One Local Summer, week 13: Mid-Atlantic Region

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Thanks to the Mid-Atlantic participants for a truly inspiring season of cooking (and eating) local. I enjoyed getting to know you and your fabulous blogs.

Maryland

The lunchbox the Purloined Letter packed up for her partner looks almost too pretty to eat. It’s chock full of all sorts of garden goodness: a chopped salad of swiss chard, green beans, yellow zucchini, and chioggia beet with red pepper dressing, lima beans “kissed” by red pepper lips (too cute), sautéed beet greens topped with twice-cooked grits rectangles (the cornmeal was grown and milled at their son’s camp) and cherry tomatoes, plus scuppernongs (a type of grape) and blackberries. And if that isn’t enough, to drink, some home-grown lemon verbena tea sweetened with home-grown stevia.

Plus it’s harvest time chez Purloined Letter, be sure to check out the gorgeous corn. This is just one stop on the road to home grown, ground and baked cornbread.

New York

Happy Birthday to Meghan who has been celebrating all week long. She did manage to squeeze in some local goodness: roast chicken and a huge salad. All ingredients local, and all came from the co-op she just joined.

“Cheers” to Mia who has become a master of local mixology. Among her specialties: a cucumber gimlet (with home-grown cukes), a strawberry jive featuring home-grown basil and mint, a lavender honey martini (both the honey and lavender were local) and a blueberry thyme concoction. Alongside these fancy libations, she whipped up some summer soups thanks to her CSA and garden plot: gazpacho, squash soup and cucumber dill soup garnished with smoked trout. There was also a potato and green bean salad. Plus farmer’s market bread and local cheese.

New Jersey

We celebrated the close of the OLS Challenge with some local crab cakes topped with CSA swiss chard. Our CSA also supplied the squash and potatoes which we grilled. Our own garden provided the tomatoes which were tossed with local mozzarella and CSA basil.

-this section of Mid-Atlantic updated posted by Elizabeth of Seedling.
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I can’t believe this is the last OLS update!!  This Summer passed by really quickly!  For the last update, we’ve got only three updates in this section - two from Pennsylvania and one from New York.  Thanks to everyone who participated, from those who only submitted once to those who stuck it out for the entire Summer!

Pennsylvania

Buzz and Pat ate bison and pepper rice, which Pat says was the best tasting meal they had all Summer.  Considering some of the photos I’ve seen of their meals, that’s shocking to me!

My final meal of the OLS challenge was soft shell crabs served with cabbage and carrot gratin.  I also went on a minor canning spree, which I haven’t posted about yet.  The canning mania included plum barbecue sauce, watermelon barbecue sauce, watermelon rind relish, and peach butter.

New York
Julia threw a barbecue with local foods.  She served grass fed burgers with sage and Worcestershire sauce - her first time grilling!  Also included were homemade flatbread, baba ganoush, and hummus.  Good luck in your new apartment, Julia!!

This section of the update by Nicole.  Thanks again to all participants in the 2008 One Local Summer challenge!  I’ll do a challenge wrap up in the next few days.