Availabilty list for Northeast Georgia Locally Grown

Northeast Georgia Locally Grown is now open for orders until 9:00 pm Monday evening. Pick up your orders between 5:00 and 7:00 Wednesday evening.

Locally Grown - Availability for July 24th, 2013

Hey Local Food Lovers,

So this message is coming to your from Chiang Mai Thailand. Before I describe the local foods I’ve been enjoying let me start by plugging all the incredible food that has landed on Locally Grown this week. It’s an 11 hour time difference here so the first thing I did upon waking up was scroll through this week’s offerings. I have to admit that even though I am greatly enjoying the food here, it made me a tad homesick to see what I’ll be missing.

The first thing I noticed that made me smile is we have so many new farms and food producers this year bringing a wider diversity of crops. That’s a trend I expect and hope will continue b/c as they say (and I embrace) diversity is the spice of life.

The things that caught my attention were: CORN! We’ve always had an underabundance of sweet corn so it’s great to see Oakcrest Farms with one of the best tastes of summer. Melon Head’s chinese noodle beans look great, and i love that they are mixing their greens and their reds for nice color on the plate. There are tons of cucumbers and garlic and quite a few flowers. There are also the seasons first peppers and…….just in case you didn’t notice….TOMATOES. That’s what I’m really jealous of. I guess I’ll have to wait until I return to have my first heirloom tomato sandwich.

Ok, I’ve only got a few minutes so let me tell you just a tiny bit about my food adventures. Street vendor food is a way of life in Thailand just as it was in Taiwan. Last night Chiang Mai had a night market that was attended by thousands. If I had to guess I’d say there were close to 100 different street food vendors scattered all over the city. For those who haven’t experienced this I’ll try and describe it. Usually vendors will be clustered in certain areas so that people can wander around and see what they would like. We can’t read a word of Thai so we have to look and watch what each vendor is making and then point when we see what we’d like. We’re slowly picking up a few words like “moo” for pork. Most vendors cook either cook over a grittle built into the cart, or more frequently a wok that they set up over a gas flame slightly away from the cart. Depending on how popular that cart is they may have a help who is handing them the cut up ingredients for each dish as the orders come in. The owner is always the one standing over the flame. It’s quite fun to watch them whip up your food right in front of you.

We don’t know all the names of the dishes we’ve had but here’s some quick descriptions:
Pad Thai – you’ve probably had this – it’s a peanut flavored noodle dish we’ve had served with chicken, or shrimp, pork and cabbage which is cooked in a pot rather than a wok and served with a spicy sauce, stuffed fried peppers with chicken (this was one of our favorites), chicken noodle soup (that had a mixture of regular and fried noodles), papaya salad (papaya, carrots in a spicy sauce), roasted chicken and pork (the pork is especially amazing because of a sweet sauce they drizzle over it). Then there are tons and tons of juice and smoothie stands where you can get fresh mango, passion fruit, papaya and a dozen other fruits. Best smoothies I’ve ever had I think. Mango mojito which is without the rum but with the mint is my favorite.

One of the coolest local foods is this thing called Roti which is dough that is fried on griddle with banana inside and then drizzled with condensed milk. That is a heavenly dessert!

I don’t think there is such a thing as organic street food, so it’s not perfect in that way, but the exposure to all these dishes is pretty amazing. We are going to a Thai cooking school next week that is on an organic farm, so maybe I’ll have some healthier things to describe last week.

Time to get on the motorbike and head into the mountains for a few days.

Hope you enjoy all the local food back home and …..
EAT WELL,
Justin in Habersham
and
Chuck in Rabun

Locally Grown Availability List for July 19

The market is now open!

Locally Grown - Availability for July 17th, 2013

Hey Local Food Lovers,

I’m posting this message from Taiwan where I just returned from an all you can eat steakhouse where I gorged myself on more meat, seafood, and ice cream than you can imagine. Food is central to life here and its probably one of my favorite things about Taiwan. It’s very much like the New Orleans motto where they Live to Eat rather than Eat to Live. It’s a little bit dangerous for me b/c I could gain a lot of weight if I’m not careful. That’s why I’m headed off on a 3 day bicycle ride tomorrow….so I can earn my right to eat as much as I want.

So you can get a feel for my challenge I’ll just describe today for example. We started the morning by looking for my all-time favorite food in Taiwan called fantwan, or sticky rice ball. This is primarily a street vendor dish made in the mornings that consists of a layer of sticky rice (the purple variety is my favorite as it has more fiber and flavor), pickled cabbage, pickled radish, fried donut type stuff for crunch, dried pork (its very common to have this type of pork that is like jerky but shredded very fine, almost fluffy), then it’s all rolled into a ball that sticks together.

