www.eatlocalchallenge.com

Where are Farmers' Markets Going?

by Jeanne Brophy

In today's New York Times there's a worthwhile read:

"The hand-wringing among organic farmers that greeted Wal-Mart's announcement last week that it would begin stocking large quantities of organic produce reveals the tumultuous state of the alternative agriculture movement. In the 1960's, the movement began with far-out notions such as shortening the food chain between farmers and eaters, and entertaining the possibility that agribusiness might not have consumers' best interests at heart. At that time, both organic labeling and a national network of urban farmers' markets seemed like remote possibilities. Now that both of those have been achieved, consumers, farmers and food policy experts are at a point of soul-searching."

Warren Weber of Marin's Star Route Farms is also quoted, " A lot of small farmers here are opting out of organic...farmers' claims that they are "better than organic" are unverifiable." Weber helped write the California organic standards 30 years ago.

Sunday at the Marin Farmers' Market

by Jack & Joanne

Joanne, Trent and I got on the road at 9am (an amazing early start for us!) to drive the 40 minutes to the Marin Sunday Farmers' Market in San Rafael. We scored a parking spot easily - we usually get there too late for this to happen.

Wow, this Farmers' Market is really rocking in late May! Except for chicken, milk/cream, dried beans, rice and flour, you can get probably buy everything you want to eat for the next week. Really! This is in sharp contrast to locales where the Farmers' Market doesn't even open until June or July. The people in Marin have no idea how good they have it.

Canned Chicken, Fresh Lesson

Note, this post appears as part of an Eat Local Challenge Web site. I will be posting here at least once monthly for the next year.

I found an old can of chicken in the pantry, a remnant from my misspent experiments of trying to find ways to pack a semi-healthy lunch for under three dollars and in 30 seconds or less. I knew better once I saw the pinkish chunks floating in semi-gelatinous liquid. But, I ate it anyway, or rather am, at the moment, forcing myself.

It sucks. But then I knew that going in. This is about as far as you can get from an organic, free-range chicken. In fact, the only range this bird’s ever seen had a skillet on top of it. By definition, meat is organic, being well, a living creature at one time. Isn’t it odd that we can develop chicken in such a way that it can be labeled organic or not? Sounds rather, uh, fowl, to use one of my spouse’s awful puns.

I don’t like thinking about how the canned chicken lived prior to processing. And even the ones that don’t end up in a can are a far cry from their locally farmed, organically-raised cousins. You can taste the difference. Apparently even without an experienced palate. I learned this from my then infant during our first forays into the world of table foods.

Gerber makes these little ravioli stuffed with, you got it, the same chicken that’s in the can in front of me. Going against my organic-loving instincts, I thought this would be a good, easy finger food. It was, but apparently only fun to push around the tray, and definitely not for eating. I tried one. Ironically, unlike every other generic white meat, it did NOT taste like chicken.

The next week I got a free-range bird, herb-roasted, straight off the rotisserie. It was devoured, and I learned the real reason my kid had refused meat up to that point. It was not meat.

At that point, I swore off the idea that Gerber knew better than I did. No more special infant finger foods. It was time to come to the table for the good stuff. Not an easy task for a working mom, but so far, we’re making it without any of the pre-packaged drive-thru moments.

Convinced that “start ‘em young, train ‘em right” was the higher road, I instituted the “Fruit and Vegetable of the Week” program. Every week I introduce a new and different fruit and vegetable into my toddler’s world. We’ve navigated our way through every color and texture I can find as well. It’s been amazing to watch her enjoy every new taste, well, not every one. Brussels sprouts have been eliminated. Who can blame the kid?

This program has been so successful that I am running out of the “garden variety” fruits and veggies. But fortunately, spring has sprung and it has been off to the local farmer’s market for some new options. Ironic that you have to go to a small, local farmers market to get more options than a larger grocery store, but then, irony seems to abound in the food world.

We both loved the market. All the people, colors, smells, tastes. As I went through the herb plants, I stopped and made sure that my little one got to smell and touch each herb as I named them. We looked at flowers and plants, and scored some amazing veggies and some local strawberries — small, dark red and irregular in shape — but with a good hint of the sweet, deep flavor that will come with June’s harvest. My child chose the berries. She gave me the sign language for “MORE” over and over again, pointing to the berries. She ate the nearly the whole pint of these as fast as my husband could clean and core them. Which is interesting because she had begun to turn up her nose at the huge, perfect and fairly tasteless ones we had been buying.

We came home with spring mix greens, purple lettuce (and heirloom variety), green and purple asparagus, wildflower honey, green onions, radishes, strawberries and herb plants for rosemary, Italian parsley, and Genovese basil. A feast. All local and fresh. That week’s new veggie, purple asparagus, was sweet and delicious and enjoyed by all.

