Quality ingredients = quality product. As a chef, I have several rules I live by. One is to take pride in your food. That rule however, is not exactly how you make it, but what you make it with. The ingredients in whatever dish you may be making drastically affects the finished product. Cooking is like building a skyscraper. Using solid ingredients with stellar quality gives you a strong product. But if you use low-quality, tasteless ingredients, that would be like taking a few support beams out of the building. If you add something that doesn’t taste good to something you’re cooking, chances are it’s not going to taste good. This is why it’s important to shop local as much as you can. Here’s why:
LOCALLY GROWN FOOD TASTES AND LOOKS BETTER.
The crops are picked at their peak, and farmstead products like cheeses are hand-crafted for best flavor. Livestock products are processed in nearby facilities and typically the farmer has a direct relationship with processors, overseeing quality, unlike animals processed in large industrial facilities. Fruit on supermarket shelves usually travels an average of 1,500 miles. In that time, produce not only begins to lose its nutritional value, but the sugar begins to turn into starches, and the plant cells begin to shrink. All of these drastically affect quality and flavor.
LOCAL FOOD IS BETTER FOR YOU.
The shorter the time between the farm and to your table, the less likely it is that nutrients will be lost from fresh food. Food imported from far away is older. It’s traveled on trucks or planes and has sat in warehouses before it even gets to you.
LOCAL FOOD PRESERVES GENETIC DIVERSITY.
In the modern agricultural system, plant varieties are chosen for their ability to ripen uniformly, withstand harvesting, survive packing, and last a long time on the shelf, so there is limited genetic diversity in large-scale production. Smaller local farms in contrast, often grow many different varieties of crops to provide a long harvest season, an array of colors, and the best flavors. Livestock diversity is also higher where there are many small farms rather than a few large farms.
Summer Salad
- 2-3 heads of butter lettuce
- 1 pint of cherry or grape tomatoes, cut into halves
- 1 seedless watermelon, cubed (about 2 cups)
- 1 pint strawberries, cored, cut into halves
- ¼ red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cup sweetened coconut, reserved for garnish
- 1 cucumber, peeled, coarsely chopped
Dressing
- 3 limes, zested and juiced
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 3 tbsp. honey
- Splash of white wine vinegar
- 1½ tsp. kosher salt
- ¾ tsp. black pepper
Directions
Rinse and wash all produce. Chop into bite sized pieces and place in a serving bowl. On the side, combine all the ingredients for the dressing and whisk vigorously until thoroughly mixed. If necessary, place the dressing in the microwave for 20-30 seconds then re-whisk. Toss the dressing in the salad and garnish with the shredded coconut. Serve immediately.
LOCAL FOOD IS SAFE.
There’s a unique kind of assurance that comes from looking a farmer in the eye at farmers’ market or driving by the fields where your food comes from. Local farmers aren’t anonymous and they take their responsibility to the consumer very seriously.
LOCAL FOOD SUPPORTS LOCAL FAMILIES.
The wholesale prices that farmers get for their products are low, often near the cost of production. Local farmers who sell direct to consumers cut out the middleman and get full retail price for their food, which helps farm families stay on the land.
LOCAL FOOD BUILDS COMMUNITY.
When you buy direct from a farmer, you’re engaging in a time-honored connection between eater and grower. Knowing farmers gives you insight into the seasons, the land, and your food. In many cases, it gives you access to a place where your children and grandchildren can go to learn about nature and agriculture.
LOCAL FOOD PRESERVES OPEN SPACE.
When farmers get paid more for their products by marketing locally, they’re less likely to sell farmland for development. When you buy locally grown food, you’re doing something proactive to preserve our working landscape. That landscape is an essential ingredient to other economic activity in the state, such as tourism and recreation.
Pear–Berry Crisp
- 2 pears, cored and chopped in ½ inch pieces
- 3 apples, cored and chopped in ½ inch pieces
- 1 pint raspberries
- 1 pint blackberries
- Zest of 1 grapefruit
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 3 tbsp. flour
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup orange liquor
- 1 tsp. Saigon Cinnamon (or 1 1/2 tsp. regular cinnamon)
- Pinch of Salt
Topping
- 1 ½ cup flour
- 1 ½ cup oats
- 1 ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 sticks of cold, sweet cream unsalted butter,
- diced
- ¾ tsp. kosher salt
- Seeds of 1 vanilla bean (or 1 tbsp. vanilla
- extract)
- Vanilla Ice Cream for serving
Directions
Wash all fruit and thoroughly dry. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients for the crisp. Add liqueur and spices and stir until evenly mixed. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a 9×13 standard casserole dish, pour all the fruit into the dish. In a separate bowl, mix all the ingredients for the topping. Using your hands or a pastry cutter, add the butter to the topping and break up the butter into even smaller pieces. Once finished, pour the topping on top of the casserole dish. Bake for 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top.
LOCAL FOOD KEEPS TAXES DOWN.
According to several studies by the American Farmland Trust, farms contribute more in taxes than they require in services, whereas most development contributes less in taxes than the cost of required services. Cows don’t go to school and tomatoes don’t dial 911.
LOCAL FOOD BENEFITS THE ENVIRONMENT AND WILDLIFE.
Well-managed farms provide ecosystem services: they conserve fertile soil, protect water sources, and sequester carbon from the atmosphere. The farm environment is a patchwork of fields, meadows, woods, ponds and buildings that provide habitat for wildlife in our communities.
LOCAL FOOD IS AN INVESTMENT IN THE FUTURE.
By supporting local farmers, you are helping to ensure that there will be farms in your community tomorrow. That is a matter of importance for food security, especially in light of an uncertain energy future and our current reliance on fossil fuels to produce, package, distribute and store food.
I’ve included two of my very own “buy local” famous recipes. I wrote these recipes with local farmer markets in mind with the goal to try and include as many fresh, in season, and local ingredients as possible. They are perfect for a picnic, a lovely outside dinner, or any summer entertainment.