"Nowledge" is Power

I have always loved the boneless skinless chicken breasts that the Good Foods store sells.  They not only look pretty, all pink, bright and glossy, but they taste far superior to that funky tasting crap Tyson puts out that you can buy for a song at Wal-Mart. I have been happily buying my Good Foods chicken whenever I feel the urge for poultry and naively went on my way thinking I was buying locally raised fowl.  After all, it is right next to the Montana raised steaks and pork tenderloins. 

So you can imagine my dismay when I actually bothered to read the label and realized that the chicken is not only not from Montana but, horror of horrors, NEBRASKA!  I’m from Oklahoma and being the good Okie that I am, I was raised to believe nothing good comes out of Nebraska.  Here’s one of my favorite Nebraska jokes: What does the “N” stand for on the helmets of University of Nebraska football players?  Answer: Nowledge. 

The new me, who’s trying to eat more local foods, wondered why it is that people can raise chickens in their backyards here in Montana but I can’t find locally raised chicken in my favorite grocery store. So I decided to ask.  (As a side note, you can buy a locally raised chicken from Choteau or St. Ignatius at Good Foods but it’s the entire bird.  No neatly broken down parts.)   

According to the very nice gentleman behind the meat counter at Good Foods with the very nice Australian accent, there is no chicken manufacturing here in Montana. It seems that no one has really made a serious effort to try and get an operation set up and if someone did, there probably wouldn’t be enough chickens raised locally to supply the buyers.  I had no idea.  He agreed that it was an interesting situation and I assumed that with all the knowledge he had to give he had this question before.  

So the moral of this story is threefold.  One, always read the labels and make sure what you’re buying is local. Two, if you want to see some changes in your local food supply, ask questions, contact your local grocery store, research local small scale chicken farmers.  Maybe you can be the one to change the system.  The third and most important, don’t sweat the stuff you can’t immediately change.  I’ll continue to buy those cornhuskers’ chickens without any guilt knowing that it’s the best I can do right now.  Remember, any small effort you make toward supporting local foods can in turn have a profound impact on our local economy and your long-term health. 

Nebraska. Of all places. 

Seniorita's Specialty Foods

When I first began to consider eating a predominately local diet I thought I would have to give up the convenience of quick low-effort meals so I am always happy when I discover foods that break that misconception. I am finding that there are Montanans out there that have taken the time to perfect and distribute ready-to-eat (or at least ready to heat up) foods that are not only very tasty but also use local ingredients when available.  One such example is Senoritas Specialty Foods in Manhattan.

Vickie Perkins started Senoritas in 1989 by selling fresh salsas at the Bozeman Farmer’s Market. They now make 24 products from their flagship salsas to bean dip to, my reason for this particular post, their tantalizing tamales.  I came across the tamales in the frozen food section of the Good Foods store when I was looking for a quick dinner one night.  What I found was a delicious meal that required very little preparation and one that I could feel good about buying in my quest to eat local. 

As I corresponded with Peter from Senoritas, I was delighted to discover a company that shares my passions about promoting local food, not simply to promote themselves but to promote as many local growers and producers as possible. Senoritas proudly uses Lifeline Produce and Lifeline Dairy, Spencer Valley Eggs, Wheat Montana, Trevino’s Tortillas, Meat Montana, Fisher Spices of Bozeman, Bozeman organics and products from the Western Montana Growers Co-op in their products. I’ve got a wealth of blog topics just from this list! 

When explaining the reasons for buying local, Peter says “the drive and enthusiasm comes from, ‘Why are we only able to buy food from out of the state and/or out of the country? Why are our best agriculture/ livestock products all being shipped out of Montana?’ Let’s think what we can do locally to help our citizens right here in Montana.”  I couldn’t agree more, Peter.

