Girl Detective

Well, duh, but bravo for someone inventing a machine that tries to remedy things. (Link from Boing Boing)

The chefs are criticized if they send out a bad dish, or they decide not to. Hubris seems a common path to elimination. More often, a chef who think’s s/he’ll blow it out out of the water blows up instead.

I’m glad I wasn’t at episode 10’s boat party; those appetizers looked boring and scant. Even the top ones–Casey’s beef carpaccio, CJ’s seafood sausage, and Sara’s tomato bread pudding–looked good but not great. And the others could have come from a mid-level hotel’s catering service.

The judges were right to call Brian and the chefs on why they went for two items apiece instead of one. From the armchair it seems obvious that doing one great item well, and making tons of it, would be the way to go. Why didn’t the people who had catering experience know this? Hasn’t any of them done a wedding where the servers get mobbed on the way out of the kitchen and can’t even make it to the middle of the room?

I liked Brian’s non-hesitation to take a leadership role, and I empathize with his management mistake of giving people their heads as a way to let their best selves come forward. This is great in theory, but has mixed results in practice. The theme this season seems to be teamwork and leadership. Those who have a strong voice, a discernment about their own stuff, and can work (or learn to work) with others do well, as Sara did in part two of Restaurant Wars. Brian learned nothing from CJ’s and Tre’s mistake of the last episode; he was lucky not to be eliminated.

Howie’s offer to resign was full of bravado and honor, but unnecessary. He thought Brian might get eliminated, like Tre the week before, because of poor leadership. He knew his food was a large part of the failure and recognized he was the one who should go home. I like the responsibility this demonstrated.

So many chefs are in repeat-mistake mode that I see no clear winners and losers. Brian won the quickfire by eschewing his usual seafood and using Spam, then did a conventional tuna tartare for his app. Sara was on the disastrous dessert team in one of the early eps, yet she agreed both to doing a dessert and using cut-rate ingredients. Where was the strong voice of last ep? Hung went spazzy during the quickfire, and conventional during the elimination. Somewhere between the two lies his area of talent. And Dale hamstringed himself by agreeing to do a boring app with Hung.

(Did you know that Spam is made in Austin, MN, where there is a Spam museum? My husband G. Grod was delighted at Brian’s quickfire win.)

I recently admitted to an accidental crush on Anthony Bourdain. I’m enjoying his blog on the Top Chef episodes.

Throwing Things has a recap that may only be hilarious if you’re a football/Eagles fan. Since I do have some of those in my household, I’ve linked to it. (”Ee-yas!” is among 19mo Guppy’s many words.)

I didn’t win any ribbons at the fair this year. Apparently my four entries were small potatoes compared to the woman who hogged all the awards. Worse, she sounds too charming to dislike for it.

One of my strange, largely non-marketable skills is that I write letters that get responses. Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl printed one of mine in her City Pages food column this week, and came to the interesting conclusion that compiling a list of Minnesota food gems will start a gourmet revolution. I think revival might be more accurate, but hey, I’m not called revolutionary that often, so I’ll take it.

Here are a few of my MN food essentials–a short, incomplete list of why the Twin Cities are great for foodies:

Grocery Cooperatives
Farmers Markets with countless, if not only, local farmed goods
New French and Rustica breads
Cedar Summit Milk
Hope and Pastureland butters
Sonny’s Ice Cream
Legacy Chocolate’s Potion No. 9
Cafe Brenda
La Belle Vie
MN State Fair
Midtown Global Market
Origami sushi
Restaurant Alma
The Modern
NE Mpls food corridor: Surdyk’s, Pizza Nea, Punch Pizza, Fugaise, Brasa, Bulldog, Gardens of Salonica, Wilde Roast, all within blocks of one another! Now if only someone (Sonny’s, Izzy’s, Sebastian Joe’s, I’m talkin’ to you) would open an ice cream outpost, that area would be foodie heaven.

My stomach and I are only human, so even on three trips to the fair this year I couldn’t try everything. I also didn’t make it to the Fine Arts building. Foodwise, I found both winners and losers, but here are some of Rick Nelson’s 2007 picks that I’ll check out next year in their sophomore outings:

**** (four stars)

- Alderman plums, Midtown Global Market, Cosgrove St. between Dan Patch Av. and Wright Av.

- Buttermilk scones with jam, Country Scones & Coffee, Food Building

- Lingonberry Turnovers, Lingonberry Ice Cream, Underwood St. and Carnes Av.

