You may have noticed that the Virginia Department of Agriculture challenged Virginians last week to eat local for one day. It was part of Virginia Farmers Market week, a special designation by Gov. Tim Kaine.

Blog reader Deb seemed to take that challenge to heart. Or maybe she didn’t hear a thing about the challenge and just wanted to enjoy some tasty local chicken, dairy and produce. She sent me this photo of her lunch yesterday with this description of what she bought on the market: “The chicken, cabbage and green apples for the slaw, potatoes and eggs for the potato salad and deviled eggs, green beans and red bell pepper, fried green tomatoes, corn on the cob and peaches for the cobbler. Barbara Kingsolver would be proud.”

She would indeed. I’m proud, and hungry, too!

I didn’t go all out like Deb, but I did buy a gorgeous head of white cabbage from the market on Friday and fried it up last night to go along with grilled pork tenderloin and big, fat slices of my neighbor’s tomatoes.

The whole house now smells of cabbage, but it’s worth it for one of my favorite side dishes. Cabbage is easy to cook, but I’ll post my method below for anyone who has never cooked it up before. Other ideas for fresh cabbage? Shoot me a message!

Read more »