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"Local Burger brings veggie burgers to game", text copied below

By Justine Patton

Originally published September 2, 2010 at 8:56 p.m., updated September 2, 2010 at 8:56 p.m.

Local Burger will now be selling its World’s Best Veggie Burger at KU sporting events, starting at the football game against North Dakota State.

Local Burger’s founder and owner, Hilary Brown, contacted the University’s athletics vendor, Centerplate, with the idea. Within a couple of days, after delivering samples and testing the burgers on Memorial Stadium’s grills, Brown received the OK she was looking for.

Rick Brown, general manager of Centerplate, said the staff was excited to add Local Burger to the list of local restaurants they work with.

“They seemed like a perfect fit, being local, fresh and gluten-free,” Brown said.

The organic veggie burger will add another vegetarian option to the menus at KU’s basketball, football and baseball games.

The veggie burger will offer different nutritional benefits than a regular hamburger. It includes four organic vegetables and two organic grains and provides an array of vitamins and minerals that protein from meat does not provide.

Margaret Tran, Local Burger’s social media and promotions manager and recent KU graduate, said she thought many students would take advantage of the menu’s new addition.

“It’s really exciting, because I know a lot of people on campus are looking for healthier options,” Tran said.

Brian Sitek, a sophomore from Atchison, said he had tried a veggie burger before, and he might get one at one of the games.

“I still like meat though,” Sitek said.

However, Local Burger’s founder and owner, Hilary Brown, said the burgers are not just for vegetarians.

“People who are offended by the word ‘veggie burger’ love this veggie burger,” Brown said. “It’s got a great texture. It’s really good and nutritious.”

At tomorrow’s football game, fans can find The World’s Best Veggie Burgers at concession stands in the stadium. It will be sold for $5.50 and served on a hamburger bun with a Jayhawk logo branded on top.

— Edited by Abby Davenport

It is hard to say whether it was the $4 organic watermelons, the deliciously cool watermelon popsicles, or the 85 degree weather, but something certainly made the August 26, Cottin’s Hardware Farmers Market the coolest event of the week! Ragtimes x 2 entertained the masses with a wondrous selection of tuba and accordion music. Their version of Sunrise from 2001 Space Odyssey was the show starter and a show stopper all in one. Several market goers came specifically to hear the music, but stayed to partake in the amazing food stuffs the many vendors had to offer. Others, who came for the food, were pleasantly surprised by the festive mood of the venue.

The market’s regular vendors geared up for the event with loads of fresh produce, bake goods, meats and preserves. Seasonal selections included several varieties of peppers, tomatillos, tomatoes, summer and winter squash, onions, potatoes, cucumbers, garlic and more. Stone Ridge Farms had some incredibly delectable dessert pears to share with market goers and Common Harvest Farm not only brought their own chemical free, vine ripened watermelons, but also had a largess of tomatoes from Moon on the Meadow farm.

If the market were set to highlight one vendor each week, Those Polish Thingies would have been the headliner of the week. There is just something near perfect when you have a chance to taste and purchase fresh, homemade perogies with polka music playing in the back ground.

Next week is sure to be a hit also, as Bill Crahan and Scott Tichenor return to entertain market goers while fourteen or so of the most talented farmers and producers in the Kaw River Valley set out an impressive array of local foods for all to peruse.

Cool Market Goers by llc

The Child Nutrition Act is up for reauthorization THIS YEAR. A fully funded and improved child nutrition bill will need to be passed by Congress before September 30th, or the bill will be lost, and no changes will occur at the federal level.

Join us on Labor Day for a Community Potluck to determine if we are doing everything possible as a community to ensure that our children are getting the best food that they deserve in schools. Farmers, politicians, community leaders and advocates, parents, teachers, and kids will come together and unite over food and valuable discussions related to the topic. All members of the community are welcome and encouraged to attend this event.

Details: When? Monday, September 6th, 2010. Where? South Park- West. Time? 3-6pm. Bring? A homemade dish to share if you can. Water and eco-disposables will be provided. Limited seating.

