Eat like a locavore

When Lise Ciolino of Healdsburg was growing up in upstate New York, she never gave much thought to the origin of her food.

While getting a master’s degree in computer science in Switzerland, however, Ciolino’s curiosity was piqued by the little Swiss flags displayed proudly on top of the local cheese and eggs at the corner market.

“That was the first time I paid attention to where food comes from,” she said. “The price was twice as high. And I thought, ‘Why would anybody buy eggs that are twice as expensive?’”

At the time, Ciolino decided to buy the cheaper eggs and cheese. But now, Ciolino has radically changed the way she shops and eats. As such, she is emblematic as one of the growing number of “locavores,” food consumers who are consciously attempting to eat food produced within a 100-mile radius of home.

Take those eggs, for instance. At her local grocery store in Healdsburg, she could buy two 18-pack cartons of eggs during a two-for-one special and end up paying $2.50 for 36 eggs, or about 7 cents an egg.

But instead, she prefers to buy a 12-pack carton of eggs from Petaluma Farms’ Rock Island Fertile Brown Eggs, which ends up costing about 40 cents an egg.

“The flavor is better,” she said. “And the shell is thick, so you can tell the animal is more healthy.”

Enhanced flavor is one of the main reasons folks across the country are embracing the new dietary concept known as locavore, a true-food movement encouraging consumers to grow their own food and eat seasonally from farmers’ markets.

But there are other incentives as well: the desire to preserve the open space of small family farms and avoid the environmental costs of long-distance shipping. It’s estimated that food travels an average of 1,500 miles, and often more, before landing on our tables.

The term “locavore” — the Oxford America Dictionary’s 2007 Word of the Year — was coined by four Bay Area womenwho organized the first mass locavore experiment in August 2005. The experiment involved eating locally for a month and drew 200 people the first year, growing to 1,000 last year.

It’s no coincidence that the Bay Area is ground zero for local eating. The region’s proximity to the oysters and cheeses of Marin County, the poultry, veggies and cheeses of Sonoma County and the wines and fruits of both Sonoma and Napa have turned it into a hotbed of fresh, seasonal and local cuisine.

After finishing her degree in Switzerland, Ciolino moved to Woodside in the South Bay to launch her career in the software industry, and her eyes were opened by the bounty all around her. Then, about two years ago, Ciolino started reading a trio of non-fiction books that got her thinking more deeply about the sources of her food.

It all started with Michael Pollan’s best-selling book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.”

“One of his premises is, we can eat everything, so how do we decide what to eat in this global environment?” she said. “He made me think about ‘What am I eating?’”

Next, she picked up Russ Parsons’ “How to Pick a Peach,” a user’s guide to the rainbow of produce sold at farmer’smarkets. Finally, she read Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” a memoir about one family’s efforts to eat locally for a year on a farm in Virginia.

Since 2001, Ciolino and her family have lived on a steep hillside 750 feet above the Dry Creek Valley, where they grow olives for their own olive oil and cultivate syrah and cabernet vines for their small, family winery, Montemaggiore.

Ciolino serves as the winemaker, while her husband, Vincent, toils as the grower. Having already made the decision to farm in a sustainable, organic and biodynamic manner, Ciolino didn’t have to make a big leap to head down the locavore path.

“To me, self-sufficiency has always been one of those important broader life goals,” she explained. “The goal of the biodynamic farm is to be totally self-sufficient. That’s our philosophy in the vineyard, and that’s how I’d like to be eating.”

Ciolino spent summers in high school and college traipsing around Europe with her father, a college professor whose hobby was importing wine for his friends. Sitting down and drinking wine with the winemakers left a strong impression on her.

“That allowed me to attach a story to the wine and the people,” she said. “And through wine, I learned that food also comes from a certain place and a producer.”

Earlier this year, Ciolino decided to launch her own locavore experiment by eating as locally as possible.

Sourcing vegetables and fruits was not a problem, since she grows herbs, greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, melons and peppers in her own garden. Through the generosity of a neighbor, her family receives regular boxes of seasonal fruit.

