In Season & Fresh from the Garden, the Fields, the Orchards & the Woods
On July 2, The Washington Post (business section) had yet another article on the latest salmonella scare. Is it tomato? Or is something else? The FDA still does not know. Not a great confidence builder in the FDA or our industrial food system now, is …
I love to the capture the essence of fruit in fruit based-desserts, but I don’t care to bake in summer – well, not too much. I also detest wasting food. So here we are, late June, and the apples need to be thinned, or they’ll …
It is so easy to be a locavore in summer – it’s possible to do it almost without having to think about it – and to be almost totally locavore. Vegetable are abundant, fruits are in season.
From the garden I am harvesting the last of the radishes and the peas, the first of the carrots (harvested young and small) and the beets, kales, Swiss chard, mustard greens, the first of the big tomatoes and peppers. My neighbor gives me zucchini, as the first planting I made (late anyway) did not germinate and the second planting (even later) is still small. Berries (blueberries, raspberries, black raspberries, strawberries) are plentiful too – although my plants are still young. I don’t get a lot at once, about get a pint of mixed berries every other day at the moment, since the strawberries have slowed down, and the blackberries have not yet started. But mixed together (with or without a very light dusting of sugar) they make a very refreshing dessert, especially when served with yogurt sweeten with honey (both of which I can also source locally)
There is similar abundance at the farmer’s market, and chances are there is a farmer’s market no far from you. The culminate web site has a neat tool which gives you the farmers markets for your zip code. Try it at the Culinate web site.
I have heard the comment that such fresh full of flavor and full of goodness food is somehow reserved for the financial “elites”. That’s wrong – and that’s sad.
First anybody can grow a few things as long as they have a sunny balcony or a sunny patch. Just a few herbs will incredibly enliven your meals. Of course, the money you hand over to the farmer at the farmer’s market – or the farm stand – is often – but not always – more than at the grocery store for “conventional” fresh food. In another post, I will go over why that is so and the true cost of “conventional” food. I think when feeding one’s family on a budget, one may have to rethink some shopping strategies.
I have adopted several strategies that allow me to eat well, in season and of food that taste good, is good for me and has not wrecked our land and water because it was grown “gently”. Some of them may work for you. Continue reading Locavore June 30: Strategies to Eat Well on a Budget
Most people who grow strawberries – or who pick-them at pick-your-own operations or even frequent Farmers’ market – are familiar with the so-called June strawberries. They bear over a few weeks from mid/late May to mid/late June here in the Northern Piedmont depending on the …
I have said my goodbye to fresh sour cherries for this year. I have frozen and made jam with a bucket of them – and of course enjoyed quite a few in cobblers and eaten them “au naturel”. But for the cook with a liking for vermilion sweet/tart fruits, red currants provide even more of a flavor burst. In my Northern Piedmont garden, red currants mature right after the sour cherries – sometimes overlapping them slightly. A red currant bush bears faster than a cherry tree– one can have a nice little harvest three years after rooting cuttings (very easy to do to!), although it’ll start to be respectable in year 4; they are more manageable in a kitchen garden than a cherry tree which takes a bit of room and is more appropriate for the orchard. Surprisingly, the birds seem to leave them alone, and at least for now, the bear also ignores them – unlike the cherries for which he makes special trips down the hill, devouring other things (like bluebird eggs) on his way to his feast.
Currants need a cold dormancy period and don’t enjoy too muggy a summer, so I give them shade in the afternoon. Besides watering well the first year to ensure good root establishment, and pruning the oldest branches (4+ years) occasionally, they are pretty care free. Also self-fertile, but that’s a moot point because one currant bush is simply not enough. Besides, delicious when eaten out of hands, or tossed with a little sugar and let to rest for 1 hour to draw out the juice, currants makes a famously delicious jelly – and a fabulously easy one. Read more for the “Fabulously Easy Red Currant Jelly” recipe. Continue reading The Easiest Jelly in the World
It’s now solar summer, and while the days are just about to start diminishing again – albeit imperceptibly at first, we are getting into the time when we have an profusion of fresh beautiful and wonderfully tasty produce. Production is really stepping up in the …
Nothing special in the locavore log – same salad style lunch yesterday and home-made pizza (again!) last night. My baker always makes a double batch of dough… Lunch today was a lot of fun, though. I was holding a workshop “Growing and Cooking with Herbs”. …
I really thought I was a pretty serious composter. I have two large (at least 5 x 5 x 4) bins going at once, often three – mmmhhh… “piles” would probably be a better word than “bin”, although I do try to corral my compost … some. All kitchen vegetal scraps, garden debris, weeding, grass clippings, raked leaves, old potting soil, mulch etc go in there. And a few truckloads of horse manure when I can get my hands on it (actually if my garden facilitator can get it for me). A few months later, tada! Magic has worked and I have black crumbly deliciously earthy-smelling compost. I actually thought I might be good enough to earn recognition in Organic Gardening magazine if I ever wanted to send a photo of my compost piles for that special last page. Some visitors to the garden are clearly surprised by the compost zeal – then really ask questions when they start looking around at what’s growing. Anyway, I thought I was pretty good. That is, until I visited the garden of Tobey & Jennifer Wheelock a few days ago. Continue reading Out numbered, out composted
Last night dinner was an appetizer of sage leaf tempura (sage from the garden), sautéed golden pork chops (locally raised) with 2 onions (yellow & shallots, not local), and garlicky braised kale (from the garden). Pickled chilies (from last year’s harvest). No dessert. I buy …