ours are unit blocks, because they are cut in two centimeter increments. So they go from 2 to 10 cm and you can do things like stack 3 2 centimeter blocks to equal the height of 1 6 centimeter block when building structures.

Kelsey: What is Tree Blocks’ mission?

Lander: Tree Blocks’ mission has always been to provide the best educational toys for children while not damaging the environment. That along with my personal mission for the future of the company, provide simple, inherently educational toys for as many children as possible. I feel like there are a lot of electronics veering away from the natural world. So I want to connect as many children back to nature.

Kelsey: Why do you think that kids having access to toys made of natural materials is important?

Lander: Because trees are some of the most important things we have. Without trees converting oxygen we wouldn’t have life. So being able to identify a piece of wood, and have an association with it being something that helped you grow as a child, is building that reverence in your mind. I like to think building those connections at a young age poises people to care about the environment for the rest of their lives. I know it did for me.

Kelsey: Tree Blocks is known for sourcing sustainable wood. Can you explain exactly what makes a wood source sustainable?

Lander: There are a couple of places that we source wood. We get a lot of our fresh wood from Vietnam where laws are in place to ensure all wood harvesting is done sustainably. They grow forests intended for lumber that are constantly being replenished at a rate that allows the ecosystem to recover. We also use a lot of scrap wood. I don’t necessarily want to call it trash, but we do take a lot of what would become trash otherwise and turn it into beautiful, educational toys. Even the paper industry doesn’t use end limbs and we can turn them into craft rounds, dolls, blocks or whatever we need them for. Tree trimmers strip away bark and throw it away when making boards. My dad took those scraps and crafted a castle out of them. The Amish factory we employ collects fallen down trees by horse. Basically we don’t ever cut down live trees unless they are being harvested in a responsible, sustainable way.

Kelsey: Will you tell me a little bit about the Amish factory you contract?

Lander: Yeah, absolutely. My dad was contracting a factoring in Poland, but it got so expensive he wasn’t going to be able to stay in business. He wasn’t sure what his next move would be, because it was really important to him to continue to contract factories that treat their employees well. A really important man in the toy world, Mark Levine, was a good friend of my father’s and linked him up with an Amish community in Wisconsin and a Vietnamese factory we also currently do business with. So this community in Wisconsin has a really cute cabinet shop and their production is amazing. I mean they crank out cabinets and furniture. So my dad asked them if they would be willing to make Tree Blocks. He taught them how to make Tree Blocks and helped them figure out how they could make small modifications to their tools to help them make the toys. So basically they make cabinets and when they get a Tree Blocks order they switch around everything and crank it out. Our warehouse is only 10 miles from there so the products, at least on the production side, don’t have to travel far.

There was a long process of getting to know them. The community is very tight knit. If you want to do business there you have to talk to who you want to do business with, then talk to the elders of the community. Then they have to make sure you have a good business and there is nothing sketchy going on. They make sure that everyone will be treated fairly and no one will be able to take advantage of anyone else. It’s really cool actually. They have people in place that really watch the community. Their shop or a friend’s shop had burned down a few years before we were in there and the whole community came together to rebuild it. Then the owner slowly payed back the community. It’s a really cool system.

I’ve met them a few times and it’s always been really great. They use machines that are hundreds of years old made back when Chicago steel was made to never break. It all runs on two gallons of diesel gas a day. No electricity. It’s really amazing. They are so smart and industrious.

To produce in the USA is astronomically expensive for a small business, but through them we are able to keep a lot of our labor in the country. We have a mutual trust based off of the honor system. When they need more money for production costs or anything Tree Blocks makes sure we give it to them and in turn they give us really high quality products. My dad made some really fruitful, mutually beneficial relationships with truly beautiful communities while he was alive.

Kelsey: Will you talk about the Vietnamese factory?

Lander: My father visited there often, but I’ve never been. I plan to go in the next couple of years, but it’s a big expense for a small company. I have a person watching over the factory, and he communicates with my business manager and me often about conditions and any other business concerns. What I do know now is that someone working there makes 2 to 3 times the amount they would working an average factory job, which is really great. It is also a small group of workers so everyone can be attended to.

Kelsey: Do you think it is important to give jobs to people in third would countries from an ethical standpoint?

Lander: With the reality that we live in today, yes. My company can afford to pay these employees wages that really improve their lives and are still affordable for us. I think as someone in a more privileged position it is my duty to make sure I am taking care of every person who is a part of the process of keeping Tree Blocks alive. There are a lot of companies and corporations where the distribution of wealth is really skewed, but my dad never wanted it to be that way.

However, in my idealistic perspective I would say, no. I hope that the USA can move towards making American labor feasibly affordable for small businesses. And I hope Vietnam will be able to give its citizens better employment opportunities. Outsourcing labor has a huge cost on the environment as far as transportation goes. We are extremely inefficient internationally, and manufacturing within one’s own country is a huge step towards reducing those effects.

Kelsey: As Tree Blocks grows how do you plan on keeping the company sustainable?

Lander: Keep using scrap wood and continue to take care of all employees involved. I have to ask myself, “How big can the company get without jeopardizing our morals? Are there enough scraps? Would I have to expand to a factory that might not treat their employees ethically?”

Kelsey: So this is a hypothetical and you already sort of touched on this, but if you got to a point where you could no longer grow your company while still holding onto your sustainable values would you cap the growth?

Lander: Yes. There comes a point where a company is just too big to be sustainable for a myriad of reasons, and I never want to cross that threshold. A goal of mine is to grow and maintain multiple small companies. That way I can continue to grow my success while remaining sustainable and giving more people who may be employed by me a better life.

Kelsey: I think that is a really key thing to understand as a business owner. Exponential growth is not sustainable, and unfortunately our country and much of the world market doesn’t seem to grasp that. Somewhere at some point down the chain of command, someone is going to get the short end of the stick when all you care about is growing profit. And it’s usually the people at the bottom that end up suffering.

Lander: Absolutely, I know I could source my labor cheaper, or sell my company to someone manufacturing plastic toys, but I don’t want that and my father didn’t want that either. It’s a balance.

Kelsey: Did you feel overwhelmed taking over the company in the wake of your father’s death?

Lander: Yeah. It was like a wave crashing over me. I wasn’t really doing anything serious with my life before I got the news he was sick. I moved to Tuscan to be with him in his last months. The plan was him showing me the family business and me running it with him. But he died 10 days after I moved there. It all happened so fast. I moved down there, he gave his friend power of attorney- we turned the company into a LLC from a sole proprietorship so that the company could go to me and not dissolve into a bunch of court fiascoes… and then he died.

Luckily my business manager Liz was able to help. I was also taking over the company after it had been around for 22 years so it was pretty established. I’m still learning the ropes and Liz has been so crucial in helping with the transition. She cares so much about the company [worked with Lander’s father for many years]; I owe a lot to her.

Kelsey: Thank you for opening up about that. A couple more questions. This one’s a little less heavy. What’s your favorite Tree Blocks toy? 

Lander: I think my favorite toy is the crash car, and that’s just a very personal thing. I have always loved cars; when I was a kid, man, I was a car nut. I had all the car magazines, all the hot wheels… so I guess when my dad made this car I always had a fond eye for it. I always have one around. I have one on my bedside table that my dad made himself.

Kelsey: Can you explain what the crash car is?

Lander: Yeah, the crash car is a magnetic puzzle toy. It basically represents an old Cadillac of natural wood. The wheels, the side panels and the chassis all come apart, and the magnets are oriented in such a way that they only come together one way. Originally my dad designed it with children who are blind in mind. Without your eyes to see you can put it together still. It takes a bit longer, but it is really good for your coordination.

Kelsey: What makes Tree Blocks special?

It’s a family owned and operated company, and everyone involved truly believes that they are a part of something that is helping the world. Everybody along the line thinks they are doing something special, that they are doing something unique and feel that they are a part of a beautiful, passive educational revolution. We’re doing something so different than the rest of the toy industry, which is largely plastic or electronic.

Kelsey: Tree Blocks absolutely is a revolution. It’s pushing for a return to production of the past. It’s not a new idea, and yet it must be reintroduced, because we have moved so far from sustainable, ethical models.

Lander: It’s a reminder. It’s a reminder of what I feel is important. Here you and I are, surrounded by redwood trees, doing this right now. I think it’s important to be around nature. To support it, to remember it, to respect it and to cherish it. My dad created something that parents and kids can play with for 5-10 years of their upbringing and then pass on to others. Something that lasts and educates. If it wasn’t a company this special that I had inherited I probably would have sold it. It’s special.

Kelsey: Is there anything else you want people to know about Tree Blocks?

Lander: I’d like it to be known that Tree Blocks is and was my dad. He was the reason the company was built. He designed every toy. He just loved being in the garage making toys for kids. He created his freedom with something that he loved to do… and mine. He created my freedom as well. That’s pretty amazing.

Kelsey: Thank you for letting me interview you and thank you for your willingness to talk about such personal things.

Lander: Yeah, thank you. It was fun.

WRAP UP:

Well that’s it for today! If you want to learn more about Tree Blocks or order one of there toys check out their website here! https://www.treeblocks.com/

If you want to learn more about sustainability and running an eco-friendly home check out my interview with the founder of the Go Green Initiative or check out any of the many other resources on Get Cultured Kitchen such as this interview on sustainable fishing or this interview about what it takes to run a sustainable restaurant. Or perhaps an article on how to live in balance with Mother Earth, spiritually and practically.

Thanks for reading everyone! I look forward to hearing from you; have a spectacular week!

The post Wood is the New Plastic: Sustainable, Educational Toys by Tree Blocks appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

The post Biggest Fish in the Sea pt. 1: “Complete Guide to Sustainable Fishing Techniques” appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

Caption: Quote from Marine Photobank-

Credit: Marine Photobank from (c) 1990 Bob Talbot, LegaSea Project

Introduction:

Hello everyone! Sometimes making sustainable and ethical food choices can be really confusing. The fishing industry is so big and there are so many issues wrapped up in it. Over fishing, illegal fishing and accidental catching and killing of untargeted marine species (bycatch) in the process of fishing are just a few. So how do we navigate this sea (pun intended) of issues? It seems like the only way to ensure the fish we are eating are sustainable is to go out there and catch it ourselves! Now I know you don’t got time for that. Neither do I. So I’m writing a series of posts on fishing to make identifying sustainable fish crystal clear. The first post is about the different types of fishing and their impact on marine life. Most importantly we will be highlighting which methods are sustainable fishing techniques. It’s good to know what to avoid, but even better to know who to support and what is safe to buy!

In This Post You Will Learn:

• What is sustainable fishing?
• Which types of fishing are considered sustainable fishing methods?
• Why is it important to support sustainable fishing methods?
• Who is the MSC and what is MSC certified?
• Who is Seafood Watch?

Fish speak: (Definitions)

Just a few definitions to make reading this post seamless!

• Fisheries: An area in the water where fish are fished
• Bycatch: Species of marine life unintentionally caught by fishermen
• Juvenile: Young fish not of reproductive age yet
• Forage Fish: Fish reared or caught to be used as bait

What is Sustainable Fishing and Why is it Important?

Sustainable fishing practices guarantee they can be done indefinitely without reducing the targeted marine species ability to repopulating at a healthy, natural rate. And also without adversely effecting other species within the ecosystem by accidentally harming or killing them, removing their food source or hurting the environment in which they live in. This includes humans who rely on fish for a food source and the ocean for transportation of goods, oxygen and recreation. Oh wait… that’s everyone! When we do not use sustainable fishing practices we risk destroying ecosystems on which we depend on literally for survival, but we will cover more of that in subsequent posts! So why is sustainable fishing important? Because without it we will drive the species we have come to enjoy to extinction. And we are a lot closer with many popular species than you’d think! (More on that later too. I don’t want this post to turn into an insanely long essay!)

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC):

The Marine Stewardship Council is the largest international non-profit third party certifier of sustainable, wild fisheries. You can find MSC certified fish at many markets.

Just look for this label on the packaging:

Note: In reading MSC’s website I want to mention that I saw them often write that fishermen are “often” required to do certain things, or they “may” have adapted x,y,z precaution.

The process: MSC auditing parties look at 31 different questions when assessing a fishery. A fishery cannot score lower than 60 (out of 100) on any given requirement, and furthermore must average at least 80 to qualify. During certification fisheries have 5 years to achieve a score of 80 in all categories, and are audited yearly. MSC certifies fisheries who are not at perfect 100s across the board, because they want to encourage fisheries who are working towards change and reward them for that effort. Any fishery who is meeting the standards to become certified may not be perfect, but they are certainly making a significant impact on environment sustainability. Which means long term protection of fish supply, fishing jobs, and marine ecosystems.

Positives:

• Community is encouraged to partake in the approval of fisheries and are free to voice concerns.
• The MSC also seems concerned with constantly improving and narrowing/ specifying their certification requirements.
• They are a non-profit organization.

Possible concerns:

• They have certifications for almost all fish of any size and any fishing method. Some methods, although there are steps to make them less devastating to the environment are naturally more destructive. Even with precautions they still have greater damage than other methods. If everyone with fishing equipment was responsible, this might not be a big issue, but unfortunately illegal, unregulated fishing is a big problem in the ocean. In the wrong hands these inherently destructive methods can do severe damage to ocean ecosystems in a short amount of time. If instead it was illegal to possess something inherently destructive (like a bottom trawler) it might be easier to stop illegal fishing. Fishermen have to DOCK AT A PORT? at some point and wouldn’t want to be caught with illegal equipment, plus the equipment would be harder to get a hold of if illegal.
• The MSC allows for many entities to be stakeholders. “Fisheries Certification Requirements:… ‘To provide the transparency that is required of an international certification scheme for it to have credibility with potential stakeholders, including governments, international governmental bodies (e.g., regulatory bodies, fishery managers), CABs (conformity assessment bodies), suppliers of fish and fish products, non-governmental organisations and consumers’ “. It is a possibility that anyone who stands to make money off of lax certification requirements… governments, fishermen, suppliers of fish products… could have a conflict of interest.
• Through the MSC certification program fisheries get to pick and hire the auditing third party that evaluates them. Although the CAB (auditing third party) has guidelines they must follow this still seems to open up the possibility of more conflicts of interest.

Overall, I do not think the MSC is perfect, but if you do not have the opportunity to know your fisherman first hand than looking to buy MSC certified is a good place to be. They are a large, trusted, international body, and I think their heart is in the right place! They do incredible work to protect our oceans.

However, nothing beats going to the local fish market, wharf or farmers’ market to meet your fisherman. It’s much easier to ask questions that way. Non-commercial fisherman are also less likely to be using the large scale, particularly harmful fishing methods anyway. Yay for sustainable fishing!

Seafood Watch:

“The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program helps consumers and businesses choose seafood that’s fished or farmed in ways that protect sea life and habitats, now and for future generations. Their recommendations indicate which seafood items are “Best Choices” or “Good Alternatives,” and which ones you should “Avoid.” ” They are not a certification program, rather they direct people to fish that can be trusted and are certified by others. (Kind of like what I do!) They have a really handy app called Seafood Watch that helps with making sustainable choices while you are out and about. I highly recommend using it in tandem with the resources on Get Cultured Kitchen, which get a little more into the “behind the scenes” of what sustainability means.

