Urban beekeeping on the rise
If it seems that the buzz around bees has picked up volume, that’s because it has. According to the USDA, bees help pollinate one-third of all our food, but recently, a mysterious and destructive honeybee disease called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) has been wiping out record numbers of hives across the U.S. Although CCD is a common phenomonom, scientists can't explain why it's increasing at such a devastating rate.
An outdoor activity that results in blueberry pie
I love picking blueberries. It’s such a summery activity—walking among beautiful shady bushes, snacking on ripe fruit, enjoying the happy chatter of families. And when it’s all over, you’ve got a big bucket of berries to bring home.Apparently, I’m not the only person who enjoys the process, as there are several you-pick blueberry farms within an hour’s drive of Atlanta. There are so many, in fact, that compiling a list is a bit of a task. The list below includes all the places with a 404, 770 or 678 area code that I could confirm were in operation this summer.
Did you say ‘huitlacoche’? Gesundheit
All week long, I’ve been talkin’ smut with farmer Liz Porter. As co-owner of Buckeye Creek Farm in Hickory Flat and coordinator of the Cherokee Fresh Market, she seems respectable enough. But this week, every conversation we’ve had has been riddled with smut: where to find it, who might buy it, and why some folks can’t get enough.
Two Souths converge this Sunday at Spice Route Supper Club
Every food writer eventually develops obsessions, and India tops my list of preoccupations. I daydream about spending months there, wandering from state to state and learning recipes from home cooks who keep specific, regional traditions alive. Restaurants can offer some worthy examples (I went looking last year), but, as I’ve complained before, the menus too often get muddled into a ubiquitous mishmash of too-creamy Northern dishes, cooked in bulk and devoid of soul, and twenty versions of mediocre dosas from the South.
Market Special: Simple soup with a lush touch
My capacity for rich foods is almost limitless. But after a full week of nearly nonstop indulgence, even I am starting to crave a wholesome meal. The great thing about this recipe for winter squash soup from Seth Freedman, East Atlanta Village Farmers Market’s resident chef, is that it’s adaptable to both luscious and light moods.ence, even I am starting to crave a wholesome meal. The great thing about this recipe for winter squash soup from Seth Freedman, East Atlanta Village Farmers Market’s resident chef, is that it’s adaptable to both luscious and light moods.
PB2 peanut butter powder
For the die-hard peanut butter addicts who love the taste but hate the fat or calories, here's something to consider.
Reserve a pastured turkey now for Thanksgiving
Remember last November, when you thought it would be cool to buy a pasture-raised turkey for Thanksgiving, but all the farmers you called laughed at you because they had sold out months before? So humiliating.
Atlanta Food & Wine Festival Wrap-up Thoughts
ATL Food Chatter: May 17, 2011
(To receive the Chatter and other culinary tidbits directly in your inbox, sign up for our weekly dining newsletter)The past weekend’s gastronomical gala, the first Atlanta Food & Wine Festival, was a unique and important happening in the city’s culinary history—and unlike one-off events, this one will return and get better and better. Beyond a roster of local star chefs, the festival corralled stellar chefs from other regions of the South (and slightly beyond), including John Currence of the City Grocery Restaurant Group in Oxford, Mississippi; Dallas’s Kent Rathbun (who missed his son’s birthday to help out his brother, Kevin); Southwestern cuisine pioneer Stephan Pyles; Bryan Caswell of Houston’s genre-defying seafood restaurant, Reef; Karen and Ben Barker of Durham’s soulful Magnolia Grill; and Birmingham’s Frank Stitt, one of the original Southern farm-to-table advocates. Pyles framed it best when he said that he participates in only a limited number of food and wine festivals, but that he wanted to be at AF&WF because of the talent and timing, which further elevated the status of Southern cuisine. [Disclosure, I was one of the curators of the event and participated in several panel discussions.]
New Douglasville market causes vendor exodus
Technically speaking, Douglasville has a new farmers market. In practical terms, though, an existing market just moved a few miles down the road.The Douglasville Farmers Market launched Sept. 1 as part of the city’s Main Street program. Held downtown in O’Neal Plaza, it will run 3 to 7 p.m. every Thursday through Oct. 20.
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