My new produce source

Farmer's Markets are a lovely thing. Farmers - or those who work for them - selling some darned good foods, all in a fun, community-focused atmosphere. I love them. I really do.

But I do not necessarily love the Tuesday night moment when I realize that, having burned through my farmers' market haul and with an empty fridge, I will have to schlep my way up Keystone or Allisonville and deal with the nonsense that is large-market grocery shopping. But there is a lovely new solution in my neighborhood: Locally Grown Gardens.


Beyond proximity and product, this place is special for a variety of reasons. The owner, Ron Harris, is a chef, whose work brought him from big-time kitchens in New York to lead Indianapolis' old-timey treasure, MCL Cafeteria, or as they like to call it MCL Restaurant and Bakery. More than just designing foods for the home of the clean platers club (a club after my own heart), he worked to emphasize local foods and high-quality ingredients at MCL. That practice led to the produce stand outside the Castleton MCL, one of the few happy and genuine highlights of the area that I refer to as Hassle-ton.


With that love of local and quality foods, Ron opened up Locally Grown Gardens this April in an old gas station building on 54th Street just a quick stroll off the Monon Trail. And the place is great. I stopped by during my lunch hour today, to find tons of plants - veggies and ornamentals - as well as some of the sweetest strawberries I've ever tasted. I picked up some asparagus for later. There were also fresh eggs, local honey and a variety of tomatoes. But what's even more exciting is that the building also houses a little library of food books. As anyone who has been in my kitchen knows, I have a deep and incurable habit of acquiring food writing, so access to both food and food writing in one location may limit my free time in the weeks to come.


Locally Grown Gardens is open seven days a week, to boot! If you haven't stopped by yet, take some time to enjoy this extended spring weather and head on over. That is, if you're in the neighborhood. But if you're not, I'd love to hear about other small shops that offer you good produce locally.

Another perspective on this new little place can be found at Going Local.

Jumping Back into Life!

So, after the out-of-town guests left and the services and gatherings were done, Ben and I spent a lot of time this weekend just getting back into our lives. Everything feels a little bit more precious, which means that there is so much more to notice and enjoy.

First up: a fun way to jump back into the routine, via Making It Lovely.



Enjoy your day!

my mama-la

My mom loves me & my sister & step-siblings & children-in-law & grandkids & most animals she sees & any stray friends I bring around, but she does not love the following things:

• Spicy foods. None, not even non-heaty spicy foods. Too bad for her; more for us.
• Sandals that go between your toes. She hates those.
• Cherries - she is "allergic" to them. By the way, those quotation marks are meant to indicate that I refuse to accept that anyone cannot eat cherries, as they are wonderful things.
• Cotton candy. Once upon a time, she worked at a little amusement park, serving up the cotton candy. Since then, she's sworn it off for good. The picture below is from right around the time that she was twirling the spun sugar. Isn't she cute?
  

As you can tell from this short list of un-lovable things, my mom embraces life. Mom, if there's anything you'd like to add, anything you decidedly do not love, please share!

Happy Mother's Day!

when someone great is gone

Yesterday, the world lost a special, talented, unique, complicated spirit, and many of us lost a friend.


LonPaul will be greatly missed. If you knew LP and have a nice memory or thought that helps capture who he was, we're collecting writings, drawings, and little musings about him, with the ultimate goal of sharing those pieces of his life with his son. Please send those along to me, via electronic or postal mail, if you have them. If you're on Musical Family Tree, there's also a page for LonPaul memories that will feed into Rupert's collection.

Addendum: If you'd like to contribute to Rupert's future education, please visit Musical Family Tree. All paypal donations will go to a fund for Rupert, from now until further notice.

Please help me understand...

What is the appeal of Crystal Light? I'd really like to know the answer. Seriously, this question occurs to me almost every day. Isn't water, in its refreshing, simple glory, good enough?Do you understand? Help me understand.

To-Do Lists

Have you seen the To-Do List book? The picture below is from the accompanying blog.

Inspired by that book/blog and by Abby Try Again who was inspired by hula seventy, I feel compelled to make some sort of list - a list of things that I want to do, but just haven't. Since my birthday happened way back in January, there's not much point in coming up with a "29 things to do before I turn 30" (oh my goodness, I am close to being 30 - how did I get to be such a grown up chronologically, but not developmentally?). Still, there are many things that I would like to do sometime in the near future. Many relate to food, many do not.

This list is just the start:

1. Get the vegetable garden in shape.
   
2. Pickle some veggies. Or did I buy that "Joy of Pickling" book for no reason?
   
3. Have one dinner party a month.
   
4. Clean out and reorganize all our kitchen cupboards.
5. Make my own granola.
6. Cook and store several batches of beans.
7. Host "masa and a movie" night, featuring tamale-making and some sort of decent movie.
8. Attempt wheat gluten ribs, in honor of our wedding dinner and our lovely chef, Becky.
   
9. Clean out my disgusting car, per Stephmodo's advice.
10. Bake some of that no-knead bread that everyone else in the blog world has baked.

Any other ideas? Any kitchen dares?

Food is politics is important.

Hey peeps.

If you are living in my town, in my state, then you know that today is a very important primary. The national media thinks that our primary is important because of Obama-Clinton stuff. And they're right. But it's also pretty important for local and state issues, too. I'm not going to share my own voting plans. But I am going to share that I will be voting and that it will be meaningful for me.


I love to vote. I hope you do, too. Get to it, if you haven't already. If you have cast your ballot, then feel free to check out any of the links below that relate politics, of the local, state, national, and international variety, to food. Also feel free to head over to buyolympia.com to check out Nikki McClure's modification-ready "Vote" poster, above. But if you haven't voted, go do that first. Please!

Reading about food, politics, and justice:

• First up: be sure to check out indieats.com, where Susan Gillie has written a lot about the local dining choices of the Democratic contenders for the Presidential nomination. She also has plenty to say about food security.
  
• A national perspective about hunger and food insecurity in the US.
• An article from the Indiana Daily Student (IU, represent!) about obesity, food insecurity, and access to nutritious foods.
• Food insecurity numbers for children in Indiana. And, to promote my place of work a teensy bit, as well as my fabulous staffer, Amelia: the stats on childhood hunger in Indiana are quite frightening.
• A social justice perspective on food sources, access to high-quality food, and community development from Portland.
• The International Food Policy Research Institute has a number of interesting resources, including articles about the coming impact of rising food prices on the world's most vulnerable populations. We often thin about issues from a domestic perspective, but international relief policy is a critical component when I select national-level candidates. It might matter to you, too, right?