FEED ME, SEYMOUR!!!!!

Oh man, the tomato plants are slave drivers! I have to pick tomatoes everyday just to keep up! On the other hand, I look through the fence at my neighbor's neat tidy rows of well-behaved peppers, tomatoes, and beans, and feel such excitement for next year's garden! Boy have I learned some important garden lessons this year! Numero uno: it is much easier to pick and prune tomato plants that aren't tangled together with 8 others in a massive jungle. Numero el dos: tomatoes growing too close together are subject to funguses and other problems. And 3: canning tomatoes is EASY!!!!! (I have learned other lessons as well, but these are the important ones for today lol...)

Can't really complain =)

Tomatoes

Fresh red beet eggs, note the fresh herbs in the background!

This is my dog wondering why we let the cat drink out of his bowl...

Well this summer has been a fantastic experiment! I am so excited about planning my garden for next year. I have learned so many useful things about gardening and preserving.
Let's see, what is new? Well we had a smidge of a hurricane here, which shredded some of the garden, not horrible though, just some lost tomatoes and bent over pepper plants. I had already torn out some of the little pear tomatoes, they were out of control and strangling everything else, making it hard to harvest them as well as the other tomatoes, and causing some fungal growth. I am still bringing in alot of tomatoes daily, but slightly less than before.
Still getting plenty of squash and banana and pablano peppers, and have enjoyed a couple new things from the farm. A couple weeks ago, Farmer Lady was in the field when I drove up, and she held up a handful of beets fresh from the soil. I wasn't very excited, but I took them anyway, and (drumroll please!) LOVED EM! Using her instructions I made several (my bf assures me that 3=several hehehe) quarts of red beet eggs with real actual beets! Delicious, easy, and kinda fun.... I have another batch of fresh beets in the fridge right now, I just need a day off to make them. And the bonus is: fresh beets come with their own 'beet greens' which you can use like any other green, salad, sauté, etc! It is like making your own butter, it comes with free buttermilk lol!

I have gallon baggies FULL of frozen diced peppers, spicy and not! Plus frozen sliced eggplant and zucchini and squash, shredded and sliced (all my techniques for freezing veggies came from the Pick Your Own website, link to the right!) frozen green beans and peas...Plus the canned salsas, tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato juice...I also dried a bunch of herbs last week (or was that the week before???). Again, easy, if slightly time-consuming and/or messy...

I would like to make an interesting observation, which is that although I haven't been keeping up with my blog as much as I would like, I have been able to keep up with my local/sustainable eating practices, even with a 20-30 hr a week job, 2 teenagers, a husband and a special needs dog, PLUS I've been gettting back  into my stand-up comedy hobby, as well as taking 3 college classes (made the Dean's list!) and started a jogging program ('Couch to 5K' OMG it is awesome!!! And this is coming from a morbidly obese sweet-aholic!). My point is...I am not finding it too difficult to do in addition to my life. I remember how easy it seemed before it started, how hard it seemed for a month or two, and now I am amazed at how easily we have all fallen into a routine of doing things this new way, and so far no food poisoning (which many nay-sayers were predicting!) and we are not starving!

Of course we have had to make many adjustments along the way, but I think that in order to achieve big goals, it is always necessary to make adjustments to the original plans.

Another interesting note is how many like-minded people I have had the pleasure of meeting along the way. Of course Farmer Lady has been an amazing resource, plus a never-ending source of entertainment! Recently I have been working with an 80-yr old lady who shares many of my concerns and feelings about our food sources, we compare notes alot about our food choices, and have each learned alot from the other. I met another awesome person, the owner of a house that acts as a csa drop off spot for Farmer's other csa. Have learned alot from him as well. I have also read many incredible blogs written by many incredible people who live the lifestyle I aspire to, and I have learned SO much from them!

My husband and I have learned alot about each other through all this, and we have both learned alot about our dream of owning a working, self-sufficient homestead one day. If nothing else, this whole thing has been a wonderful learning and growing experience for our entire family.
Well, I have to be at work in 20 mins, so I better wrap this up for today. I just wanted to post a quick catch-up, since it has been three weeks since my last! Hopefully I'll have some time next week to post again!

"The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving."
--Oliver Wendell Holmes

ANYTHING but Homework!

Gardening is my new favorite hobby!

I am SUPPOSED to be working on my final project for Spanish, but as the world's most prolific procrastinator, I feel obliged to bang out a blog post instead! Besides, my project isn't due til midnight...=D

I tried some canning (thanks Farmer Lady for loaning me the canner!) and I felt over-all successful. Which is funny because after a couple of hours of  'doing it' (;P) I had 3 jars of salsa, which i forgot to put the lemon juice in =/
LOLOLOL well I hurled myself upon the couch and covered my face with a pillow, but eventually was able to laugh about it. I coulda opened the jars, put the lemon juice in, and then re-processed them, but I figgered we could easily eat 3 pints of salsa in a few weeks time!

The reason I considered this first foray into home preserving 'successful' is that I definitely got the hang of it, and it is NOT hard. Yes it is a bit time consuming to peel all the tomatoes and heat the GIANT pot of water, and I am not the best at timing everything (my salsa was ready to process by the time I remembered to put the canner on to boil hehehehe!) But I learned that they aren't kidding about how many tomatoes it will take to fill up a quart jar (ALOT)! Oh and it seemed like every pot and pan in my entire kitchen (plus large bowls, cutting boards and strainers!) was dirty afterward (lol for 3 pints of salsa hahahha!) and I won't lie, there are still some tomato seeds dried onto my coffeemaker and the toaster oven....

BUT all in all, it was very satisfying! And then Dave and I made a 4 quart batch of spaghetti sauce yesterday! Again, every pot in the house dirty, tomato seeds hanging from the light fixture, a couple marital disputes...

I see now why it is better to make a huge batch all at once than to mess around with little batches. The mess is basically equal, and I think the amount of time used is also about equal, so may as well get as many jars out of the deal as possible!

Next I am going to make PICKLES! Lol if I ever get enough cucumbers ALL AT ONCE hahaha! I may go over to the farmer's market today and see what I can find there, since now I have all the supplies and the basic know-how, I am really excited and want to make MORE messes in my kitchen, er, I mean jars of goodies!!!!!

I ALMOST made a batch of pickled watermelon rind, since I have always though what a waste watermelon rind is... but on further review, I couldn't find a recipe that sounded very tasty, and my mom said she never liked pickled watermelon rind, and I wonder why you can't just make it like cukes??? All the recipes i found for it called for cinnamon and sweeteners, which wasn't what I had in mind. Hmmmmmm... I'm still stewing about it though, i may end up trying something before the summer is through, stay tuned.

I have been thinking that I should talk more about the actual meals I am making, and less about my garden and marital disputes lol!

So here goes:
Last night for supper we had meatball subs. I made the meatballs with grass fed ground beef from the farm, shredded zucchini from the garden, various seasonings and herbs, plus bread crumbs, a free-range egg, and some milk, then pan fried them in smart balance oil. We used our home-made spaghetti sauce (tomatoes from the garden, onions from the farm, peppers from the garden, seasonings, herbs) and my home made raw-milk mozzarella. MMMMMMMmmmmmmm.... boy were they good!

