ReLocavore: Redefining "local"

Back to Wisconsin, my cheesehead friends

Monthly Archives: July 2013

ReLocavore at the Dane County Farmer’s Market

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For your viewing pleasure, I shot and edited some video of the Dane County Farmer’s Market (DCFM) while we were at our vacation in Madison. I wanted to give everybody a sense of what an insanely huge Farmer’s Market goes on every Saturday in Madison.

For size comparison, I’ve taken two Google Map images of the permanent site of the Norwich Farmer’s Market, our regular market here in Vermont, and an image of the DCFM, highlighting in red the streets that are lined with vendors.

Dane County Farmer's Market takes up 8 city blocks around the Capitol Square in Madison.

Dane County Farmer’s Market takes up 8 city blocks around the Capitol Square in Madison.

The Norwich Farmer's Market occupies a permanent space.

The Norwich Farmer’s Market occupies a permanent space.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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This week in veg: the vegetables have arrived!

As you may have noticed, this week in veg has been on a hiatus for the past two weeks. This is because Sam and I were in Wisconsin and we got to give away our CSA to some fortunate friends of ours. We are back this week, and while we were gone the vegetables seem to have arrived in Vermont! Looking back over previous weeks, we had lots of greens and one or two small and large groups. But this week we finally see real vegetables: peas, cabbage, beets the size of Apple. All those wonderful things that show up this time of the year and require a little more sun and a little more water to get the right size. I’m hungry!

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1. Lettuce
2. Cabbage
3. New potatoes
4 shelling peas
5 cilantro
6 another head of lettuce
7 carrots
8 beets


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Strawberry Jam

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The back-of-the-napkin calculation…

Yielded 25 jars of jam for $4.66 per jar.

Next year, when I don’t have to buy jars, but only have to buy lids ($0.16/lid), each jar will cost me $4.14.

And yes, I didn’t factor in the cost of the equipment that I used – both the general equipment (bowls, spoons) and the canning-specific equipment (canner, jar tongs, lid lifter magnet).

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Back from the Heartland

This is as local as it gets, folks... Mom's garden peas.

This is as local as it gets, folks… Mom’s garden peas.

We’re back from Wisconsin. You can look forward to a LOT of wonderful posts about local eating in Wisconsin. I also took over an hour of video at the Saturday Dane County Farmer’s Market on cheese curds, hot spicy cheesy bread, and the market itself. I hope to post videos over the next two weeks.

I did come across this piece from my RSS feeds and though y’all might like to read about the State of the CSA from Modern Farmer.

“Everyone who is helping develop marketing channels that keep local farms in business deserves a place at the table. It’s just important to recognize that these are businesses, not community-run projects or social ventures,” said Just Food’s Berger. “CSA provides a greater social benefit for the broader community.”