Sky Full of Bacon 01: How Local Can You Go?
At last, the main reason for this blog: the first episode of Sky Full of Bacon is up! How to watch it:
NEW! Fastest high quality: hit play to watch in HD below, or go to Vimeo and watch it in HD. (Recommended)
Highest quality but slow download in your browser: Episode 1 in Quicktime.
Highest quality but slowish download in iTunes: play directly on your computer in iTunes (no iPod needed), by clicking here. (To play in iTunes once downloaded, hit Play on the episode you want, then double click on the tiny window it starts playing in to make it bigger.)
Highest quality, most convenient: subscribe in iTunes by clicking here and then clicking Subscribe; each new episode will download when you’re not looking and be ready to play whenever you want, plus you’ll never miss an episode!
Sky Full of Bacon 01: How Local Can You Go? from Michael Gebert on Vimeo.
Local is a hot word in food these days. In How Local Can You Go? I visit two people who are taking different approaches to trying to bring local food into the mainstream in Chicago. Cassie Green runs a market in West Town called (what else?) Green Grocer, which features a lot of the producers who sell at Green City and other farmer’s markets. One of the knocks on local and organic food is that it’s the kind of thing only yuppies with extra money to spend can worry about, but the market that sustains something like local growing and eating usually starts with a cute little shop in a trendy neighborhood, and Cassie’s enthusiasm for the wonderful-looking food she sells is infectious.
Meanwhile, Bruce F. is a Wicker Park resident who read about Earthboxes in the Reader, and subsequently built about 30 DIY ones out of Rubbermaid tubs on his garage, as well as a Flickr page that tell you all about how and why you should do it too. He’s a thoughtful guy who really brings a lot of perspective to the broader issues surrounding the act of growing your own food in the city, in a way that kind of reminds you of John Cusack’s character in Say Anything.
The total podcast runs 19:39, though I’m pretty sure it doesn’t feel like it. As the season progresses I’ll check back with both Cassie and Bruce to see what else is growing, and include the updates in future podcasts.
Green Grocer
1420 W. Grand (just west of Ogden), Chicago
312.624.9508
Links for further exploration:
Green Grocer Chicago
Bruce’s Flickr page, and his Daily Kos diary
Reader article on Earthboxes
LTHForum thread on Earthboxes (with posts by both Bruce and myself)
Links to blogs and articles shown in the montage of locavore press toward the beginning:
Eat Local Challenge
Vital Information (essential Chicago locavore blog)
NY Times
Food & Wine
I’m very interested in your comments on this first Sky Full of Bacon effort. Please feel free to comment here or to email me here.
June 26th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Nice job Mike!
And I’m not just saying that because of the John Cusack reference. Well, maybe.
June 29th, 2008 at 7:47 am
Thanks for the link to the work at Eat Local Challenge! I love the title of your blog. I just started falling in love with bacon from our CSA farmer (thick cut, meaty, all-natural) and have been posting bacon recipes like zucchini bacon fritters. Made my smile when I saw the title.
June 30th, 2008 at 3:45 am
[...] http://skyfullofbacon.com/blog/?p=17 [...]
June 30th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
The video (both quality and content) are excellent.
I’m already looking forward to future videos.
July 2nd, 2008 at 10:24 pm
Enjoying your new blog.
I especially like the videos of Maxwell St.
I think rooftop gardening is going to become more popular every year. If individuals could use their rooftops in the city and vast acres of fertile soil in the suburbs to grow vegetables I think we’d be doing well for ourselves and the environment.
Here’s a link to my blog that gives two recipes for foods that have wild foraged ingredients from Chicago in them.
http://thepleasanthouse.wordpress.com/
One recipe is for lilac sorbet with candied lilac flowers and the other is for mulberry muffins. The lilacs were from 15th st. and Ruble St. and the Mulberries are from 16th St.
Mulberries: http://thepleasanthouse.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/summer-is-for-purple-thumbs/
Lilacs: http://thepleasanthouse.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/cooking-with-the-senses-tasting-aroma/
Cheers!
May 2nd, 2009 at 7:43 am
[...] piece on eating local featuring two people who’ve been in Sky Full of Bacons: Cassie Green of Green Grocer and Rob Gardner, Vital Information/Local Beet, procurer of pig [...]
June 26th, 2009 at 6:17 am
[...] a year ago today, the first Sky Full of Bacon podcast, How Local Can You Go?, was made public here and, a couple of days later, here. There was content at this blog before then, but that’s [...]
September 26th, 2009 at 9:58 am
[...] in Earthboxes and that kind of container gardening continues to boom, the very first podcast, How Local Can You Go?, popped up again and has drawn about 25 new views a week. That’s really motivating to me, [...]