A culinary online center dedicated to promoting the importance and the joy of American home cooking with an emphasis on local products and talent, celebrating the unique spirit and energy of the new food world ethos, especially in Vermont.

amuse bouche

I love quotes that add meaning to my life. Here are a few to live by:

Avoid food products containing ingredients that a third-grader cannot pronounce.
—Michael Pollan

Feeding nine billion people in a truly sustainable way will be one of the greatest challenges our civilization has had to confront. It will require the imagination, determination and hard work of countless people from all over the world. There is no time to lose.
—Jonathan A. Foley, director of the Institute on the Environment, U of MN

The surest way to capture the flavors, colors, and textures of a culture is by using authentic products.
—Lidia Bastianich, from Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen

The most important habit you can develop is to taste as you are preparing something. Take a sample and taste it critically at different stages of the cooking, then correct the seasonings…
—Marion Cunningham, from Learning to Cook

Plant a vegetable garden if you have the space, a window box if you don’t.
—Michael Pollan

Is Localizing America’s Food System Possible?

A recent University of California, Merced study by J. Elliott Campbell and Andrew Zumkehr found that local food has the potential to meet 90% of the national food demand. Their study examined every acre of active farmland in the United States to calculate the potential of feeding a balanced diet to people living within a 100-mile radius. This meant reimaging how each acre of farmland was used, and converting the land used to grow corn and soybeans into land used to grow vegetables. On average, 90% of Americans’ food needs could be sourced locally; however, there are some cities, such as New York City that can only access 30% of its food from local sources. To actually put Campbell and Zumkehr’s study into practice would not be easy. In fact, it would require a complete overhaul to our economic system and agricultural policy. However, the study illustrates the potential of American farmland to theoretically feed a majority of citizens locally. In addition, it opens the conversation about rethinking land use altogether—imagine how much food could be produced locally if we converted asphalt, brown fields, and lawns into vegetable gardens! Read Dan Nosowitz’s great synopsis of the study HERE, and access the full study HERE to learn more.

Posted: 6-22-2015

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