Local Food

Ethical Eating, Great Food Writing, and Last Meals with James Norton from Heavy Table

Photo of James Norton by Becca DilleyPhoto of James Norton by Becca Dilley

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Homegrown for the Holidays

Susan Berkson, going Homegrown for the HolidaysSusan Berkson, going Homegrown for the HolidaysWe go home for the holidays. Why not go homegrown?

I spent Thanksgiving in Tyler, Texas, where I feasted on Tyler's own Greenberg smoked turkey and Scenic Waters Wild Rice I brought from Minnesota.

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Vermiculture and Our Friends the Worms

In the coat closet of my tiny one-bedroom apartment, next to a suitcase and my winter boots, is my blue plastic worm bin. I have been composting with worms for about a year, and cannot imagine going back.

I am still in awe of the efficiency with which my worms work, and I'm always amazed to open the bin and find almost no evidence of the food scraps and coffee grounds I fed them only a week earlier. I am not an expert in biology, agronomy, or even vermiculture, but right in my closet, I have managed to maintain a thriving little ecosystem, and produce a continuous supply of rich, dark compost.

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Cooking is an Activity Too

 Kate SommersImage Credit: Kate SommersThe issue of time - specifically, how long it takes to cook and eat fresh, local, and organic food and how little time most people have - comes up again and again in my discussions with parents and friends who are considering making a change in their eating habits. (Not surprisingly, the other topic that comes up again and again is the cost of good food. Much has been compellingly written about the true cost of cheap food, and I encourage you to check it out.)

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Organic Valley is the Official Milk Supplier for Boulder Valley School District

In light of Simple, Good, and Tasty's recent article about our national school lunch program, I want to share some great news about school lunches for the kids in Colorado's 28,000 student Boulder Valley School District (BVSD): thanks to a recent partnership with Organic Valley, the milk will be organic. Here's an excerpt from their press release:

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How Can I Possibly Eat More Leeks?

Do you have any idea how hard it is to eat five huge leeks each week? Who do the people at Harmony Valley Farm think I am? How much soup can I possibly eat? Don't they want me to spend my time writing blog posts? For goodness sakes, people, I'm doing the best I can! We make a terrific leek feta salsa, and my wife grilled leeks just the other day, but sheesh!

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Take a Stand for Better Food Choices (and you don't even have to get up from your computer)

So you shop at farmer’s markets and your local co-op. You buy local, organic, sustainably grown and harvested food. Your coffee is grown in the shade, your chocolate is fair-trade, and your bread is homemade.  How else can you can declare your support for the cause of "local, sustainable, organic foods and the people who produce them?”

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The Environmental Cost of Cheap Food: A Two-Part Series

Satellite image of the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone, courtesy of Phytoplankton Dynamics Laboratory, Texas A+M UniversitySatellite image of the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone, courtesy of Phytoplankton Dynamics Laboratory, Texas A+M University

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Food Fight: Tomorrow Night at the Riverview Theater

First, there was Fresh. Then, Food, Inc. Now, the latest food documentary that begins with the letter F gets its own Minneapolis screening tomorrow night.

Food Fight approaches the local-food movement from the perspective of a chef, acknowledging that food is, above all, “a sensual experience.” Fittingly, it prominently features the chefs, like local-food icon Alice Waters, who were among the first to claim that the best-tasting food comes from the healthiest, most sustainable sources. Or, as nutritionist Marion Nestle exclaims on camera, “Who would ever have guessed that the taste of vegetables would turn out to be the start of a revolution?”

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Preparing for the Pig Roast (Pictures Below)

The time has come! Dave and Don brought over the pig last night - an 80 pounder from Hidden Stream Farm, purchased from Clancey's in Linden Hills, MN. Within an hour, we had prepared the pig with a bunch of tasty seasonings and enclosed it in a homemade China Box. I think Dave and Don - both experienced pig roasters) are getting sick of my nervous quips, but what do you do when you come face to face with your first dead pig? Frankly, getting to know my food makes me a little bit uncomfortable.

Here are a few pictures from last night's preparation. They're not for the squeamish, but I think they're worth seeing and thinking about. Here goes.

This is my friend Dave Micko, getting the pig ready. In the absence of a table, we made due with an old door from my house, covered with foil and resting on the China Box.

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