Fresh Thinking

A gradual thaw

2009-04-08T11:48:00.000-07:00

This winter has been perhaps the most bleak, dreary, cold, miserable season of my life in so many ways. I don't say this lightly, considering that I once lived in a northern valley, where the wind would suck the warmth out of every nook and cranny. Where snowfall was recorded in feet, and roads would freeze with black ice in seconds. No - not even then was there a time that I remember this exhausting daily pursuit of simply surviving the darkness.

In the fall, we planted some carrots and lettuce as an experiment to see if they would take on the cold weather and flourish in the spring. In our defense, we had no idea what they were in for. Like us, they suffered with the cold - hunkered down against the snow and bid their time until the days got longer, and the dark didn't seem quite so deep.

And yet, despite (or maybe because of) their struggle, they have emerged triumphant - became whole again as they surfaced to the sun to welcome a new season.

A fond farewell

2009-01-02T07:41:00.000-08:00

I really love new beginnings. The clean-slated opportunity to put everything in place always brings me comfort, even in the midst of chaos. The start of a new school semester, the first day of the month, heck - even a reorganized closet will put my mind at ease. So a new year always feels like the grandaddy motherload of opportunity. My first instinct is to plunge full speed ahead into the promises of the 2009, but I think it's a better idea to give tribute to one big change that the new year will bring.

The last Farmers' Market of 2008 marked the end of an era for one of our most loved vendors. Mr. and Mrs. Don Gilbert of Gilbert Farms are taking a well deserved retirement and will not return in 2009. The two of them have been a presence at the market since its humble beginnings under the Water Street parking garage in the mid-1980s. Their friendly service, good stories and lovely fruits and veggies will certainly be missed. Mr. Gilbert says he plans to catch up on some fishing and yardwork, but might send his surplus produce to the market with other vendors when he gets a chance. We wish both of them the best of health, happiness and renewed spirits in their exciting new beginning!

Winning isn't everything...but it helps.

2008-10-11T15:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes a rainy day can breed laziness, but today's constant drizzle/downpour managed to inspire productivity around our household. On a whim, I decided to whip up an entry for Tidal Creek's 3rd Annual Pumpkin Cook Off, being held at their Fall Food Fair. I had read about the fair in the newsletter and thought it would be a nice leisurely thing to do on a dreary Saturday. So I knew there were three prizes to be had in the cook off: Best Looking, Best Tasting, and Best Vegan - and the winners were to receive a $25 giftcard and goody bag. I figured, what the heck - who couldn't use free groceries in this economy?

I was torn between a couple of recipes, since I love pumpkin in just about anything, but settled on our tried and true rainy day staple, Black Bean Pumpkin Soup. I changed up my original recipe to make it vegan friendly and put it in a crock pot to keep it warm. We headed out in the rain to try and make the entry deadline of 12:30 - at about 12:28, Sal hopped out of the car with our soup and dodged puddles while I tried to find a parking space. It was like a circus in there! A fun, earth friendly circus. Alas, in my hurry to get out the door, I forgot my camera, but hopefully the Co-op will post some soon.
In addition to the Pumpkin Cook Off, there were tons of free samples, a raffle benefiting local organic farmers, and good folks lobbying to keep Titan cement plant out of our county.

As for our soup, it was #7 of 7 entries, and made it just in the nick of time. I barely managed to get the recipe on paper before the judges sat down to eat. In the meantime, we meandered around the store, sampling food and picking up all kinds of useful freebies, like Burt's Bees facial cleanser and organic cat treats. By the time we had stuffed ourselves and our pockets full, the judging was done and the entries were opened up for everyone to try. As we waited in line, they put out labels by the winning foods. Sal peeked around the corner and...we won for Best Vegan! Okay, so I had close to a 50/50 chance of winning something, but still - I was proud. We sampled all of the other dishes, and there were some very tasty entries there. I got lots of compliments on the soup, as well as an awesome goody bag with the gift certificate, a Tidal Creek travel coffe mug - and some of my absolute favorite local Little Red Wagon Pumpkin Patch granola. Yum! We left the store carrying our samples, prize, and an empty crock pot. A very nice day indeed.
Here are both the regular and vegan versions of the recipe. I use mostly local ingredients, such as my own canned tomatoes, our homemade chicken stock, local butter and produce - but I'm writing each version in general terms so you can do whatever. You can also use baked butternut squash instead of pumpkin puree as we sometimes do:

Black Bean Pumpkin Soup (Non Vegan)
4 cans of black beans
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 stick butter
1 med. onion, chopped
1 shallot, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 heaping tbs cumin
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups chicken broth
16 oz can pumpkin puree

Puree tomatoes and 3 of the cans of beans in a food processor or blender. Heat butter in a large pot and saute the onion, shallot, garlic and spices until onion is soft. Stir in the bean puree. Mix well, then stir in the broth, pumpkin, and remaining can of beans. Simmer on low for about 25 minutes or until pleasantly thick. Serve topped with sour cream.

***For the Vegan version, omit the sour cream topping, substitute 2 tbs olive oil for the butter, and vegetable broth for the chicken broth.

Photo: Jessica at Tidal Creek was nice enough to package up two bowls of soup for us before it was devoured.

Sal likes it hot.

2008-10-11T15:23:00.000-07:00

To continue in the productive theme of the day, Sal came home from the Food Fair and got busy making some homemade hot sauce. He had been meaning to do so for awhile, since we had some extra tomato juice from canning, and a bumper crop of peppers. I am not a hot sauce kinda gal - I'll always pick "mild" when given the choice between levels of spiciness, whereas Sal has been known to calmly request the "Super Hot Atomic Killer Volcano" like version. He'll put hot sauce on anything. ANYthing. So it's only appropriate that he used his crazy hot jalapenos to make his own sauce.

These are the jalapenos that once made a friend cry and subsequently whisper to me through scorched lips: "Jessica, Pull. Those. Plants. Out. Pull them out. And burn them." Sal has since dubbed them "Salapeños" (pronounced with an accent on the PAIN), but continues to pop them in his mouth, fresh off the vine.

As for the sauce, the fumes alone sent me into a coughing fit and made my eyes burn. I rigged up a fan in the kitchen to blow the devil air back in, but still it was killer. He had just enough supplies to make one good pint of sauce, which he plans to unleash on his friends next weekend. Here is his recipe, if you're brave enough to try it. I recommend anyone in the vicinity to vacate the premises, unless you like feeling like you've been maced.

Salapeño Hot Sauce
7 jalapeño peppers, quartered
1/2 onion, chopped
1 clove elephant garlic, chopped
2 tbs olive oil
1 pint tomato juice
1 cup white vinegar

Saute the jalapeños, onion and garlic in the olive oil until softened. Add tomato juice and vinegar. Simmer on low until reduced by about 1/3. Remove from heat and let cool until room temperature. When cool, puree in a food processor or blender until smooth. Place in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.

Ye Olde Farmer's Market Store

2008-10-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

October brings exciting news on the local front! Ron Koster, of Tarheel Beef, has opened a small store in town that sells local products - appropriately named "Ye Olde Farmer's Market" as most of his inventory is from vendors who sell at either the Poplar Grove or downtown markets. Sal and I stopped by Ye Olde Farmer's Market during their Grand Opening on Sunday afternoon and were greeted by Ron and his wonderful granddaughter Cory. They showed us around the place and gave us an idea of where and who everything came from. The setup of the store is cozy, and prices are comparable to the market. Sal and I bought ground beef (from Tarheel), feta and blue cheese walnut spread (from Nature's Way), eggs (from Grassy Ridge) and peanut butter (from Carolina's Peanuts). It was nice to be able to get some staples on a Sunday, especially since there was no Saturday market due to Riverfest.

Of course there is a ton of Tarheel Beef available, in every sort of cut imaginable, as well as lamb and even rabbit. I haven't quite worked myself up to lamb or rabbit yet, but good to know that it's out there. If you'd like to stop by, here are the details:

Ye Olde Farmer's Market

2107 Carolina Beach Rd.

Wilmington, NC

(910) 256-3234

Hours:

Closed Mon & Tues

Wed. 2:30 - 5:30
Thu & Fri. 10:00 - 5:30

Sat. 2:30 - 5:30

Sun. 11:00 - 5:00

Summer on a plate

2008-08-24T14:38:00.000-07:00

My fabulous sister went home to PA last week and brought me back five dozen ears of sweet corn, as they're still in season up there. There's just something about PA sweet corn that makes it superior to NC corn - there might be something about the soil, or temperature, but it's also possible that nostalgia may play a big part for me. Sal promptly boiled a couple of ears, while I fried us up some green Mortgage Lifters from the back yard. The result was heavenly.

Here's how we fry our tomatoes - you can also just be lazy and dip them in cornmeal before frying and call it a day:

Slice green tomatoes into about 1/4 inch thick slices.
Salt and pepper each slice, then dip in:
1. Milk
2. Flour
3. Beaten egg
4. Cornmeal with some spices mixed in

Drop the slices in a deep fryer if you're blessed with such a contraption, or just put about a 1/2 inch of oil in a large saute pan and fry until browned on each side.

Full disclosure: I am from the North. I had never even heard of Fried Green Tomatoes until the book/movie. If your grandma has a much better recipe that you grew up on, let me know!

Canning Tomatoes

2008-08-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday we broke out the canning supplies and put up about 35 lbs. of tomatoes. Our plants didn't exactly produce as we'd hoped (though they're at it now, and will probably give us enough for a couple of loads of sauce, which we'll freeze), so we went to Swart's Gardens and bought two boxes of seconds and first run tomatoes - $1.50/lb or $0.75/lb for seconds.

We decided against making sauce since I mucked up about 20 lbs worth last year, and we didn't feel like hauling out the food mill. Instead we just quartered the suckers and called it a day. It's easier to make sauce from the canned tomatoes as needed anyway. We ended up with 9 quarts and 13 pints - a pretty good start, I may say.

Here's a step by step of the process from the National Center for Home Food Preservation, illustrated by us:

Quantity: An average of 21 pounds is needed per canner load of 7 quarts; an average of 13 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 pints. A bushel weighs 53 pounds and yields 15 to 21 quarts-an average of 3 pounds per quart.

Procedure for hot or raw tomatoes filled with water in jars: Wash tomatoes. Dip in boiling water for 30 to 60 seconds or until skins split; then dip in cold water. Slip off skins and remove cores. Leave whole or halve. Add bottled lemon juice or citric acid to jars. Umm, we totally forgot to do this. Hopefully we'll survive. Crap. Add 1 teaspoon of salt per quart to the jars, if desired. We don't add salt.

Blanching

Dipping in ice bath

Peeling and coring

Packing in jars

Raw pack: Heat water, for packing tomatoes, to boiling. Fill hot jars with prepared raw tomatoes, leaving ½-inch headspace. Cover tomatoes in the jars with boiling water, leaving ½-inch headspace. Also remove air bubbles - they don't mention this.

Packed tomatoes before adding water Removing air

Process: Adjust lids and process in a boiler water canner - 45 minutes for quarts, 40 minutes for pints.

Processing the jars, then Sal lifts them out

Voila! The finished product.

If you can't handle the heat...

2008-08-16T19:18:00.000-07:00

Luckily it's been relatively mild for NC at this time of year. The past few days have been partly cloudy and in the low 80s - a well appreciated respite from the killer heat of the last few weeks. When it gets crazy hot like that, I can't even think about cooking. Here's a recipe I got from Real Simple that will keep you cool on those dog days, but still make you feel like you're eating a gourmet meal. Plus, it's ridiculously easy:

Cold Summer Gazpacho

Ingredients:

6 yellow tomatoes, cored and quartered (got mine from Swart's)
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped (substituted two banana peppers)
2 Tbs. red wine vinegar
1 1/2 tsp salt
Basil and feta to garnish

Blend up the tomatoes and bell pepper in a food processor until smooth. Pour into a serving bowl and stir in vinegar and salt. Chill for awhile if you want, but it's okay to eat it now. Spoon into individual bowls and garnish with fresh basil leaves and feta. Pretty and delicious!

Summer in review

2008-08-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

As the tomatoes start to dwindle from the Farmer's Market, ours finally begin to appear. It seems the combination of lots of rain and near total neglect has been good for them - we've got a huge crop that looks like it's going to ripen all at once. Hopefully they'll ripen. If not, we'll be eating a lot of fried green tomatoes.

Our eggplant has also blessed us with some beautiful, deep purple specimens that will get sauteed up with some tomatoes and pasta this week.

The garden has fed us well in some aspects, but hasn't been quite what we were hoping. It's been a good learning experience though, in terms of figuring out when to plant, and how to better amend our soil. I have high hopes for our batch of Fall crops.

We started out the summer with a bumper crop of cucumbers, from which I made 4 pints of dill pickle chips and numerous cucumber sandwiches. This English tea time staple is one of my favorite summer treats, and should be enjoyed specifically like this:

Butter two pieces of white or light wheat bread
Thinly slice a cucumber (skin on) to cover one slice of bread.
Layer thin slices of a sharp cheese (Nature's Way's Raw Carephilly is awesome!) over the cucumbers.
Place the second piece of bread on top of the cheese.
Slice your sandwich diagonally into quarters. Yum.

Of course, this is kind a moot point as cucumbers are out of season, but whatever.

We also had a promising start with our squash and zucchini at the beginning of the season. Our plants grew huge and had sprouted a few little veggies and was full of lots of pretty blooms. Then slowly, the plants started to rot from the bottom up, and then within a week were reduced to a sad little pile. I pulled them up as soon as I realized they were not going to make it, but wasn't smart enough to try to find a diagnosis right away. Now I'm afraid they had
Phytophtora Crown Rot, which can apparently hang out in the soil for years. Fabulous. Not sure how to amend that situation yet - any ideas?

Our first eggplants

Cucumbers at early season

Squash, pre-meltdown

'allo again

2008-07-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

Yay! I'm back online. For the past say, 6 weeks or so, I've had no wireless connection from home, and Blogger was blocked at work due to some new hardcore monitoring system they were trying out. And our ancient Mac at home doesn't like me to use Blogger - it posts things all whacky and can't deal with photos. But now at least the work issue has been ironed out, and I can blog from here...doesn't say much about my work productivity for right now, but whatever.

California dreamin

2008-05-21T07:07:00.000-07:00

After writing in my last post about the Green Goddess dressing at Chez Panisse, I realized that I never wrote about Chez Panisse. What a travesty. I've got a couple of minutes to spare, so let's take a walk down Memory Lane, shall we?
I'm sure I have mentioned before that Sal and I lived in the SF Bay Area for 5 years before moving here to Wilmington. We've been back only once since then, so decided to go for Spring Break this year. (Bless the career of Education and it's forced vacations). Here are some of the highlights.

We stayed with a friend who lives on a 44 ft boat instead of a house - because you may have heard that housing is ridiculously expensive there. Hence our move to Wilmington. Anyway, staying on the boat was such a cool experience - getting up in the morning to see the sun rise over the Alameda estuary (thank you, jet lag), falling asleep to the slight rolling of the boat, and having a glass of wine on deck while watching the other sailboats glide across the water. Beats the Hilton.

We saw a lot of old friends and visited some our favorite places from our past life. Wondered more than once why on earth we left such a spectacular place. We also spiced it up by doing a couple of things we hadn't done when we lived there - one of those being dinner at Chez Panisse. If you don't know anything about Alice Waters and her world famous restaurant, please check it out and prepare to drool. She is one of the pioneers of local and seasonal eating, and has made a career of doing it with simplicity and elegance.

We made reservations a month before for the upstairs Cafe. We chose the Cafe over the downstairs prix fixe menu. Since the menu is newly created each week, it's impossible to know what you will be eating a month ahead of time when you make the reservations. I am way too picky an eater to find out that there is squid or some other atrocity on the menu at the last minute, especially at $65 - 85 per person. So - the Cafe it was.
I had:

A gorgeous Butter Lettuce salad with yellow and red beets and the aforementioned to-die-for Green Goddess dressing.
Followed by Rosemary Free Range Chicken with asparagus and fingerling potatoes
Rhubarb Tart with Kumquat ice cream for dessert.

The menu at Chez Panisse mentions all of the local farms who provided the ingredients, as in this week's offering of "Baked Andante Dairy goat cheese with garden lettuces" - sounds delish. I was tempted to take photos of our meals while I was there, but thankfully resisted the urge.

The other new thing we did was to spend two days in wine country instead of our usual one. We used to go up about every 3 months, or whenever anyone came to visit. Normally we'd just drive the hour and half up there, drink ourselves silly, sober up at V. Sattui with some delicious picnic food, and head back home. This time we stayed in Calistoga after all the tasting, sobered up at a great little bed and breakfast called Craftsman Inn (with an emphasis on the breakfast - yum!) and headed back down through Sonoma the next day. We found a couple of great new wineries, and visited some of our favorites. Needless to say, we came home with a case of CA wines. Our plan is to return once we drink through them all.

