Gazpacho:

• 4 large tomatoes
• 1 cucumber, peeled and seeded
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 c. sherry or balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 c. lemon juice
• 3T olive oil
• 1t cayenne or paprika
• 1t dried oregano
• 1T dried parsley (more if fresh)
• 1 small can V8 or 1 c. bloody mary mix

Blend, then gradually add:

• 1 bell pepper (any color), chopped
• 1 small red onion, chopped
• salt & pepper
•  2 slices day-old crusty bread, chopped (optional)

And if you have tomatoes left, then make some pasta sauce and can it for later. Look for pectin in the baking section of your grocery - it should come w/a bunch of recipes for jams, jellies, etc. You'll need 2 big pots - 1 for your preserve, 1 to sterilize your jars. Enjoy later.

We've been getting a lovely produce bounty delivered fresh to our door, so I've been experimenting with making jams (this weekend pickles) with the leftovers

The Spoon is not quite 40, but there used to be a dairy that supplied reusable milk bottles full of ice-cold milk just across town from where we lived. There was a meat market. And a bread store. It wasn't until 1978 that the one-stop supermarket really started to show up in our part of Middle America.

This is important to consider because consumers have started a dull roar of demand for a return to this type of specialization and localization. Why? There are several factors. Their order of importance depends on the individual consumer.

• Health. This is number one. In surveys, people cite freshness as the top concern about food. According to a survey by Yankelovich, they also equate freshness with health. And when they know their food came from someplace nearby, they feel it is fresher, healthier and safer to eat.
• Altruism. People believe they are helping out their local economy, but more especially farmers, when they "buy local." Consumers also tend to believe that "the little guy" has less of a negative impact on the environment, lending additional "greenness" to their purchase.
• Quality. Aside from food safety concerns, consumers tend to report that locally-produced products taste better, have better texture and perform better in recipes. They are also usually willing to pay more for products that travel lesser distances and are grown using practices that are inefficient.

Whatever their reasons, Desmond Jolly a retired professor from the University of California did important work that shows there are plenty of reasons to believe this emerging trend is not going away. He sees it as more than just a luxury of the coveted wealthy segment of America. Interestingly, one survey showed 55 percent of households buying these foodstuffs earned over $60,000 per year, meaning almost half of such households earned less than $60,000 per year.

Researchers point out that going local may also be a way to negotiate many challenges, from improving pre-natal health of low-income mothers to providing as yet untapped career opportunities for new generations of American workers.

To paraphrase Eastern philosophy, this ox is small right now, but it is growing. We can choose to put a yoke on it now and benefit from its strength, or we can look on in horror as it tramples our crops.

And goodies I got:

• 1 bunch baby bok choy

• 1 bunch biggest chives I've ever seen
• 1 bunch water spinach
• 1 bunch pea pod leaves (from snow peas)
• pint of sweet cherries
• 4 ears sweet corn
• pint of grean beans
• a jar of Sicilian meat-topping sauce (tomat-y doesn't have meat in it) from Nicky's Family Recipes
• A bar of lemon verbena hand-made soap by Kapow Soaps of from Frankenmuth.

All for about $20!

I think tonight's dinner is going to involve some fresh picked sweet corn and then later this weekend, we'll have a little Asian-themed dinner. I haven't done stir-fry in ages!

I wish I'd had more cash on me because Farming for our Future had the cutest kids t-shirts. Of course, I probably need a kid to put said clothes on, too.

It will be exciting to see what more they can do for the September 18th event.

I would have walked, both to save gas and for the exercise but its 80 degrees with humidity near 90%; I really didn't want to get that sweaty and the distance is such that I would have needed a pretty brisk pace to make it roundtrip in my hour break.

Ha.

After swinging by the postal boxes by the Capitol building, I planned to continue on to Grand Avenue. Turns out you can't turn left there, at all, due to the CSO project.  The CSO project will be tearing up city traffic until 2020. Long-term benefits are probably great but in the meantime, it sucks. Especially when the lane closures change from day to day.  I turned around to go down Washington, not an easy drive at lunchtime and even worse when some spacy girl doesn't know how to drive her stick-shift.

