Eat Local
Local Pride

There are many, many great reasons to eat local. I fully believe in the environmental, political, biological and economical reasons to eat local, but even if you don't, you should eat local if you enjoy eating. Now, at times, I feel I am trusting my instinct, or even worse, blind faith, when it comes to endorsing local products. Through various circumstances, I've had non-local cherries and nectarines and corn this summer, and I know, well for the most part, the stuff sucked when compared to farmer's market stuff, but for the most part I have no real sample population to fully know that my local food is, in fact, better. Which is why I appreciate a bit of national love.

First, there's our hot dogs. A few weeks ago, I was watching the new American Eats show on the History channel, and I was surprised to learn that 95% of hot dogs eaten nationwide were skinless. My daughter, in one of those proud papa moments that makes it worthwhile to be a papa, immediately recognized that she was firmly in that 5%, eating pretty much only skinned or real hot dogs. And now comes Michael Rulhman in this month's Gourmet to confirm. He declares Vienna the best commercial hot dog in the country. Take that!

Then, there's our cheese and dairy. Via Eating L.A., I got the results of the latest American Cheese Society competition (pdf). Sure, Cabot of Vermont took the top prize, but the list of winners is loitered with local purveyors: Upland, Rothkase, Carr Valley, of course, but also Leelanau of Michigan and Trader's Creamery (yeah, that yoghurt is the best); there are many more Wisconsin cheese guys. My friends at Brunkow got an award for they cheese spread and I expect next year, they will get a few more awards with their new cheeses. Crave Brothers Farmstead, Burnett Dairy Cooperative, Hook's Cheese, Mount Sterling, and Blue Mont Dairy were other winners from Wisconsin.

When you eat local, you have the chance to eat some of the best food. Fer sure.