A chef, cookbook author and national advocate for eating locally-grown foods is speaking in central Iowa today. Drake University is hosting Deborah Madison who will address the Des Moines Founders Garden Club at 10 AM. Madison says she’s not much of a gardener but she’s very much a supporter of farmers’ markets and will give a slide show from her travels to 100 farmers’ markets from across the country “as a way of talking about what’s involved in keeping our most important food cultures alive.” Madison lives in New Mexico and has published six cookbooks after teaching cooking classes for 20 years. She had managed the Sante Fe farmers’ market and says she’s focused on the importance and pleasures of eating locally-grown food. She says everyone knows the difference between a home-grown ripe tomato or a fresh peach and one that was picked long before it was ready to eat, shipped and stored. She says the quality of food at farmers’ markets is so high, it “really gets you excited about cooking and eating.” Madison serves on the Slow Food USA board and says locally-grown produce is easier to cook with because it’s the freshest, has the most nutrients and simply tastes better.She urges people to “bypass seasonless, soulless supermarkets” and to “concentrate whenever possible on what’s available where you live.”