Local Food Mn

FRESH MOVIE SPOILER ALERT: Local food is better for you and for the environment. OK, now that's out of the way... I had a terrific time at the Minneapolis screening of the documentary FRESH at Bryant Lake Bowl last night.

Much thanks to Katie of the terrific Minnesota local food and photography blog Les Petites Images.

Every Saturday at 8:00 am, the Central Minnesota Vegetable Growers Association presents Fresh & Local, a fun, local MN food show on AM950. Here's what it says on their webpage (located on the Minneapolis Farmers Market website):

The weeks go so fast! I've barely finished last week's box of goodies from Harmony Valley Farm's CSA, and it's Thursday again! To be honest, I do occasionally get a small sense of panic. I don't want to waste any of the amazing foods I'm getting, especially when I consider the work our local farmers have done to produce all this sustainable, organic food - and get it to the city.

Excellent Heavy Table post by Becca Dilley today - with fantastic pictures - detailing the "deconstruction" of a local pig from Hidden Stream Farm, located in Elgin, MN. Chefs Scott Pampuch from Corner Table and Chris Olson from Paired do the work, which is documented in somewhat gory detail.

This 90 second video features Danny Schwartzman from Common Roots and Greg Reynolds from Riverbend Farm discussing where the food produced on the farm goes, and a bit about CSA programs, and who certifies food organic in Minnesota. Filmed on May 24, 2009 at Riverbend Farm.

In case you missed it when it was posted last Friday, 5/22, Simple, Good, and Tasty was featured in Rachel Hutton's terrific City Pages Hot Dish blog. Here's a little bit of what Rachel had to say:

Organic certification is a substitute for knowing who's growing your food and how they're growing it.

- Greg Reynolds, May 24, 2009

5/23 UPDATE: I had the wrong video showing here, an excellent Bill Moyers piece (which I'll post next week in some form).  Here's the correct, Colbert video. In honor of Michael Pollan's Twin Cities appearance yesterday... In case you missed it when it aired on May 13, here's Michael Pollan's 5 minute interview with Stephen Colbert.

As always, Colbert is baiting and silly (I mean that in a good way), and Pollan spars with spirit and practical smarts. Revelations include whether or not Pollan was breast-fed (his mom - shockingly - answers "no" on camera), the fact that Pollan ate Yodels after school as a kid, and a discussion of what science has done for Cheetos ("they're big!"). Enjoy:

I just posted pictures from last night's fantastic local food dinner on Facebook. You can find them here. The pictures were taken by my friend and local Minneapolis photographer extraordinaire Chris Bohnhoff.