dishes made from produce that slaves could grow in their own kitchen gardens: boiled peanuts, sweet potato pie, boiled greens and black-eyed peas. Immigrants from Ireland who arrived
in the New World during the potato famine of the 1840s and those Europeans promised free land under the Homestead Acts of the 1860s brought garden seeds, favorite plants and ethnic food traditions with them, further enlarging our coun- try’s collective eating repertoire to in- clude sauerkraut, coleslaw, cheesecake, cinnamon rolls and potato salad. Mennonite farmers who had emi-
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grated from the Netherlands to Germany and then on to Russia, as their paci- fist views clashed with the prevailing governments, finally left the steppes of the Ukraine for the similar terroir of the Kansas prairie in 1875. (This was around the same time that cowboys were herd- ing longhorn cattle from Texas along the Chisholm Trail to railyards in Abilene, Kansas.) The Mennonites brought bags of turkey red winter wheat seeds that helped transform the wild prairie into the cultivated “breadbasket” it is today. In a similar fashion, Italian families coming to California brought their love of wine to a hilly region that benefited from moisture granted by the fog rolling in from the Pacific. They knew how to make the most of a climate with a spring rainy season followed by a dry summer—great conditions for growing wine grapes. Good for Us Food
Foods naturally suited to their environment grow better, taste better and are packed with more nutrients, reports Sustainable Table, an educational nonprofit working to build healthy communities through sustainable eating habits (SustainableT-
able.org). When grown and consumed locally, foods escape the degradation of being irradiated for longer shelf life. When they come from organic farms, they’re also grown without pesticides and herbicides. Consider also that milk from dairy
cattle raised in areas where they can eat grass for most of the year has a better flavor and contains more beneficial nutri- ents than milk from grain-fed cows. Jeni Britton Bauer uses regional Midwestern ingredients—including organic milk from grass-fed cows, local goat cheese, foraged wild foods and organic berries—for Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. “We couldn’t believe
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the difference in flavor in milk from grass- fed versus grain-fed cows,” she says. “It’s because grass-fed cows produce milk with more conjugated linoleic acid, a cancer- fighting compound, as well as healthful omega-3 fatty acids.” Local examples such as hers illustrate the larger truth. Good for Our Community
Growing and eating regional foods is equally beneficial for our communities. According to Larry West, a writer for E/ The Environmental Magazine, most farm- ers on average receive only 20 cents of each food dollar spent on what they pro- duce. The remaining profit gets consumed by transportation, processing, packaging, refrigeration and marketing costs when their crops travel far and wide. Farmers who choose to sell their foods to local customers see a better return on their in- vestment. When neighbors choose to eat locally, it supports local agriculture and encourages continued use of area land for farms, keeping development in check while preserving open space. There are even more benefits.
Research by Duncan Hilchey, a senior extension associate at Cornell University, and his colleagues in upstate New York found that regional agriculture contrib- utes to the local economy, provides fresh food and a secure food supply, and plays a role in preserving our rural heritage. In Goût de Terroir: Exploring the Boundaries of Specialty Agricultural Landscapes, he concludes that “Agricultural landscapes, and the regional cuisine and foodways [culinary practices] to which they contrib- ute, offer powerful expressions of place.” As Greenstein sums it up, “Regional
food is better, however you look at it.” Judith Fertig is a freelance food
writer in Overland Park, KS; for more information visit AlfrescoFoodAndLife
style.blogspot.com. Primary sources: Tony Schwager at
AnthonysBeehive.com; Lenore Greenstein at
LenoreSue@Comcast.net; Rachelle H. Saltzman at
Riki.Saltzman@Iowa.gov; Duncan Hilchey at Duncan@NewLeafNet. com; Justin Rashid at
SpoonFoods.com; Amy Trubek at
Amy.Trubek@uvm.edu; and Jeni Britton Bauer at JenisIceCreams. com. Also, Culinaria: The United States, A Culinary Discovery, edited by Randi Danforth, Peter Feierabend and Gary Chassman; and Early American Gardens: For Meate or Medicine by Ann Leighton.
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