Talk the talk

You know, everyone is talking the talk these days, but how many of us are actually walking the walk? What am I talking about, you asked? The buying local thing, that's what I'm referring to. It's so hip these days everyone is talking about it.

What's getting me all snarky again? It's Ms.Pinckney on the Food Network's Food Finds. I stumbled on to the episode that she was hosting from the Cross Street market in Baltimore. The market, she said, was just the kind of place she loved to shop, where you could find, she said, great local produce from local vendors. All of this while walking by a produce stand and picking up a hideous looking mango for effect. Besides the mangos, the stand also proudly displayed some pineapples of dubious origin.

I mean, seriously, I had no idea they grow mangos and pineapples in Baltimore these days. Not that I go to that part of the world very often, so perhaps I am completely off base on this, please, someone, correct me if I'm wrong. Baltimore is now rampant with mango orchards and pineapple fields, right?

It's disgusting, disgusting, how people are paying lip service to ingredients these days. I wonder if that Ms.Pinckney would know good local ingredients if they bite her in the derrière. Heh!

Comments

[Geoff Smith]

Question for Pim: Where is the best Thai food to be found in the SF Bay Area?

[marchisi]

I went to the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers market last weekend and found an intersting organization called CUESA (Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture). Seems like a worthwhile organization.

The website links to local farmers and shows where they farm, how close to SF etc. Seems like somebody is actually qualifying the produce we are buying.

[Vital Information]

As to Ohio, you know one of the most famous vegetable farms in the world is there:

http://www.chefs-garden.com/index.htm

Rob

[Pim]

Wow! Sorry I didn't mean to neglect everyone's thoughtful comments, I've been far too busy to tend to the blog these last few days.

Thanks for all the comments.

When I wrote this post, it wasn't my intention to suggest that we should all eat and buy local all the time. Making an effort to support local farms, producers, and shops are a great way to support your local communities, but I certainly am aware that not everyone live in the abundance that we have here in SF or other big cities.

What I intend to make fun of, however, was the ignorance of that particular show, which, while trying to mouth the new catch phrase, Buying Local, was completely oblivious to the fact that those mangos and pineapples couldn't possibly have been from the area.

Oh well, I guess some of you had it right, what was I doing on the food network anyhow!

cheers,
Pim

[Sam]

Hi Stephanie - thanks for your thoughtful response. I guess I was lucky in that I always lived in big cities - London and Bristol, where it was possible to shop at farmers markets. I even had an organic box delivered to my door whilst I lived in Greenwich and we had a weekly outdoor organic market just down the street. A grew up on such awful awful food, that as soon as I became an adult I promised myself I didn't have to eat that way anymore and have strived ever since to find the best in everything. But this is my choice and my effort, it's a personal thing and it would be naiive of me to presume that every other Briton put the same priority on good food in their lives. Or as you say - I hadn't even considered that in some parts of the country, sourcing the products just wouldn't be possible. I would have assumed, incorrectly, (thanks for putting me right) the Peak District is just the place to get fresh farm vegetables. How wrong was I. I am going to the West Country next week and they have several farmes markets I am hoping to visit. It's a shame they aren't available all over the country. Living here in America I get a little bit sensitive at being the subject of so many food jokes (it happens an awful lot). Before I left to come and live here things had started to improve, fod wise, a lot in London at least. I hope that continues. And I agree, fancy versions of 'school dinners' :) - isnt the answer. I'm just going to carry on with my lonely little crusade to highlight some of the best areas of British cuisine and hope it catches on. (I know it wont catch because of little old me with my handful of readers), but every little bit counts. We are spoilt here in the Bay area, we really are, and thank you for humbling me and reminding me that not everyone out there is as lucky as we are.

