Luckily, being "green" doesn't mean giving up the all American barbecue—with a few minor tweaks to the usual routine, I have made my cookouts healthier for my family, better for the environment, and better for the local economy. Barbecues, burgers, and being green… The staples of the American barbecue—hamburgers and hot dogs—do not score high on the healthy or sustainability scales.  The mass production of meat is bad for the environment in an alarming number of ways--too many, in fact, to recount here. But consider this one fact: The livestock industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas …

I recall only one kind of salad growing up: what I think of as a “traditional” salad.  A bed of greens, usually iceberg or romaine, topped with various chopped vegetables, cheese, and perhaps some hard-boiled egg, bacon bits, or chick peas.  While I liked these salads I didn’t necessarily love them, and I always associated them with a lot of work (chopping, hard-boiling, etc.), and would rarely make one myself. When I met Ben he opened my eyes to the world of “simple” salads.  He would eat a Caesar salad with almost every meal, making his own croutons in the toaster oven, his own dressing, …

When we first became members of the Simmons Farm CSA program, the cooking greens were probably the most intimidating to me. Our first year as CSA members also happened to be a cold, rainy growing season, so we were getting a lot of greens.  I had never been a big fan of cooked greens to begin with, and I suddenly found myself staring down a fridge that was overtaken by kale, chard, dandelion greens, collard greens. Ok, I should be more honest. To say that I wasn’t a big fan of greens is a massive understatement. I actually loathed them. I remember being a kid, having to eat two or three bites…

Finally, after a winter that just didn’t want to let go, we are seeing those sure signs of spring. The daffodils are out, there are buds on the trees, and yesterday I didn’t even need a coat. Spring has always been a favorite time of year, but my locavore ways have brought a new sense of excitement and anticipation to the springtime. I am already mentally preparing for another season of local, fresh produce.  Last week, we received sprouts and green onions in our weekly share from Simmons Farm, an exciting hint at the abundance of vegetables that will soon be gracing our weekly bag of goodies…

"Thanksgiving is a dream holiday. It doesn't get much better than celebrating the season's harvest with family and friends," writes Patch Our Local Harvest Columnist Jessica Walsh. Last Saturday's weekly grower's market at Newport Vineyards also marked the end of the harvest season that brought forth a wonderful bounty for all of Aquidneck Island to enjoy, as well as many great suggestions from Jess on how to enjoy our local harvest at home.  In this special photo essay, join Jessica and her partner, Ben Ellcome, as they celebrate another great harvest with family and friends. P.S. The end …

I always feel bad for the desserts on Thanksgiving.  By the time dessert rolls out, people have gorged themselves on appetizers and turkey, and either skip desert altogether or eat very little of it.  Even when I do eat a whole piece of pie, I'm generally on taste overload and can't really give dessert my full appreciation.  So, although pie is the traditional favorite for Thanksgiving dessert, after years of seeing half-eaten slices scraped into the trash, I have decided that maybe bite-size treats are the greener way to go.  Luckily, bite-size doesn't mean giving up the tastes we love.  …

Side dishes are probably my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal. The traditional options are vegetables that you can get fresh or from storage at this time of year.  Mashed potatoes, sweet potato casseroles, squash, turnips, carrots, onions, cranberries, stuffing... yum. Some families—mine for example—rarely stray from tradition. My aunt has been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for as long as I can remember, and we have had the same side dishes, prepared in basically the same way, for as long as I can remember. And that is the way we like it. Last year we strayed from this norm to disastrous …

As our annual grape harvest draws to a close this week, here's a more intimate look at the "art and science" behind the winemaking at Newport Vineyards and Winery. The Middletown-based vineyard anticipates its 2011 vintage to be its "best year yet" because of optimal summer and autumn growing conditions.

I am a firm believer in the "waste not, want not" philosophy.  I grew up with a grandmother who would use the same paper towel all week to butter toast on—when she was done with it, she would shake off the crumbs, fold it in half, and put it back on top of the toaster.  I was always a little nervous when it came to retrieving something out of the fridge, desperate to avoid the inevitable "nothing's gonna grow in there" if I lingered a second to long with the door open.  Grandma also opened Christmas presents with the greatest of care, so that she could fold the paper back up and use it again …

Friday afternoon, we made last-minute plans to have friends over for dinner. Entertaining is something I was bred to take seriously, my Italian roots demanding nothing less. I immediately started making the mental "to-do" list of things that would need to be tackled the moment I left the office at 5 p.m.: pick up around the apartment, cook, get the dining area ready.   The biggest challenge would be the menu. I needed to feed five of us with food we already had in the house, with no time for a trip to the grocery store. With a little creativity, some help from the family, and a pantry stocked…

