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

Locally Grown - Availability for May 24th , 2015

Hey Local Food Lovers,

This week’s message is being beamed across the world from Kyoto, Japan. I know you may be confused why the Local Food blogpost is gonna be about Asian food on the far side of the Earth for the next several weeks….but I hope you don’t mind to roll with it….as it’s fun for me to share how people eat in far away places. And its fun to share a little bit of the joyous experience of eating while traveling in Asia. After all, I can’t eat North Georgia’s Locally Grown while I’m away!

Let’s see, where to begin. In the last several days we’ve walked all over the city indulging in every kind of treat you can imagine. Day one we went to a very well known ramen noodle house. Everything about this experience was interesting. For starters, you pick out what you want at a little machine at the entrance to the place and order a ticket, and put your money in the machine (It’s like a vending machine with photos of the items you want). You pick out what noodles, how mucj, which types of broth, how spicy, how many onions, etc. Then you go into a little private booth with a curtain and wood benches. A huge pipe crosses the room and from that is a spigot to pour yourselves clear cold water to drink. A small wooden window at the end of the bench opens and a ramen noodle cook appears to take your tickets. Behind the little wooden door you can hear half a dozen noodle cooks shouting at each other in these kind of ritualized call and response tones. About a minute passes and 4 bowls of fresh ramen come out. For those who are super knowledgable about ramen this was the miso broth version, with a couple of thinly cut slices of pork on top. Miso comes from fermented bean paste, and is a very popular form of noodle soup, but there are other variations. Tonight for instant we had burnt miso which was a totally different flavor, and I had Shoyu which is a soy sauce base to the soup…(this shoyu was burnt as well so it had a rich smoky flavor that lingered for a half hour after the meal which was very interesting).

Another highlight was my introduction to little fried octopus balls or takoyaki (which is the name of the ball shaped pans that they are cooked in). This is a very popular snack. Asians have this great characteristic that I have learned to follow. When you see a long line of people waiting for something, that’s how you know that it is very good. Everywhere I have seen a takoyaki store there has been a long line so I’ve learned to get in line. The balls are made from a mixture of wheat batter, diced octopus, tempura and ginger. A sweet sauce is often poured on top. Like many street foods in Asia, part of the joy is watching the food be made right in front of you. The cook uses two little needle like pokers to turn the balls to cook them evenly on all sides. Their hand motions are fast and focused and elegant. And the result is quite delicious.

Other traditional Japanese foods we’ve enjoyed, Unagi, which is a seasonal river eel. The place located across from our hotel had the smell and smoke of the grilled eel (called Kabayaki) pumping into the street for many days before I finally went to try it. A very unique but delicious flavor. These eels spawn in the ocean and then spend most of their lives as freshwater eels living in rivers. In the wild these species are considered endangered but because of their importance as a major food source throughout Asia they are now raised in aquaculture.

Tonkatsu is a breaded and fried pork chop, usually a loin cutlet (and often of Berkshire pork….which I think ours was….I can’t read everything on the menu). This is traditionally served with a mountain of shredded cabbage and a handmade dressing and a side of miso soup. Another nice feature of this dish is making your own dipping sauce for the pork. It starts with a bowl of freshly roasted sesame seeds which you grind with a mortar and pestle then add a brown sauce and spicy sauce to taste. Really tasty.

Another unexpected treat was Japanese style French Toast. I don’t know the backstory on this but around Kyoto we’ve seen several places that have a delicious delicate bread that is deep fried then coated with sugar. It’s eaten without syrup which is unnecessary with the sugar. I’m a huge French Toast fan, and this just adds to my love. Not sure how easy it is to reproduce (I don’t deep fry for starters) but would be interested in trying a version of this. It also seems to me that the Japanese really like some elements of French Culture. There’s a super croissant shop also nearby, but with their own flare added of course. Such as baking, lotus root into the top of a sliced croissant with a little cream beneath. Yum!

