Monthly Archives: August 2010

Farmhaus, a review

On Thursday night, after a week of wrangling middle schoolers on bicycles in increasingly hot temperatures, I mustered the will to hop back on the bike for a dinner date.  We were torn between Stellina Pasta Cafe (an old favorite) or Farmhaus (something new).  I’d read a couple of good reviews about Farmhaus, so it was on my list of places to try.

Matthew voted for Stellina, and I was too tired to care much one way or the other, so we biked there, only to find a thirty minute wait (not outrageous, but it was already 7:30pm and we were HUNGRY).  Fortunately, Farmhaus was only a few blocks away, so we decided to try our luck there.

We walked in the door and were immediately hit by the strong fishy smell (the seafood is the main component of their menu that is NOT local).  We exchanged a look.  Ultimately, they had a table and a menu with some nice vegetarian options, so we stayed.

We choose between three or four salads that all sounded fabulous, settling on the marinated vegetable salad (not sure that’s the exact name).

It arrived in a canning jar — fun! For ease of eating we dumped it out on the plate.  A flavorful and fresh start to our meal, the corn melted in my mouth, buttery and sweet, a nice compliment to the other veggies.

By this point, after the initial wall of odor and adjustment period,  our olfactory systems became desensitized to the fishy smell.

Next up, sweet potato nachos.  These were only so-so.  To be fair, we made some changes to this dish.  We ordered it without bacon and subbed goat cheese for the blue cheese because someone doesn’t like blue cheese.  They came with some kind of a house-made catsup.  Our homemade catsup beats Farmhaus’, no contest.

We discovered a new wine, a “sweet” shiraz (Jam Jar, S. Africa) that was basically a perfect red wine for us.  Not really “sweet” in our book, but definitely not dry — a perfect dinner accompaniment.

For our entree, we shared the vegetarian succotash, tomatillos, grilled okra, corn, and peppers, served over spoon bread.  Mmm, spoon bread — my first, but definitely not my last, encounter with this food.  We ate this and were very sad that we couldn’t lick up the last bits in the bowl 😦  In some cultures, that’s considered very polite.

I don’t have a dessert pic, but we ordered a peach and ricotta pastry.  The pastry was light and flaky, with a generous amount of fresh, local peaches, served hot out of the oven with peach sorbet on top to cool things off.

We chatted with our waiter about local biking options and headed home after a delicious dinner adventure, both glad we ended up at Farmhaus.

Green confusion

Trying to green your life but not always sure what the green choice is?  You’re not alone. “Delusions Abound on Energy Savings,” a recent post on the NYTimes Green blog, shares some results from a study about our energy saving beliefs and behaviors.

One common misconception involves laundry.  What saves more energy, line-drying clothes instead of using the dryer, or switching your washing machine from a warm water wash to a cold water wash?

Most people picked line drying, but washing in cold water actually saves more energy.  Mr. GreenLife provided this explanation: It takes a lot of energy to heat water.  Compared to heating enough water to fill a washing machine, the process of removing that water from the clothes in a dryer consumes less energy.  (I’m sure his explanation included more scientific details that failed to make it through my important information filter.)

Your best bet?  Cold water wash AND line drying.

I took most of their findings with a grain of salt, because they focused simply on energy use, not overall environmental impact.  For example, buying energy-efficient appliances saves more energy than switching off lights or unplugging appliances when not in use, but they don’t factor in the environmental impact of discarding what may be a perfectly functional, but older model refrigerator, just to upgrade to a new energy-efficient model.

I’m also not sure how “driving a more fuel-efficient car” comes out on top of “biking or using public transportation.”  Again, they omitted some important details on the overall environmental impact.  I highly recommend driving a more fuel-efficient car, but not driving that car at all is even better.

The complete journal article is available here through the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Yeah, PNAS.  Maybe they should have thought that acronym through a little bit  more.  Or maybe research scientists/academics do have a sense of humor?

Shopping spree

In a complete reversal from my teenage years, I really dislike shopping, and it’s not just that I’m spending my own money now instead of my parents’.   I now prefer getting rid of stuff to acquiring more, but over the last several weeks, we’ve made some contributions to our local economy.

First came our Home Eco trip, which netted a new Kleen Kanteen (stainless steel water bottle), some new-to-us glass jars (from their resale section — love that they have this), a gardening tool, and these on-the-go silverware holders.A local St. Louis woman makes the Sew Good and Trendy Eco-Wrappers from either repurposed fabric scraps or hemp.  The wrapper includes an organic cloth napkin and spots for a knife, fork, and spoon (supply your own, those are not included).  I initially balked at the price, but when you consider that these are made locally with quality materials . . . . Eh, worth it.

Unwrapped

We replaced some of our non-stick cooking pans with these new-to-us pans from The Future Antique and picked up a hand blender there, too.

I just realized that all of these purchases were food-related.  No wonder I like them so much 😉

Caught red-handed

Bright and early on Sunday morning, we piled into a car with two friends and headed two hours south to float the Black River.  In an attempt to avoid head-to-toe sunscreen without getting fried, I pulled out the dive skin I bought for snorkeling (or, in my case, pukeling*) on our trip to Mexico almost two years ago.

What’s the environmental impact of wearing sunscreen vs. wearing sun protective clothing?  I’m not sure, though the calculation depends in part on how long the sun protective clothing lasts.  If the clothing lasts long enough, it may indeed be better overall (health + environmental impact) than buying and applying chemical-laden lotion from plastic bottles.

Can you spot the problem in the above picture?

Hint 1: The dive skin performed beautifully.

Hint 2: Unfortunately, the dive skin did not cover everything.

I’m kicking myself because I know better.  Ouch.

*Snorkel + puke = pukel.  Disgusting and entirely possible, though I did manage to remove the snorkel from my mouth before feeding the fish.