I hit Google to see what I could find in the way of Fair Trade vendors in New York City. My plan was to generate a list of stores that sell Fair Trade-certified chocolate, print it and go shopping. Boy was I wrong. I couldn’t find a Web site that would generate a list of places in Manhattan that sell Fair Trade chocolates.

So, I hit the cold and windy streets of Manhattan.  My first stops included Duane Reade, which had one brand, and Gristedes, which had none. I expanded my search to include Organic Certified and Rainforest Alliance Certified. The differences between these certifications have to do with how the plants were raised and how the farmers and workers are treated. I looked for and bought only bars that had one or more of the three logos below.

I went to Fairway, figuring surely THEY would have something that was at least organic. Nope. I couldn’t find any of these labels on any of their chocolates. Finally I went to Whole Foods and found the mother load! They had variety, offering not only milk and dark but also flavored chocolates. I checked out Food Emporium and found a nice selection there as well. I did find one brand at Trader Joe’s but the line was so long that I left it at the store (sorry Trader Joe’s).

Finally, we held the tasting. Who knew that there could be so much variation in chocolates? We got a good lesson in how taste is in the mouth of the beholder. Thirteen of us tasted 11 bars and stuck to the basics – plain milk and plain dark chocolate. We used rice cakes and water for a palate cleanser. We evaluated the feel, smell, texture and taste, and gave each chocolate an overall score of 1-10 with 10 being the highest rating. We started with the lowest cocoa content and tasted our way to the highest. Here are our overall results, with the chocolates listed in order of increasing cocoa content.

The bar with the most points and highest average score was the Skinny Bar Dark. My personal favorite was Green & Black’s Milk chocolate. It should be noted that 2 people forgot to score the Newman’s Own Milk chocolate so the points were lower but the average score was also lower. The best comment of the day was about Divine Dark chocolate – “Very middle of the road, like a reliable but boring boyfriend.” We all agreed that all the chocolates lacked a certain something although what that something was varied from person to person.

As I found out, socially responsible chocolate is not at all readily available. Whole Foods goes to great effort to source Fair Trade and Organic items, but of course not everyone has the luxury of a Whole Foods in his or her community (neither can a lot of people afford Whole Food’s prices). I live in the nosebleed section of Manhattan (Washington Heights) and I work in Murray Hill. A trip to Whole Foods takes me in the opposite direction from home once I leave work. While I might go out of my way for a special occasion like Valentine’s Day, shopping there on a regular basis is probably not going to happen.

Given how difficult it can be to find socially responsible chocolate, I was set to write as the conclusion of this post that going out of my way to find it is just not worth it, but the ethical implications of industrial chocolate are just too heavy. Beyond the ecosystem impacts of industrial chocolate production, human rights violations such as child labor abuse associated with most cocoa farms are common and unfortunate. When I buy chocolate, I’m supporting a whole system of politics and people behind that chocolate. I want part of the pleasure I derive from eating chocolate to be the knowledge that I’m not adding to someone else’s abuse.

Buying Fair Trade and Rainforest Alliance Certified chocolates is an easy way to ensure that your purchasing power supports chocolate growers with sound human rights policies. From now on it will be Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate for me.

In spring, when early produce is available at Baltimore’s 32nd Street/Waverly Farmers Market, I buy enough greens, turnips, onions, and garlic to make my favorite soups, including matzo ball soup. At grocery stores, Passover foods (and aisles of Easter peeps and chocolate bunnies) are featured, so I like to stock up on Matzo Ball Mix to have on hand. Though my family is not Jewish, making this delicious soup became a family tradition that my grandmother, Vee VanHoten, learned in 1958, from one of her real estate clients in South Florida.

