Eating More Local Chard

Cinderella's Curried Butter Balls

2011-10-07T18:32:00.002-07:00

Now that I am a fancy breeder, I understand why the cat lovers call their kitties these long names with detailed clues to their parentage.
This year's pumpkin harvest was amazing, and it is still continuing. This year I tried another experiment. Last year, I planted Rouge Vif d'Etampes pumpkin (my favorite for how cool it looks), and also the standard Butternut squash varieties (my favorite for eating). Both varieties are in the group cucurbita maxima, so I had kind of an idea (and a hope) that they would cross.
I was interested in a smaller pumpkin than the fancy French kind that I now usually just call "Cinderella". Every time I wanted to boot one up, I had to find even more room in the fridge or find 20 friends to share it with. This year I even resorted to removing the produce bins to get some of a leftover pumpkin into cold storage. So, to this aim, I planted the saved seeds, and put the plants very close together, and hoped that the larger Cinderella had crossed with the smaller Buttercup and I'd end up with a smaller really cool red pumpkin that is still super tasty.
Well, so far, I am declaring success, even though I haven't actually tasted all of the varieties I came up with. Both potential parents are legends in the taste department, so I had no worries there. I probably ended up with about 10 plants and around 16 giant pumpkins. I got several shapes: the traditional Cinderella squat shape, a higher and boxier shape more like the butternut, and a round kind. All are the same bright orange-red color as Cinderella. Now the round ones are interesting. They have more of a green tinge at the bottom, and being almost perfectly round, have to rest on their sides. Though they were some of the first to fruit, they took more than a month longer to ripen than the others. And though the largest round specimen is only 8 inches wide, it weighs in at a hefty 12 pounds.
I am notoriously bad at keeping track of my seeds. Now to keep track of the 3 new varieties? This year I also planted some buttercup, but it didn't do too well, so I don't expect much additional crossing. In 2012, I'll probably plant last year's seed again, so I can get some additional selections.
Oh, and the curried? It's not about the color. I almost forgot. I also planted one Red Kuri pumpkin last year. It's also a maxima. Come to think of it, my round pumpkins look pretty close to them, only without the neck and all the fussiness.
Note: I got the above photo from Seeds of Change, where I also got the original seeds.

Fractal Brussel Sprouts

2011-09-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have all heard of fractal cauliflower, but fractal brussel sprouts????

I don't really go over to the brussel sprout plant very much anymore. It is over two years old, and is basically a snail condo right now, and overshadowed by a grove of sunchoke plants. But with the cooler weather, I decided to take a look and see how things were going

I found lots of sprouts, but upon picking them, I noticed that at the base of each sprout, there were a few new, baby sprouts. They were around a millimeter or two wide. Very cute!

I think if I had a magnifying glass, I would find that at the base of these sproutlets, there would be even more and more, tiny and tinier sprouts. Sprouts all the way down.

Pickin' the Purslane

2011-05-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Kris Young recently blogged about growing and eating cactus. I have a lovely cactus plant in a pot that he gave me 2 years ago. It is doing well.

When I took the plant, I thought I would eventually eat the fruit, but I was unprepared for how beautiful the plant is all by itself.

Last weekend, I enjoyed freshly-prepared nopales in Monticito, where the prickly pear cactus grows in large and sprawling groves near the older homes. The nopales dinner reminded me that it is always a good thing to work towards getting and using plants that don't need so much water.

Enter purslane. I didn't know that it was edible until a few years ago. It has become my favorite spring salad plant, hitting the plate after the lettuce, and before the cucumbers. It's a succulent, and, like the prickly pear cactus plant, it is considered not too pretty. I disagree, and I like to think of it as a trailing jade plant.

I pick and nibble on a bit of purslane when I go out to the garden in the morning. I let it go to seed. It is everywhere, and that will be so for years.

Enjoy!

Here's Kris' blog post: http://turning60consciously.blogspot.com/2011/05/day-233-smart-food-for-humans-on.html

Urban Homesteader Hall of Fame - Genesee Co-op

2011-02-28T20:54:00.000-08:00

When I moved away from college in the '70's and started cooking and eating natural foods, a co-worker told me about the Genesee Co-op, located in an old firehouse in Rochester. I used to drive there on Saturday mornings, oftentimes picking up a load of free-range eggs or fresh milk from local farms as part of my monthly work requirement.

In addition to the food store, the co-op building contained a macrobiotic restaurant called "The Regular Restaurant", and an upstairs store that sold household items. They had macrobiotic cooking equipment, hand-crank juicers, 100% cotton clothing (way before organic cotton was available) and a wonderful selection of baskets and small home furnishings. In later years, the selection morphed into mostly greeting cards and scented candles, still nice to visit, but not as helpful for the urban homesteader as in the early years. There was a small community darkroom, a book bindery, a pottery studio and even a savings and loan office upstairs.

I had a great time visiting the co-op, and met lots of great people there. Its here that I learned how to store and cook tofu, and they even had nigari when it was my turn to make my own from scratch.

The co-op provided the only market for small home-based food processing businesses in the area. Vendors would bring in small batches of home-baked goodies and nut butters on the weekends, when the crowds were larger. On some winter Saturday mornings, we would even have to close the co-op to new visitors because it was so crowded.

The original fire pole still went from the home goods store down to the food store, right behind the cash register.

Urban Homesteader Hall of Fame - Aunt Louise

2011-02-24T10:02:00.000-08:00

In recent posts, I spoke of the people, the real urban pioneers, who have blazed the path to - uh -(whatever) and made me the urban homesteader that I am today. In coming posts, I will talk more about the people and organizations who influenced me the most.

Today I want to talk about Aunt Louise. She was a great aunt, and while she originally lived in a semi-rural area, eventually, urban sprawl caught up with her. She sold off bits and pieces of her small amount of land to neighbors, who built "modern" suburban-style homes in the corners of what used to be her large garden. Today, it looks like a regular urban street with tons of airport noise, with her little house in the city still tucked away behind the modern brick homes built in the '60's.

Aunt Louise was married to a much older man, a teamster who worked for a haberdashery in the city. So I imagined that originally, the homestead contained a barn and a place for the horses. Aunt Louise never drove a car, but she did accept rides from others after her husband died.

Her little house had only 4 rooms, and was built in a square. It had a living room, dining room, kitchen and bedroom. There was a dug-out basement that could be entered only from the outside. (We weren't allowed to go down there.) She had a really cool spool table in her kitchen, made from saving years and years of wooden sewing thread spools. She was a goddess of thrift.

Aunt Louise had some health problems in her advanced years, and during those times, she stayed with us. I just loved these times! She taught me how to make my first yeast bread, which I thought was even more amazing because she had never used a recipe! I was in awe of the process, her seeming lack of care or concern about the ingredient proportions, and the quality and taste of the outcome. We made a couple of "cinnamon coffee cakes" in some pie pans and devoured them both by the end of the day.

Though Aunt Louise had lived there quietly and trouble-free for years, eventually the authorities caught up with her and forced her to install a 5th room in her home, a bathroom complete with a flush toilet and running water. Before the government intervention, we used to go outside the back kitchen door and pump water from the well. If we needed a potty break, we had to walk over to the other side of the property where she had installed a low-water composting toilet. She called it an OUTHOUSE(tm).

