Verjus

good morning,

yesterday I woke early to no real local food in the house, so, hungrily, but sadly for my conscience, went to Breugger's bagels with maggie Delphine while it was still dark for a peanut butter sandwich. It did taste so good with my dog close at my side out in the chilly air.

At the wonderful Shaker Square market,my favorite farmer, Monica, convinced me to buy a box of her tomato seconds by telling me how she'd made tomato soup. She sauteed onions in butter, and added chopped tomatoes. After cooking them until soft, she put them through a food mill (or a sieve), returned them to the heat. cooked for a while, then added cream. "A taste of heaven," she said. So, in the evening, I made some tomato soup (though I used skim milk and chopped some parsley from the bottom of my back door steps). Nice and hot, it tasted lovely.

In the middle of the day, I had stopped by Ripe! at the Botannical Garden. A friend was in front of the Slow Food booth, so I stopped to talk. I met Carrie, who, as it so happened, is the woman who mentioned the use of unripe grapes as a lemon substitute. Seems it is a relatively well known thing....it's bottled and usually made in Europe. My friend Leslie buys it at the Miles market. She finds it right by the vinegar.

I wandered around in the good aroma of food cooking, talking with some folks. The woman in the Olive and the Grape booth had heard of verjus. She said that it would probably be difficult to become certified to make it, as she has to go through a process of being certified for each food she creates. She did say that local wineries are certified to make wine and wine products, so they would be the best bet to make a local verjus. She gave me the name of some of the more progressive wineries .

This all felt good to me. And I think I'll look into it, with happiness.

But first, next month, out to the Miles market.

happy grey day.

juice from unripe grapes!

Yesterday, on the radio, I heard a woman involved here with local food talking about a restaurant she worked in in, I think it was, Seattle. The chef, while turning out delicious french food, only used local food. Instead of lemons, he used the juice from unripe grapes. Wow. How this has stuck in my head.

Saturday at the Shaker Square market I ran into Hank Haberman. Hank cooked during Kathleen and my permaculture course. He's a lovely person, and a very wise cook. I was telling him about this challenge, remembering that he makes breads from local grains. He said he made a sourdough starter from plums (somehow) which he was using instead of yeast. Because of the starter, he has to make 4 loaves a wek. I'm hoping to catch up with him, and enjoy 1 of the loaves.

I was telling him what a surprise it is to miss peanut butter so much. He has his own grinder. He's thinking about where the closest place to get peanuts is. At the wonderful little store I go to in Chesterland, there are peanuts from Virginia. Pretty close, he thought. So, yesterday I bought some, and will happily trade the peanuts for the bread.

You know, it might be fun to have him come talk to a group at some point.

I did bake some pears in a crisp made with honey....a much gentler taste.

This morning, as I was walking Maggie delphine, an old recipe for oatcakes came to me. Just looked it up. Oats bended into oat 'flour', water and salt..(and baking soda, but the recipe said you can leave it out..changes the texture, but..) The cakes are wonderful, I remember, with butter and jam. I'm going to try them later today, and will send along the recipe if they're edible.

happy day

Trip to Whole Foods Market In Beachwood

I was out in Beachwood so I decided to stop at Whole Foods Market on Chagrin. I don't get out there much so I was 1/2 way through the store when I figured out that they mark local foods with "local" signs. For produce, I got eggplant, patty pan squash (never had it before), green beans and a hungarian hot pepper (for more chili). Snack items marked "local" that I got were Don Sabrosa black bean and corn natural gourmet salsa (label indicates that it is distributed by Don Sabrosa, LLC in Cincinnati, OH http://www.donsabrosa.com/) and Tangos Multigrain Tortilla Chips (mfg by Shearer's Foods, Inc. in Brewster, OH).

Such a beautiful day

Hi,

Yesterday I ate oatmeal with maple syrup and milk for breakfast, then, later in the day, corn on the cob with salt and olive oil, and broccoli with oil and garlic and a dried hot pepper. Toward evening, I was looking for something more for my stomach, and the ripening pears in a bowl on the table began calling. So I baked them with whole wheat flour, organic sugar and butter (usually I use nutmeg). How wonderful the rich treat tasted. How lovely are warm cooked pears.

Today, my dog and I went out into the country. The field where we park was full of old clover and chicory, new small white asters, then all the monarch butterflies. On the way home we stopped at Eddy's, and I bought a big sweet yellow watermelon, new hard pears, and apple cider.

I did allow some Humphrey's popcorn. And I'm thoughtful; next time I will experiment with cooking the pears with honey.

I'm exploring being a little hungry some of the time.

Happy beautiful days.

