11.29.2010

Thanksgiving and Culture Wars

Mostly I'm posting today to give you this link to an article that came out today in the Washington Post.

I'm most definitely one of those "liberal elitists" refered to in the article, but I like to think that I'm a little more down to earth than some (I was an anthropology major after all!). There are people who just don't identify with all my fuzzy feelings about local and organic food. For these folks, the economic argument is a good one: Local food means more of our dollars stay in our local economy, giving jobs to our friends and neighbors.... I also think that it's useful to emphasize just how all-American meat and potatoes local cuisine can be. It doesn't have to be hoity-toity.



I also wanted to share this picture from Thanksgiving. Since I've been working to much recently, and I had to work on the holiday itself, instead of being intimately involved in cooking this year I brought a simple hour devours platter. Ida Red apples from Ela Orchard, Lucious pears from Future Fruit, Potter's crackers, aged Marieke Gouda, Hook's Blue Paradise, French Delice de Bourgogne (not local, I know, but oh my god this cheese is good!), Carr Valley apple smoked cheddar, and a pepper salame from Columbus (again, not local, but I needed a good salami to balance the cheese and fruit). I garnished it all with Tat-Soi from Tipi Produce, which is a beautiful green that got as many comments as the cheese, crackers, and fruit.

After enjoying this spread, we sat down to a beautiful Thanksgiving meal. Dave got two small turkeys from Jordendal Farm and smoked them to perfection. Mom made stuffing, garden beets, great Grandma's creamed onions, a garden salad (yes, she's still picking lettuce and spinach from the garden!) a pecan pie, and a pumpkin pie (from a real pumpkin); Ben and Erica brought mashed potatoes, a really yummy squash dish, a wonderful raw cranberry sauce, and a peach crisp.

It felt weird to be so disconnected from the preparation of the meal, but it was amazing none the less. It had been a while since I'd had a chance to hang out with the family... it felt good.

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