Locavore In Training

It's turning out to be a quiet, stay-at-home kinda day today. It's a little chilly, and has been raining off and on all day... definitely not the kind of day you want to be out in the world! It's too bad though, I had planned to hit the Riva farmer's market this morning to catch and kill a pumpkin! Maybe I'll run over to one of tomorrow's markets (downtown Annapolis or Annapolis Mall).

I've got my third round of bread from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day going. This method is brilliant. Really good bread with almost no effort! I switched to the 100% whole wheat recipe after my first try, and wasn't completely happy with it. So back to the master recipe! We all loved! the master recipe, so why mess with success? Even though the book was very clear that the flour used should be unbleached and not King Arthur brand (an issue with the gluten content, apparently), my first round used bleached King Arthur and it worked out just fine. This time I've got organic, unbleached, so we'll see if it makes a big difference.

I'd had the first major issue with the dryer balls this morning. They only work if the last person to use them returns them to the laundry room! Not sure I can fault the product itself for this issue, but it does make it difficult to use them. Never had that issue with the dryer sheets! Hopefully they can be liberated from the "kid's" room sometime soon. I poked my head in and quickly ran back our for fear of infection or being attacked by something he's spawned in there.

4 eggs for breakfast, so 44 to go.

Well, not 100 exactly, but 67.

We had planned to go camping this weekend with a group of our friends. Leading up to the trip, there were many, many discussions about food and activities. Since a couple of our friends are vegetarians, it made the planning slightly more complicated. When we settled on eggs for breakfast for two mornings, I offered to get the eggs for the trip. 4 dozen seemed about right - 11 people, 2 days. Well, fast forward to this week, the weather looks awful and Jay's coming down with something. Of course, we realized this AFTER I missed the deadline to change this week's farm order. Thursday morning, the nice delivery driver dropped off 5 dozen local, organic eggs, 2 lbs bacon (also for the trip) and a half gallon of the best 2% milk ever. The driver politely, but firmly requested we get a bigger insulated bag in the future.

I already had 7 eggs in the house, so now we're lousy with eggs. I whipped up a frittata last night, reducing the total count to 60. I know this doesn't seem like a huge problem - too many local, organic eggs? I hardly expect a pity party... but still - what am I going to do with 60 eggs??

My coworker offered to buy a dozen off me. She wanted to try the farm order this week, but had planned to be out on delivery day.

48 to go...

I've been slowly trying to move towards natural laundry products over the past year or so. This hasn't been that hard for me since my oh-so-sensitive skin has never allowed me to use any of the "fun" laundry stuff. Dryer sheets, fabric softener? Not so much. About 6 months ago, I started using vinegar in the fabric softener slot, and I've really been happy with it. No issues with smelling like a salad - at least not that anyone's mentioned to me!

We've still been using an anti-static dyer sheet though (with 5 cats, we need something!), which I don't like at all. Aside from the cost, it makes me nervous that I don't know what's in them. And, yeah, it's another thing to throw out, but the thing that really annoys me is that I find them laying around everywhere. Apparently it's very difficult for boys unnamed household members to pick them up when they're done with their laundry. So this weekend I picked up some Dryer Max™ Anti-Static Dryer Balls. I thought I was buying Nellie's brand, honestly, but hey, it's what I found at the store. I can't speak for the longevity of the product just yet (which was what the Amazon reviews didn't like) but I've been pretty pleased with them so far. I wouldn't say it stopped all of the static, especially on a fuzzy fleece pullover, but it's a pretty good alternative to dryer sheets so far.

In the meantime, I've been trying to focus more on local foods and seasonal flavors. I'm usually pretty terrible at this, my stomach wants what it wants. And it's usually pretty random and unhealthy. Seriously, for a few months, I was obsessed with Pei Wei (a PF Changs - version of take-out chinese) and I could (and did) eat there 3-4 times a week. Switching to local and seasonal foods is a lot like electroshock therapy re-training my stomach. I've started doing this by focusing on high quality ingredients. Last week I ordered an amazing smoked swiss cheese and some freshly cured, thick bacon as part of my weekly milk and eggs delivery from South Mountain Creamery. Last night, I thought about doing a simple cheese, crackers and apple slices dinner, but figured Jay would ask where the real dinner was after we finished. So, I grilled up some a paninis using the swiss, 1 1/2 slices of bacon each, thinly sliced granny smith apples and a teeny, tiny bit of honey. It was out of this world.