[Stephanie]

Sam - I partly agree with you on English food - but only partly :) I am English too (I've caught your blog, so know you're flying the flag) and have been exposed to much more bad food than good during my (30+ years) of life here. Nigella etc are doing good stuff, and the quality of produce is getting better, but the standard of a lot of food is very poor overall -- witness the terrible state of health of a large section of UK children, as exposed by Jamie Oliver in his 'Jamie's School Dinners' TV programme (www.channel4.com/schooldinners).
Also, I would buy much more local produce - but ironically, I don't live in a big city. Larger cities outside London, (Manchester, Birmingham etc) have recently introduced farmers markets, but where I live, in the Peak District, vegetables are a real problem. Good quality meat is available, if you know where to look, but vegetables and fruit are either brought from the city veg market and left to rot all week in local shops (wonder local village shops are closing??), or supermarket stuff. The last sale of local produce I went to in a nearbly market town had no vegetable stalls at all.
I'm pleased that the places you mention exist, but trying to get basic food which isn't pre-packed, re-heated pap outside a major city is depressingly difficult.
And I also only partly agree about the history of English food -- it did have a proud history and was an interesting cuisine until the Industrial Revolution killed good food for the rural workforce who moved to the new cities to work in factories. This killed the roots of the producer/diner relationship that seems to me to sustain most other European cuisines (and non-European too). It's never reailly recovered judging from the school dinners debate mentioned above.
This is very fundamental and can't be fixed by someone doing a fancy version of braised liver and onions and calling it 'new British cuisine' :D

[Sam]

Stephanie - I am sure you were just joking but it's so easy and thoughtless to mock English food. It has a great deal of history behind it, and it has improved no end in recent years. Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson are some of the most popular celebrity chefs in the world. Restaurants like St Johns, The Fat Duck, etc are world renowned. Just think of all the products, the wonderful cheeses, the lamb, the autumn fruits, the cream, the fresh fish, etc, that are available in the UK. I don't think Pim is saying you should only eat local products. It would be hardly possible for most people. But given that you have your spices, and rice, why not make your curry with in season vegetables and meats bought locally from farmers, instead of out of season products from the bigger chains. It's a way of helping your local economy and the smaller suppliers.

[Stephanie]

I like the point, Pim, but how do you square this with the Thai basics you use in your recipes? This is a problem I have, living in the UK and being very into Indian food. I love the idea of eating local, but fear life wouldn't be worth living without my chillies, ginger, lime juice and basmati rice. Please please please don't anyone even think of suggesting I eat English food :)

[Cindy]

I live in Baltimore and I can confirm suspicions that mangoes and pineapples are not grown locally. There is a grove of fig trees in my neighborhood but that is about as close as we can get. I think it is safe to say that there isn’t a whole lot of local produce available in Cross Street Market--or anywhere else-- this time of year. There are excellent producers only farmers markets in the summer. And, local seafood is usually available in the public markets. I’ve never seen the show (I don’t have cable tv) but I think she probably missed the point. Baltimore’s urban, public markets provide consumers with the choice to support local businesses rather than huge corporate grocery store chains. I often shop at the markets for seafood. Local or not, the seafood available at the Cross Street and Lexington Markets is of better quality and costs MUCH less than at the Whole Foods down the street. Plus, I enjoy it. Shopping at the markets is a fun, colorful experience. There is nothing generic or bland about it.

[OMIH]

Just a quick hello from Hanoi where the markets are plentiful and the food is (largel) fresh.

[anthony]

I think Jimmy may have a touch of the ironies about him (well you would hope so).

[Owen]

Ummm - Jimmy - what's American about mangoes and pineapple that aren't local? (OK - the pineapple could be). IF anything, Pim is saying that we should all STOP buying non-local produce - and for most of us that would be non-American.

[Kent Liggett]

Pim,
I was looking for your e-mail and couldn't find it. Anyway I wanted to let you know (and hopefully get your help on getting the word out) that we are hosting a Tsunami relief dinner on Mon. March 21st.
All the details are on our site. Hope to see you there, Kent

[runningman]

Bottom line is- we as the eating public need to ask where our food comes from. Ask your grocer, ask your butcher, ask your fish monger. And tell them what you want and what you won't buy. But please don't be afraid to pay for your values. Voting with our dollars each time we shop for food is one of the strongest statements we can make.

[Jimmy]

How come you're always so critical about everything American?

[Owen]

It can be insidious though. Even though we get a weekly delivery of organic vegetables that are grown in Winters on Terra Firma Farms (www.terrafirmafarms.com), I occasionally check out other organic boxes and even the CSA ones carry items clearly not grown locally but added to give greater variety. The big ones (like "the box") just flat out source from around the world, which defeats the point as far as I am concerned. Terra Firma does trade for variety - with its neighbours - but it also has a pretty good variety on its own.

I have total sympathy with people living in Maine or Montana - do what you have to do. There is also nothing wrong with the occasional luxury from afar (coconuts...) just so long as you aren't fooling yourself about it.

