Phwew! Super busy here getting my a** kicked by my online Spanish class...
So our second 'whole diet csa' pick up was Friday, and once again got alot of delicious goodies, very little produce (as you may know we have been gettting POUNDED with rain and wind and general bad weather here), so I will do a brief overview of what is working and not so much...
WORKING:
I made home-made whole wheat bread from the organic stone ground wheat flour we've been getting!! I found a recipe at allrecipes.com for whole wheat bread, and one of the commenters mentioned that she uses all whole wheat flour, no bread flour, so i decided to give it a try. DELISH! and the thing that keeps amazing me about the new things we are trying is how EASY AND FAST it was!
SO, a tip: if you are tight on time during the week, carve out about 4 hrs on a weekend and prep foods for the week.
The bread took about 3 hrs, from flour in a bag to butter-slathered slices in our hands, only a few minutes of that time was hands on, the rest was just letting the dough rise. During the down-time I hard boiled eggs to have for snacks throughout the week (half I will make into red beets, the rest I'll leave plain) and made a pot roast, corn on the cob (GS), baked potatoes (GS) and roasted chick peas (GS from a bag of dried ones that i let soak over night and boiled for an hour in the morning, they are crunchy and delicious, plus nutritious and CHEAP!)
SO, another tip: to make local eating do-able and affordable, you will still need to buy some things at the store, and some things (like coffee) you can't get locally sourced. So learn to distinguish which items can be got on the cheap and which to spend the extra money on (extra money? what extra money?)
Bags of dried beans are SUPER CHEAP and a great way to fill out meals. They are MINIMALLY PROCESSED so no factory farming, and are good for you, versatile and EASY to prepare. Most you can just soak in water over night or while you are at work (or both), and when you get home from work, they are ready to go. They are also minimally packaged. So stock up on them, then hit the internet for recipes!
For coffee you may need to splurge (unless you are a tea drinker, which for, DOES NOT COMPUTE). Personally, so far the hardest thing for me about going local has been giving up my sugar-free french vanilla non-dairy creamer! Look for organic coffee that is labeled "sustainably produced" and preferably 'fair trade'. I will admit that I tend to buy the cheapest coffee i can find (my sister says she can see a skull and crossbones in the steam above my cup!) but now that I don't have my 'chemical creamer' I find I am not going back for a third cup, and so maybe I can afford to buy the good stuff.... I'll let you know...
A couple items I found in the organic section at Giant are quinoa (keen-wah) and TSP (texturized soy protein). These are both cheap, sustainably produced and organic (duh), PLUS super versatile and good for you (yes I know, not everyone is on the soy-train! If you don't want to ride that ride, I certainly understand, and please disregard any references to it in my posts. While the scientific jury is still out on whether it eating soy in moderation causes hormonal problems or not, we know this FOR SURE: FACTORY FARMED FOOD IS DEFINITELY BAD FOR US!). The quinoa I bought was sustainably produced and fair trade and cost about 2 bucks for a bag with like 20 servings in it! Again, hit the internet for recipes.
Quinoa is a gluten free grain, that can be used similarly to rice or pasta, and TSP is in ALOT of the foods you already buy at the grocery store, especially prepared foods that are supposed to be meat-like (READ THE INGREDIENTS PEOPLE!), and in the 'meats'at fast food restaurants. It can be used like ground beef, has no discernible flavor in my opinion, and can bulk up your meat dishes on the CHEAP! Again, it cost about 2 bucks for a bunch of servings, I use it in spaghetti sauce, meatloaf, tacos, chili, etc... is also minimally processed and packaged.
So last week went pretty well, I had to buy more GS produce than I would want,but NEXT YEAR I will have my canned and frozen goodies, so I will be better prepared. Definitely eating local requires advnace planning!
This morning I made whole wheat buttermilk pancakes with home made honey butter, my kids were in pancake HEAVEN!!!! They were so light and melty, almost crepe-like, in fact very crepe-like! And didn't take any longer or any more work than pancakes from a mix soooo....
OOH OOOH I want to mention the delicious CHEESES we got this week, made on a local dairy farm from raw milk! SOOOO AMAZINGLY FLAVORFUL! In fact, a chunk I grated up for tacos on friday is making my whole fridge smell intoxicating whenever I open it, I think I am going to make grilled cheese sandwhiches or quesadillas for lunch =)
NOT WORKING: I am still spending too much money at the grocery store =( This week I am planning more efficiently and I am hoping to avoid the store for at least 7 entire days (although I do need more yeast...).
Well this has been Faith Brown reporting from the front lines of local sustainable eating! I'm off to melt gooey cheesey sandwiches for lunch, and hopefully to start a batch of yogurt! Good day, and God bless!
