But what about the food???

SAC Guest Blogger: Sarah Sinning

If “no man can be a patriot on an empty stomach,” as William Cowper would have us believe, then the same logic must be true for local food advocates, right?  This idea certainly seems to have been behind Kris Reid’s delicious offerings at this year’s SAC, for the variety of dishes at every meal was simply staggering.  For those of you who couldn’t make it this year, here’s a little sampling of the goods:

Sweet potato bisque, collard wraps with winter vegetables and honey pecan dressing, shrimp and grits, autumn vegetable strudel, braised greens with apples and caramelized turnips, spiced pumpkin with Sea Island Peas and goat cheese salad, whole pork braised in rootbeer, carrot cake with goat cheese frosting…and trust me, the list goes on!  Are you hungry yet???

But while this autumnal feast was certainly impressive given the fact that Reid had to source enough food to feed over 600 attendees more than 5 different meals over the course of a weekend, one of the biggest challenges was simply in finding it all!  For those of you who are not familiar with how the food service industry typically operates, here’s a quick crash course.  For most major hotels and restaurants, the most difficult part of ordering food for an event is generally in crunching the numbers.  Once you have a menu drafted with the amount of prospective guests, placing your order can be as simple as filling out an online form with your distributor and hitting “send.”  While a lot of establishments actually use a variety of distributors to assure the best quality and price, the key word here is DISTRIBUTOR.  When Reid was asked to source the food as locally as possible, the luxury of using a pre-established distributor network pretty much went out the window!  The problem is simple: although there has been a dramatic increase in the demand for local food across the state, we still lack an adequate infrastructure to make it truly accessible across all avenues.  When CFSA introduced Eastern Carolina Organics a few years back, this was a huge stride in the right direction, for it finally gave time and cash-strapped restaurants and retailers access to the local food producers they desired.  While it has certainly been no secret to professional and home cooks alike that local, seasonal ingredients taste better, most restaurants simply couldn’t afford the time and extra cost associated with not only tracking down the products, but also coordinating their delivery on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.  But today the tides are changing, and as ECO and businesses like it continue to grow and more and more farmers are contributing to the overall supply, the infrastructure is slowly but surely filling in the gaps.  This doesn’t unfortunately mean that Reid had the luxury of simply filling out an online order form and hitting “send,” but it’s because of the tireless efforts of chefs like her that the rest of us will one day be so lucky.     

Good Meat: Cooking Secrets

Good Meat author Deborah Krasner (right) stands proudly with her book and a representative from Animal Welfare Approved. The glorious irony of sustainability!

SAC 2010 Guest Blogger, Victoria Bouloubasis

Author Deborah Krasner spoke to a small crowd of farmers and cooking aficionados on Sunday with cheery enthusiasm and expertise on sustainable gourmet. The James Beard Award winner discussed her latest book, Good Meat: The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat, the first published guide and cookbook to take an unadulterated look into how we raise, source and (better) cook grass-fed and pasture-raised meat.

Attendees were just as excited as Krasner about Good Meat. “A lot of the other books out there [on organic meat] are dreadful,” said one farmer.

“I wrote Good Meat for a number of reasons,” Krasner told the room. “One of which, I really understood that cooking pastured and grass-fed meat is very different than conventional.”

She also recalled an article she read in the New York Times in which the writer didn’t know what to do with lamb shoulder. “Wow, we have really dumbed down cooking if nobody knows how to cook anything except for a steak or a chop,” she said.

She was also a bit irked that sustainable meat was difficult to find in most U.S. cities. “I was angry that good meat went from being a birthright to everyone, to good meat being something that we have to search out.”

Her book, however, is anything but angry. After one brief peek into the pages of gorgeous photographs, beautifully executed recipes (lamb with ginger, cinnamon and apricot, anyone?) and recommended, affordable kitchen equipment, it’s no wonder this book is being touted as a complete how-to guide for sustainable meat. For three years, Krasner cooked meat from various farms out of her Vermont home to compile a tested recipe collection of beef, pork, lamb, rabbit, poultry (ducks, chickens, turkey, pheasant). Aside from retail cuts like flank and chuck, her book also features the bits and pieces many of us are hesitant to try cooking: lamb’s tongue, pig’s ears and tails, chicken feet, hearts, gizzards, sweetbreads and more.

