A guide to online resources to help you find providers of locally grown or humanely raised foods, as well as vegetarian or vegan recipes for holiday meals.
If you're a green-minded cook who's taking on holiday dinner duties this year, you can find plenty of helpful online resources (and moral support) to ensure an Earth-friendly celebration. Whether you hope to create a completely local feast or simply a dinner that's humane and environmentally responsible, be sure to visit these sites:
- The 100-Mile Diet's "100-Mile Thanksgiving." Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, authors of the wonderful book, "Plenty: One Man, One Woman and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally," offer holiday dinner plans and tips from a variety of sources. Whether you're looking for a recipe for 100-mile pumpkin pie or raw vegan dishes, you can find them here, along with stories and tips from other locavores.
- Slow Food USA's Ark of Taste. Slow Food's Ark of Taste program aims to help preserve and celebrate "endangered tastes," heritage foods that are still produced locally but rarely found in the industrial food marketplace. Browse the Ark of Taste directory to find producers of everything from hand-crafted root beer and Creole cream cheese to American heirloom apples and Narragansett turkeys.
- LocalHarvest. LocalHarvest has an easy-to-use database that lets you search for farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture, food co-ops and other sustainable food sources across the U.S. The site also features an online store where you can find regional suppliers of everything from dried fruits and environmentally friendly holiday wreaths to farm crafts and seafood.
- Certified Humane Raised and Handled. If you eat meat but want to make the kindest choices for your holiday table, search the database of farms in the U.S. and Canada that have been certified as raising their farm animals in a humane manner. You can find providers of eggs, chicken, turkey, bacon, beef, dairy products ... even kielbasa and puddings.
- Heritage Foods USA. As the marketing arm for Slow Food USA, Heritage Foods USA offers online, phone and wholesale ordering for a variety of heritage foods, including bronze turkeys, Cornish chickens, Six-Spotted Berkshire pork, Fountain Prairie Highland beef, bison, Native Harvest wild rice and guajillo honey. The Website also offers recipes from such notable chefs as Alice Waters and Mario Batalli.
- Finally, if you're planning a holiday meal that's both local and vegetarian, you've got plenty of resources to help you. Among the sites with festive vegetarian or vegan recipes are In a Vegetarian Kitchen, The Veggie Table, Recipezaar, Fabulous Foods and Vegetarian Times.
The copyright of the article Eco-Friendly Holiday Meals in Green/Simple Living is owned by Shirley Siluk Gregory. Permission to republish Eco-Friendly Holiday Meals must be granted by the author in writing.
