Weekly Local Booty 10/19-10/25/08

It was a chilly trek to the farmer's market this morning! It looks like it is shaping up to be a beautiful fall day. Perfect for how I plan on spending it - starting kale, chard, and cilantro seeds, and doing a little bit of baking. Wahoo for the weekends and wahoo for the fall!

We didn't get too much booty from our container or community gardens this week, as I've mentioned before, this isn't due to a lack of peppers, but we are letting them ripen so that we can save their seeds. We'll be picking green tomatoes tomorrow as we are expecting three nights of freezing weather early this week. :-( We'll be bringing in our container pepper plants for the duration of the freeze threat. Anyone have a good recipe for fried green tomatoes? If so please link to it, send me an email, or leave the recipe in the comments section. It would be very, very highly appreciated. In fact, any other ideas for what to do with green tomatoes would be welcome, I think there are quite a few down there - maybe a dozen.

Anywho, I'm getting off topic. Check out our (small) load of booty from the container garden this week:















2 ripe "serexican" chiles and a hot banana pepper. These lovelies were turned into a delicious batch of 'Traditional' Refried Beans. Brett usually makes the refried beans and they turned out really well this week. Thanks Brett!

And this is (sniffle) our last CSA share of the year. It has been a wonderful season and we hope to have Danjo Farms as our CSA next year. We got excellent produce and wonderful discussion - we are happy to have been able to call Dan "our farmer". Our first year having a CSA subscription was a very good experience.















Starting from the bottom left: green onions, lots of greens (yay salads!), radishes, and something.















Does anyone have any idea what these are? One of the neat things about subscribing to a CSA is that you never know what you are going to get - as a result, Brett and I have worked with ingredients this season that we probably never would have otherwise, and learned we liked some new vegetables. But these, I mean, what are these?

Finally, onto this week's load of farmer's market booty. This large haul ran us $41.















I didn't really organize the produce very well to list off what is there, but I'll do my best. Starting from the left: a leek (for soup!), a loaf of ciabatta from the local Uprise Bakery (we love their ciabatta - I'm glad they aren't too far out of my way when I am walking to the bus station after work, we'll still be able to have their bread over winter!), a "pie pumpkin", 3 zucchini, 1 yellow squash, bell peppers, a dozen eggs, tomatoes, hot salsa, grass-fed beef (for Brett), onions, lots of carola potatoes, garlic, and jalapenos.

Anyways...

Now for the weekly update on the Eat Local Challenge: Well, as you can see from all the produce above, we aren't starving! We've actually done really well at this challenge and have really enjoyed it. It has forced us to be a little more creative with some of our meals, but I like a challenge - not to mention, we've gotten to try all sorts of new things. This will make eating locally that much easier in the future. Our trips to the "regular" grocery store have been incredibly small - today's trip included cookies for Brett, baking powder, organic fair-trade chocolate chips, and organic brown sugar.

Eating locally is a way of "voting with your dollars" in a very powerful way. Money spent in the community provides more to the community than money spent at a chain. The produce is fresher and relationships are cultivated. We can look at eating locally as a sacrifice, a necessary burden a lower-energy future may have to endure, or we can look at it as a challenge, a wonderful experience of place. Eating locally is a way of really taking in the place you live - eating with the seasons, eating the produce available in your region creates a culture of food, and a culture of place, something that has been very lacking in the past few decades. To everyone out there trying to rekindle or create a new culture of local food - a culture of the places in which we inhabit - keep it up, we are all doing a great, necessary, and powerful thing, and we can see the results every time we make a delicious local meal for our families or we check-in with a local farmer to see how their sweet potatoes are doing. Simple actions compound over time to be something far more important than they may seem to us individually.

'Til next time.

Weekly Local Booty 10/12-10/18/08

It has been a fairly chilly week here in Mid-Missouri. We had a slight threat of frost, but thankfully, at least for now, we've been spared. The weather forecast looks free of frost threats next week. I hope that keeps up until our tomatoes at the community garden ripen.

Despite the nippy trip to the farmer's market this morning, we had one of our better trips in terms of what was available to work with. The fine folks at the farmer's market treated us to live bluegrass music, and Brett and I spent a decent amount of time talking about beekeeping with our farmer Dan. Anyone interested, it would be a good field to get in to - there is a lot of demand for these types of services.

