Michelle's
Earth Foundation News
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Earth Day 2008
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Michelle's Earth
Foundation, P.O. Box 5140 Preston King Station,
Arlington, Virginia 22205
www.michellesearth.org info@michellesearthfound.org
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February and March were big months
for MEF, as we advanced one of our biggest projects (sunflower
phytoremediation in New Orleans) and held one of our biggest
events (Nathan Lyon's cooking locally-grown foods). Both
provided a medium for carrying out our mission, and both
combined innovation and education. Read more below, and
let us know how you'd like to
participate.
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Michelle's
"This I Believe" YouTube Video viewed over 32,000
times.
Michelle's essay, "This I Believe," was also read on
National Public Radio's Weekend Edition last summer.
You can
read the essay here. Click on the video link
(right) to watch the video version read by famous
women.
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Chef Lyon meets the 'Cooking Local in Midwinter'
Challenge
Former Arlington resident and H-B Woodlawn graduate,
Nathan Lyon, rose to meet Michelle's Earth Foundation's
challenge of preparing a meal in midwinter from foods found in
local farmers' markets. Nathan, chef of Discovery
Health's, A Lyon in the Kitchen, flew from his home in Los
Angeles to participate in the program sponsored by Michelle's
Earth Foundation. On Saturday, February 23rd, Nathan met MEF
and CNN at the Java Shack,
Arlington's first green restaurant. He then led a shopping
expedition to the Courthouse farmers' market with camera crews
in tow. Sunday he acquired more food at the Dupont Circle
farmers' market and began cooking. 
On Monday Nathan presented samples of his menu to a
sold-out and enthusiastic audience. H-B partnered with MEF,
providing the cafeteria, kitchen, jazz band, electrical
equipment & white table cloths. Whole Foods also provided
some drinks, flowers and hard to find foods. Students from the
Environment Club acted as servers for the 6 sample courses.
Former teachers and class mates were in the audience and
enlivened the program as they joked and shared memories with
Nathan. 
A skilled chef and graduate of the California School
of Culinary Arts, Nathan cooked, entertained and answered many
questions with ease. For starters he presented warm spiced
cider with samples of pecan date pie and toasted almonds. The
pecans and dates were brought from his LA farmers' market. The
appetizer was eggplant caponta crostini with locally produced
lemon yogurt followed by roast kabocha squash soup. For the
entree Nathan presented spelt risotto with roasted tomatoes
& baby arugula and braised winter greens with root
vegetables. Noting that his birthday was that day, he further
exceeded expectations by making a ricotta cheesecake with
Grand Marnier chantille. A hardy 'Happy Birthday' was sung by
everyone, as his mother brought out a traditional birthday
cake.
The evening's program featured many useful tips on
preparing foods and keeping them fresh. As Dusty Horwitt was
introducing his friend Nathan, he noted that Nathan's program,
A Lyon in the Kitchen, is broadcast Monday and Wednesday at 4
pm on Discovery Health. Michelle's Earth Foundation was
pleased to sponsor and support such an engaging and meaningful
program about 'cooking local'.
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MEF Toolkit for Buying
Local
Rachele Huennekens has assembled an
excellent collection of wisdom and resources for buying
locally grown foods.
Promoting
locally-grown food is one of the fastest-growing environmental
movements today. The oft-cited statistic that the
average vegetable travels 1,500 miles to get to a dinner table
is simply the jumping-off point for a larger debate about what
and how we eat, and how it effects our planet.
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 MEF Sunflower Phytoremediation Project in Louisiana
Work continues in New orleans in
cooperation with governmenta agencies and a variety of church
and volunteer groups. Next month seniors from H-B
Woodlawn's Environmental Club will travel to new Orleans to
help with harvesting, preparation, reseading, and soil
testing.
If you wish to contribute to this
project or any other MEF program or project, please contact us or visit our
new
Facebook Causes
donations site.
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Support from LSU AgCenter for MEF Sunflower
Phytoremediation
LSU Associate Professor Ed Bush is partnering with
Michelle's Earth sunflower phytoremediation projects in New
Orleans, Louisiana . He works with the LSU AgCenter and the
School of Plant, Environmental and Soil Sciences. The soil
samples we send from the lots where we're planting sunflowers
are tested at lab in which he works in Baton Rouge. He also
helps us interpret the findings and will offer guidance for
future plantings. Along with Dr. Pam Blanchard,
another professor at LSU, Bush has also started an educational
program called 'Coastal Roots.' It's a K-12 Environmental
Stewardship Program encompassing public and private schools
providing a hands-on and classroom Science experience. It has
been in existence since 2001, with renewed interest since
Katrina and Rita impacted southern Louisiana and Mississippi.
The participating schools build their own tree and
grass nurseries in which they collect and plant seeds, and
learn about the coastal restoration. Each school produces
coastal plants and takes a field trip into the marshes and
swamps of south Louisiana to plant their nursery plants. Bush
currently has 23 participating schools in the Gulf Coast
region of Louisiana. He is currently exploring new
partnerships with Texas and Mississippi. For further
information: http://calvin.ednet.lsu.edu/~coastalroots/.
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 This semester Alison Bell is visiting
Michelle's homestay brother, Marcelo Barbosa, who lives
in Curitiba,
Brazil. Curitiba is known as the world's greenest
city. Stay tuned........
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