One Local Summer, week 11: Midwest

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Anne of Green Leanings:  “This week’s meal featured pole beans from the garden, chicken wrapped in bacon, corn on the cob (we aren’t tired of it yet!) and the cutest little baby red thumb potatoes.”

Karen of toteleeding:  “One the menu was potato, tomato, mozarella casserole, fresh green and wax beans, and garlic bread.”

Joy of Spiral of Seasons:  “Accompaning our local chicken (Farrar Out Farm, Kirkwood Farmers Market) tonight were two new vegetables to us, both from our CSA, delicata squash and edamame.”

Anna of twelve22.org made a lovely potato and onion soup and served it with fresh corn.

Jenny of The Nourished Kitchen:  “This week we enjoyed pot roast (recipe coming so stay tuned) with carrots and onion garnished with wild chives over rustic sourdough noodles, braised turnips with parsley and the simple green salad that always graces our table.  And one of the last cherry clafoutis (recipe coming so stay tuned ) of the season finished our meal.”

Sirena of Swimming in this Sea of Life made pasta with her tomatoes, mushrooms, sausage and local pasta!

Becke of Columbus Foodie:  “This week, I give you something that takes advantage of all of the lovely potatoes and onions at the farmers market. I’ve made it local by serving it with sausages and sauerkraut from Thurn’s, potatoes from the Worthington Farmers Market, bacon from Thurn’s, and onions from Wayward Seed Farms. ... This potato salad is like the ones I grew up on - very vinegary and smoky but a tad sweet at the same time. I probably should have grilled the sausages but I ended up just cooking them in the sauerkraut. Enjoy!”

Debbie of Rites of Passage had another undocumented meal of a “stir fry” with various varieties of squash, green pepper, tomatoes, green beans, onions, and dried mushrooms, served over quinoa.

One Local Summer, Week 11: New Engand

We finally saw the sun around these parts!  I hope everyone had a chance to get out and enjoy not only the sun, but the good stuff that’s ripening now that it’s finally back.

NH

I’m requiring my meals to contain a minimum number of veggies right now, in order to use up the bounty.  We enjoyed salad along with pasta with a tomato fennel sauce and managed to use up no fewer than 10 separate veggies!

MA

Erica had fresh local halibut and Connecticut Blue Point oysters to work with this week!  She made a gorgeous chowder with the halibut, and narrowly avoided an ocular emergency while shucking the oysters.  Check out her post for a step-by-step account of the chowder.

A cornmeal crusted, roasted ratatouille tart certainly must use up a whole bunch of those veggies you’ve got!  Laurie enjoyed this recipe from Ellie Kruger, along with a tossed salad.  Looks fabulous!

Finally, Leslie has overcome pneumonia and a broken toe to get back to posting (feel better, Leslie!).  She not only posted a Greek meal of zucchini, eggs and onions, but she points out that anything that uses up zucchini is a welcome food this time of year.  She includes a bonus recipe for a zucchini appetizer which I think will be on my list of things to make this week.  Thanks, Leslie!

Have a great week, everyone!

One Local Summer-week 11: Western Region

Colorado & California:

Summers in San Francisco might not be as hot and predictable as they are other parts of the country, but if they lead to dinners with names like Braised Lamb with Young Vegetables, they can’t be all bad. Anita took advantage of the need for a sweater to make a light summer stew that makes my mouth water!

She’s still waiting for baby girl to appear but she’s cooking up a storm while she does. Momaste featured two local meals this week. The first was a summer vegetable and barley soup that featured meatballs from the freezer and ingredients from the CSA box and front yard garden. With whole oats in the pantry, she decided to put them in the slow cooker and add milk, cherries, cinnamon and vanilla - and it sounds as good as I bet it smelled!

Ellen continues to experiment with raw foods. This week’s adventures included raw gazpacho with heirloom tomatoes, cucumber, garlic and Brazil nuts as well as green smoothies featuring a variety of green ingredients.

While spending the afternoon making a summer saison on homebrewing day, Lauren turned her attention to dinner and decided on chili in the slow cooker. Dinner not only was delicious, but writing about it marked her 100th post!

Oregon & Washington:

Making use of the Summer Corn Salad recipe she picked up in her “dog days dinner party” cooking class, Joan made a dinner perfect for those too hot to cook days. It featured corn salad served with cheese, tomato and jalapeno quesadillas.

