When we first posted about serving a local-foods picnic on Memorial Day, back in 2009, the article began “Eating local food is becoming easier and easier, as our area’s farmers diversify and new trends like pasture-raised meat take hold.” It’s wonderful to see how dated those words now seem. Local burger meat, bread, cheese, and produce is abundant. This holiday, why not incorporate our area’s foods into your festivities, supporting our local economy and making your picnic basket burst with flavor?
Start with hamburgers made of local beef. Weaver Street Market carries beef from Mills Family Farm as part of our sustainable meat and seafood program. Pick up a pound of ground beef to make your cookout patties. Serve the burgers on locally made Weaver Street Market hamburger buns, made with locally milled organic flour from Lindley Mills.
Then top your burgers with any of the following: Bacon made by The Pig in our Food House, made from humanely raised NC hogs. Big, fluffy leaves of local lettuce from Peregrine Farm or Maple Spring Gardens. Holly Grove Farms’ goat cheese, or Ashe County’s hoop cheese for a more traditional melt. (If you want to be gourmet, Goat Lady Dairy’s gouda-style Lindale.) Weaver Street Market’s salsa and guacamole for a Tex-Mex burger, or one of our many locally made BBQ sauces.
As a final touch, boil up some locally laid eggs and arrive with a plate of deviled eggs (recipe here).
However you celebrate, keep it local with foods made right here in North Carolina.