Bottom Trawling- Verdict? BAD 

Definition: Bottom Trawlers are cone shaped nets with weights that are dragged by boats. The least discriminatory type of fishing, bottom trawlers scrape along the ocean floor sweeping up coral reefs and rock gardens where fish nest and hide from predators. Coral reefs take decades to rebuild themselves. (Margot L. Stiles, Julie Stockbridge, Michelle Lande, Michael F. Hirshfield May 2010)

Credit: Marine Stewardship Council

• They are often used to catch shrimp so the netting is tiny and leaves little chance of bycatch to escape. (Margot L. Stiles, Julie Stockbridge, Michelle Lande, Michael F. Hirshfield May 2010)
  • Bycatch is usually juveniles of species commonly fished along with seabirds, turtles, sharks, rays, marine mammals and many other aquatic species. Bottom trawling catches significantly more bycatch than intended catch. “In the Gulf of Mexico, scientists estimate that for every pound of shrimp caught, between four and ten pounds of marine resources are thrown away, although the World Wide Fund for Nature estimates in all bottom trawling about 40% is bycatch on average. (Harrington et al. 2005, Nance and Scott-Denton 1997, Alverson et al. 1994) (Margot L. Stiles, Julie Stockbridge, Michelle Lande, Michael F. Hirshfield May 2010)
• There are ways to bottom trawl fish that are a little less destructive. Keeping the net just above the ocean floor prevents some of the coral reef destruction. Gear such as “rock hoppers” (rubber discs on the bottom of the net) can reduce how much of the net comes into contact with the ocean floor. The ocean is mapped and monitored so sensitive areas with endangered species can be protected, and bottom trawling can be avoided during spawning season. However, it is still important to push for the illegalization of bottom trawling. Much of the ocean is not “owned” by any country and therefore it is difficult to police the deep sea. Even a few illegal fisherman can do massive damage if using a bottom trawling net, which is an inherently destructive form of fishing. It is much more difficult to make sure fisherman are staying out of marine protected areas, (or even what area needs to be protected) when you get out into the deep sea. Many deep sea fish are slow growing and late to mature/ reproduce so their populations can’t handle the pressures of fishing, let alone heavy fishing. Making the manufacturing of bottom trawls illegal would be a big step in fighting illegal fishing. (Margot L. Stiles, Julie Stockbridge, Michelle Lande, Michael F. Hirshfield May 2010)

• “Bans on Bottom Trawling: Bottom trawling has been banned in many different locations worldwide. Indonesia- The government of Indonesia banned bottom trawling to increase catches and income for local fishermen and to end conflicts with industrial trawlers. (JALA) Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina (US)- The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council banned bottom trawling in 23,000 square miles of rare deep-sea corals from North Carolina to Florida. This ban followed the destruction of more than 90% of a nearby bank of Oculina corals by trawling. California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska (US)- The Pacific and North Pacific Fishery Management Councils banned bottom trawling in more than 840,000 square miles of seafloor in the Pacific, Bering Sea, and the Arctic. The state of California banned bottom trawling for spot prawns to reduce discards and increase prawn catches for fishermen using more selective gear. Hawaii and Pacific Islands (US)- The Western Pacific Fishery Management council banned bottom trawling in 1.5 million square miles around Hawaii and other Pacific islands in US waters. Bottom trawling is also banned in more than 330,000 square miles of the Pacific islands from Samoa to the Mariana Trench which are protected as a National Monument. Azores, Madeira, and Canary Islands Bottom trawling is banned in more than 500,000 square miles of Atlantic waters surrounding the Canary Islands, Madeira, and the Azores. New Zealand The New Zealand government banned bottom trawling in large areas of seamounts and hydrothermal vents. Mediterranean (Europe and North Africa) The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean banned bottom trawling in approximately 630,000 square miles of deep sea waters.” (Margot L. Stiles, Julie Stockbridge, Michelle Lande, Michael F. Hirshfield May 2010)

   

Credit: NOAA

Credit: Andreas Altenburger

Credit: Phillip Miller

• Fish often caught using bottom trawling: Shrimp *Please be wary when thinking of buying shrimp at the market or a restaurant*

Gillnets- Verdict? BAD

*This information was taken from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Marine Stewardship Council*

Definition: Gillnets are a wall of netting that hangs in the water and catches fish by getting them entangled in the holes. They are designed so that a fish can get it’s head, but not it’s whole body through the hole. When they try to back out their gills will get caught in the net.

Credit: Marine Stewardship Council

• There are two main types of gillnets. One, set gillnets, are set in place by poles and one, drift gillnets, are kept in place often by buoys. Both pose different problems to marine species.
• Gillnets have minimal seabed interaction, but are still a big source of bycatch. Depending on the type of fish caught the fishermen can use different mesh sizes, reducing the risk of catching juvenile (young) bycatch. However, even with using specifc mesh sizes and targeting specific areas in the ocean, bycatch is still an issue with gillnets.
• Turtles can easily get their head or flippers entangled in the nets. This is bad news for the innocent turtle, because if they get stuck and cannot come up for air they will drown. The mesh can also cut into their flesh causing bleeding, infections and sometimes loss of limbs, which will obviously effect their ability to feed, swim and live naturally.
• Marine mammals such as dolphins, sharks, porpoise, whales and sea lions also face getting entangled in the nets. If it is a stationary gillnet they will drown and if it is a drift gillnet the will drag it along with them for miles, entangled, fatigued and inhibited.

Credit: Alessio Viora/ Marine Photobank

• In order to be MSC certified, gillnet fisheries are often required to make improvements, which include increased monitoring and independent observer coverage.
• A few things are being done to reduce bycatch such as adding breakaway panels in the net, changing the net’s slack, mesh size and depth. Pingers, an alarm attached to the nets that warn marine mammals to stay away, are also required in California and Maine through New Jersey. Prohibition on large mesh gillnets helps reduce bycatch as well as closure of fisheries during spawning and other specified times and putting weak links into gillnets to allow marine mammals to break loose. However, even with these precautions gillnetting is not the most sustainable way to catch fish. Fish may be entangled and suffering for a very long time compared to hook and line fishing, and bycatch is still a big risk.

Longlines- Verdict? BAD

Definition: Longlines are made up of long fishing poles (main lines) with a second line beneath it. The second line is clipped onto the main line at intervals and has several baited hooks on it. Depending on the fishery the longline can have up to 3,000 hooks on it and be 150 km long.

• Many longline fishing operations may transfer some of their catch to another boat while still out at sea, resulting in a lot of unreported, over-fishing and illegal fishing.
• Baiting the hooks and throwing them out can take up to 5 or 6 hours with no breaks for workers. Then the line will “soak” and wait for fish to bite for 3-4 hours and then it takes another 5 to 6 hours to bring the catch in. Not only are workers being treated in inhumane ways, but the fish may be stuck caught on the line for hours.
• Bycatch is still a big issue, particularly with catching seabirds, turtles and sharks. Weights that cause long lines to sink more quickly, and tori-lines- lines that drop from a higher point from the boat that scare away seabirds can be used. Special regulations with depth of the lines, time they are cast and areas in which they are cast also play a factor in protecting endangered, threatened and protected (ETP) species. Turtles and sharks are slow to mature and reproduce so becoming bycatch really puts their respective species at risk. Circle hooks protect these species from getting caught. When going out to buy fish it is unlikely that you will be able to gather much information about what precautions were made, unless your state law requires certain precautions and the fish is from your state. Overall if you see fish for sale and you are able to find out it was caught by longline, I would be wary.

Credit: Dr. Graham Robertson

• Below is an infographic highlighting the issues with tuna longline fishing.

Credit: GreenPeace (GPI-LonglineInfographic-RGB-DEF)

Blast Fishing- Verdict? BAD

Definition: “Blast fishing or dynamite fishing is the practice of using explosives to stun or kill schools of fish for easy collection. This often illegal practice can be extremely destructive to the surrounding ecosystem, as the explosion often destroys the underlying habitat (such as coral reefs) that supports the fish.” Find pictures in marine photobank

• Blast fishing is largely illegal worldwide, but is still practiced in some impoverished countries where regulating is difficult, explosives are available and people are desperate.
• Blast fishing kills many more fish than can be harvested. Fish litter the waves dead or struggling to stay alive. Many fish sink back to the bottom of the ocean floor, their air bladders, responsible for buoyancy, ruptured. Often times fish are obliterated by the dynamite, along with the coral reef.

Credit: (c) Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank

Credit: (c) Wolcott Henry 2005/Marine Photobank

Cyanide Fishing- Verdict? BAD

Definition: “Cyanide fishing, whereby divers crush cyanide tablets into plastic squirt bottles of sea water and puff the solution to stun and capture live coral reef fish, is widely practiced throughout Southeast Asia despite being illegal in most countries of the region. The practice began in the 1960s in the Philippines as a way to capture live reef fish for sale primarily to European and North American aquarium owners—a market now worth some $200 million a year.”

• Cyanide is used to target select fish for consumption in some Southeast Asian restaurants, but more often it is used to catch wild salt water fish for aquariums.
• There are complaints of fish being caught with cyanide developing cancer within a year.
• Despite being illegal in most countries, cyanide caught fish is a common occurrence.
• The cyanide left in the water destroys coral reefs and effects the fish that depend on those reefs for survival. It also stuns all fish in the surrounding areas when sprayed in the water.
• Look for tank-raised fish when purchasing fish for an aquarium. They will most likely be healthier and better suited for domesticated life.
• The jury is still out on how dangerous it is to eat cyanide caught fish. The amounts in the fish are usually trace, but someone who eats a lot of cyanide caught fish in their diet are at risk of getting sick. Pregnant women, the elderly and children should be especially wary of cyanide fishing.

Purse Seine- Verdict? OKAY

Definition: Purse seines are used to catch schools of single-species fish like tuna and mackerel. A vertical net is used to surround the fish and then the bottom is drawn together to form a net around the school.

Image from msc.org

• Purse seine fishing is in open water so it has no contact with the ocean floor. The main issue is catching too many juvenile fish of a species, but fisherman can specifically target schools of adult fish and make sure the mesh of the net is large enough for juveniles to escape. This is how fisherman ensure that there are enough fish left to reproduce.
• Purse seine fishing is very efficient as it can scoop up an entire school of fish. If there are no regulations on the amount of fish allowed to be caught in that fishery it is easy to over fish. It’s efficiency also make it dangerous in the hands of illegal fishers.
• Another form of purse seines is using them to catch fish congregating around a fish aggregating device. Over 300 species can be drawn in by FADs and so using them has high bycatch issues. *Be wary of this type of purse seine fishing*
• Overall purse seine can be a sustainable fishing method if regulated properly. Look for purse seine caught fish that is also third party certified.

Pole and Line/ Hook and Line- Verdict? GOOD

Definition: Pole and line fishing is the way you imagine it goes when people fish. Individual fisherman all have fishing poles and can catch one fish at a time. When a school of targeted fish is located a process called chumming will occur where water is sprayed from the back of the boat and several lines of bait fish will be cast out to mimic a school of prey fish.

• Pole and line fishing is one of the most sustainable types of fishing for several reasons. Bycatch can quickly be released from the boat and it is easy to target areas to significantly reduce bycatch. Also, the process is much slower with less fish caught so fish have time to reproduce. It is also more humane, because fish can swiftly be killed as soon as they get on the boat. If you can, look for fish caught this way!

Pots and Traps- Verdict? OKAY to GOOD

Definition: Pots and traps are cage like structures with concave cone like entrances that make it difficult for crustaceans to escape once they enter the cage. Bait is put in the cage to lure in prey. They rest on the bottom of the floor and a string of them are often connected by fishing line.

• Overall pots and traps have a lower impact on ocean ecosystems. Bycatch can often be released back into the ocean since they are only trapped.
• Since they are stationary they often do not interact with the ocean floor much, but in high sea storms they may cause damage to the ocean floor.
• Pots and traps may lure in bycatch, but measures can be taken to reduce this risk. Escape rings can be put in the cages and the mesh of the cage can be big enough to allow small bycatch to escape. Although it is uncommon there are also special openings that can be put on the entrances of traps to deter the wrong species from getting trapped in the first place. In Australia fisherman are encouraged to put a vertical bar across the entrance to stop sea turtles from trying to get in.
• Another issue is whales, turtles and sea lions getting caught in the line or on the lines connecting the pots. Marine mammals and turtles that get entangled will eventually drown if they cannot come up for air. Fisherman can attach weak links to the lines so that they will break away if the force of a large animal hits them. They can also make sure the lines connecting the pots sink to the bottom of the ocean so they are not floating and in the way.

 Image credit: NOAA

• “Forage fish” or the fish used for bait can be over fished and cause real damage to the ocean environments. If forage fish are depleted there are less available for predatory marine species. Fisherman should consider using smaller quantities of forage fish and instead resort to fish parts or artificial bait. To learn more about the issues surrounding forage fish read my interview with sustainable seafood advocate Lyfe Gildersleeve.
• Finally, pots and traps can be lost at sea and continue to unintentionally “ghost fish” trapping sea creatures until they break down. Fisherman can lose anywhere from 10-30% of their gear. To combat this they are now using biodegradable cages. Though an organized effort to retrieve lost traps would be best.

Credit: Nina Kristin Nilsen/Marine Photobank.

Pelagic or Midwater Trawl- Verdict? BAD

Definition: Midwater trawlers are “cone-shaped” nets with wide openings and tapered ends designed to catch midwater fish such as herring and mackerel.

Credit: Marine Stewardship Council

• They tend to be much larger than bottom trawlers and although they do not touch the ocean floor they are still associated with bycatch and catching juvenile fish. https://www.msc.org/healthy-oceans/sustainable-fishing/fishing-methods-and-gear-types/pelagic-midwater-trawls
• Using specific mesh sizes and exclusionary devices such as pingers (defined under gillnets) are used to reduce bycatch such as marine mammals and sea turtles. https://www.msc.org/healthy-oceans/sustainable-fishing/fishing-methods-and-gear-types/pelagic-midwater-trawls
• Sea turtles are at risk of being caught while they swim from the bottom of the ocean (where they feed) to the surface for air. They can drown this way, have their shells or limbs broken by the weight of the catch or suffer serious damage while being dumped onto the deck. Unfortunately, even if they survive the catch turtles are often near death when tossed back in the water. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/interactions/gear/midwatertrawl.htmTED’s or Turtle Excluder Devices are used to help ideally any bycatch larger than 10cm to escape. The way a TED works is metal bars are placed midway through the net that turtles are too large to fit through. This way they are unable to swim to and get trapped in the back of the net. Then above or below the bars are openings for bycatch to swim out off, however the openings are often too small for large marine mammals and some larger turtle species. Seaweed and other debris can also block the openings, making it impossible for the turtles to escape. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_excluder_device
• Many species of marine mammals, particularly species of sharks and dolphins, forage midwater, so they are at high risk of getting caught up in a midwater trawl. Unfortunately, I was unable to find information on what is done to reduce mammalian bycatch. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/interactions/gear/midwatertrawl.htm
• Despite all this midwater trawls can actually be very effective. If they are managed carefully and target an adult school of fish they will have very low levels of bycatch. Although, not mentioned anywhere I read I would say one drawback might be just how efficient it can be. Midwater trawling can wipe out an entire school of fish easily, making it easy to over fish that species. Slower types of fishing such as hook and line give fish much more time to “recuperate” by reproducing, because significantly less fish are being removed from the sea at once.