PS I LOVE MY FREEDOM! THANK YOU VETERANS! Eating locally sourced food is one way to help make this country be self-sufficient, so DO IT FOR THE USA!
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
And on it goes...
SO to pick up where we left off last night...
When we become disconnected from our food supply, as our country DEFINITELY HAS, then Big Food Companies take advantage of the fact that we aren't paying attention, that we are 'too busy' to care, and they use clever marketing instead of sustainable, safe, healthful production practices.
I stole this from a friend, who apparently stole it from a wise Native American...
"Only after the last tree has been cut down; Only after the last fish has been caught; Only after the last river has been poisoned; Only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten."
- Cree Indian Prophecy
I am too tired to expand on this tonight, but think about it...
When we become disconnected from our food supply, as our country DEFINITELY HAS, then Big Food Companies take advantage of the fact that we aren't paying attention, that we are 'too busy' to care, and they use clever marketing instead of sustainable, safe, healthful production practices.
I stole this from a friend, who apparently stole it from a wise Native American...
"Only after the last tree has been cut down; Only after the last fish has been caught; Only after the last river has been poisoned; Only then will you realize that money cannot be eaten."
- Cree Indian Prophecy
I am too tired to expand on this tonight, but think about it...
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
What's it all MEAN, anyway???
I kinda feel like maybe I haven't made clear WHY I want to eat locally sourced food, so imma take a few minutes here (instead of doing homework!) and break it on down for ya. One, two three, get loose now!
Factory farming is BAD, mmmkay? It is horrifically cruel to animals, horrific for the human beings who have to work in them, and horrific for the environment. I am not going to link any websites that show videos and photos and such, because I don't have the stomach for that, but they are out there if you are the type who needs to see that stuff to believe it.
The animals are packed in horrifically cramped warehouses, HORRIFICALLY cramped, chickens are often "debeaked" (beaks ripped off with pliers) to keep them from pecking each other. The animals are not given room to sit or lay, the noise and stench and chemical build up is, again, HORRIFIC. The conditions are, to put it mildly, stressful for the animals. This makes it difficult to keep them healthy.
Then the animals are force fed an unnatural diet. Imagine if all you got to eat was bamboo, how sick you would become. Well that is what happens to the cows, chickens and pigs in factory farms. They are fed the cheapest possible things, not necessarily even 'food', often the rotting body parts of the sick animals that died next to them; ash is common. Certainly not the grass (cow's natural diet), bugs and seeds (chicken's natural diet), that their bodies are made to digest. And so to keep them alive long enough to slaughter, they are pumped full of antibiotics, growth hormones and other drugs.
So the package of Purdue chicken in your hand may say, "absolutely no antibiotics or hormones", but that only applies to the finished product. That is, no ADDITIONAL antibiotics or hormones were added to the meat, but tests of such meat show that it does have those chemicals in it. And recently Purdue changed their packaging to say, "cage-free", which just means that technically there was an opening in the cage. It is NOT THE SAME AS FREE RANGE! Free range is when chickens walk around an outdoor area, pecking and eating bugs and seeds and whatever else looks tasty to them, while having access to a shelter.
See the difference?
Ok, now imagine working in a factory farm! Imma get REAL up close and personal here and tell you about a boyfriend i had (a LONNNGGGG time ago). He was on work release, and the only place where he and many other work release inmates could find jobs was at a chicken factory near the prison. He quit after a few days, and never ate chicken again (as long as i knew him). Yes, he PREFERRED to be in PRISON full time, than have to work in that factory. And even a hard hearted criminal like him was UNABLE to eat chicken after working there for only a couple of days.
Now, you may say, 'well maybe he was just lazy and didn't feel like working.' If you say do say that, then I must assume you have never worked with a work release inmate, because if you ever had you would know that they are the BEST workers in any workplace! They will come in early and stay as LATE as you want them! They will work Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Easter, Mother's Day, any shift and any position. And they work hard because they want to keep the job, so they don't have go apply for other jobs (which is what they make work release inmates do) because it is humiliating for them to go fill out applications and write down the fact that they are currently incarcerated. Also, pretty much ANY JOB outside the prison is ALWAYS better then being in prison!
And factory farms are bad for the environment because they use all those HORRIFIC chemicals which leach down into the environment and into your body. The chemicals don't magically disappear once the animal has ingested them. They just go into the animal's flesh, which you then consume; and into it's waste which is often fed back to the animals (no joke folks), or set off on a journey into the ecosystem. Factory farms are also NOTORIOUS for their excessive production of greenhouse gasses.
Feel free to look all this up.
