What's Local By You

What's Local Caputo's, Elmwood Park

At the start of Terra's presentation yesterday, she asked, "what have you eaten local recently." She was impressed with our local sour cream (and you should be too, it's better than super, it's ultra-good*.) She was impressed also, somewhat surprisingly, to find that most of the attendees had recently tasted local, although most of it came in the form of backyard raspberries or related. Terra mentioned, what I am always saying, that there's not much local at your supermarket. Her suggestion, request it so they stock it. Good one. I also believe it pays to look and ask.

Today at Caputo's in Elmwood Park, we espied Melrose peppers (a true local product!) grown in Michigan. A lot of the other produce was not labeled but had that clumsy look of local--in fact to jump ahead of myself, later today, I noticed that the bunch of dill was tied with a piece of jute. Believe me, that's a sign of local. We asked. We learned that much of Caputo's produce selection is already local including mint, basil, and the aforementioned dill and peppers.

I'm not saying that there are veritable farmer's markets in our mainstream stores. You may be surprised, however, to find local. My mother for instance, said that Jewel has been advertising local. See what you can find.

*I've said this before, but how many ingredients does your sour cream have?