Mother Nature's Kitchen

Mark Vergari/The Journal News

When I first started buying only organic and mainly local, when possible, I was rather dismayed that some produce wasn't available at certain times of the year ~ until I realized that this was according to nature's schedule. Of course, plants can be forced to produce anytime, but that usually requires extraordinary methods. Dan Barber, co-owner and executive chef at New York's Blue Hill and Blue Hill at Stone Barns, is the author of The Third Plate: Field Notes on the Future of Food. He believes that we need to pay more attention to what our nearby farms can sustainably produce and modify our diets to be in synch with that schedule, rather than vice versa (story, video): http://www.cbsnews.com/news/at-dan-barbers-restaurants-the-farm-is-the-menu/
   Barber wrote an op-ed piece in which he laid out his argument under the intriguing headline "What Farm-to-Table Got Wrong": http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/opinion/sunday/what-farm-to-table-got-wrong.html?_r=0