Friday, September 21, 2007

Marco. . . .Polo!

If you've been reading a while, you'll recognize Marco Polo rules as eating local foods with "imported" seasonings. Here is what a recent meal looked like:



So what we have here is Willow Creek Farm pork chops with a really tasty glaze—maple/ketchup/soy/ginger and a semi-local ingredient, Gin from Death's Door Spirits (made from many Wisconsin ingredients, but greater than 100 miles), green beans from somebody local (don't remember who) and corn bread made with the corn ground by all the kids (and a few of the adults) who came to chat with us at the food for thought festival. We did use commercial flour, but instead of buttermilk we made it with clabbered milk (local milk soured with our homemade vinegar), bartered eggs, and everybody's favorite, bacon fat. If you are still not convinced of the merits of adding bacon fat to your diet, stop punishing yourself. You're a good person, you deserve it.

This is now a pretty typical meal for us. The overwhelming bulk of it was purchased in person from the person who grew it, and a few extras (all of which would fit into a coffee mug, I suspect) were added to give it some character. And after the way we operated in August, it almost feels as convenient as a TV dinner!

1 comment:

Crayons said...

Hey, I thought I recognized that corn bread. I stopped at your table at the fabulous sustainability fest. Daughter (I forget her name) kindly invited me to grind corn into cornmeal. That made me feel really good!

I just love what you are doing, and I support you totally.

There's a great book about simplicity by Bo Lozoff. In the introduction he says that we live in such a strange time when the simple seems impossibly nostalgic -- like having dinner with family, or fishing early in the morning in a boat. And the impossible seems king of ho-hum --- running a marathon, winning a million dollars, building a winter home somewhere south.

Our great grandparents would not bat an eyelash about what you are doing, but for me, it is an extraordinary and even revolutionary feat.

Bravo!