Locally Grown - Availability for July 29, 2014

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Another week with a very short message. It’s a busy time and for some it feels like the summer is beginning to wind down and we’re looking ahead to the FALL.

Andrew is on vacation this week so be sure and be nice to our incredible volunteers in Gainesville this week as they host the market solo! Be sure and thank our volunteers. They do this because they love it, and Locally Grown would’ t be possible without so many people who are willing to give their time and energy to be a part of good, wholesome food.

I hope to have a longer message next week. In the meantime, be sure you’re enjoying all that summer has to offer.

We especially hope you enjoy the delectable photos that Andrew sends you on Fridays tantalizing your taste buds with featured products. This week the 3 items chosen are Mo’s Spicy Mix lettuces from Leah Lake Farms, Granola from Baker Springs, and cucumber salad which you can get from 5 different farms. We hope you’ll try some new things to make your week more interesting!

Highlights of my week were chipotle gouda mashed potatoes using O’hana’s fingerling potatoes. Also from O’hana, Shishito peppers. Just fry them in olive oil with sea salt. Great pre-dinner appetizer.

We’ve got two more promotional projects we’re working on completing before the end of the summer. Can’t wait to tell you about them. Until then…

EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Locally Grown - Availability for July 22, 2014

Hey Local Food Lovers,

No messages this week, just thanks and appreciation to each of you for eating Local Foods and supporting Local Farmers. Best way to do that is to eat local every week, better yet every day! The only way you can do that is to support local markets, csa’s etc. and we do think that you’ll find Locally Grown is one of the best sources for a broad diversity of products from a wide diversity of farmers, and very convenient too. Just a few clicks and then only a few minutes to pick up on Wednesdays after work and voila! You can EAT WELL!

Many thanks,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Locally Grown - Availability for July 15, 2014

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Just want to make a very short and sweet last minute reminder to get your orders in before tonight at 9PM.

Today I want to say just a few words about how much fun it is to feed your one year old baby wholesome local food. We’ve been joking around the house for the last year that if everyone ate as pure a food as what we’ve been feeding our daughter then we’d all be a lot healthier.

I have to give my wife almost all the credit. She’s been dedicated to making our babies food from day one. That means all organic ingredients. I won’t get into the details of peas, carrots, sweet potatoes and apples getting cooked and chopped up, but I will say often the smells in the kitchen are so good I want to eat the baby food.

What’s been more fun for me lately is our daughters interest in anything and everything we’re eating, and the faces she makes when she takes a bite of something for the first time.

Lately I’ve been slicing Mtn Earth blueberries in half and slipping them in her mouth. Did I already mention how she’d mash and suck the pulp and then spit out the leathery (somewhat bitter) peal. This morning we were sitting outside drinking coffee (just me silly) and she watched as the birds came down and were plucking all the berries (even the unripe ones) from the bush. I could see her little gears turning realizing HEY, they like the same stuff I do, and HEY wait a minute what do they think they are doing.

Also this weekend I scrambled some Homegrown Products eggs with Baker Springs heirloom tomatoes cooked in. I’ve always loved all kinds of veggies in my eggs and especially yummy heirloom tomatoes. I was pleased that Ayla liked the combination too. Then I wanted to see if just a bit of tomato uncooked was tasty to her as well….and yes….success, she loved it.

There’s some sweet treats as well but those you can feel good about. A blueberry, raspberry and banana smoothie with Mtn Fresh Milk, organic yogurt, organic apple juice, and dollop of Mtn Honey. Ok, I did put one small spoonful of vanilla ice cream too. That’s my secret to incredible smoothies. Ayla and I shared a glass and towards the end there was some competition on who would get the last full spoonfuls. And why does it taste better one spoonful at a time?

There’s so much more but hopefully that’ll whet your whistle for local foods this week.

One last plug to take our FARM TOUR SURVEY! Your feedback is very valuable to us. It only takes a minute of your time. And if you were a farmer on the tour, we’d like your feedback too!

Order big. It’ll improve your week!

EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Locally Grown - Availability for July 15, 2014

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Just want to make a very short and sweet last minute reminder to get your orders in before tonight at 9PM.

Today I want to say just a few words about how much fun it is to feed your one year old baby wholesome local food. We’ve been joking around the house for the last year that if everyone ate as pure a food as what we’ve been feeding our daughter then we’d all be a lot healthier.

I have to give my wife almost all the credit. She’s been dedicated to making our babies food from day one. That means all organic ingredients. I won’t get into the details of peas, carrots, sweet potatoes and apples getting cooked and chopped up, but I will say often the smells in the kitchen are so good I want to eat the baby food.

What’s been more fun for me lately is our daughters interest in anything and everything we’re eating, and the faces she makes when she takes a bite of something for the first time.

Lately I’ve been slicing Mtn Earth blueberries in half and slipping them in her mouth. Did I already mention how she’d mash and suck the pulp and then spit out the leathery (somewhat bitter) peal. This morning we were sitting outside drinking coffee (just me silly) and she watched as the birds came down and were plucking all the berries (even the unripe ones) from the bush. I could see her little gears turning realizing HEY, they like the same stuff I do, and HEY wait a minute what do they think they are doing.

Also this weekend I scrambled some Homegrown Products eggs with Baker Springs heirloom tomatoes cooked in. I’ve always loved all kinds of veggies in my eggs and especially yummy heirloom tomatoes. I was pleased that Ayla liked the combination too. Then I wanted to see if just a bit of tomato uncooked was tasty to her as well….and yes….success, she loved it.

There’s some sweet treats as well but those you can feel good about. A blueberry, raspberry and banana smoothie with Mtn Fresh Milk, organic yogurt, organic apple juice, and dollop of Mtn Honey. Ok, I did put one small spoonful of vanilla ice cream too. That’s my secret to incredible smoothies. Ayla and I shared a glass and towards the end there was some competition on who would get the last full spoonfuls. And why does it taste better one spoonful at a time?

There’s so much more but hopefully that’ll whet your whistle for local foods this week. Order big. It’ll improve your week.

EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Locally Grown - Availability for July 8th , 2015

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Well I don’t know about you guys but it feels like we’re almost at the height of summer production. This is the time of year where we see nearly all the diversity of local foods converge. When you can still get a few of the cooler season crops like cabbage, beets, fennel, carrots, but most of the summer stuff is here like tomatoes, cukes (that’s short for cucumbers by the way), eggplant, peppers, corn, and beans.

As is typical for me, it’s the rare and somewhat hard to get stuff that makes me happiest. For example I went down to the Clarkesville Community Garden last week to take a quick look at things and noticed that the raspberry bushes that I planted 3 years ago (and have been weeding and mulching that bed every few months since) was just chocked full of raspberries. I was a bit surprised as a kids group had been by earlier that week and I assumed the gardeners would keep a close eye on the bushes and nibble every time they went. Lucky for me I think most folks don’t know that you gotta get down on your hands and knees and reach deep under the vines to see all the berries. Raspberries are not an easy fruit to pick. By the time I was done I had well over a pint of beautiful red berries. Well everyday for the last 7 or 8 days I’ve had a smoothy with fresh local strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, milk from Mountain Fresh, honey from Mtn Honey, and then non-local bananas, yogurt, and sometimes a bit of ice-cream and squirt of lime. I absolutely love fruit season. Since not many farmers do raspberries I encourage anyone with a sense of adventure to plant your own. You do have to trellis them which can take some practice. But if you plant 2 or 3, they quickly will become 8 or 12, and you can start giving them to your friends. In fact, find a friend with raspberries and ask for a small rooted plant to get you started.

Also had Wauka Pork Chops this last week that we let marinate in fresh herbs from our garden. Chopped up rosemary and thyme and I mean a lot of it, like a cup or more. Then just pat that on the chops thick with olive oil. I add a little pepper and salt too. Let ’em sit for a half hour. Longer lets the flavor penetrate even more. Then on the grill on low, low heat. Succulent. The left overs were even better as the herbs just keep penetrating.

