Eating Green

Recently on epicurious.com, there was an article about progressive restaurants and their eco- friendly practices. The article pointed out that while you can’t control how a restaurant operates, you can choose where to eat. The same goes for stores, and even cooking schools. Portland is a great city to for those that want to be environmentally conscientious. Eco- friendly programs for recycling, composting, commuting and shopping are all fairly accessible.
I was excited to read about all of the restaurants and companies that are starting to think about the impact of their practices. Fortunately, it’s becoming easier to find “green” businesses. Portland is a great example of a city that is thinking “green.” And with the opening of the farmer’s market, fresh foods from small farms are that much more accessible. This weekend, we’ll be celebrating earth day by shopping at the farmer’s market. The menu sounds wonderful; herbs and lettuces are in season, as are asparagus, radishes, morel mushrooms and more. Our purchases will be part of the Oregon’s Spring Bounty Dinner with Chef Nancy Forrest on Sunday, April 22. Her seasonally inspired menu features Seared Scallops on local Baby Greens, a velvety Asparagus soup, Herb Crusted Halibut, and Painted Hills Skirt Steak.
To give you an idea about where our ingredients come from, I thought I’d mention a few of our favorite producers. It’s also a way for us to say thank you to all of the businesses that we rely on.
For hazelnuts, we like Freddy Guys Hazelnuts They have Oregon filberts, farm direct. (For personal snacking, I like the chocolate covered version).
Our beef is Painted Hills Natural Beef. A great local meat market, just up the street, is Viande Meats. The pancetta is excellent and the sausages are made daily. City Market, which houses Viande Meats, is also home to Newman’s Seafood. They have very fresh fish and carry sustainable seafood.
Williamette Valley Cheese Company produces farmstead specialty cheeses like gouda, jack, fontina and havarti.
With such a wealth of natural resources and conscientious purveyors, selecting local, organic and sustainable ingredients is easy. Eating well can be good for you, and for the earth too.
--Josie