Local Food

As a kid, I spent countless hours, days, weeks, months - heck, even years - thinking of nothing but baseball. With 2 brothers and 3 step-brothers in my family hanging around each summer, it was easy to get a game going any time, and each night was spent in front of the TV, watching our beloved Yankees (I'm from New York) attempt to destroy the competition. My brothers and I developed special cheers for Don Mattingly, Ricky Henderson, Dave Righetti, and the rest of the team. When I moved to Minnesota, I helped my family adjust to the idea by telling them that Dave Winfield was born in St. Paul.

 I recently had the chance to conduct an email interview with Sandor Katz, author of the book Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods. The book is an easy, appealing DIY guide to fermentation. This is part 2 of our 2 part interview. Read part 1 of my interview with Sandor Katz here.

Lee: What are some of your favorite foods you’ve discovered through your interest in fermentation?

I recently had the chance to conduct an email interview with Sandor Katz, author of the book Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods. The book is an excellent, fun, and straightforward look at fermentation, and an especially handy DIY tome for those so inclined. I'll admit to being a bit intimidated by the idea of fermenting my own foods (although I do love to eat sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, yogurts, and lots of other things in the book), but I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It's written in Katz' easy going style (the guy goes by the nickname "Sandorkraut," which says a lot about him), and is an approachable, easy read. Here's the interview:

I was lucky to have the chance to conduct a phone interview with ana Sophia joanes recently. Ana is the director of the terrific food documentary “Fresh,” which has taken the Twin Cities by storm this summer and doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon (additional screenings are scheduled for the Birchwood Cafe on their big screen later this month). “It’s been an unexpected and amazing response,” ana says, “just completely grassroots and word of mouth.

I had a fun and educational time at the Mill City Farmers Market on Saturday, chatting it up with Marjorie Hegstrom, the Director of the Market. Arriving at the Market at 6:30 am - just before the first of several rain showers - I was able to watch as farmers and food artisans (who had arrived as early as 5:30 am) set up their shops in anticipation of the crowd. I was lucky to be there with Mette Nielsen, expert photographer and local food enthusiast, who took the pictures you see here.

Chef Lenny Russo

What a fun time we had at Heartland last night! The St. Paul, MN restaurant, packed with (nearly 50) local food lovers and friends, was a beautiful setting for a memorable meal.

Just a quick reminder for those of you who responded early enough to get one of this month’s coveted spots at the Simple, Good, and Tasty dinner at Heartland - tonight’s the night! Here are the details:

Unpeeled is a probiotic beverage, which means (from their website): Unpeeled is a 100% naturally cultured (kombucha) green tea with cold-pressed fresh crushed, raw ingredients, then barrel-aged to maximize nutritional value (probiotics) and to promote a fresh, crisp, smooth flavor. The brainchild of a former NASA wastewater engineer, Unpeeled claims the following benefits:

Okay, okay - it's organic food labeling that we need help with - not the food itself. The food itself? I'll let the excellent book Real Food by Nina Planck describe it:

Organic means food was produced without synthetic fertilizer, antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, genetically engineered ingredients, and irradiation.

Seems like every few days I'm approached by someone with a local food focused business idea. Distribution is broken! We need a year round farmers market! CSAs are not the answer! Here's what I say: Yes. I've seen King Corn, FRESH, The Future of Food, and others.