Adventures in Food in Ann Arbor and Beyond "Food with a story tastes better" -- Wendell Berry
In Which There are 3 Small Tales of Culinary History
Tale 1: A few months ago my pistol-packing, dirty-joke-telling, watercolor-artist and great cook of a grandmother started me down the road of collecting antique cookbooks when she handed me a tattered 1888 volume of The Grand Rapids Cook Book and Illustrated Price List from H. Leonard's Sons and Co. A reprint of The Old Congregational Cook Book, the original price was: $1.00. The first page is…
Things You Learn
Last weekend may have been the loveliest weekend of the year to be at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market. I think that pretty much every week from now until December. But I know for sure last weekend was a good one. There are some great things happening at the market!
Cindy and her friend were there doing a live strawberry jam canning demonstration with a huge pile of summer strawberries. And…
What's in the Farm Share Box(es)
So Mary over at Community Farm Kitchen has been cooking up wonderful sounding food from her member's shares of the beautiful Community Farm of Ann Arbor (the oldest CSA farm in our area - and one of the first CSA farms in this country). Kate and Sarah have been posting about what they're doing with the shares from Tantré, and the Annarbivore is sharing the love from Our Family Farm. Local food…
Avalon International Breads
Hey, we actually left the bubble last weekend! Our roadtrip to The Thumb took us through Detroit with hopes of some Kansas City style brunch at Slow's Bar-B-Q over in Corktown. If you have a similar hankering for ribs on a weekend morning, know this - Slow's doesn't open until noon on Sunday!
Luckily, Avalon Bakery is just a couple of miles away at 422 Willis between 2nd Ave. and Cass, in a…
Mighty Good Coffee Kiosk
Move over Espresso Royale, there's a new kid on the block. David Myers' Mighty Good Coffee Roasting Company just opened a new "coffee kiosk" at 118 S. Main Street in Ann Arbor. It's a fun, bright space, with wood floors, and a huge window looking out on Main from the trademark red Mighty Good counters. Kiosk because it's walk-up and take-away only - unless you happen to be a member of (and have…
Another Turn of the Crank: Farm Share Season Returns
Finally, finally, finally the time of year when our week revolves around what's in the box from Tantré Farm.
It's an interesting evolution that people go through in the process of deciding on a CSA membership - the first response from non-believers is that it's too confining to have to eat whatever is in the box that week. Better just to buy what you want, they say.
But I've come to believe…
The Great American Bake Sale
I noticed a sign in the window of the Jefferson Market and Cakery yesterday, and today I went back and took a photo of it. It says:
The Great American Bake Sale
What: To help kids who don't have any food (kids in our area).
When: Wednesday, May 20th, after school, 3:45-4:30
Where: Jefferson Market
Put together by: Brownie Troop 542
I'm dearly hoping that the Brownies will be selling brownies.…
Grow Some of Your Own Food
It's been a little quiet around the blog lately while I've been wrapped up in some real world adventures like: teaching a workshop at the Michigan Friends Center's day-long conference called Eating Local Foods: Nourishing Local Communities ; visiting Old Pine Farm for an interview with Kris Hirth and sons about their meat CSA; documenting the Clements Library's Exhibit on 500 Years of Grapes and…
Pea shoots: De-vine
On the phone a few weeks ago with a friend who lives in Minneapolis, I listened jealously as she described what they were already getting at their farmer's market, all the crazy asian greens, and how much she especially loves the pea shoots. Pea shoots?
Always ready to whinge about my sad vegetable fate at the tail end of winter, I lamented the fact that while the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market has…
Michigan Spring: Rhubarb
One of my family's treasures is a black and white newspaper photo of my grandfather as a dapper young man in 1930s short pants picking rhubarb in his dad's rhubarb hothouse near Detroit. Apparently, rhubarb (aka pie plant) in America saw its greatest popularity in a heyday between WWI and WWII, during which time farmers responded to the demand by growing hothouse rhubarb near Detroit. The idea…
Food News For Spring 2009
There are some pretty exciting things going on this spring in our little world of food. Here are a few that I know about:
If you're still looking for a CSA subscription, the Farmer's Marketer recommends you hurry to sign up for:
- Frog Holler Organic Farm CSA. From June thru October, $450 for either "salad mix share" or "extra veggie share." Pick up at AA Farmer's Market. Or, $400 if you pick…
Easter Eggs
With its tiny world inside the world, and the eventual emergence of a new life, it's easy to see why the egg is a symbolic object in so many cultures. And why, as usual, both our religious and our secular traditions of Easter come from observances much older according to the online "free encyclopedia."
"The pre-Christian Saxons had a spring goddess called Eostre, whose feast was held on the …
Happy Birthday Jefferson Market and Cakery!
Jefferson Market and Cakery (at Jefferson and Fifth St.) turns one year old on April 1st this year. In honor of this auspicious event, they're having a little party with (free) birthday cake and coffee starting when they open at 8:00am. I hear the cake is going to be something special and have been given special dispensation to show up early for the photo op. Can't wait to see!
In honor of…
Finding Out About Food Stamps
If you're on the email list to get the Farmer's Market Newsletter (sign up in the market office), or if you've been to the market recently and seen the cool signs, then you know the good news - that the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market recently started accepting the Bridge Card, also known as the EBT card, for what used to be known as food stamps.
If you don't know what EBT is, you're part of a…
Comet Coffee
We were the first customers when Comet Coffee opened last Saturday morning at 8:00am. Jim and Erin were fiddling with the espresso machine and re-arranging the pastries until we came in. The credit card machine was dysfunctional, but that was the only thing out of order during our visit. This opening with the promise of truly fine coffee has been a much anticipated event at our house.
They've…
Spring at last
I knew it was coming when I saw a flock of robins (yes, an entire flock) shivering in an icy tree over a month ago. It may be a few more weeks before it gets fancied up with purple crocus and pink dogwood blooms....and as we know, April is the cruelest month...but, spring is almost here. Really. I'm not just saying that.
And how do I know? Well, there were probably 25 vendors at the market…
Why is Fungi So Hard to Find?
A dispatch from back in my pirate days just a short time ago....Fungi in the Caribbean is a kind of cornmeal based dish - a lot like polenta, often with okra in it. But very few restaurants seem to serve it. Same with callaloo, pate, and plantains. For these and other traditional foods, there must be a secret Virgin Islands that we have yet to find.
In Tortola, we've served ourselves Ting…
Glorious Locavorious
On Prairie Home Companion Garrison Keillor is always describing the character-building virtues of wintertime; the fact that people from cold climates are often faced with hardships that require "intestinal fortitude," as Mr. Keillor's high school English teacher no doubt said.
And it's true, that here in the frozen north winter taketh away. Taketh away heat, light, green, and soft. And leaves…
Growing Michigan's Endangered Foods
It's a balmy 34º here on the first day of February and the air has that soft, earthy smell like spring is on its way. It may still be hibernation, hearty casserole and hot chocolate time of year, but a girl can dream that we don't have 3 more full months of winter before that green haze starts wisping across the trees when spring actually does arrive. A desperate yearning for tiny shoots of…
It's Pie Time
I'm indulging my fixation on pie by reading up about it in my new favorite book (great Christmas gift from the fabulous DH) "The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink," Andrew Smith, editor. It's sort of obvious that American settlers brought pie with them from England. Back when it was a more of a solid subsistence food than the temperamental dessert we now enjoy, you could put pretty…