Pi Day Pies! Spinach Feta Pie Recipe

Today, 3.14, March fourteenth, is Pi Day.  Pi Day is to honor the beloved constant or 3.1415926535… or the ratio between the diameter and circumference of a circle. What better way to celebrate Pi than with pie?

One of my favorite vegetarian savory pie recipes, Spinach Feta Pie, is below.  Share your favorite with the Mr. Linky or in a comment!

[print_this]Spinach Feta Pie Makes: 8 servings Time: 30 minutes preparation, 30 minutes baking

1/4 cup olive oil, divided

1 large white onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 pound fresh spinach, chopped roughly

1 1/2 cup feta cheese

1/4 cup bread or cracker crumbs

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 tsp dried herbs (we like oregano and basil for this recipe, dill, tarragon or thyme would be good too)

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)

salt and pepper to taste

8 ounces frozen phyllo sheets, thawed and sliced into 1 inch squares  (can be reduced to 4 ounces if you want to lower empty calories)

1.Heat oven to 350 deg F.

2. Sweat onions and garlic in 2 tbsp olive oil until translucent.  Add spinach until wilted.  Allow to cool.

3.  Stir together feta cheese, eggs, bread crumbs, and spices.

4. In a separate bowl, stir phyllo and 2 tbsp olive oil together.

5. Optionally, line the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan with parchment for easy cleanup and no spills in the oven.  An easy way to do this is fold a piece of parchment into a square, then fold into a triangle twice holding the center of the paper as an endpoint.  Match endpoint to the middle of the spring form, cut a semi circle shape where the endpoint meets pan side, and open to reveal a circle like form.  You just approximated a radius (half a diameter)! Multiply the diameter times Pi and you have circumference!

6. Combine cooled onions, garlic and spinach with the feta mixture.  Press into prepared 9 inch springform pan.  Place pan on a cookie sheet.

7. Top pie with the phyllo dough pieces.  Drizzle a little more olive oil on top for extra crisp deliciousness.

8. Bake for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Note: This pie is a great recipe to make double and freeze.  The frozen pie will take 1 hour 15 minutes to bake.

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I hope you enjoy some Pi Day pie today. Please share a pie recipe, memory about pie, or pie making tip in the comments!  If you participate in the blog round up, please let your readers know and link back to this page.

Pi Day Pies Announcement!

This Sunday is March fourteenth, 3.14, aka Pi Day.  Something about celebrating the Greek letter that represents a numerical constant appeals to my inner dork.

The obvious thing to do to celebrate Pi Day is to make pie!  Not only is pie delicious but its round shape is the perfect jumping off point to challenge children (or yourself) to practice geometry with π.

If you are a blogger and would like to participate, I am hosting a Pi Day Pies blog carinval on Sunday.  I will post a recipe with a Mr. Linky on 3.14 at 1:59 AM (first six digits of π are 3.14159) for you to add your recipe, story, or song about pies/pis.  Please join in the math geek fun!

Survey Says...

One thing I learned at my recent trip to the Blissdom blogging conference is that this blog might serve readers better if I ask readers what they want.  Doh!

So I put together a little survey.  The site I use only allows for ten questions for free, so I crammed in lots of comment boxes but it is still short.  No questions or comments are required so you can skip anything you don't feel like answering.  Answers are completely anonymous.  Even if you do leave comments, I estimate the survey will take less than ten minutes.

I would very much appreciate your input to guide this blog and Hound events.  I hope to analyze responses on March 22.  Please send your answers in soon.  Thanks!

Rain Barrels for Free!

I love my two bright blue rain barrels. They collected enough rain water last year that we did not use the hose even once to water the garden!  Not only does this lower our water bill, it saves the resources used to clean the water through the sanitary sewer system.

There's a great opportunity for people who leave in Clintonville to install rain barrels for free in a small geographic location sponsored by Friends of the Lower Olentangy Watershed.   From FLOW watershed coordinator Heather Dean, "Eligible households who agree to participate in the program will receive 1-3 free rain barrels to install on their property. The target area is:400-500 blocks of E. Tulane, 400-500 blocks of E. Tibet (south side only), 400-500 blocks of E. Crestview (north side only), 400 block of Kelso, 2700-2800 blocks of W. Kensington Pl., and Indianola Ave, between Olentangy Blvd. and Tibet. Rd. (east side only)."  We live two houses from the 400 block of E Tibet, sadly out of the zone.

