Citizens Co-op Produce | Gainesville Food Photography

For Thanksgiving last week, Citizens Co-op set up a special online ordering system so you could get fresh food for the holiday.  I ordered two packs of local tempeh from Jose's tempeh and a bag of produce from Swallowtail Farms.  Both have been excellent so far!  The tempeh was cooked in onion and spices and has a very autumnal taste to it.  The produce came in a wonderful bag.  There were all kinds of goodies in there: turnips, sweet potatoes, salad greens, kale, arugula, fresh rosemary, purple bok choi, and so on.  I used the turnips, sweet potatoes, and some of the rosemary in a lovely roasted root vegetable dish with some beets, onions, and carrots.  I cooked down the greens for a veg version of southern greens, and I'm going to attack those salad greens for lunch today.


Swallowtail does run a CSA, so if you are interested in joining, please check them out at swallowtailcsa.com.  CSA stands for community supported agriculture.  If you join a CSA, you pay a flat fee directly to a farm, and they provide you with a box of a variety of fresh produce every week.  Joining a CSA is a great way to support local foods and farmers, as well as a sure way to always have healthy, fresh produce on hand.


For more information on Citizens Co-op, you can visit their website at citizensco-op.com.

 

Citizens Co-op Farm Bike Tour

Well, I guess it's been a while.  Things have been busy at Prioria, and I've been putting in 9, 10, 11 hour days almost every work day for three or four weeks in a row now, so a lot has fallen behind in my non-Prioria life :)

At long last, here are a couple shots from the Farm Bike Tour organized by Citizens Co-op here in Gainesville.  We paid a small fee and then had a guided bike tour of something like 10 local farms of a variety of types.  There was the ethnobotany grad student garden at UF (my favorite of the day), some community gardens, an enormous patch of land that used to be primarily blueberry fields now trying to clear out some of the overgrowth, a small commune-style garden (my second favorite - they had an accordion player!), a couple of home gardens (one with chickens!) and a garden maintained by the students of a local middle school.

The total ride was about 14.5 miles and took all afternoon.  Fortunately, most of the places we stopped had some refreshments for us, including such wonderful treats as minty fresh lemonade and fresh sugar snap peas.  At each garden, someone explained goals, methods, and plants to us and gave us the opportunity to ask questions. The day ended with a celebration at what is soon to be the home of the newly-established Citizens Co-op.  Fortunately, it is within walking distance of my home and work, so I'm thrilled to have it downtown.

All in all, it was a lovely afternoon.  We even got some free shirts for doing the bike ride, and Bo seems to be wearing his quite a bit these days (which is fine, I think it looks great on him!).

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It's May and therefore time for the second annual Eat Local Challenge!  Check out Hogtown Homegrown for more info!!!

What's Organic about 'Organic'?

We just had a Local Food Roadshow here in Gainesville and there was a little film series at the Hippodrome associated with it.  I went this past Wednesday to see two films that were being re-screened because they sold out on the days they were first screened.  Go Gainesville!  How many places will sell out at screenings of local, sustainable, organic food documentaries?  We have a great community here :)

One of the films was "What's Organic about 'Organic'?"  and it outlines a good deal of information about what the USDA organic symbol really represents.  The filmmaker and one of the farmers featured in the film who is from Florida were at the screening and held a Q&A session after the film.  I have to say that I learned more new information from the Q&A than from the film itself, but I still think that the film is definitely educational and worth watching.

For example, I didn't realize that the Organic stamp not only prohibits chemical fertilizers and the like, but also represents non-GMO items and mandates sustainable practices.  The regulations are slowly becoming more detailed, and the newest change is that livestock must spend a minimum of four months of the year on pasture.

The farmers at the screening (there was one interviewed in the film and one who wrote the initial organic regulations for the State of Florida before it was taken to the federal level) really communicated how stringent the regulations are and are proud of what the USDA Organic board has accomplished so far.  Of course, there is always room for improvement, but to hear from farmers who have been farming in a sustainable, natural way for decades and decades that they are proud of the USDA seal really drove home how much that little circle symbolizes.

I highly recommend this film and encourage you to do your research about what the seal really represents.

Eat happy!