Local food obviously travels less to reach you making it more environmentally friendly. It also keeps the consumer in touch with the seasons. Why don’t apples taste as good in July? Where does all the acorn squash go in May? If food must travel less to reach its destination it will (hopefully) be picked closer to ripeness– or when fully ripe. So local food tastes better. To find out more about local food go here.

If you purchase from farm stands or greenmarkets even better: you have an opportunity to talk with the person who actually produced your food. This allows you to find out their farming methods and philosophy. Often times, this produce can be found low-spray or organic. To find out more about organic food go here.

The best food I have ever eaten has been the stuff I picked myself. A peach direct from the tree, arugula from my garden buckets and apples in an orchard.

The other weekend D and I went strawberry picking. I cannot remember the last time I picked strawberries but it was definitely a time when I was closer to Earth. Let’s just say a 4 inch plant is not a small distance from 5ft 11in me. 3 hours of squats will do more to your thighs than you think, especially when you rely on your legs to carry you around the city and up and down the subway stairs.

Picking fruits and vegetables connects me to more than the Earth. It makes me aware of how difficult not just farming, but especially harvesting is. Spend a few hours in 100 degree heat breaking corn from the stalks and you will see what I mean.

As D and I at times crawled around the field we popped a few of those sun-ripe and ultra sweet berries for a tasting. One taste was all we needed to let greed take over. 4 quarts, 3 hours and a belly full of berries later we were on our way to a vineyard for a little relaxation before the drive home.

The results? One quart went to my father and the other 3 were broken into 2 piles: “Eat Now” and “Savor a Bit.” A few days later both Eat Now Savor a Bot were resorted, sliced and transferred into a third “Use Me” pile. Use Me became the items pictured below: Strawberry Lemon-Limeade, Strawberry Scones and Strawberry Ice Cream.

Strawberry Lemon-Limeade
Makes about 1.5 quarts. Active time= 20 minutes
Juice of 4 lemons
Juice of 3 limes
1 cup strawberries, loosely chopped
Simple Syrup to taste

1) Make simple syrup: Place 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a pan over medium-high heat. Let simmer for 10 minutes.
2) While simple syrup is simmering, juice lemons and limes. Place the lemon juice, lime juice and strawberries in a 2 quart container. Fill container with water about 3/4 full.
3) Using a hand held blender (or regular blender) puree ingredients until a desired consistency is reached (leave some strawberries more solid if desired).
4) Add about half the simple syrup, taste, add more if desired. Add simple syrup until desired sweetness is reached.

More recipes soon…

Head over to Culinate to place your vote now, registration only takes a second. Follow the blue Grill Me image link to the right or go here: http://www.culinate.com/grillme/register.

Results: Thank you all who voted for me. While I did not win the trip to Napa I did rise in the standings a whopping 45 slots to 33rd place! Not bad for finding out about the event only 24 hours before the voting deadline. So no free grilling in Napa this time around.

Artisanal Cheese, a top supplier to Whole Foods, (and one of my favorite restaurants in NYC) offers courses to help you work through the many cheese options available out there. Their classes range from what cheese pairs best with what wines (did you know that brie is one of the worst pairings and also one of the most common found on cheese plates?) to beer and whisky pairings with cheese, to highlighting top regional producers or authors on cheese.

I attended Wine and Cheese 101 complimentary last year and enjoyed it so much I signed up for Whiskies and Cheese on my own. Wine and Cheese 101 was extremely informative: Brie, along with other soft cheeses are difficult to pair with wine because they are young and therefore, haven’t found out “who they want to be–” or “what flavors they want to express,” making them difficult to pair with wines. Another surprise was that blue cheese should always be the very last cheese you taste when eating/ pairing cheese. Why? Because blue’s bold flavor palate will kill other more subtle cheeses (and wine). Just think about it, blue cheese really sticks to your palate. Whiskies and Cheese was more fun, and well, a bit hazy.

Artisanal is offering many classes this summer (I am bummed I will be out of town for two that sound amazing). If you live in or will be in the New York area, sign up now because space is limited. The classes are a great value for all the amazing wines, cheese and knowledge you sample! If you don’t live in NYC, you can always order their tasty cheeses online. Just be careful, in my experience, if you order a stinky, “barnyardy” cheese (as Artisanal likes to call it), your UPS delivery person might think something has died in your package. Highlighted courses listed below (there are more offered on their site):

July 6: Red, White & Blue: America’s Best Artisan Cheese. Jeff Roberts, author of The Atlas of American Artisan Cheese will be there to guide this class and their tasting.

July 6: An Oregon Menage-a-Trois: Chocolates, Cheeses and Wines. Join Maitre Fromager Max McCalman for an illustrative and instructive class placing some of Oregon’s finest cheeses alongside some of its most distinctive wines.

July 10: Eat Local: Cheeses of the Northeast. Cheese maker extraordinaire Mateo Kehler from the acclaimed Jasper Hill Farmsin Northeast Kingdom, Vermont, to join Fromager Waldemar Albrecht in presenting some of his award-winning cheeses and discussing the state of artisan cheese making in the Northeast.

August 15: Beat the Heat: Cheese and Wines for the Summer. Cool off the old-fashioned way and enjoy an artisan-produced cheese paired with a nice, refreshing glass of wine.

August 16: Craft Beer & Artisanal Cheese. A lineup of the world’s best brewers on a journey through the world of craft-brewed, artisanally-produced beer…paired with the perfect cheeses, of course!

The best part of any course is to arrive early and get a tour of their cheese caves! But of course, the cheese is the real highlight in all their classes!