Serves 4

12 ounces salmon fillet, skin and pin bones removed
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger (use a rasp grater)
½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
1 small avocado, diced
1 whole scallion, minced
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon wasabi paste
1 dozen lavash or other crackers, for serving

1. Cut salmon into ¼ inch cubes and place in a bowl with oil, ginger, ½ teaspoon of kosher salt, avocado, and scallion. In a small bowl, mix lime juice and wasabi paste until paste dissolves; add to salmon mixture. Stir gently to combine.

2. Season with salt and serve immediately with lavash.

Serves 4

4 tablespoons unhulled sesame seeds
4 skin-on salmon fillets (4–6 oz. each)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
¼ cup soy sauce
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons honey
1 medium garlic clove, minced 
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 pound baby bok choy, rinsed and quartered lengthwise 
½ Holland chile, seeded and thinly sliced (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Place sesame seeds on a baking sheet. Season salmon with salt and pepper, and press both sides into sesame seeds to coat evenly. 

2. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over medium-high heat. Place salmon skin side down and cook 3–5 minutes. Turn fish over and cook 3–5 minutes more. Remove from heat; transfer salmon to plates and keep warm in oven. Wipe skillet clean.

3. In a small bowl, combine soy sauce, lime juice, and honey; set aside. Heat garlic, ginger, and remaining oil in skillet. Add bok choy, and chile if using, and toss to coat. Add 1 tablespoon of soy mixture and cover pan with lid. Steam until tender, 2–3 minutes. Remove from pan; set aside.

4. Pour remaining soy mixture into skillet. Increase heat and boil until slightly reduced, 2–3 minutes. Serve salmon and bok choy with sauce. 

Serves 10–12 

Gravlax
1½ tablespoons juniper berries
1½ tablespoons pink peppercorns or mixed peppercorns
6 tablespoons organic white sugar
6 tablespoons kosher salt
1½ pound skin-on salmon fillet, pin bones removed
Dark rye bread, for serving

Sauce
1 cup organic sour cream
¼ cup chopped fresh dill
2 tablespoons chopped red onion
1 tablespoon gin (optional)
1 teaspoon organic white sugar
Kosher salt and freshly ground pink or black pepper, to taste

1. Make gravlax: Put juniper berries and peppercorns in a zip-top bag, push out air, and seal. Crush with a rolling pin. In a small bowl, combine sugar and salt. Lay a 24 inch-long piece of plastic wrap on a work surface. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons sugar mixture on plastic wrap and place salmon, skin side down, on top. Press juniper mixture onto flesh side of salmon and cover with remaining sugar mixture. Wrap salmon in the plastic wrap and refrigerate, turning once or twice, for 48 hours. Wipe off most of the sugar and juniper mixtures. Thinly slice salmon at a 45 degree angle with a long, sharp knife.

2. Make sauce: Combine all ingredients in a small bowl, and serve with gravlax and bread. Gravlax and sauce will keep, refrigerated, for 1 week. 

In 2013, salmon surpassed tuna as America’s most popular fish. To keep up with demand, grocery stores stock salmon—both wild and farmed—sourced from all over the planet. 

Wild Salmon
When it comes to flavor, wild salmon is where it’s at. It also packs less saturated fat than farmed. While some fisheries, like those in Alaska, are managed to ensure the plentiful return of wild fish in the future, in other places like the Pacific Northwest, wild salmon populations are often at risk. It’s not always possible to tell what waters salmon were fished from, so look for the blue sticker from the Marine Stewardship Council, which certifies that the fish was caught sustainably.

Farmed Salmon
Most of the salmon consumed in the United States is farmed Atlantic salmon, a fast-growing species. These commonly live in small pens and are fed pellets containing fish oil, fish meal, plants, essential nutrients, and sometimes carotenoids, which give them the pink flesh that wild salmon acquire by eating krill. After many years of poor environmental practices, new aquaculture systems are being established by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council. Its labeling system ensures that farms adhere to specific requirements for feed, clean sea beds, and minimal impact to the environment and native salmon. Some grocers, such as Whole Foods, also offer a “responsibly farmed” third-party rating system that guarantees that farmed salmon was raised in low-density pens, using natural pigments and no antibiotics or growth hormones. 

http://www.game.co.uk/webapp/wcs/sto…EReward-_-Link

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Yard work is a Sisyphean task for us mere humans, but it’s just another day at the office for the ruminants of the world—cud-chewing foragers such as sheep and goats. When the grass in my yard hadn’t been cut in months, I called in some reinforcements.