There’s a little European flair in the Barker Neighborhood these days as Cottin’s Hardware & Rental hosts a weekly Farmers Market in their back parking lot each Thursday afternoon from 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm. When it comes to food, Cottin’s Market offers up a little something for everyone. The carefully selected core group of producers lays out a weekly spread that would be the envy of markets across the country. Fresh garden produce, lusciously ripe fruits, hand crafted bake goods, homemade jelly, ethically raised chicken, pork, and beef, Indian tacos, perogies, general food stuffs and more are all available weekly. Then there are the guest vendors who show up weekly with an abundance of one thing or another to share.

The August 19 market sported bushels of peaches from Grimm’s Gardens in Hiawatha, KS, bags of apples from Richardson Orchard in Reno, KS and eggs from the neighborhood Beak House Hens. Tucker Farm drove 130 miles to share a cooler full of 100% grass feed beef. Gary Tucker also provided lots of information on the benefits of mob grazing and the far reaching affects of feeding cows grass rather than indigestible grain. Live baby chicks and Lauralyn Bodle’s amazing fiddle playing rounded out the afternoon’s festivities, making it a market to remember for all in attendance. The market continues to expand its core purveyors as Stella’s Goodies brings on an array of gluten free bake goods and S & S Artisanal Grocery offers up watermelon popsicles and blackberry soda, all handcrafted from local produce. Common Harvest Farm will also be on hand dishing out their temporary overstock of chemical free watermelons.

The Ross family will set up the Indian taco stand by noon each Thursday to catch a bit of the afternoon lunch crowd before the market gets underway. On Thursday, August 26 Ragtimes x 2, an accordion and tuba duo specializing in getting the party started, will be on hand to perform some ragtime music intermixed with a bit of traditional polka tunes.

Like European markets of lore, Cottin’s Hardware Farmers Market offers a little bit of something for everyone each week, from music and food to drinks and cheer, there is much to see and lots to do.

Stoneridge Farm and Mellowfields Urban Farm Booths by llc

LiveWell Lawrence wants to increase access to healthy foods in restaurants.

Trish Unruh, a nutritionist with the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, said Americans spend 44 percent of their food dollars on eating out.

“My goal with the restaurant program is to have nutritious and delicious healthy food choices when going out to eat,” she said.

For example, the program could encourage restaurant owners to offer:

• Salad, fruit and/or vegetables as a side dish.

• One entrée prepared with a lower-fat method such as baked or broiled.

• Whole-grain products.

• A low-sodium entrée.

• Low-fat sauces and dressings.

There is lots of talk these days about individual contribution to climate change. That is little things that each of us can do everyday to reduce our own carbon foot print. I think that this idea of self examination is good; after all we are all drops in the same bucket. Recently I have done some meditating on how I can help create a healthy future for my kids and want to share what I found.

First thing is first; Welcome to the age of pre-cycling! The recycling chatter of the eighties has fallen short, now is the time to pre-cycle. Stop waste before it even starts. Buy as little disposable items as possible. Look for paper goods that are made from post consumer waste, or compostable material. That way what you do have to send to the land fill will return to the earth. Plastics don’t biodegrade but instead photodegrade…that is break up into increasingly smaller particles that never go away and end up in our ocean and soil permanently. Stop using plastic shopping bags this very minute, they are unnecessary and environmentally costly. Use reusable cloth bags or at least reuse the old plastic ones a couple of times. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter; plastics, chemicals, and trash in the central North Pacific Ocean. Many scientists suggest that the patch extends over a very wide area, with estimates ranging from an area the size of the state of Texas to one larger than the continental United States. I think of this trash vortex every time I use a plastic bag, or drink bottle. I wish that the manufacturers would start thinking about it too. http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/the-expedition/news/trashing-our-oceans/ocean_pollution_animation

The best way to pre-cycling is to cut your consumption down as much as you can, by that I mean stop all the stuff. Use/buy only what you need and let all the material madness die, you will be liberated by a life of simplicity. If there is one thing that makes me the most concerned for the future of our planet it is western societies unquenchable thirst for consumption. We identify our selves through what we buy, where we buy it and how much we spend, but think very little about the affects of our consumerism culture. Almost everything we buy comes wrapped in excessive packaging and then put in a plastic bag. Before we even buy it gets shipped across the ocean then trucked over land. The stuff we consume is itself an environmental disaster. Manufactures respond to our unrealistic demands for cheap goods and their unethical drive for profit by using synthetic chemicals, petroleum derived plastics, chemical fertilizers and preservatives….this is crazy! No one is innocent; this is the stuff our society is built on. The late George Carlin said, ‘They call it the American Dream because you have to be sleeping to believe it.” Nothing gets me more excited than the prospect that I might live to see the turning point, the collapse of capitalism. When we stop living to consume and start consuming only to live. Likewise nothing makes me sadder than to think about the state of this planet and the mess we are leaving behind for our kids.
http://www.storyofstuff.com

