We cheated.

Yes, people. We cheated. We claimed it was for a good event, and it definitely was, but nevertheless last night Rashmi, Joe, Sara, and I ate of the forbidden fruit - bread, chocolate, grits (still 0-10 on the local grains front), mushrooms, red peppers. The annual Alabama Environmental Council Green Tie Affair was last night in Birmingham, and our quartet got dressed up and chowed down. We justified our choices based on the fact that the food was sponsored by the local Birmingham Slow Food Chapter - a movement that stresses locality, seasonality, and sustainability. But nevertheless, I have no idea where the chocolate which coated my strawberry was from, much less the strawberry itself - although, on that count I can hope it was from Snow's Bend, since they were sponsors as well. We ate nervously, wondering a bit about where everything was from, but in the end we decided not to ask too many questions. At one point in the evening I realized they were about to take the brownies away and I made a mad dash to refill my plate, elbowing aside those who stood too calmly in line. "They don't know what's at stake here," I thought to myself. But there was solid Alabama food there - Snow's Bend like I mentioned, and Belle Chevre had an offering of their goat cheese. We talked with Tasia, who runs Belle Chevre, about her methods and she invited us up to see her operation sometime. More on that in the future.

We hope this doesn't cause a mass revolt in our readership. We assure you, at least in the Grace household, it was back to local yogurt with south Alabama strawberries, leftover sweet potato stew (see below), and stir- fried broccoli rabe with turkey from Bates Farm today. Don't hate our momentary indiscretion. We will be faithful otherwise...