For lunch we had burgers on the grill, the burgers from the farm.

The day before I grilled up some London broil, also grass-fed from the farm. We had purple baked potatoes from the farm, with butter and sour cream, plus corn on the cob (from a roadside farm stand) on the side.

For breakfast we have eggs pretty much every day, plus my home-made bread, and this week BACON =)from the farm. We often have farm fresh sausage with our breakfast, I will cook up a whole pound at the beginning of the week, then re-heat whatever someone wants. There was no sausage this week, but bacon makes up for anything lol! Oh and I make (ok, I order my kid to make) pancakes every week also, usually a double or triple batch, which we then keep the leftovers of in the fridge or freezer for the kids to re-heat for breakfast. Another common breakfast item I make is french toast. If I get alot of raisin or cinnamon bread from the csa I cut it all up and make a big batch of french toast out of it, and again, fridge or freeze the leftovers for convenient breakfasts.

Panzenella salad

Two days ago for lunch I made a panzenella salad out of tomatoes, cukes, and red onions (garden, garden, farm) and a can of black olives, plus a loaf of Italian bread from the farm, cut into cubes, tossed with olive oil and garlic, and toasted in the oven until lightly browned, and then some home-made mozz cut into smaller cubes. Then I tossed it all with a dressing made of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, basil and garlic, plus salt and pepper. Oh man, now my mouth is watering! It was soooooo gooooooddddddd!!!!!

Ummmm, really we grill alot of meat, because that is what growing boys and hard-working men like, and also because it is available! Chicken is in short supply, so mostly we grill pork chops and beef (our faves are flank, sirloin and london broil). I do alot of stuff in the crock-pot, pork roasts and beef roasts. My two favorites crock-pot dishes can be made with either beef or pork, otherwise are the same. One is '_____ & beans' (fill in either beef or pork lol) which is diced tomatoes, bell peppers, onion, garlic, cumin, chili powder, oregano and a beans, any kind, I use a mix of whatever is handy, black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, whatevs. We eat it in a bowl, or on tortillas, or on tortilla chips as nachos. Yum!

The other one is just the meat, onions, garlic and bbq sauce lol! Again, good in a bowl or on nachos, and makes great bbq sandwiches. I also do a crock-pot dish with a beef roast, garlic, onions, worchestershire sauce, potatoes and carrots if I have them ( I usually throw a little beef broth or stock in there if I have it).

I make every concievable thing with ground beef. We go through ALOT of ground beef here every week! Tacos are probably number one, because we can use the prepared meat on our home made tortillas, on nachos, on a salad or even by itself in a bowl! Plus it helps use up the masssive quantities of salsa I am constantly making! I use a bit of tomato paste, garlic, onions, bell peppers (or any peppers really, we have lots of jalapenos, banana and pablanos from the garden right now), cumin, salt and pepper to make the meat 'taco' style. It makes good leftovers that Dave or the kids can heat up and eat with anything, and is also a nice 'normal' food to have when the kids have friends over hehehe!
Also burgers are big, meatloaf, meatballs, stuffed peppers and stuffed cabbage, all made with ground beef.

2 a DAY!

We eat tons of bread obviously (like 2 loaves a day people!), which I make with the wheat flour from the farm. Mostly with grilled cheese or pb & j sandwiches, and as toast with our eggs, and hot out of the oven with butter! And we usually make tortillas once a week.

I make a raw broccoli salad, which is cheddar (or any sharp cheese, grated) raw onions, fresh broccoli, bacon (if I have it, usually I don't) bell peppers, carrots, and peanuts or sunflower seeds, then a dressing of mayo and sour cream (yogurt if i have it) apple cider vinegar, salt and pepper. It is DELICIOUS!
I also make alot of bruschetta, and tomato and cucumber salad (tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar),  and grilled marinated mushrooms and zucchini. We eat alot of potatoes, too, since that is what we have!

Ok, I know this has gone on and on (and on!) so I will stop. I will try to keep up on posting what meals we have, if we do anything exciting or new. We definitely eat alot! And well! Eating local/sustainable doesn't mean starving or denying yourself. It just means doing things and thinking about things a little differently. It is very fulfilling and gets easier every day.
Wish me luck in my canning endeavors, I hope to soon have rows and rows of sparkling jars.....

"There is guidance for each of us, and by lowly listening, we shall hear the right word." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Busy Busy Busy!

Potatoes, part deux

Well the job has been keeping me very busy, this is the first time all week I have managed to sit down at the computer! And only because my Spanish homework is due by midnight, and I have to go to work at 4!




I am not kidding, folks, this is EVERYDAY!

 SO! Yes, it has been a little hectic around here, but not impossible. SOOOOO many goodies from the garden, I feel guilty for even taking the time to write this when I know I have a ton of produce upstairs that needs cut, steamed and frozen, or sliced, sauteed and eaten, or chopped and hidden behind somethinbg else, to make room for more!


Dave has made a couple of batches of the MOST AMAZING spaghetti sauce and I am NOT exaggerating, no one was more surprised than ME! Well, maybe him... But it was sooooo goood! We froze it up for later, since I haven't had a chance to can anything yet. Although I have four days off in a row coming up, and I plan to make pickles and can tomatoes.


I have made several incredible batches of salsa, so good that I have literally been burping it up everyday for at least a week! ;p I am going to try to make some to can, but I have alot of plans and not alot of time lol!

my sweet pooch, on our way to the creek this morning

OOPS! That's my dog, aka the BEST dog in the world! Here's is what I meant to post:

A 6 & 1/2 incher!

I have been keeping up with bread making and cheese making, no surprise those are my favorite things eh?

Homemade bread and mozz with homegrown tomato

We brought in the rest of the potatoes the other day. We were hoping to start a second crop, but we couldn't find any second crop tubers. Turns out we shoulda bought extras in the spring, and stored them in the fridge til now. Next year we will know better!

Well truly this post has taken longer than I thought, I have to get going. Suffice it to say, July was a WONDERFUL month for local, sustainable eating! I believe August will be just as good, if not BETTER!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE post any questions, I'm sure you have some! I will soon have a few days off and will have time to answer and post more jealousy-inducing pix of my garden's bounty bwahahhahahaha!

'Everything has its own perfection, be it higher or lower in the scale of things; and the perfection of one is not the perfection of another.'
                        --John Henry Newman

A few steps forward, one step back...

A black krim, a roma and a buncha yellow pears!

Well if you live behind, beside or across from me, are related to me, have spoken to me in the last week, or even drove by my house at the right moment, you probably already know that we are in the middle of a full fledged TOMATO EMERGENCY here!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT complaining, (I'm actually bragging) I'm just making note that I gotsta do SOMETHING SOON with all these tomatoes! I have those HUGE black krims, plus 4 INSANE roma plants, 4 of those yellow pear tomatoes, PLUS a brandywine or two, (it's hard to tell at this point how many individual plants there are! Heaven help me!). I have been handing off a bunch to my neighbors, and eating them with every possible meal, but I guess I could start trying my hand at canning by next week!

