CVH informed me that today was “Eat Local” day, or something like that; I don’t know if this applied only to Louisville, or if it was part of a wider initiative, although it’s hard to see how a “Eat Local” initiative could spread very far and still remain relevant.
Anyway, we picked up mama and took her around the corner from her home to the Jeffersontown farmer’s market for some local food. The temperature was only in the mid 40’s, and a chilly wind was blowing (summer’s over already?), so we got some hot grits from one vendor and then bought a tomato and some local onions. This was followed by a visit to the Garden Gate, another local purveyor. There we purchased local pretzel bread and a couple of local pepper plant seedlings (on sale for 99¢!), as well as some bananas from Honduras (well, you certainly can’t grow bananas in Kentucky). CVH got a Boar’s Head pickle; I don’t know where it came from, and their website isn’t saying.
On the way home from the Garden Gate, we stopped at Dino’s, a new halal market and bakery in the neighborhood. There we picked up some fresh pita bread and coconut macaroons (I know coconuts don’t grow in Kentucky, but they were assembled locally). The bread was wonderfully fresh, and the macaroons the best I’ve had in twenty years. Most macaroons, you bite into them and they are gummy and doughy. These were light and fluffy and everything a macaroon is supposed to be.
Our local library was hosting a seminar on the Fundamentals of Beekeeping in the Louisville area, which did seem to fall within the parameters of “Eat Local” (bees can’t fly very far, after all), so I went there and was enlightened.
CVH had seen in the paper a small announcement about a church having a fundraising barbecue, and suggested we go there for lunch. The church was located in an old part of town where the streets are laid out along the original cow paths (or maybe even wooly mammoth paths for all I know), so it took some winding driving to find it. And when we got there, all I saw was a guy with a small barbecue grill standing on the sidewalk. There was no sign, no line of people, not even any cars parked on the street. CVH nonetheless said “this is the place”, so I pulled over and stopped.
Sure enough, it was indeed Miles Memorial CME, and they were selling rib plates out of a kitchen that was no bigger than ours. CVH asked them why they didn’t have a sign, and the cook replied that they were supposed to, but nobody remembered to get one, so they’d sent off a guy to get one, but he hadn’t come back yet. In any event, we got our ribs and homemade potato salad and baked beans. It was truly local.
Finally, for dinner, we picked a variety of lettuces and spinach out of our backyard garden to make a salad (with the tomato and onions we bought at the farmer’s market). I believe that we did our part for Eat Local day.