In a clean out the fridge before going on vacation all local dinner, Donna featured BLT sandwiches, corn on the cob and carrot sticks. Enjoy your vacation Donna!

Worried that local salad and water wouldn’t cut it, JM also made a honey rhubarb betty for dessert (and dinner) as well as a zucchini ricotta savory cheesecake. Mmmm, both sound excellent.

I’m assuming they’re not surviving on fruit alone (but you never know with those crazy Shibaguyz) while they preserve up a storm. Last week featured fresh jam, canned berries and peach jam as well as peach salsa, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, tomatoes and peaches. They’re putting us all to shame, or at least me anyway…

Monica had a busy week but still found time for dinners of bok choy and chicken as well as pasta with lentils and arugula. The second recipe could use some changes to make everyone in the family love it - swing by her blog if you want to help her out.

Kimberly was busy this week. Her featured dinner was designed to avoid cooking in the heat of the afternoon and included a “height of summer salad” and homemade sourdough english muffins. She also made raspberry syrup for use on pancakes and as a soda base. And finally they had homemade mixed berry sorbet for dessert. Yum!

Here at The Hennery we went super local with a dinner of Coq au vin brought to us by the sacrifice of a couple of extra roosters. Not my favorite way to arrive at a local dinner, but well worth the effort. We used Anita’s recipe and combined it with a summer veggie salad, steamed broccoli and greenbeans and a raspberry tart brought by a friend.

The 320 Market Cafe

Monday, August 18, 2008

I’m always on the lookout for places to pick up locally grown foods, whether it’s in the city or the burbs.  Lately, I’ve been finding more little gems in the burbs!  My latest favorite is the 320 Market Cafe in Swarthmore.  They keep a nice stock of locally grown fruits and vegetables.  Over the weekend they had local squash, corn, tomatoes, peaches, and a whole host of others.  They’ve also made a pledge to only carry mushrooms from Chester County (according to their newsletter, ChesCo mushroom producers are facing stiff competition from Chinese producers - who charge less, but also produce an inferior product).

Additionally, 320 stocks Birchrun Hill cheese, Seven Stars yogurt, and Natural by Nature milk, and coming this Fall you’ll be able to pick up local, organic, pastured chicken and local grassfed and pastured beef.

I should also mention that they have stellar pico de gallo.  The avocado may not be local, but the tomatoes are.

It’s really great to see the 320 Market Cafe making an effort to support local farmers and our local economy.  I’ve heard reports that many other small markets in the vicinity (not just Delaware County, but throughout our region) are moving toward this model, In increasing numbers, people care about where their food comes from and have the desire to keep small farmers afloat. 

The $75 tomato

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Sometimes all the effort, locally sourced seedlings, good intentions, and compost in Greater Philadelphia will not make for a good crop. Here’s a photo of only part of my heirloom tomato jungle. Big healthy plants, organically fed (easy on the nitrogen—I was careful about that), appearing to the casual observer as one heck of a tomato wonderland.

This little guy is the first one this summer. Halfway through August. Not exactly $75 tomato—the squat patio tomato plants have been producing, thank goodness, but still.

In early July when I should have been seeing lots of little green gumdrops and did not, I did see that lots of flowers had fallen off. I hit the books and the web for the solution. My guess is that the extreme heat caused them to drop because the night temps stayed in the high 70s and low 80s for weeks. Now, my plants are flowering again, it’s cooler outside, and I’m hoping for a late bumper crop. So hang in there to all of you who set out on the path of locavoracious righteousness and have yet to reach the mountain top.

Alas, two meals

Saturday, August 16, 2008

It’s time to play catch-up for my local meals during the past week!  Not that there were so many, but I’ve just developed a bad habit of running out of time to do much posting during the week.

