Monday, February 1, 2010

Starting off the New Year Right!

In the age of Big food coming from Big factories being over seen by Big lobbyists, I cannot stress enough the importance of buying local and getting to know the people behind what you eat and drink.

Recently I was lucky enough to watch the documentary Food, INC and it brought to light the importance of sustainable food and taking care of the local farmers, growers and producers. The simple fact is, we are what we eat and we need to educate ourselves on what we put in our body. My New Years resolution was to simply eat “Clean”. Clean by ways of knowing where my food comes from and what steps were taken to bring it to my families table. Doing so is not as challenging as it seems when dealing with local people.

Besides, how cool is it to know the farmer who produced your dinner and the maker who created the wine you drink? In my mind there is nothing better. I look forward to another year and hope to see you all at the Winery!

Local produce in Minnesota winter, who woulda thunk?
Purchasing local produce in Minnesota during the heart of winter is not as hard as you think. Due to improvements in storage and such most of the potatoes, carrots, radishes, mushrooms and even apples we consume in the winter are produced by farms in Minnesota.

Some of the big producers such as Bushel Boy, in Owatonna are even producing live basil and lettuce packs in our grocery stores. Fresh basil from home in the heart of winter sounds pretty good to me. Another cool thing is all the cheese that is being produced locally. Sure, we are far behind Wisconsin in the cheese department but like our football team we will always be ahead in quality. (Sorry, I could not resist a poke at the Packers).

Most of the cheese makers provide tours and better yet, tastings year round. To find some of the local cheese maker visit http://www.sfa-mn.org/cheesemaking.php.

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