Spring brings new things

2008-05-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, so here's one of the things I meant to write about awhile ago: The Farmers' Market has started up again. Both the downtown and Poplar's Grove markets have been packed every time I've been there - it looks like business is booming. That's good stuff around here. There are all kinds of great new things coming in to add variety to my life.

Here's a sample of what we picked up this Saturday for less than $20:

Head of lettuce
Beets
(Black River)
Carrots
Romaine
Another head of lettuce
Tomato
Onions
Cauliflower
(Gilbert's)
Sweet potatoes
(Hanchey's)
Chevre
(Nature's Way)
Zucchini
Squash
(Swart's)

I made up a menu that will allow those staples to feed us for the next two weeks, along with what we've already got in the house. We've recently started adding in some non-local food to help stretch our food budget. Although we are still doing almost all of our shopping from local sources, we've added a few "luxury items" to make up a meal. This saves us from running out of food mid-week and deciding to just go out, which we've found ourselves doing more of these days. This is not good for the purse nor the plan we had for ourselves.

So, for example, here is our menu for this week. Everything non-local is indicated:

Mon - Roasted veggies (zucchini, squash, cauliflower, carrots, onion, sweet potatoes)
Tues - Salmon (not local) with snap peas and rice
Wed - Chicken gyros with cucumber, feta and tomato (pita bread not local)
Thu - Pork chops and Bibb lettuce salad with Green Goddess dressing and beets (using an avocado to make the Green Goddess)
Fri - Gnocchi with Pesto sauce (Gnocchi not local)
Sat - Curried veggies and rice

Looking at this list, I think - I could use a locally caught fish instead of salmon. Maybe I will if the Fish Market has something comparable. I could also leave out the avocado in the dressing, but I'm trying to recreate the salad I had at Chez Panisse. I could also make my own Gnocchi, and will if I have the energy, but I'm trying not to make myself crazy. It's funny - we've remained relatively ignorant of rising food costs, since so much of what we've eaten has been put up from last year, or purchased from local sources. So adding a couple of non-local items doesn't hurt us financially, and actually helps by adding to the variety of meals we can make with a majority of local food. For example, there's no way to make chicken gyros without pita bread - but if we spend $2.00 on some flatbread, we can use up our leftover chicken, tomato and cucumber in a way that makes us happy. That's worth the non-localness to me.

As a side note, Saturday's market was extra fun because my sisters joined me for the first time. They were astounded by how inexpensive everything was, compared to the grocery store. Having not bought produce in the grocery store for some time, I was unaware that ONE pepper can apparently go for $2.99. Mr. Gilbert was selling his for 5o cents each. I was warned beforehand by my youngest sister Rachel that they were not into "chatting with farmers", but they actually had a great time, got some delicious, inexpensive food and ended up doing some chatting after all.

This is my brain on blogging

2008-05-18T16:19:00.000-07:00

Do ya'll ever do something that you like to do, but then other people start paying attention to it, and expect it, and then it feels like a chore? That has happened to me with various hobbies before, and I have to confess that it really has happened with this blog. I've got a ton to write about - there are all kinds of awesome local things going on, and yet - I'm too busy actually doing stuff to write about stuff. Then I get all frazzled and guilt ridden and bogged down by the idea that I should be writing about this stuff, that I put it off even more and it becomes this ridiculous cycle. So lets just put all my mental silliness out there: I am making a pact between you, anyone who reads this, and my brain, that I will write when I feel like it. That might be every other month, or every day. Cool? Okay, settled. :)

Wow.

2008-04-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

It rained like crazy like crazy today, much to the relief of our eucalyptus tree that's been begging for water for months. I wish I would have read Stew's post about 20 minutes earlier, because then I would have known that it was also going to HAIL.

What?! Craziness. And painful, I might add. I panicked at first because all of our potted plants were outside, but they took the beating pretty well. Luckily I hadn't planted anything yet because I learned my lesson from last year. Nothing in the ground until the last week of April.

Hopefully we got a good amount of water in the rain barrel we just put in. We got it back in March at the annual county sale, but had to get gutters installed, which happened this past week. Sal assembled the barrel on Saturday and put it in place yesterday, just in time for the rain. I've got high hopes for this rain barrel - we'll let you know how it goes. It's got to be better than the bunch of random buckets we've been setting out on the first sign of an overcast sky.

So you may have noticed it's been almost a month since I've posted anything. This whole traveling thing we've been doing has taken a lot of time. Just returned from a week long CA trip and have finally caught up on work. I'll be playing blogger catch-up this week. There's exciting stuff going on around Wilmington, people!

Nawlins.

2008-03-22T18:35:00.000-07:00

I should also mention that one of the reasons it took me forever to start posting again was that the day after I got my cast off I left for New Orleans for a week. It was a work trip, so most of my days were spent in training, but we got to explore in the evenings, and a bit on the weekend. Man, oh man, do I like that city! We stayed in the Central Business District, which was convenient for our conference, but also within walking distance of the French Quarter. If you get past the neon signs and drunken frat boys on Bourbon Street (which you really do have to see at least once in your life), New Orleans has some of the loveliest architecture I have ever seen. And, the food! My goodness.

I became addicted to coffee and chickory cafe au'laits and beignets about the second day there, and have been going through withdraw since I returned. For those of you who have not experienced the heavenly deliciousness that is a beignet (sounds like ben-yay), it's like a funnel cake, except in big fried squares instead of squiggles. At Cafe du Monde, you can get a plate of three of them (covered in more powdered sugar than you should probably eat in a year) for $1.82. You can see why they were hard to leave. Too hard, actually - I brought home a box of mix to try at home. We'll see what happens.

I tried to be a little adventurous in my eating while I was there. I'm a picky eater at my core, but have been forcing myself to get a life during the past year, and try different things - especially when travelling. Last year in Boston I ate clam chowder, even though the thought of clams make me dry heave...and it was good. So for my New Orleans visit I went for a local delicacy: crawfish. I couldn't bring myself to eat them just straight up, so I tried the much more subdued crawfish cakes at Felix's. That was the way to go for me: lots of cake, little crawfish. Once again my brain proved to be wrong and my belly right - they were awesome. Sal, ever the brave one, learned how to peel and eat them from a cook on the street.

More awe inspiring food from New Orleans that we tried: jambalaya, muffulettas from Central Grocery (the man who waited on us didn't bat an eye when I asked for one with no meat - he simply said "Don'tah worry. I take care of you."), hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's, red beans and rice, pain perdu, white chocolate bread pudding, and catfish po'boys. Twice.

While we were there we also got to catch some jazz at Preservation Hall, take in the St. Patrick's

Day parade where they throw cabbage and potatoes, as well as other festive junk. Don't worry - the veggies don't go to waste. There were a bunch of ladies hauling that stuff away by the bagful. Irish Stew...yum.

There is something about New Orleans that I haven't been able to shake, and I can't exactly put my finger on it. It started the first night I was there, when I couldn't sleep. I thought it might be just a first night adjustment; staying in a strange hotel and all, but no - it was every night. It was kind of like when I'm in Vegas - here is the whole city, alive and awake and I'm missing it. And now I'm here, and it's there. Maybe that's it. At least I brought back the beignets.

I heart Sal.

2008-03-22T18:10:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned before, being one handed for two weeks was a big pain in the behind. This is not meant to be disrespectful to people who have only one hand all the time. But being that I am used to having two functioning hands most of the time, it was a huge annoyance. I'm really dominantly right-handed, so when I had surgery on my right wrist, I needed help showering, getting dressed, and eating. So obviously, cooking was out of the question. Lucky for me, my husband is awesome and took over like a champ. In addition to putting my hair in a ponytail, and pulling on my socks, he also made sure that I had food to eat. Here are a couple of the yummy local meals he whipped up while I was out of commission:

Chicken and tomato saute

Turkey Meatloaf

He made lots of other great stuff too, but having not documented it on camera, I can't remember. Pain medication will do that to you.

I'm baaaaack.

2008-03-22T17:57:00.000-07:00

Why, hello ya'll! I have returned from the land of the one handed, and can now type a sentence in less than ten minutes. Yes, it is a happy time. I still have a splint on my wrist (not the giganto cast you see in the photo), but at least I can use the fingers on my right hand, which means I can now brush my teeth without poking myself in the eye. Ahhh, the things you miss when you're one handed. Anyway, look for some updating posts in the next week or so.

Oh, I do want to remind local Wilmingtonians that Lewis Farms is now open for business. Hoorah! For now they've got strawberries, plants and oh yes: their blessed ice cream. We walked down yesterday for their opening day and had ourselves some waffle cones for lunch. Delish.

Peace out for now

2008-02-25T17:45:00.000-08:00

Hey ya'll - I'm having surgery tomorrow, so I won't be blogging for at least a week or so. Nothing major, just repairing some degenerative damage to my right wrist. I've had Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis since age 5, and a lot of my joints have deteriorated to the point of needing repair. I didn't expect to be having this surgery so soon, but I guess it's another way for the universe to reiterate to me that everything in life cannot be planned out. I'll be off work until next Monday or so - I'm going to try to relax in my time off, and not stress about all the stuff I'm not able to do. Anyway, I'm practicing typing with my left hand, but fine motor tasks in general are going to be kind of difficult for the next few weeks.

Any suggestions for good books to read/movies to watch while I'm recovering?

PS - Check out this awesome bag my grammy and Val made me! I have got to learn this cable stitch for myself...once I've got the use of two hands again.

Duck Rabbit Brewery

2008-02-21T16:37:00.000-08:00

On our way back from the Outer Banks, we decided to take a small detour to visit one of Sal's favorite NC breweries, The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery. Sal had some sort of divine inspiration on the way up to Kitty Hawk, and decided to see if Farmville, where Duck-Rabbit is brewed, was anywhere near our travelling path. He checked out their website, and lo and behold - it was an easy detour on our way back to Wilmington. Filled with anticipation of a brewery tour and stocking up on cases of beer, we headed back home with our sights set on Farmville.

Driving into Farmville was a little like entering the town where I grew up, but actually slightly more run down. There was at least one stop light, which is a big deal for a small town, but other than that, we didn't see a whole lot that inspired us to hang around. We followed the directions I wrote down from Google Maps, but even I started to wonder if I had missed something somewhere. We turned right onto an apparently dead end road near an industrial site - nope; I was right. We pulled up in front of 4519 West Pine Street and started laughing. To say that the building was unassuming would be an understatement. Not exactly what we expected, but we decided to give it a go anyway.

So glad we did. After wandering around the outside of the building, we finally decided to try the brown door in the front. We pushed it open and yelled hello (we know from experience to loudly introduce your presence in small towns or sketchy residences in case the owner is a trigger happy gun owner). We didn't hear anything, so we followed the sound of voices and made our way through the office into what turned out to be the huge brewing center/warehouse of The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery.

There we discovered Paul and Ryan, the two men behind Duck-Rabbit, hard at work creating an experimental brew. We apologized for barging in, but they were completely welcoming, even though they were obviously in the middle of some labor-intensive beer making. They invited us to look around until they were finished, and gave me permission to take some photos. When they were done, Paul took the time to tell me a little bit about Duck-Rabbit and what they do. Here's what I learned:

Paul Philippon, the founder, was working on a Ph.D in Philosophy at the University of Michigan when he started doing some home brewing. Seeing that the job prospects kind of suck in the world of Philosophy, he decided to start his own brewery and produced the first Duck-Rabbit beer in August of 2004. He chose Farmville for it's inexpensive real estate and the possibility to expand if needed. His partner in crime, Ryan (on the left in the photo), got a job simply by calling him up and asking if Paul needed help. He did. Duck-Rabbit now distributes to four states, having just added Georgia this week. They produce four standard brews: Milk Stout (YUM!), Brown Ale, Amber Ale (Sal's current fave), and a Porter, plus seasonal a variety of seasonal offerings.

The brewing set up was pretty cool, with giant drums holding from one to three batches of beer. One batch of 520 gallons produces about 270 cases in 2 weeks. That seems like a lot of beer, and must be a ton of work for two guys, but it really isn't that much as compared to say, Miller Brewing Co. that produces something like 3.1 million cases per year. Needless to say, Duck-Rabbit kicks the behind of Miller, taste wise.

If you want to pick up some Duck-Rabbit beer for yourself, don't plan on getting it at the brewery; they don't sell it there, much to our disappointment. You can, however, pick it up in Wilmington at Tidal Creek, as well as a bunch of other places locally and all over the state.

Many thanks to Paul and Ryan for their hospitality, and for taking the time to teach us about brewing. Next time we drink a Duck-Rabbit beer out of our new pint glass, we'll be able to picture exactly where, and by whom it was created. Mmmmm. Beer.

On the road again.

2008-02-20T17:12:00.002-08:00

The month of February is a busy one for us. As you know, I was in Florida last week - Friday we're going to Charleston, and this past weekend we visited the Outer Banks. We were really fortunate to have received a generous gift of a free weekend at the Hilton Garden Inn at Kitty Hawk. We love the Outer Banks, and hadn't been up that way for over 9 years (a travesty!), so it was a great getaway.

As usual, we tried to get the local flavor when looking for somewhere to eat. Last time we were there, Sal and I had to search hard to find somewhere to eat during the off-season. On this trip we could have eaten at any one of the fast food places that have unfortunately popped up around town, but of course, we have more sense in our heads than that. We opted for the RunDown Cafe the first night, a cool little place within walking distance of our hotel. Both of us opted for the mahi, which was delish.

The next evening we decided to try the Outer Banks Brewing Station, which had the obvious draw of locally brewed beer. I'm telling you, if the Mack-Daddy Stout wasn't $19 for a growler, I would have brought home a kegful. Sal tried the Compass Rose ‘Secret-Spiced’ Ale. I immediately identified the secret spice, which was confirmed by our waitress, but I won't reveal it here in case you want to solve the mystery on your own. Email me if you're curious.

Okay, so fabulous dinners abounded, but the best meal of all had to have been the breakfast we got from Duck Donuts. Holy goodness. Right across the street from the Hilton is this little, unassuming place that serves made-to-order hot cake donuts that you can have dipped in the icing and coating of your choice. Oh my lordy, you have no idea. I'm actually not a huge donut fan in general, but I could probably eat these every day for the rest of my life and be perfectly content. I tried to just order one, but the super cool woman who runs the place, Paulique, gave me two (but only charged me for one) because they were "small." Total price: $3.08.

Sal mixed it up by choosing a strawberry icing/chocolate sprinkle combo as well as a chocolate icing/rainbow sprinkles one. I kept it simple and went for a double dose of the chocolate/coconut. You know how I love the coconut. We took them back to our room and ate them on our oceanfront balcony with a cup of coffee. Seriously? These donuts were beyond believable: warm, gooey, sweet and perfect. Mmmmm. We may plan a trip back just to see Paulique.

FYI...

2008-02-16T16:10:00.000-08:00

...the following posts were posted a little late due to the fact that wireless connection I had been logging on to has suddenly become password protected. Durn. Consequently, I may be a little less frequent in the blogging until I find a more convenient solution.

Local and tropical

2008-02-12T08:22:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I went to visit my family in Florida. In addition to spending a much-needed relaxing weekend with some of the people I love most in the world, I also got to snag some of the fruits and veggies that were in season down there. My mom and grandmother and I headed into St. Petersburg for the Saturday Morning Market at the bright and early hour of 10:30. I love sleeping in. The market is always a fun conglomeration of yummy smells, delicious looking produce and odd folks. Not to mention cute dogs.

Anyway, a lot of the produce turned out to be from far, far away, but there was a sampling of local goods. I went straight for the tomatoes; choosing a large, deep red guy destined for a tomato sandwich, and a mixed bag of cherry and grape varieties.

My mom picked up some peppers and heavenly smelling strawberries, while my grammy chose a pineapple that lived up to the sign that boasted it was Super, Super, Super Sweet! Grown in Chile, or somewhere thereabouts, but definitely worth a sample.

The most exciting (and, it turns out, aggravating) find of the day was a local coconut. Say that 5 times fast. We somehow managed not to gorge ourselves on all the delicious baked goods and fudgy things the market had to offer, and headed home to make some lunch from our purchases.

I ended up flying back with a suitcase packed with tomatoes and a coconut, plus a carryon bag of oranges and tangerines. The fruit was a gift from my mom’s friend Nilima, who scaled the trees in her yard to provide me with some real Florida citrus. I do declare that it was the juiciest, most delicious fruit I have ever tasted. My mama made me a fresh squeezed tangerine/orange juice for breakfast on Sunday, and it was so good I could have drank a gallon. Thanks, mom and Nilima!