My first local meal was honey roasted pork chops, lima beans, and braised lacinato kale.  I picked up two big bags of limas from a vendor at last Saturday’s Clark Park farmer’s market (I can’t remember the name of the vendor, but he’s always the last stand, all the way to the right of the vendor line), and they were so good!  Sadly, I am the only lima bean lover in the house, although I am convinced that if I could only convince my husband to give them a chance without his preconceptions (that preconception: mushy, canned lima beans) he would love them as much as I do.

pork chops, Lancaster Farm Fresh - 100 miles
honey, Pennypack Farm - 31 miles
lacinato kale, my garden - 0 miles
chicken stock, homemade from Pennypack Farm chicken carcass - 31 miles
limas, unknown vendor from Clark Park - within 100 miles
garlic, my garden - 0 miles

My second meal was near and dear to my heart: it marks the first time ever I was able to successfully grow beets!  My husband claims golden beets taste better than red ones, so I grew them this year and harvested them a few days ago.  I roasted them and combined them with a vinaigrette of red wine vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and dill from the garden.  I served them up with sauted swiss chard and garlic, the last of the potato and parsley salad, and a nice duck breast.  Delicious!

beets, my garden - 0 miles
dill, my garden - 0 miles
chard, my garden - 0 miles
garlic, my garden - 0 miles
potato, Landisdale Farm - 100 miles and my garden - 0 miles
parsley, my garden - 0 miles
duck, Griggstown Quail Farm, 56 miles

In all cases, olive oil, salt and pepper, red wine vinegar, and lemon juice not local.

Clark Park market report, 16 August

It’s really apple season!  I’m so happy.  Those are Ginger Golds from Fahnestock Fruit Farm, along with broccoli and a pepper from Keystone Farm, multicolored beans, some hot peppers, and another bell pepper from Urban Girls, a red pepper, a cucumber, two small summer squash, and an ear of corn from Shenk’s Berry Farm, and two four-seed cookies from Slow Rise. 

CSA report: Landisdale Farm, week 11

It’s depressing to walk up the Landisdale Farm stand at Clark Park, see the gorgeous tomatoes they’ve got on sale, and then not get any tomatoes in your CSA share from them.  It is.  But at least the size of the share is a little bigger this week, even if there are no tomatoes.

• Three heads of lettuce.  For the love of pete, I can’t take the lettuce!  Do they grow this stuff in a place where the lettuce never bolts?  I feel guilty that all the lettuce ends up in the compost heap, but who eats that much lettuce?
• Three small heads of cabbage
• Three green bell peppers and two purple bell peppers
• Eight red potatoes
• Six shallots.  Something unexpected and interesting!  I’m thrilled to have the shallots!
• A pint of plums
• Two bunches of swiss chard

So...what’s on the agenda for meals this week?  I’ll probably roast the peppers and freeze them, along with the chard (I have tons of it in the garden right now for fresh eating). 

With cabbage, I’d normally just shred it and throw it in the vat to make sauerkraut.  However, I never ate all the sauerkraut I made last year.  There’s the option of making soup, although August is not really soup weather.  I’m not really in the mood for any kind of slaw or kimchi or stuffed cabbage, which really narrows down the options.  But there are options, beginning with this amazing-sounding recipe for Braised Green Cabbage with Onions, Carrots, and a Poached Egg. 

Here are some other ideas:

• cabbage and potato bake
• warm cabbage with bacon and gorgonzola
• cabbage curry
• cabbage latkes
• stir-fried spicy cabbage

CSA Report: Blooming Glen Farm

Thursday, August 14, 2008

(Click photo to read notes at flick’r regarding names/quantities of share.)

Pick-your-owns are in full effect at Blooming Glen Farm, with this week bringing four quarts (!) of string beans, one quart of cherry tomatoes (tons of varieties), as well as an herb bouquet of thyme, oregano and mint.  Also this week was some lettuce, which I was very happy to receive—I’ve been wanting to put together a salad and greens have been the only thing missing!

When They’re Good, They’re Great (Tomatoes: Part I)

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

For his tomato salad recipe (in the Les Halles Cookbook), Anthony Bourdain asserts with his characteristic insouciance, “If you can’t get a good tomato, don’t make the damn dish.”

He’s right, of course.  The best tomato dishes are utterly pointless out of season; you really need to reserve them for July, August, and September.  Fortunately, living where we do, we enjoy tomatoes that easily match anything Bourdain would have served.  In fact, here, nothing epitomizes “seasonal” or “local” more than tomatoes: the intense sweetness of sungolds, the meatiness of the larger heirloom varieties, the balance of acid and sweet in the those gorgeously marbled yellow-and-red and “zebra” variations. 