This week’s new culinary explorations await us already. A Korean melon variety sits on the counter, and we tried Florentine cauliflower last night. But, my food dreams are not so global. Even as I eye these exotics, I am waiting for Saturday and another trip to the market.

In the meantime, I will force feed myself the “chicken.” Call it punishment for ever going that route in the first place.

For more asparagus tips on skinny stalks versus the fat ones, try this NYTimes article.

Great tips on a trip to the farmers' market.

You can also find the Expat Chef barefoot, boisterous, but not pregnant, in The Expatriate's Kitchen.

Eating Local in Schools - Recent Articles

By Marc

Within the last few days, I have run across several articles about programs that provide local foods for school lunches or programs to teach children about gardening.  Programs like these could do wonders in many ways:  they provide healthy meals at an important time in a person's development, they teach children where their food comes from, and perhaps could even raise the status of farming as an occupation among today's youth.

Here is a summary of the articles, with locales ranging from Southern California to Iowa to Ghana, Africa.

The Box

By VI

Spring CSA - Week 6

My friend, David "the Hat" Hammond told me the other day, as we went to Vie, a restaurant specializing in local food, that he would eat local if he lived in Sonoma.  It's something I and others hear a lot.  We could eat local if...especially if we lived in California.

Now, I cannot speak to the rest of the USA, but I can say that in the Chicago area, there are more resources than imagined.  Paul Virant at Vie explained to us all the ways he got local produce from fall through spring.  And I got my way, the off-season CSAs offered by Farmer Vicki.

New Discoveries

by Patrick

As the month progresses, I am learning more about our local foodshed every day. Living in this way, always asking about where food comes from, and challenging ourselves to see how locally we can eat, brings a certain energy to nearly every meal. Our interactions with farmers, vendors, restaurateurs, and buyers at the grocery store are all imbued with a kind of vital force. Once I explain our mission, the person on the other end of the phone line, or the other side of the table, becomes excited and animated in their efforts to help us find information about the food we're buying, or a good source for something we need.

In the past week, we have made some decisions, and discovered some foods, that make me understand even more deeply the gray areas between "in the foodshed" and "out of the foodshed." I've begun to realize that this month's challenge is the refinement of a practice that will inform our food choices for the rest of our lives.

The Revolution will not be shrink-wrapped!

          

by Jeanne Brophy

The May/June issue of Mother Jones rocks. It's worth checking out. It contains an article, "No Bar Code" which is really an excerpt form Michael Pollan's new book, The Omnivore's Dilemma:  A Natural History of Four Meals. The focus of the piece is Joel Salatin. and his "beyond organic" Polyface farm.  This book is the featured book discussion for the ECL book group.  Join us for the discussion (via Yahoo! groups) beginning next Monday.

There's also another shorter piece about "redundant trade" that will quite frankly boogle the mind:

• Half of California’s processed tomato exports go to Canada, which ships $36 million worth of processed tomatoes to the U.S. annually.
• In 2003, New York shipped $1.1 million worth of California almonds to Italy, while importing $1.1 million worth of almonds from Italy.
• California sells $18 million worth of asparagus abroad. $39 million worth of asparagus comes into the state from other countries.
• International strawberry imports to California peak during the state’s strawberry season.
• 20% of California’s table grapes go to China, the world’s largest producer of table grapes.

Based in San Francisco, Jeanne Brophy writes about the culture and history of food at World on a Plate.

Mother Nature is Fickle

               

by Jeanne Brophy

Mother Nature had her way with California this year. So while the in California the calendar says its the second week of May were playing catch as the winter weather we fought turned into early spring storms. In terms of where we should be on the harvest calendar, picks are about two weeks later than expected. I have nothing to fuss about. However if you are a farmer you have plenty to keep you up at night.

Spring weather is delaying the ripening of peaches, nectarines and plums. California grows about 90 per cent of the domestic apricot crop. Most news reports have written about concern of the peach crop this year.  An earlier harbinger is to check in on apricots.  Unfortunately the trees' blossoms  were impacted by hail and rain.  Typically a cold winter will bring about apricot blossoms earlier than the peach.  Overall farmers are predicting to harvest two week later than usual and for that yield to be smaller than last year. 

Field trip report #1: Strawberry fields forever

by Jamie S.

I've been living in the South for...let's see, six years now. And still it catches me off guard. If I hadn't been involved in the Eat Local Challenge, I might never have noticed that Georgia's strawberry season is in full swing right now. It's over by the end of May--I could have missed it by mistake, which would have been very unfortunate indeed.

