Localvores USA

Events / Localvores USA — 2 Comments
7
Sep 09

Come, eat with us: It’s a picnic for the kiddies

time_for_lunch-headerThis Labor Day we’re joining forces with Slow Food USA and hundreds of people across the country in support of school lunch reform. By having a giant eat-in on Boston Common with as many good eaters as we can round up, we’re participating in a national day of action — and of eat-ins —  to say that children should have access to real food in school. And that the policy behind our national school lunch program should make that possible.

From 12-2:30 we’ll be eating, chatting and signing petitions in a picnic-style spread by the giant gazebo. Please bring your own picnic lunch — bring extra to share, if you like — and join us.

At the same time people in all 50 states will be sitting down to share a meal together too. We’ll be making a polite but important statement that schools shouldn’t be feeding kids “food” that’s been processed into oblivion, food that makes them feel sick, food that makes them struggle to concentrate and food that forms the kind of habits that make us fattest, most disease-prone nation on the planet.

To read more about the Slow Food USA campaign for school lunch reform, you can go here. But this is a little of what they’re saying: “We’re making this statement is by bringing neighbors together in the spirit of good will and for the joy of sharing good food. That is the heart of our movement.”

Our friend JJ Gonson, who is helping us organize the picnic tomorrow, kind of perfectly got at the on her blog. But here’s a taste:

A while back, I asked a very nice man, who has to think about how to feed many, many children with a very small budget, why there were tuna sandwiches on the school lunch menu. He told me, that in spite of the fact that we had been told that children should ‘never’ eat tuna (and we were starting to suspect their might be some issues around the cans to boot) that tuna could not come off the school lunch menu because canned tuna is “free”.
What that means is that it is subsidized, by the government, and offered on a list of “free” food items that schools can choose from. The way our system is set up, quite a lot of the food that gets directed to public schools is from subsidized packages, made available to the public school buying systems, for “free”.
Sadly, the power that be’s does not appear to subsidize small, organic farms who are practicing sustainable farming resulting in chemical and GMO free eatables. The food that gets thrown into the happy “free” basket is often full of corn, soy and parts of animals that are not known to be particularly nice to look at.
Basically, we take the worst of the food and feed it to the most vulnerable, and arguably the most important part of our society- the growing bodies and minds who will become our decision making adult public.
Localvores USA — No Comments
10
Aug 09

We’re in the Green Mountains…

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…and on what we like to call an ‘eating holiday.’ We’ll be sampling the finest sheep cheese the state of Vermont offers here, hopefully investigating the agriculture miracles happening here and visiting some of our old friends at the liveliest farmers’ market in New England, here.

Oh, and that photo. That’s our friend’s house, in paradise, where we’ll be staying.

We’ll be back soon with reports from the field.

Dairy / Localvores USA / Meat / Updates — 1 Comment
12
Jul 09

Cheese tasting, the roster

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On Thursday we had another lovely cheese tasting at the Growing Center. A serious thank you to the 50-70 or so people (friends and many strangers!) who showed this year. Also to the Growing Center, the cheesemakers, goats, cows and sheep who participated. A note: You can buy local cheese at a bunch of farmers’ markets but year-round at: Formaggio Kitchen (Cambridge and South End), Dairy Bar@Kickass Cupcakes (Davis Sq), Dave’s Fresh Pasta (Davis Sq), Lionette’s Market (South End) and… Whole Foods. Here’s the roundup of what we were tasting. Please, go out and buy this stuff. And the next time you see someone about to spend money on grass-fed cheddar from New Zealand or some such nonsense, please scoff at them.

