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Eat Local
A weekly online market makes buying local food easy.
// By Sue Muncaster
For decades, “local” food for Jacksonites meant frozen beef, potatoes, and garlic. Today though, dairy, meats, grains, packaged goods, and prepared food are produced locally using seasonal ingredients, and can be purchased via the online marketplace run by Slow Food in the Tetons. An example of a successful pivot during the pandemic spring of 2020, the online marketplace opens each week on Tuesday at 9 a.m. and closes Wednesday at 6 p.m. Pick up your order between 1 and 5 p.m. on Friday at Twigs Garden Center (890 US-89), next to Movie Works Cinema. tetonslowfood.org/online-markeplace
Like yogurt without the sour taste, Star Valley’s Shumway Farms Icelandic Skyr is incredibly thick, sweet, and creamy. And it sells out fast. For the whole Teton experience, grab the huckleberry flavor (the coconut flavor is dreamy too) from this sixth-generation dairy farm. 16 oz., $7.15
At the end of 2020, Jacksonite Lisa Roarke paired local ingredients with an old family recipe to create Tram Jam.Its tagline: “Jam worth a damn.” The original is a holiday-inspired mix of organic strawberries and cranberries, sugar, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice. There’s also Apres is My Jam—a spicy margarita in jam form (strawberries, orange zest, jalapeño, and a splash of triple sec). 4 oz., $6.50
Chasing Paradise is a boutique winery, kitchen, and farm near the Big Hole Mountains in Victor, Idaho. It specializes in high-quality meads and hard apple ciders, as well as organic prepared foods. Not for the soft palate, founder Rob Dupré’s Carrot/Habanero Hot Sauce is made with local organic carrots and peppers, and adds a sweet, spicy, garlicky kick to eggs, beans, rice, pizza, and tacos.8 oz., $10.50
Wyoming Heritage Grains, 70 miles northeast of Yellow-stone in Ralston, Wyoming, is committed to bringing back forgotten grain varieties, such as White Sonora and Red Fife. Slow stone milling is used to process all its grains, allowing them to retain full nutritional value, so its White Sonora Buttermilk Pancake Mix is as healthy as it is delicious. Mix to make 60 four-inch pancakes, $12
K Lazy M Ranch’s organic green cabbage, onions, juniper berries, fresh rosemary, and sea salt meld together to create a piney, earthy, gut-cleansing Juniper Berry Sauerkraut that is full of probiotics. Eat it straight up, on a sandwich, or spoon it over goat cheese on a charcuterie plate. Fun fact: sauerkraut and its juice are a Russian home remedy for a hangover. 14 oz., $10.40
The organic, artisan bitters crafted by Bear Root Bitters,use wild, seasonal ingredients foraged in and around Jackson Hole. Old Fashioned Aromatic Bitters is a blend of gentian, angelica, cinnamon, clove, and allspice. Add a few dashes to almost any drink for depth and complexity. 2 oz., $14
For five generations, the family behind Penfold Farms in Driggs, Idaho, grew only seed potatoes, until one innovative son, Wyatt, added high-altitude quinoa, buckwheat, split peas, and barley to the mix. A sacred crop for the Inca Empire, quinoa has reached superfood status due to its high protein and nutritional value. 20 oz., $6
Larks Meadow Farms, near Rexburg, creates award-winning, small-batch seasonal cheeses from the milk of a herd of Fresian/Lacaune sheep. Alto Valle Sheep Cheese, a soft cheese that creator Kendall Russell describes as “like a room-temperature fondue,” is made with thistle rennet, most commonly used by artisinal cheesemakers in Spain and Portugal. Cut to order, $30/lb