A TINY wrench in my plans, I went and got myself a lil ol' part-time job, which immediately scheduled me to work every day for 11 straight days, so I have my hands completely full right now! It will ease up soon, but for the next week or so, it might be a little touch and go. I bet a few of you have been wondering if all this "local sustainable" eatin' is possible with a JOB too, and so have I, so I am interested to see what effects this has...

So my bread making is sailing right along now that I let the machine mix and knead the dough, then I take it out and let it rise and bake it myself. It has really been fantastic, the bread is coming out great, the mess is nothing, and the effort is absolutely minimal. Of course I still have to make 2 loaves a day, because of the ravenous hoardes here at my house. Don't even ASK about the amounts of peanut butter and jelly we are mowing through....

Oh and my mozzarella making!!! (pause for a moment as I clasp my hands together, smile angelically, and look up at the sky, then slowly close my eyes as I imagine my creamy, melty, stretchy, luscious cheese....)
HUH? What just happened?? Where am I??? Oh yeah, the mozzzzzz................
Ok, I am better now... all I can say is mozzarella making has been the BEST BEST BEST discovery of this whole experiment!!! Yes I love, nay: ADORE my tomatoes! I LOVE the banana peppers and zucchini. I really REALLY enjoy fresh homemade bread made with local sustainable stone ground whole wheat flour. I love grass-fed beef and pastured pork. But oh, the mozzarella!!!!

It starts out as milk, plain boring old milk (which btw I do not really see as that boring anymore, you can do SO MUCH with it!) and then stir stir, mix mix, put the lid on, wait 10 minutes WHAMMO! Cheese! Creamy scrumptious AMAZING! SOOOOOO easy!! From cold milk to literally eating the cheese it takes half an hour!!!! LOL can you even believe it??? I would never have believed it, but there it is! If you love mozzarella, it is seriously worth it to give making it a try!

The main thing you need is milk that is not 'ultra-pasteurized'. Other than that, you can buy the items you need online, I bought a kit from New England Cheesemaking Supply Co. http://www.cheesemaking.com/ for beginners ( I have been making it twice a week for several weeks now, and if I can do it, YOU can do it!) that came with everything you need except milk, to make 30 batches. Yes THIRTY batches. The kit cost 25$ plus shipping, so about 30$ total, and I end up with about a pound each time. You can buy the things you need separately elsewhere, you just need rennet (I have NO CLUE what it is, look it up) and ummmm cheese salt (which I suspect is just coarse salt) a thermometer, oh and citric acid. Each of these items are a couple bucks or less; but the kit is nice because of the instructions, and everything including the thermometer is in there. You really cannot do it wrong! Actually, me and my kid messed up one batch, I'm still not exactly sure what we did, I think maybe my milk was too old (remember I am using raw milk, which doesn't keep beyond a few days), other than that ONE time, every batch has worked perfectly!

Ok, I will relax on the mozz tip... I will just mention that I make the MOST AMAZING grilled cheese sammitches out of it!!! Soooooo goooddddd..................
Ok, for real this time, I am done...
Here is some bruschetta I made with garden tomatoes and my fresh mozz yesterday:

Oh man, now I am drooolllliiingggggg.........

So I titled this post "A few steps forward, one step back", and i am now unfortunately going to relate our step backwards....
Sigh, this is hard to write, it really is. As you know, the lunch meat issue has been the most difficult part of this whole journey for my family. Yeah, snacks were/are tough, the creamer thing, I really miss avocados. But definitely lunch meat was the biggie for us.
Dave has to pack his lunches for work, and with nowhere to heat anything up, and not wanting to eat fast food, or even being near a place to get fast food, or any other food for that matter, when he needs to eat because of his job, sandwiches are a big deal to him. We tried several things, and he has been a real trooper. The last couple weeks we had been using leftovers from dinner to make his sandwiches, but there aren't always enough leftovers, or the type of leftovers that make a decent sandwich.
We discussed the options and issues AT LENGTH, I can assure you lol! But the bottom line is he made the decision to buy grocery store lunch meat for his sandwiches this week. He is a grown-ass man, and what he puts in his mouth/body is ultimately up to him. Honestly, the thought of lunch meat turkey pretty much turns my stomach at this point, but if it doesn't bother him, then he is free to do as he pleases. He did try other options, and is still on board with everything else we are doing. So there it is.

Do I think it could have been worked out some other way? Yes; but there definitely has to be a certain level of commitment to go exclusively local, and it is not something I can ask anyone else to do. And the truth is, I am NOT exclusively local either. I buy boxes of cheap cereal here and there for convenient snacking and breakfasting for the kids, and olive oil, and my cheesemaking kit, and salt and pepper, etc. So who am I to pick and choose which things HE should be ok or not ok with? And I am not upset with him about it; we each have our own journey. I am doing the best I can at what I think is best for me (and my poor defenseless children lol) and that is all I am responsible for.

So, many steps forward, and one backwards, and that is just like all the rest of life, and it is part of the pattern that is all of creation, and I am fine with that.

"Not the fruit of experience, but experience itself, is the end."
                                                            --Walter Pater

Who's the terkee NOW???

Oh man, I made the seitan turkey roast the other day! Wait, let me stick a pic in here:


Note the turkey-like shape!



Ok, now I will show you a pic of the bread i made the same night:

Lol see the similarity??? My husband called his terkee sandwich 'manage á bread' aka 'bread á trois' Hahahaha!! I had to admit, they looked an awful lot alike! He ate some though, what a trooper, but today said he doesn't want anymore sandwiches of it. Can't blame him, it does have a faint dog-foody smell (the brewer's yeast). Definitely a meaty texture, and he did at least try it. Plus it has been miserably hot the last few days, and who would want a dog-foody smelling 90 degree sammitch after working in the hot sun for hours?

But seriously folks, it wasn't AWFUL. It wasn't GREAT, but it wasn't awful. As usual, I would definitely tweak the recipe if I were to make it again. And I may try to make it again, as soon as this one is gone. Which may not be til Thanksgiving.... I used a recipe that made enough to feed an army of hungry vegans, I bet it weighed in at 10 lbs!
That was my first mistake. My second mistake was more or less following the recipe, even though my instincts were telling me it wouldn't be flavorful enough. Next time I will make a smaller batch, and WAY up the seasoning. Not terrible though for a first try, and if you know any hungry vegans....

That is todays haul of tomatoes, the big guys in the back are hierlooms called Black Krim and they are burgandy-ish green when ripe, and some of the ones still on the vine are HUGE! We are going to a family party tomorrow and I am taking a salad of my fresh home-made mozzarella and these garden fresh beauties (plus garlic, basil and olive oil, and maybe some bread)!

