EAT LOCAL WEEK

USEE Staff had a blast with eat local week. We are very lucky to be in an area with so many local farmer's markets and stores that carry local ingredients. The Sugar House Farmer's Market and Downtown Farmer's Market are just two of the markets in the Salt Lake region. There are also many stores such as Tony Caputo's Market and Deli, Cali's Natural Foods, Liberty Heights Fresh, and Whole Foods that shelve local products. Here's what we did to eat local:

Andree' is on vacation this week, but even on vacation she was able to hit up the local fruit stands and enjoyed local strawberries, white nectarines, watermelon, honey, and apples!

Maria enjoyed spending some extra time at the Downtown Farmer's Market to pick out ingredients for this week. She was able to eat mostly local throughout the week, but had some staple foods such as greek yogurt and bananas that were her downfall.

Here's some ideas from her week:

Local breakfast buffet-Scrambled eggs, whole grain spelt bread, peach fruit preserves, and an apricot

All ingredients found at the downtown farmers market.




Egg-in-a-hole

Method:
1. Heat butter in a skillet
2. Hollow out a hole in the middle of a piece of bread (I got mine from the Community Food Co-op)
3. Crack egg into the hole, cook both sides until lightly browned


Zucchini Fritters (adapted from Tara Poelzing's fritter recipe)

Ingredients:
2 medium zucchini, coarsely grated
1 large egg
2 scallions, finely chopped
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup grape seed oil or olive oil

Method:
1. After grating the zucchini, press excess moisture by pressing with paper towels.
2. Whisk the egg in a large bowl.
3. Add the zucchini, flour, and scallions. Mix to combine well.
4. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Drop six mounds of batter (2 Tbsp each) onto the skillet. Flatten slightly. Cook, turning once, until browned (4-6 minutes) on each side. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Repeat with remaining batter.
5. Serve with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt, I served with a slice of tomato

Aaron enjoyed a week with plenty Crumb Brothers bread! He also had some delicious local corn and has been eating less meat. Check out this article about meat reduction vs. eating local:

http://blogs.hbr.org/winston/2011/06/local-food-or-less-meat-data-t.html

He also spent time in the garden gathering vegetables:
"In our garden the tomatoes are coming in, but they're not quite ready to pick. I helped my friend and neighbor Zoe pick carrots and beets from her garden. What we did was just thin it out, removing about half the veggies to make space, so that the remaining ones can get huge and delicious. The end result was about 5 pounds cute miniature beets and carrots, and this isn't even the real harvest yet; later in fall they'll have more like 10 pounds of each. The carrots were excellent. We spent the afternoon eating them right out of the soil, and Zoe used the beets to make borscht."

He also ate at the Copper Onion which uses many local ingredients in their dishes. His favorite was the Baked Parmesan balls.

Crystal and her family did not eat out this week. They bought some produce from a local farm stand in Tooele as well as ate from their garden:
"Needless to say we ate A LOT of tomatoes and cucumbers because that seems to be what's growing really good for us so far this year!"

As far as recipes, they mainly just ate fresh veggies cut up and Crystal stir fried a few nights
"My kids loved the vegetarian stew I made from the farm stand goodies! No recipe just a
lot of eye balling :) all in all it was a good week of food, it required more planning and time but was completely worth it... For my kids, our health and that of the planet and my community!"


So whether you support eating local by visiting the farmers market, picking up products from stores that source locally, eat at cafe's that use local ingredients, or get produce right from your own yard, you are helping to reduce the environmental impact of industrial agriculture and are most likely leading a more healthy lifestyle as well!