Trip to Nature's Bin

This afternoon I went to Nature's Bin and got the following OHIO PROUD items:
Corn
Gala Apples
Peaches
Black Plum Tomatoes
Red Skin Potatoes
Stutzman Farm Items in Bulk:
Spelt Berries (this will be the first time trying these)
Cornmeal (I predict some corn muffins heading our way)
Spelt Flour
I almost bought Humphrey Popcorn but I don't have a hot air popper.

Family Dinner Feast

Yesterday for family dinner, we had 1/2 roasted chicken, stuffing, roasted red skin potatoes & ya ya carrots, sesame honey tofu, and lettuce & tomato salad.

For the stuffing:
1 loaf homemade whole wheat bread cubed
5 small chicken eggs
fresh rosemary & chives
1 onion, & 2 cloves garlic

Saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until tender. In a bowl, mix the bread, eggs, rosemary and chives then add the onion and garlic. Place in a baking dish and cook 1/2 hour-45 min in 350 degree oven. I also cooked some of the stuffing along side the chicken (which I had already roasted the night before).

Even the non-challenge dinner guests enjoyed the food and didn't realize that our dinner was mostly local food :).
The only thing really missing was gravy. There weren't really enough drippings from 1/2 a chicken to make gravy.

I miss the golden light today

hello,

I just had a lunch of swiss chard, boiled potatoes with the dill I found with Kathleen, and a fried egg. It tasted good and fine. Earlier I'd gone to a big Giant Eagle for kitty litter. It was sort of an experience, aisles and aisles of food that was not for me. The woman behind me in line had maybe eight boxes of frozen food, and as many yogurts in their little plastic cups. Amid the cornucopia of packaged food there was a small stand with a sign saying Regional Produce. But the produce looked suspiciously perfect and shiny, like all else in the stands.

Maybe it's just me.

For breakfast this morning I had a pancake from a pancake mix I found at the Shaker Square Market. Spelt flour, buckwheat flour, corn flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. It was very good pancake mix, but I'm very thoughtful about the baking powder and soda (felt like i was cheating a little). I do want to look into their origins.

On Tuesday mornings my dog and I drive out to Chesterland for a training class. It's good for us both. We park next to a wonderful field alive with late summer wildflowers, crickets and swooping birds. On a whim on the way home I followed the signs for fresh peaches and vegetables, and found a place that sold alot of local things. I bought maple syrup, a lovely yellow watermelon, some hard pears, and some eggs. I could see the chickens running around next door. So, that made me happy. There were big peanuts from Virginia, and some delicious looking cheddar popcorn that I'll remember for another time.

I guess I'm feeling gently purer, but wanting not to judge the woman behind me at Giant Eagle with all the frozen food. Just thoughtful about her and all of the Giant Eagles of our lives.

I'm missing oranges most of all, lemons and limes, soy sauce and cinnamon. But I'm good. Wishing you all the same. maren

A Tough Start

It has been a really tough first week. Partially because of my previous "challenges" (I did a 30-day fitness challenge in July along with the starting from scratch challenge then followed that with a 21-day purification program in August) and partially because of lack of time/planning.

Luckily today I had some time to prepare a nice meal so I will have a bit of leftovers. The bread should last a few days. Also, I am making family dinner this week. I'm planning on making roasted chicken with stuffing (with some of the bread that I made today), roasted potatoes and carrots, some kind of tofu and whatever else I can come up with between now and Thursday.

For breakfast, I can have oatmeal with milk & honey or eggs & toast (I can top it off with homemade jelly that Kathy and Todd made from local fruits).

There are lots of possibilities...

Our Afternoon Feast

Kathy, Todd and I had a little feast this afternoon.

Here is the local menu:

Fresh baked whole wheat bread with butter. Here is the link to the recipe: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/simple-whole-wheat-bread/Detail.aspx

Roasted pepper chili with navy beans. I roasted a bunch of peppers with garlic and onion. In a separate pot, I cooked the tomatoes (fresh from the garden) with chives and corn (also fresh from the garden). I added in the navy beans (I first boiled them in water until they were soft). Once the peppers were finished roasting, I added the tomato mixture to the peppers.

Red potato and tomato salad. Here is the link to the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/red-potato-and-tomato-salad-recipe/index.html (I didn't use capers or olives though)

Sesame chicken. I sauteed chicken in sesame oil and added local honey and chives from the garden.

good morning,

It does seem as if it's going to be another beautiful day.

Yesterday, I made one of my old recipes for Indian Cake. from Food the Indians Gave Us.