Amazin’ Grazers owner Adrienne Anderson trucked a group of rent-a-goats over to my house in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge neighborhood. Honeybear led this pack of rescue animals, accompanied by Rosie and the white goat posse: Cupcake, Griffin, and Francis. “Look out,” Anderson warned. “Cupcake is such a diva.”

Once loose, the troop pruned ferns, trimmed the leaves off a lanky bamboo plant, and noshed on blackberry vines.Goats like these are now for hire all over the United States, offering an eco-friendly approach to landscaping, complete with free organic fertilizer. The animals are ideal for clearing yards full of brush or invasive species, as their multichambered stomachs sterilize ingested seeds.

To my chagrin, goats won’t eat just anything. The white goat posse turned up their noses at the leaves that littered the lawn. Rosie nibbled a few patches of tall grass but quickly lost interest. The goats saved me hours of pruning, but I still needed a new lawn mower.

“If you’re looking to get your grass trimmed,” Anderson offered, “try sheep.”

The Rest Of The Herd
Companies across the country hire out grazers to trim your lawn down to size. Here are some of the best.

• Amazin’ Grazers is an affiliate of the Seattle area’s Rent-a-Ruminant, which has licensees in the Pacific Northwest, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
• California Grazing sent in a herd to clear the fields at Google’s Northern California headquarters.
• Maryland’s Eco-Goats removed leaves at the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.
• Ewe-niversally Green uses hair sheep to control Atlanta’s invasive plants, such as English ivy and kudzu.
• The Goat Lady, based in Washington state, brings llamas and alpacas for hard-to-reach high branches.

Zaalouk is a well-known, incredibly versatile eggplant salad to be spread over flatbread. You can add some harissa at the end to heat it up too.

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes

1 large eggplant, approximately 1 pound
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tomatoes peeled and diced, approximately 1 pound
1 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ cup chopped parsley
¼ cup chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

1. Peel and dice the eggplant. Depending on your taste, keep the skin of eggplant, completely peel it, or peel half of it. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add eggplant, reduce heat to a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes. Drain the eggplant in a colander, squeezing it with a spoon to remove any excess water.

2. In a medium skillet, drizzle the olive oil. Add the tomatoes followed by the eggplant, garlic, spices, parsley, and cilantro. Mix all the ingredients and let them cook on medium heat for 20 to 30 minutes, crushing them with a spoon and stirring occasionally. When the tomatoes and eggplants are cooked, add the vinegar.

Just been checking my quarterly new style bill (what a waste of paper 5 pages mostly blank) and on page3 I have been charged twice for the Standing Charge. Once in the Day/Night calc and again in the Heat calc.

Rang N Power and they are looking in to it !!!!!

It grows best in full sun, except during hot weather, when some afternoon shade helps keep the leaves from becoming bitter. Lettuces, especially the looseleaf varieties, prosper in containers. Even small gardens can provide a bounty of delicious lettuces as long as you employ a few simple strategies.

1. Prepare soil by mixing a ½-inch layer of compost and a sprinkle of organic fertilizer (apply as directed on the product label) into the top six inches of soil.

2. Sow lettuce seeds ¼-inch deep in rows spaced 12 to 18 inches apart. Thick seeding (about a tablespoon of seeds per 10-foot row) results in plenty of thinnings to eat as the lettuces grow. Keep the soil moist until the seeds germinate.

3. Once the plants have grown two to four true leaves, thin seedlings to four inches apart. Thin again when the seedlings begin to touch shoulders. For heading types, the final spacing should be at least a foot; lettuce will not form a head if crowded.

4. Grow lettuce in the cooler months, or plant it in the shade of taller crops. Heat causes lettuce to turn bitter and leathery.