And when our food comes from these farms (often from Mexico where laws governing sanitation regulations and chemical usage are lax) it must be IRRADIATED to kill the dangerous bacteria that thrive in those inhumane conditions, in order to last through the trip to your grocery store, and into their packaging, and then into the case, where you will buy it, keep it in the fridge for a couple days, and finally cook and eat it. That takes a long time. You do the math, put 2 and 2 together and decide if that makes sense to you.
Oh and don't forget that the average food item travels 1500 MILES to get to the consumer!!! How many gallons of gas do you think that is? And how do Big Food Companies pay for all that gas? By using the CHEAPEST, WORST production methods possible, that is how!!! Think about it: how much of each dollar you spend do you think can go into producing the actual FOOD, if the food has to be shipped 1500 miles to get to you? Do you think the B.F.Co's just pay for that shipping out of their own pockets, out of the kindness of their hearts???? NO! YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT TO BE SHIPPED! The food is the CHEAPEST PART of the whole operation!
And now, good night. I will continue my rant another day, cuz believe me folks, I didn't decide to go local/sustainable/natural for my own entertainment (or yours!) lol;P
Factory farming is BAD, mmmkay? It is horrifically cruel to animals, horrific for the human beings who have to work in them, and horrific for the environment. I am not going to link any websites that show videos and photos and such, because I don't have the stomach for that, but they are out there if you are the type who needs to see that stuff to believe it.
The animals are packed in horrifically cramped warehouses, HORRIFICALLY cramped, chickens are often "debeaked" (beaks ripped off with pliers) to keep them from pecking each other. The animals are not given room to sit or lay, the noise and stench and chemical build up is, again, HORRIFIC. The conditions are, to put it mildly, stressful for the animals. This makes it difficult to keep them healthy.
Then the animals are force fed an unnatural diet. Imagine if all you got to eat was bamboo, how sick you would become. Well that is what happens to the cows, chickens and pigs in factory farms. They are fed the cheapest possible things, not necessarily even 'food', often the rotting body parts of the sick animals that died next to them; ash is common. Certainly not the grass (cow's natural diet), bugs and seeds (chicken's natural diet), that their bodies are made to digest. And so to keep them alive long enough to slaughter, they are pumped full of antibiotics, growth hormones and other drugs.
So the package of Purdue chicken in your hand may say, "absolutely no antibiotics or hormones", but that only applies to the finished product. That is, no ADDITIONAL antibiotics or hormones were added to the meat, but tests of such meat show that it does have those chemicals in it. And recently Purdue changed their packaging to say, "cage-free", which just means that technically there was an opening in the cage. It is NOT THE SAME AS FREE RANGE! Free range is when chickens walk around an outdoor area, pecking and eating bugs and seeds and whatever else looks tasty to them, while having access to a shelter.
See the difference?
Ok, now imagine working in a factory farm! Imma get REAL up close and personal here and tell you about a boyfriend i had (a LONNNGGGG time ago). He was on work release, and the only place where he and many other work release inmates could find jobs was at a chicken factory near the prison. He quit after a few days, and never ate chicken again (as long as i knew him). Yes, he PREFERRED to be in PRISON full time, than have to work in that factory. And even a hard hearted criminal like him was UNABLE to eat chicken after working there for only a couple of days.
Now, you may say, 'well maybe he was just lazy and didn't feel like working.' If you say do say that, then I must assume you have never worked with a work release inmate, because if you ever had you would know that they are the BEST workers in any workplace! They will come in early and stay as LATE as you want them! They will work Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Easter, Mother's Day, any shift and any position. And they work hard because they want to keep the job, so they don't have go apply for other jobs (which is what they make work release inmates do) because it is humiliating for them to go fill out applications and write down the fact that they are currently incarcerated. Also, pretty much ANY JOB outside the prison is ALWAYS better then being in prison!
And factory farms are bad for the environment because they use all those HORRIFIC chemicals which leach down into the environment and into your body. The chemicals don't magically disappear once the animal has ingested them. They just go into the animal's flesh, which you then consume; and into it's waste which is often fed back to the animals (no joke folks), or set off on a journey into the ecosystem. Factory farms are also NOTORIOUS for their excessive production of greenhouse gasses.
Feel free to look all this up.
And when our food comes from these farms (often from Mexico where laws governing sanitation regulations and chemical usage are lax) it must be IRRADIATED to kill the dangerous bacteria that thrive in those inhumane conditions, in order to last through the trip to your grocery store, and into their packaging, and then into the case, where you will buy it, keep it in the fridge for a couple days, and finally cook and eat it. That takes a long time. You do the math, put 2 and 2 together and decide if that makes sense to you.
