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Boston Globe article

"The Localvore's Dilemma"

Somebody at the Globe has been paying attention.

A friend of ours brought up this same concern this weekend, as we were floating lazily down the Nashua River by kayak, watching the food chain at work. Barn swallows swooped crazily over the water, snatching junior dragonflies mid-flight. Muskrats pulled up mouthful after mouthful of grasses. Great blue herons stalked fish and frogs. Cows in a nearby field... produced methane. (We paddled faster through that stretch.)

I know that our container garden wouldn't exist without interstate trucking. The pickle buckets and the name-brand potting soil certainly found their way to Middlesex County, MA, at least partially by truck -- to say nothing of their constituent materials.

And you know what? This is an experiment. It doesn't have to be guaranteed to succeed, or be sensible, before we've tried it. What matters the most is that we keep our eyes open and honest, and learn from trying. What do you think?

Two Local Panini

Spread pesto on two slices of bread (rosemary and olive oil bread, today). Layer tomato slices and mozzarella inside, with a touch of salt. Pan-cook in a little bit of olive oil.

Die and go to heaven.

Two-Face Pizza

[Note to self: must find better lighting in the kitchen]

The stats:

• Homemade pizza dough, using whey instead of water
• Pesto with local basil and garlic, "furraway" pine nuts and olive oil and Parmesan, thinned with whey
• Homemade mozzarella!!!
• Commercial sauce (bought it for camping, honest -- normally I make all of ours)
• Commercial sausages from the freezer

Yummmmmmmmmmmm.

The pesto recipe is in Simply In Season, just your everyday pesto. There are two blobs of it in the freezer for future delight.

Mozzarella question: when you buy fresh mozzarella, it's much softer, almost spongy. Is it soaked in something special? I put ours in cold water overnight, but it was pretty stiff after 24 hours. Is it something to do with the heating process instead?

Thursday night we had burritos made with local beef, probably-local onion-pepper sofrito, hoophouse tomatoes, local cilantro, probably New England pepper jack, and nonlocal rice. Probably the best burritos we have ever had. I finally got the meat seasoning right -- browning it before stewing is regrettably, deliciously essential. Three and a half pound roast, stewed in about 2 c beef broth, 2 Tbsp chili powder, and 1 Tbsp cumin. When the meat was shreddable, I threw in a big handful of dried mild green chili bits and a small pinch of habanero powder, and let the liquid cook down. The ultimate compliment was that Tim didn't spice his up further. It was so good (and so late in the evening, what with the slow stewing), the camera never had a chance.

Oh, and the Zucchini Chocolate Chip cookies are pretty darn good. I took 40 into work and they disappeared in a flash.

Miscellany

Somehow I thought there would be more knitting-related posts when I began this blog. The knitting hasn't ceased -- I'm just trying to finish those darn socks. One down and about half an ankle left on the other!

Tim finally accompanied me to Verrill Farm yesterday. He didn't experience rapture in the vegetable section, but he didn't complain about coming home with Swiss chard, either. I'm going to try braising that this week. See if I can't get a whole local meal instead of piecemeal.

I forgot to mention some of the other local things we enjoyed last week:

• A huge dinner salad with local red leaf lettuce, spinach, hoophouse tomatoes, and green onions, and nonlocal carrots (purchased prior to OLS) and dressing
• More delicious breads from Nashoba Brook Bakery
• Strawberries and blueberries for breakfasts, with Shaw Farm milk
• Kimball Farm's ice cream!

And here are a few things I'll be trying in the next few days:

• Homemade mozzarella and/or ricotta, homemade pesto --> white and green pizza
• Scallion pancakes (maybe for lunch on Saturday, not sure how to round that one out)
• New potatoes, red onions, bell peppers, exotic spices, homemade yogurt --> aloo dam
• Chocolate chip zucchini cookies (from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle)
• Perhaps a frittata or omelette with the Swiss chard -- our eggs are now from Chip-In Farm, Bedford, MA (That's about 2 miles away!)

This should use up most of the flour in the house. Does anyone know whether King Arthur Flour is grown in New England as well as produced here?

