One Local Summer – Week 13

Whoops! Didn’t mean to miss two weeks of dinners there. We did have local meals both weeks but we ran off to the ocean for some of that time and couldn’t find the energy to document our meals while the sand and surf were calling. This week I made an enormous batch of ratatouille. We got one meal from it and I froze enough for two more meals plus a few lunches — school starts next week — that we’ll enjoy on a cold day this winter. We had crispy lamb meatballs and non-local rice on the side and it made quite a good meal.

– thyme, basil (0 miles)
– lamb (17 miles)
– tomatoes, peppers (30 miles)
– eggplant, zuchinni (92 miles)
– oil, rice (non-local)

One Local Summer – Week 10

One thing I forgot to mention in my post about eating through our CSA share was hash. It’s generally a dish I make in the cooler months with sausage but we’re swimming in potatoes so I thought I’d make a summer version. Since I didn’t use any sausage I started with the chopped potatoes in a little bit of oil until they were getting crispy. Then I added some chopped summer squash, corn cut off the cob, salt, pepper, and rosemary. About four months ago I tried a recipe for a different hash that encouraged the use of a poached egg on top. It was so good with the runny yolk sort of binding the hash together so it’s something we always add now. However, I stink at poaching eggs. So, instead I soft boil an egg and get almost the same result.

– rosemary (0 miles)
– potatoes, squash (30 miles)
– eggs (32 miles)
– corn (100 miles)

One Local Summer – Week 9

Our all-local meal this week was herbed lamb patties with veggie pizza on the side. The local ground lamb was combined with garlic and parsley from our CSA, and mint and rosemary from our garden and shaped into patties and then fried in a little non-local oil. The pizza dough was made with local spelt flour and topped with local ricotta, and a sauté of local summer squash, onions, and shitake mushrooms. After the pizza was cooked we added some basil and drizzled a totally non-local reduction of balsamic vinegar over the top. You can see Papa went a little overboard in his reduction artistry.

– basil, mint, rosemary (0 miles)
– lamb (17 miles)
– ricotta (19 miles)
– spelt flour (30 miles)
– garlic, parsley, squash (30 miles)
– shitake mushrooms (78 miles)

One Local Summer – Week 8

I thought we’d switch-up our local meal and make a brunch this week. A successful brunch for me needs to have something sweet and something savory. For sweet we had plum kuchen made with local plums, eggs, butter, and flour — no local baking powder, sugar, or cinnamon. I also made a crustless quiche — I hate rolling out pie crusts — with local eggs, bacon, chives, milk, and cheese. Both were made last night so after church today I just heated the eggs and then we dug in. Yum.

– cheese (17 miles)
– butter (19 miles)
– spelt flour (30 miles)
– chives (30 miles)
– eggs (32 miles)
– plums (69 miles)
– bacon (88 miles)

One Local Summer – Week 7

This weeks meal was made in an effort to use up some of what we had in the fridge that was nearing the end of it’s usable life. The roasted chicken was leftover from another meal, and the summer squash was a week old. The fresh pasta is made somewhat locally and our CSA farm sells it at their roadside stand. I combined the chopped squash with minced shallots and diced tomatoes from our garden. In the meantime I made a roux — with local flour — and added chicken stock and local cream to make a sauce. I added a splash of wine and about 10 oz of shredded local gouda cheese to the sauce and stirrred it until smooth. The only thing left was to combine the pasta, vegetables, and cheese sauce and top with some basil from the garden. Yum.

One Local Summer – Week 6

Baked Chicken with Herbs, Garlic, and Shallots, Roasted Beets, Spelt Bread.

I’m so happy I’ve found a source for local flour. This time I got spelt flour and I need to figure out how to make bread with it. This bread ended up being a flat bread but it still tasted good. The chicken is a nice easy recipe and very good. The roasted beets were not a hit. In years past we’ve always given any beets we get in our CSA share away but we enjoyed some at the solstice dinner so thought we should try them. We need to figure out another way to prepare them.