I finally get down to Grand and Shiawassee where I intend to slide over the bridge to the market.  Except its closed! This time, due to Common Ground activities, which started last night.  I thought this was an evening event so I was suprised to see the parking people already looking to collect fees.  After yet another completely out of the way detour, I finally made it to the market.

No cheese but I stopped at the East Lansing Food Co-op mini-store and bought some whipping cream from Calder Dairy (in Lincoln Park) and a packet of sunflower seeds from Country Life Natural Foods of Pullman (near South Haven in Wester Michigan).  As I'm paying, the manager asks if I had an trouble getting there due to the construction and rerouting.  Ha Ha.  She then tells me that a lot of vendors aren't coming in this week since its too much hassle.  And she was right.  The fish people were gone, the local meat company was off until Friday and there were only a few fresh produce vendors in the East Wing. 

Since Shiawassee was still closed, I had to find an alternate route back to the Hall of Justice.  By the time it was all said and done, I should have just walked. 

I'm really looking forward to using my cream in tonight's dinner that will include morel mushroom risotto.

The host, Krista Tippett, interviewed Barbara Kingsolver -- who inspired this blog. The longer, unedited interview is available, but the broadcast version is worth a listen -- especially while you prepare a meal for your household.

One point that Kingsolver brought up that seems to be the crux of the problem is that we have become so disconnected with food that we take it for granted. Just two generations ago, eating local and eating seasonal was what everyone did, and had been doing, since the beginning of humankind. But with the advent of the internal combustion engine, domestic highway system, and international shipping infrastructure, our food now can be shipped around the globe and when most people walk into the supermarket they don't think for a second about where the banana in their cart came from.

One of the goals of this blog is to help people get past the basic difficulty of being a localvore (a term that is new and strange in its inherent meaning -- almost as if it is an elite activity vs a means of survival). Simply, eating seasonally requires a different thought process for meal planning and shopping. Instead of thinking of what sounds really great to make for dinner, instead you have to think about what is in season, and what you can make from that. This requires a bit of connectedness to the food seasons in the area you live, and a bit of self-restraint. What we are striving for with this blog is to provide ideas for what you can eat that is local and seasonal, and inspire you to really actively think about it when you shop and plan your meals. Once you gain the active awareness you might take some baby-steps and put down the watermelon that looks tasty but was imported from South America, or hold off on the water chestnuts for your stir fry. But each little step is a step in the right ethical direction.

Luckily for us. because we are in the Willamette Valley, we are privileged to have a bounty of local food available for a relatively long time. A good way to get an idea of what is in season and what is local is to go to the various farmer's markets in our community and simply find out what's for sale. Also, while you can't get fresh berries in the winter here, you can freeze or can them, and have good, nutritious fruit year-round. All of this requires some extra planning and some time-consuming activities during the productive harvest months. Just last weekend my friend put up quarts of freezer-jam that will nourish her for breakfast through the winter. To her it was one night well-spent prepping her berries and putting them up (she went to bed when she ran out of sugar).

Kingsolver also discussed the attitude we have toward food prep. We're "too busy" to cook for our families in the United States. But Kingsolver pointed out that in many European cities, cooking is so much a part of the culture that it is not seen as a time-taker, but as part of living. Even CEO's head to the local market after work to pick out the ingredients for dinner every night after work. So if you think time is what's stopping you, it may be helpful to think about how people live in other parts of the world and evaluate how you live and what you would have to give up, and also what you would gain.