FLOW is holding an orientation meeting with Mayor Michael Coleman on March 9 at 6:30 PM at Overbrook Presbyterian Church at 4131 N. High St.  I plan to attend to show my support for this type of program and home gardening in general.  Heather Dean is collecting RSVPs at hdean@olentangywatershed.org or 267-3386.

Columbus residents not in the targeted area who would like to obtain a rain barrel may do so through the FLOW cost share program, which allows you to purchase a barrel for a discounted price of $30 when you attend a rain barrel workshop.  You can register for that program on-line at www.olentangywatershed.org. Reports are that the workshops are filling fast!

My favorite source for barrels is the friendly folks at Rain Brothers.  I chatted with them at the OEFFA conference where they showed off their newest barrel, the Rain Station pictured at left.  It holds 60 gallons and hooks directly into your gutter through a clever insert.  At $109 for the whole setup, it is a great decorative addition to any garden.  I'm also attracted to the culvert rain catchers.  We are adding some beds this year so a new barrel might be useful.

There are places where catching water is not legal.  We're lucky in Ohio to be surrounded by resources that enable rain collection.  Let's show them our support!

Local Food & Gardening Events - March 2010

The snow is melting and spring is around the corner.  Columbus has an abundance of interesting local food and gardening events again this month.  Enjoy! Hounds in the Kitchen events

Kids Cook - Thursdays from 11:15am-12pm at Sprout Soup.  This month we'll be going bananas on the 4th, serving up maple syrup on the 11th, and cooking the exotic quinoa on the 18th.  $4 per child.

Kids Cook EGGstravaganza - Saturday March 20 from 12 - 1:30 pm. at Sprout Soup.  Kids of all ages can join in the fun of decorating an egg, making a late lunch, and visiting with a laying hen.  $5 per child; $15 family maximum.  Please RSVP to Rachel.

Urban Edible Gardens - Tuesday March 30 from 7 -8 pm at Greenovate, 9 East 2nd Ave Columbus 43201.  Come to Rachel's workshop filled with techniques on how to include an edible garden in your environment, be it a backyard, patio, or deck.  She will share information about raised beds, containers, plants best suited to Ohio conditions, and low impact low budget tips to start gardening this season.

Events hosted by others (in chronological order)

Maple Syrup festivals are being held around the city.  Check out the Maple Syrup 2010 post for dates and locations.

Columbus Winter Farmer's Market March 6 and 20 from 9 am - 1 pm at First UU Church, 93 W Weisheimer Dr.  Purchase Ohio grown and made goods, enjoy live music and space to sit and chat at the Winter Farmer's Market.  (Here's my review from a January visit.)

Urban and Container Gardening- Saturday, March 06, 2010 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. at Stratford Ecological Center 3083 Liberty Rd., Delaware, OH.  Stratford’s farmer will gear this class to the small backyard or patio grower, sharing information on rainwater harvesting, composting, maximizing your space, extending the growing season, and using containers to “grow your own.” $20/person or $30/family.

Hills Market Oscar Dinner - March 6 - $35 per person - 6:30 p.m. at Hills Market. This dinner, served in the Wine Department, is a compilation of courses inspired by all five 2009 Oscar Nominees for Best Picture. This evening will feature five courses, four wines and three film critics: John DeSando, co-host of WCBE’s It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, Johnny DiLoretto co-host of WCBE's Cinema Classics and entertainment reporter for Fox 28, and Kristin Dreyer Kramer, co-host of WCBE’s It's Movie Time and On the Marquee and editor-in-chief of NightsAndWeekends.com. $35 per person.  Call 614.846.3220 or e-mail manager@thehillsmarket.com for reservations.

North Market cooking classes include Seafood Suppers on Sunday March 7, and Eastern European on Wednesday March 24.  Their chef series continues with The Refectory on Thursday March 18 and Trattoria Roma on Wednesday the 31.  All classes are $50 per person or $125 for 3.  Visit their events calendar for more information.

Ohio Market Day - March 13, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. At Hills Market. This event features dozens of our favorite Ohio vendors, more than 100 prizes, free hot dogs from Boar's Head (11 a.m. to 1 p.m.) workshops and a day-long midwest beer sampling in the Wine Department.  Free.

Composting Workshop - Tuesday March 16 7 pm at Worthington Library, 820 High St.  Attendees will learn safe, simple and effective methods to start their own home composting program in this FREE workshop. All are welcome!