The coconut ordeal

2008-02-12T07:50:00.000-08:00

I loooooove fresh coconut, flaked coconut, and pretty much anything coconutty. So finding this locally grown coconut at the Saturday Morning Market was like hitting the jackpot for me. The coconut proprietor offered to husk it and put a hole in the top so I could drink the coconut milk, but I had bigger plans for it, so declined. Somehow there was a miscommunication and I ended up taking it home unhusked as well. I figured I would get it to my mom’s house, husk it, and take home the inner nut in my luggage. Weeeeellll, easier said than done.

It took three of my loving, patient and skilled family members to crack that coconut. An internet search on how to husk a coconut turned up some pretty hilarious videos, but nothing that was truly helpful. My mom took the first go by using a screwdriver and hammer. That made a pretty good crack, but didn’t really get through the fibers.

Then my uncle Steve took a saw to it, and created a pretty good incision all the way around. My grammy finished off the job by tearing away all the husk and leaving the cute little coconut inside. And, last, but not least, Sal cracked the nut when I brought it home. Grammy suggested maybe going for the Baker’s shredded coconut next time I get a hankering.

All of their hard work was truly appreciated though. I ate a bunch of fresh coconut pieces when I got home, put some in my oatmeal, and Sal shredded the rest for drying. I’m thinking coconut chicken, Polynesian salad, toasted coconut ice cream…ooh, the list is endless! My family is awesome.

Lazy Mayo

2008-02-07T12:52:00.001-08:00

Okay, here's how I made mayonnaise recently. I checked online to find an easy recipe, and found this site. If you have the patience of a saint, and/or a bunch of time on your hands, by all means, make that mayo. It looks beautiful and gourmet, and probably tastes amazing. I was looking for a way easier option though, so I just took the ingredients he listed, altered the portions to my needs and whipped it up in the blender. Here's how it went down:

Ingredients:

Egg yolks of 2 large eggs (You can freeze the whites for later or use them to make Apple Peanut Butter cookies.)
1/2 cup of olive oil (I plan to use Canola Oil next time - the olive flavor really comes through)
1 Tbs. white wine vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt

Pour the oil, then the egg yolks and the other ingredients into a blender (I used a small 1.5 cup sized attachment) and blend until it looks like mayonnaise. Taste it and see how you like it. Add a little salt or a smidge more vinegar if you like.

Voila. Mayonnaise.

Local eating in the news - again!

2008-02-07T12:25:00.000-08:00

Ironically, we stopped our subscription to the Star News in order to reduce our waste. I typically check online about once a week to see if there's anything interesting going on, but I totally missed this article. Luckily, Trace kept us in the loop by posting it on Cricketbread. Very good stuff.

Do you ever have one of those weeks when life just completely slips by you? I try so hard not to have that happen - to at least step back and appreciate some part of each day just for the little moments it contains - but man, has time passed me by lately. I have not germinated, nor planted any seeds. I have not even purchased the peat pots and light rigging I need to do so. I have not added the mayonnaise making post I promised Trace (will make amends immediately). Okay, that's really it - maybe it just feels more like I'm way behind because the seed planting part encompasses a lot of work that I'm going to have to squeeze into my regular work week, since we're going to be gone the next three weekends. It's very doable, I just need to DO it.

Photo: Trace in the produce department of Tidal Creek. Published on the online version of Encore

Cream of Carrot Soup

2008-01-28T17:00:00.000-08:00

Let me start by saying that my love for carrots has been a bit overstated. Ever since the whole "I would give anything for a carrot right now" out of context, thats-not-quite-what-I-said comment in the paper, people have offered me carrots left and right.
Let's set the record straight. I really do like carrots.
I would not kill someone for a carrot.

There.

Having gotten that off my chest, I now feel free to tell you how much I like carrot soup. It's an easy, filling soup that looks pretty as well. It's right at home as a starter for a fancy dinner, and equally as appropriate as a main course by itself with some bread when you're shlepping around the house. I've been looking forward to making it ever since carrots came back into season, but we ran out of broth a couple of weeks back, so it's been on hold. We roasted a chicken and got a ton of stock this weekend though, so tonight Sal made the carrot soup.

I originally got this recipe from Cook Your Meals the Lazy Way, a cookbook I got for like, $2.00 after college. Since the lazy way is my preferred method of doing anything, I've used this recipe over and over again. I tweak it ever so slightly so it looks like this:

Cream of Carrot Soup (or any vegetable)

3 cups chopped carrots (or whatever veggie you want)

1 tbs. butter

1 med. onion (or a couple of spring onions, which is what we have now)

2 tbs. flour

4 cups chicken stock

1/2 c. milk or cream (cream is much more delicious in this recipe if you don't care about the fat)

salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat and add the onion and carrots. Stir to combine, cover and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes - until softened but only lightly browned.

Stir in the flour and cook about 3 minutes. Blend in the stock and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 to 10 minutes, until carrots are tender.

Add milk or cream and puree the soup in two or three portions in the blender (filling the blender only half way or less - do not overfill it!) and transfer to a large serving bowl. It's probably best to cover the blender with a towel during this process so you don't have a kitchen covered in cream of carrot soup. Believe me, this advice comes from experience.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

We also made chicken sandwiches with some of the leftover roasted chicken, Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat bread, lettuce from our yard and my homemade mayonnaise. Yes, I finally figured out how to make mayonnaise. It really wasn't that hard (Stew-you were right) once I used the right equipment. I remembered that we had this tiny little 1 cup attachment for our blender that was perfect to mix everything up to the right consistency. I know that's not the Martha Stewart way of doing it, but it worked, so that's what counts. Next time I'll use canola oil vs. olive oil I think. It came out pretty lovely though, all things considered.

Recipe for a chilly, rainy day

2008-01-21T15:53:00.000-08:00

This Saturday it rained all day - it was awesome. It was the start of a three day weekend, so we had pretty much already given ourselves the pass to laze about all day, but the rain just sealed the deal. I ended up getting some things done that I had been meaning to do, all at a leisurely pace. I finished Sal's scarf (that I started last year - hey, better late than never!), did the laundry, and read some magazines that had been piling up. Finally, I decided that I wanted to bake something warm and yummy. I searched around the kitchen for ingredients that would perhaps meet my craving requirements, but that wouldn't sit around for days tempting me with deliciousness. I had: apples that were going soft, a never ending stash of oatmeal, and peanut butter.

Apples and peanut butter are perfect together, so figured that someone in the universe had to have been smart enough to put these two into a recipe for cookies. A quick search of the internet told me that yes, such a cookie does exist. However, it was tough finding one that I could adapt to my local stash. I finally settled on one from Cooks.com that I changed a bit, but the results were totally satisfying. They totally hit the spot on the chewy, peanut buttery scale - and really can't be that fattening, right? I hope not, since I ate half the batch in one sitting. Here it is if you want to try for yourself:

Mix:

3 tbsp. butter

3/4 cup peanut butter

Add and mix in:

1/2 cup sugar (or honey)

2 egg whites

2 tbsp. skim milk

1/2 tsp. baking soda

Add and mix in:

3/4 cup flour

3/4 cup oats

1 medium apple (peeled and finely diced - 3/4 cup)

Stir until mixed; drop by tablespoons onto ungreased cookie sheet; flatten slightly.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes.

Makes about 1.5 dozen cookies.

They're heeeeere!

2008-01-15T16:37:00.000-08:00

My order from Baker's Creek Heirloom Seeds arrived on Friday, a mere 5 days after placing my order online. That's fabulous customer service. All my selections were in stock, and they even included a free gift of Tropeana Round onions, which I can't find in their catalog, but I'm assuming must be the same as the Tropeana Lunga they have listed?

Since I basically have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to gardening (though I don't let that stop me!), I made a visit to our local library and picked up an armful of books on growing heirloom seed and the like. A couple of them ended up to be hugely helpful, so I'm going to buy them. Here are my favorites so far:

Seed Sowing and Saving: Step-by-Step Techniques for Collecting and Growing More Than 100 Vegetables, Flowers, and Herbs

Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening

The North Carolina Fruit & Vegetable Book

I'll probably go back and get another load of books and add more to this list next week. God, I love the library. And books in general. As a complete side - I also adore the Amazon feature that suggests other books you may like based on your shopping cart. Just by adding these three books to my cart I've already discovered like, five others I now want. But I'll check them out at the library first - Amazon doesn't always know what it's talking about.

Oh, one more useful thing that my mom got me for Christmas (thanks, mom!), is this garden journal. It's got weekly entry sections to record what you've planted, what the weather was like, etc. and it's got little tips and info specifically for North Carolina. I've been good about recording for the past two weeks, but then again, it's only mid-January. We'll see how long I can consistently keep it up.

Starting from scratch

2008-01-06T16:58:00.000-08:00

I got my first ever Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Catalog in the mail a few weeks ago, and I've had a hard time putting it down. It's a gorgeous, loverly thing, filled with beautiful pictures of heirloom fruits, vegetables, and flowers - but the descriptions alone are enough to make you salivate. I swear I read every entry, poring over each category to pick THE seeds that were going to be fabulous in my garden this year.

We'll see - I'm not exactly an expert gardener. I haven't been a big seed starter up until now. I usually just get some already started little planties and stick them in the ground, hoping for the best. But this year, by golly, I am starting my garden from heirloom seeds. Choosing which ones, though was quite the process. I mean, there's got to be like, 300 varieties (okay, fact check - there are 175 - but it felt like 300) of just tomatoes. And they all have these tantalizing names like Missouri Pink Love Apple, and Cherokee Chocolate. How to decide?!! After much circling, and dog earing, and crossing out and recircling, I think I've finally got my crop. Here's what I finally decided to order:

One pack each:
- Snowball Self-Blanching Cauliflower
- Golden Bantam 8 Row Sweet Corn
- St. Valery Carrots
- Danvers 126 Half Long Carrots
- Cosmic Purple Carrots
- Amarillo Carrots
- Florida Market Eggplant
- Lincoln Sweet Peas
- Texas Early Grano 502 Onions
- Giant Noble Spinach
- Winter Luxury Pie Pumpkin
- Crookneck - Early Golden Summer Squash
- Zucchini - Black Beauty
- Arkansas Traveler Tomato (Pink)
- Roma Tomato
- Tappy's Heritage Tomato (Red)
- Principe Borghese Tomato (Red - cherry variety)
- Amish Paste Tomato
- Siletz Tomato (Red - early crop)
- Big Month Tomato (Red)
- Chadwick Cherry Tomato (Red)
- Golden Sunray Tomato (Orange)
- Golden Monarch Tomato (Yellow)
- Yellow Pear Tomato

Holy goodness. I'm seriously craving a tomato sandwich just writing this list. Hopefully the seeds I've chosen will be happy in my garden. I probably do not need, nor shall I be able to grow 11 varieties of tomatoes (or 4 varieties of carrots for that matter), but I just couldn't narrow my list down any more. It was hard enough to whittle down the options once I had selected my 20 favorites. I tried to contain myself on the other veggies as well, settling on just those that we eat the most.

I placed my order online at Baker Creek's website, which has tons of resources and also some great information about Baker Creek founder Jere Gettle and his wife Emilee. Precious. Seriously. You can also order or download your own catalog there if you like. Oooh, and there's also information on their Garden Shows and Heritage Day Festivals happening in the Spring. Lordy, the place is adorable - we're already planning a trip.

Updates later when the seeds arrive - we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Ringing it in

2008-01-01T16:16:00.000-08:00

I really do love celebrating the arrival of a new year. Okay sure, alot of that usually has to do with champagne, but what I like most is the idea of a clean slate - that fresh start. I'm a minimalist kind of girl, and the start of a new year always inspires me to purge the closets, organize my files, and begin again with only what I need.

I also like the idea of making New Year's Resolutions. I try to stick with attainable, meaningful goals that I think will make a difference in my life in some way.

Last year's (which were almost all attained, save one) were:

See 4 new movies at the theater. Check. ( I had previously thought I'd only seen three, but realized we also went to see The Future of Food at UNCW, which I think counts.)
Try 3 new foods. Check. (I actually waaay surpassed this thanks to our local eating. Rutebagas - who knew?)
Invite over/hang out with 3 new people. Also check.
Take a class for fun. Check - Spanish class at Centro Latino. Not the best, but fun.
Walk for exercise three times a week. Nope. Try again this year.

This year is a little harder. If you hate me after I say this, it's okay: I'm quite content with my life the way it is right now, and am not hugely motivated to make dramatic, life altering changes. I am happy. After much thought though, I've come up with these - may add more later...

Add at least 5 more vegetable varieties to our garden to expand our eating self sufficiency. Try not to kill them.
Call/email at least one faraway friend per month.
Call H to schedule at least 4 sessions of cake decorating lessons.
Do my best to create more good in the world. Try not to be an ass.
Okay fine... Exercise three days a week.

You may notice that I didn't say anything about blogging more often. It's a goal, but not one that I'm going to be tied to. I spend way to much time on the internet anyway.

So that being said - I hope you have a wonderful, peaceful, meaningful 2008!

Saturday on the Farm....Again

2007-12-18T13:21:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago Sal and I went for our first visit to Grassy Ridge Farm in Reigelwood. We had been wanting to stop by before just to check it out, but that particular weekend we had a specific purpose: chicken breasts.

For the past few months, all the chicken we've eaten has been the whole, roasted variety. Our ritual is usually to pick up a frozen chicken from Grassy Ridge at the Saturday market, put it in the fridge and roast it with whatever vegetables are in season that week. We use the leftover chicken for soup or sandwiches, and boil the bones for stock. It's been a lovely way to eat chicken, but it gets a little monotonous. So when Marie at G.R. invited us to come to the farm on the day of the kill to get the chickens before they were frozen, we were more than willing.

We pre-ordered 6 chickens, and made sure we showed up after the slaughter. I'm all about knowing where my food comes from, and have witnessed my fair share of animal slaughters before, but I opted out this time. When we got there around 1:00, Marie and her family had our fresh chickens cleaned and packaged for us, which left us some time to wander around the farm and meet some of the brothers and sisters of our dinner.

In case you were wondering, the chickens (and therefore the eggs) at Grassy Ridge are about as free-range as you get. When we drove up, they were roaming all over the road, into the wood, across the fields, and well, pretty much everywhere. Tommy and Marie move the roosting houses every so often, so the chickens have a fresh grazing area, and their waste fertilizes different parts of the fields. Compare that with most large scale egg producers: even those that call themselves "free-range" technically only have to provide a couple of weeks of access to the outdoors for their chickens, who are often corralled into a crowded hen house and never even realize they can go outside (chickens really aren't that bright, really). So as far as chicken lives go, the Grassy Ridge birds have it made.

Since Grassy Ridge also sells pork products, we got to see some pigs and piglets as well. If you have ever met a piglet in person, you know how completely adorable they are...which does make it a little harder to eat them, in my book. I actually stopped eating pork about 15 years ago when my dad decided to bring home a pig to raise and eat. It's not like I was ignorant about where pork came from, it's just that it became a little too personal for me. Never name your dinner.

But I digress. Visiting Grassy Ridge was a fabulous way to spend the day, and we hope to visit again. Tommy and Marie are caring, responsible farmers who look after their layers and livestock like doting parents. As for the main point of our visit, we brought home our fresh chickens and my neighbor and I cut them up into parts to freeze separately. Finally we've got the option for grilled chicken breasts, chicken wings and my fave: chicken and dumplings. Ahh, the simple pleasures in the life of a locavore.

Spotlight on Local Producer: Whispering Dove

2007-12-17T08:00:00.001-08:00

Last week at Poplar Grove, I chatted with Linda Klose of Whispering Dove Goat Ranch and Apiary, and thought I'd share this resource with you. I hadn't really had the chance to talk with them before, since my Wednesday market day is always kind of rushed. I've only begun eating meat again and I've got a good stash of honey, so I've always kind of passed them up in my hurry to get my shopping done. Linda and I found ourselves together at the Wayne Batten's cooking table though, and we talked over Collard Stuffed Turnips and Ruttebaga Potato Salad. Here are some of the things she shared with me about Whispering Dove.

They are located within 50 miles of Wilmington - so in good range for any strict 100 milers out there. They are open year round at the ranch and welcome visitors by appointment.

Whispering Dove sells pastured, hormone and antibiotic free goat and rabbit meat along with raw honey products and natural goat's milk soap and skin care products. You can check out their listings on Local Harvest and the NC Agriculture website.