Another way to pre-cycle is to reduce food related waste. Food is a crucial component of our oil-based economy and talking about food waste is just as important as talking about driving more energy efficient vehicles or cutting our single use plastic consumption. We all eat three meals a day…that means we have three chances everyday to take a small step towards a healthier future. Again first thing is first; choose less environmentally expensive foods. That means less meat, especially cheap meat! There is a wide array of reasons to avoid factory farmed meat, but the environmental cost of consuming meat that has been raised in an industrialized setting is staggering. Cattle contributes 17% of the world’s carbon emissions. Raj Patel writes in his book The Value of Nothing about the external costs of our fast food industry, “The energy cost of the 550 million Big Macs sold in the United States every year is $297 million, producing a greenhouse gas footprint of 2.66 billion pounds of CO2 equivalent.” Patel points out that if you could put a price tag on the environmental and human health cost of each Big Mac they would be more like $200.00 a piece instead of $2.00. http://rajpatel.org

Think out side the box; as much as possible buy food that does not have packaging. You will be doing the environment a favor and your health will improve as well. A recent study out of the Univ. of Texas, found that the American food chain squanders about 2030 trillion BTU (British Thermal Units) through its wasted food. Try grocery shopping every three days and only purchase what you need for the next three days worth of meals, commit to using everything before it goes bad. Buy local produce, the less miles it travels the better….it will taste better too! If you buy directly from the farmer it will be cheaper. Shipping veggies across the ocean is not a sustainable practice. You will have to wait for apple season to eat apples, and if you are really hard core you will have to say good bye to bananas for ever. Buy organic and prevent pesticides and fertilizers from entering our ground water, rivers, and bodies. Cook from scratch using fresh veggies, that way you avoid boxes, cans, and un-healthy additives too. I like to prepare extra large meals so I can have left-overs for quick meals later in the week. Especially with basics like rice and beans, this way I can use portions of many meals to make a new one. What you do have to dispose of compost, it is fun to see your scrapes magically transform into dirt, and there is something wholly satisfying about feeding compost to growing food…Mother Earth is really smart! http://www.wastedfood.com http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

The key to living sustainably is living simply and being aware of the footprint you leave every little step of the way. Purchasing decisions and lifestyle changes are easy what will be monumentally hard is the full blown cultural shift that will have to take place for human survival. This is what we are faced with, climate change is well underway. Our policy makers have adapted a stance of no climate change policy with out profit…there for a policy of non-action coupled with out of control environmental disaster is what we will be bestowing on future generations. Will this period in time go down as the closing of the window for effective change or the opening of the door of accountability? I choose a life of accountability and will raise my kids to fully understand the challenge that they will soon face. http://www.greenpeace.org/usa

Now that the kids are getting back to school, it is important to focus on healthy snacks to keep their energy up. Junk food gives your children a surge of energy, but then it quickly drops out and your kid is Mr. Whiney Pants for the rest of the evening.

This video from Lifetime.com has some helpful tips for adults on making healthy choices. Remember these portions she mentions are for an adult. A normal toddler only should eat half the adult portion since they only need 1000 cal/day as opposed to an average adult who requires 2000 cal/day.

While I admit that not every bite of food that passes my baby's lips is made in my own kitchen, I do try my best to keep things on hand that are nutritious and wholesome for him. Now that he's bigger, that's pretty easy. A little corkscrew pasta, all cut up, some raisins, a chopped up clementine, some bits of tofu, some halved blueberries, that sort of thing. I can just plop an array of things on his tray and he'll pick them up and eat them on his own. He's sort of "over" being spoon-fed. Still, there are some things I would like for him to eat that he can't quite manage on his own. I make applesauce from scratch, for example. I also do a spinach puree, and I try to keep some sweet potato puree in my freezer.

