Tracy Singleton

It’s a common refrain that people have become disconnected from the food they eat, the migration from country to city leading people away from farm fresh produce and towards frozen, ready-made dinners. 

And while visiting a farmer’s market is one way to get closer to the source, another movement taking shape locally and around the country is trying to take people a step further: crop mobbing. 

Crop mobbing – shed the dictionary definition you know – is a term used to describe any group that flocks to a farm to help get a specific task accomplished. 

Last Sunday night's Earth Day Community Dinner at the Birchwood Cafe was an event for the ages.

It wasn't just the food that made it that way, although the exceptional four-course menu (and appetizers) created by chef Marshall Paulsen featured pork belly, fiddle head ferns, beef tongue, and more (most foods purchased directly from local farmers). It wasn't just the music performed by Jack Klatt and the Cat Swingers either, although that was terrific too. It wasn't just the lovely dining room, which was decked out with the Birchwood's Sunday best.

UPDATED TO INCLUDE MENU, BELOW

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Last week, I wrote that Simple, Good, and Tasty would be co-hosting our first-ever Earth Day Community Dinner with our experienced, local-food loving friends at the Birchwood Cafe. This week, I'm excited to fill in a few of the details.

It's been almost exactly two years since the first Simple, Good, and Tasty event, or what I'm now referring to as our "meal heard round the city" at the Craftsman in 2009. Did you know that our second-ever event, held in May of 2009, was at the Birchwood Cafe?

When I was asked whether I was interested in doing a profile on “local legend” Jenny Breen, I jumped at the chance. I didn’t know who Jenny was, but with a name like that – so lyrical and fresh – I knew I wanted to meet her. Jenny Breen, Jenny Breen. She sounded like a lass some lovelorn Irishman might sing about. She sounded like a lady who might know her way around a garden, might even wear a tiara made out of snap peas and scallions, carrots and asparagus. Yes, I said. Yes, I would very much like to write a profile on this local legend cooking lady with a crown of veggies.

The movie Fresh is one of our favorites. Compelling, entertaining, warm, funny, and unabashedly hopeful, the documentary aims to forward the cause of good, sustainable food by making it accessible. As director Ana Sophia Joanes put it in our interview last summer:

Image Credit: David Joles, Star TribuneI was delighted to find myself quoted in the Star Tribune this morning, in an article entitled: "Making the local food movement accessible." The article, by Hayley Tsukayama, is all about how to eat local food on a student's budget, and includes terrific advice from Lucia Watson from Lucia's, Tracy Singleton from the Birchwood Cafe, and Jennette Turner. Here's an excerpt from the article:

This is an excerpt of an article I wrote for Live Green Twin Cities. To read the entire article, click here.

The Strip Club's JD Fratzke and me

I was totally surprised by how much fun I had at Toast and Taste at the U of M Landscape Arboretum last night. My friend Jon and I were glad to have changed into clean clothes before we arrived - the place was absolutely beautiful, and everyone looked great. We were greeted by a tuba duet and the gracious Arboretum staff who sent us on our merry way, armed with a map and a couple of wine glasses.