Tasty small batch spirits to add to your home bar.

While you might think small batch craft distilleries are overrated and are the purview of the waning hipster trend, we would disagree. Just like we saw with the craft beer trend, the popularity of small batch spirits is actually growing. The tastes of imbibers all across the U.S. have really only been whetted and they are pretty much always on the lookout for the latest and best new small batch American spirits.

Learn about some of our favorite small batch spirits to add to your home bar.

5 of the Hottest American Small Batch Spirits

1. Bluecoat American Dry Gin – Philadelphia, PA

Philadelphia’s Bluecoat Gin is something special. Bluecoat keeps it real by using just four botanicals—juniper, coriander, citrus peel, and angelica root. It’s also aged for at least three months in American Oak Barrels, which gives it a very grown-up finish. It’s strong in flavor, but so incredibly smooth. It’s great straight, with tonic, or even in a martini.

2. Blonde Whiskey – Asheville, NC

Blonde whiskey is distilled with heirloom turkey red wheat and white corn, which is sourced in the lowland hills of Western North Carolina. The varieties of corn and wheat used in this whiskey have been grown in the area since the 1800s. Modern varieties of corn and red wheat have bigger yields and are more resistant to weather and pests, but according to the Asheville Distilling Company, the company that crafts the whiskey, the older grains have a flavor and softness the newer versions can’t match, and that makes this whiskey super smooth.

3. Blueshine Blueberry Moonshine – Maine

Blueberry moonshine might not be your go-to spirit, but it’s certainly one of those special items to add to your home bar. Made from barley from the fields of Maine, fermented in a large wooden fermenter, and run through a copper still with a whole bunch of wild blueberries and finished off with Maine maple syrup. It’s smooth and sweet and quite a treat.

4. Barr Hill Gin –  Hardwick, VT

Barr Hill Gin is a wonderful treat that features raw northern honey. Added just before bottling, the raw honey imparts unique floral qualities that vary with season and blossom. Imagine what a wildflower meadow next to a pine forest would taste like–that’s Barr Hill. The distillery, which is located on the banks of the Lamoille River in the Northeast Kingdom in Vermont is part of a community of farms where the production of milk, cheese, timber, grains, honey, seeds, and herbs is infused in this tasty spirit.

5. Rumble Whiskey – Texas

Rumble Whiskey comes highly recommended and is also crafted utilizing honey–it’s actually made with fermented Texas wildflower honey, Mission figs, and turbinado sugar. A truly elegant and distinctive spirit is produced through the twice distilled process and maturation in premium oak casks. This one-of-a-kind Texas creation, crafted by Balcones, is a must-have for your home bar.

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Creating a Home Bar: 3 Budget Solutions and DIY Inspiration

Image: Bourbon Whiskey via Shutterstock

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Democracy only works if you work at it. Become a more active citizen with these tips.

While the Presidential election season may have you doubting our political system (not to mention whether you want to remain a citizen of the United States of Trump or not), we actually have a pretty good thing going on here. We may not have the “more perfect Union” envisioned by the founders of our nation, but there are plenty of opportunities for each and every citizen to get involved and contribute to that vision. And there is plenty our Founding Fathers didn’t envision that we can improve upon now, too. So, read on to discover ways that you can become a more active, engaged, and informed citizen.

