Courtesy of “cupcakes take the cake,” a shot of Baked & Wired’s amazing goods.

I had a good friend visit me in Charlottesville from Washington, D.C. this past weekend.  Her arrival reminded me of all of the great local food going-ons of our capital city metropolis.  For starters, she brought me a box of the best cupcakes I have ever had—yes, ever—from her neighborhood coffee shop and bakery called Baked & Wired.  Beyond having a fabulously clever and delicious name, this city establishment puts out goods that have been handmade in small batches.  I happen to also find Baked & Wired’s “Big enough to share, but who are you kidding?” own description of its cupcakes as particularly true and facetious.  I mean, really.  These cupcakes are as big as large muffins, dense as half-cooked cookie dough, and with frosting like flavored butter but, will-power swept aside, one can’t help but eat a whole one by oneself.  In a matter of hours, I had tried the Smurfette, Just Peachy (a seasonal one with peaches in the cake and almond puree in the frosting), Texas Sheet Cake, and Vanilla Latte (which happened to be better-tasting than any actual sweet coffee drink around).  I can’t wait to visit the location in person someday soon to try Baked & Wired’s “hippie crack.”  Don’t worry: it’s just granola.  Really, really good granola.

On a healthier and more serious note, Washington, D.C. is also doing good by feeding its children fresh, local foods.  In fact, Fresh Start Catering, an offshoot of the city’s Central Kitchen, is successfully serving up lunches to two notable schools in the area— one public and one private.  Read more about the initiative here.  Apparently, America knows the meaning of “Yes, we can!”  Yes, we can bake; yes, we can serve local school lunches; and yes, we most certainly can eat.

-Serena

-Serena

UVAopoly is Made in USA.

Meet Yer Eats will be a great way to reconnect with what grounds you.

There’s so much to do in Central Virginia (and online) this September!  Looking at just the first half of the month, here are some options for you, your family and friends to endeavor in before fall is officially here:
Monday, September 6th (10:00am-4:00pm): MEET YER EATS!
This 2010 Farm Tour, hosted by Market Central and largely sponsored by Whole Foods Market, will take those who want to be introduced to the farmers (and farms, of course) behind their food to a series of self-selected locations in the state.  Tickets are available here.  Or, save a bit and gain some experience by volunteering for the event instead.  More information is available through Market Central online.
Thursday, September 9th (2:00pm): Building a Business in Specialty Foods Webinar Series
This day marks the beginning of a webinar series (three-months in all) that focuses upon businesses that centered on the production and sales of specialty foods.  Participation is gratis; you can simply follow this link immediately before each session to sign in.  Join in as a guest, type in your name, and “walk” into the “room.”  That’s it!  Listen, learn, speak, and enjoy!
Friday, September 10th (7:00pm): “Climate Change, Peak Oil, and the Economic Crisis: Why You Should Think About Them (Though We’d All Rather Not)”
Bring your children, if you have one or some, to this talk at Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church.  Childcare will be available, so way not take advantage of the opportunity to hear more about the issue from Sharon Astyk, author of three published works?  Read more about her here.
Saturday, September 11th (10:00am-4:00pm): HERITAGE HARVEST FESTIVAL
The website welcoming interested individuals to this year’s Heritage Harvest Festival starts off strong.  “Experience the genius of Thomas Jefferson while celebrating one of his great passions – the garden. Join us for the annual Heritage Harvest Festival, a celebration of gardening, sustainable agriculture and local food, held at Monticello, the mountaintop home of our third president,” it says.  And, with an enticing description like that, which Virginian wouldn’t want to attend??  Don’t forget to stop by the Blue Ridge Network Permaculture table while you’re there.  The team is truly dedicated (and very, very knowledgeable) on the subject of sustainable gardening!  This event is pre-fall must, if I may say so myself.
-Serena

And of course, these chefs want ” locavore bragging rights. In an era when the provenance of nearly every ingredient is promoted on menus, when house-made charcuterie, house-cured bacon and the like have become de rigueur, why not house-grown produce”? I gotta say, who can blame them. Putting insanely fresh, local foods on the table at low costs is something which is worth bragging about. If it makes their ego bigger, fine by me. More power to you, just keep up the good work.

-Jess

Al Morstein, owner of Regi's American Bistro in Baltimore shows off his 55 rooftop tomato plants for the Baltimore Sun.

A menagerie of chocolates lies within.