- Strawberry and chocolate ice cream sodas, Bridgeman’s, Judson Av. and Liggett St.

- Strawberry malts, Dairy Goodness Bar, Empire Commons

I’ll also try for a pork chop on a stick. I’ve only heard superlative things about them from my carnivorous friends.

Yesterday all four of us went to the fair for food and rides. Drake loved it. So if you’re wondering at what age kids really get a fair or something like it, for us it was four (same thing for his birthday party).

G. Grod was less than thrilled that Drake wanted to ride the giant swinging boat ride, but both enjoyed the big ferris wheel. I agreed to go with Drake on the giant slide, which I found disconcertingly fast, though Drake loved it. I decided that discretion was the better part of valor and decided not to try any rides with 18M Guppy. Even the carousel frightened Drake until he was three.

And, oh yes, we did some eating.

Breakfast was Cinnie Minis from Cinnie Smith’s–warm mini cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting. CMs have a good amount of cinnamon and sugar, unlike Cinnabon. For protein, we got the Twisted Sister sausage from Sausage Sister n Me. While better than the Uff Da brat, it still wasn’t great. I don’t know if we’re choosing bad menu items, or if they’re off their game this year, since we’ve so enjoyed them previously.

Since we were in the food building, we got Mouth Trap fried cheese curds and fried pickle slices stuffed with cream cheese from The Preferred Pickle. Both of these were hits with the boys, though the ranch dipping sauce for the pickles was overkill, if such a thing is possible at the MN state fair. Exhausted, Guppy took an early nap in the stroller while Drake, G. Grod and I devoured a wild rice/beef hot dog on a stick from the Wild Rice stand in the food building, surprisingly inexpensive for fair food at only $2.50.

I got a lingonberry sno cone. It had too much ice, but the syrup was pleasantly tart and sweet, though I’m not sure I could have distinguished it from cranberry.

We tried Fresh French Fries this year, which didn’t seem markedly better than World’s Best, and had too many short, “bottom of the batch” specimens.

While his brother was on the ferris wheel, Guppy devoured his first Pronto Pup, and I suspect it won’t be his last. Pups are Minnesota’s batter-dipped hot dogs on a stick. Corn dogs are Iowan, you know.

Drake was loathe to share from the cone of Sweet Martha’s chocolate chip cookies, and our glass of milk wasn’t big enough for the four of us. We had a few other unremarkable food stuffs for the ravening kids, like fried cheese on a stick, lemonade, and soft-serve ice cream. By that time, though, it was hot and crowded, and G. Grod had had enough. Drake and I could have probably kept going, but I think we’ll wait till next year. A look at the daily attendance makes it look like the opening day and the first Tuesday are the best bets to beat the crowds.

I visited the fair solo in the morning to catch the cooking demos by local chefs, then brought 4yo Drake back with me in the afternoon. The weather was erratic, but the cooking panels were good, as were the food samples, which I’ll describe along with yesterday’s fair food.

New. Double-dark frozen mocha dipped in chocolate on a stick. Who knew they could improve on the best fair food, the mocha on a stick? Go, Minnesota Farmer’s Union Coffee!

Tom Thumb mini donuts. The most delicious carb bomb in the world. Perfect for breakfast, and I accompanied it with a free sample of Cedar Summit whole milk, my favorite–yay!

Then other free, delicious samples:

Thousand Hills Cattle Co.’s sloppy joe
Pastures a Plenty breakfast link
Pastureland gouda and butter

For the demos, JP Samuelson, of JP American Bistro, did a coconut curry with rock shrimp and English shell peas. The chefs from the Birchwood Cafe did a summer ceviche. Both were very good, as was a squash, beet and blue cheese soup later in the day.

For lunch I had

Roast Corn. As good as always.
Honey Lemonade from the Ag building. Just $1.

Later with Drake, we had a chocolate custard cone (good, not great) from Custard’s Last Stand, and 1919 root beer, my only repeat foodstuff. Neither impaired our ability to enjoy the carousel, the skyride, or a whirling ride in Kidland.

More fun at the fair to come.

Today was Minnesota Cooks day at the MN State Fair. There were cooking demos by local chefs all day who used mainly local, organic ingredients. There were tasting panels of local farmers and other food-conscious personages (newspaper reporter, senator, Olympic athlete, food critic). There was a tent with lots of information on local food, as well as stunningly tasty free samples: Cedar Summit had cups of milk, Pastures a Plenty had different types of their pork sausage, Thousand Acres Farm had sloppy joe mix, and Pastureland had gouda and buttered crackers.

