Eating Local Has Never Been Easier
Photos are by Yvette Roman Photography
Choices. We have SO MANY here in SLO County for creating tasty seasonal recipes from the bounty of so many farms, ranches and purveyors. Summer is here and comes with a whole new seasonal offering to choose from. We are excited to share with you the season’s freshest foods, skills, and recipes, from some of our favorite farms and makers along the trail.
Our farmers and ranchers are stewards of the land on which they work. You can taste the difference when a farmer’s heart and soul has been planted into their crop, and it all starts with their hands in the soil. Understanding, caring, and nurturing the soil results in quality products. Their dedication to honor the dirt first, to know this is where it all starts, and finishes, is the farmer’s circle of life. Now is the time; it’s time to get our hands dirty too!
Essential to our local farm’s success is your support and demand for their products. Yep, more choices. You can choose to buy food from unknown resources, or choose to support your neighbors, local family farms and businesses, while knowing their food is as fresh as it gets. Know that it was freshly harvested within days or even hours from the time you purchase it. Know the hands from which it was raised. Know its flavors will burst, making your best dish taste even better!
Food as a second language, a love language.
Whether you are growing it, preparing it or eating it, food speaks to all of us and is the reason we all come to the table. Nutrition, health benefits, our passion for flavor, the connection to others, are all reasons we love to eat. We all cook out of necessity, while there are some that find pure pleasure in time spent in the kitchen to hand craft a very special meal for friends and family. For the love of food, we eat local. And when we eat local, we eat seasonal. Lingering & strolling through a farmers’ market, seeking that inspiration, you know, the one that reaches out and grabs you to say, “Here’s what’s for dinner.” Then we build around it. Suddenly from farmer to maker, we are in our groove, collecting ideas, meeting new people that inspire us by what they are growing right now, and have harvested just hours before. Its fresh, its fabulous and we want it all!
The flavors are flowing, the friends and family are soon arriving, and this meal, this is what we have been wanting for. For the love of food, for the love of family, for the love of our local farmers, we have created a meal that celebrates our locally grown and those who grow it. We celebrate those around our table that ooh and ah over the fruits of our own labor. It’s a love affair… that affects all of our senses; the beauty of it, the aromas, the taste. It’s the love we have for our farmers’ hearts and souls. WE LOVE FOOD! And we couldn’t have this meal if it weren’t for our local farms.
A love letter to our farmers is a thoughtfully crafted meal that celebrates the fruits of their labor.
Dear Farmers and Makers,
Where do we begin to tell you how appreciative we are of all you do for us and bring to us? The true passion you evoke. What it must be, deep in your soul, that drives you so to feel compelled to grow nourishment for us. The nurturing, the love, the care, the discipline. The honor is ours to take it all in, enjoy, partake, and learn from you. You have taught us to love our food like we never have before. Knowing you, trusting you, so that we may bring your food to our tables. It is because of you that we eat deliciously honest food.
With Love,
The SLO Co Farm Trail
We look forward to soon savoring and celebrating the fruits (& veggies) of some of our favorite farmer’s labor with you along the SLO Co Farm Trail.
