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Bowls have revolutionized the way I eat, and I’m not talking about the ceramic Ikea dishes in my cupboard (even though I do think it’s superior to the plate, but that’s another blog post). Bowl dishes are the new trend in cooking that makes meal planning and throwing together healthy dinners SO easy. Really, try these out for a week and I promise you will never want to say “crockpot dump meal” ever again.

A bowl dish usually consists of a couple of veggies (and some fruit if any of your favorites are in season!), a grain or legume, a protein, and a healthy drizzle of sauce. They’re incredibly versatile and delicious, no matter if you make it vegan, vegetarian, seasonable, paleo, whatever. You can have fun and play with new flavor profiles (it’s so easy to stock your kitchen with Thai and Indian spices) or keep it simple! I like to prep a couple of ingredients over the weekend and mix and match ingredients throughout the week. Here are a couple of amazing bowl recipes to get you started – don’t be afraid to substitute in your favorite ingredients and get a little creative!

-Claire H., ALFN Program & Market Manager

Masala Chickpea Buddha Bowl from Full of Plants

Salmon Roll Sushi Bowl from Savory Tooth

Mermaid Smoothie Bowl from The Glowing Fridge

Healthy Chicken Shawarma Quinoa Bowls from Peas & Crayons

Tifany Hamlin wears lots of hats with many organizations in central Arkansas. She’s our current board chair, founder of Party with a Heart, market manager at Dogtown Farmers Market, and the new executive director with Be Pro Be Proud. A small town girl at heart, she knows how important it is to support local economies. That’s why she is passionate about local food and supporting our Arkansas farmers. When she’s not working (which is never, really), she and her husband, Harry love to travel all over the world.

How did you get involved with ALFN and when did you join the Board?

Tifany: We’ve been customers at ALFN since 2013. I loved being able to shop off season when my farmers market was closed. I joined the board in spring of 2015.

You just stepped into the role of board chair. Describe what that job entails and which part you’re most looking forward to.

What would you say to someone considering becoming a board member or a volunteer at ALFN?

Tifany: Our organization is small but very active. There’s lots to do and every volunteer has an opportunity to play an important role at ALFN. The board is friendly and hardworking. It’s a great place to plug in without feeling overwhelmed by a large group of people you may not know. I consider all of my fellow board members good friends who have the same passion about local food and life in general.

What’s your favorite thing to order from the market?

Tifany: Right now I’m obsessed with Barnhill Orchards green leaf lettuce. It comes washed and ready to use and lasts more than a week (if we don’t get it all used up way before then!). I also love Bluebird Hill Berry Farm eggs — these have been a staple in my house for years!

By Board Member Amy Pritchard

Oh, Arkansas winters! Last weekend, I sat on my porch in the 70 degree weather and planned my garden. This weekend, we’re reminded it’s still winter!  February reminds us that spring is just around the corner, but we’re not quite there yet!

Even though the spring vegetable season has not yet begun, you can still make a great local meal.  Chili is my favorite winter meal, because they are so easy to make with whatever you have on hand. Some weeks, I make complex meals from scratch. Other weeks, I’m too busy to even think about cooking. A chili is a great option for either: you can make it ahead for the week, or make an elegant meal.  Chili is very forgiving: just throw in whatever you have in whatever ratios you prefer, and you’ll have a great meal!  

I based this week’s recipe on Minimalist Baker’s 5 Ingredient Sweet Potato Black Bean Chili following the general instructions, but substituting in the ingredients I had on hand.  I used butternut squash, but the market still has some sweet potatoes available.  I added canned tomatoes instead of salsa. While I had planned to cook the black beans from scratch using ALFN’s bulk black beans, I ended up using canned beans.  For my spices, I chose chili, cumin, and chipotle (I love the smoky taste of chipotle. For added depth, add a canned chipotle in adobo sauce).  Let it all simmer together, and, voila!

The Arkansas Farmers’ Market Association announced the winner of its “Arkansas Best Market Partners” contest at the organization’s annual meeting in January. Christ Episcopal Church is being honored for its decade-long partnership with the Arkansas Local Food Network. Arkansas Local Food Network’s board members nominated the church for its role in sustaining the organization since it was a fledgling online market.

