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?

You don't know unless you try

That's what we tell our kids.

So despite my fear of peppers - there was a traumatic pepper incident on my first trip to Texas - I tried a recipe for Salt and Peppers.
I worship Rainbow Chinese Chef Tammy Wong, who created it. Writer Katie Cannon, who tried it, said it was simple and ridiculously good.

At the Minneapolis Farmers Market, I shopped carefully for immature jalapenos. At home, I donned latex gloves gloves before touching those peppers. As instructed, I cut off the top inch to minimize heat and proceeded to stir fry, salt and plate.

Hesitant but forthright, I took a bit. A hooeee! Mouth on fire! Too hot for me.

I tried. And now I have a steaming pile for the compost bin.

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.

Direct from farm to table

Image by bfistermn via Flickr

Listening to a recording of a July 18 conversation between one of my favorite food thinkers, Nicole De Beaufort and one of my favorite food growers, Bonnie Dehn.
Critical to have them at the same table; the thinker hears directly from the farmers; what they're thinking, experiencing, feeling, doing. Unfiltered. Organic. Unadulterated.

Direct from farm to table.

Am Profood

Image via Wikipedia

Went to the Market this morning in search of my new favorite vegetable, Gai lan.
Searched. And Searched. And searched.
In vain. It's gone. The season's over.

A sigh of sadness and I moved on to what's in season.
Raspberries. Sweet fruit rubies.
And since the season is short, I bought 4 pints.

Which should last a day or two.

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.