For some reason my wife took us from the fantwan stand to another place for wonton soup and shalom boa which are these little steamed dumplings stuffed with pork. Now keep in mind it’s 9am and I’m having pork dumplings to help wash down my fontwan, with a little wonton soup to help. But wait, then we had a side of dry tofu and some soy milk. Just to be fair, we saved most of our fantwan for later in the day.

So off we went to explore some of Taipei’s oldest markets….by scooter. Scooter life is quite amazing and something I fell in love with last time I was here. Because there are so many people and so little space, there are many more scooters than cars for the simple reason that you can find a parking space so much easier for a scooter…and it’s cheaper and more convenient to get around. It’s not uncommon to see a mom with one baby strapped to her chest and a 5 year old on the back of a scooter zipping down the road faster than you.

Our first snack at the old market wasn’t that unusual. An ice cream cone. As you walk down the road there are dozens of foods and drinks that look delicious. Our next treat was fresh pressed sugar cane. I’d never had this before and I have to say, it’s amazing. It’s sweet to be sure, but it tastes like juice. It’s a dark green color, and my guess that unrefined it has some nutritious value, maybe from fiber, or even the still living chloroplast that you obviously don’t get from processed sugar. We should look it up. My guess is it’s good for you.

It was scorching hot so about 30 minutes later we were ready for something else to cool us down and there was a lady cutting open fresh cocunuts pouring the juice into bottles and putting the bottles in ice water to make it cool and delicious. It was!

Next we hopped back on the scooter and headed to a little village known for ceramics. Ching-Yu got an iced coffee but I wanted something better. It’s simply called shaved iced and it puts our snow cones to shame. Rather than just pour colored sugar water over ice this treat gives you the following options for toppings on your shaved ice: green jelly, tapioca balls, pudding, taro, then many different types of sweetened beans, then your option to have condensed milk or a sweetened syrup poured on top. This makes it all more like a lite ice cream than a snow cone. It’s the perfect snack on a hot day and other than a little extra sugar, it’s mainly good for you.

I could go on for pages re: food if I let myself, but that’s probably good for now.

Before I wrap up and plug a few items I’ll just mention that one thing that has really impressed me here is that everyone is incredibly thin despite these rich, delicious foods. Only thing I can figure is they are just so physically active. Each day involves lots of walking, riding bikes, or scooters, or taking trains or buses to get to work, school, markets, etc. People are moving, moving, moving non-stop. I’ll admit, it can be a bit exhausting at times, especially given the heat, but it keeps one fit. One of the most impressive things I’ve noticed and enjoyed since arriving here is every river has a trail next to it creating these extensive greenway networks that allow people to get all over the place via pedestrian means without traffic. Most people use these for recreation more than for commuting, but I’ve been very impressed with not only how many of them there are (miles upon miles – 50+), but how many people here are utilizing them. Taiwan, and especially Taipei is known in Asia as being one of the best cycling cities. Lucky for me as other than language lessons and eating, that’s been the other focus of my trip so far.

Ok, time to move on to what’s going on back in Georgia. I know it’s still been raining non-stop and your all about sick of it. We just had a Typhoon here in Taiwan and the price of vegetables is super high this year due to bad weather. Maybe our local growers should be charging more too since obviously there will be less of everything with the mildew and rot that is no doubt going on.

However, even with all these challenges I noticed there are tons and tons of cucumbers and beans this week. It’s pickling season and I really encourage folks to try their hand at making pickles if you haven’t before. Ching Yu started making pickles a few years ago and I don’t care if I never have another store bought pickle. They just don’t compare. If anyone has a great pickling recipe please post it to our recipes section or to our facebook page and maybe you’ll inspire somebody.

I said I was gonna plug Lake Rabun Hotel and Restaurant and I am, but not today. I’ve got to get up early and hit the bike. However, to insure you don’t miss any good eats opportunities I’ll continue to post their schedule here until I do get around to talking about Jamie Alred and all the good he does for our growers and our stomachs by cooking so dang good.

You can see the schedule of farmers for Featured FArmer Thursdays by visiting
http://www.soque.org/pdfs/Featured_Farmer_2013_flyer_one_page.pdf

or click here

Thanks for shopping local and

EAT WELL,

Justin in Habersham
and
Chuck in Rabun

Locally Grown - Availability list for July 12

Good evening sustainable food lovers,
Locally grown market is now open to place orders for Wednesday pick-up.

Locally Grown - Availability for July 10th, 2013

Hey Local Food Lovers,

I want to start out tonight by welcoming all the new farms and other food producers that have joined us here at Locally Grown this summer. It’s quite exciting to see all our area markets growing with customers, with farms and with food. We’re growing right along with that trend.

