Archive for the ‘ Local and Organic Eating ’ Category

Rachel’s Sustainable Feast – Savoring the Best of Western Pennsylvania

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

KissMyCountry connected with The Rachel Carson Homestead Association last month with a link to ‘Rachel Carson – Would Rachel Work at BOEMRE or Greenpeace Today?’  We spoke with Fiona Fisher, Director of Communications – a wonderful individual – and Rachel’s Sustainable Feast caught our eye on their site.  A sustainable feast made by local chefs sounds irresistible – and it’s always better to save the planet on a full stomach!  This year the fourth Feast will be held on Sunday, August 29 from noon to 5pm on the Rachel Carson Bridge in Pittsburgh, PA.  Tickets are $10 per person and children under 5 are free.  We encourage our Pittsburgh readers to attend if you haven’t already bought a ticket!

 “It’s the end of the season so everything’s in season.  Corn and tomatoes, maybe peaches.  We have one farm that has the best peaches, McConnell’s Farm.  The weather this summer was perfect for peaches.  It’s also one of the best tomato seasons.” – Bill Fuller, Executive Chef, big Burrito Restaurant Group

Rachel’s Sustainable Feast and the Rachel Carson Homestead Assocation
Rachel’s Sustainable Feast  is an annual event celebrating sustainable living and all things local, held in honor of Rachel Carson (1907-1964), a scientist, author and Pittsburgh native who helped found the modern environmental movement.  The Feast is organized by The Rachel Carson Homestead Association, a private non-profit organization operating since 1975 and dedicated to preserving Rachel Carson’s birthplace and childhood home and developing educational programs in keeping with Rachel’s environmental ethic of 1) Living in harmony with nature, 2) Preserving and learning from natural places, 3) Minimizing the impact of man-made chemicals on natural systems of the world, and 4) Considering the implications of human actions on the global web of life.  The Homestead is listed as a site on the National Register of Historic Places.

Bill Fuller, Executive Chef, big Burrito Restaurant Supporting the Feast
Chefs who support local and sustainable eating are the focus of this event so we had to talk to a chef who will be cooking that day.  Fiona Fisher connected us with Bill Fuller, Executive Chef of the big Burrito Restaurant Group, a chef with over 20 years experience in the restaurant industry.  Bill stepped away from a batch of gazpacho last Friday to talk with KissMyCountry for a few minutes and we thoroughly enjoyed the conversation.  Bill’s been using local and sustainable ingredients in his restaurants for years and was involved with the Feast since its first year.  Given the size of the Big Burrito Restaurant Group – fourteen restaurants and a catering division that includes Kaya, Casbah, Soba, Eleven, Umi and nine Mad Mex restaurants.  Bill’s had a big influence on the growing interest in local and sustainable in Pittsburgh.  “Our company has a big presence here, we have a newsletter, and a big tradition with local and sustainable farmers.  I believe I was the first person on board.  It fits what we do.”  Bill said his expectations were low the first year of the Feast but was pleasantly surprised.  “I thought there would be 50 people – foodies, a few friends – but 750 people showed up the first year.  It’s grown every year, and this year it’s going to be huge.”  The Feast has quickly become the ‘go to’ event in the area.  “I see a lot of old chefs, a lot of old customers and a lot of old friends.”  What can we expect from Bill at the Feast?  “I guess I’d better start thinking about that!  It’s the end of the season so everything’s in season.  Corn and tomatoes, maybe peaches.  We have one farm that has the best peaches, McConnell’s Farm.  The weather this summer was perfect for peaches.  It’s also one of the best tomato seasons,” says Bill.  Bill, we can taste what you’re going to serve already – there’s nothing like local summer produce for taste and flavor!

A Move to the Rachel Carson Bridge as the Homestead is Outgrown
This year the Feast will be held on the Rachel Carson Bridge – also known as the Ninth Street Bridge – in Pittsburgh.  “We’ve outgrown the Homestead,” says Fiona Fisher, Director of Communications, “It’s going to be exciting to hold the Feast on the Bridge.”  The Feast will offer local and sustainable dishes prepared by a group of Pittsburgh area chefs – including Chef Bill Fuller.  In addition to eating, Feast goers will have the chance to visit eco-friendly vendors, local farmers’ markets, groups who work to protect our land, water and air, and learn about sustainable living practices while enjoying the fruits of the chefs’ – and local farmers’ – labor.

It’s great to see how popular this event has become in Pittsburgh, and is the perfect way to celebrate Rachel’s legacy.  Rachel Carson Homestead Association, we definitely like your style and will be thinking of you on August 29.  We know it’s going to be a great day!

The Rachel Carson Homestead Association is located at 613 Marion Avenue, Springdale, PA.   Contact the Association for tickets to Rachel’s Sustainable Feast which will be held on the Rachel Carson Bridge in Pittsburgh, PA on Sunday, August 29 from noon to 5pm.  Tickets are $10 per person and children under 5 are free.

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Review of Food, Inc. – 2010 Oscar Nominated Documentary

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

The 2010 Oscars will broadcast on Sunday, March 7, and Food, Inc. is nominated for Best Documentary Feature.  Given the buzz and discussion it’s inspired it’s a winner already –  they’ve certainly got my vote – and of course it’s an honor just to be nominated.  Enjoy the review and I hope you seek out the movie.