Spear/ Speargun/ Harpoon- Verdict? GOOD

• Definition: You are probably familiar with spear fishing. It is exactly what it sounds like. A spear or harpoon is thrown in the water to spear one fish. A speargun is a mechanism that can propel a spear into the water quickly.
• Spear fishing is sustainable, because only one fish is caught at once and it is easy to target the one fish you intend to catch so bycatch is low.
• A harpoon is used to catch larger fish such as bluefin tuna. Bluefin tuna is a highly prized, highly overfished fish. In America fishermen are only allowed to catch them with a harpoon or hook and line method to allow the bluefin tuna to repopulate.

Dredge- Verdict? OKAY to BAD

Doesn’t it sounds dredge-ful?

Definition: A dredge is a rigid structure that is dragged along the ocean floor to pick up bivalves (oysters, clams, mussels, scallops, etc).

• The location being dredged greatly determines the practices impact on the environment. The dredge breaks up sediment on the seabed that may or may not be supporting a large habitat. If not careful they can have similar effects to bottom trawling on the ocean floor.
• Thankfully controlled mesh size and escape panels make sure bycatch and undersized bivalves will not get caught in the dredge.
• Restrictions on when and where dredging can take place and replacing traditional dredges with lighter ones with boulder exclusion devices have helped control and reduce their impact.
• This is not the only way bivalves can be harvest though! Often times they are farmed in controlled areas and less invasive fishing measures such as tonging (like using a large rake) can be used. Which is good news for us, because bivalves are extremely nutritious!
• FUN FACT: Some scientists do not consider bivalves sentient, because they do not have a brain or Central Nervous System! This means some vegans include them in their diet, particularly oysters which are an excellent source of vitamin B12.

TAKE AWAY:

*ANY FISHING METHOD CAN BE UNSUSTAINABLE IF NOT USED RESPONSIBLY*

There are a lot of questions one should ask before purchasing fish such as where is it from? Is it endangered? Is it wild or farmed? But today we learned about:

HOW WAS IT CAUGHT?

A quick overview:

METHODS TO AVOID: Bottom Trawling, Gillnets, Longlines, Pelagic (Midwater) Trawling, Blast Fishing, Cyanide Fishing

METHODS THAT CAN BE SUSTAINABLE IF USED PROPERLY: Dredge, Pots and Traps, Purse Seine

METHODS THAT ARE GENERALLY SUSTAINABLE: Hook and Line, Spear *Look for these methods first when buying fish!

SO HOW DO I FIND FISH CAUGHT BY HOOK AND LINE OR SPEAR?

KNOW YOUR FISHERMAN!!! If you have a local fish market or farmers’ market, chances are you have access to local fish or at least someone who is knowledgeable about whether sustainable fishing methods were used. Plus, a small vendor is much less likely to be using commercial scale fishing methods, which do the most damage in our oceans. Like everything else: Keep it small and keep it local.

WHAT IF I DON’T HAVE ACCESS TO A LOCAL FISHERMAN?

If you do not have a local fish provider the best option is to abstain from fish, but I know that most people aren’t willing to do that. (And I totally get it!) So the next best step is to

• • Buy wild caught, hook and line fish online. Unfortunately, your fish may have to travel farther to get to you, but so did the grocery store fish and at least you are voting with your dollar towards a place that is using sustainable practices. Here are a couple of exceptional online distributors
    • Vital Choice – Vital Choice is a sustainable seafood distributor who is committed to protecting and managing our oceans. They are very transparent about their products. They tell you were their fish came from, who certified it, how it was caught (usually hook and line), and how it maintains it’s freshness (usually flash frozen which is the freshest next to eating it right off the boat!) They can even ship live bivalves (oysters, clams, etc) right to your doorstep. You don’t have to live on the coast anymore to have access to extremely fresh fish in the United States!
    • Alaska Gold Seafood –Alaska Gold Seafood is a “seafood producers cooperative” meaning it is a collection of Alaskan fisherman that all meet the cooperatives strict sustainability requirements. All fish is hook and line caught and there are little bios about each seafood producer so you can really get to know your fisherman! Plus they have Loyalty Program to save you money. Pretty sweet deal.
      • • Alaska Gold Club Loyalty Program
        • Line-Caught, wild, sustainable Alaska Halibut
        • Get Wild, Line-Caught Alaskan Salmon

       

• Look for Marine Stewardship Council certified fish at the grocery store (look for a blue check on the package). Can be found all over… even at Target!
• Download the Seafood Watch App!

Next in series: What fish species are safe to eat and which ones are better avoided?

*Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links for businesses I really admire and have thoroughly reviewed! If you chose to buy something from them through the link on my website it will not cost you any thing extra, but I will get a small commission on the sale… you’re helping me keep the dream alive! <3 If you at all value what I do here and are looking to buy these products anyway I would be eternally grateful for the help. Thank you thank you!*

The post Biggest Fish in the Sea pt. 1: “Complete Guide to Sustainable Fishing Techniques” appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

The post Waste Not, Want Not: “Easy Tips for Anyone to Go Green Now” appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

Hello everyone! Hope you are enjoying the longest days of the year! Today I have a really special interview for you with Jill Buck. She’s the founder of Go Green Initiative: a free program educating students, teachers and communities how to live more environmentally conscious. Through reducing pollution and waste, reusing materials and through recycling, schools save money and create a healthier learning environment for our children. Jill also has easy to implement tips for home owners that are trying to live a little “greener”. Which is great in these hotter months where we use more water and blast our air conditioners. So without further ado, let’s get started!

IN THIS INTERVIEW YOU WILL LEARN:

• What the Go Green Initiative is, and how can it be implemented in your child’s school… or home.
• How ethical consumerism ties into living a green, sustainable life.
• Big and small changes we can make to reduce our environmental impact and “go green”.
• Why jumping straight onto the solar train might be a mistake and the steps you should take before you get there.
• Where to find local resources to make Green changes in your home.
• Wasting is expensive! Jill will talk us through ways schools and homes often waste, the cost and of course… quick fixes!
• Where we can learn more about going Green… on Go Green Radio!

But first… What does it mean to “Go Green”?

Go Green: ” ‘Going green’ means to pursue knowledge and practices that can lead to more environmentally friendly and ecologically responsible decisions and lifestyles, which can help protect the environment and sustain its natural resources for current and future generations.”

or straight off of the Go Green Initiative site for what it means to Go Green in the classroom:

What does it mean to “Go G.R.E.E.N.”?

Generate less waste

Recycle everything that cannot be reused

Educate the community on eco-friendly options

Evaluate the environmental impact of actions

Nourish discussions and activities that integrate environmental education into existing curriculum

JILL BUCK OF GO GREEN INITIATIVE:

Kelsey: What exactly is Go Green initiative and what inspired you to start it? Who is Jill Buck? I know before working on this you were a Naval officer, so this is a big change.

Jill: Yeah well, when I was in the Navy there was a point where my command was getting ready for an inspection from our Admiral that happened every three years. And it was my job to help the command get ready for that inspection. That would encompass things like keeping our classified material locked properly; locking our weapons up properly, because we had small arms; all kinds of things. There is a really thick binder of requirements. But that was at the time in the early 90’s when President Clinton had just signed an Executive Order requiring the entire Federal government to purchase recycled content paper. So out of this huge list of things I had to get our command ready to be inspected on, that was one little line item. So as I was going around from space to space in our command looking for other things I would feel the paper. And at that time you could tell by feeling it if it was recycled content. And so, that was my first kind of introduction into environmentally responsible purchasing. And our command was also starting to recycle paper in addition to purchasing recycled content paper.

So that was just one of the things I would go around doing. We had a huge command and I would look and see if we were doing those things. And then when I became a civilian and I got involved in my kids’ schools that little part of my brain just didn’t shut off. I mean, I could walk into a classroom and see if they were using recycled content paper. Are they recycling paper? You know, and so I was thinking, “Well there’s a violation”… *chuckles*… it was still with me.

When my oldest daughter started school we lived in South Carolina, but when she was in second grade we moved here to Pleasanton (California). And I was thinking, “Gosh, we’re going to be living 25 miles from Berkeley and everybody there is environmentally conscious. Surely the schools we will be taking her into will be doing all this right. And when we came here I found that that was not the case. We were not recycling, we were not trying to reduce waste, we were wasting energy, wasting water… I mean, the whole gamut.

So I became the PTA President for Walnut Grove Elementary and what I really wanted to do was just find a program that was already set. That I could just bring to the principal and say, “Can you do this and create a more environmentally responsible campus”. Her little sister, who’s now about to graduate from high school, was a toddler at the time. And at the same time that I was thinking about recycling and stuff in school she was experiencing some really bad asthma. There were times when it would get so bad that I would have to take her to the emergency room, and we were trying to figure out what was causing it, because no one in our family has asthma. And after a while we realized that whenever there was a “Spare the Air Day” here in the Bay Area -which means that the air is going to be higher polluted so try and carpool those days- she would have an asthma attack. So it was environmental pollutants that were causing her asthma. It wasn’t genetic thing that she was predisposed to. There were forces outside of her that were causing asthma, and the more I worked with her pediatrician the more I saw that this was a very common problem throughout the Bay Area. We have a lot of kids that are asthmatic and it’s very tied to our air quality. There are other reasons for it too, some kids are very sensitive to pesticides that are used in schools, some kids are very sensitive to schools that have poor indoor air quality.

So these two things were converging in my mind at the same time. This let’s treat the environment better, let’s recycle at school and my kid is having health problems as a result of environmental factors. And so as I was shopping around for this one-stop shopping opportunity for environmental education programs that I could bring to my kids’ school I realized there was no panacea. This was in 2002. And that’s because most programs were written by a government agency that had a mission to write curriculum or programs or activities for schools just for their area. You know, so just for energy, or just for recycling, just for water conservation. There was no program bringing them all together. So I decided to create a program for people like me *chuckles* who were too busy to do what I had been doing, which was researching all these different programs to cobble them together. I thought, “Okay, I can’t be the only one who wishes that I had found a program like this”, so I wrote the Go Green Initiative to be that program. So that’s how it all got started and that’s how it kind of filtered from my Navy days to my Mom days and came together.

Kelsey: In the paper section of your Planning Guide, (the more in-depth plan for carrying out the Go Green Initiative at schools), you briefly mention the concept of voting with our dollar. That it won’t matter if we recycle paper, if we fail to also buy recycled content paper in conjunction. In other words, in order to make recycling work, people have to actually use the products being made out of recycled materials. Suppliers will not make something there is no demand for. This concept can be applied to everything we consume, because businesses mostly measure their success in stock growth/ profit and will rarely make a sustainable change without a market demand for it.

The average person who lives in a developed country consumes a lot. From electricity to food to paper, it can be overwhelming to be as “green” as possible. Do you have any tangible tips for the average person trying to reduce their environmental impact?

Jill: Well probably the number one way to reduce your environmental impact is to look at your energy consumption; whether that’s through transportation, or the energy you consume in your home or office. Because even though the last few years the country has shifted a lot of our energy use away from coal to natural gas, it’s still not clean. It’s cleaner, but it’s still a fossil fuel. So that creates particulate matter in the air around where those plants are burning fuels. Essentially electricity is just a plant where they boil water to turn turbines to create electricity. And whether they are burning coal or through nuclear fission, or fusion or whether it’s through natural gas, or what have you… that’s generally how electricity is made. The renewable energy sources are another story, but generally that’s how our electricity comes from burning something to boil water to create steam to turn the turbines. So even though a lot of utilities have converted from coal plants to natural gas plants, they still create carbon emissions and particulate matter. So there is a substantial environmental impact to your energy use.

The other side of that of course is transportation. Transportation makes up a huge environmental footprint, both from the carbon emissions standpoint, (the greenhouse gas emissions that are incumbent in our carbon fuels), but also in the air emissions in the particulate matter that comes out of our tailpipes. Even if you have a 100% electric vehicle, unless you are charging that on electricity that’s renewable like solar panels, there’s carbon involved in getting the electricity to power your car.

So things that I do:

• I drive a Prius. There is some gasoline in there, so not 100% green, but…
• I try to consolidate my trips. I try to make sure that I’m not running 15 errands over 15 days. I think about making my drive time and distance as short as can be.
• If I’m going someplace that I can take BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit, or other forms of public transportation I do. Even when I travel for work, for the Go Green Initiative, a lot of times I’m going into a city that frankly has better public transportation than here in Pleasanton and I use it. I have to plan ahead to use it.

So I think between transportation and your electricity consumption, those are the two greatest impacts you can have. And then after that I would say food you consume, so eating as much locally grown food as you possibly can. Cutting down on meat if you can’t completely cut out meat. I remember years ago I had Philippe Cousteau, whose Grandfather was famous underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau,on Go Green Radio, and his Grandson Philippe is following in his footsteps. He said, “You know what? I love steak and I love cheeseburgers. So what I’ve done in my life is cut it down to the weekends. Throughout the week I’m a vegetarian and then Saturday and Sunday I let myself have one meat meal. And I’ve still significantly reduced my environmental impact”. So that’s the third place I go, food. And there are lots of other things, but those are the main ones. Based on what I know they have the biggest environmental impact.

Kelsey: So for conserving electricity, what are the specific things people can do in their homes and schools? I know turning off the lights when you are not using them, are there other easy things people can do too?

Jill: Totally, there are some very easy things.

• In your home or school use LED lights. If you can go to LED, yes, they are more expensive at the beginning, but they last so much longer and they use so many fewer kilowatt hours than a standard bulb. That’s a huge one.
• Things like washing clothes in cold water versus hot water; depending on your hot water heater, whether it is electric or natural gas, you could end up saving a lot right there.
• For things that you can line dry verses putting them in the dryer; that’s a big savings.
• One of the things in peoples’ homes, and this is something that we did that has been tremendously helpful, is in-su-lation. *chuckles* If your home is not properly insulated it’s not that costly to add insulation and it can reduce the amount of energy you use to heat and cool your home a lllot. So it’s probably one of the most cost-efficient things, between that and your bulbs, that you can do.

Kelsey: I read that on your website. That sometimes people will jump to solar and stuff like that, but they are missing a step.

Jill: Yes, energy efficiency first. Yeah! Cut your load! That’s the most expensive way to go green with your power, by purchasing solar kilowatt hour… and I’m all for that… but reduce your kilowatt hour load first and then purchase only that renewable energy that you need to cover your reduced load. It’s kind of like the same thing we do with reduce, reuse, recycle. We reduce first. It’s great to recycle! But instead of using a bunch of plastic water bottles I have to recycle it is much better to not use those to begin with and to keep reusing and reducing. It’s the same thing with electricity. Reduce your load before you go to renewable energy.

Kelsey: That reminds me of what we were discussing in our conversation before this interview about ethical consumerism being a little bit of an oxymoron. If you think, “Oh well, now that I’m recycling paper I don’t have to worry about my paper consumption. Or now that I’m buying humane meat I don’t have to reduce my meat intake. And now that I drive a Prius I can drive so much further”. It completely negates the purpose of what you are doing if you go crazy on meat and drive across the country all the time now.

