OLS Week#3: Back to Square One

This week’s local meal came quite by surprise!

Maxwell and I went to Hendersonville, in western NC, for the weekend to visit with family and hike in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains.
After last week’s hike, I was antsy to get Max back on the trail. We all met at our house on Saturday afternoon and headed out to Dupont State Forest together. The park boasts at least 5 waterfalls; we were able to view two on our hike. We had all been to the park before several years ago and when I realized we would be in the vicinity, I was very excited to see the falls again. Luckily this weekend the weather was a little more tame and a pleasant, enjoyable time was had by all. We managed about 2.5mi in total. Maxwell fearlessly blazed the trail, stopping for ear scratches from everybody we met. He even got to play in the water at the top of the falls for a bit and met a pair of horses, which he thought was a pretty bizarre sight to behold.
After our hike, my family and I went to Square One Bistro on main street. The restaurant focuses on fresh and local organic foods, supporting local agriculture and businesses as well as providing the best possible ingredients for their customers. On the back cover of the menu was a list of all the farms and families where the restaurant gets its produce, meats, dairy products, jams, etc. used in their dishes. This is the description given on their website:

About 90% of our produce is organic during the growing season, and 60% in the winter. Virtually nothing is frozen, canned, pre-cut, pre-cooked – pre-anything. We begin with food in its native state and do only that which improves it. “Native state” applies in another sense, because we stock our larder from our locale, state, and region. We take the “50-150-regional” approach, getting our produce from within 50 miles, our “small protein items” from within 150 miles, and our “big protein items” from within our region.

I ordered the garden platter, selecting 4 options from a list of sides: sautéed collard greens, cabbage (with a very smoky flavor), a delicious potato and leek au gratin and a side salad of arugula with goat cheese, apples, spiced walnuts and candied onions. It was all superbly delicious and, after eating our fill, we ambled our way up Main Street to Kilwin’s, a local ice creamery. There was a freshly finished batch of fudge in the window and display cases lined with candies and chocolate dipped goodies. I had the banana fudge ice cream and it was heaven – creamy and sweet with the thickness of a banana but not too rich.

It was a perfect evening for a fun day.

Next week I’m planning to participate in Food Independence Day by making a Fourth of July meal from entirely local ingredients. I’m thinking BBQ Chicken and deviled eggs. We’ll see how that goes!