Homegrown Happy Valley

Add Fraser Street Deli (which names all of its sandwiches after local celebs, including former PSU basketball great Amaechi) to the growing list of restaurants touting local ingredients. Pepper ham, salami, capicola and provolone on a freshly baked panini may be the ultimate in carnivore, localvore indulgence.

I’m a careful food shopper. I scrutinize labels and stickers, hunting for clues about where a product comes from and how it was made. I once stood in front of a pile of avocados for ten minutes, trying to choose between the conventional fruit from Mexico and the bruised organic version from California–and wishing my husband’s grandmother would just send more from her tree in Santa Maria. I probably put more thought into those avocados than the car my husband and I purchased a few years ago.

Like many ideas, this one grew from personal experience.

When I moved to State College two years ago, I set out to find the businesses that would turn this community into a place I could call home. I chose a coffee shop that doubled as my new and used book supplier. I met a farmer, joined a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and turned my husband into a kale eater. And I found a baker whose cupcakes and chocolate mousse cake are more than worth the drive to her house. My quest for quality took me to independent, locally owned businesses from Bellefonte to Boalsburg and Millheim to Port Matilda.