Gratitude Gourmet (tm)

An estimated 25 percent of the emissions produced by people in industrialized countries can be traced to the food they eat, according to recent research in Sweden. Per this New York Times article, new labels listing the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of foods, from whole wheat pasta to fast food burgers, are appearing on some grocery items and restaurant menus around Sweden with the goal to cut the country's emissions from food production by 50 percent. Citizens are asked to substitute beans for meat which isn't a surprise since cattle was noted by the United Nations organization to produce more greenhouse gases than transportation, and a recent WorldWatch Institute Study including recent analysis by Goodland and Anhang finds that livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions.

If you haven't attended the Celebration for the Turkeys Event in Orland, CA, I highly recommend you attend and experience this for yourself.
It will feature a Gourmet Thanksgiving dinner highlighting local, sustainable vegan fare (menu designed by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau), inspirational guest presentations, and a silent auction to benefit the animals and meet all your holiday shopping needs. Quality time with the sanctuary animals and the unique “Feeding of the Turkeys” ceremony, in which turkeys are the guests of honor and feast on their favorite treats: squash, pumpkin pie and cranberries!
More information and registration is here. You need to register soon because this sells out!

Bàrbara Mesquida Mora is a fourth generation winemaker at Jaume Mesquida in Porrores Mallorca. After an online search for Biodynamic Mallorcan wineries yielded one hit of Jaume Mesquida, I drove to the winery to explore the winery and wines for myself.
I videotaped Bàrbara describing why her winery decided to transition to Biodynamic. In addition, I'll include more information about the winery, pictures, and a description of the two wines I tasted and brought back to the United States.

Video

Winery Information
The Jaume Mesquida winery at Carrer de la Vileta, 7 in Porreres, Mallorca owns 22.2 hectares of vineyards and buys additional grapes from producers in Mallorca. Their practices include:
- Abandonment of chemical pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers (fungus problems were treated with copper, sulphur, and infusions of nettle and horsetail and biodynamic preparations of silica with an aim to reduce copper and sulphur doses in the future)
- Using vegetable cover during Autumn and Winter (grasses protect soil from erosion and invite earthworms to fertilize and aerate the earth)
- Scattering compost with biodynamic preparations
- Tractor use reduction (large machinery causes soil compaction and loss of fertile soil due to overworking) and returning to manual labor
- Labeling bottles in Braille and offering wine tours for unsighted tasters and visitors
- Recycling the majority of generated waste and installing a solar array heating all sanitary water
- Promoting a fourth quarter season of activities of dance, theatre, and music called 'Culture, Earth, and Wine'

Sirà and Cabernet Sauvignon
Bàrbara recommended I try two wines: the 2006 Sirà and the 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon. Incidentally, the Jaume Mesquida Winery produced the first Cabernet on the island of Mallorca in 1982. Both wines have a complex array of intense, fruity flavors. I tasted other Mallorcan wines, and this Sirà and Cabernet are the best Mallorcan wines I've tasted. You must try them.

Pictures
Below are some pictures I took at the Jaume Mesquida Winery! Salud!

Today, I was talking with a very nice lady originally from London and Jamaica who has lived on the southern tip of Mallorca for seven years. Her Mallorcan neighbor is 75 and every morning she walks out of her house wearing her swimming suit and jumps off the bank into the Sea and swims. The London-Jamaican expat asked her neighbor what her secret was to being strong and fit at her age. She said it was olives and olive oil.
Normally, I buy Trader Joes' organic olive oil in the States.
While in a grocery store in Mallorca, the corked glass bottle of Núñez de Prado 'Agricultura Ecologica' Olive Oil caught my eye and eventually the palate. To produce the elite Flor de Aceite, the handpicked olives grown without pesticides in Baena, Spain are channeled into an underground crusher where they are ground to mash by three-ton granite cones. From the crusher, the oily paste rides a conveyor to the Núñez de Prado’s Thermofilter, invented in Malaga, Spain in the last century by Marquis of Acapulco. The Thermofilter consists of two giant stainless steel rollers covered in a tight wire mesh, one atop the other, which slowly lift and turn. Oil from the crushed olives drips by gravity, strained through tiny holes—50 per square millimeter—and runs out through a trough at the bottom to a separate decantation system. What results is called the Flor de Aceite (Flower of the Oil). This oil is not pressed; it drips from the fruit naturally. Normally, a pressing yields a kilo of oil for every five kilos of olives; however, it takes eleven kilos of olives to make one kilo of Flor de Aceite. To qualify as extra virgin, olive oil must contain less than one percent acidity. Fine Italian oils are near 0.5 percent. On average, Núñez de Prado ranges from 0.09 to 0.17 percent; the low acidity minimizes the disturbance of the flavor compounds.

Núñez de Prado Extra Virgin Olive Oil is available in either glass or porcelain 500 ml bottles, and each individually numbered bottle has a label. You can find it at Dean and DeLuca in the United States.