I remember having this odd experience when my wife was pregnant with our first child. For 30 years, I'd lived my life completely unaware of "baby culture," and now, as we'd stroll through the Galleria, Lake Harriet, Southdale mall, or one of our favorite Minnesota food spots, we were surrounded. Pregnant women and babies were suddenly everywhere.
If you were one of the first 36 people to sign up for the local, sustainable meal in Minneapolis, I'm very excited to see you tonight at 7:00 at the Birchwood Cafe. If you weren't, hope to see you at next month's event! I did finally get a copy of the menu, which looks fantastic. I'm not going to spill the beans, but I will give you one word: nettles. See you later.
Lucia Watson is a phenomenal chef and business person who is extremely important in the Twin Cities local, sustainable food movement. She makes some of the finest food in the country. Here's a bit more about Lucia Watson, who you might not know much about - especially if you don't live in the Midwest (this information comes from Lucia's website):
Tucked quietly beside Turtle Bread near the corner of 48th and Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis, Pumphouse Creamery doesn't really scream for ice cream; rather, like its owner Barb Zapzalka, Pumphouse wins you over one locally made, organic, scrumptious ice cream scoop - and, as of this spring, one locally made, hearty, 9-grain organic cone - at a time.
Local beer is easy to find these days, especially if you have a tendency to drink microbrews, as I do, and live in a decent sized city (like Minneapolis or St. Paul, as the case may be).
Traditional Foods Minnesota, a self proclaimed "real food warehouse" and "buying club," offers some of the Twin Cities best foods at the lowest prices. Traditional Foods focuses on providing a wide variety of meats, cheeses, milk, eggs, poultry, fish and dry goods of the following kinds:
In yesterday's post, about Whole Foods' Local, Organic Values, I wrote about the core values of Whole Foods and how they influence the food sold at the stores. Today's post is about how purchasing happens, specifically related to the meat we get in the Minneapolis store.
About a month ago, I went to the Minneapolis Whole Foods Market looking for local meat. I’ve been a Minnesotan long enough to know that our produce choices are severely limited in the winter months, but I figured there’d be plenty of local pork and beef to bring home. Turns out I was wrong - there was almost none. I left Whole Foods confused and surprised, and I left them a note. The next day, Renee Howard sent me an email.
We'll, not really. But we do have a garden started in our yard, thanks to A Backyard Farm, which I wrote about in an earlier Simple, Good, and Tasty post. A Backyard Farm, in its first season, is the brainchild of Joan and Coleen, two terrific women whose quest to grow local, sustainable foods in Minneapolis and St. Paul now now extends to other people's home gardens. We had Joan and Coleen out to our house a couple of weeks ago, and we discussed an approach that would work for us.
There was a short article in the Star Tribune last week about Common Roots Cafe (whose terrific local, sustainable food I featured last week) and the support they give Whittier schools in Minneapolis.
It would be hard to overstate what Lucia's - and it's owner/founder Lucia Watson - have meant to the Twin Cities food and dining landscape for the past 20-plus years. Since it's inception, Lucia's has been not only one of the city's finest restaurants, but also one of it's most active members of the local, sustainable food community.
Just after the ground was broken on the White House's new, organic garden, the Washington Post quoted Michelle Obama as follows: "I've been able to have my kids eat so many different things that they would have never touched if we bought it at a store," Obama said before picking up a shovel and digging in. "Because they met the farmer that grew it or they saw how it was grown, they were curious about it and they tried it.
Minneapolis' Cloud Cult, whose most recent album Feel Good Ghosts (Tea-Partying Through Tornadoes) tore up the CMJ charts, is a band on a mission. The band, formed in 1995, features a cellist, violinists, and two painters, all of whom perform live.
I think if I skpped the whole Minneapolis thing and just wrote about Michael Pollan, I'd still be a busy man. This is from the NYTimes.com Well page. In Pollan's words: In recent years, we’ve deferred to the voices of science and industry when it comes to eating, yet often their advice has served us poorly, or has merely confirmed the wisdom of our grandmother after the fact.
The move towards sustainable food has not been lost on the city of Minneapolis. The City of Minneapolis Sustainable Food Initiative website lists these benefits associated with eating local, sustainable food:
Local produce is affordable and provides important nutrition. Many of Minneapolis’ Farmers’ markets also sell organic produce, as well as flowers and artisan food and gifts. For a directory of Minnesota Grown farms, markets and garden centers visit the Minnesota Grown Food and Farm directory.
Twin Cities' own good, local, sustainable, vegetarian-friendly food restaurateur Brenda Langton will be hosting a 3 session class on Health Living and Healthy Eating. Here are the details:
Dates: March 10, 17, and 24
Time: 6 - 9 pm
Cost: $225 includes 3 classes, food, and The Cafe Brenda Cookbook
Although it's just over a year old, I finally had a chance to visit Northeast Minneapolis' Red Stag Supper Club. Sometime between the flatbread appetizer (local butter, farm raised pork, greens) and the special chocolate dessert (4 kinds of chocolate in the cake, house-made mint ice cream), Red Stag became my favorite restaurant in the city. Here's what came in between:
An incredibly potent Red Stag cocktail, with jagermeister, blood orange juice, and other booze I've long forgotten.
An assortment of breads and bean dip to munch on before the appetizer came.
Madwoman Foods, an independently owned bakery in Southwest Minneapolis, serves up loads of gluten-free baked goods (including lots of treats). My father-in-law has been a celiac for nearly 15 years, and my mother-in-law makes loads of tasty gluten-free treats, and even THEY think that Madwoman makes many of the best gluten free flatbreads, cupcakes, pizzas, and tea cakes in town. Here's what the Madwoman site says about the place:
From Rick Nelson's review of Cafe Agri in today's Star Tribune: Buzzwords -- and you can toss "vegan" and "gluten-free" into the pile -- are big at Cafe Agri. Thank goodness. The Twin Cities metro area doesn't have enough restaurants paying attention to these small-but-significant segments of the dining-out populace. The restaurant is an earnest, well-meaning effort. Could it be better? Sure. Is it a good start?
After finishing Michael Pollan's amazing new(est) book, In Defense of Food (which will be reviewed in a later post), my wife Laura and I decided that Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, was right for us. Our neighbors, who read Barbara Kingsover's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food (also to be reviewed later) instead, were way ahead of us. We'd been enjoying locally grown foods (kale, turnips, cheeses - we live in Minneapolis!) at their home for months, so we knew they would have already researched the options. After some consideration, we joined Harmony Valley Farm, a CSA based closer to Madison, WI, but doing a good deal of business in the Twin Cities.
Peace Coffee
Minneapolis' 
tore up the CMJ charts, is a band on a mission. The band, formed in 1995, features a cellist, violinists, and two painters, all of whom perform live. 
I think if I skpped the whole 
The move towards sustainable food has not been lost on the city of Minneapolis. The 
Although it's just over a year old, I finally had a chance to visit Northeast Minneapolis' 
Madwoman Foods
