A Whirlwind Tour of Local Food: Recapping Eat Local Week 2010

As I kick off this new year, I find myself musing about some of my favorite experiences of the last year.  I travelled to some truly incredible places, ate some of the best meals of my life and built friendships that I will cherish for years to come.  I learned an incredible amount about locally sourced food and that I have a deep and true admiration for anyone who grows or raises it.



One of the great lessons for me this last year was that no matter how much I learn, there is always something new to discover.  Edible Austin's Eat Local Week was a perfect example of this lesson as I unearthed some new local treasure every day.



The first event of the week was the Urban Farm Bicycle Tour visiting the farms in East Austin.  Since I had my niece and nephew, we didn't cycle, but we did take the opportunity to visit two farms I hadn't been to yet, Green Gate Farms and the Urban Roots Farm.



Green Gate is located in Northeast Austin, just shy of Decker Lake, and is the labor of love of Skip Connett and Erin Flynn.  They host a farm stand three days a week (Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays) and offer CSA memberships.  They even hosted several farm camp sessions this last fall where you can experience what it's like to be a farmer for a day.



Our next stop was the Urban Roots farm which is operated by the youth who participate in the leadership development program built around farming and running a market stand.   Two of the kids gave us a thorough tour of the farm and told us all about the program.  My nephew fell in love with the farm and the program, and begged me to bring him back to volunteer this spring.







We visited the other stops on the tour as well, making our rounds to Haus Bar, Boggy Creek and Rain Lily farms.  My niece and nephew now run up to the farms as if they own the place having visited each several times.  It makes me proud!









That night we celebrated at the Springdale Farm pig roast.  The kids are partial to Springdale Farm because they have ducks.  I was thrilled that my somewhat picky eater nephew was willing to try the pork, although his sister wanted no part of it.  She, however, did eat her broccoli.



On day two, my nephew patiently accompanied me to the Drink Local Coffee Festival.  He was prepared for boredom, but ended up entertaining himself with the beignets (his first) from Christen's Gourmet Pralines (think powdered sugar cloud) and was entranced by the explanation from Casa Brasil about each stage of the coffee roasting process. I was delighted to try the coffees from Third Coast and Dominican Joe's, two of the local roasters I hadn't visited before.  







Later in the week, I ventured to Drink Local Night (without the niece and nephew, of course) and discovered a round up of new Texas spirits that ended up making their way into Santa's bag.  Pecan Street Rum, from Spirit of Texas out of Pflugerville, is distilled with aged pecan and has a sweet, nutty flavor that makes it a terrific sipping rum.  Railean's Rum from San Leon has more of a traditional rum flavor and is a perfect match for your favorite tropical beverage.   I'm partial to the Balcones Distillery and its award winning Balcones Baby Blue corn whisky. The first Texas whisky distilled since prohibition, this blue corn mash is a real treat for any bourbon aficionado.



The Better Bites Holiday Gift Fair helped me finish my holiday baskets.  I knew most of the vendors well, but still found a few surprises.  Nicole Patel from Delysia Chocolatier, who has been making terrific truffles for the last two years, has added hot chocolate and handmade marshmallows to her offerings.  Austin Sugarworks was selling sculpted sugars in peppermint, vanilla and citrus flavors - a terrific treat for your favorite tea drinker.  You can find Austin Sugarworks in the new year at the Barton Creek Farmers market.



As much fun as the other events of the week were, the highlight for me was the speech by Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food and Food Rules.   The event was preceded by a Farm Direct Showcase highlighting local farms and food artisans like Confituras, Salt & Time and Pie Fixes Everything.  My big find of the showcase was the pate from Pate Letelier.  I will definitely be making my way to the Hope Farmers market to purchase their terrific spreads.







The showcase was a terrific warm-up for an inspiring and engaging speech from Michael Pollan.  He started off by stacking a number of items he bought at a local grocery on a table.  The processed food in a can or box was packed with sugar, salt, fat and other hidden additives despite the claims of health on some of the labels.  Did you know there is as much sugar in a standard low-fat yogurt as there is in a bottle of soda?  I didn't.







The bottom line - if you want to know what you are eating, eat less processed food.  Pollan's mantra, developed after years of research and interviews boiled down to seven simple words:  Eat food.  Not too much.  Mostly plants.  Nothing radical about that.



Eat Local Week ended with two terrific events.  Addie Broyles of the Austin American-Statesman and Nik Ciccone of Fox 7 News battled head to head in a Media Celebrity Cook-off at the Downtown Farmers Market.  I was lucky enough to be one of the judges and got to sample the terrific dishes put together by our media stars and the very able students of Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute.







Jack Gilmore of Jack Allen's Kitchen did a terrific job emceeing the cook-off and highlighting Urban Roots, the beneficiary of the Eat Local Week festivities.







The finale event was the Texas Craft Brewer's Mini-Festival at the Black Star Co-op.  I enjoyed trying beers from a number of new breweries, particularly Thirsty Planet, and listening to my brother-in-law talk to folks about his new brewery to launch later this spring, Twisted X.  (More on that later; trust me.)



Eat Local Week 2010 was a true adventure from the tours to the tastings.  I experienced new farms, artisans, restaurants (terrific meals at El Arbol and Uchiko) and even art (Wally Workman Gallery.)   I ended the week inspired, re-invigorated and a little full.  Eat Local Week really was a great snapshot of my year.







Here's to many more local food adventures in 2011!



View the full photo set on Flickr.