As a child, I traveled with my grandmother on this particular business trip, and felt important to be introduced to the manager of Wolfie’s 21 Restaurant, at the north edge of Miami’s South Beach. After shaking hands and saying hello, we followed Mr. Eli into the kitchen where he taught my grandmother how to make his soup, as he had promised years earlier. Perched at a cook’s counter, gorging myself on a humongous banana split with five scoops of ice cream, I listened to his mantra of “Just a light touch, the hands cool!” Based on my grandmother’s repeated story over the years, here’s a description of that cooking lesson.

He broke two eggs into a bowl, saying they were “laid this morning in Homestead.” Then he instructed my grandmother: “This you remember, Vee—for matzos that float like a dream, have a light and gentle touch. Very important. And the chicken fat, the butter added to the matzo meal—they give it flavor. Don’t use that white stuff in the blue can. A little minced garlic and fresh parsley into the mix, nice and easy with the fork,” and he placed the bowl of matzo batter in the big fridge to cool for 15-20 minutes.

Next, he pulled out two giant jars of chicken stock and patted them, saying, “Made from chicken fresh from the butcher down the Avenue. Soaked in salt water for about an hour, then drained and stuffed it with fresh-cut thyme, and roasted till done. You take off the meat from the bones—save it for chicken salad—and put the rest of the chicken in a large pot of water, add some spices or bouillon cubes if you want and cook for about an hour, then cool and strain into jars or a pot.”

He poured and heated the broth in a large pot, adding chopped carrots, celery, onions, garlic, a little ground black pepper, and a pinch of salt. When the vegetables were cooked, he removed them with a strainer and plopped them into a colander over a bowl to catch any dripping broth.

Teasing me with offers of garlic pickles and sauerkraut as I ploughed through my super-sized banana split, Mr. Eli turned up the flame to bring the chicken stock to a soft boil, and retrieved the matzo mix from the fridge. He gently formed 1-inch balls, rubbing his hands with ice before rolling another blob of barely-stirred batter between his palms, and repeated to my grandmother, “Keep the hands cool, always. Light touch. Try it. Now you drop them into the boiling stock for a quick, full boil. Cover the pot with a tight lid, and bring down the fire to a low simmer for 20-30 minutes.”

When the timer went off, he removed the lid and there they were — plumped-up matzo balls, all floating on the steaming surface. With a slotted spoon, he lifted out the balls and tenderly put them on a platter, and returned the cooked veggies and drippings back to the pot. Then Mr. Eli and my grandmother filled their bowls with soup and matzo balls and savored each spoonful.

Wolfie’s 21 is long gone, but you can find farm-fresh eggs, quite possibly “laid this morning” in your area in the Eat Well Guide. The butcher shop on Collins Avenue was most likely Einhorn’s in South Beach, which has evolved into Kosher Kingdom, where you can find everything you need for Passover meals.

This recipe could be easily adapted as a vegetarian or vegan one. Instead of chicken broth, you can make vegetable broth; instead of chicken fat or butter, you can use olive oil; and instead of eggs, you can make a binder from tofu, or use kosher Ener-G egg replacer.

Wolfie’s 21 Special Matzoh Ball Soup

1. Chicken stock or broth

Soak an organic, kosher chicken in salt water for an hour, then drain and stuff with sprigs of fresh thyme from your garden or preferred herbs such as sage, a sprig of rosemary, a teaspoon of cumin, etc.

Roast at 350 for approximately 1 1⁄2 hours.

Cool and remove meat for other use, setting aside skin, bones, etc.

Cook chicken parts in 4 quarts of water at a low boil for at least an hour.

Cool and strain. Tiny thyme leaves remain in broth.

2. Vegetables for Soup

Heat broth on medium to cook the following for 30 minutes:

3-5 chopped carrots

2-3 diced onions

3-5 chopped celery stalks

3 minced garlic cloves

1⁄4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon minced parsley set aside for garnish

3. Matzo Ball Batter (for more dumplings, use two packs of mix and double ingredients)

Blend:

2 eggs with 2 tablespoons expeller-pressed oil and/or chicken fat, butter

1 garlic clove finely minced

2 tablespoons finely minced parsley

1 pack of Matzo Ball Mix

Stir a few strokes GENTLY with fork just until mixed

Refrigerate batter for 15-20 minutes

Wet hands with ice or ice water and lightly roll batter into 1-inch diameter balls, cooling hands each time you make another ball. If you stir or handle batter too much, your matzo balls will become klunkers and sink like lead to the bottom of the pot. (Light touch!)