I think it is worth noting that I love to cook.  A joy that seems to intensify with each passing year.  For some reason, though, I find the joy of making a loaf of bread to dwarf the joy of creating a meal.  I am simply amazed that flour, water, yeast, honey, and wheat germ -- all otherwise random ingredients -- can combine and harmonize in such a manner as to create the final product of a warm, enriching load of bread.  I also marvel at what little mechanization is necessary to deliver such goodness.  Perhaps it is a bit corny, but I feel such a wonderful connection to human history in making my own bread.  This relatively simple process has been nearly identical for quite possibly thousands of years before me and will surely remain much the same for at least as many years after me.

Human connection aside, it is still pretty intense work and that is likely why there is such satisfaciton in the end product.  This "sweat factor" is literally so, and significantly more appreciated, on the humid mornings such as was the case today.  Mixing the pasty, gummy flour/water mixture takes a good deal of muscle to say nothing of the energy and investment required to knead the dough.  However, once it all starts to come together and the first proofing cycle is complete, nothing is more rewarding than this sight:

Of course the best part, and the ultimate reward for patience comes after the second proofing (about 40 minutes after the first proofing) and baking (another 40 minutes or so):

Simply. Delicious.  Any tips for this new baker?  Exciting recipes to share?  Drop it in the comments!

(Editors note: Are these pictures gratuitous?  Are they nothing more than exercizes in vanity showing the prowess and skill of only a novice baker?  Guilty as charged.  My defense: isn't that why blogs were invented?  To encourage the vanity and self-promotion of the clearly vain individuals who would think the world wide web gives a rip what me, Joe Blow in Roslindale, has to say!)

After devouring Barbara Kingsolver's latest book, "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" last year, I am highly motivated to eat as locally as possible.

I'm partial to fruit smoothies year-round, so I picked and froze 37 pounds of these tasty beauties from Edgewater Farm last weekend.

(But will it be enough, though??)

It appears that we do not have to travel anymore to a foreign country to contract a food borne illness, like salmonella, e.coli, etc. We have it right here in our local grocery stores.

I know this is not as funny as it may sound and quite frankly I am not laughing and no one I know is especially when these events affect our food supply.

With the introduction of anti-bacterial this and anti-bacterial that, we as a culture have created such resistance against common, everyday germs and now we have created “super bugs or super germs”. They are resistant against our antibiotics, good old fashion soap and water and the more we fight them with anti-bacterial products, the stronger the bacterial strains become by transforming themselves into another strain of bacteria.

Now remember, this is my definition of what is going on.The bottom line is, we cannot continue this pace anymore.

Mother Nature however always seems to have a solution to what humans screw up on planet earth and she does a very good job of providing us with the answers and solutions if we just pay attention.

When we were told about the killer tomatoes carrying salmonella, I went online to see what brands were hopefully safe to eat. I found one company in Southern Arizona, called “EuroFresh." They are greenhouse growers and have controls in place to monitor what comes in contact with their tomatoes. They are vine attached and use no pesticides. Check them out at www.eurofresh.com .

Like I said, Mother Nature provides us with everything we need, if we just pay attention.

Grapefruit seed extract is a by- product of grapefruit seeds and the pulp from grapefruits. and has amazing properties, such as antimicrobial, antifungal and antibacterial elements that kill, Salmonella, e.coli, staph, strep and other bacteria and viruses, without known side affects.

Information from this little gem of Mother Nature is vast and the best website I have found is www.gseinformation.com .

You can purchase grapefruit seed extract from a variety of companies. The best thing to do is go online, do your homework and buy from those companies you feel most comfortable with and having a track record and stand behind their products.

My good friend, Elaine, uses the extract with a dilution of water to wash her veggies and fruit. Based on research and current use in a variety of fields, washing vegetables and fruit in a bath of grapefruit seed extract may be the solution for cleaning and getting rid of any nasty elements that are hanging onto the surface of fruit and veggies.

The dilution of concentrated grapefruit seed extract and water will vary depending on the product purchased and best thing to do is consult with the manufacturer for their recommendations.

Regardless of whether there is an alert on tomatoes, fruit, etc., washing all of our veggies and fruit should be a habit that we all incorporate into our routine of food preparation. Having choices like grapefruit seed extract to use in that process is a great way to utilize more of Mother Nature’s gifts.