  • Maggie’s Round, Cricket Creek Farm, (Williamstown, Mass.) An Italian farm-style raw milk cheese which is aged more than four months. It has a creamy texture with a flavor similar to that of an Italian Toma.  Buy it on the Cricket Creek web site — but not til fall!
  • Two from Valley View Farm (Topsfield, Mass.)Valley View Chevre - A soft, fresh goat’s milk cheese from a small herd of Anglo-Nubians. And Highlander, a semi-ripened goat cheese - The pyramid shape and greater surface area allows the two different molds to ripen, intensifying the development of flavors.These are both img_4274available at Lionette’s Market, Dave’s Fresh Pasta, Lexington, Union Square and Charlestown farmers’ markets (and variously on the North Shore).
  • Bourree: Dancing Cow Farm (Bridport, Vt) a raw cow’s milk cheese.  This was made with uncooled raw cow’s milk from a single milking, Bourree is a washed rind cheese that has an earthy aroma and supple texture with strong hints of nuts and grass. This is fun: The name Bourree comes from a French peasant dance with rapid foot movements, much like the cows when first turned out on spring pastures. Available at Lionette’s Market.
  • Three Mountain, West River Creamery (Londonderry, Vt), a raw cow’s milk cheese. A washed rind cheese. Semi-soft, bold and smooth, velvety, finishing with a salty tang. Available at Lionette’s Market.
  • Ewe’s Blue, Old Chatham Sheepherding Co. (Old Chatham, NY), a sheep’s milk cheese. American Blue Cheese made in the Roquefort style with 100% sheep’s milk. Creamy texture and subtle blue overtone.
  • Crystal Brook Chevre (Sterling, Mass.) This mild, unassuming chevre comes from a herd of 70 Apline and Saanen goats — and cheesemaker Ann Starbard. A rocking lady. Her husband Eric, BTW, is a sawyer — he produces lumber from the farm. They like to flavor their chevre. Today we have cranberry orange, garlic basil, cracked black pepper, sundried tomato and plain ole plain. Available at Copley, Davis Sq, Arlington and Newton farmers’ markets.
  • Cabot’s Clothboound Cheddar (Cabot, Vt). This is pretty f’n good. It’s a cow’s milk cheese in a natural rind. Aged 10 months. It’s got the texture of an English-style cheddar but it’s got a sweet, milky, caramel-ly flavor. They make limited batches of this stuff. Check Whole Foods or Formaggio.
  • Weybridge, Scholten Family Farm (Weybridge, Vt.), a pasteurized organic cow’s milk cheese. This is a delicate little cheese with a fluffy, whipped texture. Mmm. Tastes like farm.  You can order this stuff online. Not so available in these parts.
  • Landaff Creamery (Landaff, N.H.) A raw Holstein cow’s milk. This is inspired by Duckett’s Caerphilly and aged 60 days in Jasper Hill’s cheese cellar across the Connecticut River in Vermont. It’s tangy, clean, buttery — and it melts well.  Online sales only through landaffcreamery.com.
  • Two from Heartsong Camembert (Gilmanton Iron Works, NH), a goat’s milk cheese. This stuff is finished when it’s still ‘young’ at two weeks. By four weeks, the center is firm and white and surrounded by cream. Online sales only.And Valencay (Gilmanton Iron Works, NH), a goat’s milk cheese. This type of cheese was named by Napoleon, after the castle in Valençay, France! A creamier, firmer texture than many goat cheeses. Online sales only.
  • Two from Jasper Hill Constant Bliss, Jasper Hill Farm, (Greensboro, Vt). This is a slow cheese made with fresh, right out of the cow, uncooled, evening milk. We’re talking raw whole milk, and the cheese is started before the cow’s even doing milking. Then it’s aged 60 days. The name: Constant Bliss was a revolutionary war scout killed in Greensboro by native Americans in 1781.Bayley Hazen Blue Jasper Hill Farm (Greensboro, Vt). This is a natural rinded blue cheese made with whole raw milk every other day, primarily with morning milk, which is lower in fat. It’s drier than most blues and has nutty, grassy, occasionally licorice-y flavors. The name: Bayley Hazen was an old military road across Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, commissioned by George Washington.Buy them at Lionette’s, Formaggio and Whole Foods.
  • Fiore di Nonno, fresh mozzarella (Somerville). This is as local as it gets, people. Lourdes Smith will literally disabuse you of any previous notion you once held of ‘fresh’ mozzarella. Life-changing. Get it at farmers’ markets, Lionette’s, Dave’s Fresh Pasta and Dairy Bar.
Localvores USA — No Comments
28
Jan 09

Two words: Grouper Reuben

Kristi and I have just returned from Anna Maria Island, a key off of Sarasota, Fl., in the Gulf of Mexico.

There is a beautiful year round farmers’ market in downtown Sarasota, brimming with oldsters and cheap as dirt local, organic grapefruits, oranges, tangerines and lemons (we didn’t see any limes). Also: everything else you can think of, like greens and squashes, strawberries and avocadoes, starfruit and shrimp, mahi, mullet and grouper. And glasses of fresh squeezed orange juice for $1.

We arrived on Friday morning, dined at the pelican-covered Star Fish Co., home of the most ridiculously delicious mahi mahi and cheese grits, and went to the beach. Saturday morning, we headed out to the farmers’ market, which opens at 7 a.m. and covers two streets. We bought: enough lettuce (with a lemon as dressing), strawberries, grapefruits, tangerines and bread to cover our breakfasts and lunches for the rest of the trip.

But the most glorious afternoon was spent thusly, at The Cortez Kitchen:
We arrived sunburned and tired for lunch around 2:30. We’d spent the morning on the beach, and the early afternoon walking our rental bikes home after mine got a flat. So we were hungry and verging on cranky (as cranky as one could possibly muster given the circumstances). Cortez Kitchen is a fish shack on the water; its tables are scattered on a rickety old wooden dock. The umbrellas offer dappled shade from the hot sun. It was hopping. We ordered Coronas, a buffalo grouper sandwich and a grouper reuben. There was a fierce political sense that the grouper has to be local and fresh Gulf grouper, and it was all over the menu.

Before our sandwiches arrived but into our second Coronas, a man in completely unbuttoned white oxford shirt with the sleeves cut off mounted the stage with a guitar and a laptop. The guitar was just a prop. His laptop blared karaoke-style tracks to which he sang songs like Margaritaville and Brown Eyed Girl and played air guitar. Lots of old people dancing ensued (we went into a Publix supermarket for the sheer pleasure of being the youngest people there; not so common anymore). The sandwiches were out. of. control. delicious. There is fish and there is fish. I’d never had the latter until I visited Florida.