– rosemary, thyme (0 miles)
– chicken (17 miles)
– butter (19 miles)
– spelt flour (30 miles)
– beets, shallots, garlic (30 miles)
– olive oil (non-local)

Barbecue Time

Did you all have a good Independence Day? We had the cousins together for a parade, a visit to the water park, and then a barbecue at Grandmom and Granddad’s house. Aren’t they cute:

Earlier this week we had good old fashioned pork barbecue for our all local meal. We actually had ribs too but I’m not a big fan of ribs so they weren’t on my plate. The local pork butt was cooked on the grill, the local pork spareribs were roasted in the oven, the local veggies were mixed into coleslaw, and I canned the bbq sauce last summer from local ingredients.

– corn (17 miles)
– cabbage, kohlrabi (30 miles)
– pork butt, pork ribs (88 miles)
– vinegar, spices (non-local)

Solstice Dinner

Last Saturday evening Papa and I dropped the urchins at my parents house and headed to the farm. We were off to a fancy dinner, with a fancy chef, hosted by a fancy downtown restaurant group, at our farm. Yes, you read right, the dinner was at our CSA farm.

The event was promoted as a homage to farm fresh food and the farmers who grow it. And I think the idea was to get some city dwellers out to the the country to see where their food is grown and to meet some of the farmers who grow it. We aren’t city dwellers — I had never even heard of the restaurant or chef before that evening — but we are foodies and the dinner was in the heart of where our food comes from. The evening started in a peach orchard with passed hors d’œuvres and sparkling wine.

After a little while we all — about 100-150 guests I’d say — walked down to an open field in the middle of our farm that was set with one long table. I was talking to the woman who runs our farm and told her that Katie and Tristan call her their farmer. I think they believe she grows food just for them. She told me to tell them that they are right, she is their farmer, and it is their farm. Love that lady!

The food was fabulous. In fact it was so good that I forgot to take any photos of it. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the continuous flow of local wine. Colleen of foodietots did take photos of her plates though so thanks go to her for the food photos. We had salad with a deviled egg, ham wrapped scallop with a beet and radish crudo, and crab cakes with oak leaf lettuce.

These two photos courtesy of Colleen of foodietots.

Everything was served family style and we had wonderful conversations with the people around us. We were the only ones in our part of the table who live out towards farmland and we explained what a CSA was countless times. I felt a bit evangelical about the whole eating local thing and how important our farm is to us. I was really proud to know that our urchins know that their food comes from a farm and who grows it for them. Sure, it takes effort but I know the payoff will be great. I recently heard Katie tell a friend My mommy makes everything from scratch. And while that isn’t true I’m so glad they know what food looks like and where it comes from.

This photo courtesy of Colleen of foodietots.

And speaking of food, the extravaganza continued with a mixed grill including two cuts of beef, bison, and rabbit accompanied by red potato salad with grilled shallots. I didn’t try the rabbit, but everything else was delicious — and Stefan says the rabbit was great too. All the meat was prepared in a kitchen the chef had set-up in the field. The final course was dessert which included a chèvre cheesecake with strawberry black pepper preserves — you know I’ll be trying to make this sometime — and peanut cookies with iced espresso.

The sun set behind the hills and we walked through the grain fields back to our car. We had a wonderful time and I really can’t think of a better way to celebrate this year’s longest day.

One Local Summer – Week 3

Last week our local meal was lamb kebabs and a cucumber-feta salad. The lamb kebabs were seasoned with curry — a favorite of Katie’s — and grilled. The cucumber salad was made with local cucumbers and feta and seasoned with herbs from our garden. As usual the only non-local ingredients were the oil, vinegar, and spices. I need to find a local source for the vinegar at least but I am excited because I found a local source for grain this week. Tomorrow I’ll tell you about the other local meal we had this week. Oh my.
– dill, mint (0 miles)
– lamb (17 miles)
– feta (19 miles)
– onion (69 miles)
– cucumber ()

One Local Summer – Week 2

Another salad. I promise it will get more exciting soon. I actually had better plans for dinner last night but they got changed at the last minute. So, salad for lunch is my one local summer meal today. Once again the only non-local ingredients are the oil and vinegar for the salad dressing and the spices on the grilled chicken.

– grilled chicken (17 miles)
– feta cheese (19 miles)
– lettuce (30 miles)
– radishes, carrots (100 miles)
– bacon (88 miles)