Bon appetite!

Serves 2
(all organic)
1 pear, chopped
½ banana, chopped
Juice of ½ orange
Sprinkle with raw sunflower seeds, hemp nuts, flax, and goji berries

Obviously, no local or seasonal fruit in this dish, except for the flax (for which the producer either had to drive to the farmer's market to get picked up by local organic store lady, or he brought to her, which I then had to drive to, to purchase--and now that I think of it, I'm not sure if he grew it himself or just processed it). I did try to eat local and seasonal this winter, which meant I ate a lot more animal products than usual (it's the most readily available), lots of cooked root vegetables, apples, and some greenhouse grown greens (lots of spinach). I still ate the occasional orange, and brown rice was still a staple in my diet. This kind of eating does fit the winter months, but I did not feel my best. My digestive system (colitis) doesn't do well on that kind of diet. I tried to take probiotics and fish oil capsules (from god knows where) to help, but I still ended up having to go back on meds for a while (what is the energy cost of that?). This little experiment has showed me that I do best on my old diet, which is almost vegan, with lot of fresh fruit and veggies. I guess it's back to vegan stir-frys for me (or at least "healthier"). This led me to question the pros and cons of a local diet versus vegan diet.

Here are some of the articles I found:

The localvore's dilemma

On Soy Verses Meat

Environmental Tips for Individuals: Your Food

Can you reduce your carbon footprint with a vegan diet?

Food Riots Begin: Will You Go Vegetarian?

The Feminist in My Kitchen

I’m still at a loss. It’s so confusing. As much I like the idea, I don’t have time to grow my own garden and preserve enough for the winter and make everything from scratch and eat healthfully and have food that tastes good. I mean, I love good food, but not that much.

My tofu veggie stir-fry: organic, but not local. Good choice or pure evil?

One of the first things I planted in the garden was barley. That's right, barley. This was simply an experiment to see whether I cold actually grow a grain, how much it would yield and see what kind of problems might occur. I planted a thick row of barley about 30 inches wide and 30 ft long the first week of May during an unusual warm spell.  Now, one month and a week later it looks like this.

Pretty good for a first experiment but the planting is not without problems. The plants suffer from two common fungus diseases. One is a striped rust (not pictured) and barley smut, a common fungal disease that according to most sources is present wherever barley is grown.  There is also some variation in the color of the leaves that may indicate a soil difficiency in nitrogen.  I did no soil tests but simply limed and fertilized the soil with horse manure prior to planting.

A little more than a month has passed and already the barley is heading up.  Here is a picture of a healthy plant with the head just emerging.

Barley smut effects the seeds, turning them black and useless for feed.  Here is a picture of a smutted plant.

So far this experimental barley planting has been very informative. I'll try feeding the barley to chickens later. I'm curious to learn just what the yield will be from this small planting. Will it be worth the effort to grow barley on a small scale in a home garden?  Probably not if one equates worth only with cost in dollars. If the intent however is to move closer to a locally grown sustainable product that can be used to feed small livestock such as chickens then it seems it may be worthwhile.

Certainly the most common staple crop grow in this latitude is the potato. The two most common varieties of potatoes grown here are Green Mountain Cobblers and Kennebecs. Both are good, all purpose white potatoes.

I chose Kennebec potatoes because this variety is the most commonly grown commercial variety in nearby Maine and the tubers tend to be somewhat larger than the Cobbler variety.

This planting was made in early May, somewhat earlier than normal. I planted about 10 lbs in two thirty foot rows.  I did not apply lime as potatoes supposedly prefer a somewhat acid soil.  Instead of fertilizing with manure I sprinkled commercial 10-10-10 on either side of the trench when planting the seed potatoes.

Here is what they look like 6 weeks later.

