This post was written by staff dietitian Becca Story, MS, RD, LD. She works in New Hampshire as a nutrition specialist.

Click to download our Eat Local Month recipe booklet!

Plump peaches, juicy tomatoes, abundant zucchini, crisp greens, and velvety berries. These are some of my favorite summer harvests and hopefully some of yours, too, but what about cold milk, creamy yogurt, and savory cheese? If you’ve been to our blog before, you’ll know that these dairy items can be found locally year round.

Focusing Locally with a Nutrition Intern

As a dietetics student intern mentor, I have the pleasure of introducing students from the local university and colleges to dairy foods and dairy farming in New England. One of my previous University of New Hampshire dietetic interns, Carly Orlacchio, loves food and enjoyed learning more about dairy farming while at New England Dairy & Food Council (NEDFC). She jumped at the opportunity to help us whip up some recipe ideas for New Hampshire Eat Local Month and feature seasonal harvests from around the region. New Hampshire Eat Local Month is a month-long celebration in August of local food and New Hampshire farmers and producers—not that you need to limit supporting local agriculture to one month!

To help research this recipe project, Carly joined our annual farm tours at Stuart Farm and the University of New Hampshire Organic Research Dairy Farm, which NEDFC coordinated for the University of New Hampshire dietetic interns. Both tours provided Carly with opportunities to meet and learn from local dairy farmers. Key takeaways included the role that each of those farms play in supporting communities and local economies and, in the case of the university’s farm, research that will support our future farmers.

Local Recipes for New Hampshire Eat Local Month
Carly zeroed in on recipes that fit her budget, culinary, nutrition, and comfort zones with the hopes that they could work for you too. The recipes feature ingredients that were easy to find and produced locally in New Hampshire, except for some spices and common condiments.

Here’s what Carly and I made and why:

• Berry Mint Smoothie: Berries are low sugar and mint is abundant!
• Spiced Yogurt Marinated Grilled Chicken: Lean poultry marinated in yogurt results in a tender and juicy dinner.
• Spinach, Feta, and Greek Yogurt Vegetable Dip: We used koji spinach and Swiss Chard. Both greens have stalks you can eat so we cut down on food waste.
• Grilled Zucchini and Tomato Napoleon: Zucchini is everywhere and typically inexpensive. What a great way to get your servings in!
• Peach Cobbler with Yogurt and Cream Cheese “Whipped Cream”: It has been a good year for peaches. If you aren’t eating them fresh or canned, try this baked treat.

Download our Eat Local Month recipe booklet!

Celebrate Your Local Farmers!

If you want to learn more about New Hampshire dairy farms check out the dairy farmers featured on our website who work hard 365 days of the year to make sure dairy can be found locally year round.

Updated 7/30/19