For further foodie heaven, the on-stage chefs cooked enough for the crowd to sample. I tried a coconut-curry rock shrimp with peas, a lime ceviche with black corn tortilla chip, and a buttercup squash soup with roasted beets and blue cheese. Other local chefs, such as Brenda Langton, interviewed the participants to provide a broad view of local food use, benefits, consumption and availability. It was a wonderful community food event, which took place at the biggest community food event in Minnesota, the state fair.

Aglow with good feeling for my fellow foodies, I followed a link from Arts & Letters Daily based on this teaser:

Imagine an egalitarian world in which all food is organic and local, the air is free of industrial pollution, and vigorous physical exertion is guaranteed. Sound idyllic?

Daniel Ben-Ami, writing for the Spiked Review of Books, examines several of the latest economic books, and decries the trend to criticize prosperity and romanticize simplicity. He correctly asserts, in his well researched and documented article, that things are more complex than many gung-ho, Buy-Local advocates would believe. Yet he doesn’t nuance the other extreme, so his article feels imbalanced.

Privileging the local can be taken to an extreme that would have a negative impact on the economy, and ultimately the lives of many. Ignoring the local would have a different but still negative effect. Ultimately, I think the answer lies in the simple adage, “Think Global, Act Local.” Both global and local are important and neither could exist without the other. That there is a global market has huge benefits on many levels. But supporting local businesses and farms does too. It doesn’t have to be either/or; it’s both/and.

G. Grod and I had a date at the MN State Fair last night. We parked and rode, which was free and not too time consuming. Since we entered near the creative arts building, we checked that out first. There were some cool quilts, like one with Ugly-Doll looking beasties. The sock monkey corner has expanded, but I think the geek pleasure maxed out last year, and this year the monkeys have jumped the shark. (Thanks, Jon Hein, for that term, by the way.)

I found my four baking entries on display among the hundreds of others. I was proud of myself (and G. Grod) for spotting them. I felt like I’d found my kids in a big crowd. The winning entries must have tasted better, because their appearance wasn’t exceptional. The winning brownies looked rather pale and were probably made with Hershey’s cocoa, which doesn’t provide enough chocolate punch for my taste. The winning scones were wedge shaped and denser than mine. The winning banana breads looked very plain–just bananas, or bananas and walnuts. Perhaps my bittersweet shaved chocolate was too risque for the judges in that category. I think I’ll bake again next year, as long as I can have fun with it, try not to care if I win, and minimize my “one more thing” stress-y tendencies.

We went to see Greg Brown, but decided to wander rather than see the whole show. We caught a few songs, which reminded us that he’s a great songwriter with a low voice that draws us in.

Foodwise, the new things we tried were mostly disappointing, while the old faves held up:

Corn fritters and fried green tomatoes with honey butter: the former were savory and sweet, the latter were tangy. The honey butter complemented both. Yum; highly recommended.

1919 root beer: nicely spicy and smooth; highly recommended

New: Uff-da Brat from Sausage Sister N Me: Disappointing. Dry lefse around a decent brat. Perhaps it would be better with the works (mashed potatoes and kraut), but they sounded awfully heavy. The lingonberry ketchup was sweet and bland. Not recommended. Try some of their past winners instead: Puff Daddy on a Stick, or Nacho Sistaaz.

Mouth Trap fried cheese curds: the must-have; greasy, gooey, and a whopping $5 (is that more expensive than last year?) Still, highly recommended.

New: Sundae with Minnesota strawberries: unremarkable. Soft-serve ice cream was stiff and not very flavorful, strawberries were macerated and good, but nothing more. Recommended with reservations.

New: Spam burger (for G. Grod, but I took a bite when he swore it was good): Surprisingly good, in a “I can’t believe I’m eating this, yet I crave another bite” way. Soft bun, salty slab of Spam, gooey cheese=remarkably simple yet tasty combination. Recommended, in spite of myself.

New: Frozen Key Lime Pie on a Stick: Not good. The lime pie was simultaneously bitter and over-sugared. The sweetness did not offset the bitterness, and overwhelmed the chocolate coating, rendering it tasteless. Not recommended.

[I'll try to add links later.]

It’s that time again. I’m hoping to make it to the MN State Fair three times this year. I’ve learned a few things that will help maximize food and minimize fatigue.