Beverly Dunaway, president of the Arkansas Farmers’ Market Association said the annual Best Market Partner awards are an opportunity to show appreciation for partners who provide important opportunities for farmers’ markets.

Katy Elliott, one of Arkansas Local Food Network’s founders states, “Our partnership with Christ Church has been instrumental to the success of our farmers market. Early on, they provided us with an affordable space and our connection to the congregation has helped us to build, expand and sustain our programs. We couldn’t continue to connect Little Rock with fresh, local foods without a partner like Christ Church.”

In addition to sharing space, church members are enthusiastic food shoppers and volunteers at the market. Going above and beyond, Christ Episcopal Church’s partnership offers Arkansas Local Food Network a unique opportunity to source healthy local foods for the church’s Green Groceries program benefitting lower-income families. Recognized as one of 13 “Good Food” organizations in Arkansas by the James Beard Foundation and FoodTank in 2016, the Arkansas Local Food Network owes much of its success to its strong partnership with Christ Episcopal Church.

For more information about farmers’ markets in Arkansas contact your local cooperative extension agent or visit the Arkansas Farmer’s Market Association website.

Once upon a time, our family dinner tables were adorned with in-season dishes made from backyard gardens or a neighbor’s farm. This simple way of eating has vanished, replaced by a highly complex food system designed to provide convenience and year-round food availability.

While it’s nice to mindlessly pop into a supermarket and not have to think about what food is in season where we live, this lack of awareness comes at a price. Many of the items we purchase from the supermarket have traveled thousands of miles (usually from another country) to get to us. They’re also not fresh. The dizzying array of chemical tricks we’ve developed to keep food looking good (can anyone say “1-methylcyclopropene”?) means that a “ripe” apple in the produce section may actually be months old.

Why should we be worried about our complex food system?  Our food purchases make a impact on our environment, health, and local economy. The Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture estimates that most of our meals travel 1500 miles to get to our plates.

1500 miles. Let’s illustrate this. Here are some of the things I might shop for in a typical day:

Bananas

Dominican Republic to Little Rock: 1749 miles

Avocados (because, guacamole)

Mexico City to Little Rock: 1445 miles

Coffee

Columbia to Little Rock: 2,380 miles

I’m going to stop there, because those three items alone have already traveled over 5,574 miles to get to me (because we haven’t even factored in the distribution centers for Supermarkets). By that time, my food might has well have come to me from Timbuktu. Literally.

This means that each of our meals costs WAY more than the number on the grocery bill, because we have to factor in the economical and environmental cost of the fossil fuel burned and carbon emissions over those 1500 miles. A study by the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture in Iowa estimated that “growing and transporting 10 percent more of the produce for Iowa consumption…would result in an annual savings ranging from 280 to 346 thousand gallons of fuel”.

When we make a conscious effort to source more of our food locally, it’s better for everyone. It doesn’t have to be difficult either – Little Rock is home to some fantastic farmer’s markets and CSA’s (including ALFN’s Little Rock Food Club!). Here’s some examples of how far the food at our market travels to get to your home in Little Rock:

Apples

Lonoke to Little Rock: 27 miles

Beef

Center Ridge to Little Rock: 63.4 miles

Eggs

Atkins to Little Rock: 57 miles

Spinach

Vilonia to Little Rock: 37.6 miles

Let’s make an effort to improve our communities, our health, and our environment by choosing to eat more local foods!

We know that everyone needs a little inspiration in the kitchen from time to time, so we put together a list of the ALFN board and staff’s favorite food blogs to share with you! What are your favorite go-to food websites?

The Kitchn

Nourished Kitchen

Budget Bytes

Gimme Some Oven

Cookie + Kate

NY Times Cooking

Nom Nom Paleo

Thug Kitchen

Vegan Yum Yum

Smitten Kitchen

Lucky Peach

ALFN loves our growers, and we want to take every opportunity to share their stories! L.C. Ratchford of Ratchford Farms is a long time member of our market, and a well-known figure in the Arkansas farming community. Ratchford Farms is located in Marshall and known for its amazing buffalo meat (their buffalo sticks were the official campaign snack for Mike Huckabee back in the day).

How did you get into raising buffalo?