Fisherman or farmer, everyone was intrigued with Good Meat.

“You’re obliged to honor the animal’s sacrifice by cooking the whole animal,” said Krasner. “That means cooking every part that is edible, not just cherry-picking the choicest cuts.”

On Sunday, Krasner unlocked a treasure trove of cooking secrets when dealing with meat. Among them: cook low and slow (with a tight fitting lid) or fast and hot; don’t cook anything past medium rare; distilling a half cup of red wine, apple cider, vermouth or beer into a hot pan of caramelized leftover meat bits makes for a “baseline fabulous” reduction; a $10 Chinese sand pot from an Asian grocery is just as good as a fancy Le Creuset.

The retail price for Good Meat is $40, though Krasner is offering wholesale prices for farmers. E-mail her at goodmeatbook@gmail.com for more information. For an online excerpt, click here.

“In the end, what matters to me is that we make a sustainable meat movement in this country and we help everybody get healthy. It’s good for the health of yourself, your family, and guests at your table. It increases the health of small farmers and diversified farms, preserves your land from development. It saves the planet; its carbon footprint is correct. Land that cannot be used for farming can be used for grazing animals. I don’t care if you eat a lot of meat or a little bit of meat, whenever you choose to eat it, eat good meat.”

For gourmand folks looking to learn more about cooking sustainable meat, NC Choices Casey McKissick informed the crowd that there will be artisanal cooking classes for home cooks at the Carolina Meat Conference, March 25-27 in Concord, N.C.

Canning 101: for folks of all ages

SAC 2010, Guest Blogger Lisa Poser

I thought canning was for old ladies. Like sewing and knitting is…. right?  Wrong. On both assumptions.

First of all, knitting has actually made its way into the spotlight over the past few years as a hobby for people of all ages. For evidence, see this fun site that has successfully helped to form social knitting clubs all over the world!

Canning is also arguably making its way into the spotlight as the push towards local food and gardening gains momentum. (After all, we need something to do with all that fresh, local, nutritious produce we’re growing!) Evidence? For starters, the Canning 101 workshop at this years Sustainable Agriculture Conference.

Dr. Anne Marie Scott

Granted I don’t know too many canners other than my Mom who use to make strawberry jam every summer and the lady at the farmers market who I buy pepper jelly from, but Dr. Anne Marie Scott, Kitchen Educator at the Edible Schoolyard Project, is definately one of the most passionate canners I’ve ever met! During this session she gave us a run down of what it takes to start canning. For those of you who are like me and haven’t tried it yourself yet for various reasons (don’t have the time, don’t know how, are scared of a pressure canner) read below and then give it a try. You may be pleasantly surprised!

Dr. Scott’s Main Message about canning was pretty clear and simple. Just do it! And don’t let that pressure canner scare you! If you follow the recipe directions to the T, your end product will be safe to eat.

Take homes.

• There are two approved canning methods. The type of food you want to can decides which method you use. Use Boiling Water Canning for high-acid foods like fruits. Use Pressure Canning for low acid foods like vegetables and meats.   
• Start with Boiling Water Canning because it’s less complicated than using a Pressure Canner.
• Bad things like botulism can happen, but rarely do. If you follow the directions exactly, your product will be perfectly safe to eat.
• If you unintentionally make syrup instead of jelly, just smile and enjoy….it will taste equally as yummy!
  

  Tasting the final product

• A tested preserving recipe
• Canning jars (like Ball Mason jars) with appropriate lids and bands
• Deep saucepot with a lid and a rack (for Boiling Water Canning)
• A ladel
• A jar grabber to remove jars from boiling water
• A magnetic wand to remove lids from boiling water

Where To Buy Canning Tools and Equipment? Online, your local hardware store, or your local grocery store (Weaver Street Market, Food Lion)

Canning tools and resources

Where To Get More Information.

You can find everything you need to know including How-To Guides and Videos, a Problem Solving Guide, Recipes, Tools, etc  to start canning at Ball’s website.  The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving and The Big Book of Preserving the Harvest are also invaluable resource books.

Happy canning!