The Manlius Formation

Apparently, yes.

After a boat tour during our recent camping trip to Canada^[1] we stopped off at a restaurant on the shore of the St. Lawrence River. One interesting thing about traveling in Ontario, as you probably already know, is that everything is in French and English.

As I was admiring the Heinz Ketchup and Relish labels, I noticed that neither contained high fructose corn syrup. This piqued my curiosity since HFCS is the first or second ingredient in nearly every packaged food product in the U.S.

I came home eager to do some research and see if Canada has something on us here. Have they found a way to force this evil ingredient to be banned from food? ^[2]

Alas, my joy was short-lived.

The second ingredient in the relish was glucose-fructose, which is apparently Canadian for “HFCS.” This isn’t surprising since HFCS is corn syrup which has had a percentage of its glucose enzymatically converted into fructose.

As for the ketchup, it had “liquid sugar” listed as ingredient two, but a quick check at the Sugar Association website gives this information about liquid sugar:

Liquid Sugar

Liquid sugars
There are several types of liquid sugar. Liquid sugar (sucrose) is white granulated sugar that has been dissolved in water before it is used. Liquid sugar is ideal for products whose recipes first require sugar to be dissolved. Amber liquid sugar is darker in color and can be used in foods where brown color is desired.

Invert sugar
Sucrose can be split into its two component sugars (glucose and fructose). This process is called inversion, and the product is called invert sugar. Commercial invert sugar is a liquid product that contains equal amounts of glucose and fructose. Because fructose is sweeter than either glucose or sucrose, invert sugar is sweeter than white sugar. Commercial liquid invert sugars are prepared as different mixtures of sucrose and invert sugar. For example total invert sugar is half glucose and half fructose, while 50% invert sugar (half of the sucrose has been inverted) is one-half sucrose, one-quarter glucose and one-quarter fructose. Invert sugar is used mainly by food manufacturers to retard the crystallization of sugar and to retain moisture in the packaged food. Which particular invert sugar is used is determined by which function – retarding crystallization or retaining moisture – is required.

Home cooks make invert sugar whenever a recipe calls for a sugar to be boiled gently in a mixture of water and lemon juice.

To all this I say: Meh.

1. more in a later post [back]
2. It’s a well-known fact that tee-ball, the NY Times crossword puzzle, and HFCS were invented by the devil. Well, not really, but they should all be experienced in moderation. See this interesting post for some HFCS background if you’re interested. [back]

That’s right. As I sit here typing, there is a light dusting of snow on the ground and the flakes are steadily falling. I’m into snow and all, but this is a bit ridiculous.

Bit I digress. Back to the topic at hand…

I took a trip to Ballantyne Gardens last week and met Tim and Lisa Ballantyne. Tim was busy getting ready for the season - there were boxes everywhere - but he took twenty minutes to learn more about what I’m trying to do. I even got a personal tour of their garden out back. They carry a great range of organic seeds, and Tim has already helped me decide on a basic layout for the garden.

Since we don’t have any space limitations, the maximum size of the garden is dictated by the fact that I don’t want to get too ambitious right out of the starting gate. I’m going to build a fenced-in 10ft x 10ft raised bed (our yard is VERY rocky) and divide it into four quadrants with a 2ft-wide “cross” in the middle as a walkway. That’ll give me 64 square feet of planting area and plenty of fence to grow stuff that needs something to grab onto.

Tim and I talked for a while about companion planting, and he said he’d be willing to help me with that, too.

With that matter settled, I attended a “Master Composting” class at Northern Onondaga Public Library offered by the Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency. I learned a lot about OCRRA that I didn’t know and met a lot of folks with a lot of different reasons for wanting to compost. We had newbies who wanted to learn the basics & old hats who wanted to learn the latest trends, unmarried apartment-dwellers & ranch-owning couples, veggie gardeners & flower gardeners - you name the demographic and it was probably represented.

The class was organized by the head of OCRRA’s “industrial-strength” composting program. What he’s doing is amazing. They build rows of compostable material hundreds of feet long and 20 feet high and aerate the pile using a small fan attached to a perforated PVC pipe running down the length. The cost of running the pipe eliminated the need to turn the pile with a front-loader, saving $ and energy. It works so well that he measured temperatures near 170 degrees in the dead of Syracuse winter (after punching through the frozen outer layer).

