The Weblog

We send out cool articles and farmer highlights using a different email program. You can see the archives of those emails here and through our facebook page! We use this “weblog” every Friday evening to let you know the market page is accepting orders (look for the little add to cart buttons next to products). Northeast Georgia Locally Grown was officially OPENED on Monday, April 26th, 2010 and we are so thankful that you are helping support fresh local foods each week.



 
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Locally Grown - Availability for August 28, 2013


This post expired on August 26, 2023.

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Ok, I’m finally getting around to sharing a bit about this unique experience we had while visiting Thailand attending an all day Cooking Class. My wife does most of the advance vacation planning and she found an organic farm that teaches the class right there on the farm.

The day started at 8:30am on a Friday. The tour began with our instructors driving around the city Chiang Mai (in a truck with benches and a roof in the bed where we all sat – called a songthae only this one wasn’t red) picking up mainly couples from their various hotels around the city. This is a tourist activity of course, but it was awfully nice to pick folks up like that.

Then it was off to the market. We’d already stopped a few markets before but this one was unique. It was a huge market covered with a metal roof but open air. Every table was food. First stop was the fresh curry table. Our teacher showed us how to identify fresh curry, but said we wouldn’t need this pre-made because we were going to learn to make our own. Then he showed us how they shred coconut and press it for the coconut milk. The first pressing is creamier in fact its called coconut cream and the second pressing is the actual coconut milk. Wow, I’ve never written to word coconut so many time before. It’s not local.

There were some other crazy things to see at the market. Once of the most interesting was watching the frog guy. That’s right there was a guy who was taking live frogs and turning them into frog legs (and other parts) right there at the market. I’d never even thought about that. We also saw some insect larvae, but before you get the wrong idea, this market was a great way to start the day, we got the small number of items we needed and headed to the farm.

After almost having to push a truck out of ditch on the way we arrive and I realize for the first time, oh ok. the whole cooking school is actually gonna take place ON the farm. I’d apparently not studied up on how this was gonna work. There were several building with very, very tall ceilings (to let the heat out I presume) with little cooking stations consisting of a propane stone and a wok, and a large counter with cutting board, mortar and pestle and a few other items.

But first we got to tour the farm with our guide. We donned broad rimmed hats (asian style) to protect us from the sun and headed into the small garden. We dug up several roots of plants, trimmed leaves, and picked fruits many of which I’d never seen like galangal (or siamese ginger), thai ginseng, lemon grass, sweet eggplant (a tiny round green one), holy basil, turmeric (a bright yellow root), and the leaf of a kaffir lime.

During the walk we discovered two things. Our teacher was a very cool, very grounded, and very interesting man. He explained a lot about thai culture during the walk I never would have picked up on otherwise such as the meaning behind their expression “same same but different,” only he made it make sense using eggplants, mangoes and human beings. We are all same same but different.
I also learned that teak wood is what Thai farmers use for their pension. Very valuable if you plant them and can wait 25 years.

Back in the kitchen we began to receive different ingredients based on the dishes we had chosen to cook. I had picked the following:

Green curry paste
Green curry with chicken
Chicken with basil
Stir Fry big noodles
Pumpkin in coconut milk

About half the ingredients came from the farm. Which I forgot to remind was all organic, and they talked quite a bit about why this was important to everyone.

Next I got to do something I’ve been wanted to do for a long time….learn to make fresh curry with mortar and pestle. We don’t currently own one but I’ve been wanting this unusual cooking device for a while. These were heavy and stone and they way they taught us to use it (more like a smashing than grinding) the heavier the better.

Here’s what makes up a green curry

3 or more green chillies (depending your heat tolerance)
shallots
galangal
kaffir lime
garlic
lemongrass
thai ginseng
cumin
corriander
salt

That’s it. Smash it real good.

Now rather than describe each dish (which I suppose I could add them to the recipe section) let’s skip to the overall impression.

What struck me about this experience was what a great way it was to really experience Thai culture in a deep meaningful way. We learned their customs at the dinner table, we learned about the different rices, the tea they like to drink, and their sense of humor. I couldn’t help but think to myself, wow, this would be such a great way for visitor to get to know farms and mountain cuisine back home. Every farmer I know have a couple of dishes they just love to cook with their own vegetables and together these make up a kind of food culture that unfortunately most visitors to our area rarely get to experience.

For example, when I first discovered chanterelle mushrooms I fell in love with this unique mushroom that only grows in a handful of environments in the whole world, this being one of them. Learning to cook it (almost always in butter) just seems like it would pair so well with maybe learning to use an iron skillet, how to fry okra, make a blueberry cobbler, fry padron peppers, or even make some scrumptious pickles.

The food at our Thai Cooking School really turned out amazing. And we had so much that we ended up having the leftovers for dinner that night. We got to keep a small color book of all the recipes and my wife just made the green curry last night and it was almost as good as it was in Thailand….and still totally amazing in case that sounds like I’m dissing. I’m not dumb.

Perhaps cooking schools are a cultural phenomena in other places, but I’d really genuinely like to see something here and tied to the farming and other quirky food customs we have here. To make it truly great it would need to similarly start at the local farmers market where they could actually see the farmers whose food they would prepare. Then a hop around the herb garden to talk about how important basil, thyme, oregano and rosemary can be to a good vs. a great meal. Then on to fruits and whatever it is in season whether blueberries, watermelons, muscadines, or getting into this season apples and pears, and not too far off persimmon.

Local food tourism is something I think we’re gonna see more of in this country, and by golly Thailand has a great model we should borrow and steal from. That’s probably my favorite thing about visiting other places, is I can’t help but look at cool things they are doing as inspiration for cool things we could be doing. And cooking and eating local foods and studying techniques and the culture of that is just a great way to spend a day….or a lifetime for that matter.

If you’d like to see some photos taken during this class you can check the Locally Grown facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Northeast-Georgia-Locally-Grown/353580121384273

In case you’re headed to Thailand anytime soon here’s the place that taught the class.

http://www.thaifarmcooking.net

Thanks for being curious about foods from near and far and ……

EAT WELL,

Justin in Clarkesville
and
Chuck in Rabun