In recent months, I’ve been reading and talking with people about the advantages of becoming a locavore*, a person who eats food grown, farmed, or produced locally. I’m giving it a try here in Whatcom County, Washington.

[ January 28, 2014; 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. ] Vicki Robin will be at Village Books Tuesday, Jan. 28 at 7pm to talk about her new book on locavore eating, “Blessing the Hands That Feed Us.” Hope to see you there for an interesting, thought-provoking, and probably hilarious evening with this visionary.

Holiday Dinner Menus with recipes, shopping lists, and schedules have been created to make it easy to serve local foods to your family and friends this year. Three 5-course menus are available with beef, salmon, or vegetarian entrees. Available as Kindle books or PDF files.

Weeks leading up to the holidays can be a stressful time, even when we love the people and activities we are planning. Here at Whatcom Locavore, we’d like to offer you some simple ideas to help make your holiday preparations less stressful and more enjoyable.

This recipe is inspired by fresh apple cider from BelleWood Acres. It also includes homemade nocino (walnut liqueur). Great for holidays!

I’d been looking forward to the annual BelleWood Acres Ciderfest for weeks. When I came in the door I was enveloped in the sweet, fruity smell of fresh apples and the lively sounds of the fiddle and guitar combo of the Gallus Brothers.

In this Sweet Potato Salad, I’ve used a favorite German potato salad recipe and adapted it to use sweet potatoes instead.

Unexpected food finds are one of the things that make shopping at any local farmers market fun and interesting. Most recently I was excited to find locally grown organic sweet potatoes from Broad Leaf Farm (Everson).

In honor of the 2013 Wild Mushroom Show, here is a recipe for succulent short ribs braised in a bone broth flavored with vegetable mirepoix, shiitake mushrooms, and fresh rosemary.

Every year in October the Northwest Mushroomers Association (NMA) hosts a Wild Mushroom Show at Bloedel Donovan Park in Bellingham. It is a unique event, and a remarkable demonstration of the diversity of nature. It’s also really fun!

Borscht recipe is reprinted by permission from The Northwest Vegetarian Cookbook by Debra Daniels Zeller. It’s been adapted for local Whatcom ingredients.

One of my favorite cookbooks to browse is The Northwest Vegetarian Cookbook: 200 Recipes that Celebrate the Flavors of Oregon and Washington by Debra Daniels-Zeller.

One fall day at the Bellingham Farmers Market, Nooksack 9 was offering Butterscotch melons, a deeply flavored variety of cantaloupe. Cantaloupe is something I’ve missed since moving to western Washington state years ago.