NOISE: Dig In

Good Food

Max is visiting from Holland to do research on the Lansing and Detroit food systems...what a tangled web we weave...and that's a good thing.  Numerous inter-connections and partnerships are the order of the day.

The Michigan Good Food Summit is this Thursday at the Lansing Center!  Have a say in food systems policy at the statewide level.  Another chance to network is coming up March 25th: the local community food conference entitled Growing Our Food System, Nourishing Our People.  You can register online for both events (just follow the links).

Interested in growing your own food this year?  Check out the workshops, classes, and other events at Let's Garden Lansing.  A number of local agencies provide community and home garden services:  The Garden Project (a program of the Greater Lansing Food Bank) is the place to go if you're considering starting a new group garden, looking for garden space around town, or interested in support for your gardening at home.  More neighborhood-based programs include South Lansing Community Development Association and the Northwest Initiative's Food Systems Project,   Allen Neighborhood Center's HunterPark Garden House is hosting, among other things, a first-friday-of-the-month movie series in the greenhouse!  Next Friday March 5th features "King Corn".

Are you an experienced gardener looking to help some newbies?  Check out the Garden Mentor Mixer coming up at Lett's Community Center on Tuesday, March 2.  

What with all this brouhaha around gardening, opportunities abound to expand your comfort zone.

And who knows, you might end up in a Dutch dissertation.

Eyes Bigger Than Stomach

Sometimes your eyes are bigger than your stomach.  Like when you're slouched in a food coma after your second trip to the buffet, a mountain of warm yum still wafting steam from your plate.  The same holds true in the world of local food: before you find yourself over-spending on a mountain of mail-order seeds and up to your neck in an ambitious plan to grow all your own food this year, consider the many opportunities out there that can provide a framework for a productive but not overburdening garden this recession season. 

Lansing has been a hotbed of farmers market activity, with everything from the newly housed Lansing City Market, to the Allen Street Neighborhood Center Market, to the new Benjamin Davis Park Market ...not to mention the East Lansing Market, Meridian's fine market, etc.  Of course we have the tri-county area's ace farmers to thank most for that!  (Thanks!) But wait, there's more!  Many local CSAs...

Lansing City Market: The view from here

John Hooper was clearly excited about the future.  As we gazedaround the spacious new Lansing City Market building, he noted where the second floor could be easily integrated, providing a heady view of shoppers below and the cityscape across the Grand River to the west.  "Plenty of room to grow, up and out..." he mused energetically.

 

Meanwhile the friendly purveyors of quality food who make the market more than a building were getting ready for the day. Kevin Nichols arranged onions from Grant, MI along with other veggies at Bella Harvest.  Next stall over is RIverside Studios, Kevin and Karen's hand-made jewelry and art outlet.

 
 
 

Miss Alice has me on the edge of my seat for whitefish spread, and meanwhile she also had a box of bread to donate to someone who badly needed it.  In swoops Food Movers and whisks it off to their network of pantries, neighborhood centers, and other distribution points.  Real life super heroes.  

Local Food Alive in the Dead of Winter

You know that feeling when 'your' secret cherry tree on Michigan Ave. gets picked clean by two homeless guys right before you were going to grab a pie's worth of fruit?  The pile of spat-out pits below seems to hum with the excitement of a free hoard of deliciousness enjoyed alfresco.  I don't begrudge them their cherry binge of a summer's night.  But...

What's a local grazer to do now that its cold enough to store your ice-cream in the garage?

The other day I ran out of our multi-colored eggs from Swallowtail Farm, so I sidled into the Soup Spoon Cafe for some perfectly poached beauties from The Eggman Store prepared by chef Nick Gavrilides.  While there, I realized that the group of satisfied coffee and espresso drinkers hunkered around the front table were cozied up to one of Lansing's best-kept secrets:  coffee hand roasted right here in Lansing, and prepared to order by none other than local coffee artisan Rob of Rudy Baggs Coffee Roasting Company.

The real news though, was that Allen had successfully infused fresh mozzarella with truffles he'd received from a Twitter buddy.  That's not truffle oil--he actually infused mozzarella with the gas released by the truffles!