Farmer & Feast Tours Conclude, The Cookbook Is Almost Complete!
Whew! What a blast!
I’ve toured over 65 farms -- driven over 2,000 miles around Connecticut -- meeting some of our most fascinating food producers! Now, we’re settling down to the final draft writing of Connecticut Farmer & Feast and testing recipes with oodles of neighbors, friends, culinary colleagues, and people I really don't know who show up to play with food anyway.
We often paint agriculture with one broad brush – with one utopian mental picture: silos, red barns, smiling farmers in straw hats. This is so far from reality! Each farm that I visited had the unique personality of the individuals who tend that plot of soil. I talked to octogenarians who fear that they’re the last keepers of the information we should know; young, single moms who are creating farms from scratch; families who started farming to save their sick children; sixty year olds who can’t pay the bills, who have no financial security, and who struggle to find every penny from the dirt; couples with their dream come true; and everyone else in between.
We often say: Know your Farmer, Know your Food. Writing this book has taught me that “knowing our farmers” means more than name recognition at the farm market. And yes, while it appears that a tomato at one booth, is a tomato at another booth – they are NOT the same. The personalities, dreams, fears, stories, and identity of each farmer rubs off on those tomatoes, on those carrots, on those beans.
I can’t wait to share Connecticut Farmer & Feast with you. May 2011 can’t come soon enough!
In the meantime, and while we still have a few weeks of farm markets left, get to know your tomato!
And, Buy Local Connecticut. If you can't make it to the farm market, don't forget to find local food on Shared Harvest.