One thing I've noticed, while planning meals around the fresh veg, is that we've been eating much less meat than usual. This week I made a kind of sofrito salad with whatever I could find in the fridge and pantry: local lettuce and tomato, onions, garlic, canned corn and beans, probably-New-England pepper jack. I'm not trying to pass that off as a local meal -- just a little astonished at what could be pulled together when the larder was nearly bare of fresh produce. It was hardly our usual "exhaustion supper." We must be getting used to this kind of eating.

I'm really looking forward to replacing our mystery meats, i.e. the chicken-without-a-past, with locally raised meats. The sofrito salad was tasty but it could have used a little meat (or corn chips) to round it out. We were both hungry again by bedtime.

Quickie garden update: nothing's ripe yet. Some tomatoes had blossom end rot and were chucked into the woods. I'll get a photo of the jungle that is our back porch, after work, if it isn't raining.

Eating, Thinking, and Eating Some More

Blogging is going to be a little light this week, as we are hosting Tim's parents for four days. I've taken a couple of days off from work, and we're enjoying the summer weather and going around to fun local places. The first place I dragged my mother-in-law off to -- not that she was protesting -- was Verrill Farm. She thought it was superb. We came home with the weekly staples (milk, bread, fresh berries) and some more dinner ingredients. Our fridge is practically bursting with tasty veggies and fruits. I have never seen such healthy lettuce, and it's even cheaper than the grocery store -- under $1.50 for a huge head of lettuce that's never seen the inside of a box truck.

Also, the corn wave is sweeping northward -- last week it was from Georgia, this week from Connecticut.

I've been giving the OLS rules a lot of thought. There are normally two of us eating here, and most groceries tend to last a few weeks rather than a few days. We have perfectly edible food -- carrots, pork chops, FLOUR -- that was purchased before the OLS kickoff, and ought to be eaten. Also, we've been incorporating local ingredients into almost every meal, including the leftovers. So I'm a little disinclined to buy some local pork chops and flour to be eaten for an OLS dinner when we are still going to eat the stuff we have. When they are gone, I'll happily switch to a local source. But in the meantime, I'm going to stop worrying about sourcing every main ingredient locally for a single meal, and be proud of the fact that about 75% of our grocery purchases in the last three weeks have been locally grown and/or made.

Without further ado... Red Currant Muffins!

Adapted from "Cranberry or Blueberry Streusel Muffins" in the Jersey Fresh Cooks book, one of the best for fresh produce. (Disclaimer: I am myself Jersey Fresh, having been transplanted there from New England at a very tender age.) It's produced by the NJ Department of Agriculture, and my mom picked it up at the Trenton Farmers' Market. Click the link -- they've got a terrific website.

Also featured this week, a no-recipe dinner referred to as "Duckweed Soup". Really, it's cream of broccoli (local broccoli, milk; on-hand chicken broth, butter, flour, S&P, cheese; unknown onion, garlic). More bread from Nashoba. It was so nice to come home from work, survey the fridge, and just cruise into making soup, knowing that it would taste delicious without a recipe. But if you're trying to use up a bunch of broccoli (or any green veg), you can do like this:

Duckweed Soup
Wash and chop 6 cups broccoli, chopping the stems small. Steam for a minute or two (e.g. in microwave) and set aside. It should be bright green, not sour green. Chop 1 large onion and mince 2 cloves garlic. In soup pot, sautee in butter to take the edge off. In a different saucepan, melt 2 Tbsp butter and then stir in 2 or 3 Tbsp flour. Cook the roux a little bit and stir in 2 cups warmed milk. Stir in about 4 oz grated Cheddar (or more -- 4 oz of NY sharp was still quite mild) and let the cheese melt. Add 1 quart chicken broth (you can adjust the milk:broth ratio to taste) and heat through. Add to soup pot, with broccoli, and when the broccoli is tender, process with a blender. That's how it got to be duckweed.

With tonight's pork chops: grilled zucchini, corn, and tomato/basil/mozzarella on French bread, drizzled with olive oil. All of it procured from Verrill Farm. I thought I grabbed local mozzarella, but the fine print says Wisconsin. However, my cheesemaking starter kit is in the mail!