I read earlier today that there's a pumpkin shortage. I love pumpkin as much, or more, than the average person... but this doesn't seem like a big problem to me initially. Are we really running out of pumpkin? It seems to me that I can't go anywhere lately without running into (or falling over) them. Hell, I have 3 on my porch right now.

The problem seems to be a shortage of canned pumpkin. Um, I've only ever cooked with canned pumpkin. What about Thanksgiving? I'm hosting it this year for the first time. (Gasp!) Well, if worse comes to worst, I'll just make this year's Thanksgiving pie with one of them, right? I was sort of thinking about it anyway, actually.

Well, that article mentions that you can't eat the jack-o-lantern variety. I'm guessing that's what I have. This leads me to a question - is the problem that people just don't usually eat them? Or is there something inedible about them?

A quick Google search leads me to what I can only hope is good information. It seems you can eat any of the pumpkins lining the shelves, porches or streets these days. But you might not want to. Apparently they are stringy and not sweet enough. They'll serve for baked goods, but not for pies. For pies (or soup), you'll want a different variety. A smaller variety. 3-6 pounds seems ideal. I do have a smaller one on the porch, but there's really no way to know what variety it is. What's a girl to do?

This all leads me to the conclusion that I need to schedule a pumpkin-hunting excursion. I'll need to rely on the nice people at the Farmer's Market to point me in the right direction. And then? Then, I'm going to kill (and eat) a pumpkin.

Ok, so here's the deal. I started this blog because it had become increasingly important to me to have a sustainable, local and mostly organic lifestyle, and I wanted to document my transition. Well, document my successes while I transitioned. It very quickly became obvious that it was harder than I ever realized. And since I wanted to talk about my success... well, I had little to talk about. It's not to say I haven't had successes, because I have, but I've had far more, um, lessons learned than I expected.

So I think from now on, I'll have to talk about the whole story. I haven't given up, not by a long shot. I'm just finding it harder than I expected, which was pretty naive to begin with.

Coming soon, I'll recap some of my successes (local milk? check) and challenges (local wine? um... not so much). Stay tuned!

2 heads garlic
1.25 pounds squash
1/2 pound green bell and chile peppers
1 head cabbage or a large green tomato
1/2 pound carrots, onions, cucumbers
1/2 pound kale and swiss chard

Kale, collards and broccoli on the you-pick list.

Here's a recap (more or less) of the first 7 weeks from Clagett Farm's CSA. They send an email to members just before the first pickups of the week. It's been slightly different once you get there, but this gives a good snapshot!

Week 1:
1 bunch garlic scallions
1 bunch flowers or herbs(probably a choice of chives, oregano, mint, lemon balm and sage)
leaf lettuce (1/2 pound)
other greens (1/4 pound of spicy salad mix, arugula or baby kale--your pick-up will probably have only one of these, but you will get it all eventually)
Strawberries (1 pint)
3 seedlings (options include tomatoes, peppers, chives, basil, and more)
popcorn (1/2 cup)
arugula or rhubarb (choose one bunch)

Week 2:
It appears I deleted the email. I do remember it was pretty similar to week 1 - lots of greens, and some more seedlings.

Strawberries join the "you-pick" list this week.

Week 3:
1/3 pound lettuce
2 pounds kale
1/2 pound hakurei turnips, radishes OR 1 kohlrabi
1/3 pound bok choi
3/4 pounds garlic scapes
1/4 pound greens or some other small item, depending on
your pick-up site

Week 4
1/2 pound total: lettuce and kale
1 pound total: kale + collards
1.25 pounds total: kohlrabi + hakurei turnips + radishes
1/2 pound carrots
1/4 pound garlic scapes
1/2 pound total which varies depending on pick up site, including rhubarb, zucchini, herbs and spinach

Also this week, lettuce, kale and spinach join the "you-pick" list.

