Eating local is getting me in touch with my inner-foodie. I am cooking more often. By cooking, I don’t mean ripping open a box of Rice-A-Roni to serve beside a chicken patty. Blech. No, I am cooking—stewing, baking, sautéing. I am experimenting with foods I hadn’t previously used. Before the growing season ended, I cooked a vegetable “stew.” I diced a firm zucchini, added fresh cut, supple tomatoes, and just enough jalepeno to make it interesting. With a little broth and fresh basil, I created a sumptuous, warm, comfort food with fresh vegetables plucked right off locally grown plants.
Then, a couple of weeks later, I purchased various cuts of pork from Family Farms Cooperative at the Purple Porch Co-op. I gleefully returned home, my arms laden with pork chops and steak cuts, bulk sausage, ribs, and bacon. I waited an entire two minutes before I fried up some bacon. Its smoky scents enveloped the kitchen. This juicy, crisp bacon was more satisfying than any that I’d ever bought in a grocery store.
Alice Waters, owner of Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, Calif., talks about the sensuality of food, proclaiming, “Food is the one central thing about human experience that can open up both our senses and our conscience to our place in the world.” This is not a new concept. A close up photo of a BigMac is proof that someone has figured out that we humans have an intimate relationship with our food.Waters opened Chez Panisse with a vision of gathering people around food. Alice envisioned an open, inclusive environment that promoted community and discussion about what empowers us. She wanted more than just a restaurant. But it needed something—or someone—to draw people in. Waters hired French chef Jeremiah Power, who served pleasurable food to complement Waters’ revolutionary vision.
In 1976, the culinary attractions at Chez Panisse included a meal comprised completely of locally grown produce and seafood. The meal became famous in Berkeley and the region for its re-introduction of local, exquisite food. The meal, and Chez Panisse, and Alice Waters were credited for kickstarting the local food revolution.
Over the last several years, South Bend is finding its own place in this revolution. While South Bend has had a popular Farmer’s Market for over a century, the movement to increase the awareness and availability of local foods is gaining momentum. Last December, IU South Bend hosted the Michiana Food Summit to raise awareness of growing organics and local food. Local farmers such as Clay Bottom Farms host Farm-to-Table dinners featuring food they had produced. On December 10 of this year, the South Bend Common Council will hear arguments from the Urban Chicken Alliance to allow South Bend residents to raise hens on their own property.
As a member of the growing locavore population in South Bend, I am excited about the activity around local eating. As a foodie—a local foodie—I am excited about the taste that real food offers, real food that is made, like my vegetable stew, with vegetables that I had grown or from a local farm. All of the senses are aroused by food that is picked for maximum freshness and ripeness and taste—food that only has to travel fewer than 150 miles to become my dinner.
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