Are you a local food patriot or locavore?

Fast Lane Definition-

Local food (also regional food or food patriotism) or the local food movement is a "collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption as integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place. It is considered to be a part of the broader sustainability movement.

It is part of the concept of local purchasing and local economies, a preference to buy locally produced goods and services. A USDA publication called it "a geographical concept related to the distance between food producers and consumers. In addition to geographic proximity of producer and consumer, however, local food can also be defined in terms of social and supply chain characteristics."

Culinary Quote Du Jour-

When I buy food at the farmers' market, I know that it has not been shipped back and forth across the country. It has not been grown by multinational corporations, but by families. Most importantly, when I buy food at the farmers' market, I meet the grower. I have a connection, an interaction, and a place to express my gratitude. 

Author Jenny Kursweil, "Fields that Dream"

Farmers markets are the hot new culinary trend for 2011, the ability to get to know your food is a large part of the attraction.  Man and women have been shopping at bazzaars and markets since the beginning of time.  Usually done on a daily basis you utilized that which was in season, fresh and inexpensive.  There is definite joy in selecting the perfect squash, the ripes heirloom tomato or a beautiful watermelon.  Preparation is also easier, I go back to the times with my family at u-pick farms in Miami, Florida;  we would pick tomatoes to can and freeze Mom said they made the best sauce and she was right.  A salt shaker or two were always furnished and we would eat a lunch of fresh raw, just picked produce.  We would pick tomatoes in different stages of ripeness, green to fry, half ripe to store in brown paper bags for later.  
I didn't know it then but what a treat, healthy and cheap you were never charged for what was in your stomach.   Picking fresh strawberries was my favorite, one for the picker and one for the basket, boy was there a few stomach aches!  


As a professional chef an appreciation for fresh local produce came from some experience working with chefs whom had experience in the Caribbean, when you are on an island and your next shipment doesn't arrive for two weeks you adapt and utilize what is available.  As I gained more experience I came to realize that fresh is best, the compliments that your received could be directly connected to the quality of the food product.  Drawing on my past experience with the family marinara, I produced a fresh sauce for the award winning Italian Pavilion at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, it was the best bar none. In Europe there has always been a local movement, chefs were raised and trained to use what they had this served them well.  Chefs were giving the consumer the freshest best tasting product available as a way of life.  Here in America we suffer from the globalization of the world market and super farms.  our food supply suffers in taste, quality and freshness;  Through genetic, chemicals and we get the best food science can supply not the best Mother Nature has to offer.