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Let's Make It a Chesapeake Locavore Holiday!
baltimore eats - December, 2006
by John Shields
My memories of past holidays primarily revolve around food. And surely I am not alone. Almost anyone I ask for a few holiday memories will inevitably recount tales of holiday feasts.... of Christmas geese that graced the table courtesy of a family hunting trip; southern Maryland ham, with beautiful marbled interiors, stuffed with watercress picked from nearby streams and greens harvested from neighboring fields.
Baltimore, strangely enough, has become synonymous with roast turkey and sauerkraut, due in large part to the prominence of local German and eastern European communities. I have seen recipes and sampled green tomato mincemeat pies that have been part of local family traditions for generations.
When I saw my grandmother Gertie, coming around the corner of my street with her wire shopping cart filled with groceries and those well-worn empty Maryland Biscuit Company tins that would soon become the repository for our annual supply of Christmas cookies - sugar, ginger, Toll House -I knew the holiday season had begun.
As the years have passed, many people (myself included) cling to their family culinary traditions as a source of continuity, identity and rooted-ness. We are now bombarded with an alarming selection of pre-made, supposedly old-fashioned, pseudo-country-style holiday foods -from instant mashed potatoes to frozen turkey dinners, pies and boxed cookie sets made by machines in the food factories of the multinational food conglomerates. It is easy to be seduced by the ease and convenience of it all. Each year we let go of another of our traditions. We're busy, so busy...
I'm proposing that this year we try to have a real Old Fashioned Holiday Feast - a Chesapeake Locavore Feast! What's a locavore? Someone who eats local!
Buy a local, free range, heritage turkey -the real deal. A bird bred from proven traditional poultry stocks - not a genetically modified Franken-Turkey, or one "pre-basted" with hydrolyzed chicken fat injected beneath the skin. A bird raised humanely and processed in a healthy way, not bathed in chlorine to extend the "shelf life." You'll know the difference. Tastes just incredible!
Pick up some seasonal holiday greens from a local vendor at the downtown Farmers' Market under the Fallsway, or from one of the farmers' stalls at the Mill Valley Center on Sisson Street, in Remington
Take the kids on a Sunday drive to buy delicious butter and eggs up at Springfield Farm in Sparks, or at Broom's Bloom Dairy in Harford County. No time for that? Well, then try Atwater's in Belvedere Square where they retail products from South Mountain Creamery.
How about planning a Holiday Cookie party? Get a gang together and set up a little family and friends bakery. It's a great way to visit, catch up and tell stories of holidays past. Include the kids. Let them in on the family's history and introduce them to real cooking. You know -cracking eggs and sifting flour, like in "olden days."
And make some extra cookies to share -a little tin of fancy holiday cookies is always a welcome gift!
You can make a game out of planning and shopping for healthy local foods. See just how much of the items on your list are actually available from local providers who grew it right here in the Chesapeake region. You might be surprised!
And hey, I DO understand that you're busy. Maybe this year you'll only manage to track down 40 - 50% of your grocery list from local providers. But next year, maybe it will be 60 - 70%. And each year, do a little better. You're on your way to becoming a genuine Chesapeake Locavore!
And to offer a little encouragement, I've posted three Chesapeake Locavore Menus --including a vegetarian feast and some of my own recipes- on baltimore eats' website. You'll find them right here!
Enjoy!
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