I love apple cider. Cold, hot — it doesn't matter. I just love the stuff. I think part of the reason is that you can only get it for a limited time at the same time each year. Apple cider signals fall, crisp air, football games, Halloween. Needless to say, I was excited to see the first apple cider of the season at the farmers market last week.  Of course, apple cider means that apples are in season. Right now you can pick your own apples right here on Aquidneck Island at both Sweet Berry Farm and Rocky Brook Orchards. Apple pie, apple sauce, candy apples, apple crisp, apple jam, apple butter…

Perhaps even more than the New Year, September represents a clean slate, a new start. Even the air seems new in September, as August's humidity is peeled away to reveal the crisp air of early autumn. September also reminds us of the importance of routine, bringing us back to center after the inevitable craziness of summer. This is probably why personal goals have been on my mind recently and why, while enjoying a Labor Day dinner at One Eighty in Newport, we spent much of our dinner talking about personal goals and what new routines would be required to meet them.  One goal this fall is to be…

One of the most challenging things for me about going green is that it requires big picture thinking for the most mundane of tasks—grocery shopping, for example. Trying to be a responsible consumer means that I have to think about not only what is best for the health of my family, but also what is best for the environment and the local economy. Ultimately, it means giving up a little of the convenience I have become accustomed to, and finagling my budget to allow for the increased expense of buying local and organic.  As I began to pay more attention to the food I was eating—where it came …

There are a series of experiences that define summer for me in Rhode Island: the first sighting of lightning bugs, the first sip of a Del's Lemonade, the first singing of tree frogs, the first night you can sleep with the window open, the first afternoon stuck in beach traffic. Without these markers, summer just wouldn't feel quite like summer in Newport. The first fresh corn on the cob of the season is among these. I don't include each seasonal vegetable on this list. No, corn is unique. The thing about fresh corn is that there is such a process involved. From purchasing to preparing to …

We have officially hit the time of year when an average person like me can consistently make entire meals from only local, fresh food. There is something really satisfying about sitting down at the dinner table and being able to name the people who produced each item on your table. Talk about knowing where your food comes from! It was our turn to host card night this week, and we were able to serve our friends nearly all local food. Bruschetta made from Bristol Bakery French bread, Simmons Farm tomatoes and goat cheese, and our very own basil. An Italian Green Tort (essentially Italian Quiche…

So I once again find myself in the midst of tomato season—piles of tomatoes seem to appear every time I turn around (okay, maybe piles is a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously, we have a lot of tomatoes.) We have been eating BLTs, tomato, basil, and mozzarella salad, and we even tried a couple new recipes this week—grilled bread salad that was really good, and a roasted cherry tomato and goat cheese pasta that was simple and scrumptious. There is one thing I had not tried to make this week—homemade tomato sauce. In fact, I have never tried to make tomato sauce from scratch because somehow I…

This week's market share… It is easy to forget just how good local, in-season blueberries really are. I bought my first fresh pint from Sweet Berry Farm at the Aquidneck Growers' Market this past Saturday. After that first irresistible taste (in the winery parking lot, of course) I wasn't sure that any of the berries would actually make it home. They were so good, in fact, that I was inspired to do something I haven't done since I was a kid—go to pick my own blueberries.  Sweet Berry Farm is one of the island's hidden gems—100 acres of farmland nestled just off of Third Beach Road. Strolling …

This Week's Market Share… To say zucchini is abundant right now is an understatement. Newport folks who have a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) with Simmons Farm know what I am talking about. Picking up last week's share, I was astonished to see that our couple share included four pounds of zucchini and other summer squash. For anyone who hasn't weighed this firm, green vegetable lately, four pounds is equivalent to five or six large zucchini. I scrambled to use our week's allotment, making a double batch of the zucchini pancakes popular in our house, only to find that this week's share …

Aquidneck Island is home to many farms and several weekly farmers markets, both offering an abundance of locally grown, super-fresh produce, meat, cheese, and eggs. Customers can walk away with more than an armful of daily fresh food—they also relish interactions and exchanges with the people who produced it. Now that's hard to find in any grocery store! All of Aquidneck Island farmers markets run the first week of June through the last week in October. A complete list of vendors at each market is available here. Wednesday, 2 to 6 p.m.: Aquidneck Grower's Market, located along the shaded walk…