Watching Food, Inc. will make anyone re-think their Oscar snacks.   This is a documentary with strong opinions, strong arguments, and lots of information.  It’s a film that everyone should see.  The messages are clear and driven home again and again.  The bad guys are bad, and the good guys are honest, touching, and sympathetic.  

But this documentary’s not about disliking the bad guys and siding with the good guys – it’s about  something much harder – it’s about making you think.   Are we eating in a way that makes us less healthy?  Do our regulations guarantee safety or put us at risk?  Who really pays for cheap food?  What’s the environmental cost?  In the end, the filmmaker – Robert Kenner – puts it in our hands and says we have the chance to vote 3 times a day.  He’s right.

I started to eat more organic foods a few years ago, embraced ‘eating local’ and relying more and more on farmer’s markets.  I did that for myself, and found I was eating food that tasted better and made me feel good.  I didn’t think beyond that; it was about me and supporting people around me.  I knew the bits and pieces of why organic and local is good on a broad scale, but this film connected the dots for me in a crystal clear way.  I now understand the broader picture, and it made me feel I should do more.  Much more.

One of the most interesting people in the film is Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms.  He’s open, passionate, and very articulate.  It’s hard to argue his points.  When he explains why feeding his cows the grass their bodies were designed to eat  – not corn – results in safer, tastier, and more energy efficient food, his case is airtight.  Eating organic and local becomes much more than ‘something for me’.  It’s something for all of us.  

Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm says that organic is the fastest growing food category in America – and retailers’ interest is growing as a result.  Gary began his quest for organic long before it was popular, like Jason Brown of Concept Development Group whom KissMyCountry interviewed earlier this year.  Both just wanted to eat food that tasted good and was good for you, both turned that personal desire into successful  companies, and both are glad to see organic and natural eating embraced by retailers and the mainstream.  Retailers want to retain customers, if customers are changing then retailers respond – or suffer the results.  This is what the director of Food, Inc. means when he says we have the chance to vote 3 times a day.  Retailers are tallying those votes, and changing what they offer in their stores.

Enough people have voted 3 times a day to create some changes, and those changes create more changes and help those who are being hurt the most  – those with small budgets and fewer choices.  The best question in Food, Inc. is ‘If a cheeseburger costs $1 then why doesn’t a pound of broccoli cost $1?’.  It’s a good question, and that’s why Food, Inc. is a must-see.  I hope you watch it, I hope you ask yourself some questions, and I hope you start to vote 3 times a day for yourself and for our planet.

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Eating Local – Planet Green’s 100 Mile Challenge

Monday, January 11th, 2010

100milediet.org

Planet Green’s 100 Mile Challenge is a great second act  in the local food journey of Alisa Smith and James Mackinnon, authors of Plenty and the 100 Mile Diet. Using what they’ve learned from their 2005 commitment to eat food grown or produced within 100 miles of their home, Alisa and James eagerly pass their knowledge on to a group of families in Mission, British Columbia who have also agreed to eat local for 100 days. The results are engaging, entertaining, and surprisingly dramatic – laughter, tears, success and good eating. It’s surprising how suspenseful foraging can be when people are hungry. If you love food – and who doesn’t – you’ll enjoy watching this challenge, and you’ll wonder about eating local in your own town.

I’d read Plenty and got to know Alisa and James in their early days of the 100 Mile Diet. That first dinner in the woods, the decision to eat local for a year, the challenges to eat a varied diet. They were novices and not afraid to admit their failures and frustrations – normal people, not experts. A great read, and a good backstory to the current show.

Fraser River near Mission BC by M. Lounsbery

On the 100 Mile Challenge, we see a different Alisa and James. Confident, positive, ready to help – they’ve climbed the mountain and are ready to extend a hand up and over the top. They are perfect teachers – guiding rather than preaching, encouraging people to try, letting them find their way. Alisa and James are writers, not actors, and their ‘waiting in the wings’ approach on the show might stem from their natural reticence but works very well. The best is when they volunteer to help prepare and serve meals, working and eating in the kitchen and commenting behind the scenes.   They listen, obey, help when needed and beam proudly as food is served and enjoyed.

The families who take on the 100 Mile Challenge are a diverse group. Each adds their own special flavor to the episodes. There are purveyors, families, couples, a 100 Mile Diet star in the making, and a bad boy. It’s great to watch Steve Peters include more and more local foods in his market, the Clark Vernons forage for salad in their backyard, and the Weremchuk Williams’ watching intently as the family’s pickiest eater tries something new. Angela St. Cyr is a standout and rises to the Challenge over and over – a day spent at a local restaurant learning recipes and then displaying her progress with a fabulous dinner for the entire group; baking a 100 Mile Birthday Cake for her 4-year-old daughter. Randy Hawes – the bad boy – is priceless as he makes jam to repair friendships after breaking the rules of the Challenge but can’t resist devilishly adding hot peppers to give the jam a ‘Randy’s Revenge’ kick.

I’ve enjoyed watching this first season of the 100 Mile Challenge, and hope there are more in the making.  Will Alisa and James venture outside of British Columbia? Knowing the bounty of British Columbia it would be great to see the challenge in a less bountiful region or in a large city – Toronto, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York. The possibilities are endless, and Alisa and James are welcome in my town and my kitchen any day.

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