Be a More Active Citizen

1. Get a library card and check out the library programs.
2. Support and read the local paper.
3. Attend city council meetings.
4. Write letters to the editor of your local paper.
5. Start a blog about local issues.
6. Organize a community garden.
7. Work on raising the awareness around a particular issue impacting your community.
8. Read the Constitution of the United States of America.
9. Volunteer at a local food bank.
10. Learn the laws of your local community.
11. Organize neighbors to influence legislators to overturn unjust laws of your community.
12. Organize neighbors to influence legislators to enact laws that will benefit your community.
13. Visit and support local parks and other open spaces.
14. Volunteer on local clean up days to help keep your community beautiful.
15. Regularly contact legislators to let know them know your views on upcoming legislation.
16. Join the social media platform Nextdoor to connect with your neighbors.
17. Join organizations like the League of Women Voters, Americans for Democratic Action, Common Cause, and others dedicated to protecting open and transparent government.
18. Attend school board meetings–even if you don’t have children.
19. Learn about your community’s history at your local historical society and/or history museum.
20. Check out your community’s calendar of events for ways you can get involved.
21. Support local businesses by frequenting them and organizing shop local events to raise the importance of shopping locally.
22. Attend performances of the local ballet, theater, musical, and other local cultural groups.
23. Walk or bike where and when you can to get to know your neighbors and your community.
24. Start a Little Free Library.
25. Volunteer as a volunteer firefighter, mentor, or neighborhood watch member.

Related on EcoSalon

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5 of the Best Podcasts You Should be Listening To Now

7 Simple Community-Building Ideas for a Greener Space

Community kids image via Shutterstock

The post 25 Super Rewarding Ways to Become a More Active Citizen appeared first on EcoSalon.

Column In a locavore diet, where your types of flour come from is just as important as your produce.

Today, people are focused more than ever on the origin of their foods. Maybe you subscribe to a CSA, maybe you try to shop at a weekly farmers market, maybe you have started paying closer attention to labels at the grocery store; in an effort to vote with our forks, many of us have begun to make a concerted effort to think about what we buy and where it comes from.

Yet in this formula for eating more locally, there’s one ingredient that often gets zero attention: flour.

In the gluten-free era, flour has gotten a bad reputation. But we’re also in a revival of artisan baking, home bakers, and professional bakers all with a newfound love of the craft of turning flour and water into something beautiful. On one hand, we have the vilification of all types of flour, and on the other, the embrace of bread. But regardless of where you stand on the issue of flour, there’s no denying that when it comes  local foods, flour is rarely part of the discussion. Until now.

Flour, much like sugar and milk, has for long been a staple of the North American and European pantry. It is the base of many a recipe, and today it’s easy to think of flour as something that just comes in a bag, as opposed to what it starts out as: grain in a field.

However, thanks to the work of a variety of initiatives to reignite an interest in local grains, we are finally starting to talk about flour in a different way, one that focuses not only on where it’s grown, but one that addresses the nutritional qualities that are so often lost in the industrial form of flour that most of us are used to.

Let’s start with the basics of wheat flour.

Traditional white flour that we find at the supermarket is made to last; in order to sell, it has to have a shelf life. And to give it that shelf life, we have to zap it of essentially any nutritional value. When a whole grain is ground, oils are released, and in turn, a freshly ground flour will quickly go rancid. Today’s industrial milling process involves removing the the bran and the germ (the nutritious part of a grain) and separating out the endosperm. This part is then milled into the fine white powder that we know as all-purpose white flour, and while it has an extended shelf life, has a depleted its nutritional value. That’s why you find “enriched flour” – since all of the nutrients are stripped the first time around, they are added back in. A pretty backwards way of doing things.

Part of the local grain movement is to not only grow and source more local products, but to revive an interest in healthier and more diverse grains. “Heritage and other experimental wheat may sometimes have lower yields but higher market value in that it has flavor, character, more genetic biodiversity or even more to the point, that it would allow us to control our seed resources,” writes Nan Kohler on the Grist & Toll blog, Greater Los Angeles’ first urban mill in over 100 years.

While all-purpose flour has been the go-to baking ingredient, there are all kinds of types of flour that our industrial form of flour production has lead us to forget about; rye, spelt, corn, barley, teff, rice, buckwheat… the list goes on. And expanding our grain repertoire could be good for us. As Anna Roth wrote in SF Weekly in a story on locally grown and milled grains, “many in the field believe that whole, organically grown, stone-milled grains are better for the body than processed, hybridized, conventionally grown ones.”

