Friday, August 24: Day 24

I never get tired of the taste of freshness. For breakfast this morning I made tortillas with cheese, eggs, jalepenos, onions and tomatoes--again. Always delicious, always satisfying. For lunch I was working so I made a lunch I could eat on the run. I cut up half a head of napa cabbage (thanks Vermont Valley Community Farm) and some red peppers Then I made a dressing from peanut butter (big surprise), cider vinegar, honey, hot peppers and garlic--very yummy. I drank a blueberry smoothie (yogurt and blueberries) and ate an apple.

Dinner was at The Roman Candle a Buy fresh, Buy Local participant. We talked to the owner, Brewer (his name not his title). He said reliability and availability are the biggest obstacles for restaurant owners when it comes to buying local. They do go over to the Eastside Farmer's Market to buy tomatoes for their caprese salald, and they are trying to source all local basil for their pesto. They currently buy fruits and veggies from a local purveyor but not all the food is grown locally.

It seems the connections are not yet easy enough for restaurant owners to take advantage of what is grown here. Here's an idea right from the Farmers Diner Scott posted about a few days ago: How about a central commissary where fresh, local food can be processed and then delivered to local restaurants in the same form they can get from Sysco or other big providers? The chicken can be broken up the same way line cooks are used to, cheese can be shredded, veggies prepped--an idea like this would provide jobs and make local food a viable and reliable option for local restaurants. Something to pursue?

Thursday, August 23: Day 23

We are still reporting on our eating adventures from two locations. Scott's Massachusetts musings follow my Madison meanderings.

Today life conspired to make our day a busy one. The rain that has devastated farmers also crept into my parents' basement so we worked to get that cleaned up and ate was at hand for lunch (yummy french toast by the way). Breakfast had been dryish bread because our electricity was out and we couldn't toast. Dinner was wonderful calzones made with dough I actually made! (Scott's recipe of course.) They came out really well. Mine had broccoli inside, Evie has her broccoli on the side. Tomorrow will be our one "eating out" adventure this month, Fridays are always crazy and tomorrow will be no exception. We will be picking a restaurant from the Buy Fresh, Buy Local list. Not all the ingredients in our meal will be from within 100 miles but we will be making a choice to support a local business who is buying local food. None of this is about 100% compliance to a dogma 100% of the time. It is about thinking about where your food comes from and keeping it close to home.





Eating locally: hard to start, but easy to do.

As we’ve noted elsewhere, once you track down your sources and get into a routine, getting even a large proportion of your food locally is not that difficult. For the past week I’ve been out of town, visiting my mother in Massachusetts. It’s been a struggle to locate many local resources in the short period of time I’ve been here. There are several farmstands nearby that have fruits and vegetables, but eggs, meat, and dairy are more difficult. The state department of agriculture does maintain a website to help locate local products, but most of the providers are in a different part of the state. If we lived here, it would not be a difficult decision to make a trip a couple of times a year and stock up on things that will keep. And there is a local chicken producer, but they are sold out for the year. To me, that demonstrates that the interest is there.

Yesterday I went to an outpost of a large national chain specializing in natural and organic foods, hoping they might have some local meat. Despite the fact that our checkout cashier was sporting a “buy local” pin, most of the veggies were from California and all of the meat came from “the middle of the country”, and to top it off, the beef was corn-fed. Very disappointing.

New England is a small region. A 100 mile radius from where I am could blast you right through New Hampshire and deep into Maine, so boundaries are not a good tool for determining what is local. And while eastern Massachusetts is getting very urban, there is still a lot of agriculture in the western part of the state, and plenty to choose from in the northern part of the region. If you do your homework and are willing to learn where the stuff is, there is a lot to choose from.

But the fact remains that if you breeze in for a short while, it is hard to just slip into local eating. It takes a good amount of research and a fair bit of legwork to track it all down in a new place. Our way of life (that's the big "our") is just not set up to make this easy. And you don't want to spend all your travel time chasing down food. Or maybe you do—could this be a new kind of tourism?

A highlight: we did have dinner at a great restaurant called Stone Hearth Pizza. The menu is mostly pizzas, both classics and interesting new combinations. They take a lot of pride in sourcing ingredients locally, and in fact have a sheet that names their key suppliers and even spotlights one on a rotating basis. There are lots of local beers to choose from, but it looked to me like most of the wines were from elsewhere. All in all, it was a great experience: good local food prepared well and enjoyed in the company of friends.

Tasty pizza:


And a view of the open prep area and the gas-fired oven:


If you find yourself in the Boston area, give Stone Hearth Pizza a try: they have 3 locations to choose from. And either way, visit them on the web to learn about what they are doing. Producer profiles are under the "Community" tab.

Wednesday, August 22: Day 22

I wish we had a fabulous new recipe to post or exciting news about a recent find. Instead it continues to rain here and we are just sick about the farms that are now under water. It is interesting to note that little attention is being paid to food with Scott away, Evie and I are fairly easy to please and would rather play than cook. I am sure we will both be craving some more elaborate dishes by the time he gets home, but for know we are back to the old standbys: Breakfast of peanut butter toast, lunch was grilled cheese and dinner was noodles and broccoli. Nothin' fancy but all delicious. I am amazed at how easy this month has been. Of course there are things we have missed, but eating 100% local has become routine. I know we will shop differently after this month is over. I know I will preserve more food this year and I am more grateful than ever to the farmers who live and work here, allowing us to eat in place.

