Life Begins at 30

Holy Tomato

... a tomato shipped by slow boat from the Caribbean, without the “benefit” of refrigeration, would likely taste better than the shrink wrapped, ice-box-cold tomato you’ll find in most supermarkets—gulp—even at the height of the tomato season.

I just found this link through "I'm Mad and I Eat".  It's a tomato primer put together by Lark Creek Restaurant Group and has tons of information and recipes for tomatoes.  Worth a peek.

The Little Red Tomato Primer (pdf)

thoughts on my eat local challenge

> On the whole, I think that I am actually spending less money on food.  This is just a guess, as I haven't exactly totalled it, but I think that it's because we aren't eating at as many restaurants.

> The thing that was driving me crazy during week 1 was the lack of snack food.  I have since found Lundberg Rice Chips (thanks, Suzanne!) and that has helped a lot.  I have also played around with making my own crackers, but haven't perfected that quite yet.

> Does anyone know where Hobbs' bacon comes from?  I am assuming Northern California, but can't figure it out.  I'm hoping it's local, cause I had 3 pieces today.  It's all this man's fault. 

> I have gotten over feeling guilty if I don't eat something local.  I am doing what I can do, and that's all that anyone can expect!  So listen up, all you challengees, don't feel guilty about anything you are doing!  The fact that you are thinking about this and talking about it makes the whole challenge a success in my book.  Y'all are doing great.  The "pyramid effect" of this challenge is something that I am very proud of.  Everyone who is taking this challenge is talking to others about it.  Even if those others aren't necessarily adopting the idea right away, they are thinking about it and looking to see what they can find that's local.  I am hearing that story over and over again.

> A big thanks to Fatemeh who brought me lemons from her neighbor's yard.  Lemon problem solved!

> The picture in this post is of Dave Little from his potato farm in Tomales.  Little Organic Farm practices dry farming, and I went to see his farm (plus Marin Sun Farm and Russ Sartori's Strawberries) as a part of a MALT event on Sunday.  I strongly encourage you to go to one of their events if you ever have a chance.  It's a great way to visit farms without bothering the farmer for a one-on-one tour.

National Farmers Market Week - August 7 - 13

It turns out that this week is National Farmer's Market week.  Many states and markets are having events to celebrate.  I, for one, am convinced that if it were not for farmer's markets, this Eat Local Challenge would be darn near impossible.  The graph below shows farmer's market growth in the past 10 years.

Thanks, Jeanne, for the tip!

Graph from the USDA website.

ELC Blog Highlight: The Knitters!

Of the 55 participants in the Eat Local Challenge, we have a whopping 21 bloggers who are also knitters.  The "knitbloggers" have enthusiastically embraced this challenge, and I am so happy about it.  (As an aside, food bloggers have nothing on knitters when it comes to traffic numbers, let me tell you!)

I cracked up the other day when I was on a blog where the comments included a discussion of "have you seen how many knitters there are doing the eat local challenge?" 

The completely correct response came from Liz from Pocket Farm, who I have dubbed "the head knitter" :  "Um, I think I can explain that.  I'm a knitter-gardener-homesteading-food lover and I found Jen's blog pretty recently and read about the Challenge. Posted about it on my blog, and it's spread like wildfire. I guess knitters love a challenge. "

Here's the comprehensive list of knitters who are taking the Eat Local Challenge.  Their skill at knitting and spinning is mind-boggling to a person who knows nothing about this sort of thing.  Welcome, knitters!

Atypical Mom
Absinthe Knits
an ent knits
Baa Bonny Belle
Buona Sara
Green-eyed Knitter
Infinite Stitch
Jinxed Minx
KnitSox
Knitting Notes
Knitty Gritty
La Cosa Knitstra
Little Fish Creations
Mellow Trouble
Nature Knitter
Now Norma Knits
Pocket Farm
Sarah's Homestead Blog
The Farmette Report
True Epicure Says
Vast Amount of Spare Time

(did I miss anyone?  email me.)

ELC Blog Highlight: The Farmette Report

The next blog highlight is The Farmette Report.  First off, this blog is visually outstanding.  I sent an email to a friend the other day with a link to The Farmette Report and wrote "I want my blog to look like THIS".  But looks alone do not make a great blog.  Janis' blog is a thoroughly enjoyable read.  Her eat local adventures have included buying local hay for her donkeys, making tabbouleh with chickpeas, and almost participating in the paper chef challenge.

