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Cheese Trio Appetizer
Fried halloumi cheese with preserved meyer lemon vinaigrette, gruyere cheese fritter on a crisp toast round with tamarind sauce, yogurt whipped goat cheese mousse and sweet onion marmalade with parmesan pepper chip, topped with micro greens.

We all know what this means, fresh local produce will be abundant soon. We are so fortunate to live in a time and place where the pendulum is falling away from the giant corporate farm and swinging steadily toward local food production. The benefits of this movement range from healthier food, building a new local economy and stronger sense of community. The food is generally grown with healthier practices and is therefore better for us to eat. Local food is more nutritious, more flavorful and will stay fresh longer.

Think about it, food grown in California or Mexico is at least 3000 miles away. It’s picked, placed on a truck, stored in a warehouse, purchased from the wholesaler, stored at your local grocer, then finally you have a chance to purchase it. The time from harvest to table is stripping the nutrients and flavor from your food. Another issue to consider is this journey your food under goes, which increases its carbon footprint. Shopping locally for your food is not only healthy for you, but for the planet as well. Seek out your local farmers markets, co-ops, even some of your smaller local grocers, and enjoy locally grown food as much as possible.

Here at Logan we have always supported local businesses as much as possible. Fortunately some local distributors make this easy, such as Frog Holler Produce and Eat Local Eat Natural. Chef Thad also sources directly from local farmers and wild harvesters. This spring in particular, he started sourcing micro greens from Sugar Snap Gardens in Ypsilanti, www.sugarsnapgardens.com. These tasty shoots add beauty, color and flavor as a garnish to many of Chef Thad’s creations. Soon he will also receive wonderful wild local edibles like morel mushrooms and ramps. These are Chef Thad’s spring favorites, especially ramps or wild leeks.

If you like garlic and spring onions you will love ramps; the aroma is more garlic and the flavor is more spring onion. As tasty as ramps are, they are still not cultivated commercially, so Chefs rely on wild harvesters to obtain them. Ramps have a short season however, late April through early June, so Chef Thad always takes full advantage. He will use them fresh as much as possible but as the season comes to a close he pickles them for use throughout the year. Ramps and morels are just a few of the items Chef Thad sources locally, and as the seasons change we will keep you posted on what is new.