Welcome to my table!
I’m Rachel – a blogger and writer on a mission to cook and eat the best local ingredients I can find.
Finding bliss and (local) lobster omelettes in Freeport, Maine
I hope my experience will help you learn how to find and cook the local options in your area, and in the process, live a healthier and happier existence more in tune with the rhythms of creation. (And along the way, maybe you’ll laugh at one of my stories.)
Enjoying the perfect cup of tea (and later the perfect local cheese plate) at Terrain in Glen Mills, PA
If you want to know more about Rachel’s Table, pull up a chair. Here’s a few posts from the seasons:
Spring – Meet John, a Local Backyard Farmer or Boston Lettuce Wraps are BOSS
Summer – Guilt Free Tomato, Basil, and Red Onion Summer Salad or Let’s Play Peppermeister Roulette or Let’s Play Peppermeister Roulette…Again! (video blogs)
Fall – Fall Photo Montage or Pitcher Full of Fall
Winter – Why I’m the Best Wife Ever or I’ve-Overindulged-One-Too-Many-Times Red Lentil Stew
Articles and Essays – How to Create a More Sustainable Delaware (GreenDelaware Magazine), Seasonal Flavor at 1861 (GreenDelaware Magazine) or Light in Vignettes
Thanks for stopping by
Rachel's Table 
I’m game to follow this blog. I’d love to hear about the local finds. Good luck on this new venture.
Thanks, Faith! I hope to put a lot of information about local shopping and restaurants over the next couple months, so keep reading! 🙂
http://www.newarknaturalfoods.com/
It also includes a year-round Farmer’s Market, that is open every other Sunday.
Hi Aimee! I’m planning on going to the Newark Farmer’s Market on Sunday. And thanks for the tip about Zina’s. I feel like I’ve heard of her before. I hope you are loving life in Virginia! We miss you here.
Also,
http://www.zoweee.com
Is Zina’s Organics and Wellness. She is a culinary chef in raw food. She has her own cookbook and hosts dinners to educate and teach about how to make raw food dishes. I have been to a dinner and it was fantastic. You should look up her calendar and go to one.
Hi Rachel, I found your blog to be very interesting and plan on following it. I am like you, I try to buy local if possible. I live off Polly Drummond Rd and during the summer buy from local farmer’s up the road from my home. An elder husband and wife run a produce stand with everything coming from their garden. Everything is so fresh. There is also the Wilmington outdoor market and another one in Little Italy right inside of town. The Wilmington Outdoor market is right outside of Elsmere. All locally grown produce there as well. Have you tried shopping at the Newark Co-op? Organically grown veggies there. Thank you for sharing with us your blog.
Hi CathyJo! Thanks for stopping by. I plan to visit the farmer’s markets in Wilmington during the growing season. I will add the Outdoor Market to my list! Aren’t tiny produce stands the best?? I’m headed to the co-op this weekend to see what their winter farmer’s market is all about. Thanks for the tips!
Your journey mirrors our family journey!! I will enjoy keeping up with you and I’m sure I will learn from your experiences!
I enjoyed your blog as well, especially the fact that it’s budget conscious. So important. I’ll be checking up on you too! Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Rachel, I think a good restaurant is in a corner in Chestnut Hill Plaza. It is owned by two young guys from DE. They have farm to table and have the best cooking classes. They have a class coming up about secrets to their restaurant that would be good. http://www.lbr614.com is their web site. Call Jimmie he is one of the owners and is very nice and will talk to you. Good luck!
A friend just contacted me about that same restaurant. I’m actually heading there Monday to check it out! Thanks for the tip!
Hi Rachel, that is good. Many people are talking about this restaurant so it is good. Greg
Hi Rachel,
Love your blog and ambition to go completly local! If you haven’t been to Highland Orchards you must go! I can always find the best basil and asparagus there! They also host a CSA. You should check out their website: http://highlandcsa.csaware.com/store. I also go for their fresh cut flowers in the spring, it makes for a lovely trip!
