Rhymes with Orange?

I've been thinking about local cooking and baking -- as in, using at least relatively-local ingredients -- since it struck me that so many common ingredients in baking include things like chocolate, vanilla, coffee, lemons -- all things that have to be grown waaaaaay far away from the northeastern U.S. All of these things (ginger root is another one) are considered sort of "standard," sort of the way that baking with eggs (and man, have people ever found a lot to do with eggs) is standard.

I was wondering if there's a sort of "local baking" cookbook out there that focuses on a region's local produce/ingredients (sugar is another non-local ingredient), or at least substitutions that can be reasonably made. For example, honey or agave nectar or maple syrup (depending on region) can often be used in place of sugar, and apple cider vinegar can, in some cases, take the place of lemon juice. I'm not setting out to ruin any recipes -- I know that some things just can't be substituted or approximated (chocolate is to taste what orange is to rhyme, maybe?).

Partly, I feel spoiled for growing up -- as I'm sure the overwhelming majority of Americans do -- having just about whatever kind of food available to me just about whenever I wanted it (this isn't, of course, considering availability based on money to purchase these foods, but just the fact of their presence at the grocery store). Very few foods, I think -- or just very few commonly consumed, non-gourmet foods -- are season-bound. Rhubarb is one. Meyer lemons are another, but that gets a bit away from the "common" idea. At just about anytime of year, you can buy blueberries, peaches, cantaloupe, hot peppers, apples, etc. They won't be as good if they come from Chile or have spent all winter in cold storage, but you can still get them.

Maybe it's just that a lot of quintessentially "American" foods -- banana cream pie, ginger bread, and others -- really became common in the first half of the twentieth century. I'm not looking to subsist on Johnny Cakes or anything, but I'd like to learn better what fruit is in season when and learn to bake around it, I guess. At some point I'd like for Silver and I to be able to produce most of our own food, and I guess I'd just like to be more conscious of the foods of a particular region.

I've loved living in Vermont and learning more about the food available around here -- real maple syrup (in yogurt and coffee!); bitter and sharp dandelion greens, honeycrisp apples that have spoiled me for most other varieties; Cabot cheddar and yogurt; delicious, tart rhubarb; firm and perfectly ripe red "Vermatoes"; duck eggs that have a slightly darker flavor than chicken eggs; earthy and very slightly sweet fiddleheads; fresh mild scallions that taste like spring.

But I still want to adjust my baking and cooking to better accommodate the place I'm living. I loved my apple-rhubarb pie, but the apples were last season's. I think the only tiny adjustment I've really been able to make that comes to mind is using apple cider vinegar instead of lemon juice to curdle soymilk for buttermilk.

If such a cookbook doesn't exist, maybe I'll work on putting one together.