I'm with Anthony on the rigorous organic thing too. I'd rather have a local fresh peach that was sort of maybe grown organically than a peach from say Texas that was rigorously organic.

[Dr. Biggles]

Ack, I was going to chime in. But it clearly isn't necessary. FoodTV hasn't been worth a pinch of moon poo for over 6 years. That isn't news. FoodTV sucks, Barney Sucks, Iodized Salt Sucks, Margarine SUCKS ... how long is that list anyways?

Smooches!

[folkie]

Barbara - thanks, I've read the book, and possibly I could do that - if I had any land - I am an apartment dweller, and the farmers of the farm I work at in the summer have winter jobs. I know what you are getting at, but it just doesn't work for me. Still looking for a solution . . . maybe a couple hydroponic set-ups? Big money, though, and chemically (ornagic hudroponics just aren't there yet). Anyone else got an idea for me?

[Lee]

Okay, I just had to give a shout out to Madison, WI. I've tried to leave three times and I can't because of the amazing access to local produce. We are blessed with the largest producer-only (i.e.- no mangoes, you can only sell what you grow and the farmer has to man the stand so you can talk to them yourself) in the U.S. Maybe three years ago it went year round and with increased demand, farmers increased production and lenghtened their season so now we can enjoy fresh, local spinach year-round and salad mix most of the time too (aomong other things). It just gets better and better. Keep buying local and the farmers will step up to the plate!

[Dreska]

Ha-ha! Fantastic post, Pim.
Made me laugh..
I prefer local produce, as it is ripe(and cheaper) Not one these wax-polished apples and hard vine tomatoes(just because they are on the vine, so what?), in the supermarkets, they are awful!

[anthony]

It amazes me that they make such a fuss about a no-brainer like buying local, treat it like it's secret sacred wisdom, and then fack it it up. It's not a sly British parody show is it?

I don't know if farmers are any more particularly hard working or worthy in one area than another but our decisions and actions as consumers affect the kind of locality we live in. Do we want one where good and diverse food is an integral part of the community, or one dependant on freezer trucks?

In terms of a "rational" global economy, Western Australia has long been a model of large scale agriculture of wheat and sheep that provided low cost food to overseas countries. What it has traditionally been poor at, is local and value added. This is increasingly changing but I'm finding that the biggest supporters of this are the smaller supermarket chains, markets, and small food suppliers like butchers. I be hard placed to tell where I was in Australia in either of the two largest chains.

As a personal microcosm if the above, the bread on our family wheat farm, originally came from the town, then the next nearest, large town, and finally from the city.

As for organic, well it passes the taste test (garlic!) but as organic standards are very strict here and require some effort, it's a good rule of thumb as to who can be arsed and who can't.

[/sermon off]

[Barbara]

Faith--I am indeed talking about Lynd's. We are moving to Athens, but will still come out to Lynd's for their apples, cider, cherries and whatnot. They are the best!

Folkie--there is a book called "Four Season Harvest"--it is written by a man who grows salad greens and other greens, carrots, turnips and such all winter in Maine. If he can do it, so can you.

It can be done!

[snarkier]

i blame alice. it's all her fault

[folkie]

Word.

But here's the dilema in New Hampshire - not to eat veggies in the winter?

I can store (and then eat all winter long) potatoes, winter squashes, onions that I get from the organic farm I work at in the summers. And I never ever buy tomatoes that aren't local, nor strawberries, or a host of other things.

But I can't survive on such starchy veggies all winter long. I eat some things canned (like tomatoes), and do some canning of my own (green beans and more tomatoes), but what's a girl to do?

Seriously, if anyone has suggestions on how I can ditch my salad greens from Cali habit, while still retaining some variety and nutrition, please clue me in.

[faith]

Pim - what a sad and funny story! It makes me check my walk, myself - it's so easy to talk the local/in-season/organic thing. But actually orienting your shopping around the seasons is something totally different. And I live in Florida - where it should be easy!

And Barbara! I don't mean to be nosy, but are you talking about Lynd Fruit Farm? Crazy if you are - my family lives just down the road, and I rode the schoolbus with the Lynd boys. We would pick apples there every fall, and since then I have been utterly spoiled for mushy grocery store apples. Ohio is a great place for fresh and local produce.