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Eating Local: The Cookbook Inspired by America's Farmers

by Sur La Table with Janet Fletcher
Foreward by Alice Waters
(Andrews McMeel Publishing, June 1, 2010)

Description
You're excited about eating local, you support your local farmers market and you've even signed up for a local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) subscription. But how do you make the most of the local food available to you, especially produce that you may not have cooked with before?

This is a definitive locavore cookbook showing food lovers how to incorporate more local, fresh ingredients into their kitchens and how to celebrate the local foods from their CSA box or farmers market.

In addition to providing recipes, Eating Local takes readers onto the land and into the homes of 10 of America's best small farmers across the nation with inspiring photography and personal stories about the committed growers who make the locavore movement possible.

Eating Local arrives just in time for the 2010 growing season as CSAs and farmers markets reach an all-time high in subscriptions and support. Localharvest.org lists 2,500 registered CSAs on its site, with listings growing by 50 percent annually. USDA reports that certified farmers markets have tripled in the past 15 years, with more than 4,500 today.

"The revolution is well under way in how individuals think about their food," Fletcher said. "Local, sustainable, family farms, community: These words add up to a whole new way of purchasing, cooking and appreciating food. Eating Local is a guidebook to this movement. The people profiled here are in the front lines of the movement, and the recipes are for anyone who wants to participate in it."

But with growing interest in local food, how does one make the most of the bounty? "Even committed locavores may not know how to use some of the produce they find at the farmers market or in their CSA boxes," Fletcher added. "So with this book they can be sure that nothing they buy will go to waste. The book is full of ideas for storing, preparing, and preserving the best of each season."

Other highlights of the book include:
• Recipes for home-style favorites such as carrot zucchini bread with candied ginger, grilled country pork chops with bourbon-basted grilled peaches, Sicilian stuffed artichokes and grilled bruschetta.
• Techniques for preserving seasonal foods to enjoy them year-round.
• More than 150 images by photographer Sara Remington of family farms across the country, showing farmers tending their land, nurturing their animals and preparing meals in their kitchens.
• Recipes organized alphabetically by main ingredient to help readers savor the kale purchased at their farmers market or the arugula that arrives in their CSA boxes.

About Janet Fletcher
Author, journalist and cook Janet Fletcher trained at the Culinary Institute of America and at the celebrated Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkeley, CA. Her writing for the San Francisco Chronicle has received three James Beard Awards. She has written for most of the nation's premier food and wine publications and is the author or co-author of 20 cookbooks. A certified Master Gardener who maintains a large garden of perennials and edibles, Janet lives in Napa Valley with her winemaker husband.

About Sur La Table
Since 1972, chefs and home cooks with a love for fine cooking have flocked to this culinary mecca. With a successful direct mail catalog, e-commerce site, culinary class program and more than 75 stores nationwide, Sur La Table continues to share its passion for exploring the traditions of the world with people who love to cook and entertain.  Through its presentation of Eating Local, Sur La Table hopes readers will have a deeper understanding and commitment to local food systems. Sur La Table supports the locavore movement and hopes that the recipes and farmer profiles in this book will be an inspiration to experience the benefits of eating and cooking with food from local farmers.