Aunt Louise had to spend 5 thousand dollars for the new plumbing and the remodel. The new bathroom took a chunk out of her large bedroom, and one of the windows. She wasn't too happy about this. It was from my Aunt Louise that I learned that where you pee or poop or pump your water doesn't have to define your intelligence or station in life.

When Aunt Louise died, she left me many of her old kitchen tools like a hand-crank mixer; her sewing gear, a really cool lamp, and her full-length mink coat. And, of course, her contrarian spunk.

So here's to Aunt Louise, as we raise a glass of home-made blackberry brandy (her favorite treat that she'd let me try). Cheers!

Urban Homesteading Sorrows and Joys

2011-02-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

Many urban homesteaders will probably recognize this scenario, that of a promising project turning not-as-planned, and then becoming comical.

A couple of years ago, while doing the Eat Local for One Year project, it occurred to me that instead of spending so much energy trying to grow a European-style diet for myself, I should just learn to eat like people already here had done for centuries. Several of us locavores decided that we would try gathering, processing and eating acorns, the traditional local staple.

I gathered quite a few acorns from my own yard and all around town. I stored them in a number of boxes and baskets all over the kitchen and living room. These places were already filling up fast with winter squashes, bushel baskets of corn, dried herbs, basket fiber and seeds. Soon, various rooms were looking alot like a country store, minus the mini-spotlights and a cheese-sampling table covered with gingham.

I finally did try to make some acorn flour this summer, but I was not too successful. The flour eventually flowed out of my home-made leaching bag so much that yield was tiny. It managed to permanently stain everything in the process, including pyrex. Then it looked like it was moldy (this was hard to tell because of all the staining). After three days of leaching, it didn't taste that good, so I threw it away.

The rest of the acorns continued to sit in their baskets until I mustered up enough courage to try again, or find a friend who would take them all.

This fall, disaster struck again. I smelled something funny in the kitchen and discovered that my last Cinderella pumpkin had rotted, and the pumpkin liquid poured next door, over to a huge basket of acorns.

So, I put about 20 pounds of acorns outside, resolving to sort them out and hose off the basket before everything rotted.

Then it rained!

I just left the basket outside for a few days, and every day took a handful of nuts and threw them on the patio for the squirrels. It wasn't long before they found the basket. Now for the last three days, the fiber animals have been quite entertained watching the squirrels climb into the basket, fiddling with the nuts, and scurrying off to the various hiding places.

Most of the hiding places are in the 40-odd planters I have out on the patio. Every spring I have to pull out 2-3 baby oak trees before refreshing the soil and replanting. This year, despite not being so smart about saving the acorns, I was smart about adding compost. I just put it on top of the pots and I am letting the squirrels do my digging for me.

Arbor day. Done. Isn't that a joy?

What Urban Homesteading means to me

2011-02-21T10:22:00.001-08:00

The events of the past week have caused me to reflect on my life-path, how I got to here, and why. And of course, I have been thinking about all the folks who have helped me along the way, and those people who were the most influential.
I have written here about my food heritage, and have a topic category for it, and you can read about some of it here. But today I feel I need to explain it a bit more deeply, and more personally, than before.

I had mentioned that my parents and other ancestors had a huge impact on my life as a homesteader, but my parents also scraped together enough money to send me to a private Christian school. It was there I met several teachers who made quite an impact on my life, both spiritually and vocationally.

I first met Jim Schrader in 1971, my freshman year. His English class sat next to my band class in morning chapel, and we became friends. I was in his English class during my sophomore year, and in two of his classes my Junior year, advanced comp and creative writing.

Jim (he insisted we call him by his first name) had an interesting life. He was a pre-med student at Valparaiso University, but one day, while he was swimming, he felt exhausted and almost drowned. They discovered that he had cancer. So, instead of going to med school, he decided to use the short life that was allotted to him as a high school teacher.

He was the first Urban Homesteader that I knew. He and a group of friends and family had moved into an old and derelict part of downtown St. Louis. Many of the hippies of the time ended up at Lafayette Square, buying and refurbishing fine old abandoned homes and building a community. It was full of children, gardens, walking streets, and lots of wheat germ brownies. Jim talked often of his commitment to community, non-violence and vegetarianism. He was building a very good life from a bombed-out mess that the inner-city had become.

For Jim, urban homesteading wasn't about rejecting, resisting or revolting. It was about restoring, renewing and respecting. And of course, re-planting and a bit of rewiring!

I'll never forget the last day I saw him. We had heard that he had entered the hospital again. I remembered the Bible verse about visiting people in the hospital when they were sick, so I convinced a friend to drive into the inner city hospital with me. When we got there, he was all ready for us, and asked us how the summer was going. I mentioned that I had applied to several engineering colleges. Jim had such a crestfallen look on his face, as if his star pupil had just purchased a one-way ticket to the military-industrial complex. I assured him that I wouldn't let engineering corrupt me.

A few weeks later, school started, and Jim wasn't there. He died a couple of weeks later. I wrote the eulogy for the school newspaper. I continued to be mad at God for a long time over this, refusing to write or create or allow myself to be involved in any type of religion.

Eventually I finished school and got a job in industry, but I could never forget Jim's words about how we should live. I kept finding myself pulled towards the homesteading community. I joined a local food co-op for vegetarian staples and started a little garden in my backyard. Throughout this process, the WWJD question was never "what would Jules do?", it was always about what I thought Jim would do.

And, I asked myself that often. Is what I'm doing what I should be doing? Shouldn't I not worry so much about how many clothes I have? What would Jim think about that? What would Jim think about Whole foods, Real Goods, solar panels? Would he be surprised and pleased at all the changes in the homesteading movement since the 70's?

A few years ago, as I was re-evaluating where I wanted to take my life, I had a dream about Jim. In the dream, he had died, and had continued to live his life in an other-universe, working as a physician. I had an opportunity to visit his new homestead. He lived in a larger, more modern home, and it had solar panels and a rain barrel. There was a small greenhouse in the back yard, with lush greenery, all in pots. I was surprised to see that he had chosen to purchase a home with a patio for the backyard. He told me that we do good things with what we have, even if it is just with one small pot. I realized that one could do good work in the outside world, and still be doing good work on the urban homestead. I woke up refreshed, and certain that Jim would probably approve of my urban homestead, even with its never-ending patio and livestock ordinances.

Last week I also sported that crest-fallen look, as the promise of the homesteading movement seemed to crumble before me. I have recovered since then, and I am confident in our ability to move forward towards the dreams that Jim had pioneered, and to create a more just, secure, refreshed, renewed and peaceful world.

Here's an old photo of Jim here.

