Living in a large city, it can be easy to lose sight of “the real world”. I love our urban bubble but I’ll admit, there are times when my view of normalcy is slightly skewed (refusing to own a car, $17 cocktails, grocery delivery services…).
Take the whole farm-to-table movement. Restaurants all over the place are calling their menus farm-to-table and people are going nuts for it. Me included. I had a kale salad at this place that screamed farm to table, going as far as having picnic tables for seating because that’s how their suppliers eat on the farm and I lost my shit, I was so excited and by god, that salad was the best salad in the history of ever.
But guess what? Farm to table isn’t a trend or a marketing ploy- it’s how you get your food.
Hey, anything that gets people eating whole, healthy foods that didn’t have to travel a continent to get to them is fantastic, I am all for it. But this week, I was at an actual Farmer’s Market (not my beloved yuppie, overpriced Green City Market but a real farmer’s market with people who actually work on farms) in a small town in Michigan and it hit me- I think it is incredible when I eat out and they make everything in-house because gosh, I could never do that. So here I am, looking at all of this gorgeous produce, grown from the ground miles from where I stood and it was…inspiring. I could make anything I wanted from scratch. I could! And I would!
So I made pickles.
No canning required, this recipe from Smitten Kitchen is great. Thinly sliced cucumbers (I used a mandolin), white vinegar, salt and dill. Refrigerate. Shake. 3-5 hours later, pickles. They’re fresh, crispy and I know where everything in them came from because I bought it. It felt so good to be inspired by food again and genuinely bring the farm to my table.