Week 5
3 pounds total: kohlrabi + turnips
1/2 pound carrots
1 zucchini
3/4 pound peas (choice of sugar snap and snow peas!)
all you want garlic scapes
3/4 pound total: lettuce and chard
3/4 pound total: kale and collards

Lettuce and kale still on the "you-pick" list.

Week 6
(I missed this week due to vacation, so I picked up a double share on week 7)
1 fresh garlic bulb
1 small bunch of green onions
2 pounds total: kohlbari + turnips
1/2 pound peas
1/4 pound lettuce
1/2 pound kale
1 head cabbage or 1 pound carrots

Lettuce and kale still on the "you-pick" list.

Week 7
1 head fresh garlic
1 head cabbage (red or green) or 1 lb summer squash
1 1/4 pounds purple top turnips
3/4 pound total: kale, collards or swiss chard
1/4 pound total: lettuce, peas or broccoli

Last chance for kale and collards on the "you-pick" list.

Week 7 in reality was a little different than the above list - I ended up with zucchini, cabbage, beans and garlic.

I wouldn't call this week the most successful week, in terms of the local food movement. We ended up eating out more than usual because my grocery purchases were so much less than normal. Sure, we could have eaten salads every night this week, but we didn't.

Not only that, so far, the most challenging meal is lunch. Jay and I usually take our lunches to work, his with sandwiches and fruit, mine is usually some type of frozen meal and fruit. We did have some fruit leftover from the previous week's shopping, as well as the bananas and mandarins I bought. It was still much less in both quantity and variety than usual, and there's just no such thing as a "local" frozen meal. I'm really stumped on how we can incorporate local food into our regular lunches. I'm sure there's a way, but I'm not sure to thinking out of the box yet.

Last night we had an almost completely local dinner though. We had a potato frittata and mixed green salad. The frittata was easy and really tasty.

I think, short term, my goal will be to just have the healthiest foods I can. This will include as much local food as possible, but in the absence of those options, I'll supplement with whole, healthy organic options as well. I'd rather eat an organic pear than none at all.

I managed to get to the Farmer's Market (Riva Road, Saturdays 7 - Noon through Dec 20) about 10 minutes after its opening this morning. About a third of the vendors were missing, but those that were there were ready to go! I scored some REAL local things this time!

• Large bag of kale
• Large bag mixed lettuce
• Small bundle of green garlic
• Free range organic eggs from Ivy Brand. I actually pass this farm on my way to the farmer's market. 12 miles from home, although it's further if you factor in getting to the market. If only the farm was open to the public!

(Clearly, I didn't need more eggs after the 2 dozen I bought yesterday, but I was so excited to find truly local eggs - and the vendor talked me into it. She promised I wouldn't want to buy store-bought eggs ever again. I wonder what she'll suggest when the market ends for the season!)

I picked up some herb plants ready for the garden:

• 2 oregano
• 1 sage
• 1 thyme
• 1 Italian flat leaf parsley
• 1 large bundle of cilantro plants

I grabbed a couple of orange cranberry muffins before noticing they were from the Great Harvest Bread Company. Really tasty, but not really local.

I also scored two bags of granola bars. They contain mostly organic ingredients, and the vendor stand looked like a local maker, but I didn't stop to verify.

The herbs are already snuggled into the garden. I'm also working on hardening off some plants I bought yesterday from Homestead Nursery. In addition to some flowers, I bought some packs of 6 seedlings:

• brussel sprout
• broccoli
• lettuce
• mixed greens

I tried to grow all these things from seed last year and only had moderate success with the lettuce. Here's to hoping this year goes better! I already have a head start though - my strawberry and rosemary plants are still around from last year and I've got two old herb pots my parents left me when they moved. I noticed yesterday I have a very healthy looking pot of chives and the other pot has tarragon and parsley growing.

Jay and I are headed out to the Eastern Shore today, I'm going to keep my eyes open for any early farm stands! Before we leave, I'm going to order my starter cheese-making kit!