Real Food Resource for the Paleo Diet
For those living in the Hudson Valley area in New York, there is a resource for whole real food, Earth to Table. Started by chef Joe Baldwin, the goal is to educate people about real food and to assist in find sources for real food. Earth to Table is a real food resource for the Paleo diet. Chef Baldwin’s project was featured in the Poughkeepsie Journal:
Have recommended these to many friends over the past 2 years. Generic viagra available online pharmacy! Many rogue pharmacies are happy to bypass a doctor’s prescription in order to win your business.With many people concerned about how processed, mass-produced foods affect our collective health, many are taking the initiative to provide wholesome produce through community-supported gardens.
Chef Joe Baldwin, proprietor of the Pleasant Valley-based Earth to Table, has been active in the local food community for more than three decades. Baldwin is putting to work his years of experience as a chef and food advocate to get people to eat better and to think about what they are putting in their bodies.
Baldwin wanted to spread the idea of “Slow Food”, as a response to fast food and to educate people on how bad it is for our health.
In 2005, Baldwin decided to focus on farming, and Earth to Table, his local food advocacy group which undertakes to spread the concept of Slow Food, a movement founded in 1986 by Italian food activist Carlo Petrini. The group seeks to educate people about the regional
nature of cuisine — and how fast food is having a dramatic effect on our health and our waistlines.
“Slow Food means, first of all, slowing down a little bit and thinking about what you’re putting in your body,” Baldwin said, adding that locally produced foods are key.
Baldwin refers to this as the “caveman” diet, in that people would eat only what was growing nearby during the period when humans were still hunter-gatherers.
The focus on slowing down, on consuming “Slow Food”, is beneficial to our minds and spirits. We can take the time to savor and enjoy real, whole food. This provides nourishment not only for our bodies, but our minds as well. Then there is the concept of eating food that was traditionally raised within 100 miles of where one lives. This truly becomes a real food resource for the Paleo diet.
But Slow Food means more than that, he said, it also means a preservation of traditional cuisine that is based upon this local produce.
“We like to think, these days, that what you eat should be grown within 100 miles of where you live,” Baldwin said.
And it appears that Baldwin’s advocacy has been doing the trick, especially where his own family is concerned. His son, Russell Baldwin, for example, owns Rusty’s Farm Fresh in Red Hook, a restaurant that specializes in locally grown, fresh ingredients.
The Earth to Table model can to be adopted across the country and all over the world. We have lost touch with where our food comes from. We need to know how our food is raised so that we can make the right choices for ourselves, our families and our communities. For those of us who follow the Paleo diet this means finding real food resources that are reliable and follow the basic guideline of the diet. Finding sources for grass fed /pastured meats and eggs and organic local produce would be a good start. For the primal among us, raw dairy would be a must. Let’s start our own “Earth to Table” groups!
What do you think about this? Do you believe this is feasible in your area? Are you already a part of such a group? Please share your comments questions and observations below. Please spread the word on Facebook and Twitter too! Thank you!