Two Can Play That Game

It isn’t just Norma who has beautiful tomatoes. I finally do too.

Of course, they still aren’t quite ripe. I can’t believe it will be SEPTEMBER before I’m able to harvest some tomatoes. And these are “Early Girl”. Sheesh. What a crazy year.

In other food news, I was able to cross one more item off my Omnivore’s Hundred list this week. At Schneitter’s Restaurant, Zermatt’s fine dining establishment, I finally had some soft shell crab. And it was good. Yum. Though I admit, it is a little weird to eat the whole crab. But even better was my dinner. Tasmanian Salmon with Israeli couscous, topped with sauteed parsnips and pears (I think), and a bunch of fresh arugula. Cooked to absolute perfection. DH equally enjoyed his Macadamia nut encrusted halibut.

By the way, for those who were a bit concerned about the raw milk issue, let me help put your mind to rest. Each state determines its own regulations regarding intrastate sales of raw milk. According to Utah State law, raw milk can be sold only under certain circumstances, and it must meet the same bacterial standards as Grade A pasteurized milk. So I think the risk of any illness is pretty low in this case.

And although you wouldn’t know it from the media, very few people get sick in the U.S. each year from raw dairy products. Yes, certainly some do, and some of the illnesses are very serious or even fatal. But how many more people get sick or die every year from eating other foods?  This interesting article from Harper’s Magazine seems to fairly balanced, unlike most articles and websites which usually take one extreme or the other. One of the things they point out is that while pasteurization can be very beneficial, it also “gave farmers license to be unsanitary”. This is one of the reasons I hate the idea of irradiated food. I’m not really all that concerned about the irradiation itself, but that it means the meat and vegetables will probably be allowed to be much dirtier in the first place, because gee – they’re just going to kill all the germs later. Wouldn’t you rather just have something that’s clean in the first place, instead of eating spinach that’s been contaminated with cow feces and then irradiated to “fix” it?

I also hate the tendency of the media to scare the public. Or how companies have to overreact to everything in order to protect themselves from lawsuits. Raw eggs are a great example. How often do you hear that you must have them fully cooked to avoid salmonella? Yet estimates are that in the United States, only 1 in 30,000 eggs carries salmonella. How likely is it that even if you get one, that it’s one you’ll eat uncooked? I refuse to be worried about it, and while I don’t make a habit of eating raw eggs, I’m certainly not going to give up making eggnog, or having an occasional dessert containing raw eggs.

Of course, for the very young, the very old, pregnant women, or people with a compromised immune system, that’s a different story. But as a healthy non-pregnant adult, I’m just not going to worry about it. I figure I’m more likely to get sick from a food service people who didn’t wash their hands.