Locavore's Seder

Monday at sundown marks the start of the Jewish festival of Passover, when Jews the world over celebrate the exodus from Egypt. The centerpiece of the celebration is a ceremonial meal know as Seder, during which the Passover story is told.
While food customs vary regionally, the ceremonial foods on the central Seder plate are the same. Traditionally, four questions are asked at the Seder meal. I'm adding a fifth: How can we localize this meal?

On the Seder plate:
Zeroah, a lamb's shankbone symbolizing the ancient Passover sacrifice. Easy. Minnesota growers like Blue Gentian Farm raise lamb.
Beitzah, a roasted egg symbolizing the temple sacrifice and the continuing cycle of life. Also easy, via local farms like Sleeping Cat Farm and Bar 5.
Haroset, a paste of fruit and nuts symbolizing the mortar used to build the pyramid of the pharaohs. If you preserved any Minnesota apples last fall, easy. The nuts -- not so easy. Sweetened with Ames Farm honey, delicious.
Mar'or, a bitter herb (like horseradish) to represent the bitterness of slavery. Sara Rice, who writes the Noshin' column at TCJewFolk, reminds us that while horseradish is the most potent, any bitter herb will do. Dehn's Garden Arugula, perhaps?
Karpas, a green vegetable (usually parsley) representing spring. Any green vegetable will do. Romaine, endive, asparagus; or watercress from Dehn's Garden
A bowl of salt water. With 10,000 lakes, water we've got.

Four cups of wine are drunk through the meal, and while Minnesota does have wineries, none produce wine that is Kosher for Passover. And as for matzo, the unleavened bread eaten during the entire week of Passover, you could make your own using Minnesota flour.

So tell us. What are you doing to localize your Seder?

Minnetonka arrives

Image via Wikipedia

Trader Joe's opened today.

Already it's bustling with the well-dressed and well-tressed, all of whom seem to have cool glasses, to boot.

What am I doing there? Is Trader Joe's fair to farmers?

I saw Earthbound Farms broccoli, Michigan apples, Fayge yogurt.

Nothing local.

Have to check with El Dragon at FairFoodFight.

Update:
Baquettes are from local New French Bakery
Honeycrisp apples from Washington State

Support your local farmer

It's not just a bumper sticker.

All you locavores who say you support your local farmers, they need you right now.

Minnesota's record-setting October cold dealt small farmers a double whammy; first, it knocked down some crops, then it knocked out customers. They simply did not come to market during the cold snap. So business for small farmers, who depend on direct-to-customer sales, went way down.

To add insult to injury, the cold snap led people to think the season was over.
It's not. Minneapolis Farmers Market growers are still bringing in beautiful squash, peppers, kale, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, parsnips, ruatabagas, beets, apples, potatoes....... the list goes on and on.
But the season won't. So support your local farmer. Come to the Farmers Market now while the bounty is here. Your farmers have been here for you all season. So come to the market and be here for your farmers.

Power to the People's Market

For Farmer's Market
in Minneapolis

We won! The Minneapolis Farmers Market is the 2009 Parents Pick for Best Farmers Market in Minneapolis St. Paul. We love our community and we are pleased as punch that they embrace us.

We're not an upscale boutique or a manufactured market. We are the real deal, since we began as a haymarket in 1876. We are owned and run by farmers, who bring the best of the country to the heart of the city. We believe in fresh food for all. We're crowded and noisy. The amenities are few. Nonexistent, in fact. But nowhere will you find more growers with more beautiful produce. And our community; the Minneapolis of all ages, sizes, colors and cultures who crowd the market each weekend; who share so generously with Second Harvest Heartland every Sunday; you are the heart of the market. You give it its real flavor.

And we thank you.

Continuing education continues

Image by jesssloss via Flickr

To paraphrase Richard Nixon, I am not a cook.

It was just a few years ago that I first tasted the difference fresh herbs make.

So having absorbed the "most garlic comes from China" lesson, I picked up fresh garlic from Nao Tang at the Minneapolis Farmers Market.

Chopped it, threw it in the frying bang and BingBangBoom! Garlic explosion! I was enveloped in fruity fresh garlic. I felt like I was deep inside garlic itself.

And the taste? That same distance I'd traversed when I moved from garlic powder to dried bulbs? Same quantum leap using fresh, local garlic. Maybe greater.

An educated consumer is our best customer

Image by livewombat via Flickr

There's a discount clothing store in New York called Syms which advertises "An educated consumer is our best customer."

That's how I feel about the Minneapolis Farmers Market (MFM). I am fortunate to be working on a project for the Minneapolis Farmers Market. It's a project I love, and while I've come to enjoy the MFM, it wasn't until today that I fully appreciated it.

All it took was one trip to the neighborhood coop.

You see, in effort to be economical and "save on gas", I went to my neighborhood coop. It's 10 miles closer, so I thought it a sensible choice.

It turned out to be a foolish, expensive choice that left me feeling dumb, cheated and crappy.


Why? Because the Minneapolis Farmers Market has more variety. Less packaging. Better prices. More value. Not to mention fresh scapes, baby beets, sugar snap peas, all of it fresh picked today.

At the coop, I spent $2.99 for a plastic clamshell of "organic" strawberries shipped in from California. At the Market, the same three bucks would have bought me just-picked Minnesota berries. At the coop, I spent 7.49 for a giant plastic clamshell of "organic" baby greens shipped in from California. At the Market, that same 7.50 could have bought me twice as much, twice as fresh, totally local.

When these things are in season here, why does a local coop even ship them in?

I wasted 70 bucks at the coop. That would have bought me a fortune in good, fresh, local food at the Farmers Market. At the coop, it netted me two bags of overpackaged, overtransported, overmarketed mediocrity.

I'm done with the coop. I'm grateful for this one last trip, though, because it has made me an educated consumer. And Syms is right. An educated consumer is the best customer.

Once you've been to a real farmers market, there's no going back.