Vital News

If you wonder where the missives are, urging all to eat local, I blog almost daily at the Local Beet.

Look forward to some forthcoming design tweaks at the Beet and more, a new blogger to the fray.

In the meantime, enjoy the Beet's guide to 2009 CSA's.

I think there's a space or two available for tonight's family dinner at Mado. The theme, duh, a whole pig. A very happy way to eat at Mado. I promise a picture less report.

Happy Anniversary Cassie and Gary at Green Grocer Chicago. Come to the party on Monday. I heard there will be plenty of local produce, even in the winter. The omnipresent one, Michael Nagrant hits all the high points of Green Grocer in this Serious Eats profile.

Round up a designated driver for Vie's dinner with Death's Door Spirits this Thursday.

Some people cannot worry about whether their food is local, some people have to worry, even today, whether there is food period. The Greater Chicago Food Depository is one of the main bulwarks ensuring there's some food for all who need it. Martha Bayne's doing her part assist this cause. Three other local food celebrities pitch in this week with soup at the Hideout on Wednesday.

It's somewhat old news now, but still quite interesting. Roth Kase of Wisconsin, which has very successfully bridged the divide between artisinal and commercial cheese took on a new international owner. Here's a good take on the Roth Kase sale and other high finance maneuvers in America's Dairyland.

Nina's organizing a potluck for Chicago eat local fans on Feb 28th. I think I'll be able to attend.

In case you lost count, seven more reasons to eat local.

Ever wonder about the wheat berries you see at the winter markets or maybe in Madison. This may help figure them out.

Plugs always for three local woman: Valereee, Lenae, and the VFG.

Who says eating local cannot be done in the North. How they doing eating local in the Hudson Valley? Or New England.

What else?

On the Local Beet

Why 18

Ever get a check from a Jewish friend for $54. You scratch your head. $54. But it's three times chai, that's why! See, all Hebrew letters also have numerical values. This means you can add up the letters in a word to get a number. A lucky word, chai (pronounced with a hard ch), adds up to 18--chai, by the way, means life. Since chai = 18; 18 = life. As the Torah states, choose life, etc., etc., Let's just say, we Jews have a thing for 18.

I had been asked to put together a tip sheet on local eating for a conference being put together by the Union of Reform Judaism on green issues. I made a top ten list of ways to eat local. Then, one of my daughters came up with the very bright idea of making it a list of chai, 18. With a bit of editing, it's now the latest feature on the Local Beet.

Although I am currently in Austin, Texas, I did just finish up a post I started the other day on the much fun myself and my two daughters had shopping the winter market and eating Top Notch Beefburgers. Lotsa other local family news in that post including brunch at Mado, forthcoming liquor license at Cassie's Green Grocer, and events this week and in a few weeks.

I'll try to check in again during the week. In fact, if I feel ambitious, I'll update the inventory after much shopping last week (i.e. this).

For Mom

In the News

For over a decade, my mother owned a business teaching the food safety course needed for all Illinois food service providers. She always insisted on making them take the test.

No so one of the competition (allegedly).

A suburban owner of a food-safety business has been charged with fraud after she was accused of cheating to ensure clients obtained state and city certificates to serve and prepare food at restaurants and other establishments...From early 2000 to last month, Koll is alleged to have requested exam books and represented that a number of people would be taking the test through her. Instead, exam answer sheets were filled out for those who paid, authorities said.

CTrib has the full story here.

Conversation with Kingsolver

Recorded at the CTrib

I've not been able to finish Plenty or Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, the two recent eating local books. Plenty, the 100 mile couple's book, is clever, engaging, well written, but there's just no there, there. They set out to eat within their parameters and they do it. Any notable problems like the mouse poop seem incidental. So, while it's fun to read in spurts, it's not the kinda book that's making me wanna finish. Barbara Kingsolver is a bit of a polemicist, more strident, not as cool as Martha Bayne notes. Me, I appreciate the litany of facts, arguments, statistics, the change the world idealism of Kingsolver. More importantly, while her venture is at once more unreasonable, who has a farm to return to, her endevor is more realistic. She, as I, believes that eating local is not a hobby, nor an exotic quest like climbing an Himalayan. She's taken to the road to spread the message, and the Chicago Tribune compiles some of her message from a recent talk.

This were my favorite parts:

Q. What can we do up north where we have such a short growing season?

A. Sustainable diversified farms on the outskirts of cities are the fastest growing sector of our agriculture economy. I'm amazed what these food growers are figuring out in terms of season extension. I personally have friends in Western Massachusetts and Vermont who are growing tomatoes in high tunnels -- kind of simple, inexpensive greenhouses -- where you stretch fabric over hoops and it's big enough you can even get a tractor in there -- kind of like small-scale farming in a greenhouse.

We have four months of very cold winter where I live. And we eat beautifully. You just get over the bananas. You get over the January tomatoes. Start thinking about what you have. I'm personally a huge fan of winter squash. They're loaded with beta carotene and there are so many things you can do with them and you can have them all winter.

Q. What is the most important lesson you learned from living locally?

A. [It] was a very deliberate paradigm shift. We stopped asking, "What do I want right now?" and said, "What do we have? What's abundant? What's tasty and delicious right now?" That's what we'll have. It was really for us an exercise in gratitude and because of that it was permanent. We'll never go back.

We had so much more than we imagined. Winter in many ways was easier than summer. We'd made big huge pots of tomato sauce, for example, and froze them and so when winter came, so much of the work was already done. Anyone with a freezer can buy extra foods when they're in season and toss them in there for winter. They'll still be local in February.

With a little bit of extra money invested in our own food economy, we're keeping great faith in the people around our town. We're recycling that money into our own school districts, communities and we're also improving our own food security: If you pay a little extra to our local farmers, we're helping to ensure they'll still be there for us next year.

Reason to Eat Local

NYT:

Last year, inspectors sampled just 20,662 shipments out of more than 8.9 million that arrived at American ports. China, which in one decade has become the third-largest exporter of food, by value, to the United States, sent 199,000 shipments, of which less than 2 percent were sampled, former officials with the agency said.

Now, as F.D.A. inspectors travel to China to investigate the source of contaminated pet food that has killed at least 16 dogs and cats and sickened thousands of others, critics in Washington are warning that the agency is woefully understaffed and underfinanced to keep America’s food supply safe.

Vital Book

Like Martha at the Reader, I've started reading Plenty, the tale of a couple who take eating local VERY seriously. And Like Martha, I'll withold judgment until I finish (or at least until I can spout my mouth off).