Jill: Exactly. So it’s about moderation at every stage of your decision-making process, it really is.

Kelsey: Yeah, and planning ahead and actually thinking about your impact is crucial to success.

Jill: Yeah thinking it through and like I was saying about coordinating my errands, it requires me to plan out my week. And even in food planning I sit down and I spend some time planning out the menu for the week. I can see what I’ll need from the store so that way I’ll only have to go once. I can make sure we aren’t eating too much meat. I can make sure we get our protein from other sources, because I am planning it out in advance.

Kelsey: If someone in America is trying to “go green” through something the government might supply or give tax returns on, such as solar panels, a rain barrel or compost bin, who should they contact? Obviously, it is going to be different for different counties and states. But if they were to do a Google search on how to invest in these things where should they start?

Jill: Well it depends on what you are talking about. Like, okay if you are talking about composting most cities or counties have a recycling coordinator who’s going to know about solid waste issues. There is going to be somebody who is an employee of the county or city, depending on how rural you are, department of public works or they might be under city services. But if you get on your city website, or if all else fails just call the city’s main line and say, “Who knows about recycling? I want a composting bin”. They will be able to point you in the right direction. They may send you to your local waste hauler. Like for instance, if you want a composting bin for your backyard, like one of those 36 gallon totes, for whatever reason your family doesn’t have one and you want to separate your yard waste and compost from your kitchen and have it hauled away. You’re gonna need to call Pleasanton garbage service, but you’ll find that out by going to your city website. The compost bin for your backyard is through a program that has been running for a while and sometimes they have money to give them away for free and sometimes you have to pay a little bit for it. But the Alameda Country waste management authority is our county regulatory agency that covers all these issues.

This is something I’ve spent a lot of time on for the Go Green Initiative. Helping people understand how their systems work in their local town. So before they get solar on their roof, start with who you pay your electricity bill too. They have resources to help you with those things. A lot of times a utility company is mandated to provide customer service that you don’t have to pay for. The rates that you’re paying for your electricity already pay for some of those services. So you know, if you want help with energy start with your utility company. If you want help with waste start with your waste hauler or your city. Because a lot of times your city is the one who contracts with the waste haulers to provide services. In the contract they make the waste hauler have certain customer service options. But it’s really a good idea to know how your city works… where your water comes from… It starts with your utility companies. If you want to know about rain barrels and recycled water or conservation measures that maybe there are rebates for, start with the company you pay your water bill to. They can help you with that. So yeah, gosh, everyone’s got a website now, so start there.

Kelsey: When I was on the Go Green Initiative site I read through the planning guide and it talked a lot about composting, recycling and educating people about both of those things. But then on the rest of the website it briefly touches on other issues such as water, food and electric waste. Is there another spot on Go Green Initiatives site where it talks about how to combat those types of pollution in schools?

Jill: Yeah, actually that’s coming. We are constantly trying to improve. One of the ways that people can get more information if they need it right now is listening to Go Green Radio’s podcast. I’ve had some of the nation’s premier experts on the show talk about all those issues and more. But one of the things we’ve been working on as Go Green Initiative is an updated Planning Guide that will include all of those topics. So some of that is coming and that’s actually something I am looking for Summer interns for. To help create the next version of our Planning Guide.

Now Go Green Initiative is a program for schools. So a lot of our information is targeted towards schools. But if people want information for their homes on those topics we’ve kind of had a standing policy for the last 15 years. If there is a question you have that is not immediately apparent on our website, fill out the contact us form with the question and we will get back to you with an answer. We have people who email, people who call the office line all the time and we help them find those resources. Some of my favorites are on the EPA website. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is our tax payer dollars at work, and they have awesome resources. If you get out on epa.gov they’ve got things on waste, and food, and energy. Also the Department of Energy, DOE, has a website chalked full of great tips. So no matter where you live you will find ways to address these issues in your life. So I tend to send people to other websites, not just the Go Green Initiative. But the EPA and DOE are two of my favorites, because I think they are really practical.

Kelsey: Something I think is really great about the Go Green Initiative is how focused it is on involving the community in what’s going on with schools. Because if the community is involved in fundraisers or you are educating your students, your parents and faculty about all of these practices they will hopefully trickle out into the home and out into the community. And the school is a good model for what we can be doing at home.

Jill: It tends to have a ripple effect. I mean, we have heard that anecdotally throughout the years. That when kids and teachers and parent volunteers see stuff happening in school they think, “Well that’s not hard”. They do take it into their place of business. We’ve even seen students advocate to their city councils saying, “We are recycling at our schools, but we can’t at the sports park where we have practice”. Students will take a leadership role in having it ripple throughout the community. So I do think it’s important to take a whole community approach to instituting some of these practices. Having it start at school where kids are spending most of their waking hours is a great place to start. However, it’s certainly not the end all be all.

Kelsey: I really liked the idea that you had on the Planning Guide of really measurable ways to show the progress that you are accomplishing. So actually measuring out the weight of the recycling; I think that’s a good reward system for people. So I was wondering if you had any other ideas for rewarding students and the community for getting involved? Just so that they can see the tangible, measurable things that they are doing.

Jill: I am a big believer in being able to report back to the community the “So what” of it all. So we did all this recycling… so what did it matter? So what? And part of the way you are able to do that is by quantifying how much you recycled and then putting that through an environmental benefits calculator. There are so many environmental benefits calculators out there now that it’s easy for a school to record that weight and figure out the environmental benefits themselves or we can do it for them. Plug it into an environmental benefits calculator and because we recycled this much of these materials this is the environmental impact that we had.

But moreover, a lot of times when you are doing these kinds of activities you are saving in money. One of the things that I really encourage schools to do is be super transparent. If the school is saving money on its waste hauling bill, because they are recycling or because they are reducing their waste they should tell everybody how much they saved. And then say, “We’re gonna take that money and do something great with it”. Maybe it’s been a goal of the school, if they are an elementary school, to open up a new playground. You can save enough money through saving energy and wasting less to build a new playground. Maybe it’s hiring a part time art teacher. At Walnut Grove, in Pleasanton, we saved $10,000 by printing less newsletters for parents and switching to email. So we took that money from the PTA budget and applied it to hiring a part time art teacher. That was the first year of the Go Green Initiative, $10,000.

So I help schools kind of tailor design their incentive programs. Some school districts really need classroom supplies and it’s not okay to spend money on something frivolous like a pizza party, but I still encourage them to be transparent. To say, “We needed books, or we needed crayons or we needed computers and we were able to purchase that, because we didn’t waste money on energy or waste hauling or whatever. And we were able to do something better.” That is an incentive on so many levels. First of all it gets back to what Benjamin Franklin said forever ago in “Poor Richard’s Almanack”, he said, “Waste not, want not”. The less we waste the more money we have to spend on other things we really need, which is good, but it also teaches students the economics of environmentally responsible behavior. That it costs a lot of money to be wasteful. And besides the economics of it, there is an environmental cost and a cost to clean up those environmental messes. So the school around the students becomes a real learning laboratory of the cost of wastefulness. You can talk about that in terms of ethics, you can talk about that in terms of morals or you can just be very crass and say, “It’s too expensive to be wasteful.” We don’t have the money to be wasteful. None of us do. Because there’s always better we could with that money or that resource or that time. So I think it’s important to show people the fruits of their labor. If they are going to do a good job at being environmental stewards show them what that’s worth.

Kelsey: It’s very interesting to reframe what it means to waste and how it saves money. Because in America, or rather a lot of developed countries, people can almost feel like they are richer, because they can “afford” to waste. They will buy lots of inexpensive food, but let excess rot in the fridge. Or frequently buy cheap clothing they may wear a few times that they can just throw away, because it was $5-10. They are not thinking obviously about how the materials, transportation, labor, etc. all had to be under that amount to turn a profit. But all that aside, people feel richer through consumption. As the middle class shrinks they may not be able to afford health care or a home, but at least they can buy a lot. It’s like a false sense of success, or it fills a void or expectation we have in our minds in which we measure success through materialism. But in actuality it adds up fast to be wasteful. It’s so expensive. This mindset is making us poorer. So to say you should waste less, because not only will it help save the planet, but it will give your child’s school the resources they need is huge.

Jill: And it’s gonna catch up with us, because when a landfill becomes a land-full, which is about to happen to us, then what? It always catches up with us. In states like California we have so much land and there was a time when we could keep building landfills and keep building landfills. But the East Coast is getting wise to this. I work with a lot of schools in New Jersey and they used to have hundreds of landfills open. So you want to know why recycling is such a big deal? Why they are willing to fine a school in an impoverished area $3,000 per school per day for being out of compliance with recycling laws? Because they only have 16 left. Only 20 years ago there were hundreds and now they are down to 16. We’re running out of space and that cost is too much. That is why the county is coming down hard on a school that can barely afford to keep the lights on, because they are not recycling. It has to do what will happen when 16 becomes 6… 6 becomes none… Then what do you do? It costs too much to export your waste somewhere where at least for now they have the landfill space.

Kelsey: I think that’s kind of the problem when we outsource so many things. When we don’t work within our communities it’s difficult for us to actually see the impact of what we are doing. When you go to the grocery store and there is a little pretty package of meat, but it doesn’t look like that animal… or you just see the clothing, but you don’t see the sweatshop laborer… or you just throw away your trash in the trash bin and you don’t see where it goes. Ignorance is bliss. Out of sight out of mind; it’s easy not to worry about it. People would probably be much more careful if they had to pile their trash in their backyard.

It’s interesting that in discussions about sustainability the word “sustainable” has lost its meaning. We kind of throw it around without actually thinking about what it means. The definition of unsustainable is we CANNOT keep doing this infinitely. We talk about making sustainable “choices” like they are a nice thing to do, but they are a necessity. It’s not a choice; we have to learn how to live sustainably if we want to keep surviving.

Jill: You’re exactly right, and you know I’ve run into plenty of people who don’t want to hear anything about climate change and, ya know, me too. *chuckles* That’s all fine and good, but at least we can agree that fossil fuels are finite. Can we agree to that? I mean, fossil fuels are called fossil fuels for a reason. We are not making more of them. When the oil and the gas and the coal are gone, how will we pass on a good standard of living to our children, grandchildren and beyond? They’re going to need a source of energy. And so at what point do we say, “It’s time to switch over to infinite sources of energy”?

Right now we are not creating solar panels with solar energy, okay. So there’s some amount of these fossil fuels that we need to invest to create that energy system of the future. And we’re getting really close to that tipping point if we haven’t already tripped over the line. So even for people who are not invested in issues of climate change, adaptation or mitigation I still try to help them see that if they want their children and grandchildren to have a great standard of living, energy is kind of the bed rock of that.

It takes energy to do everything. Even pump clean water. We need energy to do that. So that because we can agree that fossil fuels are finite, let’s start talking about transitioning into infinite sources of energy. And in the process guess what? We are going to lower our carbon emissions and that’s going to be a good thing for the environment. But even if they are not concerned with that, they are often concerned with the standard of living that they want to have in place for their posterity.

Kelsey: It’s good just making that connection with people and educating them, because often times I’m sure people don’t even think about that. You switch the switch and the lights are on; you don’t have to think about how it got to you. I think a lot of people don’t even know.

Jill: Right. We discovered that at Amador High School. We had somebody come in and have them talk about the infrastructure right here in Pleasanton. How does energy move? Where does it come from? What’s the source of it? How much is from coal? How much is from hydro? It was very interesting. I wanted them to be able to look around the community and see that’s a transmission line, that’s a distribution line, that’s a substation and I know what it does. And I know how energy gets to me. We are actually going to be going to the nuclear plant in Diablo Canyon in San Los Obispo in May. So we can see what the deal is with nuclear. The students will be able to evaluate it themselves.

Kelsey: You’re just giving them the information.

Jill: Yup, exactly. But I think knowing how the system works is so critical. Things that people have a hard time getting their head around when it comes to sustainability stem from one simple point of ignorance. And that is, not knowing how systems work in our communities. Waste. Water. Food. If they don’t know how those systems work locally they don’t understand why we are being asked to recycle or compost. It doesn’t make sense. One of the things that the Go Green Initiative is trying really hard to do is educate school communities (that includes adults) on how systems work. And how you make choices to be more sustainable and conserve natural resources for future generations based on your knowledge of how your local systems work.

Kelsey: That’s kind of what we were talking about before the interview. Being able to empower people through allowing them to be informed.

Jill: We’ve all said there’s a water distributor that deals with that, or there is a waste hauler that deals with that, ya know. There’s a utility, I pay my utility bill, well we need closer to our food, energy, waste and water and where they come from.

Kelsey: It applies to everything. It’s funny, because it’s easy to say, “Oh I need to be more careful about my food, but it applies to where my water comes from, my clothing, energy… where my stapler comes from… It applies to absolutely everything.

Jill: It’s a big Venn diagram isn’t it?

Kelsey: Yeah, it’s all connected. And it’s not necessarily about being educated about all these things and making this huge overhaul. It’s about being aware that this applies to everything in my life, whether I fully understand it all or not. So let me take a step back and be present and make each choice deliberately. And understand that I have the ability to make a choice when it comes to living sustainably or consuming ethically.

Jill: Be as conscious as I can. And if you can make that snappy and easy that’s what I want.

Kelsey: Well that’s exactly what you are doing for schools. I think it’s incredible that you’ve created this program for schools that is now used internationally. You made it straight forward for people to know exactly what it means to “Go Green”. That’s a big deal.

Jill: Well yeah, I mean, the success of it is really based on a simple truth, and that is that I am not the only person who wants this. I didn’t have to push that hard. I just had to make it available and simple and accurate and trustworthy. But people wanted it. If they didn’t I wouldn’t have made it very far. I can’t push that hard. It was what people wanted, it was the right product for the right market. And I say that very loosely, because as you probably know from our website, we sell nothing. *laughs*

Kelsey: It’s all free information! So the Go Green Radio on Voice America, what is that? I know you interview different people about sustainability.

Jill: Well this is where I get to have a little fun that goes beyond just school stuff. I cannot stop this quest of learning everything I can about sustainability issues. I get to go out and find information for Go Green audience that may or may not be just about schools. I can explore topics that are much broader. But what I am finding is that a lot of students, particularly college students will use episodes of Go Green Radio as a reference in a paper or whatever they are doing. Because I have such credible guests coming on the show and giving such great information. This is where I get to explore some of the greatest minds when it comes to water and infrastructure and energy and different products and food and all these topics and how they relate to sustainability. It’s kind of my sustainability playground. *laughs* And I have had such a wide variety of guests. People in government, entertainment, academia, business. I try not to be hindered too much. As long as it has to do with sustainability and environmental protection it is fair game.

Kelsey: So is it always the format of you interviewing people?

Jill: Mhm, it is. And sometimes it’s just one person and sometimes it’s many. We’ve had up to 6 people at a time on, and it drove my engineer crazy. *Laugh* The studio is actually in Arizona. I Skype in from my office or from my home office and then my guests call in on land lines. So I very rarely get to actually meet my guests. But one time, just last November, I was at a conference in D.C. I had been traveling all day carrying my luggage. I was getting off the subway and my hotel was like three blocks away. And I look up and I see in the window of this coffee shop, Reverend Yearwood who was like my guest two years ago. He has a very distinctive look. He is the head of the Hip Hop Caucus. He wears a black shirt with a collar and a hip hop hat. I was like, “Oh my gosh”! So I ran in to the coffee shop and said, “You were on my radio show!” and he said, “I know that voice… Jill Buck!”. And so I got to actually meet him; he’s in D.C. and I’m always out here in the Bay Area. It was really cool.

