www.eatlocalchallenge.com

Virtual Farm Tour

by Julie Cummins

Visiting farms is like a pilgrimage for me. I know that sounds over dramatic, but that's really how it feels. I don't attend any regular religious services, and the part of my life that feels most like daily worship is eating delicious, simple, fresh food. Following my food back to its source is as close as I'm ever going to get to traveling to the holy land. I'm not going to go so far as to call farmers messiahs--they're just regular people, as quirky and flawed as the next. But I do have a tremendous respect for the hard work they do in the name of feeding the rest of us.
 
Last month I visited several local farms and I wanted to share a little photo tour. This is Dirty Girl Produce, just outside of downtown Santa Cruz, CA.

Forbidden fruit?

by Jamie S.

Jamie Oliver calls his salad of fresh figs, prosciutto, fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar "The Easiest, Sexiest Salad on Earth." And he's right. Oh, is he ever right.

But as far as I'm concerned, you can leave the prosciutto, cheese, basil, oil, and vinegar out of it and it's still the sexiest thing going. In fact, it'll be all I can do to stop myself from rolling around in it like Uncle Scrooge in his money bin.

Fresh figs are transcendent. If you've only ever had figs from a grocery store (or even worse, if you know of figs only from the inside of cookies) you're scratching your head right now. You'll just have to trust me on this. If you go to a local farm and get hold of, say, a few pounds of Italian honey figs--and if they're so ripe that they threaten to collapse at any moment--you will want to cancel all your appointments and lock your doors so you can be alone with them.

The farm behind Farm 255

by Jamie S.

Some of you may remember my recent post about eating at Farm 255. Well, this weekend I had a fantastic opportunity: I was able to visit Full Moon Cooperative Farm, the farm that supplies much of the restaurant's produce and serves as its inspiration.

Jason Mann, agroecologist and director of Full Moon, is also one of the three owners of the restaurant. He has worked with some of the best minds in the field, including Michael Pollan. He is word-tumblingly enthusiastic and engaging, and I think that within the space of one morning, he may have assimilated me into the biodynamic agriculture borg.

U-pick, U-eat, U-love

 

by Suzanne Miller

I second Birdsong’s ode to strawberries.  ‘Tis the season indeed.

In Davis there’s a small organic u-pick strawberry field at Pacific Star Farm.   It’s about 10 minutes from my house on a old county road.  We arrived late on Memorial Day.  It was hot.  The field radiated a strawberry smell that – how can I say this – enveloped us.  It was like we wandered into a warm strawberry cloud.  Heaven. 

As I said the farm is organic, so it’s safe for me and my toddler.  She “helps me”: takes strawberries out of my bucket, stares at them with wonder and awe, sticks her finger in them as far as it will go, then throws them on the ground.  She doesn’t want to eat them  (ever since my husband snuck sardines in her rice, she’s rightfully suspicious of new food), but I suspect that next year she’ll be stuffing her mouth.

Local Foods We Love

by Jack & Joanne

One of the results of last August's Eat Local Challenge was the creation of a page on our site devoted to local foods. It has blossomed into one very long page plus five sub-pages. We got this up last Fall and have updated it a few times since, including yesterday.

Fork & Bottle's  Great Local Foods

Since we took the Eat Local Challenge last August, our favorite local products are regulars in our pantry and fridge. After finding the best local choice in a number of categories, we can't go back; the quality and delicious-ness factor has made that local product a part of our lifestyle. Examples would be...

Cornbread, biscuits, and cheese grits

by Jamie S.

Welcome to my world.

Let's be honest: This is no Vermont. Have you ever noticed how many organic, small-farmed, value-added products originate in Vermont? I think we in the South need to do what the railroads did in the mid-1800s: recruit by all means necessary. We need to paper New England with flyers describing what an idyllic, easy life can be had amongst central Georgia's granite quarries and pine tree plantations. Just show up, bring your chevre and your micro-greens with you, and we'll give you 40 acres and a mule.

Okay, I'm exaggerating. But we do have to do a little more digging to find small local producers. Their wares aren't found in most grocery stores, but the producers are out there. And one of the things our local producers do best is grist milling.

Drink Locally - Reading U.S. Wine Labels

By Marc

In the United States, wine is produced in nearly every state, providing a chance for almost everyone to "drink locally." But how can you tell whether the grapes were grown nearby or on the other side of the state?   Answer:  By reading the label (and sometimes consulting a map or reference book).  U.S. wine labeling laws (administered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the various States) contain strict rules about the use of geographic information on wine labels.

The Wine Institute, a public policy advocacy association of California wineries, has a guide to the Federal and State requirements for geographic labeling.  For a winemaker to put the name of a state, county, viticultural area or vineyard on their wine label, a certain percentage of the grapes must have been grown in the specified area. 

Finding Aides

by Sara Zoë

About a week into last year's challenge, I found myself pulling my hair out around a simple thing: I'd be in a store, I'd be looking at labels and farm names, and I'd have no idea where a town was. For example, Maine is a huge state. A lot of Maine is within my NH seacoast 100 miles, but a lot isn't. So I found me a bizzare but simple site to check on things once I was online, and made me a map to bring with me to the store.

Here's the website, just plunk in two towns names and you get the distance between them as the crow flies. Seriously. I know it looks like this website isn't going to know where Lincoln, Maine is. But it does.

Local Florida Fish?

by Claire Tompkins

"I think that enjoyment and pleasure are terms that have truly been lost from our vocabulary. We don't appreciate our food anymore. If we don't take care of the resources, we won't have it to enjoy."  So says Miami chef Steve Raichlen. 

He notes that organic farming is particularly challenging in Florida due to voracious tropical pests.  He supports local agriculture but is personally more interested in simple eating seasonally, which I expect doesn't always fly too well in high end restaurants. 

Case in point, elsewhere in the article, fish flown in from Alaska are mentioned.  But these chefs are in Florida, on the ocean.  Aren't there good local fish there?  C'mon!  Raichlen mentions seasonal (2 months) swordfish, but that's it.

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

Food Is Where You Find It

by Birdsong S.

Some people have been commenting that the Eat Local Challenge is too hard or too expensive.  I want to address this by discussing some of the free sources of food I have found over the years...

I love to walk and when I lived in the big city of Sacramento back twenty years ago, I was almost always able to walk to work.  The Central Valley climate is very benign, and there were lots and lots of citrus trees along my various routes: lemons, kumquats, oranges. Walnuts were also quite common, both the English and Black varieties, and so were figs, a luxury in many climates.  Many were even in vacant lots, where homes had once been, now either torn or burnt down.