Not only that, but the taste is completely different; compare a freshly ground grain, full of oils and nutrients, and potentially of heritage variety, with an industrially grown wheat that’s produced for quantity, not flavor, and then on top of it, milled to extend shelf life and you have two very different products. That’s what has made bakers excited; branch out from all-purpose flour and there is a whole world of new potential in terms of taste.

But creating a market for locally milled flour involves both milling, grain growing and an interest from customers; the three go hand in hand. This is of course nothing new, if anything, it’s simply a return to how things were done before. That’s not just good for independent farmers, that’s good for our soil, our health and the taste of the baked items on the table in front of us.

Related on EcoSalon

The Gluten-Free Flour Guide

Is Being Gluten-Free Dumb or Not?

Bleached vs. Unbleached Flour

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Jen R

The post Where Do Our Types of Flour Come From? Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnAre the “healthiest foods” always what’s best for us?

Chances are, when you see an article with “healthiest foods” mentioned in the title, you click on it. You clicked on this one, now didn’t you? And if you’re not on the internet, I’m sure a magazine or newspaper article promising to tell you all about the healthiest foods out there would sound enticing enough to read. In a world where we are trying to eat better, this is perfectly normal behavior.

When we focus on the “healthiest foods,” often we’re most focused on nutrients. How many vitamins, minerals, calories and cholesterol we get per serving. Recently I saw a healthiest foods roundup where bananas came out on top.

In North America, we’ve been eating bananas since the late 1800s; long enough for them to be a perfectly normal staple even though they come from afar. Besides being carted into grocery stores from other continents, bananas have a pretty dark side; poor worker conditions, human rights abuses, child labor and beyond. A banana might get five stars on various nutritional elements, but that doesn’t account for all the bad that happens in the banana industry behind the scene.

Even foods that are grown closer to home come with their issues. All that out of season stuff we see everywhere. In a supermarket, where we can buy anything we want at any time of the year, a lot of us don’t even know what’s in season and what isn’t.

But just because you can buy something, doesn’t mean you should. A caprese salad in winter for example; those tomatoes are not what they could be come summer. Stocking up on avocados every week, even though that consumption is drying up water supplies. Honeybees dying because growers have to cart them in to pollinate California’s almond crops and they’re in turn exposed to deadly pesticides. Or a morning smoothie made with raspberries and blueberries in the middle of winter. Again, just because you can make it doesn’t mean you should.

The reality is, that when we think about “healthy foods,” we are only thinking about “healthy” as it pertains to ourselves.

Choosing healthy foods is most often about about how I, the individual, will benefit from the consumption of said food. But food isn’t just about our own health. It’s about our community’s health, and the planet’s. And if we want to eat better, we need to reorient our selfish thinking into one with a more global outlook.

If there is one thing that’s sure when it comes to nutrition, it’s that we need more real food in our diet. Certainly bananas are better than a Twix bar. But focusing on only the nutrients of a food is a one-sided solution.

Eating well can be a very simple thing, but it requires a holistic approach, it requires thinking not only about what the food will give us, but where the food comes from, how it was grown, whether or not it’s in season. These are just as much essentials of a healthy diet as thinking about nutrition and nutrition only.

So next time you’re thinking about what healthy foods to eat, do more than look at the nutrition label.

Related on EcoSalon

Do We Really Know How to Eat Healthy? Foodie Underground

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This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: robin_24

The post What the Healthiest Foods Don’t Take Into Consideration: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnDon’t let the boredom of root vegetables set in.

There’s that time around October, when the last of the late summer harvest has come to an end, the days are getting a bit colder, and you’re so looking forward to winter cooking. The cozy soups, the warm mugs of cider.

And then February rolls around. You’ve put up with several months of winter and if someone offers you yet another meal of roasted root vegetables you might just bash them over the head with a turnip. It’s gray outside, probably raining – or maybe you’ve got some of that nasty, wet snow slush – and you’re cranky, haven’t seen sunlight for at least a week. Quite frankly all you can do is dream of a brighter time when stone fruits were in season and all you had to do to make dinner was slice a tomato and drizzle olive oil over it.