Chanterelles. I spend a lot time outdoors….my work fortunately has me tromping through the woods a bit from time to time, and after all the thunderstorms this week I was happy to finally find my first patch of Chanterelle mushrooms. These shrooms only grow wild and they are a true delicacy. Cook them in butter of course with a bit of garlic. Then add some cream and cook on low and put over pasta or my favorite is on toast of some really good bread.

You may notice from my writings here that I love to eat food from local farms, but wow, what joy in eating foods grown yourself or even better found through your communion with nature. That’s my kind of worship time, just being thankful that the world provides food if we cultivate our knowledge of it. We all could cultivate a lot more with just the tiniest of efforts. And that is a more sustainable way of living, and perhaps most importantly a more enjoyable way of living. Crusting my food with my own local herbs kind of makes my heart sing.

Also this week, the birds have been eyeing my blueberries. No way about it, I’ll have to share. In fact, they, the birds, are probably watching me thinking, I hope that tall human doesn’t eat OUR berries.

It’s not too late to enjoy some Shade Creek Farm red white and blue potatoes in the spirt of the 4th of July Holiday. Also Shade Creek’s zephyr squash are my favorites. Got two pounds coming on Wednesday.

Been improving my flower and garden beds lately and thought I’d plant some interesting and sometimes medicinal plants from Holman Holllow. Black Cohosh and Wild Ginger should be both beautiful and useful in the years ahead. I love the service they are providing helping to educate us on native plants. Buy one or two and expand your plant brain!

Thanks again to all who enjoyed the FARM TOUR just over a WEEK AGO. Please share with us your ideas to improve it next year by taking our survey at
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/eatwellbuylocal2015

And don’t forget to post photos from the TOUR to
the GA Mtns Farmers Network Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaMountainsFarmersNetwork?ref=hl

We hope you have a great week….. and EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Locally Grown - Availability for July 1st , 2015

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Happy Happy Summer! We had an absolutely stunning weekend for the Farm Tour! Huge thanks to all of you who attended or helped spread the word, or volunteered. It takes a huge number of supporters to pull off an event like this and clearly the Farmers themselves deserve most of the credit for being willing to host visitors to their farms, planning good parking, setting up a place to sell food, and giving the tours.

In my lifetime of interactions with people I’ve yet to find more generous, friendly, and gracious people than farmers. You know what I mean? It makes sense I guess. Sustainable local food farmers truly want to feed and nourish people with good food. But it goes beyond that. They generally want to nourish people all around. There is a sort of innate spiritual depth to many of them. That combination of a true love for the earth, and a wonder with what the earth can provide to humanity when it is well cared for by hard working, dedicated and disciplined folk. You just can’t help but absorb some of the good cosmic vibe they give off when you are around them.

I’d like to think that Locally Grown, the Clarkesville Farmers Market, Simply Homegrown, the Gainesville Historic Downtown Market….these are all places where we are fortunate to experience the commerce of local foods. It’s where farmers make themselves and their foods available. But to go out to a farm and be a guest, is where the cultural depth of the local food movement comes into focus. Farmers are often too busy to be full time educators, but they have a knowledge of sustainability in practice that few of us get to experience. Figuring out how to access and use water, but to use it efficiently, to make the soil the best it possibly can be to grow the best possible crops, learning how the rising and the setting of the sun makes different parts of the farm best suited for particular crops.

One thing that really struck me this year is how much some of the farms have changed in the years since we started doing the FARM TOUR. Each year, new practices come into focus, little improvements made that add up to create a complex beauty resulting from the lessons of trial and error.

