The local turkeyfest

Going local is going mainstream

By Culinate staff

November 23, 2011

Culinate guests Josh Viertel (of Slow Food USA) and Jennifer Maiser (of the Eat Local Challenge) recently discussed how to go local for Thanksgiving. Sunset magazine devoted its turkey-day coverage this year to locavore Thanksgiving feasts, with an emphasis on farm-to-table recipes. And as Rebekah Denn recently reported in the Seattle Times, going local is getting easier than ever:

Eating local foods, at least as one focus of a daily diet, has turned from an esoteric experiment to just-shy-of-mainstream. As demand grows, for reasons of health, environment or the local economy, more producers have taken the time to grow or stock ingredients that were once unattainable.

Even tea and saffron — delicate ingredients that don’t grow just anywhere — are now being produced in the Pacific Northwest. But Denn doesn’t think citrus and coffee will go local here anytime soon.