Kelsey: So what do you want people to be able to take away from listening to Go Green Radio?

Jill: It depends on the theme of the radio show. I always try to finish up each episode with what’s the take away for the everyday person. And sometimes it’s just increasing their awareness of a topic. Sometimes it’s getting in touch with your congressmen. Sometimes it’s purchasing or not purchasing something, or sometimes a life hack. Ya know, what you can do to conserve more. It kind of depends on the topic of the day what the take away is. But hopefully it’s for people like me who just want to know more about sustainability. People who are never satisfied and constantly want to know more about how to live a greener life and are seeking out more information. Because that’s how I am; constantly learning how I could be doing this and that better.

Kelsey: It’s great that you get to learn through the process.

Jill: I know! It’s so fun. I love it! So exciting. I’m going to be watching a documentary that’s coming out on PBS in a few weeks and I’m getting a sneak preview before it airs. I’m having the film maker and a couple of the people in the documentary on my show to promote it. I get to do that a few times a year. The same thing happens with books; a lot of times I’ll get the first look at a new book that’s coming out and interview the author just as the book is coming out and hitting the bookshelves. It’s a blast.

Kelsey: It’s an awesome opportunity for you and your listeners.

Jill: Yeah. It’s really fun. And the thing is I’m pretty sure it started really small. I’m pretty sure all my listeners were related to me at the beginning. *Chuckles* But now we have at least 25,000 people a week who listen live and then we have close to 2 million people who download archive broadcasts from iTunes every month. So they are from all over the world.

Kelsey: Congratulations!

Jill: Thanks! I get emails from people in Europe and Asia and all over the place. So it’s kind of fun.

Kelsey: It’s great that you have such a widespread reach and that’s something that’s so cool about technology now. That we can share that with each other so easily.

Jill: And it’s cool not to be limited to a terrestrial radio station. Voice America was really ahead of its time with its online radio station.

Kelsey: Is there anything else that you want people to know about the Go Green Initiative or Go Green Radio?

Jill: Hmmm, well um, we’re here to help. I mean that’s my mission is just to help people with whatever their environmental goals may be. Whatever their life goals may be with how it relates to sustainability. We love to get help too. I mean, we love to have people volunteer with us, I love having students do projects in the Summer. We are always looking for help that way. We are a little community, very collaborative that way. I love meeting people along the way, like you, who seem to be moving in the same direction. It gives me hope.

Kelsey: I feel the same way. I always feel so inspired getting to interview people like you. Thank you for inspiring us all! It keeps me moving along.

WRAP UP:

Well that’s it friends! If you want to bring Go Green Initiative to your local schools (and please do!) here is a link to their page: https://gogreeninitiative.org/wp/ 

If you want to learn more about sustainability and living green check out Go Green Radio: https://www.voiceamerica.com/show/1303/go-green-radio or check out any of the many resources on Get Cultured Kitchen such as this interview on sustainable fishing or this interview about what it takes to run a sustainable restaurant. Or perhaps an article on how to live in balance with Mother Earth, spiritually and practically.

If you are feeling inspired and want to help out Go Green Initiative with their global quest for environmental consciousness here is their contact page for volunteering: https://gogreeninitiative.org/wp/contact-us-4/

Thanks for reading everyone! I look forward to hearing from you; have a spectacular week!

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The post 15 Minute Rainbow Spring Salad appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

Hello friends! I am sorry I’ve disappeared for a while. I’ve been reworking the focus of Get Cultured Kitchen and getting ready to post a series of really useful posts I’m really excited about! So far Get Cultured Kitchen has been mostly focused on bringing seasonal recipes and teaching you how to source food ingredients that are ethical and sustainable. I am so proud of the work I’ve been able to bring to you all and I hope you guys all find it useful! I mean, the whole point of this blog is to produce material that will make it easier for you to live a sustainable life. However, for that reason I’ve decided to switch the focus of my posts up a little bit and cover the foundations. Expect posts and infographs from me in the near future covering everything from questions to ask yourself before you buy fish to check lists for reducing energy consumption in your home. These tools will be things easy to use on a day to day basis. All your questions answered in one go! If you have any suggestions for these foundational posts please email me! So keep an eye out for that stuff, but meanwhile I’d like to share with you this delicious Rainbow Spring Salad!

If you recall I brought you all a delicious Citrus Winter Salad, but we are well into Spring and there is a lot more available to us this time of year. We’re talking sweet peas, strawberries, golden beets, cucumbers and radishes working in harmony to nourish your body and kick allergy season in the behind! Sweet, sour, spicy, savory all wrapped up into one perfect marriage. Plus the dressing for this salad basically tastes like sour cream and onion dip except somehow even better? It’s FULL of fresh garden herbs and love! The flavors really out did themselves and you’ll find yourself falling in love all over again… with salad dressing. I know it sounds silly, but you just wait and see!

I mean, I want to brag, but really that’s the beauty of eating in season and eating homegrown or locally grown food. It’s grown for flavor and nutrition as opposed to the super market varieties that are grown for durability and appearance. The flavors of these foods are at their peak right now; all I had to do was throw them in a bowl!

Sourcing Rainbow Spring Salad Ingredients:

Vegetables and Herbs: Always try to source locally grown or homegrown produce! The average persons produce travels over a 1,000 miles to get to them. That’s a completely inefficient use of gas, and the reason most vegetables are grown for durability above all else. Fresh food is healthier for you and better for the environment. Plus it usually tastes better too so it’s a win win!

Mayonnaise: I haven’t found a mayonnaise brand that I completely trust. It’s so much better tasting and healthier to make at home so that’s exactly what I do! It’s easy and rewarding.

Buttermilk: When buying dairy products look for grass fed. There are so many issues with the industrial dairy industry that the best thing you can do is know your farm and farmer personally. But that will be different for every person depending on location. This website is really helpful in finding local farms near you! Just type in your zipcode and what you are looking for.

Yields 8 servings

Rainbow Spring Salad

Get lot's of vitamins and minerals with this easy Rainbow Spring Salad healthy recipe. Strawberries, radishes, cucumbers, and beets are a perfect marriage of sweet, savory, refreshing and a little spicy. This Spring recipe is a stable all season!

10 minPrep Time

10 minCook Time

20 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

• For the Salad:
• 2 1/2 beets
• 1/2 cup sweet peas
• 1/2 basket strawberries
• 2 small cucumbers
• 1 bundle radishes
• Handful of mint
• Bag of mixed greens
For the dressing:
• 1/3 cup mayo
• 1/2 scant cup buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp dill
• 1 tbsp minced chives
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 rounded tsp onion powder

Instructions

1. Cook the beets with preferred method. I cooked my beets in the microwave in a bowl sitting in water and covered for about 10 minutes (4 minute cycles). Until the beets were tender, but not super soft. See notes for link to how-to
2. WHILE BEETS ARE COOKING slice radishes, sweet peas and cucumbers into thin slices.
3. Run beets under cool water to cool off.
4. Cut beets into thin slices
5. Tear mint roughly into thirds.
6. Put all salad ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
7. Mix all dressing ingredients together and drizzle desired amount over salad.
8. Toss salad and serve immediately.
9. Enjoy!

Notes

http://www.womansday.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips/tips/a4756/all-about-beets-105239/

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Rainbow Spring Salad:

Creamy herb dressing:

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The post Easter Quiche with a Root Vegetable Crust appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

Guys, the weather here in Northern California has been mag-i-cal. Sunny, but not too hot. The evenings are crispy, but not cold enough to need a jacket. I can spend all day outside gardening and not get over heated. What did I tell you? Magic. No matter what you are doing you will be comfortable! Spring is in the air and with it lot’s of new vegetables are finally in season. With an abundance of fresh life in the garden and on the table I was feeling inspired to invent something new, and let me tell you it did not disappoint! I made an Easter quiche with a root vegetable crust that was almost literally divine. Perfect for Easter eh? I mean honestly, what is Easter brunch without a delicious easy quiche recipe? It was filled with vegetables, a smidgen of goat cheese and a boat load of love. I can’t wait for you to try it! Trust me, you’ll want to make this one; it’s one of those “seems gourmet, but is actually a breeze to make” recipes. You can actually make this quiche recipe ahead and bring it to brunch. It’s really versatile!

The crust is made with potatoes and a little bit of beets. For those of you who don’t like beets, don’t worry. They aren’t a strong flavor, they just add a little sweetness and a lot of nutrition. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t really care for beets so you can trust me when I say they (surprisingly) added to the dish! The crust is super easy to make. All it is is shredded potatoes, beets, 1/3 cup whole wheat or gluten free flour and a couple of tbsp of butter. You cook the crust in the pan first and then you make the filling, which makes preparation really easy.

After the crust cooked I added a thin layer of goat cheese to the crust. The layer of fat from the cheese protects the crust from the egg mixture, preventing it from getting soggy. All that’s in the Easter quiche filling is egg, milk, leeks, broccoli and some seasonings. As I said, deceitfully easy and really, REALLY tasty. My mom who doesn’t like goat cheese or beets got seconds and everyone around the table cleaned their plates. I made it for dinner and ate it again in the morning for breakfast. And I’ll definitely be making it again soon, probably even before Easter. I just can’t get enough!

Sourcing Easter Quiche Ingredients:

Rule of thumb is to follow this order when it comes to sustainably sourcing food:

1. Grow it yourself
2. Buy it from a local vendor that uses sustainable practices
3. Order online from a sustainable vendor

Eggs: I source my eggs from Shelly’s Farm, a family farm run by a mother and son, Shelly and Kelly. They are animal welfare approved and they don’t even kill their chicken’s when they can no longer produce eggs. These girls are treated like family! You can find Shelly’s eggs at these locations:

• Mission Bay UCSF Farmers’ Market– Wednesday 10:00 am to 2:00 pm
• Castro Farmers’ Market– Wednesday 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm
• Pleasanton Farmers’ Market– Saturday 9:00 am- 1:00 pm
• Brentwood Farmers’ Market– Saturday 8:00 am to 12:00 pm
• Inner Sunset Farmers’ Market Sunday 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
• Happy Child CSA

If you can’t source eggs from Shelly keep these tips in mind. For eggs I really recommend trying to find a friend or local farmer that can sell you eggs. The flavor of farm fresh eggs is really something you can’t beat and not something you want to pass up on for this Easter quiche. It has never been a difficulty in any place I’ve lived before, but if you are struggling to find a local, humane egg source try finding Vital Farms, The Happy Egg Co., and Backyard Eggs at your grocery store. Again look for Certified Humane labels, a fairly rigorous third party certification. “Free range”, “pasture raised” and “cage free” all sound promising, but the claims do not have legal definitions/ are not audited by a third party company so anyone can claim them. Cage free is particularly bad, usually meaning birds cramped into dark hen houses so cramped that they often kill each other. You can learn more about the conditions of factory farm animals through my free eBook. 

Goat cheese: I source my goat cheese from Cypress Grove raised in made in my old home Arcata, CA. Cypress Grove not only works to keep their goats taken care of humanely, but they also make sure to help the community, use clean energy, clean water and keep wild life reserves on their property. I don’t know about in other states, but in California Cypress Grove cheese can be found at most grocery stores.

Butter: For butter I recommend buying cultured (AKA “European style”) grass fed butter or Miyoko’s vegan butter. If using real butter make sure it is third party grass fed certified. There are a lot of certification programs out there that are honestly not much better than factory farming, but Certified Humane, American Grassfed Association, Animal Welfare Approved and GAP 5, 5+ have the highest standards. If you are still unsure do some online research or shoot me an email asking about a brand. If you get a butter that is a rich yellow color and tastes better than anything you’ve ever put in your mouth you’ve probably found legit grass fed butter. Trust me, the difference is obvious.

Milk: For the milk I prefer to use homemade nut milk or Forager brand, but for regular milk try Claravale Farm raw milk, Organic Pastures raw milk or St. Benoit. I don’t know enough about other milk brands to recommend any yet.

Flour: There is a farmers’ market in San Francisco that sells whole wheat flour, but if you don’t have local wheat look for Bob’s Red Mill or Jovial Organics einkorn flour.. Bob’s Red Mill is a 100% employee owned business, which means there are no large corporations secretly buying all their stock and influencing the company. Woo hoo! And Jovial Organics grows sustainable einkorn wheat, one of the only heirloom varieties of wheat around!

Now let’s make some Easter quiche!

Yields 6

Easter Quiche with a Root Vegetable Crust

No Easter brunch is complete without an Easter quiche. If you've never had a vegetarian quiche with a vegetable crust you are in for a guilt free treat!

10 minPrep Time

1 hr, 10 Cook Time

1 hr, 20 Total Time

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Ingredients

For Crust:
• 2 russet potatoes shredded
• 1/2 large golden beet shredded
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 whole wheat or gluten free flour
• 2 tbsp melted butter
For the filling
• 5 eggs
• 1 cup milk or buttermilk
• one large head of broccoli finely diced (stems optional)
• 1 leek whites thinly sliced
• 2 oz chevre
• 2 tbsp chives minced
• 4 cloves of garlic minced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• Several cracks fresh black pepper
• Paprika

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Shred the potatoes and beet and ring out excess moisture.
3. Mix in melted butter and flour to shredded potatoes, incorporating evenly
4. Butter 9 inch pie pan well and form crust in pan. Use all of the crust vegetables, they will shrink considerably!
5. Bake in oven for 40 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through
6. Meanwhile whisk eggs, milk and other 1/2 tsp of salt into a bowl
7. Mince chives and combine with the goat cheese, set aside
8. Chop and slice leeks and broccoli and pour them into the egg mixture
9. When the crust is done pull it out of the oven and spread the goat cheese, chive mixture evenly on the bottom of the crust. The fat from the cheese acts as a barrier between the crust and egg filling.
10. Pour the egg and vegetable mixture into the pie pan and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes. You want the egg to remain slightly soft, but not runny. Make sure not to over cook it!
11. When the quiche comes out of the oven sprinkle the top with paprika
12. Let the quiche rest for about 5 minutes then serve!
13. Happy eating. :]

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Check out how healthy this Easter quiche is! Look at those vitamins and minerals!

Don’t forget sharing is caring!
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The post The BEST Homemade Ketchup- High Fructose Corn Syrup Free appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

GUYS. I am so beyond excited to share this recipe with you! Once you make homemade ketchup you will NEVER. GO. BACK. TO. STORE. BOUGHT. AGAIN. EVER…. EVER.

Okay truth be told, I have never liked store bought ketchup. It is sickeningly sweet to me and even though I would try it from time to time it was nothing I could ever get behind. And honestly this isn’t a bad thing, because ketchup is full of high fructose corn syrup and pretty much has no nutritional value. Yup, America’s favorite condiment is on the long laundry list of things responsible for our poor health… until today!