At the peak of the season, each recipe should, to me, do very little to obfuscate the flavor.  Simplicity becomes key: sliced with just a bit of salt; sliced with mozzarella, olive oil (really, really good oil) and torn basil leaves; barely-cooked with herbs and garlic and served with eggs; chopped and heated-through-but-uncooked with a sofrito (gently long-simmered onions and garlic) tossed with short pasta; or briefly sautéed sungolds in oil and garlic until they “pop” and tossed with some herbs (chives, basil) and long pasta.

I am fairly certain that tomatoes are the reason I got into local, seasonal produce in the first place.  For about three months of the year, each year, I am reminded of how one fruit could be responsible for such a change. 

One Local Summer, Week 10: Mid-Atlantic Region

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Maryland

This week was all about heirloom veggies for Danielle and family. First they enjoyed bruschetta made from a variety of heirloom tomatoes, purplette onions, basil, garlic and raw mozzarella made from milk from their own cows. This was served over bread local to their in-laws. Then they roasted up one of their chickens and served it with some of their own-grown, heirloom fingerling potatoes.

The Purloined Letter traveled south to North Carolina where she found ample opportunities to eat local. In a quiet cabin by a lake she and her main squeeze cooked up shrimp and grits for lunch, bison burgers, grilled corn and green beans for dinner and trout, zucchini and swiss chard for Shabbat dinner. They had a local porter to wash it all down. And before heading out for vacation, the Purloined Letter canned up much of the garden’s bounty so they’ll be eating local come winter too.

New York

Fresh from a trip to sunny California where local eating seems almost second nature, Meghan hit the farmer’s market and created this delicious-sounding meal: tequila lime pork chops served with a peach, tomato, pistachio and goat cheese salad. To toast the meal, a pear, blueberry and cinnamon margarita. Besides the citrus, nuts, spirits and oil– everything else came straight from the market.

Mia decided to take her local meal outdoors, picnic style. She enjoyed local herbed pork sausage sautéed with radicchio, red onion and herbs. She also made another cucumber salad, grilled up some squash AND made pesto from her purple basil plant. And if that wasn’t enough, she and her fellow picnickers sipped on white sangria with peaches, plums and nectarines made from local wine even! Neighborhood specialty shops provided both bread and cheese. While her own community garden plot and CSA contributed the fruits and veggies.

Pennsylvania

Robin and family hit the beach this week where they were joined by some other OLS participants, the girls at Philly Farmers. Together they feasted on all sorts of local goodness from fresh tomato sauce to corn on the cob, clams to crab cakes. There was even a cucumber and onion salad on the menu and local beer to boot. The fun was well documented, so be sure to check it out.

New Jersey

It was sausage and peppers chez Seedling this week. My local meat source supplied the sausage while my CSA took care of the onions, peppers and tomatoes. I topped it all with some locally made mozzarella and served it on some locally made bread.

-this section of Mid-Atlantic updated posted by Elizabeth of Seedling.
________________________________

Pennsylvania

Kristen from Philly Farmers had a great meal down the shore with friends.  It sounds amazing: corn on the cob, clams, crabcakes, cucumber and onion salad, local beer....drool.

Mikaela continues to keep it simple with a four ingredient meal: stuffed tofu and tomato cucumber salad. 

Pat made the most amazing looking pork tenderloid with rosemary plum coulis, and Buzz whipped up his mouth-searingly hot Insanity Sauce.  And yes, there’s a recipe.  Proceed at your own risk!

My favorite OLS dish for the week was easily the poached eggs and sauteed mushrooms with cubanelle pepper sauce.  It was easy and good!  My other meal for the week used up a lot of zucchini and summer squash: squash ribbons with goat cheese.

New York

Rabi is playing catch up with her OLS entries and shared some great looking meals!  One is pan-fried tempeh, herb-baked turnips and greens, and a side salad.  The other basil miso eggplant.  Seriously, I nearly ate through the screen just reading about it.

Julia is sharing her recipe for grilled eggplant caponata, and also had a meal of veal chops with caramelized onion, baby garlic, currants, sage and wine, and a salad.  There’s a recipe for the veal included, too!  It looks and sounds amazing!

This section of the report by Nicole.

One Local Summer - week 10: International

Sally busted out the fried eggs on bread this past week, and who can blame her?  She was rewarded for babysitting a friend’s chickens with super fresh eggs!

One Local Summer - Week 10 - South

As the summer wears on, there is some great looking food coming out of the South.