These potatoes have been hilled up twice and then mulched with dried pine needles raked from the forest nearby.  One problem potatoes almost always seem to have is Colorado Potato Beetles.  These bugs are nasty and can ruin an entire crop.

Conventionally, potatoes are dusted with some sort of chemical that kills the bugs. The dust is expensive. I have no idea what is does to the environment.  I prefer not to use it.  I discovered that using a pine needle mulch seems to reduce the number of Colorado Potatoe beetles significantly. This along with an occasional manual removal of visible bugs seems to keep them in check. The plants are really healthy this year and I think it will be a good crop.

Other things planted have been peas, lettuce, pole beans, sweet corn, brocolli, cabbage, onions, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, sage, parsley, leeks, beets, basil, mothe, soy beans, and cucumbers.

I believe this leaf lettuce seed was contaminated with clover seed.

Seems a salmonella outbreak has sickened approximately 165 people. About 25 have required hospital treatment. According to the FDA's statement, only Roma and round red tomatoes are suspected in the outbreak. Cherry, grape and tomatoes on the vine are still okay. The outbreak started in mid-April and six weeks later, they still don't know the source of these tomatoes gone bad. But they do know that tomatoes from Arkansas, California, Canada, Texas, Belgium and Israel are safe to eat (for the full list, see the FDA list: Hot Topics: Tomatoes.

I find it interesting that tomatoes from Texas are considered safe, even though almost 60 people (of the 155) that fell ill were from Texas.  My deepest suspicion, however, lies south of the border.  The two likeliest sources, simply based on volume, are Florida and Mexico.  Many sections of Florida have been deemed safe but not all areas.  Much of the Florida tomato crop is sold to companies that process those tomatoes in to pasta sauce, jarred salsa, catsup and so on. Central Florida is still on the suspect list but Mexico looms much larger in my mind.  Reading below the line, I'm going to talk about FDA regulations. I don't like 'em BUTwhen we are talking about importing food from another country, that is a different situation.  China's poisoned pet food is a plenty large red flag that should lead you to think twice about the source of your food.  If you, foreign country, can't provide us with safe, clean food, we don't want it.  Korea doesn't want our beef due to mad cow fears; Russia and Japan have declined our chicken recently due to the positive avian flu tests on Tyson chicken in Arkansas. That's a two way street, right?

The good news is, home-grown tomatoes are safe. And I bet that tomatoes you get from the farmer's market are safe too. Unfortunately, our tomatoes are several weeks from edibility but I'm sure there are some good options at the market.  Of course, shopping at the farmer's market also means I can ask how the tomatoes were grown, when they were picked and if any pesticides were used.

There is a growing cry from certain media outlets that the government needs to fix our food supply.  I don't want some guy in DC telling me what I can and can't eat. I love sushi and I understand the risks that may be associated with eating raw fish. If I suspect the sushi bar isn't clean or the fish not fresh, I don't eat it.  I'm smart like that, as are most Americans. You smell the milk, its obviously bad, you throw it out.  You realize that raw chicken in the fridge starts to get a little shady looking after 4 or 5 days, better use it up quicker than that.  Humans have an innate "risk aversion" sense that tells them not to eat something because it might make them sick.  Its a lot easier for this sense to work if the food you are contemplating isn't filled with chemicals to keep it fresh looking.  When did we decide to wash our hands of all responsibility for thinking for ourselves?  When did we decide that some random bureaucrat should make up the rules about what's okay to eat?

I do not believe that the FDA should be standing over our shoulders inspecting every piece of produce that goes in to market. Nor do I believe that onerous regulations on tomato growers (or any other produce)  is the answer. A giant farm in Florida that sells 90% of its crop to Heinz can afford to meet these regulations. What about the little guy down the street that produces enough tomatoes to take to the local Farm Market on Saturday?  Our food production system in this country has only gotten bigger and bigger, more and more processed.  All this processing has led to the FDA and USDA to create rules, regulations and laws that govern the preparation of food.  This favors the big corporations and we lose sight of the route from garden to mouth.  It also creates a vicious cycle of ever bigger processing and production facilities to cover the growing cost of meeting those rules and regulations.  And I'm not saying those giant production facilities are actually adhering to the rules and meeting the standards. 