Tiffany
Hi Tiffany! Thanks! I will definitely check out Highland Orchards. I love all the tips I’m getting. I love that people actually care about local food even more. Thanks again!
Rachel, I’ve been a locavore for several years now. When I started, I too thought it was difficult finding good places to go. Along the way, I’ve found a few places that fit my family’s needs. At the same time, there are quite a few others that are great resources, but aren’t conveniently located for me. Do you have a list of the places you know about already? That way, we (your followers) can make suggestions of places you aren’t already familiar with.
Nevermind! LOL. I see it.
Hi Erin! Good for you and your locavore-ness! You are way ahead of me in this whole thing then. That list needs to be updated and reorganized big time, so I hope to get to it soon. I have many places to add to it. Once the growing season is in full swing, I’ll add even more.
Hi Rachel! Just wanted to thank you for liking my post “Grains, cheese and honey, oh my!” on my blog “Delightful Local Repast”. It really can be challenging to find local sources year round. I like the photos and friendly feel of your blog…Cheers, Rose 🙂
Thanks, Rose! I really liked your blog. I’m heading into summer and looking forward to my local options, but apprehensive about what the rest of the year will bring for my local experiment! Maybe I should move to California. 🙂 I’ll be following your blog for some tips on eating locally.
Hi Rachel, your blog looks great, I am excited to hear more!
From one locavore to another :0). You may like to see the program that my daughters school has going on. http://mvcslocavores.wordpress.com/ It is pretty cool.
cheers from Rachelle at http://www.caramelizelife.com
Wow, love the program at your daughter’s school. Such a comprehensive way to teach about food issues and healthy eating. Your daughter must be learning a lot! Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
PS – I read quite a bit of your blog. Love your photos and helpful information. I’m going to have to try your newest recipe, carrot soup. Yum!
Yes, Georgina posted about carrot soup and it too is my favorite we make it often in the fall and freeze it for chilly winter nights, or send it to school for my daughters “girls group” ( where they share a lunch brought by each girl in the group and talk about age related issues during their lunch time. This group is facilitated by their Principal). cheers, Rachelle
What a wonderful idea for a blog! All the best to you on your journey! Happy eating!
Thank you! I go strictly local very soon…happy eating ideed!
Rachel, I really enjoy your blog! I’m in Delaware, too, and have made a commitment to shop and eat local. I’m having a love affair with Pequea Valley Farm yogurt and found you while trying to locate places in Delaware that carry it.
Keep up the good work and I’ll be following!
I can’t get enough of that yogurt! I make salad dressing with the plain. It’s sooo good. I get mine from the Dutch Country Farmer’s Market in Middletown. I haven’t found any other market that carries it, but I talked to Harvest in Hockessin about the possibility. If you live closer to Hockessin, contact them. They are great over there. Thanks for stopping by! Let me know if you find any more great local places. And good luck with the local eating!
I heard there was some chick claiming to be a locavore over here. I believe I have some photographic evidence to the contrary.
What the…? Who are you? I don’t even KNOW you.
I just “found” you at Jules’. I was raised a locavore without knowing such a thing existed! I grew up on a working ranch in the extremely remote Ozark Mountains, which means we grew everything we ate (or killed off the land), including sugar cane. Scratch that. We didn’t make beer, whiskey or coffee. Perhaps other alcoholic and chickory-based drinks but not those three.
Even sugar cane?? That’s incredible. I can only find one bread maker locally that grows its own wheat. No mills around us for flour and such either. 😦 It’s hard to go completely locavore with our current food industry, but maybe one day I’ll have a small farm and eat off the land just like you did. Do you still eat that way?
We provide our own water and sewage, too, btw (and heat with wood).