If you want to visit the farm, here is their contact info:
Linda and Dale Klose
Whispering Dove Goat Ranch & Apiary
689 Harris Creek Road
Jacksonville, NC 28540
(910)455-7123

Hello again

2007-12-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

How time flies when the craziness of the holidays is upon us! Apparently it's been almost a month since I've updated this blog, and I'm here to make amends. I'm going to make a goal of updating at least once a week - I think I can handle that. I've never been someone who journals, so it's hard for me to remember to keep up with these posts. Anyway, blah - blah. Here are some thoughts from the past weeks:

1. Carrots are in season - yay!
2. Where the heck is spinach? Collards - check. Cabbage - check. Spinach - nada.
3. The Farmers' Market is coming to an end - I've got the hookup with most vendors so that I can continue to shop through the season if needed, but it still stresses me out a little.
4. Ruttebagas are delicious, especially when made into potato salad with Nature's Way Chevre. (Thanks to Wayne Betton for cooking up that particular treat at Poplar Grove)
5. The newly released Blue Cheese Walnut spread from Nature's Way is to die for.

FYI: Free Event @ UNCW

2007-11-26T16:54:00.000-08:00

For all of you who are interested in the politics, processing and distribution - and well, eating, of food, UNCW is presenting a free film: The Future of Food tomorrow night at 7:00 PM in the Lumina Theater.

Heck, if you just want something to do that's free, that's good enough reason to go as well.

Here's the info from the UNCW website:

The Future of Food

From the prairies of Saskatchewan, Canada to the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, this film gives a voice to farmers whose lives and livelihoods have been negatively impacted by this new technology. The health implications, government policies and push towards globalization are all part of the reason why many people are alarmed by the introduction of genetically altered crops into our food supply.

Directed by Deborah Koons. 88 mins.
A discussion will follow the film.
Lumina Theater is in the Fisher Student Center.
Brought to you by UNCW Presents.

Thanksgiving Prep

2007-11-20T17:31:00.000-08:00

Hello all. It's been crazy busy around here, so Thanksgiving has kind of snuck up on me. Luckily I've been planning for it since we started eating locally, because I knew that some of our Thanksgiving favorites would be out of season in November. I've frozen corn, green beans, and chicken broth; stocked up on sweet potatoes; foraged for pecans; and put in my order with Jackson Dairy. I'll be cooking for 6 this year, so I had to consider what would satisfy everyone. After lots of OCD like organizing and planning, I've come up with a menu that's going to be local and delicious. Here's what I'll be making:

Herb roasted turkey with homemade pan gravy
Chestnut stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potato puree with struesel topping
Baked corn
Sauteed green beans
Country white rolls
Chocolate pecan pie
Pumpkin pie
Mulled white wine

Phew. Luckily I'll have lots of hands on deck for the prep work. I did have to make some non-local purchases to make everything come together. I bought sticks of butter, since the butter from Jackson Dairy is salted, and I need unsalted for the pie. I also picked up an onion, since my storage onions sprouted, and some shallots since my sisters rely on my shallot pan gravy every year.

The rolls and pumpkin pie are from Great Harvest - bless them for being such fabulous bakers.

I'll try to post some recipes later. Does anyone else have any delicious local Thanksgiving ideas to contribute?

FYI: My laptop died this week and my camera is broken. Makes blogging a real pain.

Word up, locavores

2007-11-13T08:00:00.000-08:00

How about that? Oxford American Dictionary has chosen its Word of the Year. In a move that is the epitome of lazy blogging, I'm just going to share Mike Nizza's New York Times blog entry on the topic:

November 13, 2007, 9:04 am
Oxford’s Word of the Year, and Runners-Up
By Mike Nizza

Not everyone has joined the local food movement, but it has won over Google’s cafeteria, Barbara Kingsolver’s kitchen, writers at The New York Times, and now, leading wordsmiths at the Oxford American Dictionary, who are adding their lexicographic seal of approval:
The 2007 Word of the Year is (drum-roll please) locavore.
The past year saw the popularization of a trend in using locally grown ingredients, taking advantage of seasonally available foodstuffs that can be bought and prepared without the need for extra preservatives.
The movement has been building for years, from Chef Alice Waters’s pioneering work in the 1970’s to the opening of a Whole Foods grocery store in the middle of Manhattan. But the word locavore was coined only two years ago in San Francisco.
Falling just short of the top prize was the crucial word in a catchphrase for the ages, born at an appearance by Senator John Kerry at the University of Florida in September. In mid-scuffle with security guards, Andrew Meyer blurted out a verb formed from the brand name for an electric stun gun, and the dictionary authorities approve:
tase (or taze): to stun with a Taser
Other runners-up have also made prominent appearances in The Times, including colony collapse disorder, cougar (redefined), MRAP vehicle and bacn.
There are several more listed on Oxford’s blog. And if your appetite for new words and word uses is still unsated, the Dictionary Evangelist is kind enough to name some runners-up to the runners-up.

Saturday shopping

2007-11-10T16:07:00.000-08:00

We got down to the Farmers' Market late again today and as a consequence, didn't get any eggs. Plus, Bill sold my by-request Ricotta to a smooth talking lady named Cathy. Thanks alot Cathy - no lasagna for me this week. Well, at least until Wednesday.

We did however, pick up our Thanksgiving turkey. If you live in Wilmington and didn't get a chance to pre-order your turkey from Grassy Ridge about 4 months ago, then I'm sorry for you, because it's too late. I'll try to remember to remind you next year. But I did see that you can pick up a full Thanksgiving meal from WalMart for $37.77. Just kidding - please don't do that.

Our turkey weighs in at about 10 lbs. and cost only $27.00, which I think is a bargain, considering the amount of time and effort that Marie Wallace and her family put forth to raise each bird. This is the first year that we will know exactly where our turkey came from, and it helps me to be truly thankful for the sacrifice of labor and life that will make our dinner complete.

Cold days a'comin

2007-11-07T14:07:00.000-08:00

Hey, if you live in New Hanover County, heads up. The previous Frost Warning for this evening has been upgraded to a Freeze Warning. Which has me rethinking my "I love Fall" stance. I think what I actually meant to say was this: I love September, October and so far, the first 6 days of November.

I hate cold weather.

Sunday at the farm

2007-11-04T17:02:00.000-08:00

Hi there. I've been totally slack at posting this week and I'm sorry. Now that that's out of the way, let me tell you about a fun little trip that Sal and I took today. We've been meaning to go up to Nature's Way Farm and Seafood for awhile, and today was the perfect opportunity. The weather was gorgeous, and we had finished all of our housework (raking pine needles for Sal; making pickled okra and apple butter for me), so we headed up to Hampstead for a tour of Nature's Way.
It was easy enough to find - Bill gave us good directions on Saturday. Take Sloop Point right off of Market Street/17 and then follow the signs. We were greeted with bounding enthusiasm from the family dog, and found Bill and Tina in the back by the sheep. Although I chat with Bill at least twice a week, I have never met Tina, so I was happy to finally shake hands with the woman behind Nature Way's delicious cheese. We spent some time talking while petting the sheep, then moved on to their large vegetable garden. Tina's jalapeno plants put mine to shame, and her still-producing tomato plants towered over Sal. Her secret - don't water anything. Seriously, it absolutely makes sense when you think about - survival of the fittest. She waters once when planting (she grows her veggies from seed) and then mulches with about a foot of hay. That's it - it's up to nature after that, and the results were amazing even in this draught. Tina and Bill were kind enough to let Sal pick his heart out in the pepper section. Let's just say he'll be stocked up for awhile.
But I digress. The crowning jewels of the Farm are the milk producing goats, and they are some lovely girls. They're so well cared for that Tina will sometimes put sweaters on them in the cold of winter so they don't get too chilly. Now that's love! Tina's cheesemaking room where she processes their milk is tiny, but efficient. We spent some time looking it over, and learned about the various processes for soft and harder cheeses. Finally, we checked out the storefront, Bill's walk-in seafood cooler and last, but not least - the billy goats. Those guys have some great beards!
By the time we left, I had a much better understanding for the cheesemaking process, plus a deeper appreciation for the time intensive nature of farming. We had a great time and plan on going back when the kids are born in February, if not before. Unfortunately, I have no photos to show for our day because I lent my camera to my sister this week... so, you'll just have to go visit for yourself!

RAIN!

2007-10-26T12:59:00.001-07:00

I can practically hear my flowers and veggies sighing with relief. Supposedly 4 more inches on the way - could it be?!

Local generosity

2007-10-24T18:23:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I got a phone call from lovely older woman who had seen our photo in the paper. She and her sister had been trying to figure out what to do with some canning jars they had dragged up out of the basement, saw the article, and looked me up in the phone book. Sal and I happily went over to take the jars off her hands. We spent some time chatting with her - her family built her home in the 1930s, back when Market Street was a two lane road that you could park on - imagine that. Her mother lived to be 100 and had used many of the jars that she gave us. We came away with 7 boxes of beautiful jars of all different shapes and sizes - plenty for canning and some to use for storing pretty things. Love this small town.

And this here is why they call it North Cackalacky...

2007-10-24T12:48:00.000-07:00

Letter to the Editor published in the Star News on 10/23:

Local vittles
Editor: I think these here locavores is on to somethin'! Why, after I read the paper this mornin', I swallered down a big 'ol Krispy Kreme slathered in Duke's Mayonnaise and Texas Pete, follered up with a cold Cheerwine.
Nothin' like eatin' local!
Robert Thompson
Caswell Beach

Awesome.

State Fair

2007-10-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, Sal and I made our annual trek up to Raleigh for the North Carolina State Fair. We decided to make this a tradition when we first moved here, and have looked forward to it every year since.

I looove the State Fair for lots of reasons, but mostly because its a giant, messy, conglomeration of all things great and disturbing about North Carolina. It's supposed to be a celebration of NC Agriculture, and really is, despite the amount of commercialized junk that prevails there. I love seeing the craft and food entries; cases and cases of displayed jam, pickles, preserves, and even cakes, diligently created by folks all over the state and submitted with the hopes of winning the $8 or so first prize. I also love the art show, the produce competitions, cow judging, flower and garden displays, and all of the animal shows.

For all of the wonderful opportunities at the fair, here are some things I pretty easily managed to restrain myself from doing:

Buying an airbrushed sweatshirt with my own name on it
Joining the military
Eating a deep fried anything

Here are some things I couldn't help myself from:

Eating a scoop of NC State creamery ice cream as big as my head
Rubbing the heads of some cute animals even though the signs clearly said NO!
Pocketing a banana at the hotel buffet

Another fun year celebrating the varied agriculture of NC, and all the weird people who enjoy it.

Seriously, could you resist these guys?

In case you missed it...

2007-10-19T19:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, our local eating made front page news. I was a little nervous about having such exposure, but I think Sam Scott did a great job on the article. Didn't make us seem like weirdos at all. I've gotten alot of positive feedback from people so far, not to mention lots of questions and stories about food. I love it! So, if you're checking out this blog as a result of the article, would you please leave a comment just to say hi? Thanks.

Pecan pickin'

2007-10-17T05:03:00.000-07:00

My fingernails are still black from picking pecans this weekend. Soooo pretty. I'm not complaining though - the outcome was absolutely worth it. On Saturday, Trace over at Cricketbread was awesome enough to show us where there are some quality pecan and hickory trees around town. I for one couldn't have picked out a pecan tree had it dropped a big fat pecan right on my head. Now I least know what to look for and how to identify when they're ready to pick. Also to maybe wear some gloves next time. In a couple of hours we got around 8 lbs. of pecans and a smattering of hickory nuts... I'm already envisioning the holiday goodies.

Score!

2007-10-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

I made a glorious find this weekend while conducting a thorough cleaning out of all our closets, drawers and various nooks and crannies throughout the house. I was looking for stuff to put in the yard sale we had Saturday, and came across our hurricane food supply shoved into a corner of the garage. We had stocked up on various canned goods when we moved here - convinced that a hurricane induced power outage would indeed one day force us to sit in the dark for a week eating green beans out the can while sipping Crystal Light. Needless to say we haven't had a storm that's left us without power for more than 10 hours and so haven't touched the kit in years. Well, except for the cans Chef Boyardee ravioli Sal has pilfered a few times as a snack.

The contents of the kit are expired, but we're going to give them a try anyway. The shining star of the group is the box of Saltines which is a key ingredient in Southern style squash casserole. I've been substituting bread crumbs, which are okay, but aren't quite right. There are also canned peaches, pineapple, fruit cocktail, pears, peas, corn, green beans and tuna. I'm not so sure about the tuna though. We've also got some boxed soy milk, peanut butter crackers, cereal, crunchy peanut butter, strawberry jam, cran-raspberry juice, applesauce, and the aforementioned Crystal Light lemonade mix. That's some high class hurricane planning, folks.

I'm going to figure out what I can make using all this found food, and incorporate it into our menus over the next few months.

A Monday moment

2007-10-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind around here. Besides the brisk pace of our day jobs, Sal and I have had several home improvement projects in various levels of completion to contend with each day. We've been getting up around 6:30 - working all day, fulfilling other commitments - teaching, tutoring, etc. after work, then coming home to paint, clean, shop or organize our way through some aspect of our home transformation, usually followed by falling into bed exhausted around 10:30. Next day: repeat. Weekends: ditto. In reality, the projects aren't huge, just time consuming, and have eaten up lots of our "free" time. I have no idea how we'd do it if we had children - part of the reason we're taking care of these things now.

So a bit of my going on about how busy I've been is to offer an explanation of why the past few weeks have been more about others than about how we're faring here. Much of our busy-ness has been due to local eating issues: in direct ways - like planting veggies, and in not so obvious ways - like putting in a fence gate and an additional door in our garage for easier access to our garden and composter.

Instead of posting a Local Producer Spotlight this week, I thought I'd introduce you to some of our newest crops - which will be our own local producers in the coming months and years.

Here's proof that life is moving way too quickly. There was nothing sprouting in this pot just 48 hours ago. I went out this morning to find a ton of little carrot plants fighting their way out of the soil. I'll have to thin them out later, but for now; look at them go!

Here are our newest surprise additions from Shelton Herb Farm: Lemongrass and Ginger. I had no idea either of them would grow here. Ooooh, the cooking possibilities!

Part of our little potted jungle: basil, chives, dill, cilantro, parsley, tarragon, mint, jalapenos, rosemary, lemongrass, ginger, and avocado.

Oh, and by the way, I'm also hoping to make this site a little more user-friendly, as I'm anticipating some increased traffic in the next few weeks. So if you get an "Under Construction" message, don't fret.

Farmers' Market in the news

2007-10-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

I also wanted to mention that the Farmers' Market was highlighted in Si Cantwell's Newcomers column on Sunday, October 7th. Our favorite folks were mentioned, and there's even a quote by yours truly.

Local Producer: Nature's Way Farm and Seafood

2007-10-01T17:52:00.000-07:00

Let me just say that I cannot live without cheese. (If you haven't noticed, I like to make dramatic statements.) I tried once, for awhile, when I was on a non-dairy diet for health reasons - recommended by Woody Harrelson during a yoga class, but that's another story. I was okay with switching to soy milk, and made do without butter, but I just could not do without the cheese. I have actually been called "the crazy cheese girl" once. If the shoe fits...

That said, I was a little worried about the cheese factor going into this way of eating. Lucky for us then, and everyone else around here, that Nature's Way Farm exists. Over the past few months I have tried their chevre, mozzarella (smoked and regular), pepperjack, cheddar, feta, gouda, romano, parmesan, and raw caraphilly - all made from goats' milk - and have never been disappointed.

Nature's Way is run by Tina and Bill Moller. Bill is their representative at the Farmers' Markets on Wed. and Sat., and he does his job well. He's friendly, generous and kind - which is a good business plan in my book. I'm looking forward to stopping by Nature's Way soon, when life is a little less hectic - you can too. In the meantime, stop by their stand and stock up on some amazing cheeses, fresh seafood, and great goat's milk products like cucumber-melon lotion and coconut soap.

Tina and Bill took some time out from their busy schedule to answer my questions:

You've got quite the combination of products - from shrimp to soap to cheese! Can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in the seafood and goat business?

I've been commercial fishing since 1971. In 1981 I hired Tina to pick clams for me on my clam dredge, by 1983 we got married. With the same goals, we got 3 1/2 acres in Sloop Point about 1/2 mile from the sound. Tina wanted livestock for pets, so sheep were selected followed by goats. Both being milk & cheese lovers Tina wasted no time in trying her hand at cheese making. By trial and error she developed a goat milk chevre that won best in show at the North Carolina Dairy Goat Breeders Association 2 years in a row. By then the soaps were also doing well and we started retailing some of my shrimp at the house. We slowly made the transition from selling wholesale to fishhouses to dealing direct with the public. In 2000 we became the only certified goat cheese dairy east of I 95. Our sales at the farm weren't enough to make it, but thanks to the Wilmington River Front Farmers' Market and now the Poplar Grove Farmers' Market, we are able to continue doing what we enjoy.