A few students from SUNY ESF talked about browns and greens, aerobic vs. non-aerobic composting, and a little about the interesting critters we’ll find crawling about in our compost while it’s stewing. A new employee at OCRRA - and their resident vermicomposting expert - also gave a brief presentation on how to get the worms to work for you. My friend Holly is making progress in this wormy area, so I now have two resources should I decide to go this route one day.

At the end of the class we all received a free recycling Blue Bin and a free composting bin. Mine is a model called the Yardwaste Eliminator. It consists of interlocking rectangular plates made of recycled plastic that you can build into any shape you want. I’m going to set it up this weekend.

As soon as it stops snowing.

I had a craving today for mac-a-broc, a staple in the Sokolovic household when I was growing up. It’s a pretty simple recipe so I figured it wouldn’t take too much time to make – we had just gotten back from bowling with the boys^[1] and I didn’t want to spend the rest of the afternoon cooking a complex supper.

“All I need to do,” thought I in my haste, “is brown garlic in olive oil and then add chopped broccoli, some seasoned salt, and… hmm. Water? Vegetable broth? White wine? Some combination of these? Let me call dad and find out how he did it, just to be sure.”

Dad’s answer: chicken broth, a single can to be exact. “And remember to save some of the macaroni water in case it’s too dry. And you need to cook the broccoli until is mush^[2] or you won’t get no flavor.”

Since I had to go out to pick up some of the other ingredients, I found myself in the canned soup aisle looking at chicken broth. Since we’ve been trying to eat a little healthier, I thought this would be a good opportunity to replace the chicken broth with vegetable broth.^[3] This idea was further cemented in my mind when I discovered that most chicken broths contain MSG, high fructose corn syrup (yes, it’s true), and myriad other chemicals starting with “di-” and ending with “-ate.”

I was dismayed to find the vegetable broth to be no different, with one additional strike against it – the “broth” was mostly water plus concentrated vegetable juice! Do you mean there isn’t an army of grandmas simmering stock pots full of fresh vegetables in a giant kitchen somewhere in the Swanson complex?! I also knew I didn’t want to go the bouillon route: it has most of the same bad stuff as the canned version plus WAY more salt.

“That’s it! I’m making my own vegetable stock.” I picked up some carrots and celery and headed home. I rough-chopped a few carrots and celery stalks, threw in a chopped onion and a few bay leaves, some S&P, and added enough water to cover the veggies. Less than an hour later, I had a broth that made for a most delicious mac-a-broc supper.^[4]

The point is that it’s totally easy to take small steps to do a little better. My guess is that the vegetables, the energy to boil the water, and my time added up to more than I would have paid for the canned stuff, but probably not that much more – and I think it was worth it.

With a little planning, how hard would it be to make a BIG pot of vegetable broth and freeze it in small portions? That would certainly close the economic gap, and would give a healthier alternative that’s just as convenient as the canned stuff.

I don’t expect to NEVER buy prepared broth again - especially chicken broth - but it’s good to know that with a minimal effort we can do a little better.

1. more on that in a future post [back]
2. rhymes with “bush” [back]
3. Part of a more conscious effort to go veg for a meal. [back]
4. I also made sure to add the spent veggies to the compost pile before all was said and done. We’ve created a veritable buffet for critters, as evidenced by all the tracks in the snow around the pile. I’m interested to see how it looks when spring hits. [back]

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to our good friend, Holly, and welcome her to the blogosphere. Take a minute to check out her newly minted blog, centering around ways to feed the soul and the stomach.

In related news, I hope to inform my legions of readers about composting and companion planting this spring. Our compost pile right now is a bunch of frozen vegetable peels and eggshells, but I hope that in the early summer it will be a decaying mass of wormy nutrition for the milpa I plan to set up in our backyard.

It will take a fortuitous convergence of time, energy, and extra petty cash to pull it off, so keep your fingers crossed - but not so crossed that you can’t click on the link to Holly’s blog. Speaking of which, why are you still here? Get over there.