day 27: eating locally on special diets, a farmers' market breakfast, and another farmers' market

After finishing up the amazing sweet potato soup, I made a few more large recipes with tons of portable leftovers: pasta and roasted acorn squash with mushrooms and garlic. The pasta was from RP's again, and it was gluten free, which actually tasted super good. I also made Martha's recipe for roasted acorn squash with mushrooms and chicken breast. This did not go as planned. I couldn't find local cuts of chicken breast sold separately so I decided to buy a half chicken and just roast it with the vegetables anyways. There is a local market in Spring Green that actually does sell individual chicken breasts, but with my schedule, I wasn't able to get there this week. So a half chicken it was.

I thawed the chicken all day and by dinner time I was ready to cut it apart and roast it. I started cutting into it and couldn't handle it. The Lynch family commented that when you buy meat locally it is impossible to ignore the fact that the meat is coming from real animals. So true. I'm not sure which half of the chicken I bought, but there was definitely some sort of liver or heart or who-knows-what in it. I tried so hard but ended up not cooking the chicken at all. I seriously have never been pushed so close to vegetarianism. I simply cannot handle raw meat on my own. I guess I have to stick to fish fillets, sausages, or anything pre-portioned and neat and tidy. Or eat prepared meat at restaurants, like I always used to do.

These two meals got me thinking more about eating locally on special diets. A gluten allergy could have some benefits, as you wouldn't have to worry about mediocre local wheat. But you would have to eat some rice for sure, and Minnesota might be the closest you could get wild rice, but I'm not sure about anything else. You might be forced to rely on potatoes and corn for your carb-intake. Likewise, being a vegetarian and eating locally in Madison might be impossible. No beans. No tofu products. Unless you wanted to eat a lot of eggs and other dairy products, you might have to eat locally with a looser definition of what that means.

Anyways, today I had breakfast at the Local Tavern. If you live in Madison and have never had the Saturday Farmers' Market Breakfast here, you really need to try it. I love breakfast and I love eating breakfast at local restaurants. This might be the best breakfast in Madison; seriously. The menu is really unique and I had eggs, sweet potato hashbrowns, and the most amazingly rich cornbread. Ever. Wow.

The farmers' market was less crowded and there were signs declaring things like "last week for salad mix." I bought salad mix. I also bought more sweet potatoes at Harmony Valley. I learned that they cure their sweet potatoes, which doubles the sugar and makes them taste better. Apparently they don't taste great right from the ground, which explains why the ones I got a few weeks ago were really bland and acorn-squash-tasting. Also got some bok choy and green onions for a recipe I saw on a food blog. It was funny because I was commenting about how long (like 4 feet long) some of the green onions were this week, and then the farmer at the stand totally gave me the longest ones ever. They were sorta scary and stuck three feet out of my market bag.

Okay - well expect a bigger wrap-up post in a few days. But I don't see this project as ending at all. So it won't be the last post, by any means.