What's your favorite heritage food source?

[Tab]

If you're not familiar with it, a heritage food is a food like it "used to be". For instance, we all eat pretty much the same breed of turkey, or the same duck, but not so long ago there were many breeds of turkey and many breeds of duck (and whatever else).

Small farms are bringing these back. A couple of years ago I ordered a heritage turkey - a different breed than the common one we all have - and it was just wonderful, full of flavor, and made the greatest gravy. It's not cheap, but I don't suppose it's a real money-making venture. Most of these places want to preserve the variety of foods that we used to have. I will say it was the best damned turkey I ever cooked, and that wasn't because of my cooking ability, but because of the ingredients (namely, a damned nice turkey).

I want to get a nice duck of a different breed, and maybe chicken. Who has tried various heritage foods and what purveyors do you like?

[Warpy]

1. When I buy jarred salsa in the winter

I tend to avoid national brands like the plague. If I can buy it in canning jars off the back of somebody's pickup truck, so much the better. Labels are often a little weird but the salsa is always excellent. A local brand that you can mail order that is pretty good, better than the big brands but not as good as the amateur stuff, is Hatch. You can mail order it. I'd advise getting either the medium or the hot.

Unfortunately, other foods here are much too perishable to ship, like flour tortillas from the Frontier Restaurant, hot off the griddle. They are so wonderful that I eat them plain.

The best way to experiment with chicken and duck is to know a small farmer or hunter. I've got my eye on my next door neighbor's laying hens. When they get old and grey, I'm hoping she'll let me turn them into soup.

[mtnester]

2. Slow foods and heritage foods are good sources

with slow foods, you can also help children:
http://www.slowfood.com


Heritage foods sources or articles:

http://www.heritagefoodsusa.com
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/heritage/
http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/wtchlist.html



Cookthink has a great blog on finding source foods:
http://www.cookthink.com/

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

3. the farmer's markets.

whether it's fruits or veggies they're way different than the markets carry. and much better. probably because the more of the varieties are picked for flavor rather than how fast they grow from seed to crop and how well they ship. i remember stopping by in fall and coming home with at least a half a dozen varieties of apples that i had never heard of. dh loved them all (huge apple fan). i wish i had made note of the types, but i know the stall owner will be there again this fall and i'll be back. also the potato guy. he's got more kinds of potatoes than i've ever seen/heard.

don't know if that's the response you were looking for.

oh, i've tried kosher chicken and it's waaaay better than the regular stuff. pretty spendy, but my gawd, the flavor was great.

[Tab]

4. I was really thinking meats

I live in New England, and although I don't do it often enough, the farmer's markets really get the best veggies out.

Oddly enough, I was once able to buy fresh garlic. My god, that was an absolutely incredible difference from the dried crap we get in those little boxes. I'd never had it before.

For fruits, tomatoes and strawberries are the big losers, in my opinion. UgliRipe is the best heritage tomato (not technically sure if it's heritage, but it's damned good) by far.

As far as chicken and turkey and duck goes, though, we Americans just buy one breed, and it's bred to be as hardy but as uninteresting as possible. I was just blown away by the heritage turkey I ordered. It wasn't cheap, but goddamn... I haven't eaten a better turkey in my life. It was worlds apart from what you get in the supermarket.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

5. if any of your markets carry kosher chickens i would

definitely give it a go. i think the one i got was about 4 a pound, but the flavor was unbelievable. i think it was aaron's best and i'm not sure it would be carried in your area since we're on opposite coasts. i'm thinking that any kosher chicken would be good though.