Eat from where you live, your foodshed.

Cooking with local ingredients contributes to a healthier you, a healthier planet.

The following was published in my local paper this week. If I’m the environmental evangelist I say I am, I feel the need to publish elsewhere too, proselytize from the rooftops! So here you go, Substack friends, complete with a free recipe at the end. Speaking of the recipe (shown above on polenta with pea shoots and crispy shallots at my lil Lunchette) because of the warm January we in California experienced, we are already seeing green garlic. In the region this finds you, you may have to wait until Spring! Here goes…

When I think about the best places to eat in the world, there seems to be a consistent theme: every one of these places sources their ingredients from their local foodshed, wherever that may be.

What is a foodshed? 

It is defined by the group Foodshed Alliance as a “geographic location of where food is grown to feed a population” but described more loosely as “where food flows from the area it is produced to where it is consumed.” I like to think of it as a regional network of farmers and consumers, a farmland ecosystem with a roughly 100-mile radius. A healthy foodshed is one where farming practices replenish the land leading to more nutrient dense foods, cleaner water, healthier communities, and a more robust economy. As consumers, supporting restaurants who source from their local foodshed is best for the economy and ecology.

For us in Petaluma, our foodshed doesn’t have county line boundaries but rather draws from Marin, Sonoma, Santa Cruz, and Mendocino Counties. This positions us as the luckiest people on the planet, as we get the absolute best produce, meats, eggs, cheeses, etc. to create from. Apologies to Disneyland: There is no better place on Earth, but we Petalumans know that. 

Many restaurants in our area do a great job of sourcing. I want to highlight just one in Petaluma who does a stellar job, utilizing what farmers, fishmongers, and ranchers need to sell (not always the sexy parts) and allowing seasonal ingredients to dictate their often changing menu. Please note, I am not picking favorites. I love what everyone brings to our town. It is worthwhile though to bring attention to a restaurant’s practices when those inspire us to be more thoughtful about how we source for our own homes, and more creative in how we use seasonal ingredients to cook with.

Liza Shaw and me, about to devour the food at Street Social!

Street Social is owned by Marjorie Pier and Jevon Martin, who opened their space in downtown Petaluma in January of 2020. Yep, right before the pandemic hit. Normal for them is a menu that shifts nightly, with major changes based solely on availability. You might go in on a Wednesday to find Jerked duck hearts because their meat purveyor needed to move those, but then on Friday, find chicken liver mousse. Again, not the sexy parts. As Jevon says, “I was brought up that if you’re going to end an animal's life, you should use all the parts.”

Street Social does us the favor of listing a few of the farms they use most, a practice I love because it helps us learn about farmers whom we may not know, and also see evidence of our foodshed. Their menu usually lists Sunray, Deep Roots, and Medium Farms, but they use many others.

Alex Fox and Kim Laidlaw, our dining partners at Street Social

“We found farms where we could get smaller amounts, since we are small. Medium Farms is in Healdsburg and has edible flowers and herbs, while Sunray (at the farmers market in Petaluma on Tuesdays) is from Sonoma, supplying us with lots of sprouts and shoots, greens, tomatoes/tomatillos, herbs, radishes and brassicas. In Summer we love Paul's Produce, also out of Sonoma.”

Jevon’s favorite ingredients, when the weather turns Spring-like, are items both mainstream and some that may be totally unfamiliar to you: Ramps (wild leeks,) green garlic, morels, baby artichokes, asparagus, snap peas, fiddlehead ferns, and strawberries top the list. I asked his advice for creative yet easy ways for readers to source those same items and get playful with them. “The easiest way is to go to your local farmers market, and just ask your farmer how to use their items.” Of course, if you're sourcing directly from farmers at the market, you are directly supporting our local foodshed.

When asked what it means to be a healthy part of our foodshed, Jevon replied, “It is so valuable to be part of this. A lot of the food at restaurants in Petaluma is locally sourced and that makes us do better with our own sourcing, educating customers along the way. It’s also valuable for readers to know that it costs more to eat this way. For farmers who don’t use pesticides, they lose a lot of their crops, but the food will always taste better.” In sum, if it costs more for the restaurant, it will cost more for the customer. But it’s worth it. Always.

Here’s a recipe to incorporate one of his favorite ingredients: green garlic. You can grill or roast any vegetables that are in season and generously spoon this over them. It’s a briney, herby concoction that goes great on polenta, crostini, meats, and well, vegetables.

Green Garlic Tapenade

1 cup green olives

1 cup black oil-cured olives

1/4 cup capers

1 medium shallots, minced

Zest of one lemon plus its juice

1/2 cup parsley, chopped

1 cup EVOO

1/2 cup green garlic, chopped

Directions: 

Rough chop the olives and capers, place in a bowl with everything else and stir to mix. Put into a glass jar. This should keep for several weeks in your refrigerator.

If you make this, comment how you use it!