Flooding

It has been raining off and on in Wisconsin for almost a week now. There is heavy flooding closer to MN and further south from Madison. Many farmers are hard hit, some will never recover and the farms will be gone. Harmony Valley has had 17 inches. Click here to read more.

Please continue to use your dollars to support local farmers, if you have the time and proximity pull on a pair of boots and help out.

Tuesday, August 21—Day 21

A short order revolution. . .

That's what it says above the counter at The Farmer's Diner in Queechee, Vermont, which is where I had lunch today. It is a real live diner—it's even in an old railcar, see?


Still not convinced? Here's the inside:



What's so revolutionary about a diner? This one happens to source all of its bulk ingredients (meat, dairy, produce in season, and baked goods) from within a 60 mile radius. That's big. They had to make a lot of special arrangements to get this to work, but it's working. They are putting finishing touches on a second location.

As I've noted elsewhere, I am not so much a fancy-food kind of guy. So a place that dishes up diner classics done very well that are also local to their area is perfect for me.

You have to love a place that that has Wendell Berry's The Mad Farmer Liberation Front reprinted on the front of the menu!

The food? I'm pleased to say that it is everything you would hope for in diner food: quality and taste were great and portions were generous but not insane. Here is what I ate:

That's half of a bacon cheesburger and half of a pulled pork sandwich, with fries on the side. When you can't decide what to eat, you go halfsies with your dining companion (thanks, Mom). Not shown is the milkshake that came a bit later.

Here is how this stacks up relative to our dietary guidelines: All the meat and dairy are fully compliant. The bun (which was one of the best sandwich buns I've ever had) was baked locally using some imported ingredients. The fries were from local potatoes, and the shake was made from local milk and cream but contained some non-local ingredients (sugar and—gasp—chocolate. Really, what would you have done?). The garnish is local, but we forgot to ask about the pickle.

The pulled pork rocked: succulent and tender, it just melted in your mouth. The burger was also first class—really as good as you can do without going to open-flame grilling (it's a diner, so that means it is constitutionally required to cook burgers on a flat-top grill). 100% grassfed beef, of course.

In the entryway they have a map that identifies where it all comes from, and the back of the menu proudly identifies their key suppliers:



They didn't have a T-shirt to buy, but we did get the bumper sticker:



'Nuff said!

Not much to report from the WI front. Food is no longer utmost in our minds since Scott left us with plenty of bread and sifted flour. Breakfast was peanut butter toast and cider. Lunch was tortillas, eggs and toppings for Jen, hot dog and carrots for Evie, blueberries for both.

Monday, August 20: Day 20

Today we went to Troy Gardens on the north side of Madison.

"On 31-acres of urban property, Troy Gardens integrates mixed-income green-built housing, community gardens, an organic farm, and restored prairie and woodlands."

It was glorious! A friend has three plots there but we hadn't been in over two years. We visited the kid's garden, picked tomatoes, gathered eggs, walked the prairie and took in the smells and sounds.


This is the chicken



























that gave us these eggs























to make this sandwich.



















We were forwarded an interesting report regarding the US Food Supply Chain, please read through it if you have the time. It is an analysis of the question of Local vs. Organic From Far Away. It is quantitative and looks at individual food products not just broad generalizations about all foods taken together.

Breakfast was peanut butter toast and cider.
Lunch was egg sandwiches, carrots and apples.
Dinner was JenEhr chicken, edamame and roasted potatoes with herbs we got from Troy Gardens.














We also made mint tea today from Chocolate Mint we are growing in our driveway. We made peanut butter and honey cookies too. I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me to make peanut butter cookies before, they adapt to our mileage requirements perfectly. They are delicious! We added a little whipped cream tonight because whipped cream makes everything better.

Sunday, August 19: Day 19

It has been a rainy, cozy day filled with yummy food and inspiration. For breakfast we had toast made with the delicious bread Scott made in the wood-fired oven yesterday--even he grudgingly admits it came out "okay."




Lunch was tomatoes with onions and basil, green beans from our driveway garden and pork burgers.




Dinner was homemade pasta (2 cups flour to three eggs) with onions, summer squash and tomatoes and pork sausage with garlic bread on the side. For dessert Scott whipped up some little shortcakes and we added blueberries and whipped cream for a real treat!

You may have noticed that almost everyday includes something from Willow Creek Farm. I can't say enough good things about Tony and Sue Renger. We love their philosophy, we love their products and we so appreciate their hard work. I wish I could call out every single person who is making this project possible. Thanks to all the farmers that grow the food here in southern Wisconsin, we are lucky, lucky eaters.

For inspiration we watched The Endless Feast and Chefs A' Field. We love seeing how other people are eating in place!

Scott will be out in Massachusetts this week and will be doing some remote blogging. He will still try eat locally and has some cool field trips that he will blog about. Check back often . . . we are always eating!