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About three years ago I tried homemade ketchup and it changed the way I look at the world. No joke. Similar to my distaste for store bought mayonnaise, I just didn’t know what I was missing, what we are all missing out on until I made it myself. Homemade ketchup is tangy and complex. The cinnamon, allspice and clove transport it to another world and the pineapple juice and molasses give it a satisfying sweetness without being overpowering. Put it on fries, put it in homemade 1000 island dressing, put it on hot dogs, hamburgers and meatloaf. You know how to use ketchup already- in copious amounts.

Pineapple juice is not necessary for making homemade ketchup, but in this recipe it’s the secret weapon. Who would have thought pineapple juice in ketchup? Well let me tell you, I was in the garage retrieving some tomato paste and I saw a can of pineapples next to it. Yup, nothing fancy. It all just clicked for me. The sweet almost stickiness of pineapple juice would reduce down so nicely with the vinegar and tomato paste. And yes, I’ll admit to using canned pineapple juice. It won’t be my first choice next time, but it was worth using for the experiment. Next time I’ll be sure to buy a sustainably grown pineapple or buy a can of organic pineapple instead though!

Where to source homemade ketchup ingredients:

• Because homemade ketchup does not call for fresh tomatoes it can be made year round. I used store bought tomato paste, but to reduce how far my food has to travel to me I plan on growing my own tomatoes this year and canning my own paste!
• I can get onions pretty much year round where I live, but if you can’t find onions locally double the onion powder in the recipe. Similar to the tomato paste it is really easy to dehydrate onions and grind them into powder, just follow my dehydrating instructions.
• Get your molasses from a fair trade certified brand; growers of sugar cane are often not paid fairly for their labor costs and live in deep poverty. Many plantations have huge ecological damage as well.
• Make sure those spices come from a fair trade source as well! Frontier spices is a great brand to look into that can be found at a lot of super markets! Most spices are grown in third world countries, where developed countries take advantage of poverty and low labor costs.
• Pineapple juice is not available year round, but canned ones work fine too. Try and find an organic variety or just leave it out.
• Use raw apple cider vinegar if you have the chance. I really like Braggs brand! It still has the “mother” in it (the bacteria and yeast culture) that makes up the vinegar so you can continue to make your own vinegar with the mother and apples.

Yields 16

The BEST Homemade Ketchup- High Fructose Corn Syrup Free

Homemade ketchup is worlds away from high fructose corn syrup laden store bought stuff. It's complex, vegan, spicy and sustainably made. You'll never go back!

3 minPrep Time

10 minCook Time

13 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

• 6 0z can of tomato paste
• 1/8 large onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp molasses
• 1/2 cup pineapple juice
• 1/4-1/3 apple cider or red wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp each cinnamon, clove and allspice
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp mustard powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp onion powder
• Pinch cayenne or pepper flakes (optional)

Instructions

1. Finely dice onion and mince garlic
2. Using a heavy bottom pot saute the onion and garlic with vinegar for about 1 minute on medium heat.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir continuously until ketchup starts to simmer.
4. Turn down to low heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring continuously.
5. Let cool and store in a glass container or consume warm!

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The post Fail Proof Homemade Mayonnaise appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

Hey guys! Holy smokes it is such a beautiful day today in the San Francisco Bay area. It’s sunny, the flowers are starting to bloom, the birds are singing and there is so much to be grateful for. Today has been a rough week for me, but knowing I have so many supportive people in my life and live on such a magical planet really puts any woes into perspective. I’m so blessed to be alive and I’m so blessed to have supportive readers such as yourself! Thank you for reading what I have to put out there and thank you for the continuous love. You humble and encourage me more than I know how to express.

Today we are making something really simple, but something I consider a bit of a lost art: homemade mayonnaise! To be honest I really didn’t like mayonnaise growing up, I used to ask for it to be left off of things and I never thought I’d see the day I’d enjoy it. But here is the thing, it’s like saying you don’t like sushi when all you’ve eaten is the grocery store variety. I feel like I’d never really had the true stuff. When I made homemade mayonnaise it opened me up to a world I never really knew. One of real food, made from scratch and made from love. Making homemade mayonnaise was one of the first things that pushed me into really pursuing how to make things from scratch, because it was so much healthier and so much better. Plus it’s fun and easy to do!

If any of you reading this have tried to make homemade mayonnaise you may be shaking your head in disbelief at me saying it’s easy. Haha I used to watch videos of people just putting an egg yolk and some oil in a mason jar, adding an immersion blender and coming out with perfect homemade mayonnaise in seconds. I would try and try and all I got was an oily soup, waste of resources and disappointment. But then I read a simple tip from Nourished Kitchen (one of my favorite real food blogs) to add 1 tbsp of water to your batch. I’ve never had homemade mayonnaise fail to come together ever again and I never looked back!

Homemade mayonnaise is rich, it’s refreshing and it’s incredibly versatile. Sometimes I get stuck in a rut when it comes to using ingredients and condiments in the same way, so what can you use homemade mayonnaise for? So glad you asked! Obviously you can spread it on bread for any sandwich but there is so much more than that; try it with deviled eggs, lobster rolls, egg salad, chicken, potato or tuna salad, with artichokes, spicy tuna rolls, homemade ranch dressing, or to moisten certain baked goods. Please feel free to add any other ideas in the comments, the limit is your imagination!

Homemade mayonnaise is also actually quite healthy! I like to use avocado oil, because it is pretty much flavorless and quite good for you too. With an omega fatty acid nutritional breakdown similar to olive oil; high potassium, folate and magnesium; and the ability to help us absorb carotenoids (plant versions of vitamin A) there is nothing to sneeze at. The other main ingredient egg yolks are high in vitamins D, E, A, Choline and many other essential nutrients. Remember an egg is supposed to have enough nutrients to support the growth of a life and so therefore it is one of the most nutrient dense things we can eat. A squirt of lemon, salt, water, a pinch of mustard powder and a dash of cayenne (if you want) and you’ve got mayonnaise. Oh! And a whole lot of whisking if you want to forgo the hand mixer and get an arm workout.

To make homemade mayonnaise you combine all the ingredients except for the avocado oil in a glass bowl and then SLOWLY add the avocado oil while whisking. I mean SLOWLY. Like add one drop, whisk for 10 seconds, add another drop and whisk that in… once it starts emulsifying (getting thick and creamy) you can add the avocado oil in a semi continuous THIN stream, but really don’t rush the process! It takes about 5 minutes to come together with a hand mixer and a little longer with a whisk. You may feel impatient whisking vigorously until your arm falls off, but it is well worth the wait.

*Make sure to use truly pasture raised eggs (best to find at the farmers’ market or from a friend), or look for Animal Welfare Approved or pasture raised Certified Humane eggs. Please note that even these certifications do not guarantee that male chicks will not be killed at birth.

Fail Proof Homemade Mayonnaise

Fail proof homemade mayonnaise is healthy, flavorful and much better than the store bought stuff! Plus it's easy to whip up with just four ingredients!

10 minPrep Time

10 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

• 3 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 1/4 cups avocado oil
• 1/4 tsp mustard seed powder (optional)
• pinch cayenne (optional)

Instructions

1. Whisk everything, but the avocado oil together in a large bowl.
2. VERY slowly add avocado oil while whisking. One drop at a time, until the homemade mayonnaise starts to thicken and emulsify, then you can add it in a thin, steady stream.
3. Homemade mayonnaise will keep for a couple of weeks and will thicken in the refrigerator.

7.8.1.2

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The post Home-cured Corned Beef and 1000 Island from Scratch appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

I’ve wanted to make synthetic-nitrate free home-cured corned beef for a couple of years now and I’m so grateful I finally took the plunge!  It’s actually really easy and hands off. And I can definitely contest it is way more flavorful and healthy than the sodium, “natural flavor” and preservative laden store bought variety. As a side note, the links between nitrates and cancer are pretty questionable, so if you wish to use them I wouldn’t worry too much (more on that later). I just know my mom is sensitive to them and we weren’t too worried about preserving the color of the corned beef or keeping it for very long- it never lasts more than a few days at our house- so I made ours synthetic-nitrate free.

So what exactly is home-cured corned beef? Basically it’s DIY corned beef. Home-cured corned beef is made from brisket; a flavorful but relatively inexpensive cut of meat. Meat can be preserved in a brine of salt and water; something very useful before the days of refrigeration. After brining the brisket for a week I cooked the meat in the crock pot until it was falling apart and incredibly moist. Normally when my family buys corned beef it mostly tastes like incredibly salty beef, but with home-cured corned beef the pickling spice- mustard seed, cinnamon, peppercorns, chilies, coriander, cumin, ginger, allspice, bay leaf, cloves and turmeric- sung out and made me wish every last melt in my mouth bite would never end.

Now for a word on nitrates. Just to be clear, there isn’t really such a thing as “nitrate free” cured meat. Nitrates are naturally present in a lot of vegetables and it is naturally occurring in celery. The only difference is the nitrates are not synthetically made. There was a scare in the 1950s and 60s after some animal studies showed that nitrite had the potential to form into nitrosamines, a carcinogenic compound. In cured meats nitrosamines can be formed when nitrite is heated at high temperatures. For bacon it must be cooked at least 338 degrees Fahrenheit.

In 1975 the Food and Drug Regulations were amended to limit nitrite in cured meat. However, the health concern is about nitrosamines rather than nitrite, and Vitamin C (absorbic acid) and erythorbic acid can be added to inhibit nitrosamines from forming. Since then the U.S. National Toxicology Program carried out a multi-year study on nitrite and concluded in 2000 that there is no association between nitrite and cancer. So considering the lack of evidence linking nitrites/ nitrates to cancer I think using a little in your cured meats is ay-oh-kay, but you can make that decision for yourself! None the less I have left the nitrates out of this recipe, because they weren’t necessary. However, if you want your meat to keep longer than a week and stay extra pink here is a recipe for home-cured corn beef cured with pickling salt (aka salt with added nitrates).

Corn beef doesn’t call for many ingredients. Just salt, beef and pickling spice (and if nitrate free celery juice and whey). So there isn’t much to worry about when it comes to sourcing ingredients ethically.

Pickling spice: I try to find fair trade and organic spices, but fair trade is my priority.

Beef: Be sure to find cattle who lived their whole lives on open pasture eating grass and hay (dried grass). The term for these cattle are grassfed grass finished. Looking for the American Grassfed Association logo, which is a third party association that audits grassfed claims and has strict standards for the care of animals.

Salt: For salt I used sea salt, because it has not been stripped of trace minerals through heavy refining.

Whey: I got my whey by draining it out of some grass fed, whole milk, live culture yogurt. I used St. Benoit brand. I put the yogurt in a cheese cloth, tied the bag onto a wooden ladle with a rubber band and hung the cheese cloth bag above a bowl for a few hours as the whey drained out.

Celery: I used one bundle of sustainably raised celery to get to cups of juice.

Brown Sugar: I used organic, fair trade sugar. Sugar farmers are often exploited and not paid well for their work

The process of brining all these ingredients together is really simple and I have a short video (under a minute) on Get Cultured Kitchen’s instagram showing you just how to do it!

I also have a recipe here for made from scratch 1000 island dressing, because making reubens in my favorite thing to do with corned beef! For about a year now I’ve had an unusual, and possibly lofty goal of making a reuben sandwich 100% from scratch. This year I made sauerkraut, home-cured corned beef, and the dressing, but I still have yet to tackle the bread or making swiss cheese. If you have any good instructions for making swiss cheese send them my whey (heehee). I know it takes weeks for it to age and develop it’s characteristic snappy flavor. Hopefully I’ll have accomplished this goal by next year, but I’ll keep you posted. I just know you are hanging by the edge of your seat dying to know how this progresses! The 1000 island comes together pretty quickly. In mine I only put mayo, ketchup, horseradish and dill pickles and it was delicious. Of course I made all of those things from scratch as well, but to save time using store bought varieties will work in a pinch. If you can find lacto-fermented pickles definitely go that direction, use organic ketchup and mayonnaise with pasture raised chicken eggs. However, if you are interested in making thousand island truly from scratch I will have recipes for lacto-fermented dill pickles, ketchup and mayo up by the end of the week in time for Saint Patrick’s Day!

Yields 8 servings

Home-cured Corned Beef and 1000 Island from Scratch

Home-cured corned beef is much easier than you think and way more complex and flavorful than store bought. Plus it's synthetic nitrate free!

15 minPrep Time

8 hrCook Time

8 hr, 15 Total Time

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Ingredients

Home-cured Corned Beef:
• 5 lbs brisket
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup sea salt + 1/8th cup
• 1 qt water
• 2 cups celery juice
• 1 cup whey
• 3 tbsp pickling spice + 1 tbsp
Thousand island dressing:
• 1/4 cup mayo
• 2 tsp ketchup
• 1-2 tsp horseradish
• 1 pickle spear (1/4 pickle) diced

Instructions

1. Bring 3 tbsp pickling spice, brown sugar, 1 cup salt and water to a boil in a large pot.
2. Stir brine until sugar and salt are dissolved.
3. Transfer brine to a large glass bowl and allow to cool in the fridge.
4. Meanwhile massage about an 1/8th cup of salt into the meat and let sit on counter while the brine cools.
5. Once the brine is cool to the touch add the meat to the glass bowl and weigh down the meat with with small plates or ceramic weights. Make sure the meat is submerged under the brine.
6. Cure in a dark place at room temperature for two days or in the fridge for 5-7 days flipping over once a day.
7. Put the corned beef and 1 tbsp pickling spice in a large crockpot and cover the meat with at least an inch of water, two inches for less salty meat.
8. Cook the home-cured corned beef on high for 8 hours. The meat should fall apart easily.
9. Enjoy!
10. For the thousand island dressing combine all the ingredients in a dish and stir until well incorporated.
11. Happy St. Patrick's Day.

7.8.1.2

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The post Creamy Potato and Cauliflower Soup with Arugula Pesto appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

It’s been raining a lot here in the San Francisco Bay Area! Reservoirs are overflowing, flash floods are occurring and mud slides are forcing people out of their homes. I’m over here building an arc if anyone wants to hop in! A lot of us could use a big bowl of comforting soup and I know there are many of you with even harsher weather so I’m sure you’re in the same boat (pun intended). Needless to say, this easy creamy potato and cauliflower soup was a big hit in our house! Especially with the arugula pesto. The recipe makes extra pesto so you can put it on grilled veggies, in eggs, on pasta, fish, chicken. It became my world and I can’t wait for it to become yours! Forreal forrealz.

Something new I am trying with my seasonal recipe posts is to list where to find ethically and sustainably sourced ingredients as well as a little chart outlining what exactly makes this recipe “ethical”. I’m hoping to shine light on my thinking behind the whole process so that you can start creating your own sustainable recipes too! It’s really easy if you just think about where you are getting your ingredients from, how far they traveled and who is benefiting most from your purchase. Here is my checklist:

One little note about the creamy potato and cauliflower soup, if you let the potatoes cook on high heat too long they go through starch gelatinization, meaning they get kind of gooey and thick. I’m sure you’ve had mashed potatoes like this before, honestly it’s not an undesirable consistency, but I learned from my mom and a google search that it’s not great for our health. According to Wikipedia, “Starch gelatinization is a process of breaking down the intermolecular bonds of starch molecules in the presence of water and heat, allowing the hydrogen bonding sites (the hydroxyl hydrogen and oxygen) to engage more water. This irreversibly dissolves the starch granule in water.” The starch becomes more available for absorption and causes blood sugar levels to rise. In order to control blood sugar levels our body releases insulin and insulin levels spike up. High levels of insulin cause weight gain and can lead to diabetes in the long run… so not the best health choice. I’m not telling you this to scare you away from eating potatoes ever again. I’m just telling you so that you don’t overcook those potatoes at a high heat. And if they do gelantinize it most likely won’t be a life or death situation, but I’m no doctor so better safe than sorry!