Oh and don't forget that the average food item travels 1500 MILES to get to the consumer!!! How many gallons of gas do you think that is? And how do Big Food Companies pay for all that gas? By using the CHEAPEST, WORST production methods possible, that is how!!! Think about it: how much of each dollar you spend do you think can go into producing the actual FOOD, if the food has to be shipped 1500 miles to get to you? Do you think the B.F.Co's just pay for that shipping out of their own pockets, out of the kindness of their hearts???? NO! YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT TO BE SHIPPED! The food is the CHEAPEST PART of the whole operation!
And now, good night. I will continue my rant another day, cuz believe me folks, I didn't decide to go local/sustainable/natural for my own entertainment (or yours!) lol;P
Monday, May 23, 2011
Busy busy busy...
Tired tonight, we ate leftovers all day, including a HUGE cuban sandwich with the italian bread loaf, raves all around! We finished up all the milk I picked up Friday, raw milk=not an issue for my modern family! Isaac ate up all the yogurt, I put some frozen GS berries and honey on it, he didn't even bat an eye.
I thought the kids would put up a little more initial resistance, but they are just taking it in stride.
So a couple quick tips for easy local eats:
1. Join a produce csa! PRONTO! They are cheap and easy and fun! Use the link for eatlocal.net and type in your zip code.
2. Most grocery stores around here carry Pennsylvania grown mushrooms all year long. They are cheap and versatile, I use them in almost every meal. Also, Giant grocery stores have a little green and yellow 'homegrown' sign that they put near PA grown produce.
3. Use the links at right to find a farmer near you selling grass-fed beef and other pastured meats,and email them for pricing. We LOVE Lil Ponderosa Farm in Carlisle for his LUSCIOUS Black Angus beef at EXTREMELY reasonable rates! You can tell Uncle Bob I sent ya!
4. This may seem obvious, but try out a local farmers' market, just be sure the produce you're buying was grown by the person selling it! Ask if the food is organic and where it was grown. And TOTALLY stop at farm stands on the side of the road! You can get GREAT deals and yummy fresh produce! Oh and try a 'pick-your-own' farm, kids will LOVE it and it is cheap! Check the link at right.
5. Start a garden! It is a little more work at first, but it is soooo rewarding! And actually pretty darn easy once the plants are in the ground. I know this, because I am waaay lazy, and am still enjoying spending a few hours a week pullin' a couple weeds, watering (well, I really haven't had to worry too much about that, eh, south central PA?) and admiring my garden, and so far all I've eaten out of it is 5 radishes (be aware, you only get one radish per plant)! You could also just put some herbs in pots on your porch or kitchen table. Oh and be EXTRA NICE to any of your neighbors who have a garden. =P
ok, if I don't go to bed in the next 30 seconds, I will fall asleep with my face smashed against the keyboard, and I can't be responsible for what my cheeks might type so...dewuhb pcwn;lohf kjv wJHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
I thought the kids would put up a little more initial resistance, but they are just taking it in stride.
So a couple quick tips for easy local eats:
1. Join a produce csa! PRONTO! They are cheap and easy and fun! Use the link for eatlocal.net and type in your zip code.
2. Most grocery stores around here carry Pennsylvania grown mushrooms all year long. They are cheap and versatile, I use them in almost every meal. Also, Giant grocery stores have a little green and yellow 'homegrown' sign that they put near PA grown produce.
3. Use the links at right to find a farmer near you selling grass-fed beef and other pastured meats,and email them for pricing. We LOVE Lil Ponderosa Farm in Carlisle for his LUSCIOUS Black Angus beef at EXTREMELY reasonable rates! You can tell Uncle Bob I sent ya!
4. This may seem obvious, but try out a local farmers' market, just be sure the produce you're buying was grown by the person selling it! Ask if the food is organic and where it was grown. And TOTALLY stop at farm stands on the side of the road! You can get GREAT deals and yummy fresh produce! Oh and try a 'pick-your-own' farm, kids will LOVE it and it is cheap! Check the link at right.
5. Start a garden! It is a little more work at first, but it is soooo rewarding! And actually pretty darn easy once the plants are in the ground. I know this, because I am waaay lazy, and am still enjoying spending a few hours a week pullin' a couple weeds, watering (well, I really haven't had to worry too much about that, eh, south central PA?) and admiring my garden, and so far all I've eaten out of it is 5 radishes (be aware, you only get one radish per plant)! You could also just put some herbs in pots on your porch or kitchen table. Oh and be EXTRA NICE to any of your neighbors who have a garden. =P
ok, if I don't go to bed in the next 30 seconds, I will fall asleep with my face smashed against the keyboard, and I can't be responsible for what my cheeks might type so...dewuhb pcwn;lohf kjv wJHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Day one...