Anywho, check out what we got from our container garden this week:















2 "regular" bell peppers - one ripe, one (obviously) not and 2 ripe serexican chile peppers. A note about the green bell pepper - I kind of mangled the plant getting this pepper off. I decided to just try to pull it with my hands (sometimes using a knife to slice the pepper off is a better method) and I pulled a whole branch of the plant with it.

Check out this week's CSA. A sad note, next week will be our last CSA share for the season. Winter, sigh. At least we have football, sweaters, and baking.















Starting from the bottom right: boiler onions, a green bell pepper, 3 small, but gorgeous tomatillos (!!!!!!!!!!), a funky looking gourd, a head of lettuce, radishes, a cucumber, and another funky gourd.















I know this is a horrible picture, but look at these lovely local tomatillos. Wahoo!

And finally, this week's farmer's market booty. This load ran us a whopping $33.















Starting from the bottom right: 4 vidalia onions, 4 tomatoes, 5 habaneros, 4 pimento peppers, a zephyr summer squash, a zucchini, a loaf of ciabatta from the local Uprise Bakery, a 1 lb. glass jar of alfalfa honey from Bonne Femme Farm (right here in Columbia!), a bag of baby kale, green beans, and carola potatoes.

That is a nice looking load of local loot! We still have a little bit of stuff left over from last week (check out the side bar to see all the local goodies we're munching on), so the Eat Local Challenge has been quite easy. Especially since we already have such a nice stash of organic beans and rice that we purchased from a co-op. We are planning on busting out one of our homegrown butternut squash this weekend too. Wahoo!

Honestly, with the Eat Local Challenge, the only thing I have missed is the morning granola bar I got accustomed to eating at work each morning along with a piece of fruit. I didn't think to put this on my "exceptions" list either. So I decided I'd look up some recipes for homemade granola, and what do you know - I already have a stash of various nuts around, plenty of organic rolled oats, even a little bit of dried fruit (we always have this stuff on hand), and with the addition of some local peanut butter or honey, I can have homemade granola bars and still be within the parameters of the Eat Local Challenge, as well as what we were hoping to achieve as market season started to draw to an end. An exciting longer-term note - the local honey and peanut butter are available year-round at the one of the local grocers here in Columbia, the Root Cellar. The Root Cellar also happens to be on my daily walk to the bus station. Wahoo for local goodies!

I am happy to report that I am now only one food post behind too! I'll get around to that one...sometime...probably after the weekly garden update. You can pretty much expect that the garden update will never be posted on Sunday. I do no blogging on Sundays. My computer is usually on - with the fantasy football live scoring page up. My team is 2-2 and my odds this weekend are looking pretty good. I know not many of you care - but I really enjoy football (but really hate the violence, injuries, and the trash talking).

Anyways, have a great weekend!

'Til next time.

Spicy Chile-Glazed Sweet Potato Flautas

I got the inspiration for a chile glazed sweet potato dish from a Rick Bayless recipe that can be found here. I didn't have any ancho chiles, and I thought it would be fun to go a completely different way with these. They were really good, simple and fairly quick to make, and spicy, just the way I like things. They were almost a little too spicy for Brett, so keep that in mind if you decide to make these. Just cut down on some of the chipotle peppers.

I thought about putting other things in these, but they seemed perfect with just the sweet potatoes, so all I did was put some chopped black olives in the flautas with the sweet potatoes. The only thing I would do differently next time would be to thaw out some Green Chile Taco Sauce to have with these - that would have been perfect.

Man, I'm drooling just thinking about these - we will definitely have them again soon. I'll just tone down the spice a little bit so Brett doesn't disallow me from ever making these again. So good, so good.

Anything on the ingredients list that doesn't fit in with the Eat Local Challenge or the Go Local part of the Unplug Yourself initiative were things we already had on hand.

Note: I still have lots of agave nectar on hand. When I am out I will be purchasing local honey - which would also work well in this recipe.

The local booty legend:
no asterisk = grocery store
* = farmer's market or The Root Cellar
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms





















These plates are seriously cool aren't they? ;-) Very fitting for a Mexican meal - hehe.

