sustainable food

One of my favorite things about writing the Simple, Good, and Tasty blog so far is that I get to share information about people and companies that are working hard to do something good for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Bryant Lake Bowl is unlike any other place I've been. The front of the place is a bar/restaurant with a terrific beer list (including local favorite Surly and several Belgian beers) and some of the best tofu and egg scrambles in town.

Rolling Stone magazine, which I'm proud (enough) to let everyone know I've subscribed to for the last 20 years, has published a list of 100 "Agents of Change" in its latest issue. Rollings Stone's list is, as always, something fun to mull over, debate, cheer for, complain about, and tear apart. This time around, they did get a few things right. Barack Obama is number one on the list, for example, and Michael Pollan is on it too.

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. Here's a quote:

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.

I continue to find all sorts of great information and links from the Every Kitchen Table blog by Rob Smart. One of my new favorites is Obamafoodorama, a blog dedicated to the First Family and the foodies who surround them. Who knew how perfect a fit that White House Garden was? Turns out it was just the tip of the iceberg!

My friend Chris recently pointed me to a terrific NY Times article by Mark Bittman from this past weekend. The article talks about the value of eating organic food as well as the numbers of people who are starting to buy and eat "at least some" organic food (30%, according to the article).

Tony Pavelko, who recently started the Twin Cities company Food4Thought with Gina DiMaggio, recently sent me an email describing the service:

I'm still near the start of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, and really liking it. It's my first Kingsolver book, so I don't have strong feelings about the author either way (most people I know who've read her books do), but I'm really enjoying the way she describes her family moving east to become closer to the land and, more specifically, to the food they eat.