Let's eat!

You definitely don't have to be a chef to be a farmer. But it doesn't hurt to love food, and to love to cook good food. Our last blog post highlighted the important nutritional relationship we have with food. While nutrition is obviously super important, it's hard to get your taste buds very excited about "health food". The only diet that Farmer Brent and I seem to be able to stick to is one that involves food with flavor. When someone complains to me about eating vegetables, I get it. If your only experience with vegetables involves mealy tomatoes and iceberg lettuce, it's no wonder you associate "eh" with the v-word. When we sit down with the seed catalogs in January, we look for the crops that claim the best flavor. We don't grow food for any other reason than that it will taste great. Part of great flavor is freshness. You can get away with simple cooking techniques when you're working with really fresh flavorful ingredients. Think about sauteed kale, roasted potatoes, sliced tomatoes, boiled beans, crisp salads, steamed squash, figs with drizzled honey. The bottom line is that it's not hard to eat healthy when the food is good to start with. Local, fresh produce doesn't need to be adulterated with a bunch of added salt and fat. Steam it, bake it, saute it or eat it raw. Using great food to cook with can make any average cook feel pretty darn gourmet.