Hill Manor Farm is right around the bend here in Clarkesville (in the Deep Creek river basin actually). They had some mighty good looking dewberries last week and this week I see cukes and lettuces. Garden Post is also a nearby farm by way of Wisconsin where they were part of the great farm to market scene in Madison. They’ve got lettuce, cucumbers, . Tony Smith of Shade Creek Farms is off to a great start with his trademark red, white and blue potatoes that he does for the fourth of July. I made RBW mashed potatoes and I thought they were really cool! He’s also got blueberries. Hollman Hollow has all kinds of amazing plants, and this week gourds!

I want to welcome back Liberty Farms who are seasonal growers Wesley and Sherri (well known for their bushels of okra) who are mixing it up this year with white half runner beans, sweet onions, squash, and jalapeno peppers.

This is Oakcrest Farm’s second year and we love seeing their beautiful Zinnia’s at market. If you’d like to donate your nice looking glass jars for them to use as vases (Clarkesville location only) you can sit them on the grill under the carport. Not too many though! And try and pick pretty ones.

Ok, that’s all I have time for tonight. I’ll be putting in a lengthy plug for Lake Rabun Hotel next week but just in case you’re in the mood for a good dinner this week go ahead and check out their schedule of featured farmer dinners.

http://www.soque.org/pdfs/Featured_Farmer_2013_flyer_one_page.pdf

EAT WELL,

Justin in Habersham
and
Chuck in Rabun

Locally Grown availability list for July 5, 2013

Northeast Georgia Locally Grown is now open for placing orders.

Locally Grown availability list for July 5, 2013

We hope everyone is having a great and safe 4th of July weekend.
Northeast Georgia Locally Grown is now open for placing orders.

Locally Grown - Availability for July 3rd, 2013

Hey Local Food Lovers,

First off, if you’re gonna grill for the 4th, order LOCAL MEAT this week. We’ve got some great farms producing some great products. All farms EXCEPT BG will deliver products this week just in time for the holiday!

I’m gonna try and make this a quick message tonight….and yet there’s so much to talk about. We’re at the height of the growing season (or nearly there since things are a little behind due to the cooler spring and massive rain). Every week some new items come into play and some other items phase out. It keeps my mealtime interesting to say the least.

This week is definitely noteworthy for bringing on the berries. Blackberries, raspberries and blueberries are all here, though in limited quantities especially for blueberries. I’ve been enjoying some amazing smoothies myself with the raspberries.

It’s also POTATO season. With the fourth of July coming up I highly recommend making a potato salad with homemade mayo and dill (which unfortunately were out of season on now, but dried works too). Haven’t made homemade mayo before. It’s simple but requires a little labor. Just take a teaspoon of dijon mustard and a teaspoon of paprika and add one egg yolk. Then slowly add one cup of your preferred vegetable oil, slowly a drab at a time and whisk it in. Takes about 4-5 minutes and you can add just a touch of water if it thickens up to fast. You can add just a little lemon juice to kick it up. Just mix that with boiled cubed potatoes and if you’re feeling adventuresome add some fennel seed and/or mustard seed. This is the same recipe I use for making incredible homemade coleslaw except I also add a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar.

Ok, I’ve already gone on longer than I planned, but as you know I love talking about, thinking about, cooking and eating local food. It’s just about the coolest thing.

Stock up for the holidays please. It’ll make your family time all the more special if you bring some fresh local food along. And if you make anything cool please, please send us your recipes, or even just a photo. We’ll post it to facebook and may even include it here.

Last but not least, I’m taking a 3.5 week break in July to travel in Asia so this will be my last market until August. That means that just like last year I’ll be posting my announcements from there and sharing all my fun food adventures. We definitely have some planned so hope you’ll look forward to that. Please be extra nice to Teri, Lynn Mack and all the other volunteers that will be helping run the Clarkesville market while I’m gone.

If you attended the FARM TOUR two weeks ago thanks again. Don’t forget to take our survey to let us know what you thought so we’ll have good feedback for next year. The survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/88V6DXH

To both those who made it to the TOUR and those who did not, I think you’ll enjoy this VIDEO made by a.d.linker that really captures the beauty of the day and this great event. If you run into any of the farmers that make this tour possible please thank them for growing good food and sharing their passion with the rest of us! They work real hard so we can have something good to eat.

http://vimeo.com/69288616
or
the Locally Grown Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Northeast-Georgia-Locally-Grown/353580121384273?ref=hl

Don’t forget this 4th of July to
EAT WELL,

Justin in Habersham
and
Chuck in Rabun

Locally Grown - market is open

Hey Local Food Lovers,

Just wanted to remind everyone that the market is open. Hope you enjoy this week’s selection of wholesome local foods!

EAT WELL,
Justin