And if you are not squeamish about bugs, check out this post with pictures of creatures in her garden - fantastic!

 

The voodoo is working.

This is from Grace Ann Walden's column today:

Andrew  Jaeger, a chef from a renowned New Orleans restaurant family, will in the next couple of weeks bring his Creole-style recipes and jazz to the Condor, and open Andrew Jaeger's House of Seafood & Jazz in the legendary North Beach club. He's leased space in the Condor from SAW Entertainment, which owns most of the topless clubs on Broadway. Jaeger also has a New Orleans restaurant with the same name in the French Quarter, at  300 Decatur St.

For his San Francisco restaurant, he says, "I don't know if y'all put a spell on me, but I'm sourcing my ingredients, and I'm going to take a look at grass-fed beef and organic vegetables."

Jaeger's bigger-than-life tastes and personality should be a good fit for the club that launched the topless club craze in the '60s.

In recent years, the Condor had morphed into a sports bar, and in the past few months had gone upscale decor-wise for a short-lived changeover to a burlesque venue. But offering burlesque in a neighborhood  with so many topless and bottomless attractions was fruitless. The Condor's sign will remain; Jaeger will also put up his own sign.

He will serve food in the dining room-bar area that runs along Columbus and offer live jazz in the part of the club that faces Broadway.  Appetizers will be $10 to $19, entrees $25 to $39.

How can he run two restaurants thousands of miles apart? Jaeger says that the summer business is slow in New Orleans, while it's busy here.

Paper Chef #9 - The Local Edition

Owen at Tomatilla hosts a challenge called The Paper Chef which is an Iron Chef-type competition with everyone using the same ingredients.  This month's challenge features local ingredients.  You have until tomorrow afternoon to post a recipe on your blog that contains all of the following ingredients:  dried chiles, peaches, edible flowers, and something local.  Post to your blog by tomorrow and post a comment on Tomatilla to enter the challenge.

ELC Blog Highlight: 10 Signs Like This

I have been wanting to write updates of how everyone's doing on the Eat Local Challenge, but the size of the group is very large and it's impossible in my every day working life to write constant updates.  I have decided to start updating you by featuring a specific Eat Local Challenge blog or two whenever I can.

First up: 10 Signs Like This

This blog belongs to Jamie in Rural Georgia.  One of the best unexpected surprises of this challenge is that I have found some lovely blogs that I had never been aware of, and 10 Signs Like This is a perfect example.

The Eat Local Challenge has brought some fun adventures to Jamie over the past 8 days, including visiting a blueberry farm, making her first batch of jam ever, making kefir, visiting farmer's markets, and considering how to continue the challenge when life throws a wrench in the plans.   

Visit 10 Signs Like This when you have a chance, and leave Jamie a comment of support!

This blog has been featured as a part of a "homework assignment" set forth by Andrew to feature new voices.

Finding restaurants featuring local foods

My biggest challenge during the Eat Local challenge has been that I am used to eating out more than I do.  Part of my challenge was to eat at restaurants during August that have a policy of buying food from local producers.  The Bay Area is probably one of the best at this type of food, but it's still difficult on a day to day basis to work any of these restaurants into our busy lives.  The result has been much more eating at home this week (not a bad thing but frustrating in a couple specific circumstances) or making a decision to not eat local for a meal, which I haven't been very happy about.

One tip I would give to anyone who is looking for restaurants in their area who use local producers is to ask the farmers that you know.  If you frequent a farmer's market, ask the farmers that you speak with if they provide produce for any restaurants in town.  The answers are often fairly enlightening.  I have found out about many restaurants that I wouldn't have considered otherwise.

If you live in the San Francisco, check out Sam's blog, as she is working on compiling a list of restaurants in that use local foods.  Add restaurants you know to the comments section ...

Eat Local Participants in RSS Format

If you'd like to check out the Eat Local participants in an easy-to-read format, try this Bloglines feed that I have set up:

Eat Local Participants Feed

(Feedback welcome - I haven't tried making a Bloglines list public before.)