I'm always impressed with the number of cheeses you produce. What are some of your specialties, and how long does it take to make them?

The chevre was Tina's first cheese and is still her personal favorite. She makes it in 8 flavors - it takes 2 days to make. The mozzarella and blue are both very unique. The blue takes 6 weeks to make. Mozzarella takes about 2 days. The pimento is made with 3 different kinds of goat cheeses. Besides feta, Tina makes a variety of hard cheeses & they take 2-6 months. Oh, she's always working on something new, like a hard cheese soaked in red wine.

What are some of the differences between goat's milk and cow's milk products?

Goat's milk is easier to digest for two reasons. First, the fat particles are very small and second, the lactose is different from cows milk so many people who are lactose intolerant can drink it. It is also lower in fat and higher in calcium.

Where and how do you catch your seafood?

I mostly work close to home out of Topsail Sound. I fish crab pots, which not only supply my crabs but also stone crab claws. I set nets for the flounder, and the clams and oysters are caught either locally in public bottom or out of the 7 acre clam/oyster lease I have. Do to multiple reasons I chose to sell my shrimp boat this past spring. My many years in the business allow me to be able to get shrimp from friends still shrimping that maintan the same high standards I do. The dry pack sea scallops and hand picked crab meat is from Garland F. Fulcher Seafood Oriental, N.C. The crab cakes are made by Caroon Carb Co. Southport, N.C.

Is there anything else you'd like us to know about Natures Way?

Being a small working farm we not only enjoy our livelyhood but take pride in the products we offer to the public.

Nature's Way Farm is located at 115 Crystal Ct.Hampstead, NC. You can reach them at (910)270-3036.

Local Producer: Black River Organic Farm

2007-09-24T05:15:00.000-07:00

This Saturday the Farmers' Market will be blessed by the return of Black River Organic Farm after a well deserved vacation. They took a break during the transitional season between summer and winter crops, and I can't wait to see what they bring with them. Black Rivers' assistant farmer and market manager, Noel Mooney, answered some of my questions a while back:

1. You obviously know alot about what grows in this region - did you grow up here?

Yes, I grew up just north of here in Jacksonville, NC.

2. How did you get started with Black River?

I've known Stefan, the owner of Black River, since I started farming. I started a vegetable growing operation on another farm's land and worked a sharecropping situation for three years. During those three years I built a loyal customer base at the local farmers' markets and restaurants. Stefan asked me if I would work with him and continue the farmers' market with his farm.

3. I hear you're quite the forager. What's the oddest thing you've ever foraged for consumption?

I guess a lot of things I forage some people would consider odd. Lately I've been collecting Purslane, Black Cherries, Peppergrass, Indian Fig cactus pads, Chufa nuts, Yarrow, various Pine parts, Mullein, Chantrelle Mushrooms, Reishi mushrooms, Huitlacoche (aka corn smut) and several other plants and funguses.

4. Black River is the only certified organic grower at the market - tell me about that process. It's pretty complicated, no?

We have an on farm inspection every year, which inspects the operation from top to bottom. Not only inspecting what we do, but also looking for any potential for contamination through water, neighboring farms, etc. We also have to keep records for every seed and activity involving the land. All of this ensures that products carrying the USDA certified organic seal are grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, or genetically engineered organisms.

5. What are some North Carolina specific things I can look forward to in the fall? Also, will I ever be able to find the following things around here: artichokes, asparagus, rhubarb, portobello mushrooms - or do I have to say goodbye to them forever?

Well, North Carolina is the number one producer of sweet potatoes so you'll definitely see plenty of them at the market. You'll also see crops such as: broccoli, kale, collards, mesclun mix, carrots, radishes, arugula, turnips, and rutabaga.

Artichokes can be grown here and I have heard of one farmer in Jacksonville who had them but your best bet would be to grow them in your garden. There are new annual varieties that can be grown in one season and don't need zone 9 conditions. Asparagus can also be grown here my mom has a patch in her garden, and if I'm not mistaken I believe Lewis Farms carries them in the spring. Rhubarb isn't typically grown in NC since it likes cool temperatures and hates hot summers but if you baby it you could probably grow some in your garden, but I wouldn't expect to ever find it at the farmers market. Shiitakes would be your best bet for a Portobello substitution for the time being. Dr. Omon Isikhuemhen of NCA&T is working hard with lots of farmers from across the state to turn North Carolina into one of the top mushroom producing states in the country, so I wouldn't be too surprised to see local portobellos soon.

Noel is a fountain of knowledge - there's more where this came from! Stop by the Black River Organic Farm stand at the market and visit Noel, Danielle and the other lovely staff this weekend. Or, visit their website at http://www.blackriverorganicfarm.com/

The reason for the season

2007-09-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

If you had asked me to tell you about my favorite season, up until about last year I would have gone on and on about how much I love Summer. Summer, Summer, Summer. Maybe it's because I'm getting old, or perhaps it's the irritating drought conditions or stifling humidity getting to me, but I am now a total Autumn convert. Summer had a good run, while I lived in Pennsylvania and the blessed microclimate of Northern California, but in North Carolina, Fall is where it's at.

Not only is the weather absolutely perfect, but all of the yummy produce that I've been missing since Spring is coming back! (Spring is great too, but because I prefer Halloween to Easter, Fall wins in the favorite season category) Thank you Mother Nature for creating the climate here that way. I'm already salivating over the recipes I've got in the works to include the sweet potatoes that are already showing up at the Market. And the lettuce - oh, the lettuce! I bought 5 varieties from Shelton Herb Farm today, and will use some for dinner tonight before even planting it- why wait?

Photo: 20 lettuce plants. Did I go overboard? I think not.

Local Producer: Gilbert Farm

2007-09-17T06:37:00.000-07:00

It's always a pleasure to talk with Don and Jane Gilbert of Gilbert Farm! You can find them together on Saturdays, working as a delightful team in a way that only people who have been married over 50 years can. They've always got something new to try - the past few weeks have brought baby turnips and scuppernong grapes to the table. Recently, the Gilberts were kind enough to take the time to answer some of my questions:

You both used to have other professions (a teacher and small business owner)-tell us a little about how and when you started Gilbert Farm.

Gilbert Farm really was never officially formed. It just kind of evolved after we sold our hydroponic business back in the late 90's and went into growing for farmers' markets and restaurant direct sales exclusively. However, I had been active in the local farmers' markets since we moved here in 1985.

Some of your produce is hydroponically grown. What is the benefit of growing this way, and how is it different than produce that is greenhouse grown?

Hydroponic growing is done in a greenhouse with strict controls without soil or chemical pesticides, and allows us to grow fresh vine ripened produce during the off season when local field grown produce is not available. Growing this way allows us to feed the plants exactly what they need when they need it to obtain maximum yields and superior taste in the off seasons.

What is your favorite produce to grow?

I like it all. In addition to regular produce, we attempt to grow as many specialty crops as possible that are normally not available in the supermarkets, such as Kohlrabi. My favorites are tomatoes and red raspberries.

You recently switched to the Southport Farmers' Market on Wednesdays. How is business down there?

Business at Southport is about the same as at Poplar Grove except we don't have as much competition as we did at Poplar Grove. The riverfront location is also nice and since I live in Brunswick County I feel some obligation to support Brunswick County business.

Is there anything else you'd like us to know about Gilbert Farm?

It should be noted that in addition to what we grow at our home base Leland operation, we network with two other quality growers in Pender County who do not desire to sell at farmers market. They are Thomas Produce Farm just west of Burgaw on NC53 and St. Helena Nursery in St. Helena just south of Burgaw. They grow a large variety of field grown and hydroponic grown produce. We work together on who plants what and when, and assist in the harvesting, packing, and selling of the products. This is an oncoming trend in the agricultural business, particularly with small growers who are being forced out of business by large growers and cheaper foreign imports.

Local Producer: Grassy Ridge Farm

2007-09-10T06:55:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love the chicken and eggs at Grassy Ridge Farms! The broiler chickens we buy there make at least three meals for us during a week: we roast the chicken with some veggies, use the leftover chicken in another recipe, and make broth for soup later on. That's a great value when you consider the quality. They also reuse egg cartons that customers return, which is both resourceful and ecologically sound. Tons of reasons to visit them at the Market or on the farm. Here's an interview with Marie Wallace, owner of Grassy Ridge Farm:

Tell us a little about the history of Grassy Ridge Farm, and your involvement with the Farmers' Market.

We started Grassy Ridge Farm in 2003. We visited Joel Salatin's farm in Virginia and got interested in raising free range chickens. We also raised 100 laying hens and started selling eggs off the farm and at Tidal Creek. We were one of the first vendors at the Wilmington Downtown Market. We sold our eggs and vegetables. We are able to sell our chickens at the Market for the first time this year because we now have our meat handlers license. We also sell at Poplar Grove market on Wednesdays.

What makes your chicken and pork products different from what is available in the average grocery store?

We do not feed our animals antibiotics or hormones. They are raised free range and are happy chickens and hogs. We feed them organic feed which is shipped from Virginia and we mix corn and oats with the supplement. The pasture where they graze is all organic.

How often do you process your animals?

The broilers are processed when they are 7 weeks old. We have been trying to have a batch to process every month. We will raise them until the end of October. The hogs take longer to raise and at the present time we only have two more to process this year. We have three hogs which we breed, and hope to raise our own pigs.

Your eggs are delicious! How many layers do you have, and how many dozen eggs per week do they produce?

We have approximately 225 layers and they are producing 50 dozen eggs a week so far. 125 of them are young and should start producing more. We are also going to purchase 125 more in September.

Is there anything else you'd like us to know about Grassy Ridge Farm?

I would like my customers to let me know how many chickens they need yearly. I can only raise the chickens from March to October because of the weather. I would also like customers to come to the farm and purchase chickens when we process so they can cut them up and package as they like. We are interested in raising grass fed beef and hope to get started soon. Thank you to all of our customers and we are glad you are enjoying our product!

Note: Grassy Ridge Farm is located at 399 Beaver Ridge Dr. in Riegelwood, NC. You can reach them at (910) 655-4665

The Cadillac (make that: Prius) of composters

2007-09-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend we finally got around to purchasing an upgraded composting system fromProgressive Gardens on Oleander. We went for the EnviroCycle Composter (in fashionable green), which looks like it's going to be a whole lot easier than what we had before. Our previous bin was a plain ole stacking tier system that fell apart regularly and was just a general pain to deal with. Plus it took forever to get a decent product.

Our new fancy shmancy deal makes it easier to produce compost more quickly because it rolls on its base, which keeps the ingredients well mixed and aerated. It looks like one of the better rolling composters on the market, because it doesn't take a ton of muscle to spin - which is important for this weakling girl. We also like the added bonus of the 5 gal. liquid collecting base - we can use the collected "compost tea" to the rest of our garden as an organic fertilizer.

I think it's going to be fabulous - we'll let you know.

Me on a soapbox for a second.

2007-09-07T14:32:00.000-07:00

I don't know if you've heard about this study yet, but it's been all over the news today. As a Behavior Specialist and local eater, this breakthrough information solicited a big "Well, DUH!" from me.

Here's an excerpt:

THURSDAY, Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Some common food colorings and preservatives appear to increase the risk of hyperactive behavior among children, British researchers report.

The link between food additives and hyperactivity has long been suspected, but this is the first study to show a direct connection.
The findings have already caused the British government's Food Standards Agency, which funded the study, to issue a warning to parents about food additives.
"Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an increasingly common problem, and theories abound to account for that," said Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. "Among them is the notion that food additives induce hyperactivity."

It goes on to say how they gave two groups of children either commercially available additive loaded or additive free drinks (who lets their kids be in these studies????) After 6 weeks, the kids who consumed the drink with additives displayed significantly more hyperactive behavior, as well as shorter attention spans.

This is beyond disturbing to me, but also - is there anyone out there who thought that perhaps additives may be good for kids? I totally understand the appeal of convenient food, and will admit to partaking in a delicious bowl of Cap'n Crunch once in awhile as a child. But by no means were additives a regular part of my diet, nor are they now - and I certainly won't be feeding them to my future children. Maybe I'm being too harsh on parents, not being one myself, but I think that there has to be a link not only in the additives, but in the type of parenting that would allow children to be consuming that level of additives on a daily basis. Throw a Pop Tart in your kids hand before sending them off to school with their Lunchable, mix up some Kool-Aid, toss some dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets in the oven for dinner and serve them up with a side of FD&C Red No.40 and ADHD. Fabulous.

Okay, seriously, I do understand that parenting is the most difficult job ever - that's why I've avoided the position for so long. And I also understand that companies are sneaky about throwing in a little Quinoline Yellow into an otherwise healthy looking beverage. It's just that I think there is something to be said for just slowing down to give our kids what they need, not just what's most convenient.

Photo: Tartrazine (E102), commonly added to carbonated beverages and lollipops. Mmmm.

Local Labor Day

2007-09-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

To celebrate our long weekend, Sal and I decided that we were going to do nothing - absolutely nothing....which of course blossomed into three days of doing all kinds of work around the house. It was a good kind of work though, the kind where you feel productive, but not overstressed and resentful.

We started off Saturday with our trip to the Farmers' Market downtown - stocked up on some essentials and picked up some treats for an end of summer celebration. Sal also bought a 1/2 gallon jug of Organic Lager from Front Street Brewery which turned out to be lovely - and refillable to boot. Sweet.

We then ventured up to Swart's in Castle Hayne because we heard word that they were selling tomatoes for $1.25 a pound. True, true, so we got 25 pounds to make up for the sauce disaster of August '07. We also found beautiful garlic there from Boone, as well as muscadine grapes, which are destined for jelly.

The rest of the weekend had us trimming back plants, transplanting herbs and generally preparing the garden for some winter veggies. We also managed to make some tomato sauce with great success. Bless that food mill.

For our end of summer grill out session, Sal opted for Tarheel Beef burgers on my homemade hamburger buns, topped with my pickles and mixed peppers, with a side of fries cut from Pridgen's potatoes. I opted for a fried green tomato from Hanchey's for my sandwich, which was maddeningly delicious. We were so stuffed after that we didn't even get to our seedless watermelon from Mr. Gilbert, but we're on assignment to taste it before Saturday to give him a quality report.

All in all it was a yummy, busy weekend. I hope yours was as well.

I was the only one taking photos of beer in Front Street Brewery. Strange.

Our super-efficient tomato sauce making set up. I really did help, I swear.

The best part of waking up

2007-08-31T19:00:00.000-07:00

Full disclosure time: During my local eating, I have never given up coffee. Not like, I really tried and just couldn't do it - I just never even tried. I'm not one of those 5 cup-per-day habit folks...I just need my one, perfect, black, cup per morning. Plus, I don't think I could resist the smell of coffee brewing at work - or anywhere else for that matter.

I think I may love the smell of coffee even more than I love the coffee itself. There's something entirely seductive about the smell of freshly ground coffee that just takes over my olfactory system. To me, it's the crispness of early morning, the laziness of a rainy day, the comfort of routine, the company of friends - and the nostalgia of my grandfather. So, I'm not giving up coffee. That's all there is to it.

Well, not really. I mean, if I'm going to keep on with the coffee habit, I can at least make a better choice than the giant tub of Folger's we've been buying. A little social responsibility is in order, perhaps? Anyone want to devise a way to grow coffee beans in the greater Wilmington area? No? Alrighty then, I started by ditching the Folger's (once we were out of course) and headed over to Folks Cafe on Market Street to get me some socially responsible coffee. Now apparently, I can get Folks coffee cheaper at Tidal Creek, which I may do in the future, but since I was on my way to Centro Latino anyway, I went straight to the source.

Folks serves/sells only Organic and Fair Trade coffees and teas. That's important because there are lots of choices to fuel my coffee drinking habit, without making me feel too guilty for the non-localness of my morning beverage. This go-round I chose a half pound of Bolivia coffee which was roasted that morning and ground for me on the spot. As a bonus, I left the package in my car while I went to my Spanish class, and now my car still smells like coffee. So much more effective than one of those hanging tree air freshener thingies.

Photo: No, this coffee is not from Bolivia, North Carolina.

The way to a man's heart

2007-08-30T18:33:00.000-07:00

One of the things that has been slightly challenging about a local diet has been making sure that meals are filling enough for Sal. I could easily make a meal out of a tomato and piece of bread, whereas I'm married to a man who once ate a 3 lb. cheeseburger in under 30 minutes (it's a long story). Not to say that I'm not an eater - case in point: I once finished an entree at Carrabba's and was told by the waiter that he had never (his emphasis) seen anyone finish it before....which made me simultaneously feel like popping him in the face, and also, a bit proud. But typically, I can get by on a small meal and feel adequately satisfied. Not so much for Sal.

