Coffee and birds

Do you drink coffee? Do you know your choice of coffee - wether over the counter, off the shelf at the market, or in a restaurant - has global significance? As you inhale those aromas that account for much of coffee's appeal during your next cup, consider how your beans got that flavor. Beginning in the 1970's, traditional cultivation of coffee in the shade of trees began to give way to growing the plants in full sun, on land cleared of trees. Full sun greatly speeds up rates of plant growth and, of course, profitability. However, it is very bad for the soil, water, wildlife, and usually involves more pesticides and other nasty compounds that end up in your cup.

Sun farmed coffee is especially bad for birds, who need the habitat provided by trees in order to survive. "Traditional polyculture"is the term used to describe coffee cultivation involving not only shade trees but also other crops, medicinal plants, and beneficial plants. This method also uses few if any pesticides and less water while also offering farmers stability by having more than one crop or product to rely on - rendering them less susceptible to victimization by the market.

To guide your choice of coffee, please at least go with USDA Organic, Fair Trade Certified, and, if possible, Shade Grown. Just meeting these standards does not guarantee the coffee will be to your liking. Roasting and other factors influence the final cup; so try several kinds until you are happy. Another factor is country of origin: Bolivia, Mexico, Nicarauga, Honduras El Salvador, Papua New Guinea and Ethiopia are countries more likely to produce shade grown coffee. If possible, buy coffee approved by the Smithsonian Institution and displaying their "Bird Friendly" label.

My current favorite is Bolivian shade Grown, Fair Trade, Organic Coffee offered by Trader Joe's as a house brand. Nothing is simple though - "shade" does not have a strict definition and Trader Joe's does not label its source for this or most of it's other coffees...so it is a case of giving the benefit of the doubt, and making a good, if not the best, choice. 

I gave up coffee as a habit almost twenty years ago and now drink it in my professional capacity as a chef to decide what to serve - or as cappuccino with that rare piece of cheesecake. But I do drink tea, and at the risk of being even more prescriptive, let me offer my highest praise for Upton Tea. It's founder, Tom Eck, will be at Stellina Restaurant in Watertown Massachusetts on March 14th, at tea time, to lead a tasting. See the website for tickets. Upton also has a neat series on the history of tea. The current issue, also to be seen on their web site, relates the complex interrelationships between tea and opium. 


Finally, coffee grounds are an excellent addition to the soil; tossing grounds into the compost bin or directly onto your garden is an added value.

Cake

My son was recently holding forth on a subject in the way that only sweet, hedonistic, clever, eleven year olds can, excitedly describing amusingly absurd ideas about online shopping. He likes to look at Amazon.com and other online shopping sites and understands that books and cd's and toys and electronic gadgets can come into one's life (dramatically appearing at the door!) by tapping certain numbers and things onto the keyboard. We were driving home - he from school, I from work. I smiled, feeling that singular and irreplaceable anticipation for whatever wacky and yet scientific thing he was about to say.  He said, "Mama, wouldn't it be cool if when you order something and it came out of the slot on the side of the computer!!!!  Hahahaha {snort}" . He then went on to list an increasingly absurd collection of things that we might expect to see doing this, ending with something very large - a fully furnished house I believe. In between his pretty good to downright beautiful singing (Hannah Montana, Xmas Carols, Oldies, Tchaikovsky, Blues and Soul...) there was time to discuss how his day was, how my day was, what activities we had in our plans, and what he wanted to acquire next. When we had exhausted a subject, he'd turn on his talking book machine and we would listen to stories. Anyway, in the "what to acquire next" segment of one recent ride-home talk, this image of things popping out of the side of the computer stayed with me.

At the time, I told him it was reminiscent of Star Trek's transporter - which was way nizza. He agreed. But I later began thinking about cake. I can show pictures of cakes I have made. But they are just pictures. You can't eat them. You can't smell them. You can't follow that dancing roller coaster of actual flavors - floral, herbal, tactual, spicy, oil of cacao, buttery, wheat glutenous spongey dissolving sugary ( or non gluten starchy cohesion), salt and peppery, sweet around the corner of other flavors while swallowing and tasting even more that are involved with actually eating a piece of cake. Not to mention the symphony - if good cake - of thoughts and adrenal activity (compounded by coffee, tea, etc.) that goes with all this flavor. So my son's idea of things coming out of the computer seemed quite plausible, considering some future technology that supports this. But even more, it seemed essential if I wanted to communicate to others all that my cake is....how deep is the ocean, how high the stars?...my cake is where words end.

