Saturday Round Up With A Shameless Restaurant Plug

As much as we would like to believe it otherwise, sad things happen in life.  Sometimes even bad things.  But I was reminded last night just how important food is during all the ups and downs of life.  Mrs. Deliberately and I splurged on a "distraction" dinner at the Inn at Hunt Phelan and sat back to enjoy the Chef's Tasting Menu.  Executive Chef Stephen Hassinger provided multiple courses (I lost count) of exquisite food that was pleasing to both the palette and the eye.  Paired expertly with wine, the courses, ranging from foie gras to quail to lamb sausage to a filet to sticky pudding reminded us that no matter where we are, great food elevates the spirit.  Chef Stephen is clearly one of Memphis' food celebrities, and we were lucky to share the evening in the Hunt Phelan dining room with kitchen and house staff who demonstrate just what superb dining is all about.  Good food is good for the body and the earth -- but it's good for the soul as well.  I unambiguously recommend the Inn at Hunt Phelan -- once again it proves that Memphis, despite many opinions to the contrary, is a great food town beyond our trademark pulled pork and ribs.

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It's Saturday, and that means it's time for a round up of the blogosphere.

Eat Local Challenge hasn't seen the movie yet, but has an endearing consideration of Ratatouille as a dish:

Consider what is in season right now: tomatoes, peppers, onions, eggplant, okra, zucchini, yellow squash, garlic. All in season, all together, all in the one recipe. Makes perfect sense to build a dish around those ingredients, right? I just never got that point. The recipe existed before the corner Megamart with anything and everything regardless of season. It was built around the vegetables that were available, fresh, and [sic] grown in one's garden. Simple. Rustic. And delicious.

And when the Expat Chef sees the movie (which is a must-see) it will become evident that the simplicity and rustic-ness of the dish is also it's main feature in the story, but I won't spoil the fun. . .

Jennifer Maiser of Life Begins at 30 writes at Bay Area Bites about Russ Parson's book How to Pick a Peach and the chain of events that can result, in the extreme, in a $3 peach being offered at a local farmer's market.  The book, writes Maiser, clarifies the reasons behind sometimes inflated prices for produce, but it's important to know the grower to be sure it's not just gouging:

Whereas most commercial farmers harvest their fruit as soon as it is minimally acceptable to take to market, small farmers push their fruit to stay on the tree until the last possible minute, often gambling entire crops in order to push the flavor a little bit more for the consumers. They pick only the perfect fruit and leave a lot on the tree or on the ground because it's not just right for market.

While we're more into our veggies than fruit at the Deliberately household, Maiser's article pushes Parson's book on to our wish list.  More to come on that front.

Ken Cook keeps up the heat on the 2007 Farm Bill over at Mulch.  Also pushing for more discussion, and unwilling to walk away, is Blog for Rural America.  Farm Policy also has a perspective, perhaps less disappointed.

Over at Path to Freedom you can see photos of what the backyard looks like at the height of the season.  This is an inspiration to us -- our goal is to convert our backyard to this level of intensity next summer and make our little acreage as productive as possible.  Although, to be fair, the Dervaes family has a backyard that looks like it could support a CSA!

Laurie at Slowly She Turned points us to a local foods blog we hadn't found yet at Earthbound Kitchen. 

We haven't heard from the Squirrel Squad in a while.  Wonder if that big garden in the backyard is finally taking its toll?

The Ethicurean, ever one step ahead of us, points to a Nation article by John Nichols with the note "The last Farm Bill editorial you need to read before Senate debate starts."  In the article, Nichols pounds in the coffin nails on any chance that the legislation has truly redeeming qualities:

On the plus side, it makes significant new commitments to encourage sustainable farming practices, fund the conversion to organic farming, strengthen food-safety protections and expand nutrition initiatives that are the essential food-policy components of this omnibus legislation. On the negative side, the House bill proposes to open gaping loopholes that would allow environmentally destructive factory farms to qualify for funding intended to help family farmers conserve the land; maintains corrupt practices that stifle competition in the livestock industry; and fails to endorse basic health-and-safety moves like banning the practice of blasting spoiled beef with carbon monoxide to make it appear wholesome.

Hovering above all the good bits and nasty pieces of the measure is that it would do little to change our corrupt system of paying subsidies to some of the wealthiest nonfarmers in the world. Nor does the House address the fact that the bulk of the money intended to maintain diverse and competitive family farms would go to a handful of Southern states that overproduce crops like rice and cotton.

Ach.  My dander, unfortunately, gets up every time I think about it.

Chile is in the plums.  I'm jealous.

Edible Communities proposes sending Nancy Pelosi a bottle of corn syrup with every new subscription to an Edible magazine.  We think that idea is peachy, er, I mean, corny.  But in a good way.

Finally, Energy Bulletin points out that while the real estate market is in a noticeable slump across most of America, the rural midwest is experiencing something quite different.  Read how the growing demand for ethanol is making acreage that can support corn a hot commodity at the New York Times.