The only reason to ever rejoice at finding a mouse in your chocolates is if that box of goodies happens to hail from L.A. Burdick.  No, this is not the blog version of “If You Give a Moose a Muffin.”  (Though I very much enjoyed reading that series of books as a burgeoning foodie child.)  Rather, this is a quick account of how mentally and viscerally delectable L.A. Burdick’s Handmade Chocolates really are.  In short, the experience is comparable to being led into a bank vault and then handed one twenty-dollar bill.  “But,” you would proclaim, “I know there’s more!”  And indeed, with L.A. Burdick, the boxes are set-up so that the truffles are so tiny that eating one is just simply not satisfying enough.  You must taste at least two.  But then, two, when put together, are actually quite small as well; so then, why not try four?  As you can intuit, the story of eating these handmade delectables is never ending.  That is, until you finish the box.  Just one hint of advice: leave the company’s trademark mouse for last; and don’t ever attempt to give one a cookie.
-Serena

We know that buying locally made goods is important.  And as soon as we, as consumers, proclaimed that priority, savvy businesses followed suit with letting their customers know that their product too, is local.  Using the zeitgeist as a marketing tool is fine as long as it’s not false.  For instance, not long ago, Juicy Couture changed the tags on its products from “Made in the Glamorous USA” to “Designed in the Glamorous USA”— an assertion that was probably much closer to the truth.  But, can a product that is Made in the USA from foreign-sourced materials still be considered and then labeled as an American made good?  Our answer at Locallectual is, “yes”— as long as it’s labeled that way.

I started thinking more deeply about the dilemma not long ago when I learned that clothes by Catherine Malandrino—one of my all time favorite brands for women—were USA-made.  I did a bit of research online and learned that the products are in fact made here but from fabrics that had been imported.  Had I been local-washed?  My personal take would be, “no.”  Though there are plenty of brands that, when they say they are local (read: national), they really take the conservative route and use American made materials to craft the Made in USA goods, the literal end result remains much the same.  Take the brand, Prairie Underground.  The Seattle-based company uses, “…local sewers, dyehouses, knitters as well as sustainable fabrics like hemp and organic cotton sourced directly from the United States whenever possible.”  Now, that’s an exceptional case, and I’d love to see more of it.  Until then, let’s take it one step at a time, and document our triumphs with proper transparency as we go along.

-Serena

The new all-American ads for Jeep claim, “The Things We Make, Make Us.”

I usually don’t crave the indoors during summer time.  Air conditioning makes me feel sickly; looking outside conjures up constant feelings of anxiety to get back out there.  But, on that uncommon rainy weekend, going to the movie theater as a form of entertainment seems like just the right thing to do.  And this time, in addition to the feature film being a great one (Inception: I loved it), the previews weren’t half bad either.
Take the advertisement for the new Jeep: it’s a phenomenal portrayal of America at its height and how those who buy the newest sports utility vehicle will be assisting in keeping that high vibe going.  “Made in America” is what our country is about, the ad says.  We built our country from the products that we’ve manufactured and continuing to do so will be the answer to our stagnation.  While perhaps a bit romantic, the commercial hit the spot: it was historical, it was sentimental, and it was visually appealing.  In fact, one couldn’t tell until the very end of the segment that the point of the documentary-style sequence was to sell the viewer something tangible: a car, a lifestyle, and the American Dream that many of those who live here feel they’ve lost sight of.
In many ways, Locallectual plans to achieve the same end that Chrysler does: a country that survives and thrives from its own hard work and beautiful creations.  A recent Financial Times article was subtitled “Americans are becoming more American;” I was instantaneously drawn to read on to see if the phrase was meant to depict a positive situation or a sardonic one.  Let’s make it the former.
-Serena

This past Saturday, many headed to Monticello in Charlottesville for a Summer Fruit Tasting upon Mr. Jefferson’s hallowed garden grounds.  Attendees  received a short history, updated education, and mouthfuls of several of the species grown atop this famous hill.

Or, take the casual way out by making your way over to Chiles Peach Orchard in Crozet.  The location is beautiful AND unusually flat for this region, making picking your own in the heat of the day much more bearable for both you and your family.  Then, head on into the shop for some relief and local food fun.  I ended up taking home two-dozen peach cider donuts and a block of peanut butter walnut fudge.  (Silly me, I forgot the peaches!)

If somehow you dislike fruit altogether, then you can still acquire a taste of the summer goodness with a glass of Chateau Morrisette Winery’s Sweet Mountain Laurel.  Believe it or not, this wine from the Floyd location tastes almost exactly like Concord grape juice— with a kick.

-Serena

Fruit! Eat, Drink, and Experience it This Summer