During the Souper Bowl Challenge, we’re asking YOU, the people who support Vermont farmers by keeping us busy restocking local root vegetables, squash, and dairy, to submit your favorite recipes for soup. Enter a recipe featuring one of five local ingredients (potatoes, carrots, squash, beets, or dairy) and get a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to City Market.

I’ve made gingerbread cookies 3 times over the past couple of weeks, with different people, and in everybody’s hands they’ve come out differently, like the people who make them. As you may know, gingerbread cookies are a derivative of German lebkuchen, highly spiced, dark cookies that traditionally have to cure for weeks before eating. American gingerbread cookies are everything German lebkuchen are not – soft and pliable to the German rigid, rich with butter, lighter complexioned and smooth.

Every Sunday afternoon I do a demo down in the Produce department. The demos feature local vegetables that are often a little quirky, or at least something that your average customer might not have tried before. Recently I demoed scarlet turnips. I have to admit that scarlet turnips weren’t on my radar before (never mind that I don’t usually volunteer for turnip demos).

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I know what you’re thinking. The point of soup is to throw things together in a pot and be done with it, right? Why bake something in the oven first, only to then cook it again on the stove (which incidentally, is the casserole principle in reverse, and a major reason why I believe casseroles aren’t more popular these days – who has the time, anyway??). But stick with me here for a minute while I dish up not one but three reasons to try this soup:

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“I want string beans and broccoli on my pizza.” So goes the odd request from Nikolas, age 3, otherwise known as the pint-size food tyrant of Walnut Street. His wish is, more often than not, command, even if it means tweaking things so his wish is… well, what we wish. In this instance, not able to stomach the idea of string bean pizza – think watery frozen string beans - we talked up corn and broccoli. Sold.

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Cold weather is upon us, and nothing makes me happier than a big pot of soup or stew simmering on the stove or in the oven. Unlike a lot of meals that have to be timed to finish right before you sit down to eat to taste any good, stews can be started any time during the day and finished when you’re ready to sit down and eat. Another thing I love about soups and stews is that that you can use thrifty cuts of meat.
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Did you participate in the 2009 Eat Local VT Challenge?  We'd appreciate it if you could take the time to complete this brief exit survey. Once you're finished, you'll be entered into a drawing for a small 2010 CSA share!

Here's what I'd do differently next year for the challenge:
 

• More advance or ongoing preparation.  I'd make snacks and pizza crust and quick breads and other guaranteed hits ahead of time, so when my little guys started to balk I'd have more easy go-to foods on hand.

Lesson 2 from the Eat Local Challenge: The Rest of the Year Matters More
 

During the EatLocal challenge a few friends posted on Facebook or whispered to me, "I'm sorry.  We eat everything local we can during the rest of the year.  We're not doing the challenge."

Like any good entrepreneur, I believe there are always better ways to do something. In this particular case, I have identified five ways to improve Eat Local Challenges to ensure the best achieves their desired objectives. Before sharing those suggestions, let’s make sure we’re on the same page regarding why such challenges exist in the first place.