I need to take a pic of the garden right now, it is a tomato rainforest! I scoffed at planting them 3 feet apart and now they are a tangled, maniacally overgrown forest of deliciousness-to-be!
My neighbor's Roma tomatoes are ripening, I could see the orange-ish red from my side of the fence (visualize my pitiful face staring at his tomatoes through the chain link), but mine are just frankenstein-ian behomoths carelessly knocking aside their cages and running free! Actually, as predicted by- well, everyone who knew of my garden, the zucchinis and tomatoes are strangling out everything else. Well, there is a viney feisty cucumber determined to grow there as well, he is all tangled up with the zucchini next to him, and I can't tell sometimes who is who or what is what! Which reminds me, I did something delicious with cucumber the other day, but now I can't remember what it was? Oh yeah, I diced some really fine and added it to the salsa I was making, and it added a fresh crispiness I really liked! Plus used up some excessive cukes...

The strawberries are enjoying a second spring of production, boy are they alot of work! It is astounding how insanely fast and luxurious everything is growing!
Except everything in pots on the deck, they are all dead. It is my fault, I kept forgetting to water them, and it has just been so hot and dry the last month....excuses excuses! Forgetting to water things has definitely been a life-long problem for me; one of my kids, I forget which one, once asked me why the plants they gave me for Mother's Day always died. =/ Aw well, no one's perfect!

This is gonna have to be a 'quickie' I'm afraid, since me and my hubby are HOME ALONE tonight (wink wink) and he is in the bedroom and I am out here blogging LOL! I just wanted to get those pix up, oh and one other QUICK thing, farmer suggested I just use my bread machine for making the dough and the first rise, then taking it out and doing the second rise and baking myself, which will eliminate the kneading hook in the bread, the weird cube shaped loaf, and the sunken tops...DUH wish I had thought of that myself!
If you can't be smart yourself, it's good to know smart people!

Houston, we have tomatoes!

Yes they have finally started to ripen and they are delicious! Everyday there are more ready to be picked, my kid has eaten most of them right off the vine, but today there were so many, he couldn't finish them all lol!


The whole week has been a delightful produce extravaganza, I have spent most of my time in the kitchen!


Blueberry and blackberry buckles, tortillas, salsa, potatoes fried, baked, boiled, peppers stuffed with cheese, creamy mozzarella, bread, even a batch of cream cheese (don't ask how we did it, but somehow we did!) have all kept me busy this week!


I bought a bread machine at a yardsale on Saturday, and as expected, was slightly disappointing. The dough kneading blade gets baked into the bread, then when you cut it out, it leaves a big ol' hole in the bottom of the bread, making only the end few slices usable for sandwiches (ah sandwiches, the bane of my existence!), which seems like a bizarre engineering oversight!
Also of course all the recipes in the booklet call for bread flour, which I am not using, so I have been baking some experimental loaves trying to get the gluten/yeast/moisture combination right. I have made a couple decent loaves, but they are so small and cuboidal and then the big hole in the bottom, aye carumba!
After some online research of bread machine reviews, I think I am going to look around for a West Bend one, with the horizontal loaf shape and double kneading paddles. My mom offered to buy one for me, so I will make do with the $10 yard sale one til then. Overall I am glad I bought it, for experiemental reasons, and also because it doesn't use much flour (3 cups vs 10 cups for my handmade bread) and some of the bread is definitely usable, the best part is that I just have to put the ingredients in, and then 3 hrs later, it is ready with no foot-(hand)-work by me (or dirty floury bowls/countertops!)! So it will be fine until I find the one I want at a decent price.


It can also be used to just make dough, so I may give it a try with noodles and/or tortillas. Although today my kid made another scrumptious batch of those by hand, and they should last the week.


Oh man, I made a zucchini casserole yesterday that was like heaven! I made a crust for the bottom, sliced the zucchini horizontally, pretty thinly, then made an egg, homemade cream cheese, milk and swiss 'batter' to pour over the zucchini, then sprinkled the top with breadcrumbs (heaven knows I have plenty of those lol) and more cheese, and then baked it until the egg was set. mmmmmmmmmmmmm soooo good! Disclaimer: I LOVE zucchini, I can't think of any zucchini dish I have ever had that I didn't love. My husband wasn't wow-ed by it, although he ate it, but he is never really much of a zucchini fan (except for the primavera dish i make with the canned tomatoes, black olives and artichokes), but it was really good!

Today we had grilled mozzarella sandwiches with tomatoes, olive oil and basil (mine also had grilled zucchini!) for lunch- SCRUMPTCH!

Overall, easy week of local eating, lotsa good stuff from the farm and the garden, plus I am keeping up with breads and dairy products. I am finding it easier to just see what I have and then figure out what to make with it, rather than deciding what to make and then buying the ingredients for it. And I am getting much better at using things while they are fresh, instead of waiting for inspiration to strike. Some meals might seem a little disjointed, but that is just an error of perception. I am used to the 'grocery store way' of get whatever you want when you want it, but I am slowly adjusting to 'enjoy what you have while it is available'.

The only foods I bought from the grocery store this week are my beloved sugar-free french vanilla flavored non-dairy creamer, canned and dried beans, olives, vital wheat gluten, vinegar, mayo, bbq sauce, pnut butter, etc.
No produce (I even stopped buying avocados!), no dairy, definitely no meat, no baked goods. I have been buying a few 2 liters of diet soda for my husband's lunches, and a few bags of chips for the kids, oh and some popsicles, because they were on sale plus I had a coupon.

Definitely everyone is adjusting much better and overall the rebellion seems to have died down considerably.
Like everything in life, we are getting used to it, and the discomfort of change is going away.

But I assure you we are eating very well here! No one is going hungry, and we seem to be appreciating each bite a little more (well maybe just I am lol!) because food is more of a process now, does that make sense? Not just more work per se, but more planning maybe? Or more faith that the earth/universe will provide? I'm not sure, it is tough to explain. I just feel grateful for each bright yellow pear tomato I pull off the vine, and each pork chop and each loaf of bread. Every bite tastes like nourishment... I never noticed that before... I guess it has something to do with the mindfulness of eating this way, I imagine vegetarians must feel this too...

Ok I know I am rattling on!

Po-tay-toe Po-taw-toe, Toe-may-toe Toe-maw-toe

Ahhhhhhhhh another beautiful day!
Just came in from the garden. We dug up the first of the potatoes today; what a spectacular treat!!! We got soooo many! And we only dug around a few of the plants so more to come! It was seriously like digging for buried treasure: just digging around in the dirt with our fingers and suddenly GOLD!
It is 95 degrees at least out there, but I didn't even notice, and the gnats which usually drive me INSANE, didn't seem to exist. This whole garden thing has just been sublime, no exaggeration...
They are german fingerling potaotes, which i ordered as tubers from Burpee.com, so they are petite and elongated, with golden skin and flesh, BEAUTIFUL! We gave a bag to the generous neighbor who shared his bounty with us last summer (produce and advice) and have some drying out int he sun, and some on the counter for supper!