Ok technically day 2 & a half...
So this week we got:
1 1/2 lb eye round roast
3 lbs ground beef
2 1/2 lb beef sirloin
2 1/2 lb osso bucco (never had it, farmer said is good, im excited!)
2 lbs fresh pork sausage
1 lb sweet italian sausage
2 lbs hamburger patties
1 1/2 lb pork chops
big bag of asian greens
fresh spinach
fresh mint ('chocolate' flavor!)
about a pint or so of strawberries
2 lbs whole wheat flour
4 loaves whole wheat bread (smaller size)
1 large italian-y type bread, round
croutons
2 doz eggs
yogurt
butter
tapioca pudding
raw milk
soap
4 HUGE dog bones (franky likey!)
(if i remember other items I will note them)
Our pick up is Friday evenings.
So Friday night we had a thai style pork and cabbage stir fry made with grocery store food, because I had defrosted a pork loin, knowing that the meat we got at the farm would be frozen. Oh, and we ate half a loaf of bread on the drive home DELISH!
Saturday I boiled eggs and used red beets from a can and vinegar to make red beet eggs to keep in the fridge for snacking. I used the spinach (along with grocery store, hereafter 'GS' bok choy, mushrooms, onions, garlic, soy sauce and wonton wrappers, all purchased prior to farm pick up) to make steamed wontons for my lunch (kids at their dad's) and the rest for snacks.
For dinner we grilled the pork chops, since it was just Dave and me, as well as a lovely salad of the asian greens and some radishes from my garden, along with croutons and GS dressing. Also grilled more mushrooms (GS) to go with. The pork was FANTASTIC, I don't think I ever had really TASTED pork before, GS pork is so bland! I just splashed it with worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, brushed on a smidge of GS BBQ sauce at the end, cuz it was already opened...
This morning we housed eggs and toasted wheat bread, plus the pork sausage (I KNOW, pork 3x in 1 day!), scrumptious, no comparison between GS eggs and fresh free range eggs!!! NONE! free range eggs are creamier, bright orange, delicious! We have given up our beloved sugar-free french vanilla non-dairy creamer, and both had cream skimmed off the milk in our coffee and splenda (we are going to switch to suger, i promise).
For lunch I made chicken salad (GS chicken, celery, craisins, smoked almonds, mayo), but I substituted the farm yogurt for the greek yogurt or sour cream I usually use. We ate it on GS bread, cuz I still have a loaf, but layered some asian greens inside, yum.
For snacks we both had red beet eggs, dave ate most of the tapioca pudding and strawberries.
When the kids got home Isaac (13 yo) made home-made ice cream (google 'how to make ice cream in a bag' or 'how to make ice cream in a can') which was tasty and he had fun, and i thought was an INGENIOUS (lol) way to get him excited about the mason jars of milk in the fridge. Also, raw milk only keeps for 3-4 days, so i want to use up what we got Friday, Farmer (not her real name lol!) offered to give me more mid-week.
For dinner I made the sirloin, marinated all day in worcesteshire and a bit of loive oil. I wanted to slice it super thin and make fajitas out of it, but was too lazy after working in garden/yard all day, so grilled it over low heat. It was good, not my best. I believe it was my cooking method rather than the meat though, cuz that cut was really more of a roast than a 'steak'. I am pickier than the kids, cuz they ate every bit on their plates! Dave was of my opinion. There was enough left to make fajitas for 2 ppl, maybe for lunch tomorrow, or a juicy steak sandwich on that italian bread.... I'll let you know how it goes.
I rounded out the supper with GS corn on the cob, GS frozen onion rings (been in the freezer for a month at least!) and some baked GS potatoes. ( I know, I know, nothing green! I am trying to get rid of the leftover GS items, plus in a few weeks we will have produce by the ton!) Isaac made cumin butter for the corn with the butter, Dave and Simon used plain butter.
The exciting bit happened before bed when Isaac had a bowl of GS cereal and reported to his (more hesitant) brother that the milk tasted 'just like milk'!!! And then: Simon (super-duper-picky 15 yo) used it in his sacred (he drinks about 3/16 oz glasses a day) chocolate milk and LOVED IT! 'Extra creamy chocolate milk, that can never be a bad thing.' <= exact quote! Phew, hurdle one, over. Then he ate all the croutons. And his brother finished the pudding and strawberries, plus I made GS banana pudding from a box with the milk, and they ate that too. Then Isaac ate a chicken salad sandwich and claimed there was nothing to eat in the whole house, and had a bowl another bowl of cereal. Dave and I ate the leftover ice cream for dessert, it was vanilla, but we think it would be even better with lemon extract and some lemon rind.
So not perfect, but not too shabby all in all.
