Sunset, Monday, 10 August 2009

William Theodore Van Doren. Stony Point, Albemarle County, Va. Oil on paper, 16 x 20.

Tonight we’re making panzanella, with a recipe very freely adapted from Saveur Cooks Authentic Italian. Since we don’t have a garden this year – we usually have at least 30 tomato plants – we broke down and bought a flat of tomatoes from Planet Earth Diversified. We’re using baguettes from Albemarle Baking Company and – hey, what’s this, has product placement come to the Daily Sun Times?

No, just enthusiasm. Saveur was once a truly great magazine, before they changed editors a few years back, and if you ever had a baguette from Albemarle Baking, you also might gratuitously advertise its virtues.

As for Planet Earth Diversified, they’ve been pioneers, in this region, in the growing and distribution of ‘local’ food. Not only that – their delivery truck runs, not on regular gasoline, and not on corn or soy or some other agricultural product that could otherwise feed someone, but on used fryer oil.