The peppers have continued to be plentiful as well, so I've been stuffing them and sauteing (sp?) them and such. But the TOMATOES! Oh the heartbreakingly SLOW ripening tomatoes!!!! The plants are COVERED, literally COVERED with tomatoes, gazillions of them! But none are ripe! They smell DIVINE! I go into the garden several times a day and check on them, feel them, smell them, just ADORE them! I tell them how lovely they are and how sweet, and beg them to ripen! I admit I think about them all day! (yes i may need counseling...)
And my obsession with the tomatoes hasn't been helped by the fact that I made the MOST INCREDIBLY CREAMY and DELICIOUS mozzarella on Sunday! Just like the fancy expensive kind from the store, the kind you make tomato and mozzarella salad out of, the kind that melts in your mouth WAAAAAA!!!!!


Used the same recipe and technique as before, but adjusted it for the fact that I am using raw milk, and wanted a super creamy texture, as opposed to the stringy dry kind that you buy already shredded in bags at the store. And don't get me wrong, I like that kind too, that is how our first batch turned out and it was good; it is just that I LOVE the creamy kind, LOVE IT, have a twisted romance with it, sometimes hide it from my kids kinda thing....sigh....


(For anyone interested in the adjustments i made: 1/4 tsp less citric acid, never heated above 88 degrees, and only stretched a couple of pulls, as soon as it was shiny I stopped stretching, and immediately cooled in ice water bath) (Oh and also I used the full fat milk, didn't skim it, and, gulp, doubled the salt to 2 tsp...)


I am praying nightly that by next weekend the tomatoes will begin ripening. If that is petty, my only defense is that I am surely not the only one to ever pray for something petty. =/


In the Packed Lunch Wars, we have reached an impasse. I verbalised my, "it's not all about what goes in your mouth, it is also about the process of getting it there" feelings, as well as my, "can't you just shut up and eat it?" feelings; but then I followed that up with my trump card, "Can't you just humor me???" and that seemed to help. So all last week he had left-over meats on his sandwiches. I found some great marinades for chuck roast, and made a couple different ones for meals last week, and that made good sandwich meat, and he seemed pretty happy with that. I think another important factor is the increase in produce. He feels better about the everything when he is getting amazing suppers every night! And he said, and I quote, "I am feeling alot healthier since we started doing this."


Let's keep this between ourselves here folks, but when he heads back to work this week, I am going to made a seitan 'turkey' roast and slice that sucker up, and pack it in his sandwiches, and see if he likes it! I am going to make the seitan myself, my mom made it last year for Thanksgiving for one of my sisters, who is vegan, and they both said it was really good, and so did my step-dad who is a notoriously picky eater. Apparently it is pretty easy to make, it is vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast (not the same as bread yeast) and then spices and stuff, and it ends up having a meaty texture and whatever flavor you put in it. So wish me luck!


Oh man and I made the BEST batch of tortillas EVER yesterday! So soft and slightly puffy and delicious! It seems like I am getting better at making stuff, just a little trial and error, and it gets better each time.


As the season progresses, it is definitely getting easier to find local foods, roadside farmstands are popping up, the variety at the farmers markets is getting better, and of course that all helps. I am worrying a bit already about the winter months, I know i thought I would have canned and frozen stuff to get me through, but honestly, except for maybe tomatoes, I doubt I will have enough of anything else to can or freeze (well, maybe zucchini). BUT I am not going to let it get me down yet, I know August will be crazy with produce, and by then I will be even better (through my super fun trial and error method lol!) at local eating, so maybe the outlook will not be as difficult as I worry it will be.


And my mom loaned me an amazing book about food gardening and it gave me a ton of new ideas for next year, and I will be far more efficient. And seriously, the thrill we got from digging up those potatoes will carry me through a few dark days this winter, I am SURE!


Well it is 7pm, and I have yet to start making supper, so I better get to it! (In actuality, I started those potatoes back in April, soooo....)

Tortillas, Turkeys, Blueberries & Broccoli

Well things have been rolling along here, a few bumps, some fun downhill slopes, just like life...

I will put the tortilla recipe on this post, I promise! First though, an update on the turkey rebellion!

Turns out humanely, sustainably raised turkey is not easy to get folks! Apparently they are hard guys to raise, and without chemicals and cages, even harder! Farmer tells me that they are very sensitive to weather and other factors, and require lots of work. She said of the 50 she tried to raise last year, only 10 made it to butchering (she didn't use antibiotics, hormones etc). This is an interesting lesson in sustainable eating, because imagine what it must take to produce those cheap, huge-breasted turkeys we all expect at Thanksgiving!!!! Farmer says those guys are horribly malformed, can't stand, much less walk, never see the light of day, are kept incredibly confined in tiny cages, and require massive amounts of chemicals to keep alive. Add in the transportation, and we can easily see how bad this industry must be for the environment, the animals and for our bodies! GREAT for the Big Food Industry executives' pockets though! Hmmmmm....rich unconscionable people gettting richer at the expense of the environment, innocent, helpless animals, and humanity...suddenly I am not even hungry...

SO! No turkey breast sammitches for my husband, poor guy... Oh, and order your sustainably raised holiday turkeys now folks! And be grateful, not annoyed, by their normal-sized breasts....

The packed lunch battle rages on...

BUT the good news is: we made mozzarella!!! From raw milk! In our kitchen! In about half an hour!!! WOOHOO!!! Boy that was exciting! So exciting that I am planning to do it again today!

Ok, so here is the recipe for the tortillas we have been making (remember my whole wheat flour is grown and ground in Duncannon!), and then a recipe for a blueberry dessert we have been making from all local stuff (except vanilla and suger):

Whole Wheat Tortillas

4 Cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
4 tablespoons cold butter (you can use lard for this, but not margarine)
1&1/2 Cups water

1. Whisk the flour, salt & baking powder together in a large bowl.
2. Mix in the butter with your fingers until no clumps of butter remain (about 3-5 minutes).
3. Add the water and mix until the dough comes together.
4. Knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic (about 3-5 minutes).
5. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each into a ball (I make a flattened ball out of the dough, then cut it in half, then cut those halves in half, then cut each of those wedges into 3 wedges. This will make large tortillas, like burrito size. For smaller ones for tacos or for dipping in things, make 24 pieces).
6. Allow dough to rest for 10 minutes.
7. Preheat a large skillet over medium high heat (a heavy skillet works best for this, because it holds the heat better). While it preheats, roll out the first ball into a thin round circle (the thinner they are, the less flexible they seem to be, but you can still make them pretty big, about 8-10 inches across).
8. When pan is hot, spray it lightly with cooking spray (or brush with oil) and place the dough in the pan. Cook until it puffs up a bit. It won't take long, usually I roll out the next one while I wait, then flip it. Flip, and cook other side until light golden (again, not long, a couple minutes; it is important to cook them long enough though, otherwise they taste very floury).
9. Place cooked tortillas on a plate layered between damp, wrung out paper or cloth towels (one on plate, one on top of stack of tortillas, NOT an additional towel between each tortilla), and cover with an additional layer of dish towel (have the plate and damp towels ready before you start cooking them!).
10. Continue rolling and cooking remaining dough.
11. Eat one hot out of the pan!
When they are all cooked, I put them with a damp paper towel in a zip-top bag and put them in the fridge. If I don't use them that day, then I put them in the freezer. To reheat, wrap in a damp paper towel and microwave for 20-30 seconds, or heat in a hot pan lightly coated with cooking spray or oil.

