Healthier food equals return customers!

Due to recent changes in my life and lifestyle in general I have been educated as to the reality concerning the foods we have been(in most cases) brought up eating. In order to produce more food to feed the masses at a cheaper cost and more efficient rate producers have been using pesticides for many years on crops. More recently (recent being within the last 10 to 20 years) our livestock has been put thru hormonal injections to aid in growth. This is unnatural and as you can imagine it would have a great impact on one's health. As the saying goes "You are what you eat." I work in an environment where I am using non-organic ingredients (as do most I am sure) and when I am serving food I am sure is loaded with undesirables I can't help but feel a tad uncomfortable. Anyone with comments or similar views and interested in opening a straight organics restaurant please respond lol.

[shroomgirl]

Nora's in DC is the first in the USA to be certified organic. Jean-George was going to open one in NYC. I know many that are not using GM products in their kitchens or are in the process of eradicating them...hard since there has been no labeling required.

I field loads of calls from people looking for restuarants that have organic produce...we are working in that direction.
It's an educational process for our area and the supply is not here YET. But I'm making headway with Chef's Collaborative.

Speaking of chef's collaborative shroomgirl..
Are you going to Higgins on the 14th at 10AM?
Iam hoping to stay awake after working 3 12 hour nightshifts in a row.
Danielle

[shroomgirl]

Danielle, I live in St. Louis, Missouri.
We have our own CC chapter here. Say hi to Greg for me.
We have a Chef/farmer/seedcatalog potluck on the 22. I dropped off Johnnies seedcatalogs to the chefs, they are to come with a potluck dish (they hate this mess) and a list of what they use at their restaurants...what size, how much, approximate cost so the farmer can judge wether it is worth his time to grow/harvest/sort/deliver/invoice etc it.

I'd love to hear what Portland is doing. We have 3 things we do here (now know I started this group with a few others in Aug 1999)

1) Chef/farmer nights May-June 6 restaurants one a month feature a local sustainable farmer and cook a prix fixe 4 course featuring the farmers food (farmer then talks for 15-20 minutes about a sustainable practice)....connects chef with farmer and audience with sustainable practice.

2) Inschool...chef/farmers/Rd in 8th grade class 3 sessions in school one trip to farm.
Again farmer talks for an hour about sustainablility and I cook using a theme food from his farm that he's talked about...legumes/black bean burritos. RD gives how this food works in your body....
Got a grant for it this year.

3) Farmer's Market....founded and formed a farmers market last fall (6 weeks sept-oct)
that will begin May12 -Oct this year.
Farmer's only, it's an educational market.
Cooking demos, market tours, farmer talks, restaurant booth with cross marketing off the market....artisan cheeses and breads...
meats, eggs, produce, honey, grains, shrooms....We are different from any other market. I love the whole concept and the way it thrives.....can you tell I'm a proud Mom. Check out pics at www.saucecafe.com under chef's collaborative click on the eggplants. Farmer dinners are archived under Epicure (saucecafe) and Feature>

That's what I do here, in addition to go to State Ag conferences, speaking to groups, lining up out of town speakers/book tours.

Then of course my other groups, Missouri Mycological (wild shrooms) I'm sure you've read threads on the dinners....pics on Magical Mushrooms (epicure archive at saucecafe.com)
St.Louis Culinary...12 + programs for the food professionals of St. Louis...just started a coffee cupping thread on that.

Then the venues where I make $ to sustain my family...personal cheffing, teaching,catering.
UMMMM I not coming to Portland this week thanks. But keep me abreast of cool programs please.

TIA