Food Trends 2012 Part Three: Food Bloggers: El, Jamie, Faith, Simone and Vianney

Perspectives from some of my Favourite Food Bloggers, Locally and Otherwise: five yesterday and five more today

Following my Personal Reflection about Food Trends for 2012, I asked a number of my favourite Food Bloggers to provide their personal perspectives regarding food trends for 2012. This is the second post that includes responses from my favourite food bloggers. I was thrilled each took the time to respond to my request and I trust you will find their answers revealing, passionate and insightful!

Today, we have El from New England, Jamie from the South of France, Faith from New York, Simone from the Netherlands and Vianney from Texas so you can imagine how varied their responses are, yet I am sure you will also be surprise by the global similarities.

Please feel free to ask each individual questions in the comments section here, as they come to mind.

After reading these insights, please do take time to explore each of these websites; each has held my fascination for a very long time for varying reasons!

El from Fresh

I discovered El quite a few years ago through the comments section on another site. (The way many of us discover one another!) When I popped over to her site I was mesmerized! She possesses a very special and rare gift: the ability to artistically edify you through her words and photography while reading and learning about her food. While I am with her, I am somehow transposed through time and space to a different place that she has created and I find a refuge there even when I didn’t know I needed one. By following her on twitter, I came to realize that we are very like-minded in a number of ways philosophically about food. Please take some time to meander through El’s site. You will leave rejuvenated.

I’m very excited about what’s happening with food here in New England. The New England area is developing into one of the strongest regions in the country for locally produced foods and it’s wonderful to watch it unfold. Here is what I see as our top 5 trends:

• A continued and strengthened interest in locally produced foods through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), our abundant local farms and our numerous farmer’s markets. People in New England are shifting away from the mega-farm and corporate-produced food and toward local, sustainable agriculture and locally owned businesses. Because of this I suspect that there will be increased demand for farm fresh, non-GMO products and other hand made items such as bread, cheese, wine, chocolate, ice cream etc. Perhaps eating locally is one of the reasons why the six New England states are considered among the healthiest in the US.
• We will see innovation in the ways in which local food is grown and distributed. For example, Boston, Massachusetts is planning to open a major marketplace to showcase Massachusetts grown foods. Vermont is using mobile flash freezing techniques to freeze vegetables immediately after picking and make them available year round. Fisherman in our coastal states are generating new ways to bring food directly to consumers and farmers will continue to search for ways to extend the growing season and make fresh food available even during frigid winter months.
• The shift from corporate-grown to freshly grown food will be reflected in restaurant menus around the region. Simply put, we will see a schism between chefs and owners who source their menus from New England farms, who believe in sustainable agriculture, who demand humane treatment of animals and who are generally responsive to their communities and those who are not.
• There will be an increase in home gardeners. Whether it be for sheer economics, the love of learning or the desire to be self-sufficient we can expect to see more vegetable gardens, backyard chickens and the like.
• Food banks will need our help. Despite the strong local food scene, there are many people still struggling to get their basic food needs met. We’ll need to step up and donate/volunteer to help our brothers and sisters in need.

What would your most sincere hope, wish, or desire be to see as a food trend in 2012?

• My most fervent desire is that we recognize our power as citizens. If we don’t want to see our land destroyed, our jobs outsourced, our climate changed, our children exposed to pesticides and targeted for mass marketing … if we want to preserve our health, our environment and our food supply, we need not wait around for politicians to make things better. We can vote with our wallets. Every time we make a purchase we tell a corporation that what they’re doing is just fine. Companies exist for profit and they would not survive without our money. After working hard all week, each of us can ask, “What am I supporting with my hard earned dollars?” “What am I investing in?” Imagine the power of 300 million people in the United States voting with their wallets and investing in the future of the world.

Faith from An Edible Mosaic

I met Faith the same way I met El. Faith is adventurous in the kitchen! She creates the most interesting recipes. She happens to love raw cookie dough and has developed some mighty tasty looking treats with various cookie doughs that she claims are addictive, and I do believe her as I have made a couple of her savory dishes that were straightforward to make and so delicious. This is one of them (try it!). She has travelled to the Middle East often as her husband’s family hails from there and captivates me through her travel tales and the food inspired by her travels. You will find more than a few dishes you will want to create after visiting her site! I always leave it drooling.