One Local Supper: BBQ

I thought week two might be a pass for us, since we were out of town for much of it. Au contraire! We had several friends over for a barbecue, and while we didn't have a 100% local dinner, we came pretty close. (I didn't ask the guests to source local ingredients for their contributions.) Most of what we served was locally grown, though, and during the rest of the week we've been lunching and munching on local food as well.

The Verrill Farm bounty this week (click to zoom):

I didn't take pictures of everything we ate, but here's the breakdown:
Local:

• Italian zucchini
• Red and green leaf lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Chevre (yum)
• Hamburgers (from Blood Farm)
• Steak for shish kabob (ditto)
• Golden and Couza squash (seen last week in "OLS 1: Not Omelettes")

Not local:

• Onions (I think)
• Ketchup, mustard, marinade, Worcestershire sauce, etc.
• Bell peppers (Verrill Farm had them from Canada, oddly enough... isn't that a zone or two north of here?)
• Veggie burgers & dogs, chips, salsa, coucous salad, watermelon? (brought by guests)
• Crackers (vehicle for chevre)
• Hamburger buns
• Beer and other frosty adult beverages (we are all guilty)

Locally grown, but not yet eaten:

• Cilantro
• Fresh currants
• Blueberries
• Radishes
• Cucumber
• French bread
• Broccoli

So this was a 60 percent local dinner by weight, I think (the beer and the watermelon really weigh down the nonlocal side). But it was the best we did this week. We'll be eating leftovers for a few days, and then I think I'll shoot for some kind of pasta dish.

Here's something pretty to look at -- non runny jam! I used Verrill Farm strawberries and the recipe inside the pink pectin box (only 4 c sugar needed, because they put fructose in with the pectin).

And in case that doesn't turn your crank, have a look over here:

Not ready to pick, but getting there. The cherry tomatoes are showing up, too, and the Patio F Hybrids are thinking about it. The peas are on their second round of blossoms, and some of the beans are finally blooming, too. I love July.

One Local Supper: Not Omelettes

The farm stand we visited all of last summer really doesn't have much going in the way of dinner ingredients yet. I was getting a little desperate, but then I remembered the big farm stands in Concord and Lexington. Wow. One of them even had a coupon for a free pint of strawberries, so that's where I headed after work on Wednesday. (Sorry, 5:30 am work schedules and 11 pm hockey games kind of get in the way of posting. This supper was actually served on Wednesday, not tonight.)

Before we get started, this is what the thermometer read when I took it out of the kitchen drawer:

That should explain the sultry lighting. We actually had a glorious thunderstorm during all of this. "This" being the making of yogurt, strawberry jam, and then supper.

First, the farm stand finds!

Milk: Shaw Farm, Dracut, MA
Garlic herbed goat cheese: Westfield Farm, Hubbardston, MA
Spinach, broccoli, golden zucchini, two cousa squash, and Romanesco zucchini: Verrill Farm, Concord, MA
Tomatoes: a hoophouse somewhere in MA
French bread (not pictured): Nashoba Brook Bakery, Concord, MA

Strawberries (for snacking): Verrill Farm

This had to be a quick and easy and light dinner, because (1) I'd been up since 4:45 am, (2) did I mention it was 100 degrees F in the kitchen drawers? (3) we had a hockey game at 11 pm and didn't want to be ill. So I pretty much grabbed whatever looked delicious and wouldn't heat up the kitchen. We had goat cheese on toast:

Tim grilled the squash after I brushed them with a little olive oil and black pepper (neither local). I liked the Romanesco the best -- it had an almost nutty flavor. I'll definitely be making zucchini bread with it.

We also had a simple salad of spinach and tomato, with Italian dressing (Good Seasons, definitely not local). (It seemed best to use the one in the fridge before buying anew.) And of course, there were strawberries!

The yogurt I made from MA milk, but not the Shaw Farm stuff. I wanted to use up the milk we had. The first time I made the yogurt it was very runny -- this time I tried 3 tbsp of starter instead of 2. We'll see how it is tomorrow morning; just haven't had a chance to try it yet.