So I feel kind of bad on evenings like tonight. I came home from Spanish class and found the guys next door grilling out Bratwurst - very manly, and one of Sal's favorites. However, I had different plans for dinner...

we were having crepes.

Just saying the word crepes probably makes some men feel a little girly, but whatever. I had been planning on making them for weeks, and after being inspired by Trace's sourdough pancakes over at Cricketbread, I decided that tonight would be as good as any to give them a go. Sal, in his good natured way (and probably unaware of the Bratfest happening under his nose), had made up the batter while I was gone - but the making and flipping was up to me. Apparently I have some sort of French gene that has gone undetected until now, because I flipped the heck out of those crepes and didn't break a one.

We each ended up with four crepes, which turned out to be an amazingly filling meal for both of us. This go around we filled them with some Herbs d'Provence spreadable goat's cheese from Nature's Way and some sliced tomatoes - but the possibilities are endless. I actually saved one of mine to use as dessert - I filled it with peanut butter from the Farmers' Market and some contraband chocolate chips we've had in the freezer for awhile. Holy delicious goodness. They're super easy to make, so when you're in a bind for a filling, delicious, and dare I say - manly - meal, go on and make yourself some crepes.

Goat Cheese and Tomato Crepes

2007-08-30T18:01:00.001-07:00

You can substitute pretty much anything you want for the tomatoes and goat cheese. Get creative wittcha bad self.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup flour

3 large eggs

1 cup milk

1 Tbs. olive oil

1/4 tsp. salt

Butter

Whisk together the flour and eggs until they form a smooth paste. Gradually whisk in the milk, olive oil and salt.

Heat a large non-stick pan over medium heat. Add a little butter and spread it around the pan. Add 1/4 cup of batter in the middle of the pan, like a pancake. Let it cook, untouched until the edges start to firm and brown. Then, use your chef skills to flip the crepe, using a plastic spatula. Cook on the other side about 30 seconds, then slide it onto a plate. Add a little more butter to the pan and repeat. Crepes can be stacked on each other as you make them - it may help to put a paper towel between stacks to soak up any excess butter.

Lay the crepes out on a plate and spread your favorite filling over the whole crepe. Roll it up and enjoy!

Makes about 8 crepes.

Technical difficulties

2007-08-28T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hey there. I was having some computer issues last week before I went out of town, but I think I'm back on track now. I won't tell you the cause of my technical difficulties, but will simply say that it was embarrassingly simple to fix. So no Local Producer spotlight this week because of the aforementioned issues, as well as the fact that my travel caused me to miss the past two Farmers' Markets, which is where I hound the friendly folks for information. I'm making up for it with several posts for today, including a way to use up any lingering zucchini laying around. You're welcome.

Up North again

2007-08-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

I was away again this past weekend - one last hurrah before the year gets really crazy. I got to see some longtime friends, which was fabulous. Amidst all of the catching up, I managed to fit in some local eating, which as I've mentioned before, is really easy to do in Pennsylvania. Among this weekend's bounty was some (okay, a lot of) locally produced wine - including some made by the parents of a friend, tomatoes from my friend Laura's garden, some seriously delicious raspberries from a roadside stand, and of course, the must have - sweet corn. I also got to bring home some Amish-produced cow's milk cheddar cheese as a gift for Sal, which he used in the Zucchini Quiche recipe below. Oh, and also...I stocked up on a regional (though of course, not really local) delicacy that my sisters love: Tastykakes. Lord above those things are delicious and nostalgia inspiring. My great grandmother always had Butterscotch Krimpets on hand, and I pretty much ate a pack of Kandy Kakes every day in 7th and 8th grade. Charming, I know. Anyway, it was an excellent weekend overall - here are some photos to prove it.

Roadside produce stand

Some PA produce offerings

I couldn't resist this anatomically correct eggplant! :)

Laura's yummy tomatoes

Zucchini Quiche Casserole

2007-08-28T06:52:00.000-07:00

I first tasted this super easy dish in California when my coworker, Maria, brought some leftovers to work. Her sister had gotten the recipe from a magazine and added some of her own flair - the results were to die for. I then proceeded to pester Maria for the recipe until she finally handed it over - it's been part of our repertoire ever since.

Ingredients:
3 cups finely shredded zucchini (patted dry with a paper towel)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1.5 cups Bisquick
1 cup Gruyere or Swiss cheese (or whatever you have), shredded)
1/4 cup cooking oil
4 green onions, chopped (or substitute other onions, depending on season)
2 Tbs. chopped fresh dill or 1.5 tsp dry dill

Preheat oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients. Pour into a greased 9 inch round casserole.

Bake uncovered for 40-45 minutes, or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. The consistency should be like a bready quiche.

Getting on track

2007-08-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

In an effort to bring some sort of structure to this website, I'm going to attempt to post information about a local producer every Monday. Here you go:

Local Producer: Tarheel Beef Co.

2007-08-20T12:04:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite people at the Farmers' Market is Ron Koster of Tarheel Beef. To be honest, for the first month or so of my regular FM shopping trips, I basically ignored him. Not maliciously, it's just that I'm not a beef eater myself, and since I make the menu, I pretty much just passed him on by in search of some veggies. That all changed when we had out-of-town company, and Sal wanted to cook up something "special." Special to Sal almost always means meat - when I'm out of town I suspect that his diet consists mostly of ribs, burgers and chicken wings. Anyway, once we stopped by Tarheel Beef and got to know Ron, Sal makes it a point to drop by every week and at least check out what he's got on special.

Since I'm pretty clueless about different kinds of beef, I asked Ron to answer a couple of questions for me about his company, and how the beef is raised. Like I said, I don't eat beef, but I don't have a social objection to eating it, if the cow has been given a humane and decent life to live while it's on the earth. Unlike Tarheel Beef's product, most, if not all, of the meat that is available at the larger chain grocery stores is from CAFOs (or CFOs) - Confined Animal Feeding Operations, also known as Factory Farms. There are thousands of people out there who could explain a CAFO better than me, so I'll let them. You can get a head start on Farm Aid's website.

Here are Ron's answers to my questions - I'm a far cry from a journalist, but he was a good sport and humored me anyway. Stop by and say hi to Ron next time you're at the Market - he's a great storyteller...

1. You seem to know a LOT about beef! When did you get into the cattle business?

I got into the cattle business by accident a hobby that grew and got out of hand. Seven years ago my son called me up and said he had leased some land near Commerce Texas and had purchased 4 bovine pairs ( a pair is a cow with a calf at her side), giving us 8 animals. He said he knew I enjoyed riding and knew I had always wanted to have a small ranch. He said, "How about it?" and I said "I'm in." So I started a hobby. We attended Auction Barn sales in the area and acquired more animals that we thought were good, young stock and moreover were pregnant and ready to deliver calves in a relatively short period of time.

We had acquired by this time some 1000+ acres of scrub range land and pasture where the animals were set free after receiving the required vaccinations, ear tags, branding, etc. We have 6 ponds on our property that supply the animals with plenty of clean water.

2. What's different about the way that you raise your cows as compared to larger CAFOs?

We have cleared about half the land and planted crops of rye grass, oats, clover etc. Unlike the CFO's we do not confine our animals in large dirt pens and feed them regimented grains, growth hormones fillers etc. Every late winter I select and bring aprrox. 15 to 18 weaned Angus cross-breed calf's weighing approx 300 to 375 lbs to some leased pastureland in the Greensboro area. We put them out to pasture for approximately a year on fresh green grass and water. For the last approx 120 days we grain feed the animal to create the marbling effect in the meat (which gives you the flavor and taste you desire in a good cut of meat.)

We now after seven years have what is called a commercial cow calf operation. We no longer buy unknown stock and now have on our ranch some registered Angus breeding stock with superior blood lines and endeavor to raise the best cross breed animals we can. We have on average about two hundred and fifty cows and calves on the three different locations at any one time.

3. How often do you process meat? Where is the processing done?

We process no more than one or two animals a month and only one at a time. They are processed at a Federal monitored USDA plant in Siler City. NC. The split carcasses are hung in a controlled atmosphere of 33 to 38 degrees at low humidity for a minuim of 21 days to a maximum of 35 days. During this period known as the dry aging process the meat begins to break down the cell walls naturally tenderizing the meat and forming a jerky type covering on the meat. After the aging process is complete the meat is cut to specifications and the hard jerky coating is discarded which approx.results in a 20% loss of yield because of shrinkage. You sacrifice yield or volume for tenderness and taste.

4. If you were stranded on a desert island with only a grill, what type of beef would you want to have with you?

If I was stranded on a desert Island and only had a grill I would take any steak cut (filet, t-bone, porthouse, rib-eye, NY Strip etc.) Sirloin Tip, eye round or London broil for that matter would make a great roast on a spit, and nothing beats a Cowboy Steak (Rib-eye with the bone-in)!

5. Anything else you'd like us to know about Tarheel Beef?

Tar Heel Beef is a family run business. As of now we only sell at the Riverfront Farmers Market on Saturdays between 8:00 AM and 12:30PM and Poplar Grove Market on RT17 on Wednesdays Between 8:00AM and 1:00PM. We also deliver for free in the Greater Wilmington Area for orders over $125.00. We use no Hormones, additives, fillers, dyes or preservatives. Our meat is all natural.

Photo: Ron Koster and one of his handy little helpers at the Riverfront Farmers Market.

You say Tomato, I say shmomato

2007-08-19T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here are some things Sal and I did not register for when we got married: a food mill, pressure canner, dehydrator, giant stockpot and cheesemaking supplies. Silly us. Turns out we've had a need for all of those things in the past few months, and have slowly started acquiring what we can from various sources. My loving husband bought me a dehydrator for our anniversary (and jewelry as well, folks - he knows what's up) and we scored a pressure canner and food mill from my dad on our trip to PA. (Thanks, dad! I know - I'm just "borrowing" them.)

I was really excited to use the food mill and pressure canner for the first time today in processing 20 lbs. of delicious, perfect tomatoes. The food mill is this awesome industrial sized contraption that you attach to the counter. You can press the tomatoes through raw, so it should have been super easy. Wellll, far be it from me to just do something the easy way. I got the bright idea to cook the tomatoes first so the skins would come off easier - not a bad idea in itself, I just decided to use our junky old stockpot to do it. Everything was lovely until the last minute of cooking when a terrible stench filled the kitchen - apparently the bottom of the pot reached its maximum temperature and burnt chunks of black scorching stuff into the sauce. Needless to say - 20 pounds of tomatoes down the tube. I'm still irritated about it to say the least. sigh. I hate wasting food. We didn't even get to use the pressure canner, which is sure to be another adventure. I'm going to put on a happy face, though, and give it a go again next week with a brand-spankin'-new stockpot.

Lucky me

2007-08-17T17:49:00.000-07:00

Let me just say for the record that my husband is fabulous. It's been a long summer for me, going to work while he gets to sleep in, but he has totally stepped up to take care of lots of the household stupid chore stuff, including cooking. (Okay, cooking isn't a stupid chore, but it does take time.)

Last night I came home from my Spanish class to the delicious smell of simmering Aloo Gobi. Bless that man. There's nothing better than coming home from a long day to something yummy being cooked for you by someone else. If you haven't been fortunate enough to try Aloo Gobi at your local Indian restaurant, I hate to inform you that you have totally missed out. It's a simple but delicious combination of cauliflower, potatoes and tomatoes cooked in spices. Sal made a modified version of the recipe in The Everything Vegetarian Cookbook, and it was faaantastic. We just ate ours plain, but it's equally delicious served over rice.

I'm also including the recipe for the Dill Zucchini-Potato patties I made tonight, adapted from a Black River Organic Farms recipe. We used the fresh dill we brought back from Pittsburgh, and they were amazing - if I may say so myself.

Aloo Gobi

2007-08-17T17:33:00.000-07:00

Adapted from The Everything Vegetarian Cookbook by Jay Weinstein.

Ingredients:

1 large head cauliflower

2 lbs. potatoes

3 Tbs. olive oil

2 large onions

3 chili peppers

1 tsp. dried ginger

3 tomatoes, finely chopped

1 1/4 tsp. chili powder

1 tsp. turmeric

1 tsp. coriander

2 tsp. sea salt

1 tsp. garam masala (or 1 tsp. of each of ground cardamom, cumin seed, cloves, black pepper and cinnamon, or whatevery you've got)

Cilantro or parsley, chopped (if in season)

Cut the cauliflower and potatoes into large chunks. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat, and cook the onions, chilies and ginger until brown, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, chili powder, turmeric, coriander, and salt; cook 5 minutes more, until spices are fragrant and evenly disbursed. Mix in the potatoes and cauliflower, plus enough water to come halfway up the vegetables.

Cover the pan and cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes and cauliflower are very tender. Add the garam masala powder; cook 5 minutes more. Serve garnished with cilantro.

Serves 8

Dill Zucchini-Potato Patties

2007-08-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

This recipe was adapted from the Zucchini Patty recipe that's posted on Black River Organic Farms website. I added potatoes, substituted dill for oregano and changed the topping.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup grated raw zucchini

2 tablespoons minced onion

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs

2 tablespoon mayonnaise

1/4 teaspoon fresh dill

Salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil

Press excess moisture out of grated zucchini between paper towels. Mix together everything but olive oil to make the batter. Heat 2 tbs. olive oil over medium heat. Spoon batter (about 2 heaping tablespoons per patty) into skillet. Flatten lightly with spatula. Cook over medium heat until nicely browned on both sides. Continue adding olive oil and making patties until batter is gone. Makes about 8 patties. Serve plain or topped with sour cream, dill and tomatoes.

Food vs. Energy

2007-08-16T11:20:00.000-07:00

We've gotten to the point in our freezer where something's got to give - we're pushing capacity here. We've canned as much stuff as possible, but some things are just much better in the frozen form - eggplant for instance. Besides everything we've got stuffed in there already, there's our new batch of produce from PA that's got to fit in there as well. What's a local eater to do?

I've been contemplating the idea of getting a small chest freezer for the garage. I went back and forth on it for awhile - is the amount of additional energy expended to run the freezer worth the amount of food that we're putting away for the winter? It would be kind of stupid to try to use up all of the energy we've saved from buying local produce on storing it for a couple of months. Plus those freezers aren't exactly cheap, so we would have to factor that cost in.

To complicate things, I was looking for no-refrigeration food ideas for a three day canoe trip we had planned, and came across Little Blog in the Big Woods. This guy and his family don't even have a refrigerator, and haven't had one for 30 years. Hmmm. That really got me thinking about the possibilities of living totally green and how much further we could take it. Don't get me wrong - we're not getting rid of our fridge - it's just that the thought had never even occurred to me. Ever. It really does make a lot of sense, though, especially for people who live in cities and can walk on down to their local market to pick up fresh food every day. It's a little different if you're in a rural or suburban area and have to drive into "town" to get your food, or if you rely on the twice a week Farmers' Market. I wonder if the fuel you'd use driving around to get all that food every day would negate the energy expense of the refrigerator. It's an interesting thing to ponder, and that's just what I plan to do - you can do so as well by reading his post.

As a side note to my "To Freeze, or Not to Freeze" dilemma:
I was mid-deliberation the week before we left for PA, when our neighbor called and wanted to know if we wanted the free freezer her friend is giving away. I kind of took that as a sign, since she didn't know we were thinking of getting a freezer, just thought maybe we'd want it. And it's free. So we've decided to go for it - Sal's picking it up this week and we're going to work on packing it full, since a full freezer actually uses less energy than a kind-of-full one. I'm going to do some research on the energy use and let you know how it goes...

Flour and Polenta

2007-08-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

One of the greatest aspects of eating locally has been making connections with others who are doing the same thing. I've been able to learn a lot from so many people, and have had the opportunity to pass on some of my connections as well. My brain has been completely fried lately, but I wanted to share a recent discovery that was shared with me through the local grapevine. It's not earthshattering, per se, but useful nonetheless.

I've been using Southern Biscuit All Purpose Flour since we started eating a local diet. I didn't have a lot of information about it, but I did know that it's processed by Midstate Mills, located in Newton, NC, about 300 miles away. Not necessarily local, but a heck of a lot closer than say, Montana.

I had been wondering about where they got their wheat, but always seemed to think to call them when they were closed. This week Trace clued me into the blog of another NC local eater, "Stew", who has apparently mastered the use of a wonderful technology called "email" that she utilized to contact Midstate Mills and get the lowdown on their wheat. This is her response from Midstate - you can link to the One Local Summer entry where she posted it (The South, Week 6 Take 2) on the sidebar to the right.

