by Michael Smith
As further evidence that locally-grown food is going mainstream, a new survey of 1,609 chefs by the National Restaurant Association ranked locally-grown produce as the hottest trend for 2009.
In October 2008, the association surveyed American Culinary Federation member chefs, asking them to rate 208 individual food/beverage items, preparation methods and culinary themes as a “hot trend,” “yesterday’s news,” or “perennial favorite” on restaurant menus in 2009.
Many of the top 20 trends are related to "philosophy-driven" food choices, including local sourcing, organics, artisanal items, sustainable seafood and free-range pork/poultry.
Sustainable seafood came in at No. 10 in the top trends list, with non-traditional seafood items -- including several sustainable farmed species like Arctic char and barramundi No. 13 on the list. Organic wine was No. 18. : Via Monterey Bay Aquarium Sea Notes
I wonder, though it would not surprise me, if the same, similar or even better result could be achieved in Britain if such a survey be conducted here.
Another thing which would drive this would be – obviously – customer demand. Ask your restaurant where the food comes from and demand locally grown and produced food and, I am sure, you will get it.
There will be a problem, maybe, and that is to verify the claim of “locally grown – locally produced” by an individual restaurant or restaurant chain unless one really knows the chef and the chef's integrity.
Personally I would not want to reply on any claims as to “locally grown – locally produced” for, as tests have shown in the UK on meat, this is often less than true. There have been restaurants claiming that the beef they were serving was from local farms while tests showed, in the end, that the meat, in fact came from thousands of miles away. So, who verifies the “locally grown – locally produced” label at whichever restaurant?
Grow your own food and cook and eat it at home. Then you know it is “locally grown – locally produced”. This is the only way to guarantee that.
On the other hand it is good to see that people are demanding “locally grown – locally produced” food now, and that not just in supermarkets but also and even in restaurants. Let us now hope that this trend continues and that also the outlets will be honest and use but “locally grown – locally produced” food.
© M Smith (Veshengro), January 2009
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Locally-grown produce will be hot in 2009 – according to survey
Growing potatoes in biodegradable cardboard boxes
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
Growing potatoes in raised beds works well but building a raised bed can be costly and requires hard work. An easy to build, inexpensive, useful and attractive alternative for growing of potatoes can be had by using cardboard boxes.
Because of the hard work of building raised beds and the cost of it I decided to use the existing beds for other crops rather than potatoes and left growing potatoes out for a couple of years.
However, this year I came up with the idea of cardboard boxes, in lieu of the potato patio planters which are rather costly to the tune of about US$35 around these parts of the world. I am thinking, though, of maybe building my own (oar maybe I can find a manufacturer who would like me to review a couple of them). So, I have took two boxes that I had lying about, lined them up in the garden and planted potatoes in the bottom of the box using a soil mixed with mild potting compost. As the potatoes grew, I have added more soil. So far they are growing beautifully but we don't know as yet as to how good they are producing and as to whether it works at all, though there seem to be some small potatoes already to be had.
Such boxes are free, can be quite attractive and will bio-degrade and compost at the end of the season. New ones can be set up the following year and years in different parts of the vegetable garden to help rotate the crops. The top flaps of the boxes can be closed to protect the tender plants from a late frost. It is easy to build up soil around the growing potatoes; harvesting is also easy. You can either reach in for new potatoes, or you can peel the rotting sides away at the end of the season.
It is important to consider that as with all container planting you may need to check a little more on the watering.
So, why not grow your spuds in cardboard planters? No cost (for the planters, I mean) and at the end of the useful life of the “planter” it will compost to soil.
© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008