Before signing off and encouraging you all to order BIG this week, I just want to say that these things, this special knowledge does not belong to farmers and farmers alone. We all have yards, we all eat, we all generate excess organic matter. Experimentation is good. A small pile of compost in the corner of your yard can slowly change the fertility and environmental benefit of your entire property allowing more rainfall to penetrate the soils, more photosynthetic productivity, more shrubs and herbs scattered about that produce berries and spices. A rain barrel to recycle the rainfall will give you a deeper relationship to the water than that coming out of the tap and its better for your plants and your soil too. Each year see if you can’t turn your red soils a little blacker, create an oasis for animals, flying insects, and nature! And in the process you’ll be creating a little oasis of sustainability for yourself. One that you’ll be proud of and will nourish you.

Huge thanks to our area farmers for giving us a snapshot of their own “oasis of sustainability” they have created. And in the process inspiring us to glean a little bit from them.

Now go out and buy everything they have left to sell this week. I’ll share just a few quick things I’ve been enjoying. Last night we had angel hair pasta with squash that had been sliced in a madolin (you could use a chesse grater too) and cooked with butter and lots of pepper, a little salt. Then all mixed together with parmesan. Simple. Delicious. Fried pardon peppers on the side. We’ve also been eating lots of diced cucumbers and tomatoes tossed with balsamic and basil. My favorite summer salad. I’ll share my wife’s eggplant dish in garlic sauce next week.

Thanks and EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Locally Grown - Availability for June 24th , 2015

Hey Local Food Lovers,

The summer is here! It’s already been here I know but yesterday was the Summer Solstice, otherwise known as the official start to summer and the longest day of the year (about 14 and a half hours). If you’ve ever been confused what the summer solstice means, just imagine the north pole tilting towards the sun. This tilt reached it’s maximum extent of the year yesterday, with the sun passing directly over the Tropic of Cancer (that’s what that line demarcates actually, the maximum tilt towards the Northern Hemisphere, meaning we received the maximum amount of the suns rays). All the areas above the tropic of Cancer or below the tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere are the one’s that experience seasons because of the extreme tilt toward the sun during the Summer Solstice or away from the sun during the Winter Solstice.

Even though the days get shorter from here on out with the tilt receding, our hottest days are ahead in part because the land and waters around us continue to absorb and release the heat from these longer days slowly.

For millennia the Summer Solstice has been a time of celebration giving tribute to the fertility of the Earth (Stonehenge in Europe is believed to be both a tribute and a very early timepiece calculating when the solstice would occur).

Well in the tradition of paying tribute to the fertility and abundance of the Earth, and especially to those who make that abundance possible we are putting on our our own sort of CELEBRATION with the timing of our biggest events of the year, the Georgia Mountains Farm Tour and our first ever CROP MOBS!

What pray tell is a CROP MOB? Should I be frightened. Well no. This is another reinvention of ancient traditions. Neighboring farms back in the day would assist each other with large tasks such as harvest days when the prime moment to get a harvest out of the field occurred during a window of few days (Before bad weather came to rot). Farmers would provide labor to gather another farms harvest, then be repaid the favor when their own harvest came in.

Well today we’ve tweaked that formula a little bit to engage anyone and everyone in our communities who is interested in local farms, farmers and the food they grow to come and be of service. This was something that farmers identified as one of their primary needs and interests during this busiest time of year….and a great way to help them prepare for our FARM TOUR coming up next weekend.

If you have time this week to come and be part of this ancient and yet modern tradition here is the schedule of FARMS, DAYS and TIMES available for you to come lend a hand.

Mill Gap Farm 8-11am Monday June 22
Copper Pot Gardens 1-4pm Monday June 22
Veggie Patch 9-11am Tuesday June 23
Taylor Creek Farm 5:30-8:30pm Tuesday June 23
Melon Head Farm 9-noon Thursday June 25
Liberty Farm 9am-noon Friday June 26
Leah Lake Farm 1-4pm Friday June 26

If you would like to be a part of this SPECIAL EVENT please send Andrew an e-mail at gmfnfarmtour@gmail.com and he’ll send you directions and information on how to get involved. All helpers welcome. Just bring a hat and water and your enthusiasm.

And just as a farmer would receive something in exchange for their labor, we are offering a DISCOUNTED PRICE of $10 off your FARM TOUR pass for those of you who attend a CROP MOB. It’s a great way to get a more intimate view of what local food farming looks like up close.

