Toxic Free NC Tip Du Jour: Food Glorious Food

Welcome to the great American food revolution, y'all - it's happening all around you.

February, 19, 2010 , by Billie Karel

Photo by Laura Valencia, 2009. The owner of Dos Taquitos Centro in Raleigh and her daughters at home with their veggie seedlings.

Raleigh, I just want to start by saying sorry for slacking on the Toxic Free NC Tips lately. Here at Toxic Free NC HQ we’ve been slammed - in a good way - and so I never quite got my blogging groove back after the holidays. But let me make it up to you with this delicious post!

Did you know that you are in the middle of one of the hottest regions in the country for local & organic food right now? Durham-Chapel Hill was dubbed “America’s Foodiest Small Town” by Bon Apetit magazine back in 08, but from where I’m sitting, it looks like A) Durham-Chapel Hill is not in fact a small town, it’s a multi-city region that is part of a semi-major metro area of which Raleigh is a giant part, and B) Raleigh (and the rest of the Triangle) are playing a much bigger role in the foodiness of the region than the Bon Apetit award would imply.

So with groundhog day behind us and spring just around the corner, here’s a Raleigh-foodie-good-news update for you:

* North Carolina has a new Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council. They’re a team of some of the state’s foodiest folks who are meeting to chart a course for expanding and strengthening our state’s local & organic food economy in the future. They’ll be making recommendations to our Ag Department and our General Assembly about what they need to do to make it happen. It’s pretty heady stuff, and guess where it’s happening: our own Raleigh. Here’s the official NCDA webpage for the Council, where you can find the membership list, and where agendas and meeting updates will be posted. Here’s my write up on the first meeting, which happened earlier this month. In ‘09, Toxic Free NC worked hard alongside our allies in the sustainable farming community to win the legislation that created this Council. We’ll keep on keeping you posted about what they do.

* CSA Farms - more options than ever. It’s time to sign up for a summer farm share if you’re so inclined, and you have more options this year than there have ever been in Raleigh. Here’s my post about CSAs from last year, and here’s the latest guide to finding CSAs from Toxic Free NC. I’m back at Hilltop Farms this year - it starts up in late April, I can’t wait.

* Farmers’ Markets - awesome. The big state farmers market is big and awesome as always, but Raleigh’s smaller markets put a stronger emphasis on local and organic foods, and they’re getting bigger and better all the time. Our Downtown Raleigh Farmers Market has been making Wednesday lunch breaks in the summer more pleasant for downtown workers for a few years now. They’re relocating to the new City Plaza for 2010 and adding a bunch of new vendors - excellent! Opening date is the last Weds in April, and they’re planning to stay open through October this year instead of closing down Sept 1-ish and leaving us all hanging. We also have the new North Raleigh Farmers Market, which opened last year and appears to be year-round, and the “Midtown” Raleigh Farmers Market at North Hills that’s only a couple years old, too. And, I’m not even talking about Cary - they’ve got a farmers market downtown, and a great new one called the “Western Wake” Farmers’ Market closer to Morrisville that I’ve heard rave reviews about. I’m sure I missed something here - what else have y’all seen?

* More & more restaurants feature local foods. Raleigh’s giving the un-small-town of “Durham-Chapel Hill” a run for its money with our growing selection of restaurants featuring local ingredients. Irregardless and Zely & Ritz have been rocking the locally-grown foods for a while, but how ‘bout all the new and new-ish places springing up? It’s a trend I am noting as a sign of the times, and a sign that I love Raleigh. There’s Poole’s new incarnation, The Busy Bee, Dos Taquitos Centro and Cafe Sosta just to name a few downtown spots, plus the new Market Restaurant opening soon. I’m super downtown-centric, so I’m sure I’m missing stuff - help me out y’all, what else is out there?

And oh my goodness, community gardens! Raleigh’s got a few established and a few new ones starting up, I can’t wait to tell you more about those! But I’ll save that for a future post.

So, welcome to the great American food revolution, y’all - it’s happening all around you. Enjoy!

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