Old Favorites (taught to us by Mr. and Mrs. Blogenheimer, who showed us the glory that is the fair)

- Mouth Trap cheese curds
- World’s Best french fries
- Roast corn
- Sweet Martha’s chocolate chip cookies
- Tom Thumb mini donuts
- 1919 root beer

Newer Favorites

- Frozen Mocha on a Stick (Minnesota Farmers Union Coffee Shop, Dan Patch Avenue at Cosgrove Street).
- Mini cinnamon rolls (Cinni Smiths, Murphy Avenue at Cooper Street).
- Puff Daddy on a Stick (or anything from Sausage Sister & Me, Food Building).
- Wild rice corn dogs, Minnesota Wild Rice, Food Building
- Corn fritters with honey butter
- Cider Freezie
- Honey sunflower seed ice cream

For the husband:

- Red Bull Push-ups, Axel’s, Food Building, southeast corner

This year, based on Rick Nelson’s recommendations, I’m planning to try:

- Key Lime Pie on a Stick
- Sundae with Local Strawberries at the Dairy Goodness Bar
- Lingonberry ice cream at Underwood and Carnes
- Fresh French Fries (Liggett and Carnes, or Judson and Nelson)

My tips for the fair:

- Go early. Go hungry.
- Skip “real” food; it’s heavy and will fill you up. You can make a meal on a combination of the recommendations above.
- Always order the small size, no matter how good a deal a bigger size is.
- Share it, preferably among four (like fair-food tapas).
- Don’t take fair food home; the magic is gone.
- Visit the creative arts and fine arts building. I was not listed in the top five of the baking categories I entered, so I’m going to size up the competition, and see if I want to bake again next year.
- Go once with the kids, and at least once without them.
- Minnesota Cooks day is Tuesday August 28, 2007
- Weather this week is supposed to be good.
- Check out the free Leinie Lodge bandshell shows. There’s usually a gem or two worth seeking out.

Spoilers ahead:

I was shocked, but not really, when Tre was told at the close of episode 9 to pack his knives. His team was cocky even in part 1, and thought they could coast into night 2. Team Quatre took the constructive criticism to heart (though perhaps Howie, not so much, choosing lamb and undercooking it), and worked well together, especially considering how contentious some of their past partnerships has been. I loved Joey’s comment that he knew Howie’s dish because it was undercooked meat.

In the quickfire, Casey choked. I felt bad for her team, especially Brian who’d gotten them such a lead. I laughed in delight to watch Sara and Hung. They were fast but accurate enough, and the challenge was especially suited to Hung’s spastic skills.

As the comments piled up, it became increasingly clear that Tre should go. He was the lead for the team but didn’t galvanize them. Instead, he his cockiness became complacency, like in the Barbecue episode, and his pride led to his fall. Both the salmon and the bread pudding looked and sounded terrible. And the rest of the team was complicit in their loss. They all thought they had it in the bag, they all coasted, but Tre took the fall. While he may have been the best chef left, he was cut for good reason, in my opinion. I had him picked to win, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out.

One thing is sure; I’m going to stop trying to guess who is getting cut next, and who will be TC at the end. I called Casey to leave because she was so teary in her sitting commentary shots. Apparently it was because she felt to guilty for letting a team down, again. I don’t think it’s going too far out on a limb to guess that Casey is not going to be Top Chef, though.

Like the backhoe loader in one of our favorite books, I’m Dirty, Drake wanted a (pretend) mud cake for his birthday. I skipped the scoop of Rocky Road–I figured the cake had more than enough sugar for the adults, much less the kids. I made the “mud” cake (actually a Blackout Cake from Cook’s Country) on Friday night, assembled it (complete with toy digger and mounds of “dirt” frosting), and cleaned the house on Saturday, and then had some of Drake’s friends over to celebrate.

THEN I began to bake again, because in a fit of something (madness? hubris?) I entered the baking competition at the State Fair in several categories, and samples were due the next morning. I made four recipes in three and a half hours: brownies, banana bread, corn muffins and scones.

I have no idea when the judging happens, or when and how the results are communicated. I had a great time baking this weekend, and an even better time eating the results. If I get a ribbon, that’ll just be metaphorical icing.

Final stats for all five recipes:

Eggs: 8
Sugar: 6 1/4 cups
Butter: 1 1/16 pounds
Chocolate (bittersweet, unsweetened, white, and cocoa): over a pound

Is it possible to walk by a candy dish of Dark Chocolate M & Ms and not grab a few?