Go back to what I said about talking to the local farmer.  I talk to the guy at the Market and ask him about his methods.  If I have a bad feeling or don't approve, I can walk away.  I bet if I wanted to, I could go to his farm and see the tomatoes in the ground.  Join a CSA and you probably will have to go to the farm to pick up your weekly share. Think of all the knowledge you can garner by developing a relationship with local growers. And not just tomatoes, besides all the other vegetables and fruits that could be available at the height of freshness, you will find good sources of chicken, beef and lamb, eggs and dairy products.  Think of meat raised without antibiotics, fed the right types of grain or grass for their natural diets, thus not requiring special supplements to counter the negative effects. Oh, the happy cows that produce yummy local cheese and milk.  The chickens that eat and live outdoors help to fertilize the land for the next crop, creating a very non-vicious cycle of sustainable farming.

 Last minute update: Michigan tomatoes are safe! So you locals, get out to the Farm Market and buy some tomatoes!  If you don't have a convenient market or tomatoes are scarce, go to your local grocery store and ask them where the tomatoes are coming from.  Request they label them for source. Meijer is usually pretty good about posting the source of much of their produce.  If the manager doesn't know where the veggies came from, ask why not!

I recently broke down and joined Costco, it just started to make dollar sense to buy office supplies for our company in bulk.

After cruising the aisles for paper towels and printer paper, I headed over to the food section to check out what they had there. Two inch thick Australian lamb chops? Whoa!! Whole, untrimmed prime beef tenderloin? An amateur chef’s delight, I can butcher my own cuts! My favorite tomatoes, that Campari variety that actually taste like tomatoes, hard to find those reliably in my local market!

All of it went into the cart. I had discovered a foodie wholesale paradise.

Then to the cheese section. Genuine Italian water buffalo mozzarella in water? I’ll take two. Got a lot of tomatoes to eat – like about 40, given the two trays in my cart, so I can use all this mozzarella, easy.

Then it dawned on me as I wheeled to the checkout: those two trays of tomatoes each had exactly 20 tomatoes in them, still on the vine, with not an inch to spare in the tray. What are the chances I wondered? Going back to the produce section I checked it out. Sure enough, every tray had exactly 20 tomatoes, sacked up five trays high in crates, three crates high. These were tomato science projects, wrapped up in plastic packaging science projects made out of petroleum, and trucked hundreds of miles.

Over to the fish section. Yep, every filet was exactly the same size. Fish clones. From Norway. So either they were farm raised, or worse, the product of factory trawlers netting up entire ecosystems of fish out of the North Atlantic.

The tenderloins? Yea, same deal, exactly the same, corn feedlot meat. And so on with pretty much everything else.

Well, it was mighty disappointing, but it all had to come out of the cart. After all, I spend my days working really hard to help our clients compete against agribusiness. This Costco stuff, incredibly appealing as it is, is exactly what we need to find competitive alternatives to. This was going against everything: LOHAS companies and their dedicated Lohasian customers, the booming localvore movement, keeping agricultural lands in sustainable production, responsible energy use, lower carbon footprints, getting away from mono-culture.

The farm over in Cambridge will have great tomatoes ready in two weeks, I can wait. Woodstock Water Buffalo is back in business and making buffalo mozzarella, I’ll hit the site and see where I can get it locally. That livestock farm up in East Hardwick will be at the local farmer’s market on Sunday with their grass pastured frozen beef.

Costco won’t go away (and I hope they never do, they are an enlightened company), but, with hard work, and in time, local infrastructures will develop to allow national chains to regionally source much of this stuff. Whole Foods Market is already seeing the light, or more likely feeling the consumer pressure. Local is truly the next organic.

