Gigabiting

image via Des Moines Register

A new generation of cooks is preserving traditions along with the jams and pickles.

They are reinvigorating culinary traditions, hewing close to authenticity, but with contemporary tastes and sensibilities. These new food artisans tend to be young, educated, and internet savvy. Unlike previous generations of small-scale producers, they are looking for more than the blue ribbon and bragging rights of a county fair prize. For many of them, the ultimate goal is to build a viable food business.

Here come the Good Food Awards.

A participating roster of big-name food authorities (former Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl, Alice Waters, Nell Newman from Newman’s Own…), guarantees plenty of media attention, and winners are promised marketing and distribution support from sponsors like Whole Foods Markets, and online sellers Etsy and Foodzie. Winners will be determined through blind-tastings to find the best in artisanal cheese, jam, beer, charcuterie, chocolate, coffee, and pickles.

Calling all home cooks and pickle hobbyists.

Samples will be judged solely on taste. In theory, the competition is open to everyone from home cooks to corporate giants, but to be eligible, the products have to be ‘authentically and responsibly produced,’ which should rule out the global food conglomerates. Except for the charcuterie category, entrants are not required to carry any kind of business license or insurance, and don’t need to operate out of a licensed commercial kitchen.

Product samples need to be sent in by  September 15. And if you’re not a cook, you can always enter the Good Foods Award poster competition. You’ll find all the details, specs. and product  criteria on the Good Food Awards website.

Read more about the new food economy in Gigabiting’s Underground Food Markets: The New Speakeasies.

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Forget about the 100-mile diet. How about the 100-yard diet?

Sunset Magazine has taken local foods to a whole new level with its One-Block Diet. With a long history of expertise in cooking, gardening, and DIY, and utilizing just the open space on their Menlo Park, California campus, the magazine staff is attempting to grow, cultivate, brew, ferment, breed, and distill everything needed for a complete diet. Read entire article.

image courtesy of YTV Canada
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French fries are not the enemy.

We celebrate the pig in all its glory, topping everything that doesn’t move with bacon and salivating over unctuous pork bellies. Cupcake bakeries continue to proliferate even as we place bets on the next dessert craze (whoopie pies? macarons? those odd little cake balls that suddenly seem to be everywhere?)

Why are french fries the nutritionists’ whipping boy? Read entire article.

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Suburban goat-keeping is the latest topic to get the Dummies treatment from the popular series of how-to books. It’s a sure sign that backyard goats have reached critical mass.

This time last year it was chickens. Stories in the press fueled a nostalgia-tinged notion of endearing, pet-like creatures, deliciously fresh eggs, and serious locavore status. The dream ran up against the reality of filthy, shrieking fowl that barely edge out snakes in cuddliness, and are prone to ailments like poultry mites and pasty butt. Egg dreams were dashed by fragile hen health and the surprise of chicks that matured into roosters. Animal shelters around the country are overflowing with last year’s fad. Read entire article.

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This post is for anyone who has ever dreamed of owning an olive grove on a sun-drenched Tuscan hillside or a vineyard in the Loire Valley.

And this post goes out to all of you who prefer not to be up with the chickens, who hate dirt under your fingernails, and get queasy from the smells of tractor diesel and manure.

Why buy the farm when you can rent?

Growers and producers with a wide range of offerings will lease you a portion of their operation— for one growing cycle you can lay claim to your own beehive, apple tree, oyster bed, or row of grape vines, and then reap the benefits of the harvest. Read entire article.

There’s fair trade and organic coffee, shade-grown, and even bird-friendly. You can drink it in a recycled cup with organic soy milk and sugar from plants that haven’t been genetically altered.

But still… carbon neutral coffee? Read entire article.