Food

The picture to the left shows my girlfriend hugging a tank used to brew Dogfish Head's Palo Santo Marron. It is a one-of-a-kind tank built from Paraguayan Palo Santo wood.  She recently reviewed Palo Santo Marron on her blog.  On our recent Northeastern vacation we went out of our way to hit Milton, Delaware, Dogfish Head’s home, just so she could meet this particular tank face-to-wood. It is because of Maddie's devotion to Dogfish Head (and craft beer connoisseurs throughout Madison) that a recent ordinance bouncing around the Common Council is so troubling. The proposal would "prohibit the sale of beer or malt liquor in amounts less than the amount contained in a six pack of bottles or cans, intoxicating liquor in amounts of 200 milliliters or less in volume, malt based flavored coolers in less than a four pack, and a sale of fortified wines for consumption off premises." At first blush, the proposal suggests that the Palo Santo Marron — and other breweries’ specialty beers sold in four packs — would be banned in Madison.

As I further investigated the proposal I was encouraged to learn that microbreweries would be exempt. The ordinance defines a microbrewery as "a brewer where not more than 150,000 barrels of fermented malt beverages are manufactured in a calendar year by the permittee's brewery group." I called some of my favorite breweries including Rogue from Newport, Oregon; Bell's from Kalamazo, Michigan; and Dogfish Head to ask how many barrels they produced in a year. They were all well below the 150,000 barrel per year mark. Dogfish Head, for example, had produced 97,000 barrels during the previous calendar year. I was relieved...that is...I was relieved until Maddie and I hit the Dogfish Head Brewery for a tour two weeks ago and learned that some unique beers are endangered after all. 

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This morning, for the first time since moving to Wisconsin in 2003, I ate brats for breakfast at Brat Fest. This is the inaugural day for the annual festival where Wisconsinites descend on Madison to see if they can break the record of "Most Brats Consumed in a Single Weekend." The new record was set last year when 191,712 brats were consumed. This morning I did my part by stuffing two into my breakfast-less belly and as I sit down to write this post at 11 a.m. the number of brats consumed is at 3621 according to the official Brat Fest counter.

While I strolled the grounds before 10 a.m. this morning the BratMobiles were already shuttling a steady stream of people from the parking lot to the Fest, the rides were starting to twirl, the Johnsonville Grill truck was sizzling, and two bands were churning out familiar covers on opposing ends of Willow Island. The only thing missing was the beer that wasn't quite tapped at that early morning hour (and I can't help but think that's a good thing).

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Ah, spring! No fooling, it’s finally here. I started my summer job this month at JenEhr Family Farm, a vegetable and pastured chicken farm in Sun Prairie. I’ve already gained a new appreciation for all the hard work that our local farmers put into what they do, plus I’ve gotten an up close and personal view of the bounty that’s started coming out of our local farmers’ hoop houses. Though it’s just a tiny hint of things to come later in the season, there’s no denying that winter is over and a new season is here!

The first Dane County Farmer’s Market on the square was this weekend. At JenEhr we did our first big harvest of veggies from the hoop houses and had a multitude of beautiful spring produce for sale: radishes, mustard greens, salad greens, chives, and sorrel. These fresh, tender veggies are certainly a welcome relief after a long winter of root vegetables and rough cabbage salads, but unfortunately they don’t provide the calories I need to get through the long days on the farm.

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It’s the middle of March as I write this - a beautiful Saturday that leaves no doubt that spring is on the way. Despite the extra sunshine and warm temperatures, to someone like myself with locavore tendencies, March is just about the hardest month of all.

I moved back to Madison in early January, after spending 5 ½ years in Northern California. I made a pledge to myself to resist buying vegetables from far flung places, and I was glad to find all kinds of local foods available at the food co-ops and the winter farmer’s market. Over the last few weeks I’ve watched with dismay while many items I’d been enjoying faded away for the year: cabbages and apples have completely disappeared, certain root vegetables are waning, almost all the vegetable vendors have stopped coming to the winter farmer's market...what is a girl to eat?

Historically, if starvation was in the cards in a given year, March or April was the time it would happen (at least in the Northern hemisphere). Food stored from the previous autumn is running out or gone bad after months in storage, and spring crops are still months away from harvest. Even if some hardy spring greens can be coaxed to grow, there’s no way they can supply enough calories to keep people going through the early spring months – a time when hard work is required to cultivate the ground and plant for the upcoming year.

So what have I been eating? I haven’t yet given in to the temptation to buy fresh vegetables from outside of Wisconsin, but I did finally give in and purchase tomato paste shipped in from out of state. I wasn’t able to can any tomatoes this autumn since I was planning to move from California; but I promised myself that the upcoming year will be different, and I’ve limited myself to tomato paste, since it’s the most condensed tomato product you can buy and requires the least amount of energy to ship. Other than that, I’ve stayed quite pure, and my diet, though lacking in diversity, has still been quite satisfying. I’ve come to appreciate and rely on one of the most basic of food parings: meat and potatoes.Click here to read more...