And the delicious blueberry dessert:

1 Cup whole wheat flour
1 & 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp vanilla, divided
1/3 Cup milk
3 eggs
1 & 1/2 Cup blueberries (fresh or frozen, I have done both)
1/3 Cup powdered sugar
8 tablespoons whole milk ricotta cheese OR cream cheese (I have used both, turns out great either way!)

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9X9 square baking pan (or spray with cooking spray).
1. Cream butter, granulated sugar, one egg, milk and 1 tsp vanilla in large bowl.
2. Mix in flour and baking powder.
3. Spread evenly in pan. Spread blueberries on top.
4. In a medium bowl, beat 2 eggs and ricotta OR cream cheese until smooth. Stir in powdered sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Spread over blueberries.
5. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until cooked through. The top will be nice and brown and crispy!
Serve with ice cream or whipped cream if you have it! Yum!

In other news, the garden continues to flourish! We have been getting plenty of banana peppers and jalepeños; no ripe tomatoes yet, but the plants are COVERED in green ones!
My zucchini plants are enormous, but no zucchinis appear to be growing on them yet =( not sure what is up with that! Oh wait, not true, there is one teeny tiny one on the plant in a pot on the deck, but it hasn't grown AT ALL in a couple weeks, so again, a mystery....

We got fresh broccoli from the farm on Friday and it was SOOO SWEET AND DELICIOUS! My former mother-in-law had been telling me there was no comparison between store-bought and fresh from the garden broccoli, and boy was she right!

Well, if I don't get to studying in the next five minutes, I will absolutely FAIL my anatomy test tomorrow, so I gotta wrap this up. Until next time:  make tortillas! Google where to buy pastured meat locally! Go to a farmer's market, cuz they got some GOOOD stuff right now! Order a humanely, sustainably raised heritage turkey for Thanksgiving from a local farm! In fact, order 2, cuz you never know when your husband will want a turkey sammitch for lunch... =/

Recipes!

Here are a few recipes I've been using. They are all variations on recipes I found either online or in magazines. I have altered them beyond recognition though (plus forgot where they came from) so I am not adding attribution. If you recognize one of these and want me to attribute it, I will happily do so, just let me know!

Raw Milk Yogurt

This is the way it worked best for me so far. It made a nice, relatively firm yogurt, after I drained off most of the whey. The whey can then be used in the bread recipe that follows, or for cheesemaking or paneer.
I settled on 2 qts because that is what fits comfortably in my crockpot, which I use for conditioning. You can use whatever amount you want, depending on how you plan to keep it warm for 6-12 hrs. If you prefer that your milk not be heated this high, just warm it to 120. I found that the yogurt thickened up better when I heated it to 180. You can also add powdered milk or other things to thicken it more, but I don't think it needs it, and it kind of defeats the purpose of using what comes from the farm if I add powdered milk or other thickeners...

1. Heat 2 qts raw milk to 180 degrees F (I do this on the stove, but I read several other recipes that used the microwave. I use my regular meat thermometer.)
2. Immediately remove from heat, and allow to cool to 120 degrees.
3. Stir in 2 tablespoons plain greek-style yogurt (Make sure it says, "live and active cultures" on the package. After you make a batch, you can save some to use for your next batch, but I have read that after a few times of doing this, you will probably need to buy a fresh starter. I have been using my leftovers for the last 2 batches.) Mix well.
4. Pour into mason jars and close lids.
5. I culture my yogurt in my crockpot. To do it this way, put the jars in the crockpot and fill crockpot with very warm tap water (about 120 degrees, up to necks of jars). Put on the lid (if the lid won't close all the way, cover it with a towel to insulate the top. Periodically check the temperature of the water, and turn the pot on or off, or add cool water if required, to maintain approximately 110 degrees. I check every couple of hours or so, if I am awake and around. Otherwise, I check when i can, and err on the side of cooler rather than warmer. Too hot and your yogurt cultures will die, so try not to go over 120 degrees. If I do this late in the day, I just go to bed, and in the morning, voila! yogurt.
There are many other ways to do this: you can put the warm jars in a cooler wrapped in towels, and just check after 6-8 hours. You can put them in the oven with the light on (but the oven off unless you have a VERY LOW setting, like 110 degrees!).
6. Check After 6-8 hrs. Just tilt one of the jars a bit, and see if the yogurt has thickened. You will notice the whey separates from the yogurt. Once that has happened, it is done. I read that letting it sit longer won't make it thicker, just more sour tasting, so once it has set, it is done.
7. Pour off most of the whey (Save it! It has lots of other uses!), or ALL of the whey, and refrigerate both whey and yogurt. YOU DID IT! If you like thicker yogurt, you can pour it into a strainer lined with cheesecloth, and let it drain for a bit, until it is the consistency you like. Raw milk yogurt is naturally thinner than store bought yogurt.
8. To serve: top with honey, fruit, granola, cookie crumbs, whatever you like!

I have been using my yogurt as a substitute for sour cream. We also made a delicious lemon-honey frozen yogurt out of it (mix in honey, lemon zest and lemon juice; freeze in a metal bowl, stir every hour or so until as firm as you like.) I bet it would be a good substitute for cream cheese also, if you drained it well and added a little salt and some chives. It also makes fabulous salad dressing (recipe to follow!)

"Green Goddess Salad Dressing"
Careful, after you eat this you will only be able to kiss someone else who also ate this dressing! Lol!

1 Cup plain greek-style yogurt
1/2 C mayo (optional, if not used, increase yogurt to 1&1/2 cups)
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp lemon juice (omit if NOT using mayo)
1 tsp tamari (can substitute soy sauce)
1/2 tsp fish sauce (if you don't have this, increase tamari by 1 tsp. Fish sauce is super cheap and available in most grocery stores.)
1/2 tsp siracha, or more to taste (can substitute chopped spicy pepper of your choice, or tabasco)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh chopped chives
1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped
A few leaves of fresh basil, chopped
A chopped spring onion if you have one, bulb and green!
Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Process all in food processor, until blended and as creamy as you like.

You can mess with the types and amounts of herbs, according to what you like. Just make sure they are fresh; dried ones DO NOT WORK in this recipe! If this recipe is too flavorful for you, just add more yogurt.
We ate this on salad, the next day on grilled zucchini, the next day on steamed green beans!! It would also make a scrumptious dip or sandwich spread! Again, have some mint gum handy!


My Stone Ground Whole Wheat Bread Recipe
I tried this with all whole wheat flour. It was delicious, but didn't rise very well, was SUPER dense and didn't hold up well to sandwiches (fell apart). If those things aren't issues for you, then just use all whole wheat.

