Paper Palate

Hartford Courant Staff Reporter Steve Grant and a friend set out in August to consume all Connecticut grown/raised/etc food for one week. Good timing, I’d say, since August is the height of fresh farm market finds here in the northeast.

Our choice of late August, of course, was calculated; it is a time when so many fruits and vegetables are at their peak, the farmers sometimes have difficulty even picking them all. Try to eat Connecticut-only foods in January, and you’d better like wax-coated turnips and cold-storage apples.

But in late summer, no problem. There are almost too many choices.

His verdict? Things tasted better than their mass produced, mass sold, barcoded counterparts. But by his own omission, it cost more than usual and involved a lot more driving.

It just wasn’t as easy as you’d think. Grant and his friend traversed the state to purchase things like free range chickens and steak. Butter was a hard find as well. And some other things - mayonaise, salt and pepper to name a few - just had to be compromised on.

Eggs were easy. Chickens were not. Fresh eggs are still available pretty much throughout the state, we found. I bought eggs from Arno’s Farm in Kent, and Tom bought eggs from Four Mile River Farm in Old Lyme.

But fresh chicken from Connecticut is most uncommon. Tom bought us chickens from Footsteps Farm in Stonington. These were free-range birds, humanely raised without hormones and antibiotics. I roasted one in a convection oven with nothing more than a rub of salt and pepper, and it was clearly a cut above supermarket chicken, flavorful and tender.

Connecticut may have a lot of produce, but Grant notes the absense of grains, bananas and a few other things we are used to. But that’s a small sacrifice for the freshness, right?