Firstly, I’m Celiac, so there’s no wheat, barley or what-nought. I have a cousin who raises rice though (for the Riceland Co-Op). I don’t live like that anymore. It’s a full time job and you meed multiple workers. I worked at LEAST 4 hours a day doing manual labor–and never got allowance. Our goats and milk cow (not the beef cattle but our milk cow *was* a beef cow) provided dairy, as well. I grew up killing my pets (and/ or eating them, although we sold beef, pork, sheep and some fowl). It’s a different kind of life. People always say they’d like it but they’ve no clue what it’s like. A few months ago I killed a rabbit by ripping its head off. You live like that. It’s not quite bucolic but I did have excellent nutrition and exercise! We used mules for working the farm implements, too. It was like Victorian times. I tell people that I grew up in Brigadoon. It explains the drinking 🙂 I still don’t have much use for tv cos I didn’t grow up with it! When I moved out at age 15, my parents started back-scaling a lot. Our tiny ranch is in the middle of what was many thousands of acres of dairy farms BUT my family’s property (not dad’s) deeper in the Ozarks was quite large. Most of it is now owned by the state as part of the Mark Twain National Forest.
There’s something to be said about that kind of self sufficiency. I don’t know if I could handle the actual slaughtering of the animals. At this point I’d just be happy with a couple of chickens and a bigger garden. Oh and like you said a lot more time to maintain everything. Sounds like you had an interesting childhood. I think a memoir is in your future. 🙂
Wow! What an interesting theme for a blog. Love what your doing and you can be sure i’ll be following along !
Cheers,
Mac
Hi Mack! I’ve taken a look around your blog, too, and Iove it! I especially love your love of beer. 🙂 We have some great local breweries here in Delaware.
🙂 thanks for checking it out. I will hopefully start doing reviews of local beers in Ontario/Quebec. I have about 21 more days of writing to do for the bicycle trip I just completed. I also brew my own beer, I may do some instructional/educational stuff on here in the next couple months. Cheers
I love the idea for this blog. Eating local is the only way to go. My family has a small garden that we grow all of our own produce during the summer and fall. Also, our farmers market in Helena MT is amazing, so much good food. Now i’m craving some fresh carrots!
Thanks! What kinds of fall crops do you have right now in Montana? I’m ALREADY missing tomatoes and I have a long time to wait.
our fall crops are your typical gourds, butternut squash, acorns squash, pumpkins, etc. although the best are the tomatoes(145lbs. picked early because of weather, after 250lbs. during the summer), zuccinini 5″ thick and 2′ long. and now that the snow is starting to melt I’m going to plant garlic, to help the soil, and also to have garlic in the spring. I’m not mentioning the green beans or the peas or the strawberries, or the potatoes either. if you want a good way to help preserve your tomatoes let me know I got a couple.
Locavore is a cool way to eat! Looking forward to some new recipes from you Rachel 🙂
I’m learning so much about REAL food by eating locally and love sharing it with readers. 🙂
Thank you!
Your job as Locavore includes travel by america? If so many places may recommend captive. Especially in South America, the kitchen becomes a mystical character in a short distance because the flavors and sensations suffer great changes giving it a unique endemism that resists lost due to globalization of our world today. Many identity accompanied by a good trip fill the heart with unforgettable way.
Rachel congratulations on your site, it is very inspiring because I’m just in search of this type of ideas to motivate me to write about something with much encouragement. For while it is my film and read the progress on your page. Keep it up as you treat the topic is very interesting and make you want to keep reading. Greetings from Chile and leave you invited to my site but not if the Spanish understand much 🙂
I’ve never been to South America, but I’ve seen enough to know I would so enjoy spending some time traveling there and EATING there.
I did visit your site, but no hablo Espanol. Thanks for stopping by here and leaving me such a lovely comment!
Do not worry I do not speak much English but I attempt to learn because it is the only way to keep this site also. I tried looking for a translator to my site but I’m still new to WordPress, it is perhaps tomorrow. Have a good week Rachel. Bye 🙂
Rachel, I nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blogger Award! http://brooklynlocavore.wordpress.com/2012/12/01/three-cheers-for-the-very-inspiring-blogger-award/
Wow! Thank you!! 🙂
sounds like a neat place
Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
Nice! given the fact that I have really started watching what I eat due to building my physique as I work out in the gym almost everyday, I am starting to become a locavore, and someone that wants to eat raw most of the time to consume the most anti-oxidants possible. Keep blogging
I love to cook way too much to try a raw diet, but I admire those that commit to it. Good luck to you on that one! And thanks for stopping by.
