Hamilton Eats Local

I grew up right next to the Hamilton College campus in Clinton, NY where my parents still work. Today the college is participating in the Eat Local Challenge along with other colleges in the Northeast. They're holding a campus-wide picnic filled with local ingredients. My mom says they even found flour milled locally. She's headed over to the picnic right now. Hamilton College contracts with Bon Appétit, a national food service company who seems to have the most ecological, forward thinking approach to their work of any of the big mass market food providers. The head chef at Hamilton College, Ruben Haag says he regularly seeks works with about a dozen farmers from upstate New York. Pat Raynard, the general manager of Bon Appétit at Hamilton College was quoted in a press release saying, "I don't know of anyone else who is closing down campus and holding a huge picnic where the farmers will be on hand."

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farm, garden, local, organic, carbon, eat local challenge

Trader Joe's Organic Humus

Has Trader Joe's changed the formula for it's organic humus? I bought some yesterday and I ate the whole container myself, almost in one sitting. It tastes like what my Syrian grandmother would have made if she liked humus. No, really, she didn't, I'm not sure why, she favored tabouleh. So, I learned to make humus from my mom, who I think got her recipe from a vegetarian cookbook. I'm very picky about humus--I don't like it chunky, and I don't like extra spices like cumin or anything like that.

But the Trader Joe's humus is perfect--it's thick, you can really taste the tahini, and the garlic, lemon and salt are all balanced beautifully. In fact, if I were to change it at all, I might just add a touch of olive oil, which you could do easily if you were going to serve it. I wish I had bought more, yum!