"Finally, A progressive Budget"

"President Obama's new budget is, well, audacious--- not just because it includes several big, audacious initiatives (universally affordable heath care, and a cap-and-trade sytstem for coping with global warming, for starters) but also because it represents the biggest redistribution of income from the wealthy to the middle class and poor this nation has seen in more than forty years."- Robert Reich, Speaking on President Obama's new Budget 

Robert Reich, one of my favorite US economists has written a smashingly succinct review of Obama's budget. Check it out by clicking the title above.  

Berkeley East

Hurrah for the 20-30 somethings across the US who are using their hands and skills to create a positive localist food movement! Our creative approach to countering the industrial capitalist paradigm! Click the title to read more of Brooklyn's New Culinary Movement.

Olives

After two months of the wait-and-see trial, the decision is in: our olives worked beautifully. Another case of turning straw into gold: successful. In the future I'm sure that it will be hard to keep my prying eye off of the ornamental olive trees that cover northern California, especially as I know that much of the fruit will fall to the ground untouched.

As all of the recipes that I found online were poorly written and confusing, I've included ours below.

~ Pick ripe black olives and wash well with water. Remove any leaves, stems, and debris.

~ Slice olives vertically down one whole side and make sure not to cut the pit

~ Place in Large container (we used a glass one gallon jug), 

~ Fill container with Salt water brine of 1/4 Cup Salt to 1 Quart Water. The brine should cover the olives by 1/2 inch or more. If the olives float, design a system to weigh them down.

~ Shake the container daily

~ Once a week, empty the brine, rinse the olives with fresh water, and replace brine- repeat as necessary. (All olives cure differently, I repeated this step for eight weeks until the olives didn't taste acidic any longer. I would recommend that you begin to taste the olives after a month, and you should notice a large difference in taste as the weeks progress. Keep in mind that olives will be very salty at this stage as the salt replaces the acidity.)

~ When the olives no longer have a bitter taste, empty the brine and rinse them once more. Then replace the brine with regular water and let the container stand for 3 days. This leaches the salt out of the olives.

~ After three days, place several shelled cloves of garlic and peels of lemons into an appropriate amount of clean mason jars.

~ Rinse olives once more and place into mason jars, leaving 1/2 inch space at the top.

~ Make a new batch of brine, this time with only 1/8 cup salt per 1 Quart, and fill mason jars with brine covering olives. 

~ Add 2 Tablespoons of red wine vinegar per jar as well as enough olive oil to cover the top of the water (this seals the jar against bacteria)

~ Tightly screw on cap, and place in the refrigerator. Olives should keep for 6 months or more!