Well this is the last week to get your FARM TOUR passes. We really encourage some of our new GAINESVILLE customers to consider this once a year opportunity to see all at once where the incredible foods from Locally Grown are produced. It’s a very special weekend of driving through the mountains from farm to farm, meeting great folks, eating great foods, and ultimately becoming a part of this burgeoning local food movement.

In addition to helping get the Tour started four years ago, I’ve had the pleasure to attend every one, and I’ll tell you it’s still the highlight of my year. It’s also one of the best weekends to invite friends to the region. My family has come to several and they often remind me of some of the remarkable visits they encountered with honey bee farmers, growers of micro greens, etc. Eating the food is special, but seeing how it is produced, and the care and intelligence involved is just profound, and likely to inspire you to do small little things around your home like plant rosemary, sage, mint, thyme and oregano in addition to al your flowers….or to compost.

There’s just a few more hours to order your brochure through Locally Grown, or if you don’t plan to order Locally Grown this week go directly to our website and order with a credit card and we’ll mail your brochure. Last orders will be tomorrow (Tuesday morning by 10am).

Go to http://EATWELLBUYLOCAL.ORG

Hope everyone enjoys this height of summer and don’t forget to …..

EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Locally Grown - Availability for June 17th , 2015

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Sorry this will be an extremely short message today. Just want to remind folks that the market is open until 9PM and there are some truly excellent items available.

We returned from Asia last Tuesday and it’s been so fun to dive into all the new fruits and veggies available that weren’t here when we left.

Had our first sungold cherry tomatoes this weekend. Also some swiss chard from Taylor Creek Farms. Though not available here at Locally Grown really enjoyed some of Trillium Farms micro greens which I hadn’t tried in ages. Taylor Creek’s head cabbages were also delicious. And we used some local eggs to make Belgian Waffles this weekend with Mountain Earth Farms strawberries sliced on top. Yum!!

We’ve probably had a lot more but that’s all I have time to describe. Thanks for those who expressed an interest in the Asian Food blogs over the previous weeks. I really enjoyed sharing and am glad to know that it was interesting to some of you. Will try and continue to infuse some cultural elements here and there as appropriate.

Don’t forget to buy your FARM TOUR tickets THIS WEEK. Price goes up after the 17th so get now while they are cheap. You can either add to your cart or visit www.eatwellbuylocal.org and buy them there with a credit card.

Also sign up to help a farm prepare for the Tour at our Crop Mobs. We’re helping 6 total farms this year to clean up, weed and get ready for the tour and a bountiful season. They need all the help they can get, and it’s a great way to get to know these farms more intimately.

We are working to possibly increase the use of Locally Grown and other markets in our region in the SNAP program. We’ll let you know how that goes. If you have a special interest in seeing more SNAP recipients participate in Locally Grown, let us know. We may be able to use your help in assessing how to reach this audience.

Ok, got to go. Don’t forget to EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Locally Grown - Availability for June 10th , 2015

Hey Local Food Lovers,

This week is fun for me because I can still go out and get a few last Taiwanese treats before the long flight home tomorrow (I’m about to eat 3 mangoes right after I post this), but can also order this weeks specialities from Locally Grown for pickup on Wednesday. The best of all worlds this week.

This is the last unusual post from Asia. Thanks to all who may have read these posts with a bit of curiosity about how people are eating half a world away. Due to a baby in tow we didn’t quite have as much flexibility as past visits when we were able to hunt down a few organic farms over here, and try and research what was going on in the sustainability of food front here in Taiwan. But from the purely local foods angle (Taiwan does a fantastic job of growing as much food as they possibly can considering the very small size of their island compared to the very large population….23 million).

Since it’s so difficult to discuss every delicious morsel of food I’ve put into my mouth these last several weeks I’m going to just focus on a few that I have taken photos for. What you are about to read are the captions from photos of these foods posted to the Locally Grown Facebook page

A few of these I’ve talked about briefly before, but have added some details that should be interesting.

