For now, supporting small farms and businesses generally means paying more. The reasons are complex and worth an ongoing dialogue, but the question that needs to be examined is: Should our nutrition be cheap?
Proprietor Annie Baum Stein and her professionally certified green-builder husband, Maruo Daigle, wrangle daily with these questions in their aptly named University City market.
For Stein, this is not a new concept. She grew up in a household where the worlds of gastronomy and agriculture intersected. Her mother, Hillary Baum, was an early proponent of public markets and continues to expand the national dialogue about our food system. Her grandfather, Joseph Baum, was the innovative restaurateur who more than 50 years ago, conceived New York's The Four Seasons, the first restaurant to change menus seasonally.
One of the major challenges Milk & Honey faces is that eating locally is much easier if you live in a more temperate climate.
In January in Philadelphia, it's difficult to stock an entire store. For Stein and Daigle it is an ongoing debate to manage mission and marketplace - even with each other. Stay tuned to see if Fair Trade bananas make it on the shelves.
And while some may object to the imported cheeses, they do come from local businesses. And there is always a selection of some our region's finest cheese producers.
Currently, the Chestnut Hill company Cosmic Catering supplies most of the prepared foods. The Chicken Salad ($11.99 quart) is not to be compared to the prepared salads that come out of a tub in most deli cases. This was elegantly poached chicken breast that was lightly dressed. We ate it just as is, but it would make a tasty sandwich or easy, showy appetizer served in a puff pastry cup.