3 Cups warm water or whey (110 degrees F)
2 (.25 oz) packages active dry yeast
2/3 Cup honey, divided
1 tablespoon salt
2 Cups all-purpose flour (I use unbleached white flour for this, you could also use bread flour or bleached white)
6-7 Cups whole wheat flour, divided
3 tablespoons butter, melted
4 tablespoons vital wheat gluten (seems to help it rise and hold together better for sandwiches)
3 tablespoons olive oil

1.In a large bowl, combine warm water or whey, yeast and 1/3C honey; stir. Add the all purpose flour and 3C of whole wheat flour, stir to combine. Let rest for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.

2. Mix in melted butter, rest of honey, and salt. Add vital wheat gluten and 3C wheat flour, stir until flour is mostly absorbed.
3. Now knead the dough for several minutes (3-5 mins; I do this right in the bowl) adding more flour as necessary to keep from sticking (may use up to another cup of flour, depending on the weather!). The more you knead, the better the dough will rise and the better the bread will hold together. The dough should still be somewhat sticky, 'the texture of a baby's bottom' as someone said online lol!
4. In another clean large bowl (or dump out your dough and real quick wash and dry the bowl you are using!) pour the olive oil, and turn and tilt bowl to spread it around, until well oiled. Put the dough in and then turn it to oil the whole surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel and allow to rise undisturbed in a warm place until doubled in size (about half hour, depending on weather and temperature).
3. Punch down the dough, and use a sharp knife to score in half. Place each half in a 9X5 inch loaf pan, and allow to rise again, until dough tops pan by about an inch (about 20-30 mins, depending on weather and temperature) Sometimes my dough doesn't ever top the pan by an inch, no matter how long I let it rest. That is just because the whole wheat flour is so dense and heavy. If you used mostly white flour, this recipe would make 3 loaves!
4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. If my oven is properly preheated, 25 minutes is exactly right. If I forget to preheat, then maybe 30. Do not overbake. The tops don't get glossy and brown, they pretty much stay the same, except they look dry.
5. Immediately remove from pans and cool on wire rack. Also immediately, use a big serrated bread knife to cut yourself a delicious slab and eat immediately with butter!!! And prepare to defend the warm bread from marauders!!!
6. The original recipe called for brushing the tops with melted butter to prevent the crust from getting hard, but I didn't notice any difference, so I don't bother with that.


Next time: whole wheat tortillas!
Gotta go now, the dog seems to be having some type of intestinal upset...=/

Eyes on the Big Picture

Ah--the sweets of summer!!! Fresh peas and peppers from the garden, fresh green beans from our wonderful neighbor's garden, fresh eggplant and other goodies from the farm!!!! WOOOOOHOOOO!!! Our tomato plants are bending over with tomatoes, I'm sure we'll have some ripe ones by next week! Sometimes I just go out there and SMELL the garden!!! This must be how people have felt every summer since the beginning of time, when food is literally growing out of the ground! We are already planning to double the size of the garden for next year!


The grumpy-grocery-gusses (my kids and hub) have been up and down all week. My older son has been the easiest convert for sure: he loves the raw milk, is a buttermilk pancake junkie, and eats my home-made stone ground wheat flour bread like potato chips, slice after slice!


His brother has been tough. As an athletic type, he eats pretty much non-stop and he has had a hard time with the lack of convenience food junk. On the other hand, he LOVES veggies and will eat pretty much anything. He is a hands-on type, so I have tried to keep him involved in the processes of making the food. So far he has made yogurt, ice cream, tortillas, butter, and salsa, and even though he complains the entire time lol, when the food is actually ready he is always AMAZED that the ingredients turned into recognizable food!

I was going to have him grate cheese while I rolled out and cooked the tortillas the other day, and he didn't think that was 'fair' haha, so he ended up rolling out and cooking all the tortillas himself!!! And they turned out WAY better than the original batch I had made! And then when we ate them (we split one still warm off the griddle, but then had them with our fajitas for dinner) he definitely seemed proud. I had him make salsa completely on his own, and he kept griping that 'no way was this going to be salsa' until it WAS! And then we housed it all down with home- made tortillas!


My husband is the most difficult case for sure. We pack his lunches for work each day, and finding local sustainable options has been a struggle. Not because there aren't lots of options, but more because he is super high maintenance lol! He is sqeamish about everything in general, and if he likes something one week, he is sure to be 'sick of it' the next. I had been making eye round roasts, slicing it very thinly, and making sandwiches out it, but then he 'couldn't eat another bite' of that, so I tried a couple other options for his sandwiches (ham salad='too strong', pb&j='needs meat', meatloaf='not good cold') but I am at a loss now. I have offered to make other items, but since he is on the road, he can't heat anything up. He is a body-builder, so he wants lots of protein in every meal. And he usually eats on the road, so he can't have a salad or anything that requires attention to eat. I had been packing him pasta salad (made with local stuff), but he quickly tired of that. Red beet eggs were popular for a week or two, but have now fallen out of favor. He is vocally unhappy with our decision to stop eating factory farmed meat, and now wants Boar's Head turkey breast again....sigh.

I confess it astounds me and upsets me to a certain extent. I feel like he should put aside his selfish desire for lunchmeat and focus on the bigger picture of eating food that is good for the body and the planet. I feel like he should appreciate the effort that goes into packing his lunches and shut the hell up and eat them. I feel like he should realize that he is so far disconnected from the cycle of nourishment that he only thinks of the end product and not the process of getting it to that point.

I guess maybe it is selfish of ME to expect him to get on board as whole-heartedly as I have, but we did discuss all of this many times, and have been trying to eat more locally and sustainably for a long time now. I guess he just doesn't feel as strongly as I do about it. Which is strange and uncomfortable for me, because I am used to our opinions being so similar. And also because I don't think this has been very difficult, and usually he is the one who thinks things are easy...
It is a struggle. I can't help but wish he would try a little harder. I'm sure he wishes I would try LESS lol!

Anyway, I am pressing onward. I am going to look for a locally, humanely raised turkey breast, although I know it is hard this time of year.

Other than my family hahahaha things are going along well. I made 4 loaves of bread (one batch of two loaves, then immediately made another batch of two loaves) on Sunday so I wouldn't have to make bread every other day. That was a big help. Then I made a batch of tortillas (SUPER DUPER EASY!) and my son made a batch a few days later (I tweaked the recipe a bit based on what went right and wrong with the first batch) so bread has not been an issue this week. My last batch of yogurt was awesome (again tweaked a bit) and lasted until, well, yesterday, so I am planningt to do another big batch this week. I broke down and bought one of those spout-on-the-bottom beverage dispensers to help me separate the milk. I let it rest in there overnight, then basically just drained the milk part off the bottom and stopped when it got down to the cream! So now I have 'skim' milk for CERTAIN PEOPLE and all the cream to make butter with.

