We were, in a way, partners in crime.
Tia was a trained chef-turned-program administrator for the New York State Senate. I was a stay-at-home dad, recovering journalist and a low-level nobody in the senator’s office.
Tia was the kind of person who could liven up her monthly staff meeting reports with a puppet show. (She could get away with it.) I mostly kept my mouth shut.
One day, I took a brain-break from whatever chore I was doing and pondered my situation. Floods had damaged the fields of my favorite farmers, and I wasn’t sure how I was going to put local food on the table. Dad always taught me that local is better. The boss wandered past. Busted.
“Whatcha doin?”
“Boss, I bet I can make you an entire meal, soup to nuts, using nothing but ingredients from your district. Good media stunt. Helps the farmers.”
“Good. Do it.”
Tia helped. A lot.
As I dug into all the different local foods one could get and made a list, she sat with me to turn a long list of ingredients into a menu. She suggested stuffed tomatoes, and the recipe she gave me was massively simple and wonderfully delicious.
The media stunt was great: a picnic with farmers, cooperative extension folks and policy makers. The boss grilled chicken — his first job was as a cook in a steak house. The cobbler went fast, as did the pie. The point was made and I’ll translate the math we used into Cortland numbers: If each family spends just $25 a week in local food, that effort would generate more than $24 million a year into the county’s economy.
The boss introduced legislation to require state agencies that buy food to buy a portion of it from New York producers. While that bill was never adopted, several governors perhaps heard the message and now many agencies buy a portion of their food locally. The state Department of Agriculture and Markets even has a program to help school districts buy 30% of their foods from local sources.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced recently at the New York State Fair that state agencies exceeded the goal in the first year of an executive order, buying 15% of their food from state farmers, on their way to buying 30% from New York farmers by 2027.
“Agriculture is the backbone of our state, which is why we made a promise one year ago to increase the amount of food state agencies must buy from local growers and producers,” Hochul said. “In just one year alone, we’re already ahead of schedule in continuing to invest in New York’s growers and producers, and we’re not stopping there. We will continue taking action to support our farmers and the future of our agricultural industry for decades to come.”
That’s a lot of tomatoes.
And tasty tomatoes. We had a couple of leftover tomatoes from the picnic that we put in the staff refrigerator. Later that afternoon, I saw the boss sneak one out for a snack. He skipped the puppet show.
GOAT CHEESE-STUFFED TOMATOES
4 large fresh tomatoes
4 oinces goat cheese (plain or herbed)
Roasted bell peppers
Bread crumbs
Olive oil
Mixed herbs, as desired
Salt, black pepper
Preheat broiler. Slice tops off of tomatoes and hollow out by removing seeds.
In a bowl, mix the goat cheese, roasted pepper and herbs. Spoon an equal amount of cheese into each hollowed out tomato. Place stuffed tomatoes upright in a baking dish. Top each tomato evenly with breadcrumbs. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Place under broiler for 5-10 minutes until breadcrumbs are lightly browned.
Play with it: This recipe uses goat cheese, which my boss liked because he was lactose intolerant. You could use Monterey Jack, mozzarella, asiago, Colby, Muenster — any good melty cheese.
