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!  

Allen will not rest until all of Michigan Ave. and beyond is cooperatively composting.  Of course Pedal Co-Op has a great model for this.  What about you? (What) do you compost...or why don't you? Also, I've always wondered... 

What are your garbage disposals taboos?  What will you put down your sink, and what will you fish out of grungy water for fear it will tweak your drain monster?  Behold our kitchen sink mythology...

Comments

[Jamie]

Wow! I must try the mozarella infused w truffles! Amazing.

[nikii keway]

someone once told me that i wasn't supposed to put onion skins in the disposal, but i didn't stop. nothing bad happened, and besides i was living in spartan village at the time and the maintenance men were ever at the ready.
i like to put citrus peelings down there, it smells nice. most everything else, onionskins included, goes in the pile of leaves in the front yard. frozen solid for now, but easy enough to cover over the foodpile with the thawed leaves once things get ugly in early spring. i reckon.

[Reyzl]

I have a friend who was getting ready for a Seder with her whole extended family and made about two dozen hard-boiled eggs. Put all the shells down the garbage disposal. Bad consequences ensued. Plumbers were called. I think the moral of the story is, you can put a few eggshells in the disposal, just not two dozen at once.

[Allan Coyle]

Jamie, on Twitter I "met" @truffleoil he produces the only Truffle Oil that uses real Oregon White Truffles.

Ripening truffles emit a gas that flavors highly fat foods such as butter and mozzarella. I used both following his recipes. Here is his website: http://www.oregontruffleoil.com

Earthy Delights, a local company specializing in foraged and gourmet foods is another source for truffles and oil: earthy.com; if you are on Twitter their screen name: @earthydelights.