Chicken is apparently a seasonal item, meaning it is slaughtered in fall and winter? I am using my own faulty memory, farmer told me, but I forget. With this excessively rainy weather, produce will be a little touch and go for a couple weeks, til we get some sunshine and dry out those fields. Rhubarb was also available, but I didnt take any, because I didn't want it rotting in my fridge when I didnt know what to do with it.
I think the next few weeks will be a learning process for us as we adjust to eating what is available seasonally here in central PA, and somewhat for Farmer, as this is her first time doing this also (she also has a produce csa and a meat csa). I am sure by the mid to end of June there will be more produce than we know what to do with, til then, I will let you know how I round out the meats!
Oh and Frank has been kissing me with smokey bone breath all weekend! <3
So this week we got:
1 1/2 lb eye round roast
3 lbs ground beef
2 1/2 lb beef sirloin
2 1/2 lb osso bucco (never had it, farmer said is good, im excited!)
2 lbs fresh pork sausage
1 lb sweet italian sausage
2 lbs hamburger patties
1 1/2 lb pork chops
big bag of asian greens
fresh spinach
fresh mint ('chocolate' flavor!)
about a pint or so of strawberries
2 lbs whole wheat flour
4 loaves whole wheat bread (smaller size)
1 large italian-y type bread, round
croutons
2 doz eggs
yogurt
butter
tapioca pudding
raw milk
soap
4 HUGE dog bones (franky likey!)
(if i remember other items I will note them)
Our pick up is Friday evenings.
So Friday night we had a thai style pork and cabbage stir fry made with grocery store food, because I had defrosted a pork loin, knowing that the meat we got at the farm would be frozen. Oh, and we ate half a loaf of bread on the drive home DELISH!
Saturday I boiled eggs and used red beets from a can and vinegar to make red beet eggs to keep in the fridge for snacking. I used the spinach (along with grocery store, hereafter 'GS' bok choy, mushrooms, onions, garlic, soy sauce and wonton wrappers, all purchased prior to farm pick up) to make steamed wontons for my lunch (kids at their dad's) and the rest for snacks.
For dinner we grilled the pork chops, since it was just Dave and me, as well as a lovely salad of the asian greens and some radishes from my garden, along with croutons and GS dressing. Also grilled more mushrooms (GS) to go with. The pork was FANTASTIC, I don't think I ever had really TASTED pork before, GS pork is so bland! I just splashed it with worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, brushed on a smidge of GS BBQ sauce at the end, cuz it was already opened...
This morning we housed eggs and toasted wheat bread, plus the pork sausage (I KNOW, pork 3x in 1 day!), scrumptious, no comparison between GS eggs and fresh free range eggs!!! NONE! free range eggs are creamier, bright orange, delicious! We have given up our beloved sugar-free french vanilla non-dairy creamer, and both had cream skimmed off the milk in our coffee and splenda (we are going to switch to suger, i promise).
For lunch I made chicken salad (GS chicken, celery, craisins, smoked almonds, mayo), but I substituted the farm yogurt for the greek yogurt or sour cream I usually use. We ate it on GS bread, cuz I still have a loaf, but layered some asian greens inside, yum.
For snacks we both had red beet eggs, dave ate most of the tapioca pudding and strawberries.
When the kids got home Isaac (13 yo) made home-made ice cream (google 'how to make ice cream in a bag' or 'how to make ice cream in a can') which was tasty and he had fun, and i thought was an INGENIOUS (lol) way to get him excited about the mason jars of milk in the fridge. Also, raw milk only keeps for 3-4 days, so i want to use up what we got Friday, Farmer (not her real name lol!) offered to give me more mid-week.
For dinner I made the sirloin, marinated all day in worcesteshire and a bit of loive oil. I wanted to slice it super thin and make fajitas out of it, but was too lazy after working in garden/yard all day, so grilled it over low heat. It was good, not my best. I believe it was my cooking method rather than the meat though, cuz that cut was really more of a roast than a 'steak'. I am pickier than the kids, cuz they ate every bit on their plates! Dave was of my opinion. There was enough left to make fajitas for 2 ppl, maybe for lunch tomorrow, or a juicy steak sandwich on that italian bread.... I'll let you know how it goes.
I rounded out the supper with GS corn on the cob, GS frozen onion rings (been in the freezer for a month at least!) and some baked GS potatoes. ( I know, I know, nothing green! I am trying to get rid of the leftover GS items, plus in a few weeks we will have produce by the ton!) Isaac made cumin butter for the corn with the butter, Dave and Simon used plain butter.