And further, would I WANT to be that person?

I think not.

Last week’s Top Chef episode 7, Guilty Pleasures, featured a bait-and-switch strategy. The chefs were told they were going out, and got dressed up. Once at the club, though, they were pressed into catering to the closing hour munchies of the other patrons. Some of them rolled with this better than others. Sara was asked to pack her knives, because she was slow to produce an underseasoned burger and terrible milkshake. Interestingly, though Howie’s sandwich was also reviled, and their team was taken to task for communication problems, he was not given the boot. The week before, Joey got sent packing because he wouldn’t listen to Hung. But this week, Howie didn’t get sent packing, even though he didn’t talk to Sara.

Episode 8, Restaurant Wars, was itself a bait-and-switch. Everyone is warned that competition is more fierce because the winner of the quickfire no longer gets immunity. CJ squanders his advantage by picking a weak team. What was with Casey’s pissed look as Brian and she joined the team? Not only was it clear to me that it’s Casey who’s going to get the boot (she’s the one who looks like she’s on the verge of tears in the studio interviews) but both teams did such a bad job of the impossible task of opening a restaurant that they got a mulligan, so it’s to be continued, and we won’t find out for sure till next week who is eliminated. To add insult to injury, the judges didn’t critique the chefs much. Instead, Padma read aloud from a blogger’s comments, and used her criticisms instead of the judges table. Oh, yes, great idea to have a guest judge of Daniel Boulud, then hand all the judgment to a blogger? Feh.

I think there were plenty of candidates for booting: Brian fell apart up front, Dale’s decor was awful, Tre had inedible potatoes, and Howie had bad and heavy risotto. Why not just send Howie home instead of drawing out the misery for another week?

Last night G. Grod and I pushed our luck and succeeded at dinner and a movie while our babysitter played with the boys. As per their usual, they were better behaved and went to bed earlier than they do with us. Either our sitter is being nice, or our kids trust G. Grod and me to love their good and bad behavior. I know it’s the latter, and even while I’m a bit resentful that we get the defiance, I’m also glad that the sitter gets the mostly good behavior because we all like her a lot. Plus G. Grod and I really like these occasional nights out.

We started with a very good meal at the new Harry’s Food and Cocktails. For a while I fretted that G. and I had little to talk about, then I just enjoyed the peace and quiet. We then managed the 7:40 show of Stardust, a funny, sweet and dark fantasy based on the excellent graphic novel by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess, begun in the wake of their winning the World Fantasy Award:

It mostly started with, in 1991, Charles and I won the World Fantasy Award for “Sandman” #19, “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.” We were out in Tuscon, Arizona, and astonished ourselves and everybody else by winning the award. We astonished everyone else to the point where the secret committee behind the judging got together the following morning to change the rules so that it could never happen again!

It’s more than a little reminiscent of Princess Bride, and one sequence is a very close homage to one of the PB plot threads. Stardust is a lot of fun (aside from a truly execrable closing ballad), and I hope it finds a wide audience. Gaiman has said he’s now too famous for his comfort level; I suspect he’s not going to get more comfortable anytime soon, with upcoming productions of Beowulf and Coraline.

Last night we checked out Harry’s Food and Cocktails, in Minneapolis on Washington Ave. It’s in the old Nochee space next to the depot, with the Botero sculpture in front. It’s chef Steven Brown’s new place, and has an old-fashioned American steakhouse vibe, with simple, dark decor to match.

The table had a dish of mostly sweet and slightly sour homemade pickles, and the Sunday night special was a green goddess salad with a pork chop. G. and I got an appetizer of calamari and tried two of the many burger variations. The calamari were good, but not great. The pieces were sweet and tender, but the coating was slightly greasy, and thus a bit doughy. The accompanying pepper aioli had a nice kick, though.

I got the Harry’s burger, which the menu said had cheddar cheese and special sauce. It arrived cooked to my order (medium), but with an unexpected giant pile of sweet, sauteed onions. They were good, but overwhelmed the taste of everything else, so I had no idea what the special sauce tasted of. G. had made the better choice with the Dara burger, named for the City Pages food critic. It was a revision of the burger Brown did at Rock Star, with crispy prosciutto, a melty blue cheese, and a burger whose flavor at medium-rare blasted out of the bun. The fries were very good, and at the end we were beyond full, so while the dessert list looked good, we had to pass.