There’s so much more such as sashimi sushi, green tea ice cream, all kinds of mochi (sticky rice treats in different flavors), yatsuhashi, warabimochi (similar to mochi but a jelly like starch rather than rice), tempura fried veggies, kobi beef, all types of interesting egg dishes, tofus, various seaweeds, etc.

Well, that’s about all I have time for this week. More to come.

Hope everyone is enjoying the bounty of locally grown food back home.

EAT WELL,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Locally Grown - Availability for May 20th , 2015

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Greetings from half way around the world. This message is being sent from Tapei, Taiwan which is about 8,000 miles away from North Georgia. I think this is what you call truly “getting away from it all!”

It’s been two years since my last trip here, so let’s refresh on some of my favorite things….and some of the more unusual aspects….of traveling in Taiwan and Asia more generally.

I’ll start with the basics. The U.S. and western countries in general tend to think horizontally. Buildings, vehicles, even our own bodies tend to spread outward on the sides (You know what I’m talking about). Since Taiwan is a very small country (at least 3 Taiwan’s would fit inside of the state of Georgia), yet the population is 4 times larger at 24 million, and it’s also an island, space is a precious commodity. So everything is about maximizing space, especially vertical space.

For example, my in-laws house is modest, yet has 4 stories plus a rooftop with a great view of the sunrise…pretty much like every house in the area. The width of the front entrance is probably only 16 feet across, which includes a garage door for parking their van. The van itself is tall and skinny, just like all the trucks here. Two cars can easily pass each other on a narrow alleyway.

Businesses on the main streets are very dense, one right after the other so all the signs are oriented upright vertically, long and skinny, and span several floors of the buildings they are affixed to. People here are skinnier too, but not due to lack of food. Food is everywhere! And the Taiwanese love to eat. There are markets with fresh fruit. In season right now is mango (my favorite, more on that later), water melon (shee qwa) and pineapple. Fresh cut meat is displayed each morning on the carts of butchers lining the roadway with little spinning fans with long strings hanging down to keep insects away.

The primary modes of transport are scooters and trains. Many, many people jetting around on scooters is a sight to behold. It’s even more fun to be on the scooter jetting yourself. You kind of know what it feels like to be a single blood cell being pumped through a circulatory system. Having a baby in a stroller this time around, we’ve found you literally can’t walk down the sidewalk for all the scooters parked there. I’d guess there are more than 50 but less than a 100 scooters for every single block you walk.

So what about the food? This isn’t a travel blog after all…. tell us about the food. Well I should start by saying that most meals so far have been at home, since my father in law is an incredible cook. I’d choose his cooking over most other Taiwanese food any day. Just as in most of the world, preparing meat for guests is a sign of generosity. However, the method of preparation is very different compared to the states.

Chicken and duck for instance is salted and streamed then chopped with a large butcher’s knife into diagonal cut pieces. These cuts go straight through the bone, so you are constantly picking little pieces of bone out, or chewing around them. But, since you aren’t just eating the thigh or breast meat, you often get more dark and white meat mixed together, for a greater diversity of flavor. An accompanying orange dipping sauce is very tasty too.

Our first night here, right off the plane we had stir fry noodles with seafood which included squid, octopus, and shrimp. Taiwanese love all chewy foods, and after several trips here I’ve acquired a taste for some of them too. Cuttle fish is another squid substitute that is quite good.

Pork is a backbone to much cooking here, though never in big pieces like a pork chop, usually it is cooked for a long time in different types of sauce then pulled apart and used as a flavoring in different dishes. Though we did have some whole ribs cooked in a soy based sauce that was so good! Tender salty meat falling off the bone. All meals are eaten with a small rice bowl in hand and chop sticks then you pick and choose from all the dishes in front of you. You can have a few bites of pork, then a few of chicken, then some stewed squash or napa cabbage (this one with mushrooms, pork and little tiny dried shrimp).

For breakfast we’ve had two options most mornings. Little cafes around town specialize in what’s called egg pie, which is just a rice flour tortilla type thing on a griddle with a scrambled egg poured on top to cook. Before flipping it closed and sliced into pieces you can add many different fillings. One of my favorites is dried pork (which is kind of fluffy and hair like) with corn, and a sweet mayo sauce. Our other breakfast has been these amazing traditional Tawianese pastries. I’ll describe those for you later.