I AM an Urban Homesteader

2011-02-21T09:15:00.000-08:00

I don't usually count and weigh my produce. I eat it.
But, now that we are keeping score, here's some of what I am up to:

1 blackberry vine
2 grape vines
3 berry bushes
4 fruit trees
5 plots golden sunchokes
6 varieties of winter squash (red kuri, butternut, buttercup, baby pam pumpkin, Cinderella pumpkin, acorn)
7 varieties of summer squash (zucchini, yellow, pattypan, caserta, cocozelle, tatumi, round)
8 fava bean plants
9 colors of chard (white, cream, pink, green, lemon yellow, gold, orange, red, magenta)
10 sources of rescued spinning fiber (2 Ragamuffins, 2 Siberian Huskies, 1 German Shepard mix, 3 Spaniel mixes, 1 samoyed, 1 angora rabbit)
11 kinds of hot pepper (Bhut jolokia, serrano, jalapeno, giant cayenne, cayenne, poblano, NewMex Joe E. Parker, Espanola, Anaheim, bird, black pearl)
12 months of veggies!
No partridge. No pear tree. (yet)

Urban Bumstead

2011-02-18T16:39:00.000-08:00

I just heard that "that family in Pasadena" has trademarked some of the names and phrases to describe a place that is sort of like a city backyard, only there is a worm bin installed in the bbq grill.
And, this family has been trying to get others to stop using their name, since I guess they peed on it first, way back when, when Al Gore and I were inventing the internet.
It is a sad day in Mudville. I remember the good old days when trading partners were trading partners and it wasn't like, you know, some people at work.
I'm sure all you long-time readers remember my English teacher, Jim. He's the first hippie person I knew to have that kind of place that is located in the inner city but has chickens and a veggie garden. That was in 1972.
Oh ya, and my Dad, but I only remember back to the early 60's or so. We didn't have chickens, but our next-door neighbor did. We got first dibs on the manure, though. I guess those were the good old days, back in the days when manure was slung onto gardens.

End of this year's Locavore Challenge

2010-12-31T18:03:00.000-08:00

Today is the last day of the 2010 Locavore challenge, and we have already eaten the last meal. I feel it is going out with a whimper. I wasn't able to convince all that many of my friends to join me in the locavore way. Sure, there are plenty of gardeners at the community garden who are local-friendly, but not as much as the folks closer to Ojai. This has been a tough year for many of my friends and others in my community, and I think that has alot to do with why more people didn't sign up.
I'll continue to be a locavore, at least where fruits and veggies are concerned. Every season, my own fruit crops and trading network grow. I am still having trouble getting local meat.
Tonight's plans were cancelled last-minute, and I didn't have much else besides the wonderful veggies from the garden. I stopped in at the garden earlier in the day and enjoyed the sunny weather and the company of other hardy friends, and harvested a huge basket of greens and sunchokes. We decided to stop by Fresh and Easy for some fish. There, we ran into the evening sale, and picked up some non-local salmon. I baked the salmon and served it topped with sauteed leeks, celery, fennel and serrano peppers I had harvested earlier. I served it with Osaka purple mustard cooked in kumquat marmalade with mandarin oranges. We enjoyed a huge sweet potato from the garden, and chunks of Belgian dark chocolate for dessert.
So it was mostly local.
What's for next year? I'll continue with my veggie gardening and increase the variety of fruits. Our two Manzanita olive trees are growing well and the Mission olive tree is producing nicely. This may be the year I figure out how to cure the olives, or at least press them. This year, I have nurtured two grape vines, a Eureka lemon tree, a blackberry vine and two blueberry bushes. I would like to propagate more this year. I would also like to acquire a banana tree and transplant the fig tree into a more desirable location.
It will be a good year I am sure.

Salty Beets

2010-12-17T13:44:00.000-08:00

The is about the strangest thing to happen since I have been growing my own local food. Last winter, I planted some beets in an area with poor soil and low water. I harvested a few small beets, but others were eaten by animals and forgotten. There was one beet that survived, and I watered it here and there over the summer and otherwise left it alone.
I had some other beets (Bull's Blood) that were grown in a similar harsh manner and they were the sweetest beets I had ever grown, so I didn't think that this new beet would be any different.
Wow! Was I surprised! The beet (a Detroggia that turned out mostly orange) was small and hard, and there was hardly any sugar in it at all. It was so salty that it tasted like I had already made pickles with it. It was almost too salty to eat, except for small slivers.

Winter Veggies and More

2010-12-02T16:12:00.001-08:00

I have been eating more meat and less carb this fall and winter, and doing well with it. Well, this former vegan is a little bit surprised, with all that steak and eggs for breakfast. It's in small quantities, and I still enjoy my greens for winter breakfast, just not over a potato.
The greens are especially nice this season, and I have many colors of chard popping up everywhere in the garden.
We had at least 3 good rains on the community garden so far, and each episode sends out more volunteer favorites. I have a carpet of fennel, wide swaths of baby celery, several types of parsley popping out from underneath the flowers (they seem to enjoy the initial protection), and a nice variety of chards and kales ranging in color from magenta to red to orange to pale lemon yellow to white to green.

Into the Fall

2010-09-02T00:37:00.000-07:00

Right now, the Nightshades are starring in the garden. Today I harvested some tiny potatoes. I usually don't get a second crop of potatoes, but this year has been a bit unusual. They are pink and gold fingerlings. The tomatoes are almost finished for the year, but the peppers really haven't peaked yet. Somehow I went hog-wild and ended up with about 39 pepper plants! I am about one third of the way into the tomatillo harvest. They are really sweet and flavorful this year. Here's a recipe for a low-salt sauce I use on chicken.

Nightshade Sauce

8 tomatillos
2 large yellow tomatoes
1 jalapeno or other hot green chile
1/2 t. leek powder
dash cumin (not local, though I would like to try growing it)

Chop and seed chile. Cook in a 1/4 cup of water in a small saucepan until tender. Remove the husks from the tomatillos and chop into large chunks. Chop the tomatoes. Add the tomatillo's and tomatoes to the pan and cook a few minutes until everything is mushy. Run the mixture through a food mill to remove the seeds and skins and return the puree to the pan. Add the leek powder and cumin and cook down until the sauce thickens. Serve over meat or tofu.

The Big Haul

2010-08-02T19:59:00.001-07:00

Cherry tomatoes have been taking over my patio. Things were getting out of hand. I was harvesting one to two cups a day, turning them into sauce and juice, or just eating them on the run.
I went away for a couple of days and when I returned, I thought there would be too many for me to handle, but when I went to take a look, I found all the plants were stripped. Now I am getting two or three a day. I am not sure what took them all. Squirrels? Crows? People?

Secret Plots

2010-07-01T21:13:00.000-07:00

I have a nice tatume summer squash plant, but it has really slowed down production. I know that this is not really true, that there are, in fact, some super secret squashes growing way in the background that I cannot find.
I need to hack back my cocozelle and yellow crookneck plants. The cocozelle is known for traveling quite far, and right now the two branches going in opposite directions take up a total of about 32 square feet. The yellow crookneck (which should be called breakneck, for the speed in which it sends out new branches) has overtaken the butternut squash patch, and I am sure there are more super secret squashes back there, plotting their maturity.

