Small Bites: Cooking it old school, growing your own mushrooms and tracking down your next meal on your iPhone

Two new USA Character Approved Blog posts and a brand new iPhone app that lets you track food trucks in real time.

bromwell-housewares-1819

We’re always on the lookout for the next cool kitchen tool—for our own kitchen and to report here. So it was a refreshing change to stumble upon Jacob Bromwell, the oldest housewares company in America. How old? When they opened their doors in Cincinnati in 1819, our nation’s constitution was a mere 30 years old. Strategically situated on the Ohio River, many of the tools for they made for kitchens, fireplaces and campfires headed west or down the Mississippi.

There weren’t many repair shops to be had, so Jacob Bromwell had to make its goods to last. They still do—and they still guarantee them for life. And they still make everything right here, much of it by hand. To learn more about this reliably old school manufacturer—and what the contraptions in the photo are—check out my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog.

As locavore as it gets—your windowsill

bttr-mushroom-kitAs spring reluctantly returns, even those of us without the tiniest garden space get the urge to grow some of the food we eat. Now you can, right on your windowsill. With the BTTR Gourmet Garden Kit from Back to the Roots, you can grow a crop of gourmet pearl oyster mushrooms in about ten days. Each kit produces two one-pound crops.

Founded in 2009 by two college buddies from Berkeley, Back to the Roots is focused on producing sustainable products that help households across the country grow some of the food they eat. The growing medium for the mushrooms is actually recycled coffee grounds collected from gourmet coffee shops. To find out what famous sustainable food advocate features their mushrooms in her restaurant—and to see where to get your own mushroom kit—read this recent post on the USA Character Approved Blog.

Mapping your next meal, by phone

roaming-hunger-appGourmet food trucks have created an inventive, movable feast in cities around the country. The only problem is that they, well, move—and keeping up with them can be tough. Now there’s an app for that. Roaming Hunger, a website for tracking food trucks founded in 2009, has just launched a GPS-enabled mobile version with a free downloadable iPhone app. With it, you can track food trucks in real time in over a dozen cities. You can read food truck profiles and check out their menus. You can even see truck photos, to help you find them. Best of all, the Roaming Hunger app is free. You can download it at Apple’s iTunes Store.

“Going mobile was the natural progression,” says Roaming Hunger founder Ross Resnick. “Our users are embarking on a daily food adventure to seek out the best gourmet street food vendors and this app is the ideal compass for that journey.” What’s next on Resnick’s plate? Working on the Android version.

6 thoughts on “Small Bites: Cooking it old school, growing your own mushrooms and tracking down your next meal on your iPhone

  1. Good luck, Claire! If they’re not available in Australia, I think a couple different companies have started creating grow-your-own mushroom kits.

  2. Windowsill mushroom gardens-what an amazing idea! This is a part of that exciting flood of ideas and innovation that will help bring about our local and sustainable food revolution!

  3. Altadenahiker—If you want to save more than 4 cents, go to the Back to the Roots website and type in the code mushrooms4me10 when you order. Through the end of April, Blue Kitchen readers get 10% off their order.

    Emanuel—You right. Little by little, we’re seeing sustainable changes come about.

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