Other than taking care not to cook it on high heat, this creamy potato and cauliflower soup is super easy to whip together. All it is is cauliflower, potatoes, stock, shallots, garlic, sage and red wine. That’s seven common ingredients my friends! Not bad if I say so myself! It would also be great with mushrooms. Like mushrooms, red wine and shallots? Heaven in my mouth. And then the arugula pesto is so easy to whip up and can be dolloped on everything for the next week… er realistically next day. It’s way too good to last a whole week. Ask my mom, she became an arugula pesto dolloping queen; just adding a bit of bright colored goodness to everyone’s plates. A true Green Goddess.

So now the details on where to source stuff…

• Produce: The produce in this recipe was easy for me to find at the local farmer’s market! Did you know that the average person’s produce travels over 1,000 miles to get to them! Sometimes it can be over 2,000 miles! So insane compared to buying food from the local farmers’ market or growing it yourself. This fun, informative infographic juxtaposes the distance produce travels to a conventional market versus a local market by calculating how many of a specific fruit or vegetable would have to be laid out end to end to cover the distance from farm to consumer.
• Olive Oil: Did you know that olive oil loses a lot of it’s health benefits 6 months after being pressed? Most olive oil that we find at supermarkets is at least two years old and can be cut with other vegetable oils. Look for a local vendor of olive oil that is producing it as sustainably as possible. I know where I live in California there is a big problem with olive fruit flies so it can be really difficult to find organic, pesticide free olive oil. I don’t know if olive oil can be produced sustainably using mostly conventional farming techniques, but I would just talk to your local producer and ask. If you buy directly from the olive grower you are cutting out the middle man so not only is the farmer getting paid more, but there is more transparency for quality control.
• Parmesan: Look for raw, grass fed if you can. The longer Parmesan has been aged the higher amount of vitamin K2 it will have; a nutrient that many people are in short supply of. It will also be lower in lactose. So don’t skimp out on your Parm and do a little research. Once you find a brand that meets all your needs you won’t have to keep looking. Eat Wild is a great resource for finding local farms and cheese makers in your area (among other specialty vendors).
• Bone Broth (Skip if using vegetable stock): Make sure you are getting your bones to make bone broth, or your pre-made bone broth from a pasture raised animal. Animals raised for food should be able to behave naturally and live how they would live if they were wild. The best way to do this is to go to your farmers’ market and know exactly who is raising the animals. Chicken feet make an excellent bone broth. It’s a great use of a part of the chicken that may otherwise be wasted. If I am going to kill an animal or plant for my own gain I think that they should be treated like a God. Loved, respected, thanked and not wasted.
• Pine nuts: Pine nuts are actually the seeds of a pine cone! Maybe you already knew this, but I never put two and two together until today. Anyway, pine nuts are native to most of America so look for pine nuts grown in your region or as close to you as possible to reduce the distance your food had to travel to get to you.

*Note: It is really easy to make the creamy potato and cauliflower soup vegan. Just use vegetable stock instead of bone broth and in the pesto either replace the Parmesan with vegan parm (you can find it at the grocery store) OR add an extra 1/4 cup of pine nuts, a 1/4 tsp more salt and a tbsp of nutritional yeast.

Yields 4

Creamy Potato Cauliflower Soup with Arugula Pesto

Stay warm during the rainy season with this creamy potato cauliflower soup. The pesto really lightens up the dish, while adding extra vegetables. My family loved this recipe!

10 minPrep Time

20 minCook Time

30 minTotal Time

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Ingredients

For the soup:
• Avocado oil for frying
• 1 heaping Tbsp sage minced
• 6 red potatoes chopped
• 1 medium purple cauliflower coursely chopped
• 1 qt vegetable stock
• 1 large shallot diced
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• Cooking red wine
• 1 Tsp salt
• Pepper to taste
• Plain yogurt (optional)
For the pesto:
• 4 cups arugula (or arugula spinach blend for less spice)
• 1/2 cup parmesan
• 1/3 cup pine nuts
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 large garlic clove
• 1/2 Tsp salt
• Pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat a heavy bottomed stock pot on medium heat.
2. Saute shallot and garlic in avocado oil until the shallot is translucent.
3. Add potatoes and cauliflower and saute until just golden.
4. Meanwhile in a small pan fry up sage until crisp, but not burnt.
5. Deglaze the stock pot with a splash of red wine.
6. Add the sage, salt, and vegetable stock.
7. Bring to a boil and then reduce soup to a simmer.
8. Cook until the potatoes and cauliflower are cooked through.
9. Using an immersion blender puree the soup. Or carefully transfer soup a few cups at a time to a standing blender to puree.
10. For the pesto add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend until smooth. If you need extra liquid slowly drizzle in more olive oil a bit at a time while the food processor is going.
11. Serve the soup immediately and garnish with pesto and a dollop of yogurt (optional).

Notes

This recipe yields extra pesto. Use it in eggs, on grilled vegetables, fish, chicken, pasta... the combinations are endless!

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Creamy Potato and Cauliflower Soup:

Arugula Pesto:

Don’t forget, if you found this recipe for creamy potato and cauliflower soup enjoyable be sure to share it with others! It’s only fair to share.

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The post Finding Sustainable Seafood with Flying Fish Co: Sustainable Seafood appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.

I’m so excited to share this interview with you, all my readers! It is possibly the most useful thing yet on the blog giving you real tangible strategies for consuming fish ethically and sustainably. I was lucky enough to sit down with Lyf Gildersleeve, an active advocate for sustainable seafood and sustainable seafood business owner. He is funny, charismatic and incredibly knowledgeable, I could have picked his brain all day, but I was so humbled to have him take a little time out of his hectic schedule to talk to me about sustainable seafood in an effort to spread awareness.

Quickly though before we delve into the interview I want to answer the question, “What does sustainable seafood mean?” Well first let’s answer, “What is food sustainability?” Sustainability literally means something that can be maintained. So food sustainability is food being produced in a fashion that is not depleting the Earths resources, because if we deplete the Earth of its resources there will be no food to eat. Food is a resource/ takes resources to produce. So what does this mean specifically for fish? Right now over-fishing, pollution, and global warming are causing havoc in the oceans. Ecosystems are changing in ways they never have before and this means the endangerment and extinction of a lot of marine species. Our current practices are unsustainable if we want to keep eating seafood and have oceans full of marine diversity. If not for the compassion of hundreds of thousands of marine species our oceans play an important role in human society too. Seafood is important to many cultures and is an excellent source of many fat soluble vitamins, minerals and omega- 3 fatty acids. AKA the good stuff.

I find it interesting that people talk about sustainability like it is a nice choice to make. Sustainability is not a choice, it is a necessity, because the very definition of unsustainable means you can’t do it forever. And right now our oceans are in grave danger. Today we are going to learn how to find sustainably sourced seafood, so that we can protect our oceans for generations of marine and human life to come. Remember, when you buy from an unsustainable or unethical business you are giving them a thumbs up. If that is a new concept to you or you want to learn more about ethical consumerism I have a discussion of it’s importance here and tips for becoming a more ethical consumer here. Now for the interview!

In this Interview You Will Learn:

1. About Flying Fish Co Sustainable Seafood
2. What goes into regulating the waters to ensure seafood is sustainably sourced
3. How to kill a fish ethically
4. What to look for as an ethical consumer when trying to buy sustainable seafood
5. What the most sustainable seafood choices are
6. The good and the bad of fish farming and where we hope it’s heading
7. The challenges specific to being a sustainable business owner vs. a regular grocery store

*Disclaimer: A little of this content is paraphrased for clarity purposes. However, most of the interview below is composed of direct quotes from Lyf Gildersleeve and myself.*

Sustainable Seafood Interview- All About Fish:

Kelsey: Can you tell me a little about yourself and Flying Fish Co?

Lyf: Yeah, so my name is Lyf Gildersleeve and my family started Flying Fish Company before I was born in my hometown Sandpoint, Idaho. And so in Northern Idaho- inland obviously- my dad used to fly small planes, cessnas, and instruct them. So he’d fly all the time over from Sandpoint to Seattle- it’s only about 350 miles- and pick up a box of fish and bring it back inland and sell it. So it was “flying fish”; that’s how it started. As a kid I grew up packaging fish and selling fish in the market in our little thing. It was just a little part time dealer, like Wednesdays and Fridays. So it’s been a family business forever.

Then I studied aquaculture in college down in Ocean Graphic Institute in Florida, called Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. [I] worked in different fields like that for a while, and then moved up to Utah… ski bummed up there for a while and got out of fishery [a place where fish are caught for human consumption] stuff until the recession hit and I lost my job and couldn’t find any other work. So I went back to my roots at that point and knew how to do fish, so I said, “Okay”. Got a little loan and started selling fish at the farmers’ markets in Utah and ended up getting married there. [I] had my daughter, and then we didn’t want to raise her in Utah so we moved to Oregon where my sister-in-law lives, here in Portland.

There was just an opportunity. There is not a lot of fish in this town and I wanted to focus more on just having a fish market, but the sustainable key was an important factor for me. So my slogan was, “Flying Fish Company: Sustainable Seafood”. When I came here I had a truck, like a step van- kind of like a food cart- that I started in over on Division. So I was in this food cart pod where everyone was selling lunch and dinner and stuff and I was selling my fresh fish. That lasted for six months or so, and then I started moving to another spot on Hawthorn and then I was back and forth. So for the first week of [doing both], was out of my truck and then the second spot was a produce tent that invited me over there, because I’m the protein and they’re the produce. That was five years ago now. And that really helped both of our businesses. We both doubled our business and revenues multiple times and it was great being paired up next to a grocer rather than next to food trucks.

So really I source a lot of my fish from local fisherman and oyster farmers for the oyster bar. I’m an advocate for sustainable seafood in the sense that I’ll go testify at the Pacific Fisheries Management Council meetings where they make the regulations on how many fish can be caught and that sort of thing. Actually, this Spring I got flown out to Washington, D.C. to go talk to our Congressman and Senators about the fisheries policies and the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization. Our national fisheries policy needs to be reviewed in Congress and their are Republicans in there that are trying to pass this other Bill called the “Empty Oceans Act” [nickname] that’s loosening the belt on fisheries basically. So yeah, I do advocacy work outside of just owning a fish market. I’ve got a vested interest in fisheries, because that’s what I make my living off of. But I also want to make sure that it stays there. Coming from an aquaculture world as well, if I sell farmed raised fish I make sure it’s sustainably raised, and there is no artificial color and no growth hormones and antibiotics and that sort of thing.

Kelsey: It’s interesting that you were saying that you have a vested interest in there still being fish in the ocean so you can keep your job. I’d never thought about it that way.

Lyf: Well yeah, it can be looked at both ways. I’ve got a vested interest in that I want there to be fish harvested, but also for the long term sustainability of our oceans. But yeah, humans are f*****g a** w****s.

Kelsey: [Chuckles] Seriously. I feel like the more I learn about ethical consumerism, the less I know about ethical consumerism. It’s every avenue. It’s not just food; it’s everything we consume and we consume a lot. It’s a lot to think about every time we buy stuff, but basically at the end of the day we just have to consume less. You can’t impulse purchase when you actually dedicate yourself to doing the research on everything you are buying. It’s crazy how we just take and take and take, and it’s not a symbiotic relationship with anything. You know? I’m glad there are people who are starting to not seeing it that way, but as a whole it’s definitely how we treat the Earth and it’s inhabitants. It’s a bummer.

Lyf: Exactly, the cleaning chemicals that we use, and whatever. It relates to so many different things. Yeah, it’s so challenging. As a consumer and a business owner and all the above it’s a complex equation. But I think just general mindfulness every step of the way, in whatever hat that you are wearing is just important. Using that piece of paper or not, or using the back of a piece of paper you’re actually not going to use. Ya know? Just general mindfulness [is a good way to start changing our habits.] I like mindfulness; it’s a good word.

Kelsey: How do you find the fishermen that you get your sustainable seafood from? Do you interview them?

Lyf: Yeah sure. It’s definitely a relationship. Nowadays I get a lot of guys coming to me. So those spot prawns over there, that was a fisherman in Alaska that contacted me this week. A new contact for me; they’ll search for fish markets in Portland and I’ll come up. So nowadays I get people contacting me when they have products to sell. But originally I had to go out to the coast into the ports and try to find fisherman, and then be able to get it delivered too. I can’t go driving up and down the coast; I don’t have the capacity to be able to be sending people up the coast to be able to get it. And yeah, there is definitely a level of interviewing and making sure they are handling the product, because most fisherman are used to selling their product to a commodity distributor where it doesn’t matter if they handle the product well or not. It all just goes into the totes and out the door and they buy it all. There is nothing, even if the fish is half way split apart it just goes through. Whereas me, I am much more sensitive. I want those fish being taken care of on the boat, bled and iced properly, and handled properly so that the consumer gets the best quality product possible.

The local albacore tuna is a great example of that. My guys that fish the Colombia River; I go fishing with them. I get to go out and go fishing and get to actually physically handle the fish and do everything myself. That’s when you really get a handle of what’s going on. That’s kind of what I do.

Kelsey: So what are your specific sustainable seafood standards to ensure proper care of fish?

Lyf: Bleeding the fish is definitely important for salmon and tuna in particular. You cut their gills so the blood goes out of their system and the fillet doesn’t have the little veins of blood in them. Those veins will deteriorate faster, because blood is really nutrient rich so bacteria can grow fast. So when you don’t have that blood in there a fish fillet is going to last a lot longer. Same with tuna if you are eating it raw and stuff; it will have a better flavor if you don’t have blood in the flesh. That’s part of it. And ya know, like I said already, handling it well on the boat. You don’t want them flopping on the deck and bruising themselves every time. And then how you ice them [is important]. The best way to do it is in slush ice, so water with ice mixed in. It brings the temperature down a lot faster, rather than just packing the tuna in [straight ice]. Tuna, for example, are 60 degrees because they are swimming all the time; they are an active species. If you just take them on board they flop around on the deck for a while and then you put them right into the hole, into the packed ice. It’s kind of like an igloo. You know how when you get in a snow igloo the moisture creates a pocket like an oven inside. So if you just pack that 60 degree fish in straight ice you are going to create an igloo, so the internal guts of the fish is going to stay warm for quite some time. That’s part of the element of handling them properly.

Kelsey: You kind of answered this already, but as far as humanely killing fish… there are a lot of different ways fisherman go about harvesting. I know there are already issues with netting fish, because you might end up catching “bycatch” or fish you didn’t mean to catch or raking up fish from the ocean floor destroys entire ecosystems. But as far as hook and line fishing, what is the most efficient way to kill the fish quickly?

Lyf: Bonk them on the head. Give them a bonk with a little baseball bat, and it pretty much just kills them. You could take a little dagger as well and poke them in the head between their eyes into the back of their skull and it’s right on their central nerve. So you bonk them on the head and knife them and then they are out right now. Instead of letting them flop around on the deck, bruising themselves and getting beaten up trying to get out and they can’t. Bonk them immediately and then the cold slush ice kills them.

