linden hills co-op

Wow, wow, wow! What terrific photos you sent! What great stories you told! The school lunch challenge that began just over a month ago with an open letter to our children apologizing for the current state of school lunch ends right here, right now. Many of you have done the hard part: you've eaten lunch with your kids, taken photos, and sent them to us (so have we, by the way). You've done this in the name of research, in the name of love, and in the hopes of winning valuable prizes from great companies.

For an Argentine and self-professed meat lover, I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to actually figure out how to eat and feed my family less meat. It's not easy, because to me, comfort food is a good steak. The first thing my mom cooked for me after I had my first baby was a big salad and steak. I'm an animal-protein girl, and nothing gives me the Popeye arms like a succulent piece of meat. But even though there are cultural and maybe even physiological reasons for me to love meat as much as I do, I know that it is better for my health, my wallet, and the environment to try to eat less of it.

Last week's school lunch post, our "Open Letter to Our Children," was a direct response to the sixth graders at Minneapolis' Sanford Middle School who I'd met with the month before. Their question was simple and heartbreaking: if our communities love us, why do they knowingly feed us this junk?

The response to this post was fantastic. Many of you provided explanations, made suggestions, and shared your own views, and we at SGT were reminded once again of how much we love this community. For example, Laura wrote:

I'm exhausted and full, and my throat hurts. And yet, somehow, Simple, Good, and Tasty's February local food event at Grand Cafe last night was just perfect.

Maybe it was the beautiful restaurant that made the night so special - wooden and warm, with strings of lights and lovely paintings on the walls. Maybe it was the food - an exceptional cassoulet prepared with locally raised duck from Au Bon Canard and house made sausage by Grand Cafe's chef Jon Radle; a delicious salad with beets, walnuts, and chevre; and an astoundingly good ginger bread pudding with orange compote and caramel cream. Maybe it was the fact that Simple, Good, and Tasty was celebrating a full year's worth of blog posts, directory listings, and events connecting Minnesotans to our food sources. But my guess is that it wasn't any of these things.

Forgive us for a little bit of hyperbole, please - we're just really, really excited. After weeks of scheming, plotting, cutting deals, and eating out, Simple, Good, and Tasty is absolutely thrilled to launch our Local Food Lover program.

The program offers participants discounts at many of the best local, sustainable, organic, and fair trade businesses in the Twin Cities. Here are just a few highlights:

Bottled water ain't all it's cracked up to be. Sure, it's better than the alternatives you'll find in a Coke machine, but filling your own bottle with tap water is even better. An excellent, recent Lighter Footstep article gives us Five Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water. Here's an excerpt:

Shepherd's WayThe cold weather hasn't slowed down the Twin Cities' passion for local food or the momentum we've got going here. Here's a quick roundup of some important news and activities:

Linden Hills Co-op to relocate and expand

Super great news from their member letter: