Buy Fresh Buy Local

Aubrey and I went to the first Local Flavors dinner tonight at Maldaners. Local Flavors is a dinner series sponsored by the Illinois Stewardship Alliance that will be ongoing throughout the summer at various local restaurants. The concept is simple. Each dinner will be served at a local restaurant, and each meal will be made from locally grown foods. The whole series is intended to raise awareness for the launching of the food campaign "Buy Fresh Buy Local Central Illinois." Buy Fresh Buy Local works to raise awareness of local agricultural producers and to connect those producers with consumers in the Central Illinois area. For future Local Flavors dates and locations, click here.

We had the pleasure of dining with Tom Wise, one of the farmers with Veenstra Farms, at our table. Tom is very knowledgeable about organic farming and the community agriculture movement. He told us all about their planting and harvesting processes. He talked to us about the many varieties of fresh vegetables and flowers they have available this year. He even told us how we could improve the quality of the compost we're making in our back yard. The secret, he tells us, is worms.

The conversation was wonderful and informative, but tonight's dinner at Maldaner's was absolutely incredible. It started with an appetizer of locally grown squash, zucchini, beans, parsley, and tomatoes on bread. It was served similar to a bruschetta. The flavors were rich, bold, and clean. Next came the salad, which had a variety of greens that I won't even begin to catalog for you. This salad was delicious. It came with a light drizzle of oil and vinegar, which allowed the greens to really dominate the palate.

There were three entrees available: pork with grits, braised chicken with seasonal vegetables, and vegetarian pasta. Aubrey and I both got the braised chicken. Delicious. The chicken was braised to perfection. It had a wonderful flavor, and the meat was absolutely tender. The vegetables were a nice medley of carrots, purple carrots, turnips, onions, and potatoes. It was all so good.

For dessert, they served strawberry shortcake. The strawberries were organic and sweet and beautiful. Maldaner's shortcakes has a hint of cinnamon, which adds a lot to the depth of the dish, and the whipped cream was thick and rich (just the way I like it). Since Aubrey can't eat gluten, she was able to get her strawberry shortcake without the shortcake.

All this for $30. What a bargain!

How can you Buy Fresh and Buy Local? Look for this:

at the places you shop for food. One way to guarantee you're buying fresh and local is to visit the Old Capitol Farmer's Market every Wednesday and Saturday morning.