in an ideal world this wouldn't warrant an entire blog post.
inspired partly by jenny's month-long 'eat local challenge' i cooked just one completely local meal last night. (actually, the olive oil and seasonings --salt and pepper-- came from somewhere else, but that was the only exception.)
i purchased everything for the meal at the durham farmers market. pork chops from the chapel hill creamery were at the center of last night's menu. their pigs are whey-fed, which sounded appealing. i seasoned the chops with salt & pepper and cooked them on an indoor grill pan.
also on the menu: mashed yukon gold potatoes with garlic. i don't remember which vendor i bought the taters from, but the garlic was purchased from seeds. my GOD, fresh garlic is so moist and POTENT! total yumminess. that was probably the biggest surprise of the evening.
i had also scored some weird-looking patty pan squash at the market. i wasn't sure how to cook it, but finally ended up cutting it into wedges and putting it into a covered baking dish with some garlic, salt & pepper and a little chicken stock (oops! not local!). after 20 minutes or so it came out nice and fork-tender.
poo, i just remembered that i topped it with some shredded parmesean cheese that wasn't local, either. with a couple of different cheese-makers at the market, that wouldn't have been too hard to correct if i'd just planned ahead more.
for the last couple of months i've really enjoyed buying the bulk of my produce at the local farmers markets. there are things i adore which i just can't get, though... namely, bananas and pineapple. (which makes me want to move to the tropics. can you imagine *those* farmers markets??) and i find that the raleigh farmers market has *tons* more fruit than the durham market does. i suppose that's because the one in raleigh is a state-wide market and durham isn't necessarily. if i were going to buy exclusively local produce i think i'd have to go to both markets each weekend. that's a lot of driving.
ray & i weren't impressed enough with the pork chops to keep spending that kind of money on fresh pork. we might try beef or eggs next, though. for ray's birthday we had some rib-eyes from king's red and white that were mighty tasty. though i didn't ask where their beef comes from, most of their produce is locally-grown so i wouldn't be surprised if their meat was, too.
king's, by the way, is a really cool old grocery store. no scanners... everything has a price sticker. the meat counter is also staffed by ancient butchers who are beyond helpful. and though they carry non-local produce, they are very proud (with big signs!) to offer as many local fruits and veggies as possible.
ok, i'm hungry now. gotta go.
Posted by xta at June 22, 2006 03:13 PM | TrackBackYum! Yum! I miss Kings Red and White! Any place where you can buy fat back and lard is my kind of place!
Posted by: John Boy at June 22, 2006 03:58 PMI've been eating many "local" meals from the farmer's market, too (mostly stir-fries). Except for the tofu and seitan ... I don't know of a local place to get that. But I'd have to completely rearrange my whole life (and quit my job) to be able to eat every meal local every day.
Posted by: lisa b at June 22, 2006 05:48 PMNot really such a challenge in California... ;) I could hit a farmer's market every day, year-round, without even getting on a freeway.
You *can* get bananas local-grown at the farmers' market in Santa Barbara--there's a little stretch of the California coast near La Conchita where bananas are grown, mostly interesting varieties too--mmmm.
Local tofu--that could be tough. I'll look around at the bigger Japanese markets here, there might be one that makes tofu in-house. Now I'm curious.
But oh yeah, the ancient butchers are the best! I miss that about my hometown. I might go back to eating meat if it meant frequent interactions with them.
Posted by: Penny at June 22, 2006 08:41 PMXta, yummy things imported from other countries is a totally acceptable exception to the "eat local" rule. At least until they start making, say, cave-aged gouda in NC.
Posted by: elsacapuntas at June 23, 2006 08:48 AMYeah, I felt really limited by my eating locally. It was repetitive, and I just couldn't find my groove. It was all southern, all the time, and expensive beyond belief.
But what was worth it was really taking time out to learn what is locally available. I think it takes a long time living in a place to get to a good understanding. Just in the last few years I've taken an interest in figs and persimmons, which you can sometimes find growing wild.
Posted by: lastewie at June 24, 2006 12:46 PMIt sounds like a really fun challenge though. It's got my brain going about what we could fix grown locally from Florida - besides oranges and strawberries.
I will tell you that one of my FAVORITE local discoveries we picked up over in the agriculture center at the State Fair (yes, we must go see the crosp and the animals) and that was this Tupelo Honey from local beekeepers. It was twice as much as all of the OTHER types of delicious honey - so that caught our attention. Scott talked to the beekeeper about it, asking why and what was so different. He explained to us it's short harvest cycle and how it's only available from one area. Then he let us try all the other honey, which all were just delicious - SO much better than store bought.
And then we tried the Tupelo.
We are almost out of it.......I am going to be SO sad when it is gone.
Posted by: Gidge at June 25, 2006 12:26 PMI don't have much to add to this, except that "Tupelo Honey" by Van Morrison is one of my favorite love songs.
Posted by: Jerry at June 25, 2006 09:13 PMi've read that if you suffer from allergies, locally-harvested honey could actually help prevent allergic outbreaks. and apparently the closer you live to the honey, the better.
i just googled "local honey alergies" and found some supporting evidence, but also some anecdotes from people whose symptoms got *worse* after eating local honey.
very interesting stuff.
Posted by: christa at June 25, 2006 09:28 PMHaving massive allergies, I have heard this theory and wondered. I haven't noticed good or bad effects from it though.
Posted by: Gidge at June 25, 2006 09:33 PMoh, local eggs (fresh, laid that morning) are SO MUCH BETTER than the grocery store eggs. You may never go back. I am searching out a year-round local source right now. And they are definitely worth the extra money.
Posted by: Babelbabe at June 25, 2006 09:56 PMI've been trying the honey and vinegar thing for the last few days, and I haven't been noticing any allergies. Then again, maybe that's the rain washing away the pollen...
King's Red and White has some yummy products, and the butchers are definitely "old school". Which is to say, among other things, that they told me a variety of interesting lies on my first visit there: the old saw about "we got this meat at discount because someone was going out of business and that's how we can sell them to you this cheap, it's a great deal, you should buy it." Truth was, it really was a great deal. Sadly, I didn't care about the lying!
Posted by: Phil at June 25, 2006 10:22 PMI've been told that the Durham co-op has the best tofu, but I'm not sure if it is locally made. It is available in bulk, so it's at least fresher than other places.
I don't know if you can find a hard cheese like Parmesan from a local cheese-maker, but I bet the Chapel Hill Creamery's farmer's cheese would be good on squash.
Posted by: at June 26, 2006 09:27 AM