C'ville Market

Finding a grocery store in Charlottesville isn't hard. There are lots of them, from the large (Sam's Club) to the boutique (Feast!) and everywhere in between. I tend to go to those closest, Foods of All Nations (which often translates as "Foods of All Prices" because much is often dear) and Harris Teeter (which is kind of like Nugget Markets for you West Coast readers). But I've enjoyed venturing off now and again. I stop in at Food Lion off the I-64 5th Street exit (they have a lot of Latin food items and at better prices than the specialty stores), Reid Supermarket (for the variety of cheap meats), and Integral Yoga (always has a variety of local apples the other stores don't, plus a better variety of wheat "meat"). I love the shopping experience at Whole Foods, but it's almost as out of the way as Sam's (which I refuse to join; solidarity with the downtrodden workers and all that).

Also a little out of the way, but well worth the trip, is C'Ville Market. It's in a warehouse-looking strip mall on Carlton Avenue, on the southwest side of town. You come in the doors, however, and it looks like a little country store, only with better service, and a walk-in refrigerated produce section, a treat in itself on summer days.

Yes, I'm a fan. And you can check out the specials each week on their site, http://www.cvillemarket.com/

Market photos

Taken at Charlottesville City Market on Aug. 22, 2009. © 2009 Lori Korleski Richardson

C'ville local food movement meeting

Is anyone going to this? I'm interested:

Sustaining the Local Food Movement - A Left of Center discussion

WHEN Tuesday, June 2, 2009, 7 – 8:30pm WHERE Rapture -- on the Downtown Mall 303 E. Main Street Charlottesville, VA EVENT TYPE Public Meeting NOTE Left of Center is holding a discussion on the local food movement. Is the local food movement a passing fad for the wealthy, or is it possible that it can permanently alter how we all eat, work, and live? How do we expand it beyond weekly sales in parking lots to something accessible to—and affordable by—everybody? Kate Collier, an owner of Feast! and Founding Director of the Local Food Hub, and Melissa Wiley, Director of the Piedmont Environmental Council’s Buy Fresh Buy Local program, will speak about the direction that the movement needs to take in order to overcome these hurdles. They’ll address how local food initiatives can succeed in having a lasting impact on preserving open farmland, supporting endangered small family farm businesses, and promoting agricultural diversity and sustainable environmental practices. Come on out, join some friends for a beer and join the discussion. C’ville Market / Cavalier Produce, Horse & Buggy Produce and Integral Yoga Natural Foods are co-sponsoring this event. Left of Center is a Charlottesville, Virginia group of mostly twenty- and thirty-something local Democrats. LINK www.leftofcentercville.org

Earth Day - tomorrow!

I remember my first Earth Day celebration. I was in college and we thought our parents had screwed up the planet beyond repair and we needed to do something about it. I think a lot of my friends felt the same way. We played nonviolent, cooperative games and talked about how to make this world a better place. 

One of my favorite restaurants in Sacramento was founded on Earth Day, under a neon sign for Tower Records that the owners restored. They featured dishes from around the world, using fresh ingredients. It's still going strong, and the little garden they planted in front of the place is now a lush jungle that makes dining in the urban setting a grand experience.

Tomorrow, we will honor the Earth at St. Paul's with a dinner featuring more than a dozen dishes prepared with local ingredients by local cooks. We hope we have a big turnout, since our youth group will be auctioning off really splendid items (including some vacation cabin stays) to help them on their way to help others this summer. Please come for this free dinner, a gift for those who care and share. We're hoping to attract around a hundred people.

If I don't have the time to post tomorrow, please check back in on Thursday to see what delicious dishes we made from local ingredients and where you can find them, too.

Cville City Market opening day

There wasn't that much produce to buy yet at the market, but I did buy greens that I hadn't ever come across in California - creasy greens. They are a kind of mild winter cress with about the same degree of bite as baby arugula. And like purslane, they grow like a weed here. I'm told they become like spinach when cooked.
Euell Gibbons, in his book "Stalking the Healthful Herbs," says that 100 grams of winter cress contain an impressive 5,067 I.U. of vitamin A and 152 milligrams of vitamin C. By comparison, oranges, known as a good source of vitamin C, provide a comparatively measly 50 milligrams of C per 100 grams.

The two photos, the creasy greens, above, and

the plants to the right below, were taken by me.

You can see the creasy greens also

 in the slideshow below, in a wooden crate.

The slideshow photos were taken by Jim.

Jail bait

Item from today's Charlottesville Daily Progress: 

Once the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail runs out of oil, kitchen staff will no longer fry the potato wedges that inmates and staff alike eat at mealtimes.

That should keep more than a few people from a life of crime. ;-)