Being Shellfish About Our Webinar
Hi, Local Food Forum friends… We’d love to have you tune into tomorrow (Monday) at 7 p.m. central for the premiere of Local Food Forum’s “Better” Dialogues, our brand new bi-weekly webinar series. The topic is regenerative agriculture, and it doesn’t get more better-for-people and better-for-the-planet than that.
If you’ve already heard about it and would like to ensure that you get to participate (or receive the recording by email), here’s the link to register for free. We just need a few more signups to meet our goal for Episode 1.
If this is news to you, here are the salient details:
Co-hosts: Bob Benenson (yes, that’s me in the 3rd person) and Chef Sarah Stegner of Northbrook’s Prairie Grass Cafe.
The Conversation: It’s about the immense benefits of farming practices that promote soil health, combat climate change, and in many cases incorporate the pasture raising and humane treatment of farm animals.
The Panel: We are super-proud of this amazing guest lineup:
• Paul Lightfoot, general manager of Patagonia Provisions and Board chair for the Regenerative Organic Alliance
• Marty Travis of Spence Farm and Down at the Farms in Fairbury, Illinois.
• Greg Wade, head baker and managing partner at Chicago's Publican Quality Bread
• Tim Brown of Broadview Farm & Gardens in Marengo, Illinois.
Will There Be Q&A? Yes.
Will I Be on Camera? Yes, if you want to. The webinar series is intended to build community and inspire conversation, so we’d love to see your smiling face — though you can keep your camera off if you’d rather.
Audio Off: We will need everyone to keep their audio off to ensure that there is no extraneous background noise. If you are called on to participate in the Q&A, we will open your mic.
Zoom Link? We’ll be sending it out to all registrants on Monday morning.
Sold? Here’s that registration link again.
Now, in case you’re wondering what that “mussel” reference is in the headline… We do walk the walk at Local Food Forum. And to honor Paul Lightfoot’s appearance as a guest on our debut webinar, I bought a tin of Patagonia Provisions’ mussels in lemon-herb olive oil.
I love mussels, so this sounded yummy. I decided to turn it into the salad you see above, adding some minced early-season veggies — green onions, ramp, green garlic, and French breakfast radishes with their greens — along with a few non-local mini bell peppers.
So delicious and easy, I may make this a diet staple.
Eating Seasonal Means Never Having to Say I’m Boring
Even in these early stages of the regional outdoor growing season, I already have the kind of local stuff in my fridge that I just kind of pull out and throw into things.
If you’ve been an LFF reader for a while, you may have seen that my breakfast most mornings is an open-faced sandwich (tartine, if you want to be fancy about it) made with sturdy artisan bread and toppings. My Sunday breakfast was all Chicago region.
Atop the honey oat bread from Bennison’s Bakery (Evanston, Illinois) are green onions from Three Sisters Garden (Kankakee, Illinois), French breakfast radishes from Kajers Greens (North Judson, Indiana) and some top-flight cheddar from Hook’s Cheese (Mineral Point, Wisconsin).
And as those farmers market tables start filling up with new crops, I doubt I will have the same breakfast two days in a row.
And last night, I treated Barb (my Irish-American wife) to colcannon, a traditional Gaelic mashed potato dish supplemented with kale (the Yukon Gold potatoes and kale were both from Nichols Farm & Orchard in Marengo, Illinois). Before adding it to the potatoes, I sauteed the kale with green garlic and green onions from the aforementioned Three Sisters Garden because, well, I could.
Super-simple comfort food.
Get the Hydration Sensation
We are told often by health authorities that we need to drink lots of water to stay well hydrated and keep all of that body chemistry in balance. But I know I can use a reminder now and then, especially when I’m awakened in the middle of the night with a nasty leg cramp.
So I’m happy to publish the following presentation on the importance of drinking water, as part of the series of features presented by University of Illinois Extension and UI Health. Along with a page of handy tips on staying hydrated, UI Extension’s Bianca Bautista provides a recipe for Strawberry Sipper Flavored Water, which is timely because strawberries will be hitting the local markets soon as the region’s first major fruit crop of the year.
Happy slurping, everybody.