Making baby food, for an infant or a toddler, isn't really as hard as it might seem.

For example, I made some sweet potato puree for my little guy this weekend. It only took a few minutes, and one sweet potato produced enough for six or seven toddler-sized servings. It would feed an infant probably twice that many meals.

To make baby food, you do need some sort of food processing device. I happen to have an actual baby food processor, which makes things incredibly easy, but if you just use your stick blender or Cuisinart, you'll be fine too.

Sweet potatoes are full of vitamins, dietary fiber, and potassium, and they also make your baby feel nice and full, so I like to feed them to Johnny fairly often. Which is great, because they only cost about a buck apeice. You get a lot of bang for your baby food buck out of one sweet potato.

sweet potato and bowl by meganstuke

I just poke some holes in the potato with a fork, and microwave it for about six minutes, or until it feels soft to the touch.

Then slice it open, and scoop out the guts.

microwave for six minutes by meganstuke

Put the potato into your food processor bowl and add about two tablespoons of formula or breast milk to smooth it out. You can add more later if you think your baby needs a thinner, more runny consistency.

cooked sweet potato by meganstuke

pureeing sweet potatoes by meganstuke

Blend until smooth. That's it! No added salt or fats - just pure, healthy potato that tastes divine.

As with all my purees, I then freeze them in individual servings in an ice cube tray. Just fill the tray, cover with saran wrap, and freeze.

freeze in ice cube trays by meganstuke

When they're solid, you can pop them out of the tray (and reuse it for your next batch), and just store the cubes in a freezer bag.

store in freezer bag by meganstuke

When it's time to feed baby, just microwave one or two cubes for about twenty seconds. Be careful you don't overdo it - baby food just be room temp so as not to burn a little mouth.

toddler serving by meganstuke

warmed up puree by meganstuke

Last Thursday marked Cottin’s Hardware & Rental’s foray into the farmers market arena as they hosted a two hour market in their back parking lot at 1832 Massachusetts Street, in Lawrence, KS. It should come as no surprise to anyone who knows the neighborhood and Lawrence’s amazing producers, that the premier event was a huge success. Farmers, ranchers, bakers, merchants and neighbors turned out in full forced to partake in the afternoon activities. Mojo National set the mood, filling the market air with a wonderful selection of acoustical music. Their talented and professional strumming included an iconic rendition of the Wizard of Oz’s “If I Only Had a Brain” and was easily registered as a highlight of the market for many of the day’s patrons.

Vendors sported a diverse array of products, aggregated by not only luscious garden produce, but also bake goods, meat, perogies, grains, jellies and jams and much, much more. Mellow Fields Urban Farm sold a bountiful selection of garden produce, some of which traveled less than fifty feet to get from garden to market table. They also hosted their weekly CSA pick up and served up ice cold hibiscus tea to boot. Stone Ridge farm set up an impressive booth with delicious bake goods, preserves, produce and even a few craft items. Market patrons were also offered free samples of jellies and jams to facilitate their buying decisions.

MAD Farm and Avery’s Produce tables were overflowing with summer’s bounty. Potatoes, tomatoes and sweet corn, though plentiful, did not over shadow many other garden selections, such as cucumbers, squash, apples, garlic, peppers and even some tomatillos. Nan Renbarger’s Upward Spirals Bake Goods were tantalizingly diverse with a wide selection of breads including potato bread, burger buns, pizza crust and more. Gasper Farm and Those Polish Thingies cornered the frozen produce section with their offerings of chicken, pork, and perogies, respectfully. New Boston Coop buying group added a unique twist to the market, with a table sporting typical grocery food stuffs such as grains, olive oil, laundry detergent and even a few bags of chips.

Well over a hundred neighbors and friends came out to support the farmers and musicians, and everyone left the market a little richer for it.

Cottin’s will continue to host the market every Thursday afternoon from 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm through August and September. The Ross family will serve up their delicious Indian tacos as various local musicians volunteer to entertain the masses weekly. Bill Crahan and Scott Tichenor are scheduled to play this coming Thursday, August 12.

MAD Farm booth at Cottin's Hardware Farmers Market by llc

Mojo National Preciously Performs by llc

Avery's Produce Table at Cottin's Hardware Farmers Market by llc