Bring 3 quarts of chicken broth to a boil, drop in balls, cover tightly, simmer low for 20-30 minutes. Remove balls to a platter. Add cooked vegetables back into broth. Serve soup with 1 or 2 matzo balls in bowl. Sprinkle a pinch of minced parsley into soup.

The list of prohibited foods is long and includes bread, cakes, biscuits, cereal crackers, pasta, alcohol and vinegar made from any of the following five grains:  wheat, barley, oats, spelt and rye.  For Ashkenazi Jews (Jews of Eastern European ancestry), like my family, rice, corn and legumes are also not allowed and must be removed from the home, or temporarily sold, prior to the start of Passover.

So what is left to eat during the holiday?  Fruits, vegetables, eggs, and if you are not vegetarians, as alas we are, fish and meat. The very basics of healthy and simple eating. So as I stare at the food remaining in our house at the end of the work day and try to figure out what to make for dinner that is nutritious and edible, I shudder at the thought of the Passover foods now arriving at an accelerated rate into the local grocery stores in my neighborhood, which has a large Jewish population.  As the matzah season rapidly approaches, stores devote an increasing amount of shelf space is to Passover foods.  Passover begins the night of April 8.  The supermarkets are therefore stocking up the shelves with the same intensity as I am emptying out our pantry.

Passover—a holiday which celebrates freedom and emphasizes that the pursuit of freedom is a never ending journey—has its ancient roots as an agricultural holiday.  Passover represents the spring harvest.  It is therefore ironic that the variety of Passover foods that increasingly appear in abundance at the grocery store almost without exception have the ingredient (and I use the word ingredient loosely) “cottonseed oil.”

And what in the world is cottonseed oil, I wondered many years ago when first noticing it on the list of ingredients in almost every prepared Passover food?  When I learned that indeed it is just as it sounds, oil from the cotton plant, I wondered some more.  Who eats cotton?  I love wearing it but eating it sounds rather toxic, like eating one’s shirt and pants.

Indeed, after doing some research on cottonseed oil I discovered that it is often used as a pesticide.  Cotton is one of the most heavily sprayed crops.  Adding to the reasons to avoid it at all cost is that it is high in saturated fat and low in monounsaturated fat.  As if it didn’t have enough going against it, according to Dr. Andrew Weil, “cottonseed oil may contain natural toxins and probably has unacceptably high levels of pesticide residues.”

Why then is something so toxic ubiquitous in Passover food?  I have no idea.  What I do know is that Passover is all about the business of freedom and that freedom is a pretty good idea for all people.  It took the Israelites forty years in the desert to absorb the concept of freedom after being enslaved in Egypt for a few hundred years.  For more than two thousand years the story has been retold annually, and Jewish law instructs each generation to remember what it is like to be slaves as if we had been in Egypt ourselves.  This is to remind us that we are meant to remember the pain of slavery so that we can be more sensitive to those who are not yet free.

Passover is the richest of all the Jewish holidays in symbolism beginning with the Seder meal—a banquet in which each item of food serves as a reminder that the pursuit of freedom is never ending.  From the simple green vegetable on the Seder plate representing the start of spring to the bowl of salt water symbolizing tears of injustice the meal in and of itself is a symbol and lesson in democracy.

Passover teaches us about overcoming suffering and fighting injustice.   It is a holiday that reminds us to return to the basics in life, a time to remove all leaven, which symbolizes such traits as egotism and corruption.  It is a time to feed and nourish both our bodies and our souls. In fact, cottonseed oil, along with much of the prepared Passover food industry, seems to represent the antithesis of what the holiday is all about. In the eyes of this mother and conscientious eater, cottonseed oil has no place at the Seder and no business in our lives.