Melissa over at Bridgman Pottery cooked up baby eggplant cutlets with arugula, goat feta, roasted red bell pepper and kohlrabi chips and polenta/goat cheese squares, peas, tomatoes, and zucchini.  Wow!

Heather at Simple - Green - Frugal put together loaded baked potatoes.  She says it’s a “no-brainer”, but I think it’s a great idea for using up produce.

Over at Outpost 505, they had chicken legs roasted with sweet tomatoes; corn on the cob, bourbon bison sausage, and grilled vegetables; and canned up some tomatoes.  It’s all documented over here.

Foodie Tots this week has a couple of great looking local meals and some fabulous market photography.

This week at the Garden apartment featured local lemon-thyme chicken, Greek salad with local produce and cheese, and roasted eggplant dip; the recipe for the dip is over here.

One Local Summer, Week 10: New England

Hey, Yankees!  Are you still there?  Or is everyone busy building their own Ark?  My goodness, the rain.  The rain.  But, even if you’ve missed a week or two, drop me a line and let me in on your next local meal, would ya?

MA

It was a classic New England feast at Laurie’s house!  Who doesn’t love boiled lobster, fresh corn and homemade cole slaw?  Yummmm!

Like many of us this time of year, Erica is eating salads of lots of veggies, along with some sort of grilled protein.  Unlike many of us, one of her salad meals this week was enjoyed with spicy broiled veal heart.  It looks beautiful, along with the more conventional steak and tomato salad that she also highlighted.  Whether you try it with veal heart or not, the spice rub she used sounds like a great one to have in the arsenal.

NH

I cooked a lot of local meals this week, but chose to highlight a no-cook breakfast.  The musk melons are in at my favorite farmstand, and I had a windfall of free blueberries, so that made a perfect fruit salad.  Fresh and cool. 

One Local Summer-week 10: Western Region

Oregon and Washington:

Braving the scariness of eating berries that ”came from outside” Jason and Shannon enjoyed the fruits of their careful pruning. Making me hungry… Now they’re off to raid every other neglected patch they can find…

Cobbler was the name of the game at Melinda and Matt’s place. If I hadn’t already been craving dessert I would be now. Check out her post for the recipe!

Noting that it gets easier and easier to eat locally as the summer goes on, Donna made a meal of beef soft tacos. A little of this, a little of that, no fuss, no muss and there you go. Perfect.

While she stocked up at the farmer’s market for the coming week. last week was one of leftovers and ice cream at JM’s house. Nothing wrong with that at all.

Pickles were on the agenda at Holly and Denise’s. Not just dill, but also sweet garlic & dill, bread & butter, sweet garlic and curried bread & butter. Hmmmm, how do I get on their holiday list?

Still waiting for labor to start, Momaste made a simple dinner of grilled steaks, red corn on the cob and cucumber slices from the garden. She’s also been enjoying heirloom tomatoes, sometimes stuffed with wild salmon. What remains to be seen is whether she makes it to tomorrow night’s meal of chickpeas in eggplant-tahini sauce…

Here at The Hennery we ate local all week, but our featured meal was the best. A simple roast beef cooked to perfection with smashed garlic potatoes, steamed peas and cucumber-onion salad. All of the veggies from the garden and everything else as local as possible. Mmmmm.

Alaska and California:

Kim in Alaska rejoins us with two dinners featuring local foods. After getting skunked while dipnetting, she raided the freezer for the last sockeye and combined it with a mixed salad and beach asparagus and potatoes. Dinner number two was tasty but basic, combining mashed potatoes, roasted turnips with golden beets and creamed beat greens and rainbow chard.

Back home and looking forward to dinner Anita had the night we all dread, company and a lackluster supper on the same evening. Even though it was a meal of false starts, the side dishes saved the day with roasted skewers of sweet peppers and a wheatberry salad. Welcome home Anita!

Green bean relished the summer by making and canning cucumber relish. She started out planning for pickles, but got derailed by a missing few. Not to be deterred, she chopped them up, combined them with sweet peppers, onion and spices, gave them a bath and put them on the shelf with the blackberry jam. Yum.

With a well timed trip to the farmer’s market and a stop at Homegrown Meats in La Jolla, Lauren had everything she needed to make Osso Buco. While it’s traditionally served with saffron risotto, Lauren combined it with slow cooker fava beans to keep it local. After some prep work she got to relax in the hammock while dinner made itself. Excellent.