It sounds like Senoritas has hit on one of the main reasons I choose to eat local in that the ingredients are fresher and you aren’t consuming unknown mystery ingredients large “foreign” companies use to keep foods preserved over time and distance.  You may pay a little more for a package of two of Senoritas fabulous tamales than the 24 pack of Jose Ole’s frozen taquitos at Albertsons but the health and taste rewards are so much greater.  Ok, I confess, I really did buy Jose Ole’s but it was only for a comparison taste test. To sum up the results, all I’ll say is that I easily recognized the food within a Senorita’s tamale.  I don’t know what the hell you call what was in those taquitos.  I love Peter’s saying “pay a little more today for healthier food and pay a lot less later for health care”.  The ex-sorority girl in me is dying to put that on a T-shirt!

Visit http://www.senioritasspecialtyfoods.com/ for a complete list of products and where you can find them including farmer’s markets.  Steam up a pair tonight for a quick delicious meal that actually makes you feel good about “convenience foods”.

O Woe is Meat

As I walked passed a woman in front of the Lifeline Farm’s stand last Saturday at the Farmer’s Market, I heard her say, “I can’t afford to eat quality meat”.  It’s hard not to agree with her.  The meat that I feel good about eating can be very expensive.  So I did some research and gathered some facts and I am now able to share some good reasons to spend a little more to eat high quality (which often equates to “local” meat). 

The first is nutrition.  The fact is that when we eat an animal we are also eating what that animal ate.  If a cow has spent the majority of it’s life in a CAFO or Concentrated Animal Food Operation or in simpler terms, a feedlot, that cow has been pumped with antibiotics to keep it healthy in incredibly cramped quarters, it has eaten off the ground which is covered in feces and it has often been fed an unnatural diet heavy in grains which makes the animal grow bigger faster.  Meat from cows, chickens, pigs and lambs that are raised on a diet of grass has a much higher level of vitamins, antioxidants and healthier fats such as omega-3s which is then passed on to you when you consume aforementioned meat. Proof is often in the color.  For instance, the high level of beta-carotene from fresh grass can be witnessed in the bright orange yolks of the eggs laid by grass-fed chickens.  



Can you tell which one is from Jerome at the Farmer's Market and which one is from Target?
(Hopefully you can because I just realized this picture is terrible!)



The second is taste.  That $2.50 per pound chicken at the big grocery stores may be cheap but frankly, it tastes funky.  Mass-produced beef really just acts as a filler in recipes whereas a locally raised steak only needs a little salt and pepper to help it shine. It’s hard to describe this with words.  Challenge yourself to a taste test sometime so you can taste the difference yourself.

So now that you know some reasons why you should buy local meat, how do you manage it?  I've found that the best way to add high quality expensive local meat to our diet is to eat less of it. I'm no nutritionist but I know that we Homo sapiens simply don’t need as much meat as we currently consume. It doesn’t always have to be the star of the dinner plate.  When I plan my meals, I try to stick to a mainly vegetarian diet with about three or four meals a week that use meat.  And I confess, that meat sometimes consists of decadent bacon or sausage, highly flavorful ingredients that I don’t need of great deal of to have a tasty meal.  Also, try making meat one small ingredient in a multi-ingredient dish.  Check out my recipe on the Recipe page for Steak and Potato Salad, a great example of meat adding just one of the many mouth-watering flavors in a meal.

For great resources on finding locally raised, grass fed meat visit www.eatwild.com or www.localharvest.org.

Season of My Content

O Happy Day! It's Farmers Market season!  Last week a plethora of towns around our great state opened their gates to this season's markets giving all us winter-weary local food loving Montanans a much needed taste of fresh produce.  I know what you're saying. Yes, there's not an abundance of fresh food yet this time of year but look closely and you can always find something.  Since the markets are slower this a great time to spend a little one-on-one with the vendors.  If you don't know how to prepare something, ask.  I've received great advice about how to use an unrecognized vegetable or how to preserve those thirty poblanos I couldn't resist buying but can't possibly eat in one summer. 