Since I’m almost out of time for today, let me wrap up with my favorite sweet treat that I had yesterday (oh there are so many I hope to describe). It’s a mango shaved ice. Shaved Ice is a taiwanese speciality I’ll try and describe later, but for this version the ice is actually flavored like Mango, then fresh mango pieces are frozen and put on top, then two scoops of mango ice cream, and some condensed milk over it all, with little chocolate sprinkles. It’s very refreshing, and very Mango!!

There are many more tales to come. On Tuesday, we’re on our way to Japan, so that should be all new experiences to describe.

Not missing Georgia yet, but I’m sure that’ll happen before the end of the trip.

I hope everyone orders big this week! Keep your bellies full of good food while we’re away!

and EAT WELL,

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

Locally Grown - Availability for May 13th , 2015

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Hope everyone had a Happy Mother’s Day! For our family we had lots and lots of fun things to eat for this….our first mother’s day. It all started on Friday with the thawing of two pork chops from Wauka Meadows while we went for a quick jog before the thunderstorm came through. Once thawed I did my favorite pork chop preparation which is simply chopped fresh thyme and rosemary (it’ll be mainly the rosemary that carries through) rubbed on the chops with a little olive oil and then some fresh ground pepper. I let them sit that way for a half hour to let the flavors soak in. Then onto the grill for just a minute or so on high to sear the meat on both sides, then down to low for a nice long slow cook.

As a side we tried something new. We had beet greens from Trillium Farms (those came from the Clarkesville Farmers Market not Locally Grown, we like to get around to all the local food we can find if you know what I mean), beets from Mountain Earth, and oranges from …..o.k. from the grocery store….but what did you expect…..we can’t grow oranges around here. I had a vague idea of beet orange salad but had never had one. It’s so simple and beautiful it’s perfect. First, everyone should know how to properly roast a beet, and I don’t mean bake it to death where it’s all dried out. I learned this from Alice Waters. You simply take a baking dish or pan and put just a little bit of water in the bottom, enough to cover the bottom of the pan (.25 inch let’s say or a little more) then add the beet roots, then put foil over the top, bake on 400 for about 45 minutes. Beets will come out tender to the fork. You can peel if you like. I just ran cool water on them to cool them down fast chopped them up in a bowl, then parboiled the beet greens (that just means flash boil them for about a minute), chopped them up and added them. Then I zested an orange, peeled it, broke it into sections and actually I just pulled it apart into pieces (you could chop it just as easy). It all went in a bowl and got chilled for 20 minutes. Boom, beet/orange salad. You can add a fancy vinegar like a champagne vinegar, but we went without and it was great just simple.

Then for desert we had strawberries, wonderful strawberries. We ate them raw, then we also cut them into pieces and sprinkled with vanilla extract and sugar and let them sit. Then after 20 minutes some of those went into a blender with a few scoops of ice-cream and some milk to make a really good milk shake. The rest went into homemade popsicles. Half the popsicle was the strawberry/vanilla/sugar mixture with yogurt mixed in. The other half of the popsicle was mango mixed with mint and green juice (which is a vegetable and fruit juice blend).

As you can see it was a tasty start to the weekend. Also this weekend we had Leah Lake collard greens, some BG farms bacon, and lasagna made with BG farms beef, and a combination of beet greens and spinach. Sounds strange …..tastes amazing! And of course more strawberries.

Spring is my favorite time of year for eating local.

I hope it becomes your favorite time as well.

Two big announcements before I go.

We’re looking for some very important volunteers to help us with a few projects this year. And even if you don’t have the time I hope you’ll help us spread the word on these two great activities we have coming up.

