Today is the beginning of Eat Local Week, an initiative to promote local food producers and the restaurants and markets that use them. As you might guess from the name, Eat Local Week runs for eight days, Nov. 9 through 17, 2012. It culminates next Saturday with full day of events at the Winter Park Harvest Festival in Central Park’s West Meadow.
ELW is the undertaking of Slow Food Orlando, the local convivium of the global organization that emphasizes the use of local, sustainable products.
What’s local? Most who use the term, including Slow Food Orlando, consider anything within a 200-mile radius to be local. Some of the reasons to eat locally include helping the local economy. Restaurants often buy directly from the producers, and those purchases keep the money in the local economy instead of sending it to an out-of-state middleman food broker. Another good reason is that most of the local farmers and ranchers are not mass producers, so there is a more identifiable farm-to-table route. And, even though most of the vendors don’t go through the bureaucratic red tape to have their products certified as organic, a lot of what ends up on local menus would qualify for that designation.
As part of the week’s events, several restaurants are offering prix fixe menus that feature all-local products. Participating restaurants include the Rusty Spoon, Paxia, al Fresco, Merritt’s Table, Fresh, Dandelion Communitea Cafe, McCoy’s Bar and Grill, and Big Wheel Provisions. For a complete list of participants, visit the Eat Local Orlando website. Unfortunately, there are few details about the specific menus being offered, but I can tell you that they are priced from $15-$45. (I can’t, however, tell you which restaurants are $15 and which are $45.)
There are events planned all week long, including a kickoff happy hour this evening at Redlight Redlight Craft Beer Parlour in its new location in Audubon Park, 2810 Corrine Drive, Orlando. The happy hour is from 5-7 p.m.
Here’s a list of some of the other events:
DRINK LOCAL Events:
Kick-off Happy Hour at Redlight Redlight Beer Parlour, November 9, 5-7pm
Free Brewery Tours at Orlando Brewing, November 9-17 at 6pm (EXCEPT SUNDAY)
LEARN LOCAL Events:
Slow Food Table at Sanford Farmers Market, November 10 from noon-2pm
Free Space Coast Farm Tours, November 11 from noon-4pm
Kendra Lott from Edible Orlando at Orange County Library, November 14 at 6pm
SHOP LOCAL Events:
Lake Meadow Naturals Farm Store, November 10 from 9am-3pm
Heart of Christmas Farm Store, November 11 from noon-4pm
Audubon Park Community Market, November 12 from 6-10pm
Kissimmee Valley Farmers Market, November 13 from 4-8pm
Brevard Farmers Market, November 15 from 3-7pm
EAT LOCAL, DRINK LOCAL, LEARN LOCAL and SHOP LOCAL at the Winter Park Harvest Festival, November 17 from 10am-4pm.
