Atlanta sweet potatoes were enormous compared to the ones I see at home!

 

Last weekend I attended BlogHerFood 11 in Atlanta, where I developed a serious case of farmer’s market envy after seeing the gorgeous produce the DeKalb Farmer’s Market and the Sweet Auburn Curb Market had to offer.  The Salt Lake City Farmer’s Market doesn’t start until mid-June and our produce is rather puny in comparison.  My “real” camera is still in the shop (sigh) but I did take a few photos of the veggies with my old camera (and some with the iPhone when I was too lazy to carry the camera around!)   I don’t know if it was the lack of my favorite camera but I didn’t take any photos at the conference this year.   But But even without photos, I’m sharing thoughts about BlogHerFood and links to the official “liveblogging” of the sessions, plus how to find other bloggers who wrote about it.  (Edit:  Thanks to Susie from Eat Little, Eat Big who later sent me a photo of a dinner we shared with a few bloggers, so I do have at least one conference photo!)

Beautiful beans and yellow summer squash.  In Utah my squash are tiny plants and the beans are barely coming up.

 

Enormous radishes!  If I lived in Atlanta I’d buy these all the time.

I’ve never seen collard greens this big in Utah.  They’d be fun to use for a dish like stuffed cabbage!

I rarely buy beets because they’re so high in sugar, but these beets were gorgeous.

I didn’t notice what type of onions these were, but I was intrigued.

Red potatoes that were so dark, they almost looked purple.

Beautiful corn ready to take home and put in the fridge.

Of course if you’re in the South there’s going to be watermelon!

And very large turnips, sold with the turnip greens still attached!

(Edit – Thanks to Susie from Eat Little, Eat Big who sent me this photo of dinner at Urban Pl8 with (from left) Susie, Kellypea, Kathy, Jeanette, Lydia, me, Andrea, and Liz. The photo was taken by our server, who really could have used a tripod and maybe a reflector or two!  We highly recommend Urban Pl8.)

My Thoughts on BlogHerFood 11:
I’ve attended a lot of BlogHer Conferences in the past, so I’m well past the giddy stage about it. Obviously I really enjoy the holy trinity of information+people+food that’s so much a part of the whole blogging conference experience, or I wouldn’t keep going.  I had a great time at BlogHerFood, learned a lot, and just as I’ve found at past conferences, the best part  for me was finding long time friends I hadn’t seen for a while or finally meeting bloggers I’ve known online, some for many years, but hadn’t met in person.   (There were so many people I enjoyed hanging out with or finally meeting that I’m not even going to try to name them, but you know who you are!  And smooches to all of you!)

But, and for a whole variety of reasons, this year’s BlogHerFood felt a little overwhelming to me. There were so many new bloggers I’d never heard of (and most of them hadn’t heard of me either.)  And even though I enjoy meeting new people, I quickly start to get them confused, and sometimes I found myself thinking of the early days when most food bloggers at least knew about each other, even if they hadn’t met.  Some people may not like me saying it, but when I went to my first BlogHer conference in 2006, things definitely seemed less frantic, less competitive, less cliquish, and definitely less product-oriented, and I kind of miss “the good old days.”  And now that I’ve crossed right over into old fogey-ness by saying that, I guess I’ll stop and send you to some spots on the web where you can find out more about BlogHerFood11.

 

What Did We Learn at BlogHerFood 11?

If you want to know about what we learned at the conference, every session has a “live blogger” who takes notes and you can read the liveblogs at BlogHer.com.Who Else Wrote About BlogHerFood 11?
(I love reading the highly varied reports from other blogs.  I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of posts, so if  I didn’t find your yours feel free to leave your link in the comments and I’ll add it to this list.)
From David Lebovitz ~ BlogHerFood 11 – Atlanta
From The Merry Gourmet ! ~ The Good and The Bad of Food Blogging Conferences
From Eating Rules ~ How to Change the World (even if you’re not a food blogger)
From Fed Up with Lunch ~ A Basic Guide to Blogging Food Politics
From Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy ~ 45 Stories High
From Completely Delicious ~ BlogHer Food 2011
From Home with Mandy ~ BlogHer Food, Arrival and RockHer Party
From Katy She Cooks ~ 27 Things I Learned at My First Food-Blogging Conference
From Bon Vivant ~ I Came, I Saw, I Conquered – BlogHerFood 11 Conference
From Fun Girl Cooks ~ Ode to BlogHerFood 2011
From We Are Not Martha ~ BlogHer Food 2011
From Kevin and Amanda ~ BlogHer Food 2011
From Sass and Veracity ~ BlogHerFood 2011 – Observations on a Conference
From Simple Bites ~ My BlogHerFood 11 Recap
From OMG Yummy ~ Bloggers as Agents of Change for Our Own Community 
From Jeanette’s Healthy Living ~ Blogging Friends and BlogHer Food Atlanta 2011
From Bibberche ~ Gone with the Wine 
From Dianne Jacob ~ 5 Notes to Self for Coping with Conference Anxiety 
From Picky Palate ~ Oreo Stuffed Cookie Jars and BlogHerFood Atlanta 
From Meet Us in the Kitchen ~ Sweet Auburn Curb Market 
From Eat the Love ~ BlogHer Food 2011 in Atlanta Recap (with many more links!)Have you ever been to a food blogging conference?  If so, let us know what you thought about the experience in the comments. 

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