Last week we visited Tainan which is one of the oldest cities in Taiwan (this former capital is in fact the origin of the country’s name), and very famous for foods that originated here…many of which have since become popular all over Asia. This one is called an Oyster Omelet. It is pretty much what it sounds like except that in addition to eggs and oysters they often also include sweet potato starch (which gives the whole thing a bit of a gooey consistency) bean sprouts, lettuce, shrimp and several different types of sweet or spicy sauce poured over the top. The oysters were fantastic and very fresh.

Another interesting aspect of small family owned restaurants all over Asia is that they usually do most or all the cooking on a portable gas stove or skillet in this case that is pushed outside of the restaurant. There’s several reasons for this. It’s too hot to cook indoors (most places don’t use AC), passerby can get a waft of the good smells of your food, and reduces the chances you burn your restaurant down. This is especially important since these families almost always live upstairs of the restaurant.

Accompanying this meal was milkfish ball soup. Very common in coastal areas (which is most of Taiwan). Milkfish is the most common fish in Taiwan and every single part of the fish is used. Something was really special about this broth too. In future visits hopefully my Chinese will be good enough to pry the secrets of this soup from the cooks!

Night markets are very popular in Taiwan. They are a bonanza of good traditional foods and snacks. Asian style pastries are one of the absolute best breakfast treats. If you’ve never heard of these, they are impossible to explain because there are literally hundreds of varieties, and bakers pride themselves on innovations in mixing flavors into new items. Very common are green onions, sausages (basically hot dogs) baked inside in different configurations, and dried shredded pork often with a sweet mayo….this is almost always my favorite. If you are curious about these pastries I have good news. There is a place called Sweet Hut on Buford Hwy right off 185 in Atlanta that does these just about as well as those I’ve had in Taiwan. Give it a try! And try their fried chicken bites too. Get them spicy.

One of our favorite treats at this particular night market was a fried Fantuan, otherwise known as a sticky rice ball. The traditional way this is made is with sticky rice filled with a fried piece of doughnut, pickled cabbage, and small bits of pork. This night market version was a little different. The whole thing was also lightly battered and fried, with a little spicy mayo in the middle. You got to kick things up a notch at night right? Then wrapped in seaweed to keep your hand from getting messy. It was terrific!

Another treat…. corn on the cob on a stick. But in Taiwan they coat the whole thing in their own BBQ sauce. Much better this way.

Ok, this next one is a little more applicable to us local fruit lovers.

Taiwanese love not just watermelons but a specific variety of watermelon known in the states as an Ali Baba (this was my wife and I’s specialty back when we were growing to sell). Originally from Iraq, it is a seriously superior melon. Watermelon here is most frequently served in triangles with the rind on after dinner. It’s a most refreshing way to end a meal. At the night market however, they have lots of fresh fruit smoothie stands where you can get a watermelon or papaya smoothie. We got both…and an Aloe Vera juice too sweetened with honey. Depending on the sweetness of the fruit, often these drinks are made with no sugar added. It’s just fruit and water.

You can also find these made with milk. In fact the 7-11’s in Taiwan (the most popular convenient stores in the country) actually sell cartons of watermelon and papaya milk. But of course the fresh ones are what you want.

It’s really hard to pick favorites, but I think my favorite dish of the entire trip was the sautéed eggplant! My wife has been making me braised eggplant with basil and chills for a long time, but this version blew my mind. There were some bits of pork in this and the garlic sauce was so savory. The delivery in a classic style bowl didn’t hurt either, but I’d do anything to eat this meal again. The green tea infused rice in the background was also amazing.

Some other nods. Wonton noodle soup. This is from a family owned street vendor. Both the cooking and the seating is all outside under the eaves of the buildings. In addition to the soup there is a side salad of eggs cooked in soy sauce and seaweed. At the same place we had Xiaolongbao. Pronounced Shalong bow. These little steamed buns most often filled with pork are one of my favorites. Served in a bamboo steaming basket. Dipped in sweet soy sauce. We always add some of the hot chili oil too.