I feel your pain. The CSA vegetables come every Monday and it’s hard to get myself to think, “oh great, carrots! Whatever will I do with them this week?”

But if you have committed to eating more locally, and in season, then culinary boredom is something you just have to force yourself to work past.

Bored of root vegetables? We just need to think out of the box of the usual winter dish of roasted potatoes. In order to help you avoid seasonal depression this winter, here are a few tips to help you endure root vegetable season.

Go for the lesser known, possible more boring, root vegetables

When was the last time anyone announced that rutabagas were the New Kale? Let’s just go ahead and change that now. You need to dive deep and buy up all those seemingly boring root vegetables? Why? Because it will push you out of your culinary comfort zone. Because I had no other idea of what to do with them, last week I put an abundance of turnips to use in a Dutch Baby recipe. Paired with apples, it was delicious. A few nights later i sliced them thinly and threw into a batch of nachos. Because, why not? Let 2015 be the Year of Turnips, Rutabaga and Parsnips. Because the boring root vegetables deserve your love too.

Do more than just roast

Roasting root vegetables is the go-to cooking method because it’s so easy. Drizzle in olive oil, sprinkle some salt and pepper, maybe even some dried rosemary or thyme, put in the oven and take out when finished. But there is so much more that you can do with root vegetables. Sauté, steam, puree, or blanch. Cut them thinly and throw on a pizza. Make fritters. Or even eat them raw; I’m looking at you, beets.

Break out of the savory box

Because of their deep, often sweet flavor, root vegetables can be used in sweet dishes just as well as they can savory ones. Spiced parsnip cake, turnip muffins, carrot halwa, an Indian dessert made with carrots and cardamom; the options are endless.

Make fries with something other than potatoes

In winter we crave comfort food, and what better comfort food than the good ol’ fry? But potatoes are your only fry option. You can make them with sweet potatoes, celery root, rutabaga, carrots and more.

Get to pickling

An easy way to switch up the flavor of root vegetables is to lightly pickle them. A nice salt brine with some spices and you are good to go, never to be bored by a root vegetable again.

Related on EcoSalon

For the Love of Roots and Cookbooks: Foodie Underground

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Scalloped Sweet Potato Gratin with Butternut Squash and Cashew Cream

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Chris Martino

The post How to Endure the Neverending Season of Root Vegetables: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

Column Spend your money at farmers market and the money stays in the community. Spend it at the big box grocery store and it goes elsewhere.

After a lot of road trips in many different places, I have come to a conclusion. When you drive through the countryside and come across a small town, one of two things happens:

1. You think to yourself, “ugh, this place is full of box stores and has no feeling at all. Get me out of here!” You proceed to drive to the next destination on your map.

2. You think to yourself, “ah, look at all these independent stores and quaint streets, I want to live here!” You stay and hang out, grab a coffee, and maybe even stay for lunch.

I had this feeling recently as I passed through Willunga, Australia. Willunga is a small town south of Adelaide, equidistant from the ocean and vineyards; the kind of landscape that feels like paradise. The main street of town is a collection of small, independent stores. There’s the organic grocer, the butcher and the handful of cafes and wine shops which remind you that you’re in a hub of agriculture and viticulture. It was nearing lunch time and people were out; the small town felt vibrant and active.

Immediately I had the “I want to move here” feeling.

I mentioned this to a woman working in one of the cellar doors (that’s Australian for “tasting room”).

“There’s so much going on here, so many places selling local produce and food.”

“That’s because the city decided to invest in the farmers market,” she responded.

It’s true. Nowadays Willunga is known for its weekend organic farmers market. People drive in from around the area. According to the woman working at the cellar door, it was thanks to this that the town had exploded.

I started thinking about this and community building.

What is it that makes us have that feeling of “I want to live here”? It’s not just a street full of stores. It’s a sense of community; a feeling that there’s a thread that ties everyone together. So often, that thread is food. Food is essential; it’s what keeps us alive. It nourishes us both in the physical and the emotional sense, and it’s what brings us together.