Most of this wheat comes from North Carolina and South Carolina. Since there is not enough wheat grown in Catawba County to last us a month we also need to get wheat from eastern North Carolina around Greenville, Wilson, Plymouth and Washington...Sometimes we buy soft red wheat from Ohio and Indiana but because freight costs get so high, that is limited.

Contrary to what I was told by several folks around here, wheat can be grown in NC, and if I had just done a little investigation, I would have found out how much. According to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, about 25,000 bushels of wheat were harvested in 2006. Not too shabby.

Stew also found out that the Old Mill of Guilford, located in...Guilford, uses all local corn in their cornmeal and polenta. So thanks to Stew and her handy technology, I can rest easier knowing I've got options for flour, cornmeal and polenta. That opens up a world of recipes for me and makes the Autumn months look that much more promising.

The 'burgh

2007-08-14T18:41:00.001-07:00

We're back settling in to NC, but I wanted to give a quick recap of our Pittsburgh visit:

On Saturday we went down to the Strip District, one of my favorite areas in the heart of Pittsburgh. The Strip is a glorious mish mash of cheap Steelers merchandise, handcrafted art, flowers, panhandlers, and tons of ethnic and local foods. First stop for us, as always, was to pick up a couple of Mung Bean pancakes from the stand outside Sam-Bok. Those guys are out there year round - in the winter you can warm your hands on the little foil packaging.

This summer was somehow the first time in all my years that I've gone to the Farmers' Market there. I was like a kid in a candy store - people definitely looked at me weird when I was like "OOOOH, Cauliflower!" at the first stand. There was just such a variety of produce that we either can't get in Wilmington or is out of season: dill, cauliflower, broccoli, apples, portabello mushrooms, shallots, and greenhouse-grown lemongrass of all things. Slow Food had a stand there and were giving out some tasty bite sized portions of a salmon panzanilla type salad, and a sausage something-or-other - honestly with all the little samples and tidbits you can pick up in a stroll through the Strip, there's really no reason to get lunch - but with all the delicious options, who could pass it up? We somehow resisted Primanti's and opted instead for pizza at Sunseri's Bella Notte. We finished our Strip visit by picking up 20 ears of perfect peak-season corn for $5.00 from the Amish farmers down by Wholeys.

From there we headed to a farm owned by Mike, a friend of my father-in-law. My F.I.L works for him during the winter, helping out in the greenhouses and whatnot, so Mike gives him produce and plants in the summer. He was generous enough to extend his free-picking offer to us, so we went off into the fields to stock up on eggplant, squash, zucchini and banana peppers. Mike sells most of his vegetables wholesale to grocery stores around Pittsburgh. I was actually extremely impressed with how much local produce you could get in the grocery stores around there - they put us to shame. We ended up getting 20 lbs. of local tomatoes from Kuhn's for .89/pound - are you kidding me? No way you're getting that deal at Harris Teeter.

When it was all said and done, we came home from Pennsylvania with shallots, apples, cauliflower, dill, corn, tomatoes, squash, zucchini, eggplant, banana peppers, peaches, blueberries, potatoes, jam and venison. It was fun to shop local somewhere other than Wilmington, and even better to be able to pick a lot of it ourselves.

Some photos from Pittsburgh:

The Strip District

The Farmers' Market

Slow Food Pittsburgh

Sal and Sal go picking

Mike's farm

One of the fruits of our labor

Dreaming of Creamery

2007-08-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

We left Elimsport this morning with our car packed full of local veggies and our sights set on Pittsburgh. We left ourselves enough time to stop by Sal's alma mater, Penn State, to see how it's changed since he was there last. Honestly, my main goal was just to get to the Berkey Creamery on campus.

The Creamery has been a Penn State tradition since 1865. According to their website, approximately 4.5 million pounds of milk pass through the Creamery's stainless steel holding tanks each year . About half comes from a 225-cow herd at the University's Dairy Production Research Center, and the rest is purchased from an independent milk producer.

Either way, the result is heavenly. I had my first Creamery cone back in 4th grade on a field trip, and have taken the opportunity to devour one whenever I get the chance - which luckily for my waistline is only once every couple of years. Today's Wicked Caramel Sundae was just the ticket.

Photo: Sal enjoys his "Peach Paterno" cone.

The view

2007-08-07T14:05:00.000-07:00

What you can see from my house in PA:

Family trees

2007-08-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

Monday:
We had what I consider to be a perfect day today. I got up before the sun to have some coffee with my dad before he headed off to work, then got busy planning what to do with the next 15 hours or so.

First on the agenda was a little tour of my hometown. It takes all of about 5 minutes to drive the whole thing, but I wanted to see what was new - and whether we could find any Amish farmstands open. No luck on the fresh produce, but we did see an old friend working on his farm and stopped to chat for a couple of minutes.

From there we headed on to my grandparents house for some quality time, and picked up some juicy yellow plums at a farmstand on the way. Then to my cousin's new farmhouse just outside town - which was like hitting the local food jackpot. My cousin Mikey was able to purchase the circa 1930s house and 2 acres from his grandparents about a year ago, and he and his family got busy planting a couple gardens. They were generous enough to send us off loaded down with fruit and vegetables: blueberries off the wild trees behind the house, tomatoes, peaches from the farmer next door, onions and potatoes from their garden, some homemade blackberry jam, and most notably, canned venison from last hunting season, courtesy of my cousin Marc.

We left with our arms and hearts overflowing with the fruits of my family's kindness. Not a bad way to spend a day.

A couple of photos from Monday...

Energy efficient Amish clothesline

Farmstand plums

Michel picking blueberries

Homeward bound

2007-08-05T18:22:00.001-07:00

I'm heading home for the first time in about three years. Home is a somewhat fluid term for me, since most of my family, myself included, leans slightly to the nomadic side. Home for me, though, is where I spent the first 18 years of my life - in a tiny town in north-central PA.

I've got several reasons for being northbound, and just as many for having stayed away so long. It wasn't until recently that I really began to appreciate the beauty and bounty of where I was raised. Growing up, I couldn't wait to escape - I had much bigger plans for my life, which in my teenage mind, could not possibly be achieved in the little podunk town to which I was confined.

In some ways I was right - and also incredibly wrong. In becoming a city girl, I've also realized what a country girl I am, and how much my little town had to offer in terms of community and agriculture. As I seek to simplify more and more aspects of my life, I find myself nostalgic for the little town I call home.

So, Elimsport, here I come. I'm looking forward to catching up.

A helping hand

2007-08-05T17:50:00.000-07:00

Thank goodness for friends! This weekend we had a visit from our delightful and easy-going main-man from Charlotte. It's always great to have Steve in town, because, among a thousand other reasons, he's fun to cook for, and will pretty much be up for whatever. Lucky for me, then, to have him here for canning 35 more pounds of tomatoes. We got an amazing deal on some second tomatoes from Black River, which had to be processed that day. Plus, Steve brought some peaches that he picked up for us on the way, which needed canned ASAP.

While many guests may shrug off the kitchen for the beach on a 90 degree day, not Steve - like champs, he and Sal helped blanch, core and can the tomatoes. It may have helped that we were all fueled by mojitos made with fresh mint and some renegade rum, graciously gifted by Steve. Meanwhile, Sal and I put up the peaches and used some spares to make a peach pie. After our marathon canning episode, we finished off the day with fish tacos and more of the aformentioned mojitos.

Fish tacos were one of our favorite meals pre-local eating, and we were worried we'd have to give them up. Not so, what with our local fish bounty and the lovely folks at the Tortilleria next to Elizabeth's Pizza. We picked up 1/2 lb. of fresh, homemade tortillas for $0.65, plus I got to practice speaking Spanish - that's a true bargain folks.

Our previous recipe for fish tacos used battered tilapia, black bean mango salsa with cilantro, cabbage, and queso fresco. We've managed to create an equally delicious version using local mahi, peaches instead of mango, dried black beans from the stash, gouda from Nature's Way, and homemade sour cream. We tried to get some cabbage from Mr. Gilbert because we had seen some there last week, but no luck - he's totally out now. If you make this recipe when cabbage and cilantro are still in, it will be even more fabulous. I'll include them in the recipe just for good measure. You can also make a spicy salsa if you want, with tomatoes, red pepper, jalapeno and cucumber, but that's up to you. Es muy delicioso!

Fish Tacos (Serves 4)

2007-08-05T17:29:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:
Local mahi or your favorite fish
8 tortillas or more
2 cups cooked black beans
1 -2 peaches, peeled and chopped
2 Tbs. chopped cilantro
1 Tomato, chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup gouda, shredded or in small cubes
Cabbage, shredded (if you have it)

For the fish rub:
2 tsp Old Bay
1 Tbs. Chili powder
2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Pepper

For the sauce:
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. cumin (or more to taste)

Rinse the fish and pat it dry. Sprinkle the rub over the fish on oth sides to coat. Grill the fish on medium to low heat for about 5-6 minutes per side, or until no longer translucent. Meanwhile, combine the black beans, peaches, onion and cilantro in a small bowl and set aside. Mix the cumin into the sour cream and set aside.
When the fish is done, break off a bit onto a tortilla, top with black bean mix, tomatoes, gouda, cabbage and sour cream. Fold and enjoy! Should make at least 2 tacos per person.

Abundance

2007-07-31T19:37:00.000-07:00

We've got a lot of leftovers this week for the first time in awhile. It took me almost all of last week to figure out how to cook for seven people instead of the usual two. The combination of my overpurchasing and having to set aside some things the kids wouldn't eat has left us with a mish mash of random, yet edible items. Since I'm going to be out of town for three days, starting tomorrow, Sal has assured me that he'll be in charge of finding some way to create, and eat, meals from our refrigerator patchwork. We made a good start of it tonight by making these delicious roasted vegetable sandwiches, using up some leftover squash, zucchini, eggplant, onion, garlic, peppers and mozzarella. Considered adding some of Anna's leftover macaroni, but thought better of it.

Roasted Vegetable Sandwiches

2007-07-31T19:09:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:
1/4 to 1/2 loaf of french bread
Whatever vegetables you've got, sliced thin
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbs. olive oil (optional)
1 Tomato, sliced
salt and pepper to taste
Mozzarella (homemade or Nature's Way) thinly sliced

Set your oven to broil. Place the thinly sliced vegetables on a baking tray and drizzle with the olive oil (it helps to put some foil down on the tray first, if you have it.) Sprinkle the minced garlic, salt and pepper over the veggies and place in the oven. Broil for a few minutes until the vegetables start to brown slightly. Take them out and flip to brown the other side for an equal amount of time. Meanwhile, cut the french bread to your desired sandwich size and slice open. When the vegetables look done, take them out and bunch them up on one side of the open bread. Top with tomato slices and mozzarella. Leaving the sandwich open, place it back on the baking tray and put it under the broiler to melt the mozzarella. Remove and let cool slightly before eating.

Article: Home Cookin'

2007-07-30T20:52:00.000-07:00

Here's an excerpt from an article titled Home Cookin' by Kate Sheppard. It was on the MSN homepage today and illustrates the benefits of local eating:

According to the sustainability think tank Worldwatch Institute, the food on the average American plate was trucked in from more than 1,500 miles away. It spent anywhere from seven to 14 days in transit, crossing state and even national borders in the process.

"Food miles" is a term coined by Tim Lang — a professor of food policy at London's City University that describes the distance our groceries have to travel to reach us, and the energy it takes them to get there, from trucking to refrigeration and packaging. The concept is one way to quantify how much our diets are contributing to greenhouse-gas emissions and global warming.

Agriculture is directly responsible for roughly 20 percent of human-generated greenhouse-gas emissions, according to estimates by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. So how can we cut out a large chunk of that energy usage? The answer lies in our own backyard — literally.
...
By buying locally, consumers make a decision to decrease the number of miles their food travels and the amount of fossil fuels needed to bring it to their plates. And buying from small, local farms also significantly reduces the amount of machinery, fertilizers and chemicals used in the process — all components of the industrial agriculture system that drastically increase the amount of fossil fuels used to grow our food.

"The typical American meal bought locally is going to use a quarter of the energy in transportation as the same meal bought from long-distance sources," says Brian Halweil, a researcher at Worldwatch Institute and author of “Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket.” "So you eat local and you basically eliminate about three-quarters of the oil use. And that's no small thing nowadays."

Well said.

My friend Susie H.

2007-07-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

Inevitably, when someone asks me about my weekend activities - and I mention canning, making jam, bread, or freezing corn - I get this reaction: "Well aren't you Susie Homemaker!" There are some variances once in awhile- substitute Martha Stewart say, or Betty Crocker. Also from my sister: "What are you, like 85 years old?"

Maybe that doesn't bother you, and to be honest, it really doesn't offend me. Truly these are well meaning people - many of them actually love me - or are at least related to me in some way. The sheer predictability of it though, has had me thinking about how far we've come in our society from being self sufficient.

There was a time when putting up tomatoes and corn in the summer wasn't considered just a quirky little way to spend the day. Preserving food for the winter was necessity, and if you decided to go hang out at the beach instead of cooping yourself up in the kitchen with a water canner...well, you were the fool. Or you had a staff of people that could do that for you. Either way, there was the inevitability that the life giving season of summer would end, and the more of it you could stuff into little jars, the happier you would be in the winter.

I guess that's why folks think what I'm doing is so quaint. These days, if you're making or growing your own food, it's viewed as a hobby, rather than a necessary way of life. I also think that women have worked so hard to get out of the kitchen, it's a little confusing that I choose to put myself back in. As a feminist and Women's Studies graduate, I've spent a lot of time thinking about this conflict. I think it's definitely different for me, and other women, to undertake this lifestyle than it may be for a man. I'm pretty sure a man wouldn't get the same "Susie Homemaker" reaction - I may be wrong, let me know. Anyway, this is just to say, this is hard work, so if there ever in history was an actual Susie Homemaker, I hope I'm at least making her proud.

Kids meals

2007-07-25T18:25:00.000-07:00

Karma has given me a swift kick in the rear this week. This is to say, that when I was a child, I was what you might call a "picky eater." One of my favorite meals was spaghetti with butter. No sauce, no herbs, nada. My poor mom actually had me make a list of all the foods I would eat. There were probably about 4 other things on it, all falling under the basic food group bland.

I spent quite a few nights sitting at the kitchen table while everyone else was excused because my dad told me I couldn't leave the table until I finished my meal. As I sat there, falling asleep in my untouched brussel sprouts or whatever, I swore that I would NEVER make my children eat something they don't want.

Fast forward to this week. As of Sunday, my sister-in-law, her husband and their three children have been visiting - we love them all to death and have been so thrilled to have them here. But man, those kids are some picky eaters! Anna's favorite food is - you guessed it- noodles with butter and cheese. But not our kind of noodles or cheese. We managed to make some kid-friendly pizza last night with homemade dough and mozzarella, but had to refer to tonight's eggplant parmesan as "candy plant" to get our 8 year old nephew to eat it. Anna stuck with noodles - at least she's consistent. There were no complaints against the homemade pasta though, because they both helped to make it. I think we're on to something there. Tomorrow we're going to see how Tilapia fish sticks and corn-on-the-cob go over.

We've tried hard to stick to our local eating this week while considering the appetites of our visitors. We've stretched, they've stretched, and I think we'll all come away with something new.

PHOTO: J.J. finally gives his seal of approval to ribs from Tarheel Beef, smothered in Sal's homemade sauce. The proof is all over his face.

Candid canning

2007-07-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I embarked on my first ever tomato sauce and pickling adventure. Saturday morning I picked up 20 lbs. of tomatoes from Black River at the Farmers' Market downtown, and 8 lbs of pickling cucumbers from Gilberts' Farm. I decided to start with the pickles first, because they were considerably easier, and I was expecting my copy of the final Harry Potter to arrive any minute. If it came down to canning or Quidditch - well, you can tell by the fact that I just used Quidditch in a sentence to figure out that the pickles had no chance. As luck had it, Harry didn't arrive until 5:00 PM, so I managed to get 8 pints done: 4 dill chips, 3 dill spears and one spicy experimental jar for Sal.

I started the tomato sauce on Sunday after finishing Deathly Hallows at 11:30 am. I could only fit about 17 lbs. of the tomatoes into my stockpot, but I went with it. The simmering tomatoes made the kitchen smelled heavenly - a far cry better than the vinegar infused steam bath of pickling the day before.

When all was said and done, I ended up with only 4 pints of Basil Garlic Tomato Sauce. Hmmm. I didn't expect to get a ton of sauce from 17 lbs of tomatoes, but I was a little disappointed with the outcome. Considering the cost of the tomatoes (actually a tremendous bargain at $1.50/lb) and the jars, each of my pints are a $7.00 investment. I can't think of a better alternative though, unless I come across someone who produces and sells their own sauce around here for less. We're already planning our garden expansion for next year to make room for additional tomatoes, so hopefully that cost will be cut down in the future. Plus, I have to consider the fact that we're currently spending about twice the amount that we'll (hopefully) have to spend in the winter due to all the prep work we're doing. So all of our expenses really are an investment-we'll just see how it pays off.