Kelsey: What about seafood that is kept alive, like a lobster? Are their more humane ways of killing them than throwing them in a pot of boiling water? I’ve read some stuff about freezing them first so that their central nervous system slows down and then slicing them open first.

Lyf: I think just in the hot water is fine. Some people will do the same thing as what I was talking about with the tuna. Sticking a knife between their eyes and killing them that way first, but if you drop them in a pot of boiling water they are going to die in half a second anyway.

Kelsey: I read recently that it took them three minutes to die.

Lyf: No, no way.

Kelsey: Are you sure? I had read that recently.

Lyf: Well, I’m not positive, but it only takes 10 minutes to cook them completely. So I think they are gone.

Kelsey: Yeah, I don’t know. That’s why I looked into it. I guess somebody invented a quick killing machine- the CrustaStun– recently, because of this study that came out that said it takes a crab 4-5 minutes to completely die and a lobster 3 minutes to die in boiling water. So they invented this machine that’s a wet pad that electrocutes them. Which is extremely expensive, but if you were in a restaurant killing a bunch of them it might be worth it. Probably not reasonable for the home cook, because the machine is $1,000, but it kills them in like .3 seconds. You press the pad down, you electrocute them and they are dead. I thought that was interesting, but they are at that stage where they are very expensive.

Lyf: Yeah, there is definitely a level of humane and practical. It is a challenging subject, the humane side, because we are talking about eating another animal.

Kelsey: So how do we regulate the oceans to make sure people aren’t fishing during a breeding season or over fishing a specific species? Essentially, how can we guarantee we have sustainable seafood?

Lyf: There are definitely seasons on all the different species. Salmon is a good example. They are counting all the salmon that come up the river. The Columbia River, for example, is a big fishery and in the past years we have had the highest levels of salmon returning in 10 years. This year was a little bit lower in general, but the last couple of years before that were super strong. They allow “x” amount of fish to pass up the river, it’s called escapement, before they allow any fishing. So you are always assured that enough fish are getting past the fishermen to go spawn and keep the flow going. It’s a little bit easier with a migrating species like salmon, because you can count them as they are migrating to the same place. Otherwise, they are creating these protective areas right now, marine reserves in the ocean. They are studying geographical information about where the troughs and valleys are, you know where the older broodstock [a group of mature fish used for breeding] live to spawn and create more juveniles. They are protecting those areas that are spawning grounds. Basically those areas get full of fish, they are spawning and spawning little guys and then they start to overflow into the other areas. They only allow the overflow areas to be harvested, to be “fish-able” areas. So that is happening a lot, all around the world actually, but particularly off the Oregon coast several marine reserves have been created.

Kelsey: How do they control those designated marine reserves?

Lyf: Oh GPS nowadays. There is something called I think, globalfishingwatch.org, which is a new satellite based system that tracks each fisherman’s boat and what they are doing. It makes sure they are not fishing in marine protected areas and this and that. It’s part of the push against the illegal, unreported and unregulated fisheries (IUU) nationally. Obama started implementing some new systems to regulate that issue. So basically we have an exclusive economic zone that is controlled here off the United States coast line up to 200 miles, but once you get past that 200 miles you enter the high seas and there is no law governing those oceans so that’s the challenge. There is no one responsible for that area and of course there are countries that are trying to ((protect the high seas)), but we are not all the way there. We need more attention on that. And furthermore on that point, that is why it is important not to buy products from China or Indonesia or the Phillipines [or many other places], because you don’t know where they have been caught or where they [were] harvested. And if they were harvested and then brought to those countries and then shipped back to over here we are supporting those IUUs fisheries.

Kelsey: Yeah, and also the fish is being shipped from all over the world which is not necessary and adding to transportation pollution.

Lyf: Well yeah, and that is what is happening here too. Tons of fisheries off the Oregon coast are getting shipped abroad to China, to Japan. The Oregon albacore tuna that I keep talking about, those fish are frozen up on the boats off the coast, taken back to port, put in shipping containers and sent frozen over to China. There they get defrosted, filleted and vacuum packaged in China, boxed back up, frozen and shipped back over here. So it’s twice frozen and shipped back.

Kelsey: Really? That is so inefficient!

Lyf: You would think! But it is still worth while for them, because labor is so cheap over there. And it is totally not sustainable. But you go call up a local seafood supplier and try to get the Oregon albacore tuna loins and they’ll send you a product that says product of China albacore tuna loins and they will say, “Well it’s just been processed in China. It’s still our Oregon albacore tuna loins.” However, now it says product of China, because they have to declare where it was processed and we can’t be sure that they are really sending us back our own albacore. It’s bulls***.

Kelsey: Yeah, there are a lot of issues around out sourcing labor in all sorts of fields, and how that work force is treated amongst other issues.

Lyf: Oh brutal! There are all these reports of slave labor in the shrimp industry and this and that. It’s brutal, yeah it’s dumb.

Kelsey: So if somebody wants to buy sustainable seafood and they aren’t in Portland and can’t buy from Flying Fish Co…. let’s say they go to their local farmer’s market or fish market. What should they be looking for so they can be sure that it is coming from a sustainable source?

Lyf: Yeah, I mean there are two big things, the first being don’t buy anything that is foreign. Don’t buy a product of China, ask where it’s from and double check, triple check. So that’s the start. At least try not to buy anything foreign, now if it is New Zealand or something, okay fine, that’s different than a product of China. So then if it is a product of the United States check the Monterey Bay Seafood Watch or if it is in a bigger box grocery store like Target or Walmart look for the one with the MSC certification. It’s the Marine Stewardship Council, a little blue check mark, and that is a certifying body saying that fishery is being fished in a sustainable manner. So first it is country of origin, second it is Monterey Bay Seafood Watch, third it is MSC certification. I say if we all followed that it would be amazing.

Kelsey: Does the MSC certification have restriction on the way that fish are fished?

Lyf: Oh yeah, it is quite a long process to get MSC certified.

Kelsey: Do you know the standards? Is it all hook and line?

Lyf: Um, not necessarily. There is by catch reduction.

Kelsey: Can you explain what that means?

Lyf: Um, it’s super involved. If you go onto the MSC site they post what the different requirements are for different fisheries, because each one is so unique. Lobster for example is caught differently than let say the Oregon albacore tuna. The MSC certified Oregon albacore tuna is the hook and line caught albacore tuna verses a net. So um yeah, the fishing method is definitely a part of it as well as where it is coming from and stuff. For sure.

Kelsey: Do you think there is ever a situation where it is appropriate to be net catching fish?

Lyf: Oh yeah. Most of the Alaskan fisheries are net caught, gill net caught, and they are still sustainable, because they are highly monitored as to how much fish they are catching, the escapement, to make sure enough fish go up river before harvesting fish… so all those. And our Oregon trawl commission, the fleet who basically net the bottom fish like the dover sole and those sorts of things, they have done awesome work in the last years to become more sustainable. The nets are just up off the bottom of the ocean now so they are not dragging and scooping all the s**t up.

Kelsey: Right, not destroying the ecosystem.

Lyf: All those things need to be worked towards to make it sustainable.

Kelsey: How do they control for bycatch?

Lyfe: Fishermen know the seas pretty well and know they know what areas have the dover sole verses the slope rock fish that are on the endangered species list. So if they catch too many slope rock fish the whole fishery will get shut down for the year, because they can only have “X” amount of those fish caught every year, because they are endangered and there are third party observers on the boat.

Kelsey: In the whole world or just the United States?

Lyf: Just in our fisheries. So yeah there are third party observers, like a government regulator on the fishing boat actually watching them do it. So they can’t just discard those ones over the side and say they never caught them, they are actually getting monitored.

Kelsey: If a fish is caught in a big net and the fishermen don’t want it and they throw it overboard, is it already dead? Is there a chance it will be okay?

Lyf: Ummm… both… Both. No it just depends. They could be alive and they could be dead. Most of them probably dead. So that’s why they have to be really specific about what areas you are fishing in, but once you are out there and you know the depth and you can see the topography you can definitely know where the areas are if you have been doing it for a long time.

Kelsey: Do you think there is a limit to the amount of fish we should eat per week to keep the oceans replenished? You don’t have to give me a very specific number, but if we go “hog wild” on a fish that in considered sustainable seafood we will still run out of it’s supply.

Lyf: So I think there are multiple things. So first of all I’ve done some work and different talks. Chef’s collaborative did a push on trash fish, which is just a slogan for undesirable species. So eating skate wing and sand ((dab)) and sardines and things that aren’t your salmon, cod, tuna, bass… you know your main fish that everyone wants. Well guess what? If everyone wants one kind of fish or five kinds of fish then those five fish are going to get depleted. So eating a bigger variety of species so there is not as much pressure on the single species. And then things like clams and mussels and oysters for example, those are cultured. They are sustainably cultured, farm raised, but they are actually a net positive for the environment because they are filtering, they are bivalves. They are filtering nutrients out of the water as opposed to a fish farm that is putting nutrients into the water. So those you can go hog wild, because they are a net positive for the environment because you are actually taking it out. So there are multiple ways to look at consumption, what it is that you are eating.

Kelsey: As far as farmed fishing goes can you tell me a little about how the difference between a sustainable farm and one that is not?

Lyf: Yeah sure. So Atlantic salmon are a good example of one that is not sustainable. Um, so they are like confined feed lots. Over stuffing these salmon in these pins and feeding, feeding, feeding. So there is not only a bunch of fish s**t coming out the back end, but then there is a bunch of unused feed the fish didn’t even eat that is falling onto the bottom. So then you get algae blooms and parasite issues. Because you have this big body of fish of course parasites are going to flourish in those areas. So then on top of that you have genetically modified grains that their feeds are full of. Another issue is that they are harvesting forage fish from the ocean for the fish feed for the farm fish. So we are harvesting the little fish from the ocean for the nutrients to put in the farm fish feed, and it takes more wild fish to make the farm fish so we are harvesting all these nutrients from the ocean and we aren’t doing it in the right manner. This compared to using a salmon carcass or whatever that we already caught while fishing, using that carcass and grinding it up for the fish feed. Instead we use the new, smaller fish for the fish feed. What is happening right now is we use that carcass, the bones, from the halibut and salmon and stuff to put in the fields for fertilizer, but not using it to feed the farm fish. [And ironically that grain that is fertilized by fish meal is being fed to the fish]. So we are going on collecting more wild, live fish instead of using those fish we already caught for the fish feed for the farm fish. So it’s just backa**wards. Our whole aquaculture for the farm raised fish is really really challenging.

There are a few farms, I sell a few sustainably raised farmed fish. One of them for example is up in Canada called Creative King Salmon and those are certified organic, no artificial color, no hormones, no antibiotics and lower stocking densities. So there are factors, you can sustainably raise fish. They are still using the wild forage fish for the fish meal. So that is one of the categories I don’t agree with, but I still sell that fish. But it is one area that as I continue to talk to more and more people about; it’s trying to bring more awareness to that. So from an industry standard we hopefully start to do something different someday, because that is a total issue.

Kelsey: Isn’t there a way to have a fish farm that’s just nets or something in the ocean that would just keep a diverse ecosystem within it so we don’t necessarily have to make fish feed to put in the farm?

Lyf: Right?! Yeah.

Kelsey: So do people do that?

Lyf: No, not yet. There is actually a trout, there is this place I buy trout from called McFarland Springs Trout and they are a full vegetarian feed. So they don’t get any forage fish from the ocean for the feed and they raise them all the way up, and they are an awesome product.

Kelsey: Is that a natural diet for trout?

Lyf: Not necessarily, but I think [there are] ways we could supplement that. What do they use? I think they use yeast [it’s actually algae]? You can go on their website and check out their information, but I think they use a yeast that is basically the protein. That when they ferment the yeast it creates a protein that they utilize. I mean trout are used to eating bugs. Then you could also farm worms, you could farm maggots, whatever it is you could farm what is not another forage fish from the ocean. So there is a light in the tunnel for sustainable farm raised fish. It’s just there are only a few people doing it and it’s just overall new.

Kelsey; It’s really cool that you are educating people on fishing sustainability and actually trying to change these issues and bring them into awareness in the first place. You can’t fix a problem if you don’t understand it and the consequences of it.

Lyf: Or bring attention that it is just a problem.

Kelsey: Yeah exactly… Well, we need more people like you.

Lyf: Thank you. It’s challenging. Let me tell you, it’s not an easy cup of tea. Any of it. Running your own business, small business, fish, food in particular it’s all really really challenging. Consumers have certain grocery store expectations. Like they want their meat in the case the way it is at big box grocery stores, but like grocery store meat is always defrosted and it’s not actually fresh meat. It’s all this trickery; the regular food industry, they f*****g trick us left and right.

Kelsey: Oh, absolutely!

Lyf: And it’s just me trying to set up these sustainable models. It is really challenging, because people are so set in their ways and they want everything everyday available and guess what? Our farm doesn’t arrive with chickens until tomorrow and I’m not going to defrost frozen chickens so that you can have it today. If you want frozen chicken I have it here, but our fresh one doesn’t come till tomorrow, sorry. People don’t like that.

Kelsey: How do you educate people and teach them that their expectations come from an unsustainable business model?

Lyf: You just do it, and then they f*****g go somewhere else and buy it and hopefully they will come back next time, but it’s just a pain in the a*s. A total pain in the a*s.

Kelsey: It must be hard, because you don’t have time to educate everyone why it is important what you are doing.

Lyf: No, I don’t.

Kelsey: Or why it is important to pay a little extra for the things you are doing and your suppliers are doing. Like certifications, and hook and line wild caught fishing or low density farming, those things take longer and are more expensive for the producer, but if we don’t do it there will be no fish left to fish. I’ve talked to a lot of different businesses like restaurants and produce farmers and they all come into the same issue. They’re like, “This is what a Valencia orange looks like this time of year. It’s green because it is protecting itself from the sun, but it’s still ripe.” However, when you get it from the grocery store they gas it with ethylene to turn it orange. And unfortunately that is what we are used to and people don’t want to buy the green one, because it doesn’t look like what they expect it to be.

Lyf: Right! Exactly, they think it is supposed to be a certain way, but it was all a trickery in the first place! Yeah, all of this is a b***h.

Kelsey: Well I feel like I’m sort of a mediator between the public and the business owner that is trying to make these changes. If people can become educated through these interviews than they can feel empowered to actually understand what is going on since there is so much misinformation.

Lyf: Oh tons! Yeah, education is so key for that.

Kelsey: Just making it accessible and easy for people that don’t feel like they have to time to devote to sifting through the misinformation. So hopefully it will bring more attention to the kind of stuff you are doing.

Lyf: Definitely. Thank you.

Kelsey: I’ll let you get back to work, but it was a pleasure meeting you.

Lyf: I appreciate it.

Kelsey: Thanks for letting me interview you.

Lyf: Of course, thank you, take care, safe travels.

Well that’s it folks! Thank you for reading and if you have any unanswered questions about sustainable seafood comment below! I’ll be sure to get back to you.

The post Finding Sustainable Seafood with Flying Fish Co: Sustainable Seafood appeared first on Get Cultured Kitchen.