Locavore

Scorpacciata

n : eating a particular ingredient in copious amounts in it's period of local perfection

Happy Spring! Today is the official first day, and what a beautiful one. This weather reminds me of the breezy days and cool nights of summer that I spent in the Mid West as a kid. I returned to my local farmer's market today after nearly a two week hiatus. Every time I show up this time of year there is something new. Today I found sweet and sour cherries for sale, so it's definitely time to make some fresh Cherry-Jalapeno Preserves to top off the Grilled Tandoori Lamb I always make on the 4th of July. I also scooped up a huge bag of yellow wax beans which will surely go in a great salad this weekend.
Eating locally (among it's other benefits) really makes me feel that I'm returning to my roots. Our country's food industry and culture has changed so much in the past twenty years. My summer food memories always include the first deep purple stalks and leaves of spring potato plants, picking tiny red strawberries in my grandfather's garden in June, shelling peas on the front porch in Arkansas with my cousins, hand-cranked vanilla ice cream and cake with blueberries before the fireworks on the 4th of July and shucking bushels of fresh sweet corn (again, on the porch, but this time with my brother) at harvest time in Nebraska.
I'm only thirty years old, so I feel funny saying "things were better back in my day" but living in the city has made me extremely aware of the lack of food culture we have in this country. My family, though as modern as any, has always had food traditions.
But food tradition is more than eating hot dogs on the 4th of July or Turkey at Thanksgiving (though these are some of the few traditions we thankfully hold on to). Food tradition as part of an overall food culture, is about sharing a connection with your food besides seeing it as a source of fuel or a source of stress. So much of our food information these days is negative.
The other day I was in line at my local food coop. I spied a glass jar of beautiful large, red and white speckled Italian beans. The person in line before me picked up the jar, took a look and put it down. I also picked up a jar to admire the color and shape of the beans, as they were so well displayed in glass. I assumed she was admiring them too. I immediately started thinking about cooking them until tender, adding a bit of red wine vinegar, shallot, salt, pepper and parsley to make a delicous heirloom bean salad. Then, to my suprise the other woman turned around to me and said "Did you see the calorie count on these things? There are 700 calories per serving!!"

I humorously remarked that I don't really count calories so that number didn't mean much to me, and besides.. they're beans! Beans, the food that populations rely upon as a staple all over the world. Of course beans probably have a lot of calories. They are a staple energy food. They keep people from going hungry. I've never liked looking at food like a numbers game. That doesn't really make it very fun to eat. It is true that some people do have to keep track of food numbers for health reasons, but i argue that if our society had a stronger food culture (such as Japan, France, Italy or almost anywhere) we wouldn't have so many health problems and obesity in the first place. I don't blame my fellow shopper for all of this, she is just part of a society that views food in an increasingly skewed fashion.

I fondly remember a food culture that focuses on the positives, the community and nourishment that we gain when we gather to eat together. It's about awareness of what food grows around us, the season in which it grows and connections with people who grow and provide it. Food culture and tradition starts early, when we teach our kids where vegetables come from, how to cook and how to eat. There are a myriad of programs that contribute to this effort in NYC including Cookshop
My internship with cookshop exposed me to the shocking truth about the diet of kids today, most of them have never seen vegetables in any other form than french fries. However, with a little coaching, we were able to transform a group of 6 year kids that couldn't recognize a raw sweet potato into a group of twenty little chefs who neatly chopped and separated their ingredients, loved cooking, learning about, and trying new vegetables. Little minds are like sponges so it's important that they have something positive to soak up. Another great program of this sort is Alice Waters' Edible Schoolyard
Since this program started by bringing vegetables grown by students into a school cafeteria in Berkeley, CA in 1997, schoolyard community gardens and the idea of homegrown, healthy cafeteria food has spread from coast to coast.

All this talk of food culture is inspired by an absolutely wonderful book I've just begun reading by Barbara Kingsolver called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It's not only an account of her own family's mission to live solely on locally produced and grown food for an entire year but also a compelling and thought-provoking examination of our society's food culture, and a joyous celebration of food and eating. I highly recommend!

Enjoy this first day of summer and the delicious months ahead! And thanks to the folks at Edible Brooklyn for the definition of that brilliant Italian term that titles this newsletter.