Eating Local

Ever since reading (well, listening to, actually) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by my favorite author, Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver last summer I have been trying to be as conscious about eating locally grown foods. While I love that eating local is good for the environment and supports small farmers, often the best thing about eating local is the taste of the food.

We joined a CSA this year for the first time and we've received 3 weeks of food so far. I'm taking a picture each week of our bounty (you can see it at my flickr site), what we received and what I bought at the farmer's market while picking up the share. The taste is truly superior.

Monday night while my parents were visiting we went to eat at the Blue Duck Tavern. They purchase much of their ingredients here in the region and list the origin right on the menu. The food was so delicious and epitomizes the beauty of eating locally--each ingredient must be at its prime and the taste of the food is top priority. Everything we ate was delicious. If you go there some important things to know are, 1. go hungry, 2. the appetizers are listed on the left side of the menu, 3. the portions are large enough to be shared, and 4. save room for dessert--one word, hand cranked seasonal ice cream (ok, that's 5).