1 & 2.  Major local food trends and food trends throughout the US?  I think three of the major factors influencing current food trends in the US are:

• the condition of the economy,
• the push toward eating local, and
• the fact that people want to eat healthier.

The coupling effect of these factors has led to trends of eating the way people did half a century ago; things like:

• gardening, home cooking, and balanced diets based on whole foods have resurfaced, and I think will continue to grow in popularity.
• The prevalence of co-ops and farmers’ markets are increasing because in addition to helping local farmers, their produce is generally cheaper than what is available at grocery stores (and incidentally, is fresher and more nutrient-rich as well).
• Beyond that, many people are starting home gardens (even on their patios and/or windowsills!) or small, cooperative “œcommunity” gardens, which is leading to things like canning and preserving, which was common practice 50 years ago.

All of these constituents result in people cooking and preparing meals at home more frequently, which not only saves money, but is generally healthier than eating out (especially when we consider fast food!).  I think we’ve come full circle.

3.  Food trend hopes and wishes?

I love how people have started cooking more meals from scratch at home, and I hope this trend continues to grow.  Additionally, I would love to see more independent grocery stores and restaurants with a focus on local sourcing emerge.

Jamie from Life’s A Feast

Jamie may not remember me, but I was a regular on her site in “the early days” of blogging. And she and I would exchange reads now and then. I rediscovered her just over a year ago and became captivated by her writing. She is a master story teller. The meaning she works into the dish she is presenting to her readers is much more than meaty! Her words weave wonder as she lets you into a corner of her life. I can almost catch a whiff of the aroma through that window! Grab a hot cup of coffee and share your morning with Jamie’s latest post. It is a very gratifying and motivating way to start my day!

1. The major food trends both locally and regionally focus on seasonal, local, fresh ingredients:

• more and more chefs, even those with restaurants in the city, have their own potager or kitchen garden. Alongside their creative, unique dishes, they are now offering more traditional, familiar dishes based on regional home cooking.
• Things change very slowly overall here as food is steeped in traditions, but we see a move towards local and regional pride in the food being served. There is also a move towards the organic, especially in wines produced in the area (Muscadet, Anjou, Saumur).
• The big trend of 2011 was Japanese – Japanese and Sushi restaurants spread across Nantes like wildfire – and this works well with our own cuisine which is based on fresh fish and seafood, some of which is traditionally eaten raw. What was added, and seems to be a continuing trend for 2012, is a wider, more directly Japanese-influenced way of preparing and serving the fish and seafood as well as the addition of the new, Japanese fruits and vegetables and condiments.

What do you see as the major food trends locally (name your locality), and regionally (your region) 2012 ? I’m based in the Netherlands and I think the food trends here are going to be interesting to watch over the coming period. On the one hand there is a strong tendency towards going more to local grown biological environmental and animal friendly produce but on the other hand, the crisis is hitting us hard, so there will need to be a balance between cost and sustainability. It also depends strongly on the area you live in here. For example, even within our small country there is a huge difference between Amsterdam and Almere, where I live. Our veggiestore could not survive as no one wants to spend the extra dime so it’s only supermarkets here. That frustrates me enormously. On the other hand you go to a town like Haarlem and there are tons of little independent stores where you can buy beautiful produce. In a way, it is hard to predict what the future will bring but I do think (and hope) that the trend will be to go local and seasonal.

2. What do you see as major trends throughout Canada and or the US and or Holland? I am not sure if it is any different then what I described above to be honest. There will always be a big diversity between the people that really care and the ones that just care that they have something to eat. No matter how it is grown, raised or produced.

• I do think the financial crisis will be a big factor in this as it will limit budgets.
  
• On the other hand, looking at my own situation; Tom has lost his job and is now unemployed so as of the 1st of January, our budget will be pretty much limited. Instead of resorting to the supermarket we have subscribed to a sort of local veggie box. We get a crate full of wonderful produce (incl. some meat, fish and/or other things) for 37 euro a week. It should feed us easily for the week, with maybe a little extra from the stores, but in a way it makes much more sense then going to the supermarket and overpaying for bad product. I hope we can keep that up as it would save us a lot of money and feed us in a better way.
  
• I do think that once people realize there are alternatives it might be happening more and more. Or it could just be wishful thinking.