Tag: local food

Eating Local, Organic and In Season

Is it odd to anyone else that we have to put actual effort into figuring out how to eat the same way that people have eaten for thousands of years?

A week or so ago someone told me about The Night Owl Cafe, located in Old City, downtown Knoxville. He said they use all locally sourced and organically grown foods, which made me wonder how I haven’t heard of it sooner.

Some more research told me that it’s still fairly new, and apparently they don’t try real hard to be found. As best I can tell they unabashedly have no phone, and apparently no website, though they are on Twitter and Facebook. And there are plenty of rave reviews. Sounds like the owners of The Night Owl focus on doing one thing and doing it well: providing good, fresh food. I’m not going to write a review though, because I still haven’t been there. Yet. If you have, please let us know how you liked it!

Looks like they get at least some of their food supplies from Organicism Farms, which posted the below list on their Facebook page. I’m sharing it here, so all the non-Facebook users can access as well.

Thanks to all the local Knoxville businesses who support not just us but all the local organic growers: The Night Owl Cafe, Chez Liberty, The Tomato Head, The Orangery, Rouxbarb, Aisle Nine Grocery, Three Rivers Market, Benefit Your Life, Natural Products Market, VGs Bakery, Sun Spot, Java, and Spoiled Pet Cafe.

Eat fresh. Eat Local. Eat Organic.

Local Food – thousands of miles fresher

This has been on my mind a lot in recent years. Dr. Mercola outlines some of the high level concerns of mass-produced food here in his article about vegetable nutrition. It may surprise a lot of folks to know how little nutrition they are getting from their “healthy” foods, as he points out here:

“In fact, the average vegetable found in today’s supermarket is anywhere from 5 percent to 40 percent lower in minerals such as magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc than those harvested just 50 years ago.

Today’s vegetables are larger, but do not contain more nutrients. Jumbo-sized produce actually contains more “dry matter” than anything else, which dilutes mineral concentrations.”

This is not a Mercola endorsement, but I’m reading this same information in multiple sources lately and thought it worth sharing. Some interesting, related information can be found in the recent book, Eat This, Not That

While on the topic – I’d love to know from anyone in Knoxville if they endorse/recommend any local growers? When I moved, my trusted farmer’s market got too far away and I’d like to find some local sources for fresh, organic foods. Please comment here.