Homegrown Happy Valley

The May issue of Country Living magazine echoes what we already knew: Tait Farm carries the best locally made products in the region.

A one-page spread asks Liz Thorpe of the famed Murray’s Cheese in NYC to recommend some artisanal cheddars handcrafted in America. Among her picks is Goot Essa’s Mountain Valley Sharp Cheddar, aged for at least three years. And Tait Farm Foods is listed as the source.

Goot Essa (German for “good food” or “good eating”) is a group of Amish dairy farmers in Howard, Pennsylvania who have been turning their milk into high-quality cheese since 2001. While the rest of the country orders online, we’ll turn down 322 for this block of creamy goodness.

Does downtown really need another Dunkin’ Donuts?

Here are 5 local alternatives for breakfast food:

The Cheese Shoppe and Webster’s: I dare you to find better beans. If you can’t afford coffee out, just walk by the Cheese Shoppe and inhale–you’re guaranteed to feel better. At Webster’s, pair a cup of the Three Eyed Buddha with a vanilla scone and prepare for culinary zen.

The Diner: If you really want to OD on empty carbs rolled in sugar, pick up a package of Stickies. Bonus points if you grill them in butter.

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.