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The Eat Local Challenge has become one of my favorite celebrations each year. While many of our usual holidays come with prescribed dishes, such as turkey and stuffing for Thanksgiving, brisket and matzoh ball soup for Passover, and cookies topped with red and green sprinkles for Christmas, the Eat Local Challenge menu is always different — year to year, chef to chef, and region by region. The challenge is to create an whole menu where every ingredient (except for salt) comes from within 150 miles. While this is no easy task, I also find the challenge to be encouraging. Whether a chef or an eater, it encourages everyone to explore unusual flavors – found on our local farm and range lands and in our forests, lakes, and oceans, to learn about new producers, and tap into our inner creative spirit.

Conscientious consumers rely on third-party-certified labeling programs such as organic, which reassures us that those products were grown without toxic pesticides or using genetically engineered seeds, and Certified Humane, which tells us that the animals we’re eating were raised ethically. But neither of those labels tells us anything about how the people behind the products were treated. That’s why the Fair Trade Certified™ label is so important. October is Fair Trade month, and we at Bon Appétit Management Company are proud to have partnered with Fair Trade USA to help raise awareness.

For most industries, state law in North Carolina mandates that children must be at least 14 years old to work. But like the rest of the country, there is no age requirement for agricultural work and many start at 10 or 12, and get exposed to toxic pesticides during formative years. Toxic Free NC is a non-profit organization that works to “put people before pesticides” and advocates for alternatives that protect the health and environment of those in the surrounding community. In 2008, they started the Farm Worker Documentary Project, documenting the experiences of workers in fields and labor camps across North Carolina. Their most recent project is called Overworked & Under Spray: Young Farm Workers’ Pesticide Stories. Six young farm workers talk about their pesticide exposure in the fields and the resulting health effects. The film also includes advocacy […]

To any Gallaudet University students walking into the Bon Appétit café on Tuesday Sept. 27, it seemed like a transformation had occurred. The normally wood-colored tables were decked out in blue and red checkered picnic-style cloth, and the entire café staff had donned blue jeans and farmers hats. It was Eat Local Challenge Day, and the point was to celebrate local, farm-fresh food. Students scattered themselves at different stations throughout the café in honor of the event. One group hosted a Taste Test, challenging their peers to guess which tomato was local (picked fresh that day from the Gallaudet Community Garden) and which was conventional (from California). Green Gallaudet, the on-campus environmental group, spoke with passers-by about the impacts our food choices have on the environment (did you know that by eating one less hamburger a week, you can significantly […]

By Kristen Rasmussen, MS, RD For this month’s well being challenge, we encourage you to get to know your food – and where it comes from – by making meals with seasonalingredients from local producers.  Demonstrate your commitment to the local food community by posting pictures or comments about your local and seasonal food experiences on our Facebook page wall. Here’s a recipe to get you started.  Baked Apple & Sweet Potato Latkes Makes about twelve 2 – 3 inch latkes

Thanks to Michael Pollan‘s book The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the documentary Food, Inc., more people have become aware that the majority of cows in this country are raised on a grain-based diet for the last few months of their lives — and why that’s problematic for the health of the cows, the health of the humans who eat them, and the environment. The short version: Grains such as corn and soy are cheap carbohydrates that make cows get fat fast (not unlike humans). But cows’ digestive systems were designed to handle a high-fiber diet of mostly fresh grass or hay, with some natural grains. High-grain corn and soy diets — and the feedlots in which they are stuffed with them — cause many cattle to get sick, and encourage the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant E. coli as well. But as with […]

By Kristen Rasmussen, MS, RD For this month’s Well Being Challenge, we’re encouraging you to Get Closer to Your Food by making meals with seasonal ingredients from local producers. We’d love for you to show your commitment to the local food community by sharing your food pictures or comments about your local and seasonal food experiences on our Facebook page wall. Here’s a quick, tasty recipe to get you started.  Simple Sautéed Garlic Chard (or other greens) Serves 6-8

Why does Duncan Chase like working as lead bartender at Bon Appétit Management Company’s TASTE Restaurant? He says because hereally gets to have fun and be creative with the drinks he makes. At the Seattle Chef’s Collaborative Seasonal Cocktails Meet & Greet, hosted at the Mistral Kitchen Patio Rooftop recently, I got to try Duncan’s grappa cocktail. It was so delicious that I asked him to share his recipe with us. Here it is, including some of TASTE’s producers — the perfect late summer cocktail for this long weekend. Soft Tail Sparkling Sunset

By Kristen Rasmussen, MS, RD For this month’s Well Being Challenge, we’re encouraging you to Get Closer to Your Food by making meals with seasonal ingredients from local producers. We’d love for you to show your commitment to the local food community by sharing your food pictures or comments about your local and seasonal food experiences on our Facebook page wall. Here’s a delicious farmers-market salad to get you started.  Arugula Salad with Fennel, Pear, & Shaved Parmesan Serves 4