It’s an Animal Liberation Thing; They Wouldn’t Understand.

I’m talking about pollination. It’s not what they say it is.

They say it’s significant because we need it for our almonds. They talk about conserving bees to the extent they can get them to keep working to produce our food supply.

They don’t talk about the interest of the bees.

We can exploit the beejeesus out of animals until, one day, legal panic sets in because we’ve just about cleared them completely from the face of the Earth.

American Bumble Bees Are in Crisis.

The population of American bumble bees dropped by 89% in the past two decades. The bees no longer live in much of the United States. What if the bees are listed under the Endangered Species Act? Will we see increased attention to bee habitat? Agribusiness could have to make changes. We might need to look at the impact of pesticides, climate crisis, and sprawl. Grazing businesses, “green” energy sites, and real estate developers are all implicated in sprawl.

The National Association of Home Builders has opposed ESA listings for other bee communities, so we can guess what they’ll do here. At its core, home building sprawl is a human population issue.

The Answer Is as Plain as the Peas on Your Plate: Go Vegan.

Stop supporting grazing. Just stop. Join the conscientious objectors. We don’t need animal ag. It’s bad for us, for other living communities, and for the Earth as a whole.

Farm animal waste, runoff, and feed operations are detrimental. The very complexity of animal agribusiness multiplies the harm done by our food systems.

We can opt out today, right this second.

And there’s more to being vegan than what’s on our plates. Consider human population a vegan topic; let’s talk about it (without xenophobia). Consider how we maintain our immediate physical surroundings. What we do to the climate, we do to habitat. And what we do to habitat is at the core of veganism.

Good Gardening Helps: Veganism Respects Our Shared Habitat.

Leaf blowers not only emit toxic gases; Doug Tallamy has explained that when leaves are banished, the land loses a form of temporary stormwater holding, and therefore leaf blowing exacerbates erosion and flooding. And bees have connections with leaves. Some bees and wasps try to nest under leaves.

Homo suburbanus has decided that lawns are necessary, and that chemicals are needed to maintain them. Common lawn sprays are tested on animals. What kind of people are we, that we’d blind rabbits to have a dandelion-free lawn that repels bees?

Native plantings matter so much, in so many ways. Never mind the birdfeeders; get natural nourishment rooted in any green space you might have. Of course there is a money incentive that keeps the landscapers in their old habits. Contracts for toxic chemicals communicate entrenched economic relationships among human businesses. But new relationships can be forged.

New year; new us. We need to strive to coexist with the naturally evolving life on our patch of Earth. This is a matter of liberation ethics.

How to Make Potato Pancakes with Vegan Caviar

Demo by Trish Sebben-Krupka

Caviar is in the federal spotlight again, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now undertaking a review of ten sturgeon communities to decide whether to list them under the Endangered Species Act.

And that’s good news. Yet the federal government is only going to protect these wonderful fish as long as it determines their populations are at the verge of collapse. If no one ate caviar, sturgeon would be better off for good.

Their roe—defined by Google’s online dictionary as “the mass of eggs contained in the ovaries of a female fish or shellfish, typically including the ovaries themselves, esp. when ripe and used as food”—is coveted by the human ape, which eats it at fancy gatherings or when sitting in first-class aircraft seats. The damming of rivers is another terrible problem for sturgeon: dams obstruct the way to waters where sturgeon go to reproduce.

???????????????????????????????Shakespeare in Hamlet used the adjective “caviary” to describe something unappreciated by the general public—so evidently we’ve been purloining eggs from sturgeon for a long time. But for about $10 a jar, there’s a Danish seaweed-based caviar that’s a lot gentler than regular caviar on the wallet, and it worries no sturgeon.

The distributor, Plant Based Foods, Inc., offers an elegant website, easy ordering, and attentive customer service.

Put to the Test

Chef and cookbook author Trish Sebben-Krupka would know??????????????????????????????? how this could play out in the gourmet world. Curious to learn the answer, I got together with Trish. Out of that delightful meeting came the recipe for Potato Pancakes and Vegan Caviar.

Cavi·Art “is an accent, not something to be eaten on its own,” said Trish; and we first tried it out with a bit of vegan sour cream* on water crackers. Trish liked the texture authenticity. The fresh taste of the yellow ???????????????????????????????variety—similar to a nicely marinated, half-sour pickle—welcomed the sour cream as a perfect complement.

“In some ways,” Trish said, “this is reminiscent of caviar—briny, salty; in other ways, not so much. You don’t get the pop you’d get eating caviar.”

Trish added: “I’m glad it isn’t an exact replica.”

Now that we were familiar with the taste and texture, Trish got cooking.

Here’s how it’s done.  ???????????????????????????????

Take a modest little potato. Peel it.

Grate and pan-fry it with a bit of organic cooking oil* and sea salt.

caviar  pan

When it’s golden brown, your pancake is ready.

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Next, cut the pancake as you would cut a pie, into triangular slices.

Top them with vegan sour cream, and create your festive medley oCavi·Art and chives.

Try apple sauce with the potato pancake.

Add sour cream, and yellow or orange Cavi·Art, topped with a bit of the black variety if desired.

???????????????????????????????But when all is said and done, the answer to everything, Trish says, is hot sauce. Which leads, of course, to a bit of avocado, sour cream and bell pepper. 

The samples we tried proved Cavi·Art is both delectable and vivacious. (See? I promised the next blog entry would be vivacious.)

???????????????????????????????And while Trish didn’t find that much difference in taste when sampling the black, yellow and orange varieties—for indeed, the ginger and the wasabi are the most distinct—they were invariably beautiful when combined, and there are subtle differences.

I’ll certainly give Cavi·Art high praise – for the taste as well as the way it advances respect for the ocean’s bio-community. It’s a bit lighter than caviar, with a less oily feel. It’s showy, versatile, delightful and real in its own right.

Trish sums it up:

???????????????????????????????It’s a really fun ingredient, and I can’t wait to play with it some more. I love the ginger and wasabi… with avocado, tamari and bell pepper. Looking forward to making maki rolls. It’s nice with potato pancakes, and I LOVE IT with hot sauce and Mexican-type ingredients (who would have guessed?). I think this will appeal to people who liked caviar, and those who never tried it or are put off by the fishy, inky taste of actual caviar.

Trish Sebben-Krupka  is a professional chef, caterer, and cooking teacher. Trish is equally well known as a rescuer of New Jersey cats, fostering for the group Angels of Animals.

The cats declined to review Cavi·Art.

Update: On 31 October 2013, the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed listing five of the sturgeon species, inhabiting Asian and European waters, as “endangered” under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because of severe threats posed by human exploitation, dams and pollution. Said Taylor Jones, Endangered Species Advocate for WildEarth Guardians. “If we want to prevent these incredible creatures from going extinct, we must rein in the caviar trade.” 

*Sour Supreme is a vegan sour cream from Tofutti, but if you prefer to make your own, there are simple DIY recipes online. Trish used Spectrum Organics canola oil for the pancake.