Doin' the Localmotion: Part 2

I'm sure it goes without saying that the second half of our localvore day was not just about fawning over fresh food, but was actually dedicated to consuming it too! We got lunch at Feast!, which is super cool establishment that is half-deli, half specialty shop that focuses on "connecting local farmers, artisan food producers and consumers by specifically sourcing and endorsing hand-made, local and seasonal foods that sustain the viability of farmland and family-owned food businesses." (Do you love that as much as we do?!)

Nick had the Polyface chicken salad with spinach, almonds and cranberries and a tasty beverage of Russian tea. I had a panini of chicken, figs, and cheddar cheese with a side of white bean salad. It was SCRUMPTIOUS! We spent some time perusing the wares in the shop while we waited for our lunch. I think my favorite part of the shop was the various types of fresh, bulk olive oil, where you bring your own decanter to fill--so cool! After lunch, we went for a walk on the Downtown Mall, checking out the shops and enjoying the fresh air. We loved these giant stone chalkboards filled with all kinds of chalky graffiti:
Nick added his touch here! Can you find it?And, of course, I added my touch, too. After our walk, we scooted down to Vinegar Hill, Charlotteville's spot for independent, documentary, and foreign films. We decided to see The Cove, a thriller of a documentary about Japanese slaughtering of dolphins, which was probably not the most uplifting thing to watch on such a sunny, delightful day. It was good, yes, but it was really difficult to watch and we both left feeling a little heartsick. Neither of us have craved sushi since. We had dinner at The Local, which, in keeping with its name, is only easy to find the first time if you are, in fact, a local. We ended up having to call for directions at one point, even though we had come prepared with a map and directions. We had the most deeeelish appetizer, a beet and goat cheese (from local Caromont Farm) salad. Isn't it pretty?

I had the roast chicken (from local Green Fence Farm) with exotic mushroom and pea ragout and mashed potatoes for my entree. (Um, yes, it was half a freakin' chicken, much to my surprise!) Nick had the local organic beef topped with manchego cheese, apple smoked bacon, and caramelized onions:
It really was a lovely locavore day filled with lots of awesome food. We fell in love a little more with Charlottesville that day. It really is a great feeling to be immersed in a place whose appreciation for local farmers and food is quite tangible.

Have you found any nifty stores or restaurants who share a love of locally sourced food?

On your mark, get set, GO!

Our local eating challenge is underway! We have successfully eaten at least one local food item each day since the challenge began on September 21! (Okay, yes, that has only been 2 days, but still...)

September 21:
-->homemade granola with honey from Wildwood Farm in Mineral, Va. (I make killer granola, y'all.)

September 22:
-->homemade granola with honey from Wildwood Farm in Mineral, VA
-->sauteed mixed greens (from Victory Farms in Hanover, VA) with purple bell peppers (from our friend Reuben's garden) and ground pork from Polyface Farm in Swoope, VA.

(If you saw Food, Inc., you might recognize Polyface Farm!)

Not too shabby, eh? Hopefully we can keep up the momentum! We'll keep you posted!

Doin' the Localmotion: Part 1

As Labor Day was the harbinger of all-things-crazy-to come for us, we wanted to do something the preceding weekend that was a fun celebration of our summertime garden and local-eating focus. We wanted to do something to ring out our summer growing season, and where better to do it than a place that is seeing an exciting upsurge in appreciation for small farms, buying local, and keepin' it green: Charlottesville, VA. Charlottesville has done some incredible things in promotion of fresh, local and sustainable, and we were excited to enjoy its literal fruits. Since C-Ville is just a little over an hour west of Fredericksburg, we decided to make a full day trip of it.

Our first stop was Charlottesville's farmer's market, City Market . This farmer's market was lovely! Big and bustling, this farmers' market made Fredericksburg's farmers' market seem a bit bland and tame. Booth and after booth vendors hocked diverse local wares from orchids to rare breed pork, from vintage apples to outlawed raw chevre, and lots of luscious fresh veggies in between. A few snapshots from our morning there:

Maters!
Does Roundabout Farm rock? You betcha!
We couldn't agree more.

Buy the time we arrived at the market square, this free tastiness was all gone, but we know we would have relished eating this illegal stuff.Be free, y'all.
And finally, our big cheesin' mugs with a backdrop of one corner of the market. We didn't buy anything at the market since we knew we'd be in the city all day without a proper way to store our food wares. Nonetheless, we had a heartwarming time there surrounded by others who also geek out at farmers' markets! LOVED it!

So, if we didn't eat there, what DID we eat? You'll see! Part 2 of our locavore adventure coming later this week!

Reservations

We've got reservations. What kind of reservations? The good kind. For eating copious amounts of food. Yup. And we're unbelievably excited. Like, a 5 year old on Christmas morning excited. Except these reservations are for 10/31/2009...Halloween!

What's that? To where, you ask? Oh, we're not telling. Nope. You're gonna have to guess. We'll give you clues every week, of course. But we're totally not telling you. It would ruin the suprise.

(Did I mention that we are EXCITED?!?!)

This week's clues:
1)The primary focus is local, organic food produced in an environmentally (and local economy) sustaining way. This place goes out of its way to source food from its local farmers.

2)I think just might have to buy a new dress.

We Challenge You!

21 local foods in 21 days: do you think you can do it? We think we can!

The Piedmont Environmental Council is sponsoring an "Eat Local Challenge" from September 21 - October 11, 2009 encouraging folks to be conscious of of what they eat and where it comes from. Participants fill out a personal scorecard daily on which they list the local food item they've eaten and its source (where you bought it and the farm on which it was produced). "Local" is defined as having been grown and sourced within 100 miles of your home. When your scorecard is submitted, you are entered into a drawing for prizes, the grand prize being 3 cooking classes from the Charlottesville Cooking School.

While we (sadly) don't live in the Piedmont region, where opportunities for local eating are bursting at the seams, we are still going to jump on this challenge. Local eating would have been uber easy for us this summer when our garden was erupting with fresh goodies, but I suppose that would have been TOO easy, now wouldn't it? The point is to make the effort, to seek out local food sources, and to evolve your diet in a way that is both sustainable to the earth and your community.

We picked up our scorecard at the Heritage Harvest Festival this weekend, which totally rocked our worlds. Expect a picture-heavy post on the festival in the very near future.

In the meantime, do you think you could swing the Eat Local Challenge? We dare you!

Quick Little Update

Nope, we've not quite yet put the garden to bed for the winter! We still have updates and stories and pictures and posts aplenty to share! It has indeed been a while since our last post, but we have good intentions of continuing with the blog as long as the growing season lets us. And possibly beyond that. We'll see!

We are super sad to report that graduate school has descended upon us, in all its unpaid-internship, way-too-expensive-textbook, time-sucking, paper-writing, journal-article-reading, capstone-project, we-might-need-crazy-pills, three-ring-circus, maddening fervor. Where did our summer go???

Upcoming fun for ABNG:

• How we preserved some of our tomato bounty (and what we learned along the way)
• Fall leafy greens
• Our Locavore day trip
• Heritage Harvest Festival
• Local brewery trip and trail
• Garden/farming blogs we have a major crush on
• A hopeful farm tour (If only I can get Nick as excited about it as I am, hehehe!)

While the posts may come with a little bit extra time between them, rest assured that we have happy gardening, farming, local-eating adventures in our future (and a few in our past) that we're dying to post about. If only we could snag an extra hour here and there!

Lots of love,

R & N