New Potatoes

2010-05-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

This year, more and more community gardens are trying potatoes, and all of us are getting better at growing them. This year's cool spring has helped.
I haven't been paying all that much attention to my potatoes. They had been looking a bit sad, so I quit hilling them up after a couple of times. Yesterday I decided to take a look in one raised bin. I realized that I still had two plants out of the four small plants I started with. I dug around the largest one and was amazed to find about 6 pounds of the most perfect red potatoes. They were packed so closely together that they all have a nice compact shape and really easy to dig out. The insides are so creamy and white, and they have such a fresh, earthy flavor.
I took two smaller potatoes and buried them in another bin I rarely water. I need to figure out how to keep these small potatoes healthy until next winter, when I can plant them again.
Over the weekend, I planted 4 sweet potato and yam plants, so hopefully they will do as well as the white potatoes.

The Summer Squashes are Back

2010-05-16T21:37:00.000-07:00

This week was another first first for the year. I harvested my first summer squash, and the much-loved cocozelle is the early winner. I really wanted this variety last year, but it didn't work out, so I am quite pleased to have some this year. Here is how the curcurbit garden population is shaping up in 2010.
Pumpkin: 3 Cinderella, 3 Baby Pam
Winter Squash: 3 butternut, 3 buttercup
Summer Squash: 7 total. At least 1 yellow crookneck, 1 cocozelle, 1 round, probably another yellow crookneck, 1 tatume and the others it's too early to tell.
Oh, did I almost forget to mention all the plants in the backyard! I have 8 bush acorn plants that will be thinned down to 3 or 4 plants, and two chayote plants.
Obviously, I have learned nothing from last year.

Let the Games Begin

2010-05-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

I gave a trading partner a couple of malabar spinach seedlings and I got a gift in return. Seems he had ordered some pepper plants and had too many, and was looking for good homes for the rest.
What is a "good home" for a pepper plant? There are a few hot pepper fanatics at the community garden, and I am considered to be one of them. A couple of years ago, I got a few dozen hot pepper plants and distributed them to many other "good homes". Since then, my reputation has followed, and the very hottest peppers have come to me. I can grow them so hot on my baking patio that I have trouble eating them. I think its a really good home.
As a pepper-mom, I have promised to take care of my baby plant, to keep it sequestered, and to save the seeds.
I might be in trouble later today when I try to wash the sunblock out of my eyes, because I planted my new baby plant without wearing gloves. Not recommended. It's a Bhut Jolokia!

Earth Day Excursion

2010-04-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

It was very cold and wintery this afternoon, threatening rain. I felt a bit sorry for the farmer's market, since I have found that it is poorly attended when it is cold, so I decided to stop by and see what is new.
This was my first visit since the market changed location, and I'll tell ya, I was really happy to see how spacious it was, compared with the old location. The place was just crowded with lots of moms and strollers, plenty of toddlers munching on carrots and strawberries.
Now that I am not confined by the 100 miles, farther-away farm-fare looked pretty inviting. I picked up a very large avocado, a basket of crisp Oxnard cucumbers, a 3-pack of Oxnard strawberries, and a bag of Northern California raisins.

Malabar Spinach

2010-04-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

Today I took a bit of time for the backyard garden, before the rain starts. I have plenty of smaller cat litter buckets that I use for hauling soils and compost, and they are neatly lined up underneath the roof drip-line to catch any new rain.
And I have another reason not to believe much gardening advice I read on the internet. A couple of years ago, I brought home a cutting of red malabar spinach. I planted it in a tub and left it for a couple of years, with hardly any care. I was afraid I had lost everything during last year's hard frost and the flooding of my basket of saved seeds during a storm.
The barrel is now mostly filled with errant Detroggia beet seedlings, but I started pulling out those that didn't look like beets. Now I realize that most were all malabar spinach seedlings. As I started to transplant them, I noticed tons more seedlings. I can probably get 50 or more seedlings if I want to take the time to transplant them. I read that the seeds don't germinate well, and I sure don't believe that anymore.

There Goes the Neighborhood

2010-03-29T08:49:00.000-07:00

I just got some new neighbors at the community garden! A local beekeeper convinced the board and the park district to allow the installation of a beehive in the garden. It is a stone's-throw away from my plots, and I am sure they will visit my overgrown radish and mustard plants once they get settled in. I'll leave the flowers in the ground a little while longer, sort of like a bee-version of a covered dish.

March Potluck

2010-03-15T19:39:00.000-07:00

We don't have regular locavore potlucks every month anymore by design, but we still seem to get together at least once a month. I look forward to the gatherings, where the guests are almost as colorful as the food.
I was going to make a salad plate of cooked sliced beet, so I created a simple red salad. Here's the recipe:

Red Salad
1 red carrot,grated
1 large red beet, lightly steamed
1/8 t whole coriander seed
juice from one blood orange

Grate the carrots and beets, and mix in with the orange juice. Toast the whole coriander seeds until fragrant, cool and grind. Add the coriander to the grated mixture, stir and let marinate for a couple of hours. Serve with red radish and beet stem garnishes on a bed of fresh salad greens. (You get extra points for using red lettuces, such as Outredgous.)

The Tea Gardens

2010-03-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

During the past few days, the temperatures have risen, the sun has brightened, and I find that if I don't put a thick layer of sunblock on, I'll get a sunburn. Of course, it is my usual intent to go outside "just for a minute" to see if everything is OK. Recently, these dashes into the garden have resulted in more and more time spent in the sun. There is always "just one little thing" that can be done before I dash inside for sunglasses and a hat.
This weekend I have spent quite a bit of time in the backyard, transplanting seedlings, getting new containers filled with new soils, trimming dead winter leaves and dividing the mint plants and dealing with compost. I started a dozen varieties of basil, plus summer savory and hyssop. Almost every planting pot I emptied contained a sprouting coast live oak acorn. The squirrels sure have been busy.
I have started a "tea garden" in an old recycled plastic tote. Since the container is fairly shallow, it will only work for plants that don't need to grow too deeply, like all the mints. When the new plants are established, I will drag the container to a shady spot for the summer. My vision is to have a few of these containers perched along some old steps in a remote and shady part of the garden. I have four kinds of mint and some lemon balm.
I have another "tea garden" tucked under an old olive tree. I just added a new layer into a new worm bin, and harvested the "tea" underneath. I just hope I didn't kill my worms. The bin was full of water after last week's rain, and I didn't see much evidence of worms. I added several new worms just in case.

Tomatoes!

2010-03-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

My first tomato seedlings are up, and they sure are cute. I am not usually that big on getting the very first tomato. I take my time and wait for our evenings to warm up and all the spring crops to be harvested.
Many years I overwinter volunteer tomato plants taken from the garden after fall plantings. But this winter, I got caught by surprise with an early frost and lost all the tomato plants.
This year I am trying the Red Siberian tomato, and not only is it supposed to be the earliest, it can handle cold temperatures during our spring. I got really great germination on some fairly old seeds, and am looking to trade some seedlings for other varieties when the hotter weather arrives.
So many community gardeners are getting into the heirloom tomato craze and have ordered a crazy amount of varieties, all suitable for trading.