Spicy Chile-Glazed Sweet Potato Flautas

Chile Glazed Sweet Potatoes:
2 sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cubed *

2 cloves of garlic, minced *
2 chipotle chiles in adobo, minced
1-2 tbsp adobo sauce
3 tbsp agave nectar
1/4 cup of water
cinnamon
allspice
Mexican oregano
black pepper
salt

Preheat oven to 425.

Combine all the glaze ingredients in a small bowl.

Place the sweet potatoes in a baking dish and toss with half the glaze.

Cover with foil and roast for 20 minutes. Toss potatoes with the rest of the glaze.

Roast for an additional 20 minutes or until potatoes soft.

Turn the oven down to 400.

The Rest of the Schtuff:
1 small can of chopped black olives, drained
small flour tortillas
salsa

Make sure the oven is at 400.

Layer sweet potatoes in warmed tortillas. Roll up and secure with toothpicks.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Remove the toothpicks and serve with salsa.

Mashed Potato and Veggie Stuffed Mushrooms and the October Eat Local Challenge

So I was browsing 28 Cooks awhile back when I came across one of her recipes for stuffed mushrooms. At first I thought she had stuffed the mushrooms with mashed potatoes - come to find out they were stuffed with cream cheese. Well I thought the idea of stuffing a mushroom with mashed potatoes sounded mighty good, so that's what I did!

We topped these with a variation of Veganomicon's Mushroom Gravy - basically, I used what I had on had. That gravy made the cookbook worth buying.

Note: This meal was made before the October Eat Local Challenge started - I am just behind as usual. ;-)

The local booty legend:
no asterisk = grocery store
* = farmer's market or The Root Cellar
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms




























Mashed Potato and Veggie Stuffed Mushrooms

6 large mushrooms, stems removed and rinsed

The mashed potatoes:
4 red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into large cubes *
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 tbsp Earth Balance
1/4 cup rice milk
garlic powder
dried basil
black pepper
salt

Preheat oven to 350.

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add the potatoes and garlic. Cook for 25-30 minutes, or until soft. Drain the potatoes.

Transfer potatoes to a large bowl. Blend potatoes and remaining ingredients together with a mixter or potato masher, adding more rice milk if necessary to reach desired consistency.

The other stuff:
2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
1 small yellow onion, chopped **
2 cups of chard, chopped *
1 tbsp safflower oil

Heat safflower oil over medium heat in a medium sized skillet. Add the carrots and onions and stir-fry for about 10 minutes or until carmelized.

Add the chard in batches, covering with an oven proof plate or lid to steam if necessary.

Stir veggies into the mashed potatoes.

Spoon a few tablespoons of the potato mixture into each mushroom.

Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes.

Let cool for a few minutes and top with mushroom gravy if desired.

These were seriously good, seriously. I wish folks around the Mid-Missouri area would grow more "common" mushrooms - button and portobello, things like that. I would eat stuffed mushrooms more often if I could find them locally.

Anywho, onto the October Eat Local Challenge. This challenge is put on by the cool folks who run EatLocalChallenge.com. They have hosted multiple local eating challenges and given great information and resources for folks who want to participate.

As you all know from the garden and local booty updates, we try to either grow our own or eat locally as much as possible already anyway. But there is always more that we can do, and ways we can creatively change our eating habits and also discover new foods. I like that this challenge allows for reasonable exceptions and it goes very well with the go local portion of the Unplug Yourself initiative.

You can see our exemptions on the side bar of the blog. Most of them are self explanatory. We have since found local beans, some other local staples (still no brown rice), and will consider them as options when we run out of our existing stashes of these things.

On top of the exemptions on the side bar are things that are non-local, not exempt, but that I already had on hand, such as olives and other canned goods that I had before signing up for the challenge. Also, if we go out to eat, we will go to a local restaurant at the very least, and one that tries to source locally at best.

Each week when I post the local booty updates I will do a dual Eat Local/Unplug Yourself update as to our progress and how well we have been able to stay within the parameters we set for ourselves.

If you are interested in participating in the Eat Local Challenge for the month of October as well, I'm sure it is not too late to sign up. You can sign up for the challenge here.

Well, it is late, and we still haven't had supper, so it is getting to be that time around here.

'Til next time.