So yesterday, while I was in town, I decided to take a break from my errands and pick some strawberries. Washington Farms is tucked in among some of the University of Georgia's myriad agriculture demonstration sites. It's an unassuming flat spot with a few novelty livestock pens and a couple of acres of raised, black-plasticked strawberry rows.

The Box

Spring CSA Week 5

We did not subscribe to the spring CSA from Farmer Vicki in anticipation of the May Eat Local Challenge, but having the CSA surely makes the challenge that much easier.  In the Chicago area, it will still be a few weeks before the first farmer's markets open.  Vicki, however, using greenhouse technology provides me and her subscribers with a big box of produce each week.  And because of the greenhouse, our box includes, of all things in early May (for this part of the world), zucchini.

List your local farms

by Julie Cummins

For those of you who live in San Francisco, here's something to make your Eat Local Challenge a little easier: a list of local farms that sell at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and are less than 100 miles away. Many of the farms also sell at other Bay Area farmers' markets.

As I was describing the Eat Local Challenge to a shopper at the market, she said, "Aren't all the farms from within 100 miles?" The answer is no-- there are many farmers in the market who bring produce from farther reaches of the state, including citrus, dates, blueberries, and other beloved foods. And learning where each food comes from is what this Challenge is all about.

I encourage people from other cities to compile lists of farms in your area!

Thanks to Maggie Gosselin at CUESA for putting together the list.

Living in Eden, Drying out from the Rains

by Tana Butler

(Pictured at left: my table last August, a partial display of the week's acquisition from various farmers markets.)

I tell people I live in Eden. As in, "The Garden of Eden," where "garden" in fact means "more organic/sustainable farms than any county in California," and probably the entire country. With roughly a third the acreage and population of Fresno, Santa Cruz County has 30% more organic farms.

It has become my life's work to visit, photograph, and write about these places—not just here, but wherever I travel in the world. Travel itself has taken on a new meaning: I'm not interested in going somewhere unless I can squeeze in a visit to a farm or a farmers market.

The Box

by VI 

Spring CSA Week 4

[Note, my family has subscribed to a Spring CSA offered by a local Illinois farm called Genesis Growers --owned by "Farmer Vicki".  This CSA started in April and relies on greenhouses to get a head start on the growing season.] 

Farmer Vicki noted in her weekly e-mail that her spring greenhouse crops were not coming in so well.

"We have been having problems with one greenhouse in that the crops are not all getting ready at the same time.  It is frustrating, but so far I have not figured out why.  The only clue I have is that we did a poor job spreading the composted manure.  In some places it is thick and others, thin.  In this case, though I have been a poor diagnostician."

A suspicion

by Jamie S.

I'll admit it: Down here in middle Georgia (the lower edge of Zone 7), we have it easy. Most of our sturdy greens and root vegetables can be overwintered, and our spring planting season starts in March. May is a shoulder season--down with the old, up with the new.

(I won't mention the bugs and the heat. I know it comes off as whining. World's tiniest violin, etc.)

If you live in a colder zone, you may be worried that there won't be much of anything at your local farmstand in May. But remember that some of your local farmers have greenhouses. I have a plastic hoophouse, and it makes me feel pretty darned clever. You can push the seasons ahead by a month at least. The plants grow in the same soil and battle the same bugs; the only difference is a little extra solar heat.

Local Halibut

by Claire Tompkins

Taking on this challenge has given me a good reason to talk to the farmers at my local market (Grand Lake in Oakland, CA), although I'm usually too shy to do that.  I had a chat with the fishmonger there (can't remember the company name) and bought some local halibut from him, which I'm relieved to discover (after the fact) is on the Seafood Watch guide as a "Best Choice."  I find fish a little challenging to cook, but this halibut was fantastic.  I look forward to trying it again. 

Claire is an enthusiastic backyard gardener.  Her nascent blog is here:  www.organiclifeblog.com

Ladies & Gentlemen, We Have the Year's First Farmer's Market Buy

by Lisa D.

I have been so excited waiting for the farmer's markets to begin that I've been driving past the North Market on busy Saturday mornings, just to see if there was any movement.  Yesterday I was rewarded - it might only be mesclun mix, but it's something.  Today's lettuce comes from Toad Hill Organics, which also provides many items for Alana's restaurant (surely Columbus' premier supporter and instigator of local product usage), including her "house" salad with the Toad Hill Organic greens, carrots, raisins, etc.  Toad Hill had farm-fresh eggs, the beautiful mesclun mix pictured above, spinach and Asian greens for stir-frying available at Saturday's Market.  They were also cooking up scrambled eggs and stir-fry.  For a mostly complete list of Central Ohio farmer's markets, click here.