Great work Rachel, admire the principles behind your passion. I have heard of Delaware but had to look it up on the map. Greetings from Australia and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Thanks for stopping by! A Very Merry Christmas to YOU from the tiny state of Delaware!
Rachel, “locavore”=?
Madi si Onu
I only eat foods grown or raised within 100 miles of my front door. That’s hard to do in the winter months in my part of the world, so I add things like lentils to my diet to round it out. I like to know exactly where my food comes from and eating locally allows me to do that. I’m friends with my farmer!
Pacat, nestiind engleza, pierd savoarea talcului raspunsurilor tale. Dar sunt tare preocupat de tema alimentatiei sanatoase, cum pare preconizata de nobila preocupare!
Cum sa facem?
Madi si Onu
I nominated you for a Very Inspiring Blogger Award.
http://bloodsweatand.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/very-inspiring-blogger-award/
For some reason, I thought your blog was only about Delaware or I’d have followed much sooner! I like me some recipes and what not, even if they’re from skinny people.
Lots of recipes on here! And the occasional local restaurant or market review. Skinny people can cook, too! Don’t discriminate. 🙂
I know that now! I’ve never made a bad Giada DL recipe. They’re all good.
Thanks for following me. You have some lovely recipes here and eating and buying seasonally and locally is a great project, good luck!
I was inspired to eat locally by Italy (more specifically the book Under the Tuscan Sun). Going to market, knowing the farmers, and enjoying in-season food is the only way, for me. I’m looking forward to following your progress with the olive grove!
Hi, Rachel! I just found your blog and i’m really enjoying it. I’m all about eating seasonally and locally as much as possible. Thanks!
Hi, Melissa! Glad you found me, and kudos to your for eating locally and seasonally – it’s not easy sometimes!
Hello Rachel: Thanks so much for liking my post in my “Delightful Local Repast” blog. Enjoying perusing yours as well! Cheers, Rose
Thanks for stopping by, Rose! Love your blog!
Very nice blog, I love the whole concept you have about eating, shopping and cooking local. Best whishes 🙂
Thanks for taking the time to look around!
I like your blog, I will follow, but when are you going to do something with Basque food? hahahaha
http://basamortua.wordpress.com/
Just found your blog. Gotta try that pie crust! Looks easy as….pie. Oops.
If you have a food processor it is as easy as pie! 😉 Glad you found your way here!
I love your message! It’s the same one I preach here at home, but I generally live in a pretty liberal state, so I’m preaching to the choir. Happy i stumbled upon your blog, and look forward to reading your findings. Keep supporting local!
Thank you! I love meeting like-minded people. Glad you stopped by to say hello.
I’m so happy to have discovered your blog. I look forward to reading more. Emma.
Hi Rachel this is a very inspirational blog, thank you for sharing your passion for food and life.
One of my hobbies down here in East Texas is learning about local edible flora and finding old tastes that America has forgotten.
It amazes me how many foods and ingredients that have been nearly lost in the past one hundred years. Beautyberries, muscadine grapes, golden rods, pine needle tea, roasted mesquite bean coffee, sassafras (root beer), dandelions, wild melons, sorrel, wild lettuce, purple dead nettles and the list goes on..Google any of those. Most of those are considered weeds and in people’s yards.
Anyways, I was just wondering if you want to do an entry on “lost foods/ingredients” A lot of chefs are into that kind of thing. Email me if you are interested.
Hi Rachel.
I really enjoy reading your blog and wanted to tell you about an Indiegogo campaign for WeFeedUs. I believe it is the kind of endeavor you’d like to support, as WeFeedUs is dedicated to locally grown, sustainable, non-GMO, pesticide-free produce. Please check it out! http://igg.me/at/wefeedus/x/8979026
Thanks for sharing your stories, recipes and experiences. Happy holidays!
Just found this blog and very eager to read more! I love food as well and I agree, the more local the better.
From, http://www.thewickedintrovert.com