It brings us around the table in the home, and it’s what brings us around the proverbial community table, so often a market.

Think about your local grocery store for a second. Are you compelled to stay a little longer and chat with a neighbor? Do you feel the same sense of pride when you pick up a jar of honey that comes from across the world as the one that comes from 10 miles down the road?

Community doesn’t just come together on its own. It takes work. As we think about how we continue to evolve our communities, and build new ones, some people have started using the phrase “placemaking.”

According to the Project for Public Spaces, “Placemaking is how we collectively shape our public realm to maximize shared value. Rooted in community-based participation, Placemaking involves the planning, design, management and programming of public spaces.”

As our world population grows, we have to think serious about our management of public spaces, and for me, that means thinking about food. Because investing in food and farmers markets has a positive economic impact.

When it comes to farmers markets specifically, there are the direct and indirect benefits. Certainly a farmer benefits when he or she can sell their produce without a middleman, but there are also economic benefits for the community that come from keeping things local.

In 2009, a study found that farmers markets in Oklahoma had generated a total of $3.3 million in direct sales, but $6 million in total economic impact. That’s almost double.

A study done by the USDA found that fruit and vegetable farms engaged in local food sales (i.e. local and regional markets) employ 13 full-time workers per $1 million of sales. Those fruit and vegetable farms that not engaged in local sales (think: big farming)? They only account for 3 full time employees per $1 million of sales. A local food economy creates more jobs.

According to a UK report, “spending in smaller independent local food outlets supports three times the number of jobs than at national grocery chains.” And in another study done in Salt Lake City, locally run businesses return 52 percent of their revenue to the local economy, whereas for national chain retailers, or box stores, it’s only 14 percent. Above and beyond that, when it comes to restaurants, local operation put 79 percent of their revenue back into the local economy, but for big national chains it’s only 30 percent.

This can face a huge impact, particularly when we’re looking at growth of farmers markets. Portland Farmers Market recently accounted that it would stay open all year round. And around the US, int he last decade, farmers markets have grown exponentially. Imagine if they kept growing, if they kept supporting local agriculture and they kept ensuring that local communities could eat well. Shopping locally doesn’t just put hands in the pocket of the farmer; it’s a direct investment in community health and when it comes to placemaking, supporting more farmers markets is a smart move.

We live in a world of “bigger is better.” We strive for efficiency and high production at low cost. But let’s not kid ourselves: we don’t need bigger with more choice. We need smaller with more quality. We don’t need to consume more; we need to consume better.

We need farmers and we need farmers markets. Because above all, we need community. And if you want to build community, you have to invest in it.

Related on EcoSalon

How Food Builds Strong Community: Foodie Underground

Local Food, Local Community: Foodie Underground

What if All Food Markets Were Local Food Markets: Foodie Underground

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Anna Brones

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This week’s Link Love we get a taste of craft beers from around the world, local goes up against organic, now you can drink “Game of Thrones” wine, EcoSalon’s own Fatima Olive and why Apple hates female anatomy.

5 of the best craft beers from around the world. [via Organic Authority]

Is local better than organic? [via Eat Drink Better]

“Game of Thrones” gets its own wine. [via Mashable]

Our own beauty expert Fatima Olive featured in Minnesota Monthly! [via Minnesota Monthly]

Apple won’t engrave what on your computer? [via Jezebel]

 Related on EcoSalon

Link Love: The Many Ways of Beauty + How to Wear Black in Summer + Eco Bedrooms

Link Love: What ‘Office Space’ Did for Humanity + The Tweeting Dress +  DIY Beehive

Link Love: Mila Kunis + Vegan Supermarket + Black People and Climate Change

The post Link Love: ‘Game of Thrones’ Wine + Fatima Olive Beauty + Apple and Female Anatomy appeared first on EcoSalon.

B-Line Sustainable Urban Delivery Service encompasses the capability to change the world we live in through its inspirational methods of transporting products and respecting the community it serves.