King Corn and Big River movie screenings - March 22 at 7 pm at Studio 35.  This event is held in celebration of World Water Day, while we also kick off Earth Month with Aveda Institute Columbus. Join us and find out more! Doors open at 6pm and the movie begins at 7pm. Admission is $7.50 and a portion of the proceeds will go to Sierra Club's Central Ohio Clean Water Campaign.

Ohio Maple Dinner - March 23 at 6:30 p.m. at Hills Market. Enjoy a perfectly-balanced three course meal (paired with wines hand selected by Wine Director Constance Begue) to complement the delicious maple syrup harvested by Lewisville, Ohio's Misty Mountain Estates. $35 per person. Call 614.846.3220 or e-mail manager@thehillsmarket.com for reservations.

What's on Your Table? - Saturday March 27 from 9am - 1:30pm at Columbus Menonite Church, 35 Oakland park ave.  An intriguing discussion led by trailblazing Cleveland chef & well-known food advocate, Parker Bosley. Local foods pioneer, Mary Holmes, will give the keynote, followed by presentations from area food activists arranged by the Clintonville Farmer's Market.  $12 for materials and lunch.

Organic Gardening - Saturday March 27 from 10 am - 12 pm at Stratford Ecological Center, Delaware Ohio. Gardening without chemicals is nothing new; humans thrived on naturally-grown food for centuries. In this class, you’ll observe the organic perspective of viewing your garden as a natural and diverse system, learning the basics of composting, companion planting, crop rotations, pest control and more. Pictures will inspire and clarify. $20/person or $30/family.

Raised Beds and Natural Gardening 101, Saturday, March 27, 2010 at Blue Rock Station, Zanesville, Ohio.  Learn how to use thermal mass, passive solar, and lots of other easy techniques to enhance your garden growing knowledge and become a true eco-manager.  $35 per person.  E-mail Annie at annie@bluerockstation.com  or give her a call at (740) 674-4300 for reservations.

Maple Sugaring Events 2010

It's sugaring time!  I dream about having my own sugar bush someday and extracting maple syrup every late winter.  Last year I shared my experience with how maple syrup is produced.  Fortunately there are lots of open house events around Columbus where Ohioans can witness sugaring without making a season long commitment doing it yourself.

Malabar Farms, Hueston Woods, and Hocking Hills State Parks are all holding Sugaring Events on March 6-7 and 13-14.  Details are on the Ohio State Parks events calendar.

On Saturday, March 6, 2010, from 10 a.m. – noon, Shepard's Corner is offering a Maple Syrup Tour.  Learn all about maple syrup from the tree to your pancakes.  You’ll tour the words, see the boil, and take home a sample of fresh maple syrup.  The suggested donation is $7 per person or $5 per person for a group of 3 or more.  Register online by March 2, 2010.

On March 11, I will teach a Kids Cook class about maple syrup from 11:15 am - 12 pm at Sprout Soup.  We'll taste a few different kinds, talk about the process of sugaring and make pancakes.  $4 per child.

Stratford Ecological Center in Delaware holds it's annual Maple Syrup and Pancake festival on Saturday March 13 from 9 AM - 1 PM.  They serve breakfast, have wagon rides, and offer the whole farm experience for $8/adult and $6/child.

Please chime in if you know of another central Ohio sugaring event.

Tips for Gardening from the OEFFA conference

I recently spoke at the Ohio Ecological Food and Farming Association (OEFFA) on the topic of Urban Gardening.  Approximately fifty attendees discussed their urban gardening challenges and together we brainstormed solutions. I transformed my handout for the workshop into a guest post for Kimberly Hartke, writer of Hartke is Online and publicist for the Weston A. Price Foundation.  My Tips for Gardening in Small Spaces with lots of pictures is over at her site.

I am actively searching out a location to give hold the discussion again in Columbus and of course I'll publish here as soon as I know when and where that might be.

For more OEFFA goodness, you can read my summary of Joel Salatin's keynote talk.

Finally, local readers can experience inspiration and networking reminiscent of the conference at a screening of the movie King Corn sponsored by OEFFA among other local whole foods organizations.  On March 22, Studio 35 will host a discussion among local food advocates and show the film for an admission price of $7.50 starting at 6 pm.  Visit the Facebook event listing for all the details.

