Zomppa - Food Good, Social Good » North Carolina

DaisyCakes 2.0: TidBit of the Day

Belinda — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:00:59 +0000

As you may know, one of my favorite cupcakeries in the world is DaisyCakes, which has been at the Durham, NC’s Farmer’s Market in its Airstream for years.

Now they opened a physical shop with simple quiches, breakfast sandwiches, omelets, sandwiches, and soups – all locally sourced. Its potato soup is perfectly creamy and its sandwiches fresh and simple. Wonderful sour cream coffee cakes and cinnamon buns also tempt your eyes.

And of course, it’s got its famous cupcakes. Duh.

Real Good Food: Food sharing collaborations for better food and stronger communities

Guest Contributor — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 12:00:42 +0000

Welcome to our guest contributor, Justine Williams! Justine is a sociocultural anthropologist who studies social and economic justice, particularly as it relates to food and agriculture. We are excited to hear her work bettering our communities with Real Good Food! Learn how to support these efforts.

By Justine Williams

A couple years ago, Devin McIntire and I were living in a tiny apartment building in Washington, D.C. Sometimes we’d catch delectable scents wafting out from our neighbors’ doors, but we didn’t know most of them – hadn’t even seen many of them – so we didn’t know what was going on in those nearby kitchens. Devin was frustrated by this conundrum. How absurd, he thought, that we are all living and cooking so close to each other, in our one and two bedroom apartments, without sharing. That was when the idea of Real Good Food was born.

In those days we had enough time our hands to do a lot of cooking at home, a great CSA to supply us with plenty of fresh vegetables, fruits and cheese for ingredients, and several not-so-cheap organic markets within walking distance for the rest. But when we cooked, we were faced with one of two options. We could eat the meal just the two of us and be left with a pile of leftovers that we’d be sick of by the end of the week, or we could invite friends over to join us. The latter was more fun, but it wasn’t particularly good for our bank accounts to host dinner parties on a regular basis.

Although we never did get to know most of these neighbors, we can credit them with providing some of the inspiration for bringing food sharing collectives to Michigan, North Carolina (and soon beyond). When we left D.C., Devin moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan and planted a seed for this vision. Starting with a simple email group, Real Good Food was built around young families, grad students, and well-practiced bakers who started sharing and trading their favorite foods.

The results have been pretty encouraging so far. Members find that it’s easy to cook an extra batch of whatever they’re making and that it’s much more exciting and rewarding to swap that extra for something else someone has carefully prepared at home than to keep snacking on the same meal. It’s also economical, allowing people to maximize on economies of scale in a way that most of us can’t usually do at home. There are now over 120 members, swapping homegrown produce, spice mixes, soups, bread and more. As one new member recently shared “For my first trade I met a lady in a parking lot; she had fresh rosemary and I had fresh curry leaves, we swapped, it quick and dirty and wonderful.”

Meanwhile, I’ve moved to North Carolina and am beginning to organize groups here. While I originally assumed that groups of graduate students and progressive neighborhood associations in the urban triangle area would be the most receptive groups for Real Good Food, I have come to realize that the idea of food trading is much more expansive and appealing to many groups of people. In a very rural county in northern North Carolina where I’m working on a project to rebuild the local food system, I’ve found that many of my colleagues and friends there wistfully remember the days when their communities engaged in active bartering – swapping the produce, preserves, and baked goods from their kitchens and gardens with those of their neighbors. They are interested in reintroducing food swapping as a means to strengthen relationships within the community, increase access to healthy local food, and make this access financially viable.

The possibilities are vast for forming food sharing collectives and networks, but the challenge at this point is communication. How can those interested in engaging in food trading find others interested in joining them? How can they find people who make the types of good food they are looking for? How can they easily communicate on a daily or weekly basis?

A listserv and word of mouth recruitment have been a good start in Ann Arbor, but we envision a website for more accessible, streamli;’[.ned communication. Real Good Food is now running a campaign through the crowd-funding platform Launcht to raise the funds we need to make this website a reality. With a website, we imagine that home-cooks and food enthusiasts could search for groups of traders to join by geographic location (either city or neighborhood) or by food preference. For instance, vegetarians, gluten-free folks, or locavores could find each other and form groups, or maybe even those interested in Indian cooking, or moms sharing homemade baby food could come together. It would facilitate posting and searching for food offerings, and build trust (since we know you don’t want to take just anyone’s homemade food) through the creation of profiles, pictures and feedback from other members.

There is so much good food out there, but we don’t have to open our wallets wide at the most sophisticated restaurants and markets to get it. We just need to start sharing with our friends, neighbors, and families. Build connections, strengthen your community, eat more homemade food. And share it.