It goes;

4 cups sifted cornmeal, 3 Tablespoons molasses (I used a wonderful honey from Heiden's Honey in Massillon that I found at the Shaker Square Market),2 teaspoons salt, and a rounded tablespoon of shortening (I used butter).

Mix ingredients and add boiling water until mixture is well-moistened. Pour into well-greased baking pan, smooth surface with a spoon and bake in hot oven until well-browned. (I put it in a 400 oven for 40 minutes.I'd probably try a hotter oven if I did it again.).

Well, it's reasonably edible. I toasted some this morning and ate it with butter and the lovely honey.

I did just look up the nutrients in cornmeal, and found an interesting service, Self-nutrition Data. Seems there're a fair amount of calories, alot of starch and a very little bit of vitamins and minerals, with iron, thiamin and magnesium leading the pack.

Yesterday I got to the Market in the middle of a downpour and forgot some things for the week...onions, maple syrup etc. Later, I'm going to see about Whole Foods local offerings.

Sharon, thanks for the thoughtful invitation. At the very least, I do look forward to meeting you at some point.

A Busy Morning

This morning I had a local food shopping adventure.

First I went to the Westside Market.

I shopped at the Basketeria and got local peppers, beets, carrots and red skin potatoes. I got peaches from another stand.

Then I headed over to Annemarie's Dairy and bought milk and butter from Hartzler Farms, eggs from Brunty Farms and Cleveland Tofu.

Then, I headed over to Crocker Park and got some more whole wheat flour (same stand as last week) and tomato basil chicken patties (I didn't get the name of the farm when I was there).

Then, I went to Nature's Bin and got Gerbers chicken breast & country breakfast sausage, blackberries, sweet banana peppers, honey rock melon, cucumbers and Stutzman Farms honey puffed corn.

Hi,

Maybe I'm consumed with my stomach. Maybe I always am, but giving up smoking has given everything an extra edge.

I wanted to say that, yesterday, after I went to the West side Market and found it closed, I stopped in at the Food Co-op in University Circle on my way home to see what might be happening. It's located on Euclid Ave., just at the side of the Institute of Art. They have a large sign about supporting local produce in the produce area. Most produce is organic, and there are signs for Ohio grown food, tho far from all comes from Ohio. They've local dairy, Middlefield cheese, and something (delicious) named, I think, Northeast Grassfed. I had a nice talk with a manager, who is interested in the Challenge, and in learning more about local suppliers, especially nuts, which I hope to get to next week. For future reference, they've organic ginger, filberts etc.

Happily, this morning the west Side Market was alive and well. As I'm allowing myself Ohio City Pasta, I spent some time there. I spoke with someone who had just begun working there. She said that they used local flour "when they could". Same with cheese; some is local, some not, and who knows what's where.T here is a new ravioli (delicious), white bean and rapini, with the rapini (if you like the taste) coming from a farm in Ohio City.

I bought some broccoli, non-organic, but from Medina, in the booth that Kathleen showed me.

Thinking of my stomach this morning (Kathleen, I'm a breakfast eater) with only a bit of a very lovely local melon in it, I thought of the Native American peoples, and the early farmers, creating tasty meals with what they had. I did some googling, but as I was hungry, tried not to dwell on thinking about the recipes. There's alot of stuff there that I'm going to try a little later on. maybe everyone will find more.

I do have some very basic recipes for Native American corn bread and johnnycakes that I'll send along as I try them. They use molasses, we'll see if maple syrup and honey will do.

This is all allowing me to feel closer to the earth.

wonderful canning blog

Good Morning,

This morning there was an interview on NPR with a woman who teaches canning outside of Washington, D.C.. She has a rich website, Mrs. Wheelbarrow's Kitchen. Fun to look at, but a little too tempting to read recipes for, say, avocado toast.

But, I'm happy to be a part of the challenge. Challenge is a good name for the endeavor, I think, but a gentle challenge.

Off to the West Side Market.

Welcome to September!

I'm not very good about eating breakfast... most days I skip over it but make up for it later in the day. So, today, I moved right to lunch.
I made myself this lovely pizza... using bread flour that Sharon found at the farmer's market, olive oil, wild garlic I had foraged for in our previous challenge, local onions I bought at the Tremont farmer's market last night, meunster cheese I bought there last week, and tomatoes from my garden. I used garlic and olive oil for the sauce, and then cut up onions and tomatoes, topped it with cheese, and stuck it in the oven.
I also used some of my homemade pasta sauce as dipping sauce for the crust when I ate it.
I found the recipe for the crust at http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/pizza-dough-iii/Detail.aspx
Of course, the sugar (which I used sugar in the raw instead of white sugar), salt (I used Real Salt sea salt) and yeast (I used Hodgeson Mills) were not Ohio, but I felt like my responsible choices in product made up for that... and the bulk of the material was local...plus then I got to eat pizza. :o)
It was really great-- I ate about half the pizza for lunch-- and pretty easy to make.