(I kept the lamb chops. Just this one time. Don’t tell Artie at Winding Brook Farm up the road in Morrisville).

Ken Liatsos
PMG Creative 

Skinny pancake is on the corner of Lake St and College St in Burlington Vermont. Skinny Pancake is a funny euphemism for Crêpes. Crêpes make me think of the handful of times I've had them growing up with mixed results. Mostly they've been sweet (too sweet for my taste), so with my personal prejudice in mind I stepped up to the (crêpe) plate.

Skinny Pancake - Crepe Pie

This crepe pie is wild mushroom and chicken in herbs, in six crêpe layers with Mornay sauce(a light cheese / cream sauce). It is accompanied by a nice mescun side salad with phenomenal pesto vinaigrette. The cake was delicious and maybe a tad steep at $9, but the ingredients are good AND local.

Skinny Pankcake - "Red, White and Blue Smoothie"

Blueberries, cherries and a few other ingredients make this tasty healthful treat. Not since Liquid Energy Cafe (I miss you!) have I had such a good smoothie. This fruit smoothie makes me want to go buy a blender, especially since this frozen fruit ice bath is $4.50. This smoothie has the correct ratio of frozen content, there is one thickness, not a pool of liquid like some poorly made smoothies. Just be careful of brainfreeze.

This crêperie's only problem is that it very busy during the lunch time, I would recommend calling your order in or going off hours. I would strongly recommend against the "starch bomb" "Coconut Curried Potato" on the menu, I ordered this not thinking and as Suzanne suspected, its too much starch in one place. Also of note is the whimsical interior and wrought iron 3-prong forks, they're also a fondue bar during the evenings (I need to find a cheese-lover to go with).

In return for going in on the cost of butchering the cow with their friend, the McEnaneys, who live in Shaftsbury, received a veritable beef bounty: close to 100 pounds of hamburger, ribeyes, T-bones, roasts, stew meat and filet mignon—all for a price of less than $3 per pound.

"I remember biting into the steak for the first time, and it was like nothing I had ever eaten before," says Erin, 29. "It was like butter. It really melted in your mouth."

Indeed, it was love at first bite.

The McEnaneys are representative of a small but growing group of food consumers increasingly turning away from supermarkets in favor of local farms for meats, dairy products and produce. The McEnaneys and their ilk are members of the localvore movement that is sweeping the United States as rising commodities prices drive up the cost to produce and distribute food and as Americans grow wary of agribusiness thanks in part to books like Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

According to a survey conducted by market researcher NPD Group, 61 percent of consumers report being concerned about the hormones and antiobiotics industrial farmers give to animals. Consequently, 43 percent of consumers have incorporated locally grown foods into their daily lives. The market for locally grown foods reportedly reached $5 billion in 2007, according to market research firm Packaged Facts. Packaged Facts expects the local foods market to grow to $7 billion in 2011.

Though the McEnaney's decision to purchase their first quarter of a cow wasn't influenced by any ideology, the couple, who both work for Orvis, has become more aware of the potential health benefits associated with consuming meat that hasn't been tainted by hormones and antiobiotics as well as the importance of supporting local farmers. This awareness has motivated them to continue to participate with friends in the purchase cows for their beef. In 2007, the McEnaneys went in with a group of friends on a second cow raised on a farm five miles from their house. The got a quarter of the meat from that cow. They plan to pick up and pay for their third quarter of a cow from the same farm, Saga Morgans in Shaftsbury, later this fall.

"I'm more surprised that I ate store bought beef, hockey puck steaks for the majority of my life," says Erin, who, at five feet four inches tall and zero percent body fat looks like she eats lots more salad than steak. "Now it's like, holy crap, why did I wait so long to do this."

Adds Scott, "Anyone who ever does this doesn't want to go back to getting grocery store beef. If you have the money to do the initial outlay, it's a great way to go."

The McEnaneys are a font of information about buying cows from local farmers. Here, they share their advice and lessons learned on buying cows for the beef.