Day 28 - End of February Dollar a Day Challenge

2010-02-28T22:52:00.000-08:00

I did it! I finished the project out with a very tasty vegetarian potluck, and a mug of mint and ginger tea from partner Otto.
A whole month for under a dollar a day. My total food expenses were $18.96, which works out to almost 68 cents a day. When the costs of the garden are included, it works out to 85 cents a day. I could have gone lower if I had opted for less variety. I really enjoyed the cheese and the Italian sausage, but I did have enough home-grown beans and other protein foods to replace them.
I have purchased food left over: a couple of pounds of potatoes, a cup or more of raisins, a cup of rolled oats, over 2 pounds of salt, a few very small oranges, over two sticks of butter, and two eggs.
I have also put up a small container of celery leaves, 2 quarts of dehydrated leeks, and about 2 ounces of dried parsley.
Tomorrow I won't think about what I eat, or where my food comes from, or keep track of any of it.
I will still continue to keep track of the productivity and costs of the garden. I estimate that the value of the produce harvested for February to be $170. It was higher than I expected, mostly because I found more takers for all the collards.
What's next? I am going to eat down the freezer, so that there is new room for the spring and summer produce. There is a bundle of bean soups I threw in there right before the February challenge, some mixed foods like applesauce with cinnamon, a turkey I bought on sale right after Thanksgiving, and a ham I bought right after Christmas. I'll pull out my expensive local olive oil and start making collard chips in the dehydrator.

Day 28 - A day at the Market

2010-02-28T13:21:00.001-08:00

What a difference a day makes! The weather was beautiful, so after the usual breakfast (made with broccoli instead of kale or chard) I headed off to the farmer's market. The walk was wonderful, and many other families had the same idea. The market sidelines were full of Dads with strollers and large dogs, and the accumulated purchases. A couple of booths featuring vegetables were mobbed with customers.
I sampled plenty of fruit: strawberries, tangerines, pears and apples, and a bit of cucumber. I felt pretty full after shopping only a couple of rows. I purchased some Pink Lady apples and some dried persimmons (for tomorrow!) and then stopped by a few other stores on the way home. My basket felt pretty heavy by the time I arrived home.
For lunch, I enjoyed some ginger and regular tea from partner Otto, the rest of the vegetable soup, another huge plate of greens cooked with the rest of the sausage, dehydrated apples, raisins and the final chunk of cheese.
This afternoon, I will assemble a beet salad for the potluck, with Detroggia beets, freckles romaine lettuce, corn salad, and blood oranges from partner Danielle.

Day 27 - Winter is back!

2010-02-27T01:18:00.001-08:00

I really wanted to sleep longer on one of the rainiest, coldest days of this year, but I had an event to attend early.
For breakfast, I had a potato with cheese and butter. I finished off the rest of the banana. I didn't have enough time for the greens.
For lunch, I had a huge plate of greens (mostly collards) cooked with some of the left-over sausage and a bowl of the vegetable soup with turkey. I ate some dehydrated apples from partner Colin, some raisins, and a mug of ginger tea from partner Otto.
For an afternoon snack, I had some crackers from partner Lisa, lettuce, a small orange, yogurt from partner Alex and a small bag of M&M's and a fun-sized Heath bar from partner Vince.
For dinner, we went out with friends. In the evening I enjoyed a cup of apple cinnamon tea from partner Igor.
I did not spend any money on food today, except for dinner out, of course. I have $3.48 left in the food bank.

Day 26 - SlugFest

2010-02-27T00:55:00.000-08:00

This evening, there was a real slugfest in the kitchen sink, as what seemed like thousands of baby slugs crawled out of the lettuce heads and into all corners of the kitchen. So, this is why I am writing today's post on tomorrow.
I got to the garden plenty early this morning, just in case the rain got here a bit earlier than predicted. I picked several large Detroggia beets for a Sunday potluck.
Home by 9:30, I didn't really know what to do with all that time. Egged on by Detroggia beet success, I planted three more bins of beets out on the patio. They weren't Detroggia, I decided to plant more Bull's Blood. This variety just goes so slowly in the winter, so this is their time, I am hoping. I also tried some more Dino kale, although the seeds are pretty old. Everything is safely under glass window panes before the rain and the new cold.
For a late breakfast, I had the usual potato dish, with ginger and mint tea from partner Otto. After I popped it out of the microwave, a trading partner called, and we gabbed for awhile (cause I never hang up on a trading partner!!) and 20 minutes later the potatoes were still hot.
For lunch, I enjoyed a bowl of the vegetable soup, an orange, potatoes with sauerkraut, parsley and mustard seed, apple slices, peas, Detroggia beets and lettuce.
For an afternoon snack, I had some yogurt from partner Alex, and went off to do some shopping. I had some coffee and a piece of sandwich wrap at Trader Joe's and some coffee, mac and cheese, and some potato thing at Fresh and Easy. I splurged on a package of Italian sausage, for $2.46!
For dinner, I enjoyed the Italian sausage with more soup, apples from partner Colin, raisins, almonds from partner Igor, and cake from partner Arlene.
I am still full from dinner, and I am enjoying a cup of ginger and mint tea from partner Otto.
I have 2.65 left in the food bank, and only two more days to go!

Day 25 - Getting ready for More Rain

2010-02-25T20:34:00.000-08:00

Today I spent much time at the community garden, and I was able to completely surround one garden with hardware cloth.
I spent the morning coiffuring the fiber animals and washed a couple of hanks of yarn.
For breakfast I had the usual potato, greens cooked in butter, egg, cheese but NO toast, tea from partner Otto. The bread is mostly gone now, though there is a little bit in the freezer.
I snacked on peas in the garden.
For lunch, I had a green drink made with a limequat from partner Colin, celery and kale. I also had a tangerine from partner Earl, half a banana, some fresh peas, granola, dehydrated apple slices, raisins and cake from partner Arlene.
For dinner, I had a large bowl of soup made with turkey from partner Cindy, rice from partner Matthew, carrots from partners Earl and Gaston, a turnip from partner Colin, fresh winter squash, leeks, celery, fennel, kale, beet greens, parsley from the garden, dried garden zucchini, dried garden peas, Jack in the Beanstalk beans, dehydrated vegetables from partner Harvey, pepper from partner Ophelia and salt.
Like day 24, I spent no money on food. I have $5.09 left in the food bank.

Day 24 - More Rain

2010-02-24T19:56:00.000-08:00

I waited for the rain, but it never really came down all that hard, and then I decided that it was enough so that I didn't have to travel to the community garden. I fiddled around in the backyard instead. I monitored the cats while they loaded up on local grasses so they could have even better barf once they came inside.
For breakfast, I ate the usual potato, egg, cheese, greens (cooked in butter), toast and tea from partner Sean. I think I also set a record for the number of cups of tea made out of the same teabag.
For a morning snack, I enjoyed a taste of sauerkraut, some roasted squash seeds and a cup of the pea soup.
For lunch, I ate the rest of the vegetable soup with turkey, some newly-made granola (with cardamom from partner Matthew) and a grilled cheese sandwich.
For an afternoon snack I stopped by Trader Joe's and had a bit of salad, some tomato-ey pasta and a small cup of coffee.
For dinner, partner Tammy fed me. Lots of shrimp, raw carrots, cold-cut sandwiches with herbed mayo and some wonderfully warm decaf coffee with hazelnut creamer.
In the evening, I snacked on dehydrated apple slices, raisins and the last of the squash seeds, at least until I boot up another squash.