The service was good but not exceptional, and my water glass dipped low several times. I was disappointed that they didn’t have a local root beer on tap. They’re still within weeks of opening, though, so these are all fixable issues. The vibe was reminiscent of Ike’s, another old-time-y steakhouse that started strong, but couldn’t maintain momentum. I hope that Harry’s can do better.

I’ll certainly go back to Harry’s, not least because I didn’t see the french fries with cheese curds and gravy. The quality and flavor of the food was quite good, and our check arrived with four mini homemade chocolate chip cookies. I think next time I’ll try a salad, split a medium-rare burger with the gravy fries, and have a go at one of the decadent-sounding desserts.

I’ve been a Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl fan for years, and even Bookslut has recognized her genius.

OK, maybe genius is a little strong. But she’s a great food critic. I’ve learned loads from reading her columns.

“Freezer Burn” Ten chefs remain, Rocco DiSpirito (looking suspiciously unlined in the face) was the guest judge for a cooking bee. Howie was right that there was too big a variation in difficulty. Who can’t identify bow-tie pasta by sight? Casey won immunity, and the chefs were sorted into pairs and challenged to create a quick-cooking frozen pasta meal. Hung smugly figured out how to do it, but didn’t have enough backbone to browbeat Joey (I know I’m mixing bodily metaphors) as J. later said needed to be done. Dale and Casey were cute and bubbly together, but it was clean that Tre and C. J. were going to win the challenge, as they were the only ones who paid attention and followed through on individually freezing the components. I was annoyed by Tom Colicchio’s challenge that truffles weren’t Mediterranean; no, then what are tartufo, chef? If even _I_ know the Italian word for it, then I think it’s fairly well known. The Sara and Howie pairing was a disaster. Neither communicated, and both swallowed their anger, though Howie exploded, as per his usual, when pushed too far. I was glad to see Colicchio not letting Sara off the hook for not participating. In the end, Joey went home. He and Hung had the worst dish (they sold none, as opposed to Howie and Sara’s 3), and Joey’s admission of his hard-headedness and inability to listen was honest, and probably sealed his fate. I was sorry to see him go. I thought Sara’s behavior much worse, and I like how pugnacious Howie and Joey are.

This show was one of the few I’ve seen that has practical application in my kitchen. I’ve frozen many a pasta dish, then struggled to swallow the goopy, mushy dish when it thaws. Par cooking the pasta, then freezing the sauce separately in little cubes is a simple and effective way to create a frozen dinner that can be prepared in minutes using only the stovetop, a boon in hot weather.

From the Eastside Food Co-op:

Our family attended this last year and the year before. We had good food, and a good time!

Don’t miss the Annual Corn Feed at the Northeast Farmers Market on Saturday, August 11, 2007 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The Farmers Market is every Saturday morning through October from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the parking lot of St. Boniface Church at 7th and University NE.

It’s a great opportunity to shop, nosh a bit, spend time with your neighbors, and hear local music.

The Corn Feed features local corn at the peak of the season!

I’m in; how about you?

From Twin Cities Food Coop:

Eat Local Challenge to launch Aug. 15

You likely know the benefits of eating local food: it’s good for the local economy, the environment and for family farmers who adhere to sustainable farming techniques. Plus, you and your family enjoy food that’s fresher and more flavorful.

With so many good reasons to put local food on your family’s table, the 12 Twin Cities natural food co-ops are banding together and inviting their members, shoppers and community residents to take the Eat Local Challenge.

The challenge encourages community members to try to commit to consuming 80 percent of their diet — or four out of five food items–from local sources from Aug. 15 through Sept. 15 (a four-week period that just happens to be during peak harvest season for many produce items).

But don’t think strictly about fruit and vegetables. At your co-op, you’ll find a number of locally produced dairy, cheese, bakery, herbs and meat/poultry items as well. Just look for the round, green and black “Local” sticker or ask any co-op staff person for assistance.

We’re in the process of creating a number of in-store and online materials — including sample menus, shopping lists and in-season produce lists — to help you succeed. They’ll be available here and at your co-op by Aug. 13, so keep an eye out for them. Plus, we’re creating an online blog, which you’ll find on this website, so you can share your local food experience with others in the community.

We’re hoping this will be a fun, educational experience — one you may choose to continue beyond the “official” four-week challenge. And remember, there’s no contract to sign; it’s simply an honor-based system designed to help all of us make wise, thoughtful choices about the food we eat. So won’t you join us by taking the Eat Local Challenge?