The spring edition of Eat Up – A Celebration of Life and Local Food in Chattanooga is here and ready to be in your hands, and I can’t wait for you to have a copy! Gaining Ground has teamed up with some talented folks and local food advocates to provide you a tool for cooking with local ingredients, and maybe inspire you to eat things you’ve never heard of – like kohlrabi!

This week is notable for the local food movement. Harvested Here Restaurant Week is this week, May 14 – May 20. Fine participating restaurants are highlighting ingredients from Chattanooga area farmers, and trust us – the offerings look delicious! Check out our website here to see who all will be involved in Restaurant Week. Menus keep coming in, so please check our website and Facebook page for new menus.

Dining at restaurants is one of my biggest pleasures in life.  Sure, I love to cook but I REALLY love to order a creative, tasty dish from a chef or restaurant with a stated passion for food – especially locally grown and raised food!  And that’s what Harvested Here Restaurant is all about.

The local food movement is gaining traction as people are looking to get away from processed, industrialized food. Two weeks ago Michael Pollan left us with the notion that local food is better food (learn why at www.growchattanooga.org). Here are five ways to eat more local food:

1. Shop at a Farmer’s Market

In his lecture at the Tivoli last Thursday, Michael Pollan started by talking about how we are to navigate the overwhelming American supermarket.  He brought a couple of plastic bags with different processed food items in them from Bi-Lo.  He showed them to the audience one by one, reading some of the ingredients as well as some of the health claims on the boxes.  All of the items he had, including cookies called “WhoNu?”, and “GoGurt” yogurt tubes, fit into a category he calls “edible food-like substances,” as opposed to food.  The main point he was making was how confusing a person’s experience can be when trying to make healthy food choices, and how it is no longer straightforward and clear what food even is.

Thursday is a particularly special day.  Michael Pollan, a well known critic of our modernized food system, will be speaking at the Tivoli Theatre at 7pm. Be sure to get there early, as doors open at 5:30pm. 

Spring is here in Chattanooga. One way to tell are the wonderful events going on through out our area – one being HATCH, a 10 day festival that showcases what our city has to offer in History, Art, Technology, Culture and Happenings.

This past weekend was Farm Fair 2012 in Chattanooa, TN!

I love cooking for my husband, I really do. He tells me my cooking/baking is a specialized skill that only a lucky few have.  While I find this humorous(isn’t being a good cook all relative?), he jumps to big conclusions like: me + cooking + him = business opportunity.