Dairy delivery

2007-07-23T08:15:00.000-07:00

You probably don't hear anyone say this often, but...I love Mondays. No, I'm not masochistic, it's just that Mondays are when we get our home delivery from Jackson Dairy. Today our order consisted of 2 half gallons each of 2% milk, 2 half gallons of skim, a half gallon of chocolate milk (as a special treat for Sal), heavy cream, and coffee creamer. I'm going to use about half of our order for making cheese and yogurt.

I found out about Jackson Dairy while searching for a local source of milk. Although I've been a soy milk kinda girl for about the last four years, I figured that I'd be more likely to find a local dairy source than a soy milk producer. I was familiar with Jackson Dairy already, because they supply the ice cream mix for the folks at Lewis Farms, which is in walking distance of our home, and whose ice cream is to die for. At the time, I had no idea that they had a home delivery service in Raleigh. When we started our local lifestyle, I called Jackson to see if they sold retail products, and found out that they sell a variety of dairy items, including 12 flavors of ice cream. Speaking of ice cream, they also provide ice cream mix to several other Wilmington businesses, including Boombalattis, Cubbies, Kohl's at Carolina Beach and College Station. Just finding out that I could get local ice cream once Lewis closed was enough to sell me.

When I called Jackson Dairy, I spoke to Cris Jackson, the owner and delivery man extraordinaire. He explained the home delivery deal to me: $4.00 delivery fee and they deliver once a week on Monday. Their milk is produced without the use of pesticides, herbicides, or chemical fertilizers on grazing crops, no genetically modified crops are planted, and no hormones or antibiotics are given to the pasture-raised cows.

As far as taste goes, nothing can compare. The milk that I received today at 11:00 was produced and bottled this morning. I don't know if a milk expert equivalent of a somellier exists, but if so, I bet they would say that the Jackson Dairy milk has hints of grass and wheat on the nose, a full bodied flavor and is sweet on the finish. But that's just me.

I finally got to meet Cris today, and he allowed me to snap this handsome photo. To read more about this delightful great-grandad to-be (who would believe it?!), check out this article in the Raleigh News and Observer href="http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/558257.html">, or visit their link under my Local Producers sidebar.

Hi ho, hi ho

2007-07-19T19:39:00.001-07:00

I've finally finished off this week's food TO DO list and I'm gearing up to get ready for more work this weekend. I will have to say that this lifestyle is definitely more time consuming, what with making bread, cheese, jam, sour cream, and the like. Not to mention the freezing, drying and canning. But believe me, I'm not complaining. The labor intensive aspect of eating is what I'm looking for - actually thinking about what we eat and feeling connected to it from birth to delicious meal.

Tuesday I finished freezing some leftover Swiss Chard and also had to redo some jam that didn't set right the first time. I love the colors of the Swiss Chard, and blanching it made them even brighter. The inside of our freezer is like a chronological account of the local growing seasons. In the back are carrots, spinach, peas, cauliflower, broccoli...stuffed on top of those are strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, eggplant, zucchini, squash, corn, chicken broth and pesto. The chard has now been added in all of its rainbow glory, soon to be followed by containers of my first ever tomato sauce.

Saturday is d-day for tomato canning. Lacking a pressure canner, I've got to be careful about the recipes that I use to make tomato sauce, except for those that I freeze. If the pH is off, the sauce could spawn Botulism - obviously not my goal. I'm thinking of just canning some basic sauces for pizza and freezing some fancier ones destined for pasta. I'm putting up some plain old canned tomatoes too, for use in pretty much anything.

I've never tackled pickles, but I'm gonna give them a go as well. They actually seem pretty easy-I'll report back and let you know.

Homemade Pasta w/ Pesto Sauce

2007-07-18T20:15:00.001-07:00

Pasta
Ingredients:
2 cups Semolina wheat (can substitute whole wheat)
2 cups All purpose flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp olive oil
6 eggs

Make yourself a clean work area by wiping down a large space on a table or countertop. Pour both kinds of flour in a mountain shaped pile on the workspace and make a dent in the middle, like a volcano. Shake the salt over it and pour the eggs into the dent. Mix the flour into the eggs by pulling it over into the middle a little at a time, mixing in the olive oil a little at a time as well. Knead the dough about 8 minutes or so, then divide it into two hot dog shaped rolls. Run the dough through a pasta maker on the largest setting a few times, folding it over between runs. Run it through a thin setting, then the cutter to make your noodles. You can also make any fancy little shape you want. Dry the noodles flat (or hang them over your kitchen chair like we did - this option requires seclusion of the cats, who find drying pasta very tempting.)

Boil a pot of water with a little salt added, and add the pasta. Cook for about 8 minutes, or until the pasta is al dente.

Pesto Sauce
Ingredients:
2 cups of fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
2 garlic cloves (or one giant one if using elephant garlic)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup olive oil

Put all of the ingredients except the olive oil in a food processor and blend to a choppy paste. While the processor is running, pour the oil slowly through the opening. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

To make a creamy pesto, heat the pesto in a pot over medium heat and slowly add 1/2 cup cream, mixing continuously. Be careful not to overheat, or the sauce will clump and separate. Believe me, it will make you angry if that happens.

Lazy Wednesday

2007-07-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

I took the day off of work today, which invariably always leads to sleeping in. Waaay in. So in, in fact, that it was 11:00 before I rolled out of bed and decided to get my sorry behind to the Farmers' Market so we can actually eat for the rest of the week.

Luckily we didn't have a long list, but three of our essentials: eggs, Ezekiel bread and Parmesan were sold out by the time we got there. There's a saying about an early bird, but I won't mention it here. So we headed over to Great Harvest to get our Ezekiel and ended up buying some Semolina wheat as well to make our pasta tonight. We've run out of our stashed pasta supply, except for some macaroni, which doesn't go so well with pesto, so we're on to making our own.

We had to borrow two more local eggs from our neighbor, but finally ended up with some delicious homemade fettucine with pesto made with our basil, stashed pine nuts (may they never end!), garlic from Black River and the aforementioned cheating-Tidal Creek-purchased Parmesan. I think I made my Italian husband proud. Hope you enjoy the recipe as well.

Teeny tiny town

2007-07-18T18:30:00.000-07:00

Wilmington becomes a smaller and smaller town for me everyday. I mean in the sense that I continually find connections with people that interweave and crisscross with others, so that even when I meet someone new, I'm already linked to that person by less than six degrees. That didn't happen so often in the San Francisco Bay area where I lived before this. I grew up in a much smaller town - technically a "village," really, so I shouldn't be surprised when it happens, but regardless, I'm unfailingly delighted every time I make one more connection.

It's happened twice this week: First, on Saturday we hosted a going away party for our neighbor who had invited her own guests. Turns out we knew three of them as well, one of whom was John, the owner of Great Harvest. I'm in love with Great Harvest's breads and am quite possibly addicted to their Ezekiel, which could be a meal on it's own (which was technically it's first purpose.) So it was fun to have John and Suzanne in our home to get know them better and glean some much needed breadmaking tips.

The second six degrees moment happened today, unsurprisingly, at Tidal Creek. Which also brings me to a confession. I was in Tidal Creek looking for Parmesan - which is not local, not even close. Let's say Italy. Anyway, I was hoping that by some miracle they would have some of Nature's Way's Parmesan on hand, because Tina at N.W. hasn't had any for a couple of weeks. It takes hard cheese about 60 days to age, so when it's out, it may be awhile before the next batch is ready. I had really been craving the Pesto Pasta that I had on the menu tonight, but I didn't want to dip into my already frozen batch of pesto, because I'm really going to need that come winter. So I thought Tidal Creek may have had some sort of secret Parmesan stash that I could use to make my pesto.

I found some unmarked Parmesan and went in search of the woman who I knew would be able to tell me about it's birthplace. I had only spoken to Danielle on the phone when I had asked about the availability of some local brie, but I knew she was the resident cheese expert. Turns out she's also the Danielle of Black River Organic Farm. Small world, this Wilmington.

After much debate over using my frozen pesto vs. buying the parmesan chunk, I went with the cheese. I've learned my lesson though, and will be putting in a bulk order from Nature's Way. I'm also starting a running column on the sidebar to list all the non-local things we buy, just for good measure.

Breadmaker French Bread

2007-07-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:
1 cup plus 3 Tbsp water (at 80 - 90 degrees)
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs. butter
2 tsp. active dry yeast

Add liquid ingredients to pan. Add dry ingredients, except yeast to pan. Tap pan to settle dry ingredients, then level ingredients, pushing some of the mixture into the corners. Place butter into corners of pan. Make a well in center of dry ingredients; add yeast. Lock pan into bread maker. Program for Basic with Light or Medium crust.

Me pasas los tortillas

2007-07-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

Sal's mission today was to find a local source for tortillas, and he pulled through like a champ. He picked up a pound of corn tortillas (about 18-20) for $1.25 from the little Tortilleria in the shopping center by Elizabeth's Pizza on Market. I'm going to call tomorrow and see where they get their corn, but I'm just happy at this point that they make their own.

We made some great spicy chicken burritos tonight using those tortillas and some of the leftover chicken from our roasted chicken on Sunday. I'm going to post the recipe tomorrow once I've perfected it a little. We took some shortcuts with it tonight since we were in a hurry to get to the Cape Fear Green Builders Association meeting, so I can't in good faith put it out to the world until I've tasted it as it was meant to be. I will however, post this recipe for French Bread for my mother-in-law. It was the first bread we made in our $7.00 yard sale purchased breadmaker, and it was perfect - slightly crisp on the outside and chewy inside. Enjoy!

Squash casserole

2007-07-16T19:52:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:
2 lbs. yellow squash, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 cup chopped onion
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tbs. butter (Jackson Dairy)
2 slices bread, crumbed (Great Harvest or homemade)
1/2 cup milk (Jackson Dairy)
1 cup shredded cheese, cheddar, gouda, whatever (Nature's Way)

Heat the oven to 350. Put the squash, onion, salt, and pepper in a saucepan. Add a little bit of water. Cover and cook until the squash is tender, stirring occasionally and adding more water if needed. Drain the squash and onion; return to the pan and stir in the butter. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding more salt and pepper to taste.

Butter a 1.5 qt. baking dish. Stir some of the bread crumbs into the squash mixture and put it in the baking dish. Pour the milk over the squash and sprinkle with the cheese and the remaining crumbs. Bake uncovered for 20 min. until the milk is absorbed and the casserole is bubbly.

Roasted chicken with vegetables

2007-07-16T19:25:00.000-07:00

Ingredients:
A 4 pound or so chicken (Grassy Ridge Farms)
1 tbs olive oil
A couple sprigs each fresh rosemary, thyme and sage, plus some that is chopped(we grow our own)
Salt and pepper
1 med. sized or a couple small onions, cut in chunks (Pridgens)
A couple cloves of garlic, cut in quarters (Black River)
A variety of chopped vegetables that you like (right now we use mini peppers and fairytale eggplants from Gilbert Farms, eggplant, zucchini and squash)

Prep:
The chickens from Grassy Ridge are frozen, so I buy one on Saturday and put it in the fridge, and it's perfect for Sunday. You have to cut the neck off once it's defrosted. You can save the neck for making stock if you want.

Heat the oven to 450. Mix the olive oil, a little salt and pepper, and the chopped up herbs in a small container. Grind a little salt and pepper in a separate container and set aside. Rinse the chicken inside and out and pat it dry. Put it in a 13x9 baking pan and tuck its wings beneath it. Take your hand and separate the skin from the breast, starting at the cavity side and running your fingers toward the neck area. Once it's separated, take most of the oil/herb mixture and rub it under the skin. Rub the rest over the outside of the chicken. Sprinkle the salt/pepper in the cavity, and place a few of the garlic and onion pieces inside, as well as the remaining whole sprigs of herbs. Place the vegetables around the chicken, drizzle with a little oil, and sprinkle some salt and pepper over everything.

Roast for 20 minutes. Add 1 cup water to the pan and roast about 40 min. more until the chicken is goldeny brown and cooked through. The thigh should register 180 on a meat thermometer.

Let it cool about 10 min. before carving. Remove any uneaten meat that you can save for sandwiches or future meals. We always make chicken broth with the carcass as well. (Recipe to follow.)

Menu for this week July 15-21

2007-07-16T19:00:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I started this site was to share some of my favorite recipes using local ingredients, so I shall. I make my menus a week at a time, based on what's currently at the market. Here's what I've got going on right now:

Sun. 15th: Roasted chicken w/vegetables and squash casserole
Mon. 16th: Tomato sandwiches
Tues.17th: Spicy chicken burritos
Wed. 18th: Pesto pasta
Thur.19th: Tomato tart
Fri. 20th: Chicken soup w/rice
Sat. 21st: Stuffed zucchini

I'll post the recipes each day, plus some additional desserts and whatnot, just to mix things up a little bit.

I got lettuce.

2007-07-16T17:51:00.000-07:00

You know, I really haven't found the local diet to really be all that difficult, food craving-wise. At the beginning, I thought that giving up bananas, avocados and mangoes may just might be the death of me. I made my last mango salsa before the diet with the grave seriousness one might give to the preparation of a last meal. That being said, I haven't really missed them as much as I thought. We picked enough berries from Lewis Farms to replace the bananas, and got some peaches from friends who stopped on their way from Charlotte (there haven't been any here due to the crap weather that froze them all), which have taken the place of mangoes in salsa. The one thing that I have been craving lately though, is lettuce.

Pretty much all variety of lettuce went out of season here by the end of May, so I really haven't had a good salad since then. Swiss chard is still available from Hanchey's right now, but it doesn't really give me the salady deliciousness I'm craving. I should admit, at this point, to twice having a salad outside of lettuce season. I've accompanied colleagues to lunch several times and have taken advantage of the opportunity to get my green fix.

Today I actually came into a lot of lettuce by taking advantage of the leftovers at a luncheon I attended for work. The lunch fare consisted of salad, roast turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, grilled vegetables, rolls and cake. At the end of the event there was a ton of food left over. I'm talking full pans. So my colleagues and I asked if there were any bags or take out boxes so we could take the leftovers home...and we were told no. Apparently health code rules prevent this establishment from allowing any heated food to leave their premises. Their solution to the mass amounts of leftovers? Throw them out. Ridiculous. We begged, cajoled and bargained, but they wouldn't budge, though finally they agreed that salad was not a heated item, and that we could take as much as we wanted. So we did, and when they weren't looking, stuffed our boxes with turkey as well. So there. I'm really hoping that they don't actually throw the stuff away, and that all the staff secretly takes it home afterward, but I doubt it. It made me physically ill just thinking about it.

Anyway, we're eating salad and turkey, two non-local luxuries, for lunch for the next few days, and if anyone wants to go dumpster diving, you might hit the jackpot behind the Madeline Suite at UNCW.

The Nitty Gritty

2007-07-15T16:38:00.000-07:00

On my way to becoming a local eater, I've been inspired by a number of sources, including Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon, who started the 100 mile diet and Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - A Year of Food Life. The details for us are a bit of an amalgamation of those sources plus my own ideas. Here are the current guidelines:

Food in our diet is mainly from the growers and producers at our local farmers markets, the local fish market (caught within 50 miles offshore), our local dairy source, or is grown in our own backyard.
Exceptions include staples such as olive oil, salt, and wheat (none of which are produced anywhere near us). We do only buy Southern Biscuit flour, which is milled in NC, or flour from Great Harvest,which is milled in their store in town. We'll also eat anything we had on hand before we started this, no reason to waste it all.
We're not fanatics to the point of losing friends. If we're invited to lunch or someones house for dinner, we're in - we have a policy against proselytizing. We will, however share our ideas if you ask us.
Every effort is taken to buy only local items that are humanely raised, and pesticide, herbicide, and antibiotic free.
Our goal for eating is no waste. We take our bags shopping and reuse them every week. Any packaging we do buy is to be recyclable, every edible bit of the product used, scraps are going to be composted.

Part of my hope for starting this website is not only share information and ideas, but to be held accountable (if only by my own keyboard) for the food choices we make. So if you feel the need to question me or call me out on anything, by all means, have at it.

A seed is planted...

2007-07-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog. If you've happen to come across this site on your own, then you'll need to know that this is a work in process right now. This site is intended for people who live in Wilmington, NC and the surrounding areas, and are interested in making ecologically sound choices as consumers.
Check back later for recipes that use locally grown fruits and vegetables, a spotlight on local growers, links to resources for local products and more!