5. Keep lettuces hydrated. When rain is insufficient, provide one to two inches of water per week. Plants in pots dry out more quickly than those in the ground.

6. Plant successive crops. A series of small plantings, every two to three weeks, ensures a steady supply of salad greens.

7. Extend the season. Start plants indoors under grow lights, five to six weeks before the last frost date. Use row covers to protect fall-planted lettuces into early winter.

8. Rotate crops. Growing lettuce in the same spot each year depletes the soil and eventually results in weak growth.

It took Nora Pouillon two years to convert her New American restaurant in Washington D.C. to a totally organic menu. Over that time, she worked with area farmers who used organic and biodynamic practices to bring in produce, meats, herbs, dairy, wine, and even coffee that were pesticide-free and farm-fresh. Finally, in 1999, Restaurant Nora was named the first certified organic restaurant in the U.S. She has since grown her mini restaurant empire to five locations, and in April 2015, she released My Organic Life, a book that’s part memoir, part manifesto for the organic movement. 

Rodale’s Organic Life: How did you first become interested in organic food?
Nora Pouillon: I got interested in organic food in the late 1960s when I came to this country from Vienna, Austria. My husband and I entertained, so I had to cook a lot, and I searched out wholesale meat. We loved grilled meat, and my husband especially loved grilled steak. I called up a farm in Maryland and a woman told me, “Oh, we have the greatest meat. It has lots of marbling, and we give the cows corn.” So I said, “Corn? Why do you give them corn?” Where I grew up, you didn’t give them corn. You gave them grass. “Yeah. It’s wonderful. Then we give them antibiotics and growth hormones. It makes them grow faster and fatter.” I was so freaked out. That was when I made the connection between health and what people put in their body. People are sicker, have more cardiovascular problems, and are heavier than I remember growing up in Austria. That’s when I decided to search out the cleanest food I could find. The more I got into it, the more I realized that it’s not just bad for the health of our people but for the health of our planet.”

ROL: What does organic mean to you?
NP: It means wholesome nutritious food without manmade chemical additives. Food that replenishes the soil and replenishes you. The only thing that has changed is that now people ask for it. Unfortunately, some people think that it’s just a gimmick so that they can charge more money, which isn’t true. I think educating the consumer is very important. I believe in finding examples out there of people who eat organically and taking a look at where they are. They’re more fit and they enjoy life more. We need to explain to people the true cost of food. Explain the life of a farmer. How much do his seeds cost? How much does his land cost? How many hours of work does he put in and how much profit does he get out of it? People don’t see how much effort and energy is needed to grow that food.

ROL: What foods are you currently in love with?
NP: It changes a lot, but right now I am very excited because one of my Amish farmers that raised my chicken started doing my veal. He has them grow solely on their mother’s milk and lets them run free in the barn or enclosed areas. I also love the plain roast chicken. The Amish farmer does this chicken that tastes so good. It’s wonderful just to feel it and taste the flavor of the chicken again.

ROL: What was the single greatest challenge you faced getting your restaurant certified organic?
NP: Overall the challenges were to create the standards first, convince many of my farmers to become certified, and then to keep up to book so I don’t lose my certification. Finding the certifying agent who would take it on was a big challenge. I found Oregon Tilth and Yvonne Frost, who was president at the time, but it took nearly two years to get the standards together. We were going back and forth for a while. Yvonne put together the certifications standards for a farm, for a store, and for a production company or business so we could create the standards for the restaurant.

ROL: What inspired you to write your memoir?
NP: Basically my story is about how everything is connected. I am also trying to show people that everything matters in your life, from where you’re born and when you’re growing up to how you develop your passion. Growing up on a working farm during and having parents that were so health-conscious, especially my father, really influenced me. My father was very much into outdoor activities like skiing, hiking, and swimming. I remember him peeling an apple and me asking, “Why do you peel an apple?” He looked at me and said, “Because they spray it.” Can you believe it? That was in the 1950s.

ROL: What are the next obstacles the organic movement has to face?
NP: The organic movement needs to find a way to rally up lots of consumers through educating where their money is going. Consumers need to know that the money they spend on organic food is well-spent, that it’s used to produce wholesome foods.