Looking back at 2 Years of Sunshine ➕ Microbes 🥳 + Recipe: Saffron Risotto
Issue No. 80
Excuse the tardiness. To celebrate, the second anniversary of this newsletter Matt slept in this morning 😴 Thanks for joining us on this journey!
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I knew something felt special about this week. And I finally figured it out: This is our two year anniversary!
Eighty issues and more than 800 subscribers later, we’re still having fun. We hope you’re having fun. Leave us a comment and tell us what you enjoy most about Sunshine + Microbes (or what you’d like us to do more of).
To celebrate two years of playing with our food, I wanted to take a look back through the archive at some of our favorites editions, plus some favorite recipes and ferments!
Terrific Issues
Apocalypse Wow!
In which Jackie muses on apocalyptic prediction culture, climate catastrophe, and the value of hope in uncertain times.
The Pleasures of Dining Alone
In which Jackie waxes poetic about the beauty of a table for one
Small Joys
We created this crowd-sourced list of pleasure-focused coping mechanisms in the very early days of the pandemic. While we may have turned a corner (ish?) on Covid-19, these suggestions remain lovely and timely.
Fractals
Inspired by “Emergent Strategy” by adrienne maree brown, Jackie attempts a fractaling approach to transformation.
Food + Stories
In which Jackie takes comfort in television and carbohydrates
Fave Recipes
🍫 Reese’s PB Cup Bars
A classic peanut butter bar, with oats for the fiber and mini peanut butter cups for the fun!
🥪 Grilled Cheese Nirvana
More of a how-to guide, with heavy inspiration from Jackie’s years working at Kappacasein Dairy, purveyors of the “platonic ideal of a grilled cheese”
🇮🇹 Pasta e Fagioli
Put beans in your pasta already!!
🧁 Chocolate Buttermilk Cake
A simple everyday cake that can easily be classed up for a special occasion
🍞 Whole Grain Flatbread
When you need that bread fix but don’t have days to wait on a sourdough loaf
Easy Ferments
Misozuke
Veggies pickled in miso
3 Simple Garlic Ferments
Fermented garlic paste, garlic fermented in honey, and black garlic
Kosho
A spicy citrus condiment from Japan
Cultured Butter
Better butter with microbes!
Sweet Potato Fly
A refreshing, fizzy, fermented drink
love,
Jackie
Celebrate our two-year anniversary by sharing some favorite Sunshine + Microbes highlights with your friends!
🪓 A dry California creek bed looked like a wildfire risk. Then the beavers went to work | The Sacramento Bee
Officials for a county in California were looking at a bill of at least $1 million to restore a dried-out floodplain that presented a wildfire risk. They discovered a cheaper solution by inviting over one of the animal kingdom’s hardest workers: the busy beaver.
The restoration project was expected to take a decade. The beavers finished the work in just three years. At a discounted rate of $58,000. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supported the project and federal agencies, universities and nonprofits are starting to see the benefits of beaver-built infrastructure.
Beavers are nature’s engineers, and “they build dams that push flowing stream water over the banks to create ponds and dig canals into the landscape to form an expansive wetland.” Those wetlands have been shown to mitigate droughts and even stall the progress of wildfires. It might feel undeserved, but I am grateful that nature is helping rebuild from humanity’s environmental degradation.
🥫 The lie of ‘expired’ food and the disastrous truth of America’s food waste problem | Vox
I spent much of my childhood arguing with my mother about expired food. But she was right, and Alissa Wilkinson explains why in this excellent piece on the nonsensical world of expiration dates. Due to a lack of federal regulations for everything but baby formula, there exists a cornucopia of different food labels, all with different meanings — “sell by”, “enjoy buy”, “best before”, “use by”, etc. The vast majority of these dates refer to a best guess at peak quality or freshness. They have nothing to do with food safety, even though that’s how they are interpreted by most consumers.Chef and food writer Tamar Adler advocates for another approach to determining safety:
“Use your sense organs,” Adler said. “We have them so that we can figure out whether things in the world are going to kill us, so we can make sure we’re not going to poison ourselves and die — and it’s even worth doing when you suspect something is bad, because feeling your body’s response is so reassuring.”
Our misunderstanding of expiration dates has serious consequences. The average family in the US tosses between $1,365 and $2,275 of food each year. About 25% of our nation’s fresh water supply is used to produce food that will be wasted. Laws that make it difficult to donate expired food means little of this perfectly edible food feeds the 42 million Americans living with food insecurity.