But finding local meat was not so easy. A friend suggested buying half a steer and splitting it, but frequent power outages at Ciolino’s home made refrigerated storage a bit risky.

Around the same time, the UC Cooperative Extension launched the Sonoma County Meat Buying Club, a pioneering program that supplies members with an assortment of local beef, pork and lamb, in manageable monthly shipments of 7, 15 or 25 pounds.

“This way, people can have the local meat, but they don’t have to buy a whole lot of it,” said Stephanie Larsen, livestock advisor for the UC Cooperative Extension.

Ciolino signed up for the club during its launch in February, and her family has been enjoying the steaks, ground beef, pork chops and lamb roasts ever since.

To supplement her garden and meat supply, Ciolino shops for vegetables at the Healdsburg Farmers Market or Anstead’s Market, which also carries organic eggs and dairy products.

Her 6-year-old son, Paolo, drinks a lot of milk, and she feels strongly about buying organic produce and dairy products. The rest of her staples, from peanut butter and jelly to cereal and Kleenex, are purchased at Safeway.

On a Saturday morning in early May, Ciolino stopped by the Healdsburg Farmer’s Market to pick up a few items to round out dinner that night for out-of-town guests.

“I’m going to do a lamb roast,” she said. “But right now my salad greens are gone.”

She bought some arugula and spicy cress from La Bonne Terre Farm, then picked up a loaf of Sonora Multigrain bread from Lou Preston of Preston Vineyards, who grew his own Sonora wheat, then mixed it with barley, spelt, seeds and Giusto’s wheat flour.

“It’s healthy, and it tastes good,” Preston said of the hearty bread. “It was baked this morning.”

Like most locavores, Ciolino is not willing to give up everything shipped from afar, especially bananas. But she is not going to lose sleep over it.

“For me, this is a process,” she said. “Totally local is not the goal.”

As for those Swiss flags, Ciolino doesn’t think they’re such a crazy idea anymore. She would like to see a label that would help folks zero in on Sonoma County products at the grocery store.

“All it needs is a logo,” she said. “You could download it from a computer.”

MONTEMAGGIORE FRITTATA

Makes 4 servings

To make this frittata, Ciolino grabbed some carrots, zucchini and onions from her garden, along with some parsley, oregano and thyme. Then she threw in some leftover bacon, eggs, butter and the Montemaggiore olive oil, for an “unplanned, 30-minute, 100 percent Sonoma County meal.” The recipe can expand or contract, depending on how many people you are serving, and can be made in an infinite number of combinations. Some of her favorites are leeks asparagus, sun-dried tomato, goat cheese and thyme; shallots, broccoli, Swiss cheese, and potatoes; and white onions, tomatoes, olives, feta, Parmesan and basil.

2 tablespoons butter or olive oil

¼ cup diced onion (yellow, white, green, leeks or shallots)

2 to 3 cups seasonal veggies, cleaned and chopped into bite-size pieces (such as carrots, zucchini, seeded tomatoes, yellow squash, spinach, asparagus, sweet peppers)

12 eggs (3 to 4 per serving)

½ to 1 cup pre-cooked meat or potatoes (optional)

¼ cup fresh, chopped herbs (parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, tarragon), to taste

¼ to 1 cup cheese (grated Parmesan, goat cheese, Swiss cheese, feta, ricotta)

1/3 cup heavy cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large, oven-safe frying pan, heat the butter or olive oil (or a combination of both) and add the onion. Cook at medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add vegetables based on cooking times (carrots first, then peppers, and spinach last).

Meanwhile, whisk eggs with cream, adding salt and pepper to taste. When veggies are almost done, add the meat and/or potatoes and stir until heated. Add eggs but do not stir. Sprinkle in herbs and cheese, if desired. Cook until eggs begin to firm up and brown on the side and bottom of pan. Put in oven and cook until eggs are set, about 10 minutes.

Using a flexible spatula, loosen the edges of the frittata. Flip over onto serving plate so that the brown crust is up. Cut into wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Diane Peterson, a staff writer, can be reached at 521-5287 or diane.peterson@pressdemocrat.com.