Talk to a farmer.

Scott discovered Saga Morgans through a friend from work. The friend had originally recommended the farm, which is named for the Morgan horses it raises, not for its cows but as a place where Scott could shoot pigeons and train his Springer Spaniel, Tucker, to retrieve them.

While training his dog, Scott got to talking with the farmers, sisters Laurie and Debbie Johnson, and learned that they sold cows to auction and to individual consumers who wanted to buy them.

If you're interested in buying a cow for the meat from a farmer, Scott, 29, recommends simply stopping in on a farmer to ask what he does with the cows and if it's possible to buy them for beef.

Don't buy a dairy cow.

If you're buying a cow for the meat, it's got to be a "beefer," says Scott. "Don't get someone's dairy cow they have to put to slaughter because she's too old," he says. "She'll just taste like shoe leather."

Just because the cow isn't "certified organic" doesn't mean the meat's no good.

Scott says the cows he and Erin buy from Saga Morgans are not certified organic for two reasons:

1. Because the farmers who raise the cows, Laurie and Debbie Johnson, have to use fertilizers and treatments on the corn the cows eat when they're no longer eating grass, and
2. Because the USDA, which provides the "certified organic" seal of approval, isn't involved in the process. The USDA doesn't get involved in the certification process until after the cows are slaughtered, and since Scott buys the cows before they've been slaughtered, their essentially his property before the FDA can get involved.

Even though the meat Scott and Erin buy isn't technically organic, it's still wholesome and tasty because the cows are mostly fed grass, and they're not injected with any creepy hormones or antibiotics.

Live weight vs. hanging weight.

If you decide to purchase a live cow for its beef and have the cow reared on the farm from which you're purchasing it, as the McEnaneys do, you'll pay based on the cow's live weight—the amount the cow weighs when it's alive. Since, as Scott notes, it's tough to get a live cow to stand on a scale, live weight is calculated by doubling the cow's hanging weight. Hanging weight, of course, is the amount the cow weighs after it's been slaughtered and is hanging on a meat hook.

If you purchase beef directly from the farmer who raised the cow, you'll likely pay based on hanging weight.

Scott says it's important to note that not all cattle farmers have permission from the FDA to sell the beef from their cows. That's why they have to sell the cows while they're alive based on their live weight. When you buy a live cow, even if you have the farmers raise it—again, as the McEnaneys do—you're responsible for taking it to slaughter and getting it butchered.

How will it be finished?

Believe it or not, this question has nothing to do with how the cow will be slaughtered. It does, however, have everything to do with what the cow will eat before it goes to slaughter. Scott recommends finding out how the cow will be finished because what the cow eats during its life affects the flavor and texture of the meat. Cows can be finished on grass, grain, corn and silage (chopped up pieces of corn and corn stalks), says Scott. Cows fed entirely on grass will be very lean. Corn and grain render the meat more fatty and marbled. If you like fattier meat, you're not going to want a cow that's fed on grass most or all of its life.

Purchase a cow with reliable friends.

The upfront costs associated with buying even a fraction of a cow are not low. Between the cost of the cow and the butchering, one-quarter of a cow can cost several hundred dollars. So if you go in on a cow with friends, the McEnaneys say make sure your friends will come through with the money when it's time to pay the farmer and the butcher. You don't want to get stuck having to pay another $400 to cover a friend who backed out at the last minute.

Where's the beef?

Once you've picked out your cow, you may have to wait several months before you bring home the beef, says Scott. He and Erin usually have to wait four months between the time they pick out their cow and pick up the butchered meat. Scott says you have to wait for the cow to grow to a certain age, fatten up and be slaughtered.

Get creative.

By buying even one-fourth of a cow, you may get cuts of meat you never prepared before. The McEnaneys are experimenting with Bolognese sauces, beef stews, roasts and filet mignon. Scott says it's great to have cuts other than London Broil. "You don't have to go out to treat yourself to a filet."