The first is a brand new project for us. While we have FORUM communications helping us for two more months developing a wide range of marketing tools, we came up with the idea to begin compiling our own RECIPE BOOK with Locally Grown items, and dishes made by YOU GUYS our customers, also dishes by our FARMERS and even some CHEFS. If you would like to be involved in helping us compile recipes, collecting them from some of our friends, and possibly even taking photographs and other interesting tasks, we’d like to find one or two volunteers to help with this project. We will have a template for making the recipes look attractive so we can start to circulate them as we collect them. The long range goal though is to come up with enough (at least 40 or more) to compile into a Book, which should help to entice even more people to EAT LOCAL.

If you’re interested in such a task just send Andrew an e-mail Andrew.NGLG@gmail.com and let us know why you’re interested, and what skills, talents or interests you think you might be able to lend.

The second VOLUNTEER effort is helping out on some of our Locally Grown farms, and playing Farmer for a day. When polled farmers agree, the single biggest way that we could help them and make their lives easier (other than eating their food every week) would be to come out and put in a few hours of work during the crunch time of the season. We’ve never organized an event like this before and we’re pretty excited about being able to lend a hand. Details are still getting nailed down but the week of June 22-26 we’ll be helping at least one farm in a very significant way. In exchange you can get a pretty big discount (over 30% off) on your purchase of a FARM TOUR pass. More important than that, you’ll likely learn a lot about what organic farming looks like, skills that you can use in your own gardens. If you’re interested, please add “CropMob2015!” volunteer day to your cart this week. It doesn’t obligate you to anything….and it doesn’t cost anything. But it’ll give us an idea of how many folks are interested in lending a hand. And we can also coordinate the best dates and times based on who is most interested.

Thanks to you all for supporting Locally Grown foods in all the ways that you do. There are more opportunities every year!

Eat well,

Justin, Chuck, Teri and Andrew

Locally Grown - Availability for April 29th , 2015

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Just a quick reminder to get you some good Local Food this week. The asparagus has folks attention, but you gotta order fast to get it. It’s fun to see some of these specialty seasonal items get gobbled up.

I picked my first asparagus a little over a week ago, and i scooped out some of the soft innards of a stalk to let my 9 month old little girl have her first taste, just a few minutes after it had been cut from the ground. She loved it. So I let her hold the spear and chew on the end like a teething toy. Now that’s what life should be like. Not plastic teething rings, but fresh organic asparagus spears, dangling from babies mouths, getting them used to the taste and nutrition of locally grown food. I think letting her dig into a hard boiled pastured raised egg is coming up soon as well.

Promotions for the 2015 Georgia Mountains Farm Tour is now in full swing. The event is in exactly two months and you can order a weekend pass now from our website www.eatwellbuylocal.org

The proceeds from our Farm Tour is what our local farmers use to fund all our collaborations throughout the year including visits to each others farms, an annual farmer dinner, and this year we’re planning a few technical workshops that we’ll open to the public. Farmers collaborating is what made it possible for Locally Grown to exist, and its what allows farmers to exchange information and grow the local food movement stronger. If you or your business would like to SUPPORT the local food movement and our farmers network in particular we are currently looking for a small handful of SPONSORS for the farm tour. If you think you or your business would like to become actively involved in helping farmers, this small contribution would be a huge and direct help, and help to promote your business. Donations are tax-deductible. Click here for details

And if you have other suggestions of potential sponsors, please let us know when you attend market this week.

One of the most exciting things we’re adding to this year’s farm tour, and was one of the most requested areas that farmers wanted the Network to help support them, is the organization of some CROP MOBS, which are basically days that volunteers can come out and play farmer for a day, and really help farms catch up on some projects as well. Andrew is organizing some dates and locations for those currently. If you’d really like to help a farmer out with some simple bending over work for a few hours sometime in early June send Andrew an e-mail. It should be a great way to really BECOME a part of the Local Food movement in North Georgia!

Another great way to get involved is to eat local food. So we hope you order from Locally Grown this week and EAT WELL!

Justin and Teri in Habersham
Chuck in Rabun
Andrew in Hall

Northeast Georgia Locallygrown Availability list for April 17

The market is now open for orders.