The strawberry jam is more like strawberries preserved in syrup, as I only had 4 cups of sugar and knew there wouldn't be time to get to the store before the strawberries spoiled. It went in the freezer just the same and will be delicious with yogurt all winter long.

So, anyway, I noticed a few interesting things about the super-local, super-fresh produce. First of all, both the strawberries and the tomatoes had thinner skins than what we get at Stop n Shop. We've been eating Backyard Beauties for the last couple of months, but the hoophouse ones were more flavorful. When I hulled the strawberries, I didn't have to dig, and the flesh was much sweeter (not that I mind tartness). That being said, they didn't take long to get mushy, even in the fridge.

Oh, and I also picked up some Shaw Farm ice cream! We'll have to try that tonight. It's been an extremely long week, the jury's still out on the field test results (the reason I got no sleep), and we're about to go on vacation with my parents and sister for a few days. Ice cream will really ease the slide into the weekend!

Moo!

Here are a few things I've learned about locally available milk:

• My officemate tipped me off to Crescent Ridge Dairy, which buys milk from Vermont farmers and delivers it. To your house. (How decadent! How sensible!) I'm still struggling with the price, though. Butter (brand name, available at Stop n Shop) is $6 a pound, the milk is $6 a gallon, and there's a delivery fee on top of that. Mama raised me to be thrifty.
• Garelick Farms (one of the big brand names) gets its milk from New England and New York dairy farms.
• Stop n Shop brand milk (what we've been drinking) is also from Garelick. (Funny what you learn in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Review) So, we've been drinking relatively local milk. This actually makes sense, as shipping fluid milk is more expensive (vs. product price) than shipping cream, butter, cheese, etc.
• I'm also trying to find out whether the Garelick milk comes from cows that are locked in a barn vs. pastured. No luck yet.
• There used to be a dairy right here in Bedford, the Blue Ribbon Dairy. Now there's a brand-new plaza with Quiznos, Starbucks, a bank, etc. on the same spot. The dairy was long gone (they tore down some derelict houses and a gas station to build the Blue Ribbon Plaza), but a shame just the same...
• Also been tipped off to http://realmilk.com and their milk list. I'm not actually that interested in raw milk at this point (baby steps...)

Now, I think we may have a winner: Shaw Farm in Dracut, MA. They were linked off the Verrill Farm website, and there are several other dairies not listed in the LocalFoods and FoodRoutes databases. So if you're looking for something in your area, it might be easier to find by networking locally!

My favorite part of the Shaw Farm website is their motto: "If they say it's homemade, ask to see their cows!"

It doesn't hurt that their prices are somewhat lower than others, and that cream is available (I can make our butter). But I'm really won over by their attitude. Go check out the site, and if you live near enough, the dairy!

How Big Is Your Foodshed?

I've just finished reading The Omnivore's Dilemma -- extremely thought-provoking, to say the least. I usually give several copies of the most memorable book from each year as Christmas gifts, and this is probably going to be the 2007 "winner". Maybe bundled with Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which I have yet to read, but which promises to be equally good.

Liz at Pocket Farm is hosting the second year of a project-challenge-community-thingy, maybe likened to a knit-along, except that the challenge is to eat more locally. People all over the world are participating -- I really admire the intrepid family in the southern hemisphere, who will be cooking with what's available in winter while the rest of us enjoy summer's bounty. But I've been worrying (a lot) about what to cook in our house, and how local is local enough?

I think that at least for starters, we will be including foods grown and/or prepared within a half day's drive of our town. That includes all of New England and the eastern edge of New York State. If something is available closer, so much the better. There are two reasons for drawing the circle thus: first, there are more options, and so we can ease into this; second, I believe there's some merit to arrangements like CSAs and buyers' clubs (milk, not Costco) bringing food into a metropolitan area.

As soon as I'm done with work today, it's off to the farm stands! We have two fairly large ones not listed in the FoodRoutes or LocalHarvest databases. There's Verrill Farm in Concord, MA, and Wilson Farm in Lexington, MA. We should be able to put together a very large salad, at least! And though it's extremely hot and sticky, I'll see about making some strawberry jam, too.