Meatless Monday: Celebrating Regional Traditions

And, they’re off… In the quest for the ultimate meal, Thanksgiving Day chefs everywhere are pulling out their trusty cookbooks, notebooks, and boxes filled with family recipes — the traditional tools for holiday menu planning.

Slow Food USA reminds us that there were regional celebrations in honor of the harvest long before 1941, when the last Thursday in November was declared as the legal Thanksgiving Day. Here is the interactive regional map of the USA Slow Food USA recently posted. Click on a region, and you will see a variety of recipes from harvest celebrations unique to that place. The Northeast has the most offerings. While  Nasaump may not find a place on your holiday table, Stewed Pompion might. As a New Englander, I encountered many surprises as I traveled West on the map, finally arriving in Hawaii. I don’t expect to try the recipe for Kulolo, but I enjoyed watching Uncle Val and his family making a very large batch.

Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to thank your family farmers in your area — by shopping at farmer’s markets and farm stands or by purchasing foods labelled “local” at the supermarket.

Do you have a memory of a natural food you once ate but can no longer find — say a certain type of squash or dried bean? Slow Food’s Ark of Taste project “travels the world” collecting such products. “The Ark was created to point out the existence of these products, draw attention to the risk of their extinction within a few generations, invite everyone to take action to help protect them.” You can find these foods listed alphabetically in the Slow Food Ark of Taste online catalogue. Here you can read about the history of the food and its nutritional value. Because some farmers have made the decision to propagate distinctive foods at risk or in danger of extinction, you may, in some cases, be able to purchase these products. If that is the case, a link will take you to the LocalHarvest site with sources for the item. 

If you would rather just shop, go directly to LocalHarvest where you can shop by category with the options either to purchase online or to locate the closest retailer for whatever you desire.

Have fun. Happy planning!

Happy Monday! 

Have a great week. Eat well. 

I often blog on food, food issues, or gardening on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Meatless Monday: Grapefruit at My Door

Just before Memorial Day, I received an email that sounded too good to be true.

The Orange Shop in Citra, Florida was offering me a full bushel of grapefruit, plucked fresh from the tree, for the price of 1/2 a bushel — with free shipping!

The Orange Shop is a family farm I had located through LocalHarvest, founded in 1998 by activist and software engineer Guillermo Payet, in Santa Cruz, CA. According to information on the organization’s website, “LocalHarvest is now the number one informational resource for the Buy Local movement and the top place on the Internet where people find information on direct marketing family farms. We now have more than 20000 members, and are growing by about 20 new members every day. Through our servers, our website and those of our partners, we serve about three and a half million page views per month to the public interested in buying food from family farms.” Fruit, honey, wool items, soaps, and pies are just a few of the items you will find at LocalHarvest.

I ordered some Page oranges from the Orange Shop in December, 2011 for an older couple who love fresh fruit but don’t have the chance to enjoy it every day. They found the fruit delicious but “too juicy.” [Ah, well. Perhaps that will be me in the distant future.] The price was fair, delivery speedy, and the fruit well packed.

I stayed on the Orange Shop mailing list.

When the May email arrived, I was craving fresh fruit, so rare and pricey in New England in spring. I fondly recalled a sack of Indian River grapefruit my son had once brought back from a road trip, and I started to do some calculations. There are approximately 40 grapefruit in a bushel… Each grapefruit would cost about $1.00. [I had seen them in the local market for $1.49.]… My refrigerator produce bins were pretty empty and available. 

I placed an order on Memorial Day.  

A heat wave came along and I began to worry. On Saturday a FedEx man showed up at the door with a 40 lb box. The grapefruit (4 trays with a total of 44 pieces!) arrived in perfect condition, unaffected by the heat.

They may not be the most beautiful grapefruits you’ve ever seen. But they are sweet, juicy and delicious. Who cares about beauty? This shipment is just what I needed to tide me over until the CT berries and peaches come along. 

I’m so happy! [8 down, 3 dozen to go…]

Have a great week.

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal health and the health of our planet.”

Meatless Monday: Supporting Family Farmers with Your Holiday Dollars

Not a fan of Buy Nothing Christmas? Then you are fast approaching the last possible date for getting your holiday shopping done and your parcels in the mail. 

With a busy week ahead, online shopping is probably become more and more enticing. Well, do I have an idea for you! Farmers across the country have had a particularly challenging year — from those in New England hit by a late-season hurricane followed by an October blizzard to Texans plagued by drought. I know a great way to lend them a hand, while bringing joy to your loved ones and cutting out the need to stand in line at the post office.

Skip online food gift retailers like Harry and David, and go right to the source. Check out LocalHarvest, a website where you can locate produce and other agricultural items in your area AND shop online for items not available locally or for items you may want to send as gifts. 

LocalHarvest, located in Santa Cruz, CA, was founded in 1998 by activist and software engineer Guillermo Payet. According to information on the organization’s website, “LocalHarvest is now the number one informational resource for the Buy Local movement and the top place on the Internet where people find information on direct marketing family farms. We now have more than 20000 members, and are growing by about 20 new members every day. Through our servers, our website and those of our partners, we serve about three and a half million page views per month to the public interested in buying food from family farms.” 

This well organized site is easy to navigate. “Farms” is where you can search for shopping opportunities in your area. “Shop” is where you will find an illustrated catalog broken down into categories such as fruits, honey and bee products, wool, lavender, meats, and many others. If the item is available only for local pickup, it is clearly indicated with a bright yellow banner. While  on my tour of the site, I discovered many lines of alpaca wear, Texas pecans (and pecan pie), frozen heritage turkeys, beeswax tea lights, jams, citrus fruits. I finally ordered some Page oranges from the Orange Shop in Citra, Florida with FREE SHIPPING. This fruit was described as “an heirloom USDA hybrid between Honeybell and Clementine released many years ago, widely considered to have the best flavor of any variety. They're small in size, fairly easy to peel, and have a rich, sweet taste…” I hope this gift will bring a smile to a couple who love fresh fruit but don’t have the chance to enjoy it every day.

The site also includes a section on CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and a tool for locating CSAs near you. [There was quite a list for the New Haven area.] And a calendar of events… and a newsletter… and member blogs and photos. Local Harvest is clearly about supporting small farmers, in every way they can and  wherever they are.

Yes, I believe in shopping local first. But in my experience you can’t always get what you want in your own little corner of the world. If you check out this site, you might find you can get exactly what you need.

I offer up this discovery as one more way to help out the little guys. They may not live next door. But they still need your support to stay in business. Their communities need them to stay in business. And we all need the family farmers to ensure the availability of safe, flavorful, and varied sources of food.

Happy shopping. 

I often blog on food or food issues on Monday in support of Meatless Monday, one of several programs developed in the Healthy Monday project, founded in 2003 in association with Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications. Meatless Monday’s goal is “to help reduce meat consumption 15% in order to improve personal  health and the health of our planet.”