Tremont Farmers Market

Kathy, Todd and I went to the Tremont Farmers Market after work today.

I got 1/2 chicken from Hickory Acres Meats and 8 oz GrassFed Lemon Zest Cheese. I also got lettuce, basil, onions, garlic, beets and a light purple eggplant.

I enjoyed sampling the treats from the vendors' booth. I ate a pre-challenge piece of margherita pizza and had a piece of No Whey vegan light chocolate peanut butter brittle - yummy!

North Union Farmers Market

Therese (mom) sells recycled glass garden sculputures some Saturdays at the Farmers Market (at Crocker Park in Westlake, OH). I helped her out yesterday, and we both bought some local goodies for the challenge which starts Wednesday.

I got 4 lbs organic rolled oats, 5 lbs organic bread flour, 6 1/2 lbs organic whole wheat flour and 1 lb of navy beans from a vendor that distributes for Stutzman Farms. I also got 1/2 lb raw honey from the Ohio Honey Co. In addition, I got locally grown sweet potatoes and gala apples (very crisp and delicious!).

Mom got an enormous watermelon, lots of Yukon Gold potatoes and 2 blocks of cheese made from Ohio 100% grass fed cows' milk.

Tuesday, off to the Tremont Farmers Market with my sis!

Local Creamery, Eating Weeds and Such

Just a few links I thought might be of interest to Ohio participants:

Dr. Peter Gail (speaker at the Weed and Feed dinner that Kathleen mentioned in the blog for our one week challenge):
http://www.goosefootacres.blogspot.com/

Local source for coffee substitute:
http://www.dandyblend.com/

Local creamery with invitation (second link contains address and phone number);
http://luckypennyfarm.com/index.php?page=about
http://luckypennyfarm.com/index.php?page=news

Pick your own:
http://www.pickyourown.org/OHcleveland.htm

Exception Question

I would like to pose one more exception to the challenge. Yesterday, I showed my garden sculptures at Dean's greenhouse and nursery in Westlake during their tomato tasting festival. I spoke to a lovely young woman who had a booth with balsamic vinegars and olive oil. She educated me on balsamic vinger. Apparently, it takes years and years of aging and processing balsamic vinegar and all of the "true" balsamic comes from Italy. What do you think of adding vinegar to our "allowed" items? I'm just sayin'.

Finding Food

We took a trip to the West Side Market this morning (our usual Saturday morning adventure)... and local food abounds! If you are in the Cleveland area, visit the Basketeria stand to find tons of Ohio produce this week!
In addition, here are some resources for food supplies:
Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA)'s website, with links to farms across Ohio-- this one's great because you can search by what item you're looking for: www.oeffa.org
Ohio Proud, which lists food and agricultural products grown in Ohio at: www.ohioproud.org (not all organic)
Eat Wild, which lists grass fed animals raised in Ohio for those of you who eat meat: www.eatwild.com
The USDA has a list of local farmer's markets across the US; that can be found at: www.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/farmersmarkets
City Fresh, which is a community supported agriculture (CSA) program in three Ohio counties (including our own, Cuyahoga) and can be found at: www.cityfresh.org
And, I found the blog of someone who did an Ohio local food challenge a few years ago; a couple of these links I found because of her... so visit her blog from her challenge at: www.tigersandstrawberries.com

Sharon, Todd and I are visiting a local farm in Ravenna next weekend; Tim Fox at Breakneck Acres-- I spoke to him on the phone for a while yesterday, and he was great. You can "like" his farm on facebook at: www.facebook.com/breakneckacres or visit the farm in person.

Hope you find this helpful! Of course, if you don't live in Ohio, there are probably similar websites/programs in your area... and just a few minutes on Google should find you what you need.

The rules

We have decided to run our local food challenge during the month of September. All foods consumed during this period must be grown, foraged, and/or purchased from local farmers/growers. Exceptions are salt and olive oil; also if an ingredient is used for preservation/canning, that item should be locally sourced (if possible); if it is not possible to obtain the ingredient through local sources, it can be used anyway (preserve your food safely!)
Each participant will have four "vacation days" to be used for special events, restaurant visits, and/or travel days.
Local food means different things to different people. We live in Ohio, and so decided that local food for our definition means Ohio grown. If you are in a different locality, please decide for yourself what "local" means.
NB: There are some restaurants that serve and/or specialize in local food. Call ahead to find out what's being served locally on today's menu-- you might not need to use a vacation day to have a meal out!