Tell us about the history of Caw Caw Creek and your pigs?
After years growing produce, I realized that my personal strengths and farming resources were more suited to livestock, and I chose the pig because of unique qualities that I brought to the table that allow me to produce an exceptional product.

Why did you decide to raise your pigs on pasture?
Running with the tail wind of nature makes economic sense, grows a better animal, is environmentally sound, and provides a higher quality life for me and my children.

Tell us about your run for SC Agriculture Commissioner.
After realizing that our incumbent commissioner was doing less than he could and should do for South Carolina agriculture, I decided to take personal responsibility for improving his policies, so I ran for office. I had no illusions about winning the race, but I was able to get my message out while campaigning.

What was it like working with the Obama campaign’s Agriculture Policy Committee? Do you see yourself becoming more involved in agricultural politics?
Working on Senator Obama’s Agriculture Policy Committee during his presidential campaign was one of the most educational experiences I’ve ever had, and gave me a much broader appreciation for national and international agriculture policy. I am a businessman and dad mostly, and I’m not interested in a political career for the sake of being a politician — but I will stand up and fight for what and who I believe in whenever necessary, as I did before.

What advice do you have for a young person interested in farming?
Get cracking. Start small. Operate lean and mean. Offer a great product that markets itself. Derive that product from your ‘constellation of opportunity’ and do not project your farm fantasy onto reality. Do not assume that other farmers are eager to teach you — read, go on farm tours, and mostly do the work yourself.

What is the best way to purchase your pork?
On the internet at www.cawcawcreek.com, or at the All Local Farmers’ Market in Columbia SC, www.stateplate.org.

Hard times call for old-timey measures Worried about the financial crisis? Our good friend (and Eat Well consultant) Kerry Trueman predicts that Jimmy Carter cardigans will make a come back, while Plenty Mag thinks you should drop the bottled water and search our Eat Well Guide. Tom Philpott urges us to invest in our foodsheds over at Grist.

Avast, fishermen Or at least slow down. That’s the gist of a new report from the Food and Agiculture Organization and the World Bank, which estimates that the fishing industry is losing up to $50 million a year, an effect of too many boats in the water and too few fish.

Ahoy, ITQ’s? Food & Water Watch’s Ben Bowman explains industry’s answer to the dwindling stock problem at the Ethicurean, squashing any yo-ho-hos you might have heard from conscientious seafood lovers over a recent study that suggests that catch shares will save the day. Nothing softens a blow like that one like some pirate speak — thanks for inspiring these last two headers, Ben.

We’ll do our best to get up a News Feed tomorrow, but it’s going to be a big day, so if we miss it, don’t worry — we’ll be back next week with our take on Slow Food Nation.

Have a great holiday weekend and eat well, wherever you are.

We’re excited to share our thoughts about various food traditions here at the Green Fork. However they vary between cultures and faiths throughout the world, food traditions shape our culture and our memories. We all have a certain dish that reminds us of a holiday, or a ritual that uses food as a symbol of faith. Often these “food memories” are what connect the human experience to a physical reaction to food as well as an emotional connection to it. What a gift to allow us to share these with each other (the Eat Well Guide team as well as guest bloggers) through this ongoing series.

This past weekend, I was invited to attend my first Passover Seder at a friend’s house in Yonkers, New York. I had a feeling that my impending evening would resemble holidays with the Italian side of my family—a home filled with love, good food and gracious company. And I was right–in this way, it was not unlike my family’s food traditions.

I was welcomed to the Seder with open arms. This family was proud to share their traditions and faith. With the knowledge that I am a gentile (but also a foodie) they were eager to explain the significance of the Seder and the role that food played in the evening’s festivities. The Passover Seder is a meal surrounding the story of the exodus of the Jews out of slavery in Egypt. We began the evening by gathering around two long tables (so everyone could fit-there were 21 people!) and opened the Haggadah and began to read the story of Passover. I was pleased to find that the ceremony was participatory. We took turns and I was encouraged to engage with everyone in the reading of the Haggadah.

