Real People Eat Local

 

 

Several private groups and Slow Food members in our area held Eat-Ins. There are photos from a few at our Facebook page, including an event at City Blossoms Girard Children's Community Garden, where we took the header photo of the herb garden, and the Eat-In at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Charter School, pictured at left. See more from Slow Food Eat-Ins across the country here.

 

 

The obstacles and objections to the idea that local farms can feed children in local schools are being slowly and surely removed as people across the country share success stories and press their local school districts to think differently about sourcing ingredients for school food. The National Farm to School Network is a great resource for sharing successes and finding new ideas. Our local school districts and interested organizations are taking steps to bring farms and schools closer together. 

Maryland - The second annual Homegrown School Lunch Week begins on Monday, September 14. Maryland-grown and produced foods such as apples and tomatoes will be on school lunch trays at hundreds of schools across the state. Federal, state and local officials will kick off the observance with a local lunch at Hebron-Harman Elementary School in Hanover, MD, on Tuesday, September 15.

Washington, DC - The DC Farm to School Network is sponsoring Local Flavor Week beginning September 21. Their web site contains resources for ways individual schools can incorporate local flavor and begin the process of creating real change in school cafeterias.

 

Virginia - Virginia's Farm to School Network maintains a database on its website of school districts and their needs, and farm sources interested in working with schools. Many districts are already working with these sources to bring fresh Virginia foods to student cafeterias.

 

Whole apples are lunchbox favorites, but you can teach a favorite fruit a few new tricks. Thinly sliced crisp apples are great on sandwiches. Try them with peanut butter, sliced chicken or turkey, or with any cheese from brie to goat cheese. Here's an easy recipe for an apple cheddar panini from the Maryland's Best recipe page.On the Virginia Apple Growers website you'll find more fun apple recipes for lunch and snacks.

 

It definitely feels like fall today, doesn't it? Hold that feeling and get ready to cozy up with our fall issue, coming in early October. Check your favorite spot for a free copy; and always let us know if you don't find Edible Chesapeake where you expect to see it. 

 

Yes, those are apple cider donuts on our cover, a fall indulgence we don't feel one bit guilty about! We've also got features on sheep's milk cheese at Everona Dairy in Rapidan, Virginia; the natural bread empire of Baltimore's Atwater's Bakery; and the area's pioneering neo-old-fashioned butcher shop, Belmont Butchery in Richmond. We pop in on the Washington Youth Garden and our Road Trip to Frederick includes a stop at Bryan Voltaggio's Volt.

 

There is still time to subscribe for home delivery of the fall issue. For only $28 a year, you get four issues packed with original articles on the people, places and foods in our Chesapeake Bay foodshed, with the context of a publication that has been the voice for the local food community since 2005. Our readers also tell us the ads in Edible Chesapeake are as beautiful and as useful as the editorial in helping them pursue a more locally focused way of eating.