Take a moment to stop and think about how many delivery trucks and vans you see on a regular basis during your daily commutes. Although it may appear quite normal, everyone going about their day and performing work-related tasks, what you don’t initially recognize is just how detrimental all of these delivery vessels are to our environment. Pollution is one of the worst issues our world is currently facing. So in February 2009, one gentleman by the name of Franklin Jones decided to plan a course of attack against the smoggy beast, thus creating his brainchild, B-Line Sustainable Urban Delivery Service, a sustainable local delivery service right out of Portland, Oregon.

B-Line offers simplicity at its best because if you think about it, what are the purest, most natural things? They are simple. No frills, no veils, no disguises. In this case, it’s as simple as a human and an electric-assist cargo tricycle that has the space and sufficiency to carry a whopping 600 pounds. Strip away not only the pollution aspect, but also all the hassle that can come with using conventional trucks and vans.

B-Line’s main goals are focusing on strengthening the community, speaking out on behalf of sustainability, building prosperous business relationships that complement one another for the good of the planet, and maintaining a solid, unwavering pledge to provide happy, remarkable service. This sustainable local delivery operation is a true team player. It doesn’t discriminate and will partner with businesses large and small who share the same environmental vision. A few big name companies who work with B-Line include Office Depot, Whole Foods, and Organic Valley. Something else cool to know is that the cargo trikes are not only created to transport goods, they also serve as an eye-catching tool for cross promotion! It gives other companies the opportunity to join B-Line in a campaign for a greener functioning world while simultaneously highlighting their products.

When it gets down to it, the facts are the facts and you can’t argue with that! B-Line’s sustainable local delivery service has managed to supersede almost 30,000 truck and van deliveries while reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 18 tons per year. Wow, maybe we can start to breathe easier now (pun totally intended)! B-Line has successfully delivered around 400,000 pounds of organic produce, provided more than 70,000 pounds of food for the hungry in its local area, and pedaled to more than 200 destinations in the Portland community. B-Line’s environmentally friendly accomplishments are endless and its efficacious movement is continuing to thrive every day.

B-Line’s sustainable local delivery service combines the utmost positive intention with enduring dexterity and sheet brilliance behind its concept. It allows the community to become a part of the change whether individuals are making the choice to receive their items through a more environmentally conscious method or are pedaling through town to provide an eco-friendly service to its locals. With its trikes having traveled more than 20,000 miles annually, B-Line is pedaling its way toward enabling us with a brighter, greener future.

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Image via B-Line

The post B-Line Sustainable Urban Delivery Service: Portland Says Goodbye to Delivery Trucks appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnIs food marketing making us superficial when it comes to buying and eating food?

“You really realize how superficial people are.”

That quote was from a Senegalese chef who is trying to get more people eating fonio, a grain from West Africa. He’s profiled in a piece in the Guardian looking at his efforts to make fonio the new quinoa, aka the foodie darling grain. His quote is in reference to the branding and packaging that it will take in order to make fonio popular in the American market.

Essentially what he’s saying is that we can’t just eat things because they’re good for us, we need them to be cool first.

Look at kale. Look at quinoa. Buzz words in the foodie world. I love kale as much as the next person (ok, admittedly maybe a little more than the next person), but what about mustard greens and chard? And the quinoa? What about millet?

We like to accuse the industrial food world of using food marketing to keep people eating unhealthy, citing examples of sugar cereal that’s branded as part of a complete breakfast. But let’s not kid ourselves, the healthy food world does it too.

Take the example of superfoods. First of all, there is no exact definition of the word “superfood.” You can slap that name on any food that is power-packed with nutrients. Second of all, do you know where your superfoods are coming from? Sure, goji berries might be good for your health, but the majority of them are grown on industrial fields in China. We say we want to be locavores and then we go dousing our salads in berries and grains that are imported from across the world.

As The Observer’s restaurant critic Jay Rayner wrote in a recent column, “What really gets me is the smugness of the people who push this stuff. They claim to have stumbled upon some truth the rest of us have missed. Which is: nuts, berries and greens are good for us. Big bloody news. Put out the bunting.”