I think about things like this when I make them, inhaling the fresh aromas and observing the very specific surface tension of bubbles in a solution of sugar, invert sugar, and water while I whip the egg yolks into a foam, while I follow the change of odor as this solution cooks the yolks while they become an emulsion capable of balancing the amazing organic butter, Scotch whiskey, Tahitian vanilla, and perhaps other additions to my French Buttercream. Or when I create a caramel of cream that browns up an edgy flavor just before adding the milk chocolate and vanilla crush to complicate it to the max. Or when I mix that shade grown Bolivian coffee leftover from yesterday's lunch that I find in the pantry Mr.
Coffee maker with King Arthur, sugar, potato starch, chocolates, eggs and some secret ingredients that end in a batter that is on thin ice - about to fall but on a wing and a prayer deliberately thin to gel to the best moistness (Better than that Duncan Hines dude - way way better) that delivers the goods in every bite. Yeah, I think about this. And the future is all you can hope for unless you have me around to bake a cake for you, because for now, my cakes begin where this text leaves off.
  

Bird food

There are many reasons for feeding wild birds - it makes observing them and learning easier, they are beautiful, it interests house cats, and so on. A less commonly cited reason is compensation: I live on a plot of land in a house where, in times past, woodland provided habitat for the birds. It just seems fair to give back something since even though I personally did not clear the land I am still living on it. Another is insect control; birds are terrific at eating unwanted insects in the fair weather, so feeding them in the foul makes sense. Today the windchill is minus 11 fahrenheit so I am reminded to write a bit here to promote the welfare of these creatures.

One thing I do is cut the top off a milk carton and leave it nearby my kitchen sink where I also have a gallon container for compost. Crumbs left on the cutting board and those found in the bottom of chip or cereal packages all end up in the carton. Some things that might normally go into the compost get diverted here as well since I have a variety of birds with a wide range of appetites. I also get motivated to clean my pantry out by having this carton around, and things that are tired or expired end up in the carton.

On very cold days such as this, I toss the contents onto a log that is split in half, flat side up, that I placed under the squirrel proof bird feeder. The feeder itself is hung only a few feet off the ground from the branches of the Campsis vine that grows along the chain link fence (a great attractor of hummingbirds and
orioles when it blooms in September). These branches are intertwined and spread out so as to prevent pigeons from coming down: though they see the food, they know they cannot manage a quick take off in case of hawks or other predators because of the overhanging branches. If you are bothered by pigeons at your feeder, you might want to simulate this condition, perhaps by installing dead branches from another
type of bush or tree, experimenting until it works.

Hot Peppers

I am now beginning to get excited about my friend Ruihua coming back from China at the end of this week. She will have been gone over a month, and I've been house sitting, but now words we exchanged before she left may bear fruit if she brings back some pepper. Plus, I miss her; and she always is so happy after being with her parents and sister that I feel happy for her too... and sad I guess since tears come when one has to go to the airport. One more argument to fund research on transporters, I say.


But pepper! From Sichuan! Yes, yes, yesss! That is what I asked for when she wanted to know what she could bring back for me from China. Just simple pepper from her home town. And salt...yes I did ask for that too. She thought I was nuts. But the Chinese have been drilling for salt using very deep holes in the ground to bring up the saline water for a long time and Sichuan is supposed to have awesome salt. I guess it is just, um, dirty. That is supposed to be what the flavor comes from: impurities. Salt and pepper. I tried to make it easy because she was adamant she must bring some gift back for me. But I have worried; what if I have caused her to run around in a now-changed Sichuan that no longer has easily bought salt and pepper? What if the airport people or customs people make trouble about it?


If so, I have a fall back position. If she brings me some funky mushroom things or dried fishes or black bean spicy paste with stern looking woman's portrait on the label, or a book about Pandas I will reassure myself that I can get peppers from Melindas. Not Sichuan, sadly. But still, amazing stuff; the XXXXtra reserve and the chipolte are beyond belief good. And after all, central America was the source of the other hot peppers (not Sichuan) long long ago when trade was in effect via pre-Columbian boats between Mexico, et al and China, et al.