The exciting bit happened before bed when Isaac had a bowl of GS cereal and reported to his (more hesitant) brother that the milk tasted 'just like milk'!!! And then: Simon (super-duper-picky 15 yo) used it in his sacred (he drinks about 3/16 oz glasses a day) chocolate milk and LOVED IT! 'Extra creamy chocolate milk, that can never be a bad thing.' <= exact quote! Phew, hurdle one, over. Then he ate all the croutons. And his brother finished the pudding and strawberries, plus I made GS banana pudding from a box with the milk, and they ate that too. Then Isaac ate a chicken salad sandwich and claimed there was nothing to eat in the whole house, and had a bowl another bowl of cereal. Dave and I ate the leftover ice cream for dessert, it was vanilla, but we think it would be even better with lemon extract and some lemon rind.
So not perfect, but not too shabby all in all.
Chicken is apparently a seasonal item, meaning it is slaughtered in fall and winter? I am using my own faulty memory, farmer told me, but I forget. With this excessively rainy weather, produce will be a little touch and go for a couple weeks, til we get some sunshine and dry out those fields. Rhubarb was also available, but I didnt take any, because I didn't want it rotting in my fridge when I didnt know what to do with it.
I think the next few weeks will be a learning process for us as we adjust to eating what is available seasonally here in central PA, and somewhat for Farmer, as this is her first time doing this also (she also has a produce csa and a meat csa). I am sure by the mid to end of June there will be more produce than we know what to do with, til then, I will let you know how I round out the meats!
Oh and Frank has been kissing me with smokey bone breath all weekend! <3
This oughtta be interesting...
My interest in eating locally came about slowly, at first from a desire to avoid factory-farmed food (due to animal cruelty and environmental factors). I started out with a produce CSA, and really enjoyed it, then started buying grass-fed beef from a local farmer. That all worked well for a year or so, but my family and I were still eating crappy crap from the grocery store, because local produce dries up in the winter, and grass-fed beef is wonderful and affordable, but you can't eat beef every morning, noon and night.
Then I wrote a paper for a college class about the local food movement, and through my research found a 'whole diet csa' option about to begin at a farm only 20 mins from my house: voila! ah-ha hahahahaha COUGH COUGH CHOKE SPUTTER!!!
Silly SILLLY me! How naive I was back then (3 weeks ago)!!!!!
"The ego is a self-justifying historian which seeks only that information that agrees with it, rewrites history when it needs to, and does not even see the evidence that threatens it." Said Anthony G. Greenwald (no clue, found this in a book of daily affirmations), and right he was.
It seemed so simple, the idea of a the whole diet csa: once a week, take a trip to the farm and shop through the 'farm store' for whatever we need, all natural, pastured beef, pork, veal, and chicken, raw dairy, produce, stone ground wheat grown on the farm and baked into bread-stuff at the farm's organic bakery, plus value added items like goat's milk soap and honey.
Easy enough, eh? Uh, no. You see, I am not a single, college-student hippy chick, but a nearly 40 yr old mother of 2 teenage boys and a wife to a hard working, hard eating man! Him I figgered to be a lesser obstacle, I have powers capable of bending his mind to my will (laughs evilly), but the kids I knew would take some convincing. They were raised on grocery store fodder, and they LIKE Doritos, Gatorade and frozen pizza, and LOVE Hot Pockets (gag!), ramen noodles, and any kind of Pillsbury refrigerated dough product!
But I bent the image of them in my mind to fit what I wanted it to, I dreamed of them in perfect health at age 105 due to my feeding them an all natural diet, I imagined them offering their friends my roasted chick peas as a snack.....-HUH? Where the hell am I???? What just happened??? (Shake it off girl, just shake it off! Everything is gonna be alllrightttttttt........)
Anyway, to make a long story short, we joined the csa and had our first pick up Friday evening...
now I have 6 months during which I must convince them to drink raw milk that comes in mason jars, eat home made all natural yogurt out of mason jars (made from raw milk), eat hard boiled free range eggs for snacks instead of Combos, make their own butter, and in general make them hate me!
Bwahahahaha, hey, they frequently hate me anyway, even with their faces stuffed full of chemically processed junk, so I can live with that! I predict alot of bread in their futures....
So the trick will be to somehow manage to keep them from starving, but also to not give in and buy crap from the store for them because it is "easier". This will be made possible by the fact that the csa is taking up nearly my entire grocery budget, so whatever $ is left will have to be used VERY VERY carefully, so i don't have to ask my hubby for mo' money (he no likey spending mo' money!), since I am a full-time student and 'home-maker' (depending on your definition of the word 'home-maker'...) with no J-O-B. (me no likey worky!).