There are solutions, but they aren’t all easy. Federal regulations would go a long way, but ultimately, we need to change our relationship to consumption. Is a fully stocked supermarket always a good thing, even when some of that food will inevitably be wasted? Can we learn to eat food that doesn’t conform to our aesthetic standards of what it should look like, like a slightly bendy carrot or a smaller-than-average apple (it’s true! Supermarkets reject produce that is too large or too small!)? These kinds of culture shifts take a long time. In the meantime, sniff the so-called “expired” food in your fridge before you toss it.
🐆 Dangerously Greedy: The Dark Side of Frito-Lay | More Perfect Union
Snack companies turned out to be recession-proof during the pandemic as we all upped our intake of chips and pretzels from the work-from-home couch. And while Frito-Lay, a division of PepsiCo, saw revenue skyrocket last year, workers did not get the benefits.
This video by advocacy journalism outfit More Perfect Union takes you to a strike at the Frito-Lay factory in Topeka, Kan. Hundreds of workers joined the picket line, citing “an unsafe and exploitative work environment, stagnant wages, and being forced to work brutally long hours—sometimes up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.” Employees endured “suicide shifts” where they worked 12 hour days with just eight hour breaks in-between. Listen to their stories about the labor behind Cheetos, Doritos and Ruffles — and stay for the devious images of Chester Cheetah. (Feel free to make a donation to the local union’s relief fund: https://seveneightfive.com/local-218-utility-relief-fund/)
Saffron Risotto
Saffron is more expensive than gold. Is it worth the price? Eh. But I happened to get a big jar at HomeGoods (a wonderland of discount pantry items!) I made a saffron loaf for the bread club this week, and I made entirely too much saffron tea. I integrated it into a lovely risotto, one of my go-to quick, comfort meals.
I realized that in the two years of Sunshine + Microbes, I’ve never done a risotto recipe! We are remedying that. Risotto is quick and easy, but it does require constant babysitting. You have to stir it every minute or two. So keep that in mind.
Serves 2-3 (or one with leftovers… There's a how-to for risotto cakes at the end. They make a great breakfast!)
ingredients
3 tablespoons butter, divided
1/2 an onion, minced
1-3 garlic cloves, minced
a pinch of saffron threads*
1/2 cup arborio rice, or other risotto rice like carnaroli or vialone nano
1/2 cup dry white wine
parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
optional: peas, roasted asparagus, roasted cherry tomatoes, capers, roasted mushrooms, or whatever else sounds nice
*To skip the saffron flavor, sub out the saffron tea (instructions below) for stock, another flavorful liquid, or just salted water.
step-by-step
To make the saffron tea, bring to a simmer about 6 cups of water. Once it simmers, cut the heat and add the saffron threads. Stir them around and let them infuse the water for a few minutes. If not using saffron, simply bring the liquid to a simmer.
In a large saute pan, add 2 tablespoons of butter over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic, a pinch or two of salt, and stir. Allow to cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are soft and golden brown.
Turn heat to high and add the rice and another big pinch of salt. Stir and allow to toast for a minute or two.
Add wine and stir until rice has absorbed the liquid.
Add one cup of hot saffron tea. Once it is absorbed, add another cup. Most recipes say to stir constantly, but I find stirring every minute or two is enough. Keep adding liquid, stirring, and adding more liquid again after the rice has absorbed it all. This will take 15-20 minutes and 5-6 cups of water. As the rice absorbs the liquid, it will release starch and form a creamy, porridge-like suspension. After 15 minutes, start tasting the rice. You want it to be tender but not mushy.
Once the rice is cooked, turn off the heat. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter, grate a small mountain of parmesan, season with salt and pepper to taste, and stir it all into the rice. Add any optional veggies or other add-ins.
Serve immediately.
👉What to do with leftover risotto:
Risotto is lovely reheated, but I prefer to make risotto cakes with my leftovers. Just stir an egg or two into the risotto, shape into a patty, and fry over medium-high in oil until both sides are brown and crispy. About 2-3 minutes on each side.
Is your summer more Option 1 or Option 2?
Talk to Us
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Sunshine + Microbes team
Jackie Vitale is a cook and kitchen educator based in Stuart, Fla . She runs Otto’s Bread Club and is co-founder of the Florida Ferment Fest. Her newsletter explores the intersection of food, culture, environment and community.
Matt Levin is a communications strategist at the ACLU of Texas. He edits Sunshine + Microbes and contributes other scraps to each issue.