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."
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