From the Bowdoin Daily Sun: Good news, women! You can stop dieting…when you are 85. Apparently, when you reach that age, it’s advantageous for the body to have extra fat, which “provides energy in times of trauma and stress.” (I expect in earlier times, when food was scarcer, it was advantageous for most people to have extra fat.)

From the New York Times: A study suggesting that red meat is even worse for you than was previously thought. I can’t help but wonder, is it the meat itself, or is it the terrible way we raise beef in this country? Is the same true in countries such as France, where cows are raised the way they were meant to be raised—no hormones and in a pasture?

From Examiner.com: And then there is cheese. According to Mary Bender, cheese is actually good for you and doesn’t really affect your cholesterol. This almost makes up for the bad news about beef.

From the Portland Press Herald: On the other hand, maybe you’ll want to hold the cheese as well as the beef. Avery Yale Kamila writes about Dr. Gaylen Johnson and his Michael Pollan-ish point of view: eat mostly plants.

One thing is certain, all these points of views and studies keep the rest of us bobbing in a state of confusion.

Not long ago, Tim Leavitt, Farmer Kev’s father, came to our house to deliver eggs. The Leavitts have 5 hens, and most of the eggs we eat come from those hens. Usually, we swing by the Leavitts’ house to pick up the eggs, but since we know Kevin’s parents, and since they were out and about, they decided to deliver the eggs to us. (How cool is that?)

Naturally, after Tim delivered the eggs, we chatted a bit. Farmer Kev is a third-year student at the University of Maine at Orono, and we speculated about what Kevin would do when he graduated from college.

“He’d like to get a farm,” Tim said. “With the profits he’s made from his gardens, he’s bought quite a bit of equipment, but he can’t buy a tractor until he has a place to keep it.”

“Like his own barn,” I said. “Oh, I wish he’d come back to the Winthrop area to farm, and I know a lot of people, including other farmers, who feel the same way.”

Tim smiled. “We’d like to have him stay in this area, too.”

“Could Maine Farmland Trust perhaps give him a grant. I know land is so expensive.”

“Maybe,” Tim said, “But one of the biggest problems around here is finding open land that hasn’t been developed. It’s not easy.”

Open land that hasn’t been developed. I should have thought of this as a problem, but somehow I hadn’t. This part of Maine is so rural that it seems as though there is plenty of land. In one sense there is, but much of the land around here has trees, lots of trees. You might even call this area “heavily wooded.” Now, trees are great, and so are woods. We want to have them. In fact, we need them for the health of the planet. But to grow vegetables, open land is needed, and Tim is right. Much of the open land around here has been sold for house lots. While land can be cleared, it is a heck of a process as well as an expense.

This lack of open land for farming in the Winthrop area could become a serious problem as the price of fuel goes up, and food becomes ever more expensive to ship across country. I’ve become interested in a movement called Transition, which started in England. The Transition Movement focuses on how towns might become more resilient to deal with the problems brought about by climate change and peak oil. There are Transition communities around the world, working on projects ranging from CSAs, local currencies, and seed swaps as well as many other projects. Winthrop is in the “mulling” stages of becoming a Transition Town.

But let us return to the problem of finding open land that hasn’t been developed. This, in turn, leads to the question: Could Winthrop feed itself if push came to shove?

This is a question I’ll be asking local farmers. It will be interesting to get their take on the subject, and I will, of course, be writing about their responses as well as more about the Transition Movement.

And, now, readers, I have a question for you. Could your community feed itself?

From the website World of 7 Billion: A fascinating wall chart illustrating how we went from 1 billion people in 1804 to 7 billion people in 2011. This chart shows when we began canning and freezing food as well a myriad of other things—not all of them bad—that came as a result of the industrial era.

From the New York Times: Mark Bittman takes on a controversial subject: not letting food stamp recipients buy unhealthy food with their food stamps. He makes a compelling case, and yet in the end I find myself agreeing with the food activist Mark Winne, who has suggested it would be much better to use positive reinforcement and give extra credit for healthy food rather rather than to restrict what people can buy.

From Salon.com: Mary Elizabeth Williams writes about Disney’s failed attempt to make heroes out of virtues such as “Will Power,” and villains out of vices such as “Glutton.” What will be next? A cartoon called The Scarlet G?

From the Portland Press Herald: Joe Bonwich has some great suggestions for crockpot meals.

From the blog Henbogle: In honor of Occupy Our Food Supply’s global day of action, Ali recently cooked a nearly 100 percent local meal, and how delicious it looks! (Wish I had known about that day of action.)

Last weekend, my husband, Clif, and I went to our town’s Third Annual Chili/Chowder/Soup Throw Down. The Throw Down was a fund raiser for Keep Winthrop Warm, an organization that provides emergency oil, propane, and electricity to those in need. (So far this winter, 15 families have received aid.) The premise is simple—Winthrop businesses and individuals make chili, chowder, or soup, which is then served in little numbered cups. The admission fee is $5, which allows a person to sample chili, chowder, and soup to his or her heart’s content. Then, when the sampling is done, you pick your favorite from each category and vote.

The event was held at the high school cafeteria, and the place was packed. Not only were there cooks aplenty—spread out with their crockpots across three tables—but there were also plenty of eager eaters. The cafeteria had a good spicy smell, and it was filled with the happy sound of people eating and talking.

At the throw down, Clif and I met our friends Debbie and Dennis Maddi as well as Jim and Dawna, who brought their granddaughter Abigail. Our table was full of cardboard trays packed with little plastic cups of food. We all had different strategies. Jim just plowed through each cup, one by one, setting aside the ones he liked best. Dennis, making a quip about his OCD, ate his in numerical order. Clif and I, in our disorganized way, just sampled randomly, but we followed Jim’s example of setting aside the ones we liked best.

We were all impressed with the quality of the food, especially the chowders. For chowder, Clif and I really liked the one made by the Winthrop Ambulance Service. (Go figure!) It was a seafood chowder with a rich, deep taste, as though they had taken the time to simmer the lobster shells, just as Marjorie Standish instructs. Our favorite soup was Craig Hickman’s zesty seafood gumbo, chock full of shrimp, lobster, and other good things. (Not surprisingly, each won first place for chowder and soup, respectively.) I hate to admit it, but in all the hubbub, we lost track of who made which chili—there was a lot of chili to sample—but the winner was Burgess Builders.

By the end my tongue was tingling from the spices, and Clif and I vowed next year to share a tray with samples. Those little cups pack quite a punch, and neither Clif nor I could finish all that we had taken.

The throw down made $2,285, which with the price of fuel going ever upward, will be a big help to many families in Winthrop.

Yesterday was a special day for me. After 3 long years—which included the death of my mother; the decision to stop publishing my magazine, Wolf Moon Journal; my daughter Shannon’s wedding; and breast cancer—I have finally finished writing my young-adult fantasy novel, Maya and the Book of Everything. There is still a fair amount of tinkering to do, and Maya has to go to various readers to check for plot holes, grammatical errors, and clumsy writing. Then, of course, the really hard work begins as I try to find an agent who will promote the book to publishers.

Nevertheless, there was a real feeling of accomplishment when I typed the last paragraph, the last word. And a little sadness, too. I’ve grown quite attached to the characters and to the world(s) I created.

When my friend Kate Johnson heard the news, via email, she gave me a call to congratulate me.

“Now, what are you going to do to celebrate?”

Good question, and for me, a celebration means food. However, yesterday was a noncheat day, so my celebration had to be relatively nonfattening as well as delicious.

Since, as Kate pointed out, maple syrup season is nearly upon us, I toyed with the idea of pancakes, but then I had another idea—a shrimp stir-fry. Both my husband, Clif, and I love shrimp, and as we eat mostly vegetarian, it truly is a treat for us, and one that is not terribly fattening.

I have a handy-dandy stir-fry I make that can take a wide variety of ingredients—chicken, beef, pork, broccoli, mushrooms, peppers, onions, carrots, celery, well, you get the point. I always add peanuts, which I think give heft to a vegetarian stir-fry.

So here are the basic ingredients and technique:

2 or 3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 or 4 think slices of ginger, minced
3/4 cup cold water mixed with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. (Clif likes a sauce with his stir-fry.)
soy sauce to taste
Oil for stir-frying
Chopped cilantro or chives, for a garnish. (Optional but really adds another dimension, as Rosa at The Flaky Tart would say.)

When I use meat (anywhere from a half-pound to a pound), I stir-fry or steam the veggies first and have them ready in little bowls—mise en place—on the counter near my stove. Then, in a big frying pan, I  stir-fry the meat, and when it is pretty much done, I add the ginger and the garlic, then the veggies, and stir-fry for a minute or two. Next come the cornstarch and water and the soy sauce. I don’t know how much soy sauce I use. I just shake it in until I get a color and a taste I like. Last added are the nuts and maybe a bit more water if the mixture doesn’t look “saucy” enough. I let everything get hot, thick, and bubbly but not mushy, and serve immediately over rice that I started cooking before beginning the stir-fry. When I have it, I use cilantro as a garnish.

Last night, with the shrimp, I used a different technique. I started stir-frying a quarter pound of sliced mushrooms. When they were soft but not entirely cooked, I added chopped, sweet red pepper (a whole one), and stir-fried them until they were quite soft but not mushy. Then I added the ginger and garlic and stir-fried for a minute or so. Next came the corn starch and water and the soy sauce, which I stirred into the veggies and heated it all until it became thick and bubbly. Finally I added a pound of raw shrimp, which were thawed and only take few minutes to cook. The peanuts were thrown in after the shrimp. (Note: Do not overcook the shrimp. I have learned the hard way that if overcooked, shrimp will curl until it resembles a little rubber ball and is correspondingly as tough.)

Clif’s response? “Pretty darned good.”

And indeed it was, a fitting way to celebrate finishing the rough draft of Maya.

In our house, cooking is serious business.

Yesterday, my afternoon walk with the dog felt like a mid-March walk, and here we are, in the middle of February. The little swamp not far from our house is still frozen and surrounded by snow as is the stream across the street. But the sides of the road are free from snow, and the weather was so warm that the dirt on the shoulders was muddy, and the dog’s paws were a mess. (Thank goodness there is plenty of snow in the backyard, where he can run off the dirt before he comes inside.)

As we were walking down the Holmes Road, a blue truck pulled along side of us. It was Mike Smith of Mike’s Maple House.

He rolled down his window. “I’ve tapped 250 trees.”

My pulse quickened. “Are you boiling yet?”

“Nope, the sap ain’t running very good.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Mike nodded. “Let me tell you, it’s not much fun tromping through the snow in the woods.”

I shook my head in sympathy and waved as he pulled past me. I bet it’s not much fun being in the woods right now. The snow is slushy and loose, not quite deep enough for snowshoes but too deep to walk comfortably.

The weather has been so mild this winter. What kind of syrup season will it be? Two years ago, we had a winter very similar to this, and maple syrup season lasted two weeks rather than the usual four or five.

Well, only time will tell, but it seems as though sometime soon, Mike Smith will have enough sap so that he can start boiling.

Recently, on his Facebook page, the New York Times writer Frank Bruni grumbled about eating out on Valentine’s Day. I couldn’t agree more. Usually the restaurants are crowded, the wait is long, and the service is at best rushed or at worst abysmal. I would much rather prepare something special at home, and this is what I have done for many years on Valentine’s Day.

For my husband, Clif, and me, steak is a special meal. As a rule, we eat mostly vegetarian, and we usually have steak twice a year, once in the summer on the grill and once in the winter, broiled. A few weeks ago, I bought a big New York sirloin from Wholesome Holmstead, and I popped that steak right into the freezer. My plan was to serve it for Valentine’s Day, and that is what I did.

Really, the meal couldn’t have been more simple to prepare. Clif and I always want baked potatoes with our steak, so an hour before dinner, I put two potatoes into the oven to bake.

“What about a vegetable?” I asked Clif

“Steamed corn,” came his prompt reply. Again, what could be easier? I didn’t even have to mix up a salad dressing. (I am happy to report that finally I have gotten the knack of making salad dressings. Phew! I was a late bloomer on that one.)

We would, of course, want some kind of bread to go with the meal. Recently, I had made bread, and it was still fresh enough to eat untoasted.

Dessert, especially for me on a noncheat day, was a little trickier, but I came up with an idea for a dessert that was not only delicious but would also keep for a while. I could eat a small amount and still be within acceptable parameters for a noncheat day. The solution? Homemade chocolate ice cream, so smooth and rich that it almost tasted like mousse rather than ice cream.

I briefly considered making some kind of wine and mushroom sauce to go with the steak, but here’s the thing—Clif and I have steak so infrequently that when we do have it, we just want to taste the meat. (We have a similar attitude about lobster.) So no wine sauce.

The whole meal, including making the ice cream, took about an hour and a half, and much of that was baking time for the potatoes. There were no annoying crowds, no harried servers. Just me, Clif, the dog, and the two cats.

And the price? Well, for us it was little expensive, and by my calculation the whole meal came to about $25 for the two of us. Not something we could do on a regular basis but well below the equivalent of a similar meal in a restaurant.

After the steak had cooked, I lit the candles on the dining room table. In the flickering light, Clif and I ate our steak and enjoyed it hugely. The animals got their fair share, and when the meal was done and the dessert cups were scraped for the last bit of chocolate ice cream and the kitchen was cleaned, we all headed into the living room for a contented snooze on the couch as we sort of watched the NewsHour. Growling in his sleep, the dog lay in his spot by the entertainment center. The rest of us settled on the couch, me in the corner spot with my fleece blanket and Clif right beside me. The orange cat sprawled on my legs, and the black and white cat was perched on the back of the couch.

A very happy Valentine’s Day for all of us.