FRESH, a film about sustainable food

Sorry, my life’s been busy with non-food related activities lately.

Last Saturday, 12 people got together to watch the film FRESH about local, sustainable foods. It was a wonderful evening filled with great food and good company!

The film is a powerful statement of how we can all eat healthier foods by buying locally and sustainably grown food. I learned more about cows and chickens are raised that I didn’t really know before and now will only buy organic free range chicken. Grass fed local beef is another option that will show up more often in our refrigerator. Tears of joy came to my eyes when I see what farmers are doing across the country to move away from the 3 food producers that are stealing the souls of family farms. AND, you will see how happy these freed farmers and ranchers are after doing so. The farmers who are beholden to the large conglomerates don’t smile…they struggle to live with what they have to do for these companies. The farmers who have turned to sustainable farming enjoy their livelihoods, love their pigs, chickens, cows, goats, produce, worms, etc.

Anyway, bottom line: You must watch this film!! It is not a doom & gloom film like Food, Inc. is. It is an uplifting documentary that illustrates how sustainable farming is profitable, more rewarding, more nutritional, more flavorful and kinder to the earth.

You can purchase the dvd for a showing at your home like we did at http://www.freshthemovie.com OR check the website to see where local showings are in theaters.

We had a sustainable foods pot luck dinner after watching the film. Each dish was fabulously delicious...no surprise there! It demonstrated that if you start off with fresh, local ingredients, you don't have to do a lot to it to make it taste good!

The main course was Roasted free-range chickens. The cavities were stuffed with fresh rosemary from our garden and sage leaves, also from our garden, were inserted under the skins. Other than that, it was just salt, pepper and a little EVO. I learned should buy “Rosie's” chickens rather than “Rocky Free Range” chickens because Rosie's are both Organic and Free Range.

I also cut organic russets into wedges, tossed with olive oil and baked at high temperature. Sprinkled with S&P. And made some Garlic Bread (Acme bread) made with 50/50 butter and EVO. How much more simple can you get?!!

We had lots of veggies with the dinner. Tina brought a squash dish, seasoned with parsley. We had 3 salads: Annie brought a tomato & bread salad and Mary brought a tomato, feta, cilantro salad and Janis brought a mango, avocado and butter lettuce salad. All of the salads had very simple dressings that brought out the goodness of the fruits and vegetables.

Sandy made a fabulous dessert using fresh cut up strawberries, raspberries and blueberries topped with Barbados Cream (50/50 whipped cream and whole milk yogurt topped with brown sugar) and accompanied by Coffee Crunch Bars. We enjoyed every bite and I got to keep the leftovers!!! YUM! Recipe for the cookies is online: http://www.bonappetit.com/magazine/2009/02/coffee_crunch_bars

Annie mentioned that she would have liked to have more discussion after the film. In lieu of that discussion, I thought it would be a good idea for each of us to make a commitment to local sustainable organic food.
Some ideas:
1. Buy copies of the film FRESH to give as gifts to family & friends. You can buy a dvd ($20) at the film's website: http://www.freshthemovie.com
2. Commit to eating local, organic, sustainable foods for xx% of your grocery purchases. If more of us eat this way, it will bring the price of this food down.
3. Read the Omnivore’s Dilema by Michael Pollen
4. Have a Fresh film showing at your house with your family & friends and/or have a local organic sustainable pot luck.
5. Shop at Farmer's Markets, or wherever they sell local foods. Make sure the produce is sustainable and local. Some vendors at Farmer's markets are actually mass producers.
6. Ask your grocer where the carrots, beets, chickens, etc. come from? Ask for locally produced produce.
7. Drink locally produced wines.
8. Support restaurants who serve local, sustainable foods.
9. Some people are beginning to raise chickens sustainably in their backyard (I think Sandi and Willie are thinking about it). If they do, sign up to buy eggs from them!

My commitment to local sustainable foods: I will NEVER buy mass produced chickens again, only buy locally produced produce (i.e. within 100 miles of my home), buy grass fed beef when I can and share our copy of FRESH with our family and friends. I wish I could say I will never buy off-season fruits from other countries but I will reduce my off season fruits and vegetables by 50%.

Make YOUR commitment by writing in the "comments" section of this blog!!

Eat sustainable foods, yea!!!