Local Food

Hey All,

I hope my link works. This is another media article about local food, but it focuses on Connecticut and New England farms. I'm a New Englander and it's been a struggle for the agriculture industry up there. After talking with one of my friends about the differences between buying local in the south versus buying local in the north, he shot me a link to this article which I found so interesting. My friend and I hail from a now defunct punk rock community in New Haven. One of the tenets of punk is to not rely on corporations for anything, so farmer's markets, knitting, do-it-yourself projects that are fashionable nowadays actually were a way of life for most of my friends from that community. We love that this mentality is catching on, although we will always be suspicious of corporate industry; hence my distrust of Whole Foods. :) Anyway, as stated in the article, the northeast is at the end of the national shipping chain and 95% of the goods are shipped in. Yikes! Sounds horrible! But since the price of energy has skyrocketed, creating very expensive food prices, people in the New England region have turned to local food once again.

I've been at a loss of ideas to share about my own local food experience this week. Usually I have a small garden going by now with herbs, vegetables, flowers and what would have been the third generation of pumpkins we've grown from seeds. However, we're moving at the end of the school year so I've skipped the garden. I do always buy local, usually picking veggies up from the Reynolda Farm Market Louise visited this week. It's close to where I live and I drive by at least twice a day, so stopping is pretty convenient. I guess I'll share a recipe that is easy and delicious, using most ingredients from the market. I'm a big fan of roasted vegetables, so here's a recipe suggestion for roasted eggplant:

Peel and thinly slice an eggplant, layering the slices in a roasting pan that's been drizzled with olive oil.
Sprinkle breadcrumbs and olive oil between each layer of eggplant
Place in pre-heated 350 degree oven for 30 min, and then flip the whole mess with a spatula.
Put it back in the oven until the eggplant is soft and the breadcrumbs are crispy and toasted.

From here I like to make delicious sandwiches with the roasted eggplant, usually with some of the yummy goat cheese made locally by the Goat Lady, which can be purchased at the Reynolda Market or at Krankee's Farmer's Market.

If you feel like making your own pesto, which is very easy, just blend a few cups of fresh basil, cloves of garlic, olive oil, some grated parmesan cheese and pine nuts until it looks like algae.

Spread some of your fresh pesto on a chunk of warm Italian bread, add some roasted eggplant and some goat cheese, and maybe a roasted pepper or two and I promise you there isn't an easier-achieved gastronomic delight!

I'll be adding a picture of my roasted eggplant shortly.

Addendum: My photo (why is it sideways?) is of my roasted eggplant on Italian bread with roasted red pepper humus and my re-potted lettuce plant. Do you think it's going to survive?