As I pulled off the main road and through the gates of Buttermilk Falls Inn and Spa, I immediately experienced a giddy feeling similar to going into a candy store as a child. Surrounded by 75 acres of serenity sitting on the bank of the Hudson River, the deep sound of the nearby roaring falls is matched by the inviting architectural juxtaposition of an ultra modern spa and rustic main guesthouse. Located in Milton, NY, not far from the Culinary Institute of America this oasis retreat includes a 13-room inn, 5 cottages, a spa with indoor pool and, of course, a bee hive, bird sanctuary and open fields for llamas, goats and other livestock.

Sitting in a room of floor to ceiling glass windows looking over a pond and the Hudson River, the morning is heralded in by the smell of a mouth-watering breakfast. During harvest season, almost all of the food served at Buttermilk Falls comes directly from the grounds. During the winter, jellies, jams and eggs come from the farm, and the rest of the food is purchased from local Hudson Valley producers. Breakfast comes in two forms: the first, sustainable cold buffet of fresh berries, cranberry muffins, yogurt, breads, and an assortment of juices, tea and coffee; the second is a choice of at least two hot options from the kitchen. From fluffy blueberry pancakes with maple bacon to goat cheese and asparagus scrambled eggs, this breakfast showcases the best nature has to offer.

But come dinnertime, the tease of breakfast left me wanting more. While there is currently no full service restaurant at the inn, this is soon to change. In the spring of 2010, Buttermilk will unveil a state of the art culinary experience. In response to guests’ recommendations, a culinary arts center will include a restaurant with celebrity chefs and patio overlooking a pond, a teaching kitchen with mid-week cooking classes, and a conference room that holds up to 80 people. The teaching kitchen will gives guests the opportunity to work one-on-one with some of the best local and sustainable foods native to the Hudson Valley, while the full service restaurant offers them a chance to sit back and enjoy tasting how the masters cook with the same foods. The deep green and distressed wood-shingled culinary center is a modern addition built to blend right into the surroundings. Harnessing rainwater and heating it with solar technology, the new building will highlight energy efficient tools as well.

Walking through the hallways of the main guesthouse, there are still signs of the original house built in 1760. From a corner of exposed stonework to a panel showing wood craftsmanship, history makes Buttermilk Falls Inn a journey to another time and place. While keeping the feel of an era long gone, the environmentally-efficient updates transform much of the behind-the-scenes aspects into a 21st century showcase. In each room there is the option for towel re-usage and biodegradable water bottles to reduce the amount of long term plastic waste. The spa has a solar panel roof. The inn and spa use geothermal wells to both heat and cool the facilities.

From hosting weddings overlooking the Hudson River to holding intimate cooking classes, a short two hour drive from New York City or Hartford, Connecticut will bring you to a sanctuary of local goodness.

In 1998 the Monahan’s founded Stone Gardens Farm in Shelton, Connecticut, not far from where Fred grew up. The success of their farm, farmers’ market, and most recently the farm’s Community Supported Agriculture Program (CSA) resulted from their dedication and hard work, but also from a rise in demand for sustainable food.

In the past few years, as knowing where your food comes from became a rising national trend, Shelton, Connecticut became an ideal place for agritourism. Located 90 minutes from Manhattan, this scenic part of Fairfield country is home to many family run farms.  Agritourists come from New York City and around Connecticut to cut their own Christmas trees, visit local wineries, tour local farms and dine on fresh- picked produce.

That, however, wasn’t the case when the Monahan’s first began their tiny farm. They started out selling the food they produced from their tiny farm off a table at a nearby friend’s farm.

Local foodies fell in love with the Monahan’s sweet corn, and as the demand for locally grown food grew, so did Stone Gardens Farm. Today the Monahans operate over 20 acres of farmland, and sell at four farmers markets throughout Connecticut. Stone Gardens Farm produces fruits and vegetables from May to December. While not certified organic, the farm practices integrated pest management, which minimizes their use of pesticides.  When they do resort to pesticides, they use organic sprays to minimize the environmental impact. Chickens, turkeys, and cows raised on the farm are not only free of antibiotics and growth hormones, but every animal sold is born on the farm.

The most recent addition to Stone Gardens’ business is their CSA Program. Started two years ago, the CSA costs $600 for a full share, and runs for 22 weeks from the first week in June to the last week of October. The farm quickly sold out of its 250 shares for the 2009 season, and hopes to expand the CSA for next year. Shareholders can arrange to pick up their weekly allotment of food at the farm, which they can also tour, or at a drop off location in Westport, Connecticut. In June, CSA members can expect to receive lettuce, scallions, herbs, peas, beets, collards, spinach, and greenhouse tomatoes in their weekly shares. In July, shares will include tomatoes, onions, peppers, eggplants, and the sweet corn that first made the farm famous among Connecticut foodies. The fall brings leeks, potatoes, sweet potatoes, turnip greens, turnips, kale, Brussel sprouts, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and winter squash. CSA members will also occasionally find eggs, as well as fresh peaches, plums and apples, when in season.

The best part of the CSA may be the weekly email Stacia sends members every Monday, complete with a description of the items in that week’s farm box, and recipes to go along with the food.

Fans of raw milk maintain that it is healthier and tastier than pasteurized milk. Some of those who favor raw milk say it lessens milk allergies, allowing those who are lactose intolerant to enjoy it, while others favor it because it doesn’t contain antibiotics.

The Federal Drug Administration does not recommend the ingestion of raw milk and warns that consuming raw milk is done at your own risk. According to the FDA, over 1,000 people became ill from drinking unpasteurized milk between 1998 and 2005.

