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Food Independence Day (a Locavore’s 4th of July)

July 1st, 2009 · 9 Comments

You may have seen this floating around the internet lately, but the intrepid locavores who spearheaded the White House Organic (WHO) Farm movement have moved on to encourage all 50 states’ governors (and Washington’s Mayor Fenty, I presume) to serve local and sustainably sourced foods this Independence Day. Take a moment to sign the Food Independence Day petition and see if your governors have responded. Locally, Kim O’Donnel reports that Maryland Gov. O’Malley’s July 4th menu will feature, naturally, Chesapeake Bay crabcakes and salad greens from the first lady’s vegetable garden. Join the cause by declaring your own independence from the industrial food system (seen Food Inc. yet?) and plan your own locally-sourced July 4th meal.

5 Tips for A Local 4th of July Cook-out:

local grassfed burger

  1. Make those burgers local and grassfed — and avoid worry over the latest e.coli beef recall.
  2. Buy the buns from a farmers market vendor or local bakery — they’re fresher and most likely made without the high fructose corn syrup and preservatives of most supermarket brands.
  3. Stick with seasonal veggies — sweet corn is just beginning to appear here, along with fresh from the field tomatoes, garlic and plenty of herbs for a homemade fresh salsa.
  4. Skip the made-in-China, flag-covered disposables — take sheets outside or have the kids decorate a (recycled) kraft paper banner to use as a tablecloth — local and green.
  5. Nothing’s more patriotic than domestic beer or wine; just skip the (now Belgian-owned) Bud Light and search for a local craft brewer or vineyard, or stir up a red, white and blue sangria with berries from the farmers market. (And reserve some of those berries for a family-friendly cobbler for dessert!)

Some favorite summer cook-out recipes from the archives, for added inspiration:

My son has requested that we spend the holiday at the Farmers Market and the pool, and I’m happy to oblige — with perhaps a few minutes spent getting a fresh Pennsylvania cherry pie in the oven. What’s on your plate for the holiday?

(Submitting this to Fight Back Friday over at the Food Renegade – go check it out!)

Tags: green tips · holiday · Know Your Food · sustainable food tidbits · tips

9 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Jill // Jul 1, 2009 at 4:57 pm

    You had me at sangria.

  • 2 Meaghin
    Twitter: meaghink
    // Jul 1, 2009 at 9:12 pm

    I love that your son wants to spend his holiday at the Farmer’s Market! A true foodie! 🙂

  • 3 All type of RECIPES!.. » FoodieTots.com » Blog Archive » Food Independence Day (a … // Jul 2, 2009 at 2:40 am

    […] the rest here: FoodieTots.com » Blog Archive » Food Independence Day (a … Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 at 15:40 RSS feed for comments on this post Leave a comment | […]

  • 4 FoodRenegade // Jul 3, 2009 at 11:28 am

    All great ideas! Thanks for sharing them in today’s Fight Back Fridays carnival.

    Cheers,
    KristenM
    (AKA FoodRenegade)

  • 5 Maria // Jul 3, 2009 at 1:37 pm

    Thanks for including my sangria in the Fourth of July fun! I’ll be sure to send you some more recipes for making drinks with seasonal, organic fruits.

  • 6 Crystal (Cafe Cyan) // Jul 3, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    Mmm…homemade fresh salsa. Can’t wait (but have to, just a few more weeks)

  • 7 Kristina // Jul 4, 2009 at 10:27 am

    We’re having smoked turkey legs that we saved from last years local Thanksgiving turkey. We’re making potato salad with this year’s new potatoes from our garden and we’re grilling sweet corn we picked up at the farmer’s mkt this morning. For dessert we’re having cherry upside-down cake made with local cornmeal and local cherries.

  • 8 foodietots
    Twitter: foodietots
    // Jul 6, 2009 at 11:50 am

    @ Jill – Hard to believe we spent a weekend together without drinking sangria!

    @ Maria – My pleasure. Look forward to trying out more of your drink recipes!

    @ Meaghin – Yes, he’s been well indoctrinated. 🙂

    @ Kristen, Cyrstal, Kristina – thanks! Kristina, that menu sounds fantastic.

  • 9 Fight Back Fridays July 3rd | Food Renegade // Jul 9, 2009 at 6:45 pm

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