I attended the beer and cheese tasting at Citizens Co-op this past Friday... it was awesome!  You get beer from local breweries and cheese from local artisan cheese makers.  On top of that, there is music from some great performers.  In addition, they had a travelling photo exhibit that focuses on a sustainable food supply.  All in all, a really good evening!  When I get the names of the performers, I'll add their information in the comments of this post. :)

Beer from:

Swamp Head Brewery (in Gainesville)

Tall Paul's Brewhouse (in Gainesville)

Cigar City Brewery (in Tampa)

Cheese from:

Sweetgrass Dairy (in Thomasville, GA - they have a fantastic beer, wine and cheese store in downtown Thomasville and you can visit the farm and meet the baby goats!  It's a great trip if you've got a free day!)

Cypress Point Creamery (in Hawthorne)

Wainwright Dairy (in Live Oak)

Wanna see some awesome produce you can get at the Co-op?  Right here, baby.

Spread the love! If you think this is neat, share it on the Facebooks!

Saturday Swallowtail Farm had a tour and lunch on the farm.  It was really interesting to see the farm and hear all the details about how they do everything.  A detailed post will come later, but I just wanted to quickly post a few pics from the day.  These have not been processed at all, so you may also see the final versions at some point. :)

You'll probably end up seeing a good number of food shots throughout my little challenge here as I am a little bit of a foodie, so consider yourself warned.  Tonight it begins with a homemade whole wheat pasta dough.  I tossed this pasta with a red wine and tomato sauce with capers, young vidalia onion  greens, oil-cured olives, garlic, oregano and a pinch of sugar.  Very tasty, I have to admit.  I'm trying to restrain myself from going back for seconds as I write this! :)

Also, I think I'll start including the exif info for those who are interested.  I shoot with a Canon 40D.

50mm 1.4 @ f/2.8 1/50sec ISO 1600 no flash

For Thanksgiving last week, Citizens Co-op set up a special online ordering system so you could get fresh food for the holiday.  I ordered two packs of local tempeh from Jose's tempeh and a bag of produce from Swallowtail Farms.  Both have been excellent so far!  The tempeh was cooked in onion and spices and has a very autumnal taste to it.  The produce came in a wonderful bag.  There were all kinds of goodies in there: turnips, sweet potatoes, salad greens, kale, arugula, fresh rosemary, purple bok choi, and so on.  I used the turnips, sweet potatoes, and some of the rosemary in a lovely roasted root vegetable dish with some beets, onions, and carrots.  I cooked down the greens for a veg version of southern greens, and I'm going to attack those salad greens for lunch today.

Swallowtail does run a CSA, so if you are interested in joining, please check them out at swallowtailcsa.com.  CSA stands for community supported agriculture.  If you join a CSA, you pay a flat fee directly to a farm, and they provide you with a box of a variety of fresh produce every week.  Joining a CSA is a great way to support local foods and farmers, as well as a sure way to always have healthy, fresh produce on hand.

For more information on Citizens Co-op, you can visit their website at citizensco-op.com.