Currently, thirty of the United States allow customers to buy raw milk. In most of the states, raw milk can only be purchased directly from farmers. Because state law varies on this issue, the federal government restricts interstate commerce of raw milk for human consumption. Connecticut and California have the two most liberal laws, allowing the product to be sold with a warning label in supermarkets. Several new proposed state laws as well as a bill in the US Congress might soon change that.

In Connecticut, where seven people became ill from raw milk last year, the state legislature is considering allowing farmers to sell ra milk to consumers. At the center of the debate is whether an individual’s right to eat and drink whatever they want outweighs the potential health risks. A 2008 case in Connecticut highlights the argument for stricter raw milk standards, as a couple of children who had not consumed raw milk became sick from one who had.

In Connecticut the debate also revolves around economics: some farmers say they would suffer without being able to sell to grocery stores because they do not have the room, capital, or time to put in a store on their farm, whereas other farmers believe the bill would actually help them by reducing the transportation costs of bringing raw milk to the supermarket.

Connecticut’s legislature is also considering enforcing more safety testing on raw milk and requiring the farmers who produce it to pay for the testing, which many would not be able to afford. The end result is that if a bill passes to limit the sale of raw milk, at least 14 farms in Connecticut will be affected.

Moving in the other direction, Maryland’s state government is considering passing a bill that would allow farmers to sell and consumers to buy raw milk, which are both currently illegal.

On the national level, Representative Ron Paul has introduced a bill in Congress that would allow raw milk to be transported across state lines for sale.

What do you think? Should raw milk be sold in grocery store or banned completely? Should their be more safety testing and if so, who should pay for it?

Bree Shirvell graduated in May 2008 from George Washington University with a degree in political science in journalism. She is currently a freelance writer in New York, and has written for La Cucina Italiana, OZOlife, ToTheCenter, and PG Media.

California is facing a severe drought, possibly the worst in two decades. Californians will likely face rationing, but others will likely be affected as well, in the form of food prices. California’s Central Valley is an arid area that is completely dependent on irrigation to produce crops. It spans about 500 miles and grows almost half of the fruit and vegetables produced in the United States. The drought has lowered the water level in federal reservoirs to their lowest level since 1992, and recent court decisions have cut back the amount of water that flows from to Sacramento-San Joaquin delta to as many as 2/3 of the residents of California.

All of this means that farmers who were served by reservoirs in Central Valley and Sacramento Valley will get no water for irrigation this year. Already officials in Fresno County are predicting farmers will grow half the acres of lettuce that they did in 2006, and economists are predicting the drought could cost between 60,000 to 80,000 jobs and $2billion in revenue as farmers are forced to use expensive well water and will almost certainly have to cut crops and jobs. Using well water will also force price hikes. 850,000 acres are likely to go unplanted this year.

While no one is exactly sure what this will mean for food prices, most economists agree that the original predication that prices will stay stable throughout 2009 are wrong, and that as a result of the drought, prices could get pretty high.

For that not to happen, Californian farmers will have to find inexpensive water fast. Last Friday, state water officials called on all Californians to immediately cut 20 percent of their water use. While we have to wait to see if that helps, this isn’t a problem that will just go away. Given the essential dryness of the region, policies are needed to support the most water conserving irrigation systems, which are not currently widely used.

Pollution and the demand for water by rising world populations that need ever-growing amounts to produce food and energy have put a strain on our water sources, and California must recognize that water shortages are here to stay beyond times of drought. Around 70 percent of water used globally is for agriculture, and as Kai pointed out a few weeks ago, not all food carries an equal “water footprint.” Unless consumers cut down on the foods that use the most water, farmers employ more sustainable farming methods including water conservation practices, and we begin to create better local food distribution systems, extreme conditions like California’s severe drought will stand to affect us all around the country.

You can read more about how the drought is affecting California growers here. To learn more about the links between farming and water usage, check out this (pdf) from h20conserve.org.

As if eating right wasn’t hard enough, a new study has found that anyone who was ever concerned about storing food in plastic containers had good reason to worry.

A study conducted by the University of Rochester and published in the Environmental Health Perspectives Journal found that the chemical Bisphenol A may not only linger in the body longer than originally thought, but may never actually leave the body.

(Photo taken outside the Brooklyn Academy of Music during its run of Sex and the City, by Libby Batten)

Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical that is commonly used to make many hard plastic products such as reusable plastic bottles, and plastic food storage containers. BPA leaks into food and liquid that is stored in containers made from the chemical. The chemical is then transferred into the body when that food or liquid is consumed. The Federal Drug Administration approved BPA for all use, in part because scientists use to believe the chemical metabolized quickly in the human body and was gone within 24 hours.

Now it stands to reason that a chemical used to make hard plastic wouldn’t be good for people. Scientists have linked BPA to increased rates of breast cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, but since the chemical was believed to exit the body within a few hours and the risk of becoming sick from BPA increases with the length of exposure, it wasn’t considered overly dangerous.

Over the past few years, as concern over the environment has mounted, many people have tried to reduce their dependence on plastic by turning to glass and other materials to store food. Those efforts, however applaudable, will do nothing to stop the damage that has already been done.

The University of Rochester tested urine samples from 1,469 adults in the United States and compared levels of BPA with the amount of time the adult had fasted before giving the sample. The results revealed that almost 93 percent of those tested had trace amounts of Bisphenol A in their bodies.

While there are some who question the results of the study, the Canadian government has already banned the use of BPA in many plastics including baby bottles and fourteen states in the United States are considering similar measures.

Until such measures are passed and more research on BPA is conducted it appears the only safe thing to do is to reduce the amount of food and liquid one eats that has been stored in BPA containers and substitute those plastic food storage containers for glass or metal ones.

bpa, bisphenol a, plastic, food storage, public health