Day 23 - More Potatoes! and Celery

2010-02-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

I have settled into the same old breakfast potato dish with greens, only it's not just for breakfast anymore. I don't ever really tire of it, but I am probably using more butter than I need to.
For breakfast, I had rice from partner Matthew, with garden veggies, cheese and butter. I made a cup of tea from partner Sean, and saved the bag for later.
For a morning snack, I had a small potato with butter and some home-grown toasted squash seeds.
For lunch I had a cup of the pea soup, tea from partner Sean, lime juice from partner Colin, an orange, and a tangerine from partner Jose.
For dinner I had ANOTHER potato with cheese, greens and an egg, butternut squash with the last of the tikka masala sauce from partner Karl, raisins, toast from partner Arlene and dehydrated apples from partner Colin.
For an evening snack, I had more toast, an orange and almonds from partner Igor.
In the evening, I cooked up a storm, processing several batches of vegetable broth from celery and leek tops. I cooked a couple of big chunks of butternut squash and made a soup base out of pureed squash, leeks, celery and fennel bulb. I will freeze this for summer use. I don't usually freeze much celery, but when it is blended with the other ingredients it seems to keep better. I harvest very little fresh celery for eating after May. Seems weird right now that there will ever be a time when I am not eating it constantly.
The pots in the backyard are filled with celery seedlings, and after the recent rains there will be even more seedlings to come. I transplant a few of them for friends and trading partners, and many will get to go to seed, and start the crazy process all over again.
The leeks and parsley are in the dehydrator.

Day 22 - Eating up What's Left

2010-02-24T19:15:00.000-08:00

For breakfast I had a potato with dressing from partner Lisa. Good stuff! I also had a protein shake from partner Igor, raisins, tea from partner Otto and toast.
For lunch I had a large garden-fresh salad with lettuce, sliced Detroit dark red beets, radishes, peas, a tangerine from partner Jose, an orange, and cake from partner Arlene.
For an afternoon snack, I had lychee jelly from partner Lisa, raisins, vegetable broth with salt, and roasted home-grown squash seeds.
For dinner, I ate another potato with egg, cheese and greens, broccoli, and a cookie from trader Rena.
In the evening, I ate more raisins and dehydrated apple slices from partner Colin.
I made pea soup today, with split peas from partner Matthew, ham from partner Shary, pepper from partner Ophelia, thyme from partner Tomas, and tons of home-grown celery, leek and fennel, with garlic, habanero pepper and salt.
I did not spend any money on food today, so I have $1.77 in the food bank.

Day 21 - Eating Other People's Food

2010-02-23T14:09:00.000-08:00

After today, I have only one week left. I am not bored with the food, or have too little of it, but I am worn out by trying to write it all down. Today's potlucks made things a bit easier. Not much cooking, just bringing fresh veggies from the garden, which were a huge hit at both events and kept me from having to lug home leftovers.
For breakfast, I had coffee from partner Irene, and a potato topped with an egg, cheese and greens cooked in butter, with salt and pepper.
For lunch, I went to a mini-potluck, and enjoyed fruit salad, hummus, lemonade, dried cranberries and vegetable chips.
After lunch, I stopped by Trader Joe's and had some coffee and a piece of muffin. (I shopped only for family food items this time.) I stopped by Fresh and Easy, but they didn't make it easy for me. They are always out of the sale meats when I am there, and won't give explanations or rainchecks. I did enjoy another cup of coffee there while I bought some other vegetables for my family.
For dinner, I went to another vegetarian potluck, featuring cheddar cheese, deviled eggs, bread, cabbage salad, eggplant casserole, chai tea, chocolate cake, apple streudel, cinnamon balls and water with lemon.
For an evening snack, I sampled some really great fried sweet potatoes in chipotle ranch dressing from partner Lisa.

Day 20 - Shopping spree

2010-02-22T20:13:00.000-08:00

With only a week or so to go on the challenge, I am coming to the end with money to spare. I will have a couple of potlucks and special events, which always add to variety.
For breakfast, I had some decaf coffee from partner Irene, lettuce, dried apples from partner Colin, and granola.
I enjoyed some coffee, yogurt and some fruit jam at Trader Joe's. I stopped by the stores as soon as they opened, and I bought a large chunk of cheese, a bag of raisins, a banana and a package of California butter. I also snacked on some snow peas at the garden.
For lunch, I ate a grilled cheese sandwich, wheat berries with raisins and honey, a taste of sauerkraut, cake from partner Arlene, a huge plate of steamed broccoli and snow peas, and a tangerine from partner Earl.
For dinner I enjoyed the vegetable soup with turkey from partner Cindy, some toast and butter, and some beets fresh from the garden.
For an evening snack, I had granola and raisins.
My extensive food purchases totalled $9.68, leaving me with 11 cents in the food bank.
I am really getting sick of lettuce!

Day 19

2010-02-22T20:06:00.000-08:00

Still on the road, I enjoyed a hearty breakfast of eggs, turkey sausage, sweet potatoes, a banana, a tangerine and coffee, all from trader Jose. But, I really worked off all that food throughout the morning with a combination of walking and hard labor.
For lunch I had half a chicken sandwich, potato chips, artichoke salad, cucumber and carrot salad, a diet Coke and some coffee, all from trader Jose.
For an afternoon snack I ate a part of a fish sandwich, a tangerine and a banana and some decaf coffee all from partner Jose.
For dinner I had the squash soup, toast with butter, cake from partner Arlene, a taste of sauerkraut and toasted squash seeds.
I had dehydrated apple slices from trader Colin for an evening snack.
I purchased some oranges for 25 cents, leaving $8.96 in the food bank.

Day 18

2010-02-20T19:08:00.000-08:00

I am still on the road, and working hard!
For breakfast, I ate a banana and tangerine from partner Jose, and an orange from partner Danielle.
I was starving by the time the morning coffee break came around. I enjoyed a piece of cake and a mug of coffee from partner Irene.
For lunch I ate an Italian-style chicken pasta dish from partner Jose.
For dinner I had some turkey, salmon, sweet potatoes, salad, ice cream and coffee from partner Jose.
I saved up all my 83-cent allotment for today. There is $8.38 in the food bank.

Day 17 - Another Road Trip

2010-02-20T18:02:00.000-08:00

I started off very early on the road again, so I didn't eat too much for breakfast, just a bit of toast from partner Arlene, butter, greens and a protein shake from partner Igor.
I stopped by partner Arlene's, and was served a nice morning snack of coffee with cream and sugar with a large bran muffin. Pumped up with all that sugar and caffeine, I headed down the road again.
For lunch, I was served a plate of fresh vegetables, falafel, coffee and Diet coke, all from partner Jose.
For dinner, partner Jose served fish, game hen, salad (with a heaping serving of carrot/raisin salad!), sunflower seeds, cooked carrots, coffee and a taste of warm apple cobbler topped with whipped cream.
Once I got out of the car, I worked hard, especially walking, so it was nice to have these meals.
I spent no money on food today, so there is $7.55 in the food bank.

