Local Food and Meeting Katie

Our family went up north this weekend. When I say up north, I mean 3 cities (not really near each other) in 3 days. We started out here in Waterford and went to Tawas to visit my family who was in town and staying at my Aunt and Uncle's lake front vacation home. It was wonderful to see all my cousins and their children. They are all scattered around the country (CA, MI, FL, WI, etc.) and this is the first time we have seen them all in one place!! We took a cooler full of food and made at least some of the meal local.

We had a big family BBQ on Friday evening. We contributed greens from our CSA and other salad fixins that were local (carrots, kale, radishes, tomatoes, etc.) We took our own homemade salad dressings too.

The next morning we went over to visit again and made lunch. We took two local chickens and grilled them with a bit of seasoning, steamed local asparagus and broccoli and had Kombucha and Kim Chi too.

My cousin's wife (who I adore) is from Mexico, she made a fresh salsa and some other yummy mexican specialties. We were talking about food and some of the work I do in the local food arena and she told me stories of going to her grandmother's farm in Mexico when she was a child. She grew up on a ranch, but her grandma's farm was old-fashioned without electricity, etc. They would get to take turns catching the chickens running in the yard to "catch dinner". She said the chickens tasted so good and she doesn't really eat much chicken now as it taste so poor to her. She raved about our chicken (as did everyone else). She wants to try and source local meat in her area (South Florida). She would get farm fresh eggs and milk and all kinds of other delights at her grandma's farm too. She thought our eating local and sustainable was great!!

We then drove to Rodney, MI (near Big Rapids) for a family get-together on my husband's side of the family. Had a blast there too and then left Saturday night for Traverse City. We stayed at my husband's uncles house on the bay. We brought eggs and some kale and onions and garlic scapes (all local) and cooked breakfast. They had local MI strawberries and bread from a local bakery with local Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam. It was a great breakfast.

After we left his uncle's on Sunday afternoon we went to the National Cherry Festival for a few hours with my Brother-in-law and his family. It was crowded and hot, but interesting. We were hungry so didn't hit too many vendors before we went to find a restaurant to eat dinner. However, I ran into the Naturally Nutty Booth and met Katie!! She was so nice and they had samples of some new flavors. We picked up several jars (the kids liked them finally after taste testing). We got a Chocolate Cherry Peanut Butter, a Chocolate Cinnamon, the Butter Toffee and the Honey Roasted Cinnamon.

So far we opened the Honey Roasted Cinnamon and it is so good!!! I must say that LVL sells the product for cheaper than what we paid at the festival, but it was worth it as I got a cool free tote bag. I will definitely be ordering more of these from LVL!! They are so delectable, I so far haven't made it to a sandwich, just ate it right off the spoon.

Lisa