Local Eats & Tasty Treats

 

 

 

 

Today marked the Big Red Eats Green event on IU's campus where B-town restaurants serving locally sourced or seasonal food set up camp to increase awareness of the benefits and availability of local eats.  Not only did I personally enjoy several of the food offerings, but I was also struck by the number of restaurants there are in Bloomington who use locally sourced foods in their menu items.  I knew the town was ahead of the game in this arena, comparatively speaking anyhow, but it's eye-opening to see all in one place just how true that is.



Naomi & me enjoying Soma smoothies & a Dunn Meadows wrap
(note our complimentary "I Ate Local" bracelets)

To give you some insight into my perspective, before coming back to grad school I was living in Bowling Green, Kentucky which boasts the second most restaurants per capita in the nation.  Yes, I said boasts.  If you follow that link above, you can see from the short book description that BG is proud of this fact, although I for one find it fairly disturbing.  True, Bowling Green does have a handful of local eateries, but by and large the establishments that make up this statistic are your run-of-the-mill chains:  Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, Applebees, Ruby Tuesday, Denny's, Cracker Barrel, Burger King, KFC, Taco Bell, Wendy's, you name it and they probably have it.  Last time I counted, there were a whopping 7 McDonalds serving a town of less than 60,000.  And even with all of those options, it's impossible to go out to dinner on a Friday night without waiting for a table for at least an hour and often much longer.  No wonder Kentucky is ranked one of the Top 10 Most Obese States on a regular basis.

 

Grow your own!

Following those facts, I can only express how happy I am to have such a better range of options here in Bloomington.  Sure, this is America and those bad choices will always be out there.  But today I have a new appreciation for all the good options that do exist for those who want to make the healthier choice, and one that benefits the local economy.  So thanks Big Red for helping me Eat Green!