Riding the green wave are restaurants screaming from their bamboo surfboards, “Eat local, Dude! Buy local, man! Cowabunga.” Tasting Table toots that it’s been suggesting local since it’s launch. Dude, wasn’t that like last year? Okay true, shoring the gap between what we eat and where it is grown lends to sustainable restaurant practices, supports local businesses and reduces heavy carbon emissions created from distant transports. In fact, eating locally has been a goal of many area restaurants way before green was the new black. Furthermore, choosing local produce is a better, more earth-conscious approach than choosing organically. (For more information on how eating locally as opposed to organically helps our planet and your health, click here.)

Restaurants like Mas Farmhouse, Five Points, and Blue Hill have been serving local ingredients for nearly a decade. These pioneers use seasonal ingredients, and talent, to achieve culinary artistry that tickles our tastebuds and touches our hearts. New Yorkers - and surrounding area farmers - realize that out of everything bad, comes something good, and are happy that the alarming state of our planet has at least awoken minds to the joy of eating locally.

How can you celebrate? Several area chefs are celebrating September by highlighting where their food came from. You can find a detailed PDF of how area chefs are celebrating this month at Tasting Table. Or, cook something yourself. You’re long overdue to host a dinner party, right? Hit up Union Square Market, New Amsterdam or the 77th Street Sunday Flea & Green Market and pick up some local ingredients to cook up some splendor of your own…dude.

Emma Dinzebach

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