Day 16 - Project Recap

2010-02-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

I spent no money on food today, so I have $6.72 left in the food bank.
I have been able to keep my food expenses low by relying on my garden and my trading partners.
I did purchase a few items, but the surprising part about this challenge is how much of the purchased food I still have left, with less than halfway to go and lots of money to spend if I need it. Here's what I still have:
6 lb. potatoes
over 2 lb. salt (this is LOTS of salt!)
8 eggs
1/2 stick butter
1 lb. oats, minus a handful

Day 16 - No Carrots

2010-02-16T21:24:00.000-08:00

I went looking for my container of carrots from trader Gaston and found that someone else had eaten all of them. Dang! I really wanted something different today.
I was too busy to shop today. I spent over three hours in the garden, tearing down some old fencing and putting up new metal mesh fencing. I worked until the staples ran out in the staple gun, about a third of the way through the project.
I picked a ton of greens to take with me on a trip, and spent much time washing, trimming and pulling off slugs. The fridge is bursting with vegetables.
For breakfast I had the last of the coffee from partner Irene, and a protein shake from partner Igor.
For lunch, I ate MORE french toast with honey, lettuce and potato salad.
For an afternoon snack I ate a tangerine from partner Earl. After working in the garden, I sat down with a large container of tea from partner Otto and lime from partner Colin.
For dinner I made stuffing with bread from partner Arlene, turkey from partner Cindy, leeks, celery, sage, salt, thyme from partner Philippe, and black pepper from partner Ophelia.
For an evening snack I had a cup of the squash soup, garden pumpkin seeds, lettuce, corn salad, and a taste of sauerkraut. I decided to put some dried shiso leaves into the crock, to see if they would lend more color to the batch. By the end of the day, much color had been added, and I fished the shiso leaves out and ate them. They tasted wonderful, but they could have been left in longer. (They were a bit too chewy.) I lined the crock with a new layer of shiso leaves and put the kraut to sleep for the evening. Shiso leaves have a cinnamon-like taste, and the only cinnamon flavor I have enjoyed since the start of this February challenge

Day 15 - Too busy to Cook

2010-02-16T21:04:00.000-08:00

I have been on the run since the weather turned for the better and I realized that I had better get the garden prepared if I wanted any summer food at all. Can't live on dehydrated parsley and leeks forever.
For breakfast I had coffee from partner Irene, toast from partner Arlene, almond milk from partner Igor and garden greens with some butter.
In the morning, I snacked on snow peas and broccoli at the garden.
For lunch, I had a protein shake from partner Igor.
For a snack, I ate raisins, cookies, orange juice and cheese crackers, all from partner Nate.
For dinner, I finished the second batch of vegetable soup with turkey from partner Cindy, toast from partner Arlene, butter, broccoli, lettuce, beets and corn salad.
For an evening snack, I had a few almonds from partner Igor and some lime juice with limes from partner Colin.
I made a batch of squash soup with almonds from partner Igor, celery, leeks, vegetable broth, salt, coriander and black pepper from partner Ophelia. This will be for Monday.
Trading partner Ophelia has also been decluttering yard and garden supplies and the trades will really help to keep my garden expenses low for the coming year and beyond.

Day 14 - Halfway point

2010-02-14T19:34:00.000-08:00

After today, I am halfway finished with this food challenge. After a sort of boring couple of days, I was able to round out my scrounged menu with some of the luxury foods, like butter. Eventually, the crazy abundance of my community kicked in and I don't think I will have to buy anything for the next week, unless I get bored with what I already have. I have been churning through the butter faster than I had planned. Perhaps I will go a bit more lightly when the bread runs out.
For breakfast I had the usual eggs and greens cooked in butter, with some toast from partner Arlene and coffee from partner Irene.
For lunch, I finished up the bean soup, ate a large plate of steamed broccoli and peas (some of the peas were from partner Colin), mini bagels with butter, lime (also from partner Colin) and grape juice.
For a snack I had more french toast and honey. I am not really all that into french toast as it seems, but I do have an abundance of eggs and bread and it is really easy to make. I spent several hours today working in all my gardens, getting ready for spring and don't have much time, or the inclination to spend it, in the kitchen.
For dinner, I ate a bowl of vegetable soup with turkey from partner Cindy, and the final bit of rice from partner Matthew. I also ate more apple slices from Colin, an almond cookie from partner Lisa, garden lettuce and another mug of coffee from partner Irene. The coffee is starting to taste a bit old, but as long as the caffeine still is there, I'll keep drinking it. I would put some into the freezer if it wasn't full of squash.
Over the weekend I harvested many leeks and now have two trays of them in the dehydrator, along with another batch of parsley. So far I have "made" about an ounce of chopped and dried parsley flakes, and of course, the head of cabbage slowly being turned into sauerkraut.
I did not buy any food today, and so have $5.06 left over.
In the first two weeks, I spent a total of $6.56 for food. Combined with the cost of the garden, it works out to an average of 63 cents a day.

Day 13 - Spring is Here!

2010-02-14T19:23:00.000-08:00

I ate a substantial breakfast before a date with another trading partner involving lots of walking. I had eggs, greens, toast from partner Arlene, butter, and coffee from partner Irene.
I had a late-morning snack of french toast with honey from partner Alex and a tangerine from partner Earl.
For lunch I finished up the chayote squash dish, and had some mini bagels and apple slices.
For an afternoon snack I had 1/2 banana, and another cup of coffee from partner Irene, with a dab of honey and some Detroggia beets.
I have to take back all the bad things I said about the Detroggia beets! Despite their shape and lack of a white ring, when I cooked them in the pressure cooker, all the water was yellow. When I sliced the beets, I discovered that the insides were strawberry red and gold striped, with all the wonderful flavor of a chioggia. I can't wait to show these off at the next locavore potluck, I'll be the best little food snob.
We went out to eat with friends for dinner. I also had a calcium pill from partner Igor.
I did not spend any money for food today, and so have $4.23 left over. This is almost enough to buy a package of raisins at Whole Foods.

Day 12 - Back to my old favorites

2010-02-14T19:00:00.000-08:00

I made another baking dish full of chayote squash (from partner Julia) and tikka masala from partner Karl. I also had a mug of coffee from partner Irene and a taste of my new batch of sauerkraut. While I was away, the kraut started to turn nice and pink from a baby head of purple cabbage from partner Richard. It looked pretty sad before, but now that the acidity is higher, the color is much better. The juice looks like a nice blush wine.
For a snack I had some mini-bagels with margarine and a mug of coffee with half-n-half, all from partner Arlene. I also got some bread from Arlene.
For lunch I had french toast made with the bread from partner Arlene, an egg and some butter. I also had a huge plate of steamed broccoli and peas from the garden, some cookies from partner Arlene and some lime juice.
For an afternoon snack I had toast and butter, and more of the squash with tikka masala.
For dinner, I had a bowl of the vegetable soup made earlier in the week, rice from partner Matthew, 1/2 of the banana and some turkey from partner Cindy and a handful of dehydrated apples from partner Colin.
I didn't spend any money for food, so I have $3.40 in the "food bank".