Up to this point, I have been a very frugal grocery shopper, and with coupons, doing alot of cooking at home, and buying meat in bulk from a farm, plus the produce csa, I have managed to feed everyone pretty cheaply. This year I am growing my own garden as well, but it seems to be mostly tomatoes and peppers at this point hahaha! Actually I planted some heirloom fingerling potatoes the first week in April, and they are going CRAZY right now, still, apparently potatoes take a while, and won't be ready to go til fall??? Also I have some herbs and strawberries, zucchini, peas, carrots and string beans sprouting up now, so we will see what happens.
I plan to can tomatoes and salsa, and pickle peppers, and to freeze zucchini, peas and herbs for the cold months, but obviously that won't feed a family of four, so I gotta figure out what to do with the stuff that I get from the farm, and make it work somehow!
This blog is going to be about my family making the conversion from grocery store to farm, and how it goes for us, because I strongly believe that alot of our country's problems can be helped by the local food movement.
Time to get LOCA-L!!!! (Get it? It's a play on the Spanish word for crazy? Get it? Huh? Huh?)
Then I wrote a paper for a college class about the local food movement, and through my research found a 'whole diet csa' option about to begin at a farm only 20 mins from my house: voila! ah-ha hahahahaha COUGH COUGH CHOKE SPUTTER!!!
Silly SILLLY me! How naive I was back then (3 weeks ago)!!!!!
"The ego is a self-justifying historian which seeks only that information that agrees with it, rewrites history when it needs to, and does not even see the evidence that threatens it." Said Anthony G. Greenwald (no clue, found this in a book of daily affirmations), and right he was.
It seemed so simple, the idea of a the whole diet csa: once a week, take a trip to the farm and shop through the 'farm store' for whatever we need, all natural, pastured beef, pork, veal, and chicken, raw dairy, produce, stone ground wheat grown on the farm and baked into bread-stuff at the farm's organic bakery, plus value added items like goat's milk soap and honey.
Easy enough, eh? Uh, no. You see, I am not a single, college-student hippy chick, but a nearly 40 yr old mother of 2 teenage boys and a wife to a hard working, hard eating man! Him I figgered to be a lesser obstacle, I have powers capable of bending his mind to my will (laughs evilly), but the kids I knew would take some convincing. They were raised on grocery store fodder, and they LIKE Doritos, Gatorade and frozen pizza, and LOVE Hot Pockets (gag!), ramen noodles, and any kind of Pillsbury refrigerated dough product!
But I bent the image of them in my mind to fit what I wanted it to, I dreamed of them in perfect health at age 105 due to my feeding them an all natural diet, I imagined them offering their friends my roasted chick peas as a snack.....-HUH? Where the hell am I???? What just happened??? (Shake it off girl, just shake it off! Everything is gonna be alllrightttttttt........)
Anyway, to make a long story short, we joined the csa and had our first pick up Friday evening...
now I have 6 months during which I must convince them to drink raw milk that comes in mason jars, eat home made all natural yogurt out of mason jars (made from raw milk), eat hard boiled free range eggs for snacks instead of Combos, make their own butter, and in general make them hate me!
Bwahahahaha, hey, they frequently hate me anyway, even with their faces stuffed full of chemically processed junk, so I can live with that! I predict alot of bread in their futures....
So the trick will be to somehow manage to keep them from starving, but also to not give in and buy crap from the store for them because it is "easier". This will be made possible by the fact that the csa is taking up nearly my entire grocery budget, so whatever $ is left will have to be used VERY VERY carefully, so i don't have to ask my hubby for mo' money (he no likey spending mo' money!), since I am a full-time student and 'home-maker' (depending on your definition of the word 'home-maker'...) with no J-O-B. (me no likey worky!).
Up to this point, I have been a very frugal grocery shopper, and with coupons, doing alot of cooking at home, and buying meat in bulk from a farm, plus the produce csa, I have managed to feed everyone pretty cheaply. This year I am growing my own garden as well, but it seems to be mostly tomatoes and peppers at this point hahaha! Actually I planted some heirloom fingerling potatoes the first week in April, and they are going CRAZY right now, still, apparently potatoes take a while, and won't be ready to go til fall??? Also I have some herbs and strawberries, zucchini, peas, carrots and string beans sprouting up now, so we will see what happens.
I plan to can tomatoes and salsa, and pickle peppers, and to freeze zucchini, peas and herbs for the cold months, but obviously that won't feed a family of four, so I gotta figure out what to do with the stuff that I get from the farm, and make it work somehow!
This blog is going to be about my family making the conversion from grocery store to farm, and how it goes for us, because I strongly believe that alot of our country's problems can be helped by the local food movement.
Time to get LOCA-L!!!! (Get it? It's a play on the Spanish word for crazy? Get it? Huh? Huh?)
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