What was different (and poignant) for me was that food and religion were intertwined throughout every aspect of the evening. Personally, my own experiences have been such that I was always used to the two remaining separate. On holidays, I would attend church services in the morning, and then travel to see family later that day where we would share a meal together.

I was also impressed by the symbolism and ritual of Sedar dinner. The food on the Seder plate consists of five symbolic foods. As seen here there is a karpas, a vegetable resembling spring and rebirth (onion). The maror and chazeret, or bitter herbs, here is parsley, resembling bitter slavery in Egypt. The charoset pictured here is a combination of apples and cinnamon, held together like the materials used during building in ancient Egypt. The paschal lamb is to commemorate the giving on the eve of Passover. Finally a roasted egg is used to symbolize the mourning of the destruction of the temple.

Following the symbolic foods (none of which were eaten from the Seder plate) we commenced the meal with soul food-gifelte fish and matzah ball soup. I admit, I was reluctant to try the gifelte fish after only having seen it in jars at the grocery store. I decided to dig in as it was part of the experience. The matzah ball soup I was told was Jewish comfort food—something your grandma makes you when you are sick, it definitely rivaled any chicken noodle soup I had growing up.

Food traditions tie us not only to history, but to each other. It’s about being happy with simplicity and family, food, tradition, and love. At the end of the Seder, I felt like I do after Thanksgiving-stuffed to the brim with soul food and warm with the feeling of family.

The Jew and the Carrot blog had an incredible guest post last week about Chametz and Sustainability, by Barbara Lerman-Golomb, who writes:

When our ancestors were dwelling in the desert, they had no choice but to live simply. In our day, simplicity has come to mean conservation, not using more than you need, and not being wasteful. Jewish law prohibits wasteful consumption. When we waste resources, we are violating the law of bal tashchit—Do not destroy. (Deuteronomy 20: 19-20).

Family, tradition, good food, and sustainability. We’re not exactly Luddites here at Eat Well, but we certainly appreciate a tradition that reminds us how to tread a little lighter on the Earth (especially when we do it with good food).

My friends were kind enough to share the recipe for their delicious Matzo Ball Soup with me. Give it a try and let us know how it goes!

Homemade Chicken Soup With Matzo Balls

Ingredients

1 whole chicken fryer
1 large sweet onion
2-3 carrots
2 turnips
2 parsnips
3-4 celery stalks
Fresh dill
Salt
White pepper
Directions

1. Fill a big pot 2/3 of the way with cold water & start heating it up on medium high heat.
2. Cut up chicken into pieces – thighs, drumsticks, wings, breast, etc.
3. Drop chicken carefully into the water & bring to a slow boil.
4. Reduce heat to simmer & cover.
5. Cook for 1 ½ to 2 hours until the meat is cooked & falling off the bones.
6. Remove chicken & set aside to cool.
7. Cut up vegetables into bite sized pieces & put into soup broth. Remove dill leaves from stalks, chop up and put into the broth too. (Amounts of vegetables & dill can vary to suit your taste buds.)
8. Salt and pepper to taste.
9. Cover and cook 1 hour on medium (slow boil).
10. Remove chicken from bones, cut up and put back into the broth.
11. Bring to a boil and add matzo balls…recipe below!

Matzo Ball Recipe (makes 8 matzo balls)

1 cup Matzo meal
½ cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
Salt & pepper
1. In a large bowl, beat eggs, water, and salt & pepper together.
2. Add oil and beat again until well mixed.
3. Add matzo meal a little at a time until combined.
4. Cover and refrigerate an hour or so until mixture thickens.
5. Add raw matzo balls to boiling chicken soup. (An ice cream scoop works well.)
6. Lower heat and simmer 15-20 minutes. Matzo balls will rise to the top.
7. Ladle up and enjoy!