Just a block or two from where my inlaws live is an amazing beef noodle soup place. The first time we ever went there the old guy owner was actually making the noodles. Fascinating. The way he would flip stretch and shake the dough kind of like a hot towel or something. Noodles are seriously important to the Taiwanese, and nearly all Asians I gather. Each country I’ve visited so far, you just pray you find their best version of noodle soup, because when you do, you’ll be very happy. So far in Taiwan this is it. The beef broth is super salty and spicy. First few times I had this it was a little hard to get used to. Now I actually add the hot chili oil to kick it up even more.

Last but not least, perhaps the best sweet treat in a hot tropical Asian country is shaved ice. At the beginning it just looks like a bowl of snow cone ice covered with brown sugar syrup. But at the bottom is your choice of lots of sweet often chewy things such as taro and other flavors of tapioca, grass jelly, sticky rice balls, passion fruit seeds, and sweetened mung or pinto beans. All the flavors mix together as you get closer to the bottom. This is the perfect treat on a hot day…..which is pretty much everyday here in the summer. It may sound weird, but I assure you, it’s awesome. You’ll never want another silly sugary snow cone again. Part of why it’s so good is all those ingredients are made fresh each day. They are sweet but not too sweet, and their is even a bit of nutrition in this dessert. But the main thing is the diversity of flavors and textures while being cooled down. Ahhhhh. I’ll miss it.

That’s a lot to chew on. I hope some of you get to taste a few of these dishes. Many are becoming more and more available in the states. But for the rest, I plan to learn to cook as many of these as I can. My wife already does a dang good job on quite a few of them.

Hope everyone has a splendid week. Don’t forget, just a few more weeks before the FARM TOUR. It’s a pretty slow week so far for orders, so order more and keep these farmers busy. Picks of the week still available are cucumbers, first fresh garlic of the year, and get you some garlic scapes for the grill, lots of leeks, sugar snap peas, squash, radish and even a few peppers.

EAT WELL,

Justin in Taiwan
Chuck in Rabun
Teri in Clarkesville
Andrew in Gainesville

Locally Grown - Availability for June 3rd , 2015

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Before a quick snippet about continuing food adventures back in Taiwan this week I want to mention that the Georgia Mountains Farm Tour is fast approaching. It’s less than a month away on June 27-28th. If you are curious what the farms look like that you order food from every week here at Locally Grown, this is the best opportunity of the year to go out and meet these farmers in person. This year we are also adding a few Crop Mobs in advance of the event to help farmers prepare for the event and get caught up on farm chores during this busy time of year. Don’t forget to add these items to your cart this week (the Crop Mob actually earns you a discount to the TOUR).

Back here in Taiwan (our brief jaunt to Japan ended last week) we’ve been slowly making the rounds to eat all the best food that is well known in Taiwan. A few of my favorites are guo bao, which is a steamed rice bun wrapped around pork bellies that have been soaking in a delicious sauce for a day or more, then sprinkled with cilantro and a ground peanut sauce. It’s one of my favorites. I have to admit that my wife can make a better version of this back home using O’hana’s pork belly. Lucky me!

Shalom bao is another favorite, consisting of another type of steamed rice bun with ground juicy pork in the center. This is eaten with seaweed and an egg soaked in soy sauce on the side.

By far the most extravagant way to eat in Taiwan is a Taiwan banquet. Imagine an enormous lazy susan with a new dish brought out every 5 minutes or so. This is a family gathering way to eat. It started with Sashimi sushi, every bit as good as what I had in Japan, but more ornately delivered. Then fried soft shelled crab. An amazing fish soup with delicate rice noodles. The fish had been fried before being added to the soup. Stinky tofu I’ll skip. Not many Americans would go for that one. Another fish dish! Then some great little fried cakes with sweet potato and taro in each layer. Slices of orange to finish it off.

Well, I’ll have to get into more details in my final post next week.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew