Room at the Table for Local, Organic and Heritage Foods

The holidays are a time to gather to eat with friends and family, and often you will be served recipes that have been handed down and honed by each new generation of cooks. In a society that is increasingly mobile and fragmented, these meals help to strengthen bonds, reminding us of who we are and where we came from.

For Thanksgiving, my family in suburban Chicago roasts a turkey and serves it with mashed potatoes, candied yams, stuffing and string beans. My friend Martine's family, originally from Haiti, also roasts a turkey, but theirs is spiced with Scotch bonnet peppers, onions, garlic, parsley, lemon juice and vinegar and is served with rice and beans, plantains, macaroni au gratin and salad. While the turkey unites us as Americans, our families express their individuality on the side.

Just as food traditions unite families, communities cherish their own idiosyncratic foods. Most have—or used to have—a local or regional delicacy that, however humble, they proudly claim as their own. One of my personal favorites is fresh Wisconsin cheddar cheese curds, which have a mild flavor and squeak when chewed. Highly perishable, they must be eaten within a few days—preferably in their home territory, at the Dade County farmers' market, in Madison. In Hawaii, locals can quickly be separated from visitors by their craving for poi, the traditional, starchy purple paste pounded from the boiled root of the taro plant, accompanied by a side dish of steamed lau lau leaves. Other distinctive regional foods in the U.S. include the Blenheim apricot, grown in California; the Green Mountain potato from Vermont; the New Mexico Native Chile and the Navajo-Churro sheep from New Mexico; Iroquois White Corn from New York and Pennsylvania and the Olympia oyster from the Pacific coast. The French say that such distinctive products carry a goût de terroir (a taste of the land)—a mixture of local ingredients, climate, soil and water.

Part of the fun of exploring our country is sampling such local favorites. Sadly, the distinctiveness of food and place is being lost to the sameness of housing developments and strip malls, which are often built on former farmland. Between 1982 and 2002, 52 million acres of U.S. cropland were lost, a decrease of about 12 percent. Whether you're navigating by sight or taste, it is getting hard to tell one part of the country from another.

Now the local grocery store has largely been replaced by the chain supermarket, which requires food production and distribution on a far larger and more uniform scale. This has fueled the growth of giant agribusinesses, which have embraced a few varieties of foods, such as hybrid wheat and corn, that give the greatest yields using synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. We are quickly losing our former rich diversity of livestock breeds and plant varieties. Most of the food that Americans eat has traveled between 1,500 and 2,500 miles to reach us, according to the Worldwatch Institute.

Recently, though, the tide has been turning with the advent of restaurants that source local foods. At the Farmers Diner in Barre, Vermont, owner Tod Murphy uses mostly produce, meat, dairy products and beer from no more than 50 miles away. Chef Dan Barber serves fresh produce and home-grown fowl from the restaurant garden at Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico, New York. And this time of year fans of the small Burgerville chain in the Pacific Northwest are enjoying fries made from local sweet potatoes, along with Oregon country, grass-fed beef burgers. Such restaurants, along with many others across the U.S., help support local farms and economies.

We consumers are helping, too: witness the 80 percent growth, since 1994, in registered farmers' markets to more than 3,100 nationwide, at which 3 million Americans shop weekly. Region-wide organizations such as New England's Communities Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) help to plug consumers into local food systems. The local movement has also gained international momentum through the nonprofit Slow Food, founded in Italy and dedicated to finding and preserving traditional, or artisanal, methods of production, heirloom varieties of food plants and historical animal breeds. (Slow Foods has 132 chapters in the U.S. alone, from Hawaii to New York; see slowfoodusa.org.)

When exploring heritage, local and artisanal foods, it is important to note that many of these foods are not certified organic. While organic is often the best option for our health and the environment, there is also a great need for consumers to support local and heirloom foods, many of which are produced by small farmers who cannot afford organic certification yet. Not only do slow, local foods foster genetic diversity in our food supply; they return unique flavors to our tables.

This season, weave these special foods into a memorable family feast. Below, a seasonal menu to help you get started.

Maple-Glazed Heritage Turkey

3/4 cup of melted butter
1/4 cup organic chicken stock
1 cup Grade ' A' maple syrup

During the last hour of roasting the turkey, baste frequently with the maple syrup mixture. For food safety instructions, see the Poultry and Eggs product report at thegreenguide.com.

Shopping Resources

* Free-Range heritage turkeys, from breeds like the Narragansett, Jersey Buff, Standard Bronze, Royal Palm, Bourbon Red, White Midget and Beltsville Small White, can be purchased from Mary's Turkeys, or see slowfoodusa.org for a state-by-state listing of farmers who raise heritage turkeys ($3.50/lb.; www.marysturkeys.com, 888-666-8244).

Hand-Harvested Wild Rice with Pecans and Scallions

1 cup pecans
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 scallions, white and green parts cut into half-inch pieces
1 cup wild rice
4 cups water or vegetable stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat the oven to 350˚F, place the pecans on a baking sheet and bake until golden. Remove from the oven, place in a bowl, stir in the honey and cayenne and set aside. Rinse the rice in cold water, bring water or stock to a boil in a saucepan, add the rice and salt, cover and cook over low heat for 45 minutes, or until the rice is tender; if there is any residual water left, drain the rice. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot, add the scallions, season with salt and pepper and sauté until wilted. Add the pecans and rice and toss to coat. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Shopping Resources

* Hand-Harvested Wild Rice ($8.50/lb.; www.welrp.org/nativeharvest/itemwildrice.html, 888-779-3577)

* For sources of organic pecans, see the Nut product report at thegreenguide.com/reports.

Garlicky Brussels Sprouts
1 pound Brussels sprouts (2 pints)
10 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup water, or as needed
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Trim the stem and outside leaves from the Brussels sprouts and discard. Slice the cleaned sprouts very thinly. Heat olive oil in a skillet, add the Brussels sprouts and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes, allowing them to brown lightly. Add the garlic, cook 2 minutes, add the water, cover and cook for an additional 10 minutes, until tender. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Squash Purée

3 pounds squash, such as Buttercup, Kabocha or Hubbard
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
4 tablespoons goat cheese (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds; drizzle with olive oil, spices, salt and pepper. Place cut-side up on a baking sheet and bake at 375˚F for approximately 45 minutes, until the flesh is very tender. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, scoop flesh into a bowl, add the goat cheese, mash and adjust seasonings.

For more recipes, see "Winter Squash: A Cold-Weather Affair," by Amy Topel, at thegreenguide.com.

Cheese Course

A cheese plate can be a wonderful way to end the savory portion of a meal. The portions should be quite small, and the cheese need be served with only a bit of fruit and nuts.

Shopping Resources

* The Artisanal Cheese Center offers many cheeses from around the world. Try the Stanser SchafChas (Switzerland), a smooth, firm sheep' s milk cheese with strong grassy and spicy flavors ($17.25 per half pound; www.artisanalcheese.com, 877-797-1200).

* Boucher Blue Cheese ($10.99/8 oz., www.igourmet.com)

* Sheep's cheese ($18.50/lb., www.Vermontshepherd.com)

* For goat cheese, try the "Olivier" Chevre ($10/8-10 oz.; www.sunsetacresfarm.com, 207-326-4741), the Hillman Farm Harvest Wheel (20.95/1lb.; www.formaggiokitchen.com, 888-212-3224) or Westfield Farm's Classic Blue Goat Cheese Log ($4.39/4.5 oz.; www.chevre.com, 877-777-3900).

* Slow Food lists 38 raw-milk farmstead cheese producers. For more information, see www.slowfoodusa.org/ark/farmstead_cheese.html.

Apple Galette with Apple Brandy Reduction

1 cup + 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sugar
11/2 sticks cold butter
61/2 tablespoons cold water

11/2 pounds tart apples
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 cups apple cider
1/4 cup apple brandy
1 cup plain yogurt

Combine flour, salt and sugar and cut in butter. Add water gradually and fold until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Peel, core and slice the apples, combine with the sugar and cinnamon, set aside. Roll dough, between two sheets of wax paper, into a 10-inch circle. Layer the apple mixture on the crust, leaving a 1-inch edge all around. Fold the edge over the fruit. Bake at 400˚F for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, reduce cider to 1/4 cup, add brandy and cook for 3 minutes, remove from heat, allow to cool to room temperature, stir in yogurt. Spoon over galette and serve.

Shopping Resources

* Pomme-de-Vie (apple brandy) is available from Flag Hill Farm in Vermont (www.flaghillfarm.com, 802-685-7724).

What You Can Do

* Whenever possible, buy directly from local farmers at a greenmarket. For a farmers' market near you, go to www.ams.usda.gov/farmersmarkets.

* Ask your grocer to supply and label locally produced food. Supermarkets such as Whole Foods, Wild Oats and D'Agostino's are starting to do so.

* By definition, some heirloom and artisanal foods aren't available in all locales. For mail or web orders, see thegreenguide.com's "Organic Foods: Internet and Mail-order Resources," and the Meat, Poultry, Dairy and Wine product reports at thegreenguide.com/reports, which include heirloom brands.

Patronize restaurants that support local food, such as those listed on the wallet card at www.chefscollaborative.org.