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Friday, April 25, 2008
Big weekend for local food
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
If there were ever a weekend to show just how far the local food movement has come, it’s this one. Farmers markets in Alpharetta and Carrollton open for the season on Saturday, joining the Peachtree Road Market, the Morningside market, the Serenbe market and the Decatur market. In early May, markets at Spruill Gallery, Marietta, and East Atlanta Village open.
Strawberries are available for picking on Saturdays (closed Sundays) at Washington Farm in Loganville and Watkinsville, and at other nearby berry farms. You can search for farms near you at Georgia Market Maker.
Also on Saturday, cattle rancher Will Harris of White Oak Pastures opens a processing facility on his Early County farm. It’s significant because it will give not only Harris, but other farmers nearby, a larger facillity to send cattle to be slaughtered and sent to local customers. That will given them easier access to markets in Atlanta, rather than having to sell young cattle to feedlots out West, where they’re entered into the conventional meat system and fetch a lower price for farmers.
Harris’ White Oak Pastures grass-fed beef, which is certified humanely raised by Humane Farm Animal Care, is available ground at Publix, and in whole muscle cuts at some Whole Foods Markets and Harry’s Farmers Markets. With the opening of the processing center, the beef should be more readily available. Harris currently trucks cattle 100 miles from his Bluffton farm to be slaughtered, at a small facility that isn’t able to handle as many cattle as he has ready for market.
And on Sunday, there’s a benefit for Slow Food Atlanta at Glover Family Farms in Douglas County, just over the border from Fulton. Sous chefs from some of the city’s top restaurants, including Repast, the Hil, Woodfire Grill and Restaurant Eugene, will prepare the meal from food raised primarily on the farm. Tickets are $45 and include the family-style dinner and drinks. The farm is at 3260 Highway 166 in Douglasville.
So … are you planning on going to a farmers’ market this weekend, or a you-pick berry farm? If so, where are you headed, and what are you planning to buy?
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Who Grills Your Cheese?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
BY ANY OTHER NAME: grilled cheese comes in many forms, like this Monte Cristo sandwich from the Glenwood
Photo: Becky Stein/Special to the AJC
I can’t believe that it’s April 25 and I haven’t mentioned a thing about grilled cheese. I mean, dang nab it: April is grilled cheese month, after all.
Oh, you didn’t know? Did you know that April is also Florida tomato month? No? Obviously we’ve all been hiding under rocks. It should come as no surprise, even to us rock-hiders, that February is chocolate month. Duh. And July is National Ice Cream Month. A given, n’est pas?
Every week I’m inundated with one pitch or another touting “official fill-in-the-food month.” But grilled cheese I’m falling for. In the USA, we butter it and grill it on a skillet. The whiter the bread the better. In El Salvador, soft, mild cheese is melted between thick corn gorditas and called a pupusa. The UK serves the cheese goodie open-faced and calls it a toastie. And the French, well — they go all out: A croque monsieur dips the bread in egg batter first, then slams ham and cheese in between before grilling the whole thing in butter. The sandwich is often blanketed with bechamel for a truly delicious fat fest. Add a fried egg, and you’ve got a croque madame. The Monte Cristo is similar, with ham and cheese dipped in egg batter and fried.
Au Pied du Cochon makes a mean croque monsieur and I love the pupusa at Tierra. The Glenwood in East Atlanta rocks with a Monte Cristo served with syrup and strawberries for brunch — but I’ve yet to find the perfect grilled cheese in Atlanta. Where do you go for great grilled cheese?
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