Joel Salatin: Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal

"We live in an amazing country where it's perfectly legal to feed your kids twinkies, hoho cakes, and mountain dew, but raw milk, that's dangerous."  So began Joel Salatin's Saturday keynote address to the Ohio Ecological Food and Farming Association annual conference on February 13, 2010.  I attended the talk.  The writing below is my best effort to impartially summarize Salatin's opinions as he shared them. Joel Salatin is the farmer behind Polyface Farms, a revolutionary pasture based meat producing business.  Polyface Farms was featured in Michael Pollan's recent Omnivore's Dilemma and the movie Food Inc.

Mr. Salatin shared a litany of things he wants to do that are illegal (in his home state of Virginia, rules are not necessarily the same in every state):

• Hire local kids to do farm work - power tools are legally too dangerous, yet they can be licensed to drive cars
• Make lard and can stews - legally must be made in a commercial kitchen which can't be in an agricultural zone
• Cure meats - laws require these must be done in a separate outbuilding, one not in an agricultural zone
• Give tours or build a cabin for visitors - charging for these services would be entertainment, and entertainment is not allowed in an agricultural zone  (Mr. Salatin joked, "This is farmland and it's not to be for entertainment.  Nothing is funny on a farm.")

Salatin was serious when he called on the audience to be realistic about the fight for real food production.  He offered anecdotal evidence that the average citizen hasn't heard of Food Inc. and regularly eats fast food without thought to the ingredient quality.  He declared, "if our position succeeds, it will completely invert the power, prestige, and position of food lords."

Mr. Salatin explained which current paradigms must shift to have a real food system.

First, the current paradigm is that the government is more trustworthy than individuals.  Salatin, with much experience advocating for sustainable farming at the local and national level, believes the "very notion that a bureaucrat is more honest than a farmer is repugnant."

Secondly, current decision makers and food laws imply that food safety is objective.  Salatin believes it is not.  He pointed out that hunting is a proud time honored tradition that exists outside of food safety codes and is deemed 'safe' by thousands of citizens who eat venison every year.  Food safety regulations mostly come into play when food is exchanged for commerce.  He questioned, "You can give away raw milk or cheese.  What is it about exchanging money that makes it a hazardous substance?"

Next, the current paradigm is that bugs are bad.  Americans, especially, have an obsession with sterility that destroys the good bugs who could eat the bad bugs.  It is creating immune system dysfunction on an epidemic scale.  In real food circles, kefir, kim chee, kombucha and other 'good bug' fermented foods are making a come back.

In general, people are ignorant and trained to feel that freedom of choice is scary.  Salatin reminded the audience of the origin of the USDA meat stamp of approval.  In 1906 after the Jungle was published, meat purchased dropped by 50%.  Farmers lobbied congress and Roosevelt created the stamp of approval to increase credibility among consumers.  So is the way with many labels; the average consumers' fear leads to certifications that are little more than hoop-jumping red tape for small producers.

Finally, the processed food system is so pervasive that people now believe it is normal.  In reality, Salatin believes, it is not normal for most societies past to present to eat food you can't pronounce.  It is not normal to eat food you can't make in your kitchen.  As a measure of real food, Salatin proposes don't "eat any food that wasn't available before 1900."

Salatin's speech ended with several empowering alternatives for those looking to produce and consume traditional whole foods.

1) Don't comply.  Salatin suggested opting out of the industrial food system.  Find your own kitchen.  Buy directly from the farmer and talk to them about where and how their goods were raised.  "Take your TV up to a high hill with a deer riffle,"  he said, advocating that people avoid the traditional media focus on the quick, easy, and cheap.

2) Create a non-commerce system.  Community Supported Agriculture arrangements have passed the regulations test and allow farmers to offer a variety of products.  Creating private clubs and herd share programs are other non commerce alternatives.  Some farmers have even had success giving their product away and make their money through donation bucket collections.

3) Look for loopholes and renaming opportunities.  Read regulations carefully and follow them literally.  Salatin gave the example of a farmer who needed to follow a regulation that required a wall with a window in one of his buildings.  Size was not mentioned, so he built a dog house sized wall and window in the shelter.  A raw milk producer relabeled her milk as 'pet food' and is able to sell it without concern about anti-raw regulations.  Another sells her artisanal cheese as 'fish bait' because there are no regulations regarding fish bait in her area.

Salatin concluded his talk demanding "we need a constitutional amendment guaranteeing every American the freedom of food choice. This heritage, sacred, noble food production system will not be wiped from our culture."

You can read more about Salatin in his many books including Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories From the Local Food Front