We are superficial.

We want an easy fix, and we want it to look good. Why do you think it took so many people to get on board the bulk shopping train? I’d argue that filling up your own bags with bulk grains isn’t really that sexy. Or at least not compared to a pretty box with a stylized and illustrated logo.

We skip over a good recipe because it has no photo, but we ogle over the one with a heavy dose of food porn where the recipe itself isn’t worth a damn. We buy $8 juice because it’s in a trendy looking bottle and secretly we want people to see us with it, but we’ve never attempted juicing anything at home. We tout the values of buying organic, and we pick up bunches of bananas, carted over in massive shipping containers from the other hemisphere.

Let’s get real. Greens, nuts and grains have been good for us for a long time. Since the start of time really. We know what’s good for us, and deep down, we know perfectly well what we should and shouldn’t be eating.

Let’s work on being less superficial and just eating instead.

Related on EcoSalon:

There’s Quinoa in Your Cocktail: Foodie Underground

21 Things to Do With Cauliflower (aka the New Kale)

Can Quinoa Be a Local Food? Foodie Underground

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: nerissa’s ring

The post Are We Superficial About the Food We Eat? Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

These local restaurants are where you can eat your food with a good conscience.

If you’re going to vote with your fork, you might as well enjoy the process. With the growth of the sustainable food movement has come an influx of restaurants that are not only focused on taste, but where their food comes from. From vegan restaurants to spots with their own rooftop gardens, here are 7 local restaurants around the country where you can be sure to get a meal that you will feel good about eating.

1. Homestead – Chicago, Illinois

With a 1,000 square foot rooftop garden that produces more than 130 herbs and vegetables, at Homestead you literally have farm-to-table dining. Housed on the rooftop, you have to go through a pizza joint to get here, but once you do, you can snag a spot on the deck next to the living wall and order a craft cocktail or beer.

2. Greens Restaurant – San Francisco, California

Opened in 1979, Greens has been serving up vegetarian fare since before most people knew what fine vegetarian cooking consisted of. Annie Sommerville has been the executive chef here since 1985, and with so many years under her belt, she has become well respected in the world of San Francisco restaurants, but also vegetarian cuisine in general. She works closely with local organic farmers and producers, putting a focus on ingredients that come from the region.

3. Vedge – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

If you’re a vegan, at most restaurants you’re limited to very few options. Not at Vedge, one of the most notable plant-based restaurants in the country. Here you’ll find a kitchen that uses locally sourced ingredients and no animal products whatsoever. But that doesn’t mean it’s just for vegans: this is conscious eating for every type of foodie, which is a good thing, since we could all do with a little less meat intake.

4. SAME Cafe – Denver, Colorado

SAME, which is an acronym for So All May Eat, is a local restaurant that functions differently. You pay what you can at this mostly local, organic eatery, and if you can’t afford anything at all, you can volunteer in the kitchen for an hour in exchange for a meal.

5. Akasha – Los Angeles, California

Akasha is a restaurant where carnivores and herbivores come together. There’s a big focus on sustainability here, sourcing from small family farms, organic growers, sustainable and Fair Trade companies. It’s your standard California, healthy, fresh cuisine, complete with sangria and mimosas for Sunday brunch.

6. Rosemary’s – New York City, New York

New York is known for its Italian food, but what’s better than Italian food from a rooftop garden? That’s exactly what you’ll get at Rosemary’s, where the chef Wade Moises came from a previous stint at Eataly, and there is a 1,000 square-foot rooftop garden. Now, of course, those olives didn’t come from up there, but plenty of the herbs and vegetables that make their way into the menu do, and that alone is worth a trip.

7. Haven – Houston, Texas

Houston may get a bad rap from some people, but those people probably never went to Haven, a restaurant that’s focused on locally sourced ingredients. Not only that, but they compost their kitchen scraps, there’s an organic garden and a bee hive on site, and there are even organic Texas wines on the menu.

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Image: Ralph Daily

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