L.C.: When I was just a teenager I was watching TV and saw a short show about raising buffalo, at that time I knew it was what I was meant to do. I graduated high school and went on the get a welding degree. I knew that the buffalo had to have extremely extra heavy duty fences and holding pens so as I was rebuilding my cattle fatalities I built them with welded steel pipe. Which is ongoing even today.

Why did you get involved with ALFN, and how has it positively impacted your business?

L.C.: I got involved with ALFN so I had a direct market my products. This has drastically impacted my business by increasing my sales and allowing me to get to know my consumers on a personal level, as well and getting to know their wants and needs for my products.

If you weren’t a buffalo farmer, what do you think you might be doing?

L.C.: I know that I will always be involved in buffalo ranching in some capacity or another. I am strongly considering seeking an elected political office so that I might be a voice for the small family farmer\ rancher and business owners that choose to operate differently than some of the large factory farms . I believe that this can be another way that I can have a positive on the world around me.

Do you have any heartwarming stories from your time farming?

L.C.: A few years ago on a very cold January morning I was out on the farm feeding hay and checking the cattle when I noticed a young calf that had the misfortune of wondering out onto the snow covered ice onto a frozen pond. The poor calf had fallen on the ice and was unable to stand. The big problem was that he was about 30 feet from the edge of the pond, on the ice. I drove to my mother’s house (she was about 85 years old at the time ) and requested her assistance and expertise in dealing with this time sensitive and dire dilemma. It was decided that I would take a rope and secure it around my shoulders and chest and that I would take another rope to be placed around the calf. The other ends of the ropes would be secured to the bumper of the truck. I walked out onto the ice and put the rope on the calf but I soon found that I could not stand on the ice and pull the calf, so I just laid down on the ice and held onto the rope that was that was tied to the calf and instructed my mother to drive forward. She pulled both the calf and myself to the safety of dry ground, and the calf was reunited with his mother. The point of this story is that I as a farmer\ rancher put the animals welfare first with little regard for my own safety or well being. I never stopped to think about the possibility of falling through the ice into the deep, dark cold water where I might drowned or die from hypothermia. This is not just a job to me but a way of life and a commitment to the animals and the land.

Which of your products would you recommend to new customers?

L.C.: I would encourage everyone that reads this to join ALFN so that they can try all of the high quality, nutritious and tasty products that are offered (which changes from season) on the site, and not just from my farm but from all of the many growers. Being a member also gives you a chance to meet and interact with a lot of like-minded people, know where and how your food is being produced \ grown, and at the time support local economy.

To learn more about L.C. and his farm, visit him on Facebook.

Roasting a whole chicken is a great way to plan ahead meals for a busy week. It becomes a star staple for lots of easy recipes! We found five ways to use up that whole chicken.

Roasted Whole Chicken

Roast a whole chicken on the weekend to use in any of these 5 delicious recipes below!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

20-Minute Tuscan Chicken with Penne

Buffalo Chicken Taco

Easy Chicken Salad

Chicken Cakes with Remoulade Sauce

Substitute canned chicken in this recipe with your roasted chicken meat.

If you’ve been to the Saturday market, chances are you have met and been helped by Jack, one of our most lively and frequent volunteers!  Jack has lived in Little Rock his whole life, and enjoys spending his down time on creative projects. This week we wanted to highlight his experience working with ALFN. 

When and why did you start volunteering with ALFN?

Jack: I started volunteering for ALFN when I first heard about them back in December of 2015. Within the first week I placed an order and realized they needed volunteers, and figured it would be a good way to learn more about local farms, merchants, and projects.

Do you have a funny or heartwarming story from volunteering?

Jack: No stories in particular that I can think of, but I like to think each week I volunteer is at least a little funny or heartwarming in some way, haha!

What is your favorite item to order from the market?

Jack: What I order most often is the green eggs from Green Acres in Atkins! They’re never anything short of delicious. Some of my favorites includes shiitake mushrooms from Arkansas Natural Produce, cilantro-almond pesto from Geek Eats, and -when they’re in season- peaches and spinach from Green Acres, as well as Jonathan Apples from Drewry Farms! I’m also very fond of all the bath and beauty products I’ve gotten from Tammy Sue’s Critters!