Everyone has their favorite market but I have to say you can always find me at the Clark Fork River Market on Saturday mornings under the Higgins Avenue Bridge.  The selection here is staggering and since you can find baked goods, meat, cheese and eggs you don't have to wait for the growing season to kick in to start savoring our fabulous local flavors. You don't need a wad of cash when you get there. Last year I discovered that you can use your credit or debit card to buy tokens which can then be used at each vendor.  The tokens are good all year (and I think year after year) so you don't have to carefully plan how much money you'll spend each visit. Vendors even accept WIC vouchers and senior nutrition vouchers encouraging everyone to each locally and eat healthy.

The market also host live music and plenty of food carts.  You simply must try the crepes! To find out more about the market, visit www.clarkforkrivermarket.com for the musical acts that will be playing each week, special events, a list of vendors and recipes posted by several vendors featuring their products as the main ingredient.

Hope to see you at the market! Just don't get in front of me at the heirloom tomato stand.  Things could get ugly.

This Is Too Easy

While recently doing research on a local farm, I came across the website www.eatwellguide.org.  This free online database helps you to find "local, sustainable, and organic food" in your own town or in an area you'll be traveling to.  The site lists family farms, grocery stores, restaurants and CSA's to help you in your effort to support local food.  It has a nifty travel guide and also a seasonal food guide that tells you what foods are in season in your area each month. Of course, nothing was listed for this time of year in Montana but soon, very soon! You can also become a member of the site and enjoy members-only benefits.  I'm not sure what those are yet but I'll look into it and let you know soon. In the meantime, check out this great site or use the link on my blog to start finding all things local.

A Perfect Example

While sitting at the counter at Biga Pizza the other night, stuffing our faces with our two favorite selections on their menu, Flathead Cherry and Sweet Potato Bacon, we were told a lovely tale by one of the chefs.  My question to him came about because this is April and Flathead cherries are in season during the summer months.  I was in awe of how, almost a year after the very cherries I was gorging on were picked from the tree, they could possibly taste so good.  His answer made me smile and think what a perfect example it is of local farmers, food producers and chefs work together to bring us Montanans this plate of pure bliss.  Here's how it works. 

Biga buys Flathead cherries from the growers late in the season and stores them in a seriously deep freeze at their friends' store, Big Dipper Ice Cream.  Then when they are ready to use the cherries, they make a chutney out of them which results in an almost candy-like concoction.  Mix that with a little sausage, gouda and Biga's tasty crust and you have one mighty fine pizza.  It all works so perfectly because the cherry growers are able to sell (and not waste) the remainder of their crops when the market for fresh cherries is winding down, Biga sells Big Dipper ice cream in their restaurant and Biga has a widely popular variety of pizza to add to their menu.  Everybody wins. 

Plus, now I cannot WAIT for cherry season!

Benefit #1 Taste, Taste, Taste

Now that I've blogged several times about a particular local food or drink, I wanted to begin to explore the question, "Why Local?".  I know that eating locally grown or produced foods gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling but besides that what are the actual benefits of doing so? Over the next several weeks, I'll figure this out and share my findings.

Benefit #1. Local (and seasonal) food tastes better.
The other day I attempted to eat a cherry tomato from some tropical location way south of Montana and I literally had to spit it out. My thoughts drifted back to those big beautiful heirloom tomatoes I got at the farmer's market last summer that I was happy to eat like an apple.  My entire life I thought I didn't care much for tomatoes then I had one of these beauties and realized I just didn't care for store-bought, pre-packaged, long distance tomatoes.  The superior taste stems from a few causes.

First, once a tomato or pear is picked or an egg is laid, the clock starts ticking. The longer it takes for the item to get from its source to your mouth, the more it will loose taste because of its age.  So if you're eating an orange from Florida that had to be shipped to Montana, you're not getting the full flavor as opposed to an apple that has been grown in the Bitterroot and picked within the last few days or even hours.  This is true not just for produce but cheese, eggs and sauces. 

Second, the giant mass-producing farms that provide Montanans blueberries in February have to grow varieties that have a long shelf-life which may not be the best varieties when it comes to taste.  Local growers can pick and choose what they grow based on how good they taste, not on how long they last.