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:

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:

• Roasted Tomatillo Peach Salsa
• Patriotic Potato Salad
• Peach Berry Sherbet

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!)

The aforementioned Saturday morning thunderstorms made for a damp morning at the Del Ray Farmers Market, but fair weather shoppers missed out on one of the best weeks of the year — the turning point between spring and summer where the final strawberries cross paths with the first field-ripened tomatoes and even a few small ears of sweet corn. We had a Father’s Day picnic planned for Sunday, so the boy picked out green and yellow beans (Mr. Biggs) and a pint of sweet cherries (Toigo) to share. We picked up Smith Meadows’ sun dried tomato pasta and sun-colored cherry tomatoes from Three Way Farm, whose stand was bursting with bright yellow and green summer squash, green and red tomatoes, and more. The farmers from Riva had deep red rhubarb and the first pints of the boy’s favorite, blueberries. In true FoodieTot fashion, he devoured his pint whilst roaming the market (pausing for his weekly slice of Tom’s aged cheddar), slurping the final few berries as we escaped to the car just as the next downpour began.

By the way, Jane Black at the Washington Post confirmed today what we’ve been hearing from our market vendors — all that spring-into-summer rain has pretty much washed out this year’s cherry crops. If the trees at Moutoux Orchard are any indication, though, peach season is still on track.

I devoured a wealth of local foods over the weekend – from delicate fried softshell crabs with watermelon at West End Bistro, to dinner on our farm and the Father’s Day picnic at Naked Mountain Winery — but did very little cooking. Never mind, fresh beans served raw needed little more than some fresh locally-made hummus, and those sweet cherries gave a “cheat local” touch to store-brought mini-cupcakes. Hey, at least the wine was homemade….

One Local Summer is an annual challenge in which people around the world join together for 13 weeks of seasonal eating, supporting local farmers and exploring their local foodsheds. Visit FarmtoPhilly on Tuesdays for the weekly round-up; here’s what my neighbors in the Southern region cooked up this week …. and, speaking of picnics, last week we shared a grilled nectarine and tomato salad for Cookie magazine’s virtual picnic; check out the other contributions from some of my favorite foodie parents!

Eating local while on the road can be challenging, but visiting the local farmers market is one of my favorite things to do while traveling. As mentioned below, we stopped at the Port Washington Farmers Market on a recent trip to New York, on our way out to some wineries on Long Island’s North Fork.

A Local(ish) (NY) Picnic Lunch: After some terrific wines at Roanoke Vineyards (recently mentioned in the NY Times), it was on to my in-laws’ pick, Palmer Vineyards, where we enjoyed a mostly-local picnic lunch of fresh goat cheese on organic baguette, procured from the market that morning, dried fruit from home, and North Fork potato chips (sweet potato and sour cream & onion). The toddler danced to the live music while we took in the vineyard views from the porch. A lovely summer afternoon!

A Local (NY) Breakfast: On the way back to Queens, we stopped at an organic farmstand, with lovely strawberries and some actual Long Island goat cheese, which we ate for breakfast the next morning. These little berries have a firmer texture than our Virginia berries, and the goat cheese was some of the creamiest I’ve ever tasted. Delicious!

A Local (VA) Dinner: Back at home, we again had garlic scapes in our weekly CSA bag. My new favorite preparation is to toss them with a touch of olive oil and kosher salt, then throw them on the grill. The grilling mellows the flavor, resulting in the perfect complement to some fresh (Fauquier County VA) beef burgers on locally-baked, garlic-rubbed Italian bread. (Then I put non-local organic ketchup on it…homemade ketchup is on my to-do list this summer!)