We made some lemon-honey frozen yogurt with some of the yogurt, again soooo easy, and it was delicious!
I made some blueberry desserts with blueberries from the farm and some frozen ones my mom had given me, and I substituted the stone ground whole wheat flour for the white flour the recipes called for, and they turned out just fine!
Farmer gave out some recipes for various cookies made with the flour also, and I am hoping to have time to make some this week.
Oh and I substituted my yogurt for sour cream on my baked potatoes and I couldn't tell the difference!
I have been going to the farmers market every week also, to supplement the farm csa stuff. Mostly getting mushrooms,zucchini and honey, just avoiding anything not grown, at least, in state. I am definitely WAY down on grocery store purchases, but I am still buying things like lemons and avocados (bad I know, but soo delicious!) and coffee, paper towels, toilet paper, etc. Still, I feel like I am accomplishing something, making a drop in the bucket difference. And all I can do is my best, so that is what I am doing.
I promise by next week to get some recipes up here! And wish me luck with my lunch meat endeavors!

A Supper of Contentment...

Well we are back from vacation, it feels good to get resettled...
All and all, I felt things went well food-wise on vacation. We did eat out a few times, but I made some things and brought them down and we were able to eat most meals at the beach house.
I cooked up some italian sausage from the farm in advance and then brought a box of pasta and some spaghetti sauce to make a quick meal. I also brought eggs and homemade bread, homemade yogurt, farm fresh strawberries, zucchini, mushrooms, and milk, all local. I brought homemade pasta salad (the pasta was from a box, but most of the other stuff was local, like raw milk feta & veggies) and a 'taco' casserole I made up in advance and froze. Oh and I brought some ground beef, which is so versatile. I whipped up a delicious primavera with zucchini, canned olives, tomatoes, canned artichoke hearts, garlic and olive oil. Oh and some delicious snow peas sauteed in olive oil and garlic were a big hit too. And one night we grilled out, steak and marinated portabellos (slurp, drool). Oh and asparagus...

While shopping at a farmers market for produce prior to the trip, I encountered a common situation: people sellling stuff at a farmers market who are not farmers. I certainly don't expect every farmer to lug their goods to market every few days, often other people work the stands. But I am talking about the people who show up with a huge refrigerated truck packed with produce from around the world. When I see huge watermelons in early June, i get suspicious, but pineapples in Pennsylvania are a dead give-away!! LOL!
So I skipped that stand and headed for the ones with home-made signs saying what farm the stuff was grown on, with the addresses and usually the farmers names too. And I always ask, "So you grew this huh?" It's a good ice breaker and I usually get a little back story on the produce too. Don't get me wrong, if the person says they didn't grow it, that doesn't mean i WON'T buy it, it depends what they say NEXT lol! Often it is a friend or neighboring farmer, and that is fine, I just be sure to ask if the stuff is organic and local. And they seem to tell the truth, because I often hear that it is not organic, and then they tell me what was used on the produce, so that is interesting and good to know. (There is a link on this page to Farmers on the Square, which is a 'producers only' market, meaning the people selling it are the people who grew it.)

I do want to mention, which I prolly shoulda mentioned earlier, that I realize I am not the most knowledgeable person about local eating, or about farming, or about gardening, or baking, or yogurt making, or anything else really! I am just an average girl, trying to wean myself and my family off chemical-laden, over-packaged, factory farmed food. 

But I know i am not the only person out there who realizes factory farming is bad, yet is unsure what the alternatives are, so I thought others might be interested in how I am going about figuring it out. I am by NO means an expert!! I do alot of research on the inter-webz, and try to use common sense, but other than that, I am just a grocery-store raised girl, tryin' to be a farm fresh woman lol!!!

My point is just that all my posts are just my own personal experiences, the path I am taking is NOT the only path to local eating.

I am a lil down tonight, what with the resistance raging in the kitchen and the sugar-free, non-dairy vanilla creamer in my coffee. BUT I am carrying on, trying to make little concessions in order to make larger-scale strides. I gave them all a guilt-inducing lecture about how I thought they would be proud of me for working so hard to help us eat better and protect our natural resources, and how I thought they supported me in this, and reminded them about the evils of factory farming, and I think that helped a bit. I also bought my husband some 2-liters of diet soda and some bags of crap for the kids, so that will get me another week or two of muffled grumbling.

On the upside, my garden is going NUTS right now!!! My heirloom tomato plants (4 different varieties!) over-grew their supports and we had to build new ones! Also some of them have tomatoes on them already! My potted zucchini has a baby zucchini growing on it! We pulled about 10 perfect strawberries out of the patch when we got home! We ate salads made of lettuce straight out of the garden for supper tonight! The peas are halfway up their trellises, and everything is looking healthy and bushy and delightful! (If you know me, you know I can't stay down in the dumps for long!) So in a few weeks I am sure I will have forgotten all about the trials and tribulations of the last week or two, and will have willing local eaters instead of mean, grumpy, detoxing kids and husbands....

I was going to make a batch of tortillas tonight, but the inspiration I was waiting for still hasn't materialized. Hmmm, maybe I should hit the sack now, and start fresh in the morning, "Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper. May my supper be contentment; I'll breakfast on hope again tomorrow."

Dissension in the ranks...

Sigh. Well I figgered it would happen sooner or later, honestly I thought it would've been sooner, but a mutiny is in progress!!!!
We all miss our chemical-laden goodies, I won't lie, me included.  Dave is really craving soda, and the boys claim there are never any snacks or convenience foods for them now that school is out. They are sick of hard-boiled (farm fresh!) eggs and roasted chick-peas for snacks, and want junk food. I admit it is tough to plan in advance every bite everyone is going to take in a day. Breakfast has been pretty easy, but lunches the kids can make themselves and lunches to pack for Dave have been hard. I am going to work on that, maybe whip up some stuff and freeze it for the boys to microwave for lunches while I'm at school. I could make bean and cheese burritos and freeze them, put together a pizza they could bake, stuff like that.

It is just going to require some more strategic advance planning on my part.
I have been making batches of granola to keep around for easy snacking, we've been putting on the yogurt, yum yum! But granola will only shut them up for so long....

The other day I had a bunch of cream skimmed off the milk, and Isaac and I made a batch of butter. That was fun, he didn't get it at first, and was annoyed that he had to keep shaking it, and was all, "where is the butter going to come from?" and then when he saw the butter start to form in the jar, he was amazed. That was pretty cool.

I used the whey left over from my last batch of yogurt to make the bread yesterday, and that turned out well. Of course, according to Farmer, it was a very good day for baking bread, apparently the high humidity helps the dough to rise.

We are heading to the beach for a week for vacation, I am doing my best to plan meals around local stuff from the farm, but I did go to the grocery store and buy some convenience items, like chips and cereal, because I just don't have time to make enough food to last a week, and I won't have all the supplies I will need down there. Sigh.

BUT I am perservering, letting the griping go in one ear and out the other, and reminding everyone that the sacrifice of convenience pays off in environmental soundness and our health. Plus, as long as I put the home-made yogurt into the bowl, sprinkle the granola on top, and cut up some strawberries to go with it, then hand it to them with a spoon, they do consider that "convenience" food lol! They are just lazy!

Ok, off to flip the laundry and work on my español!

I'm standing strong in the fight for local, sustainable eating!!!