Wake Up, People: Mushroom Egg Bake

Belinda — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:00:14 +0000

On Friday, I attended the dinner of the 26th Annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference held by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. During a time when all I seem to see on TV are celebrities getting married or divorced – all on heavily-sponsored reality shows, of course – I was amazed at the 1,200 people there who cared more about the Earth and what we eat than they care about whether celebrity A wears the dress better than celebrity B (though in full disclosure, I wholeheartedly admit I do check out People Magazine as a guilty pleasure).

By the way, why are celebrities celebrities? By definition, we are celebrating them – for what? Making YouTube videos? Why not celebrate farmers? You know, the people who make it possible for us to eat?

The keynote speaker of the dinner was none other than Dr. Joan Gussow, “matriarch of the local food movement.” Dr. Gussow spoke to the crowd of 800 farmers and local food advocates over a fantastic dinner prepared by the chef of the Sheraton Imperial in Durham, NC with ingredients all sourced locally (the regular menu there tries to be as seasonal as possible). Yes, a locally-sourced, catered dinner for 800 people – hard work, but possible.

I sat next to a lovely young couple who was recognized as one of the new farmers – she and her fiance just bought some land after serving in the military and are starting a farm called Pitchfork & A Prayer Organics. They were there to learn and to share – and simply inspirational…I can’t wait to hear more from them and their journey to begin a much-needed family farm. Hmm…anyone have some urban farmland they’re selling?

Some of you have heard me speak about Dr. Gussow before – many people talk about her – she is one of the few individuals who speak truth to power. She spoke about the seriousness of our current situation – our broken food system, our messing around with Mother Nature with known but ignored or unknown consequences, our compromised health, our exploitation of the most vulnerable, our blinded rush without understanding limits to growth. As she spoke, I could not help but feel so grateful that I had the opportunity to be inspired by her as my professor – she changed the course of my career by challenging my thinking and pushing me to do something about our current situation (hence, hello, Zomppa).

She also was one of the first people who made it clear – in non-negotiable terms – that when it comes to the Earth and our food, messing around with one thing will mess up something else. We cannot eat in isolation, we cannot consume in isolation. You might be drinking a cup of coffee while reading this. Imagine the number of human beings and animals and organisms who were directly involved in allowing you to taste that coffee, not to mention natural resources used, from the coffee bean you chose to the cup you’re holding to the water you brewed with it to the coffee machine you used to the ability of your hand to lift the cup to your mouth to….

It’s overwhelming.

Yet, as Bill McKibben noted in his book Eaarth (please read this book), although there are politicians out there who either refuse to believe (or refuse to do anything about the fact) that our climate is changing or that toxic chemicals leached into the soil are affecting our species and other species, some bad sh** is happening. So it’s time to wake up, people. What you do and eat everyday affects everything else and everyone else. Your coffee appeared at your table not only because of your hard work and efforts, but others as well.

Dr. Gussow ended her talk on an optimistic note (as she always does after scaring the bejesus out of me). She noted that 20 years ago, there was no way that a head chef at a huge convention hotel would agree to or embrace catering a meal for 800 with locally-sourced ingredients, or that 1,200 new and experienced farmers could gather in a room talking about organic fertilizers without being viewed as subversive, or that people from all walks of life are walking away from the broken system and returning to the Earth.

So we are surely waking up – but we have to stop hitting that snooze button.

To help us wake up is an easy-to-make, easy-to-impress (I’m all about easy breakfasts) Mushroom Egg Bake (local eggs, local mushrooms, local tomatoes, local cheese, and muffins baked at the Whole Foods bakehouse in North Carolina…sorry, haven’t yet gotten to making my own muffins – though I should!).

Good morning.

Mushroom Egg Bake
Serves 4 (or 2 hungry people)

Ingredients
2 English muffins
1 tomato
1 cup sliced mushrooms (wild, Baby bella, or portobello – your choice)
1/4 cup cheese (or more or less if you want, Cheddar, PepperJack, Gruyere – use your imagination)
Chopped parsley
Thyme
Rosemary
Salt
Pepper
4 eggs

Directions
1. In skillet, saute sliced mushrooms with thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper (add whatever seasonings or herbs you want – that’s the great thing about this – experiment!)
2. Preheat the oven to 350F
3. Put one half of muffin in each of four small ramekins
4. Scoop sauteed mushrooms and make a well
5. Crack an egg in the well
6. Add chopped tomatoes
7. Add shredded cheese
7. Garnish with parsley
8. Bake
9. Eat
10. Thank our farmers

Pumpkin in the South: Photo of the Day

Belinda — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:00:48 +0000

Pumpkin cornbread with maple butter at The Pit in Raleigh, NC.

Happy Halloween!

Tupelo Honey Cafe is Bigger Than My Two Heads: TidBit of the Day

Belinda — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Tupelo Honey Cafe sweet potato pancake, Asheville, NC

No joke. If I had two heads, this famous sweet potato pancake topped with spiced pecans would still be twice as big. Where to find it? The locally-owned, famous Asheville find: Tupelo Honey Cafe.

Cupcake Therapy: TidBit of the Day

Belinda — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 11:00:00 +0000