February 2012

SGT February Book Club: The Feast Nearby

In all of the discussion about local food, local business, and local farms, how do you really know what it means to "go local". I think that a good place to start would be with someone who has really lived it. Someone who took the challenge of living local with almost no budget, but all of the skill to take local food and use it to the fullest. This is exactly what Robin Mather has done in "The Feast Nearby: How I lost my job, buried a marriage, and found my way by keeping chickens, foraging, preserving, bartering and eating locally (all on $40 a week)".

The book is truly a testament of what can happen if you have no other real, good options. You learn as you go, and if you are kind, you share what you learned with the rest of us. Not only that, you get real lessons and real recipes so that if you decide to eat local, raise chickens, and meet your farmers, this book can help get you there.

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Urban Agriculture Minneapolis Needs Your Voice

If you live in Minneapolis, and are a local food junkie, you might have heard some rumblings about the Urban Agriculture Zoning Text Amendments that are coming before the City Council's Zoning and Planning Comittee on March 1. This process, prompted by Homegrown Minneapolis way back in 2008, has been a long time coming in terms of making urban agriculture a legal use of land in the City of Minneapolis. After a two-year process in which stakeholders, urban farmers, city officials, and neighborhood residents have agonized over striking the right balance between the entrepreneurial urban farmers’ needs and neighbors’ peace of mind, these amendments to the Minneapolis zoning code are in danger of being severely weakened to the point of undoing all of the careful work by city planners, citizen advisory committees and urban farmers.

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Great Grains: Is Millet Just for the Birds?

This is the second post in the series “Great Grains” highlighting unusual whole grains and easy ways to incorporate them into your diet. The first post in the series, “The Beat on Bulgur” can be found here

 

Struggling to decide what’s for dinner? How about a stop in the bird seed aisle on the way home? Tonight, millet is on the menu. 

 

What is millet? 

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Soupapalooza! Week Two with a Hearty (and Heartwarming) Minestrone

One of my earliest food memories is of eating soup with my dad. Both of my parents were medical residents and although I don't remember feeling juggled, I know that caring for me with two punishing call schedules was an elaborate dance. It must have been on those bleary-eyed nights when my mom was on call, that my dad would pull out the Campbell's Alphabet Soup. He would serve it in one big bowl and float big chunks of Meunster cheese in it which would melt into long gooey strings. Together we would eat, our heads touching, our spoons crossing - giggling, looking for letters and trying to get that cheese. 

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Volunteers Keep Cropping Up: Promise for the Future of Good Food. Recipe: Black walnut torte.

Could you work up an appetite to rally around the cause of expanding access to local foods? A rallying of 70 community supporters came together in Fillmore County recently to do just that. Peggy Hanson (hilarious blow-by-blow how-to-use-a-CSA blogger for Featherstone Farm from 2009 to 2011) and Frank Wright (local gardener extraordinaire and rhubarb crop specialist) hosted the event in their home, the former Cady Hayes House bed & breakfast establishment in Lanesboro. But the real engine behind the affair was a cluster of passionate 20-somethings who recruited food donors, planned the menu, signed up cooks and orchestrated all the logistics. The dinner was a gala of volunteers, each sharing his or her authentic specialty, be it food, food prep, or flying through a pile of dishes. 

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The Latin Tongue: Taqueria La Hacienda

Another week, another new take on Mexican food. This time we stumbled upon a Latin eatery called Taqueria La Hacienda. Situated awkwardly off of Lake street, it seems like the type of location that screams hole-in-the-wall. However, for the first time, we were welcomed with a restaurant that certainly had something new in this Latin eating adventure: a budget. 

 

Taqueria La Hacienda, it turns out is a local chain with three locations: the original on Lake street, a taco stand in the Mercado Central (Lake and Bloomington) and a spot in Burnsville. Not only do they have three locations, but they obviously have some money invested in their business as evidenced by their nice website, video menu screen and nice decor. 

 

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When Co-ops Share

On January 17th, someone was filling their cart with bulk goods. Another happy shopper was buying a smoothie, while yet another perused the fresh made bakery items. It seemed like just another day at the Wedge Co-op in Minneapolis. Yet, above these shoppers strange things were happening. People were gathering, some giddy, others chatty, some--like me--were curious.

 

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Cast Iron: Not Just Your Grandma's Cookware

Having burned and scraped my way through various pots and pans and spent a pretty penny for new issues every five years or so, I have a few reasons for reverting to old ways and adopting cast iron into my cookware family.

Formed by a pouring molten pig iron into casts, the technology behind the creation of this age-tested cookware is very simple. The earliest references to civilization’s use of cast iron can be traced back to fourth century BC and it’s debut into the kitchen scene was around the 17th century. Though the cast iron skillet was chucked aside by most and Teflon coated pans became commonplace, there are many worthy qualities to be examined and preserved.

 

Cooking healthy doesn't always just mean the ingredients

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My Path To Superfoods: Cauliflower Risotto Recipe and Book Review

More and more we have been hearing about superfoods and that we should eat more of them. The idea of a superfood may seem over the top, but Julie Morris, in her book Superfood Cuisine, does a magnificent job of explaining the benefits and efficiency of these nutrient-dense foods in an accessible way. Julie is a natural foods chef and healthy life advocate. Some of the foods we already eat (like berries and kale, for example) are considered to be a part of this group and some things, for me at least, I had never really heard of until I dug in...like lucuma powder; its derived from a deliciously sweet South American fruit that is high in beta-carotene, niacin and iron.

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The Latin Tongue: El 7 Mares and La Guadalupana

After five weeks of success, it was finally time to head south. We loaded into our cars and made the "arduous" journey south...of downtown St. Paul to the district del sol, a neighborhood/business district with strong Latin roots. Once again, we went without a plan and decided to let our noses guide us. We were treated to a feast of the senses with two supermercados and at least three Mexican restaurants. In the end, our eyes settled upon a small, hard to notice restaurant who's most prominent feature from the street was a bright "open" sign. That's all we needed.

Read about why we are reviewing Mexican restaurants in this article.

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