Day 11

2010-02-12T19:52:00.000-08:00

I was busy today with many projects, and I was able to grab food here and there along the way. Really good food.
For breakfast, I enjoyed the last of the sandwiches from partner Lee. I had a mid-morning snack of apple pie, cheese and coffee from partner Irene.
During lunch, I ate ground turkey, chicken, mixed salad, cheese, corn chips, guacamole, salsa, sour cream and a diet Coke from partner Jose.
In the afternoon, I had a taste of coffee from partner Maria.
For dinner I had lasagna, summer squash and a diet Coke from partner Jose. Partner Irene gave me a huge pot of coffee for my trip home and beyond.
It would have been pointless to purchase any more food today. I have $2.57 left.

Day 10 - Still on the Road

2010-02-12T18:34:00.000-08:00

I am still getting caught up in all areas of my life after returning from the road trip.
In the early part of Day 10, I was busy with everything else, and mostly ate leftovers from my cooler.
For breakfast, I ate the rest of the wheat berry salad with my lettuce. I had some coffee and red berries from partner Irene, and a piece of salmon from partner Jose.
For lunch, I had small cup of bean soup made with with ham from Shary, carrot from partner Colin, and dry beans, celery, leek, garlic, habanero pepper and parsley from my own gardens, and some salt. I also had fresh lettuce, parsley and snow peas, and some hummus from partner Katia.
I had an afternoon snack with partner Katia, who gave me a wonderful navel orange. I also munched on a few crackers from partner Irene and a handful of my home-made granola.
At dinner, I enjoyed some wonderfully crunchy carrot raisin salad and sandwiches from partner Lee. The sandwiches were made with roast beef, turkey, bacon and tomatoes. I also enjoyed lasagna, steamed broccoli, herbed cheese rolls and ice cream with caramel sauce, all from partner Maria. Maria also sent me off with a large mug of decaf coffee.
I didn't buy any food, so I have $1.74 left after day 10.

Day 9 - Road Trip

2010-02-10T20:57:00.000-08:00

I started out with a big breakfast: the second half of the banana, lemon balm tea, eggs fried in a little butter, beet greens, and pepper from partner Matthew.
Today was the start of a road trip, with much trading going on the whole way. I needed to take some food, and selections that travel well in the cooler.
My first big stop was the Ventura government center. All the participants in the Eat Local for One Year project got a certificate. Before the meeting, I stopped by the snack room. Scattered about the colored drinks and chips, they did have some healthy fare, like fresh fruit, and fresh vegetable salads. I didn't see anything that looked like it was grown locally. Sure would have been nice to see some farm-fresh strawberries along with the waxed and shellac-ed apples and oranges.
For lunch, I had some leftover veggie soup with turkey from partner Cindy, garden lettuce and beets, berries and coffee from partner Irene.
For an afternoon snack I had coffee, crackers and berries from partner Irene.
For dinner I had wheat berry salad with all the other leftovers: veggie soup with turkey, crackers, and more berries. And more coffee, but the last mug was decaf.

Day 8 - Banana Day

2010-02-08T19:18:00.000-08:00

I enjoyed one half of the banana for breakfast. Unfortunately, as it ripened, I noticed a huge bruise on the bottom of the fruit. Not a big deal usually, but I had to cut off about 3 cents worth, and that hurt. I enjoyed the banana with corn flakes from partner Arlene and the leftover almond milk. I finished the squash soup, tea and some rice.
My morning snack was at Whole Foods. I stopped by to check on a book, and discovered that their book offerings had dwindled considerably from the last time I was there, about 10 years ago. They did not have the book I was looking for, but I did find all sorts of nice foods. I had a piece of oat bran bread, a small cup of coffee and a taste of black barley salad. The barley was substantial and chewy, but I have to admit that I like my own wheat berry salad a little better. I picked out a pound of old-fashioned rolled oats, setting me back 63 cents. I tried to find some conventional bulk raisins, but they only had expensive packages.
On the way back from the garden, I stopped by Trader Joe's. Again, they had some really great coffee and a taste of chicken salad. I bought a tub of black cherry yogurt and another banana. The saleslady commented on what a nice lunch I had,
"Great! Lunch for under a dollar!"
Well, yes, that's my plan, except it has to last for the whole day.
I just hope I picked a good banana. When I went back to the display, a young man was pouring older bananas into a cart. I asked if they were going to throw them away and he said that they take them to a county food pantry. I was glad that at least some of them were going to be used. I know that my own local food pantry throws away the ripe bananas.
I had a late lunch of salad greens, wheat berry salad and half a beet.
At dinner, I ate steamed kale, potatoes and tikka masala. The masala tastes much better with potatoes than with the other vegetables I used earlier. I also had some buttered rice and some almond cookies, the container of yogurt and some pomegranate seeds.
This afternoon, I made some granola with the rolled oats I purchased. (The cardamom is from partner Matthew.) I don't like my granola too sweet. Here's the recipe:
1/2 pat butter
1 teaspoon honey
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
6-8 almonds, chopped
3/4 cup rolled oats
Put the butter and honey into a non-stick fry pan and heat over low heat. Stir, add the other ingredients and continue to cook until the almonds and oats are toasted. Be careful not to burn the granola. Store in an airtight container.
I spent $1.61 today and have 8 cents left over.

Day 7 - Superbowl

2010-02-08T19:02:00.000-08:00

I did not spend any time cooking today, since I did so much prep work yesterday.
Breakfast was an egg fried in a little butter with cooked beet greens, lime and orange juice from partner Danielle, and some tea from partner Otto.
I took a huge plastic container of salad greens to the Quaker potluck, to be mixed with salad toppings brought by another diner. She usually brings a huge wooden bowl for the salad, but this time she brought two so the salad would be easier to serve. The salad included fresh avocado, garbanzo beans, red pepper, tomato, cheese and vinagrette dressing on the side. I brought the large pot of vegan vegetable soup. We also enjoyed moussaka, lime bars, corn chips, veggie chips, hummus, rice salad and lemonade.
Dinner was light, just some leftover vegetable soup with additional turkey from partner Cindy, steamed peas, broccoli and rice with a dab of butter, and pomegranate seeds from partner Alex.
I had an evening snack of roasted garden squash seeds, dried apple slices from partner Colin, and an almond cookie from partner Lisa.
And the Super Bowl TV commercial winner is: Audi!!!! I just loved and was scared by the green police, especially the helicopter bust of the guy throwing away those orange peels.
I did not purchase any food on Day 7, so I will have $1.69 available for day 8.

Day 6 - Harvard Beets

2010-02-07T19:11:00.000-08:00

I "bought" California butter with my extra money today, and now I have 3 cents left. Actually, I bought it the last time I was in the valley, but didn't use it until today. I didn't really need to buy this early, since we drove right past the store on our way into town.
I got to the community garden early today, despite all the rain. I harvested a ton of vegetables and spent over 2 hours in the kitchen, cleaning, prepping, and then making a vegan soup for tomorrow's Quaker potluck. Well, I hope it's vegan. The rain brought out the critters and I found many baby slugs taking refuge in the inner celery leaves.
For breakfast, I munched on snow peas and lettuce.
For a late lunch, I enjoyed a plate of steamed snow peas, broccoli and asparagus from partner Don, topped with a bit of butter. I had a cup of the squash soup, and finished off with a mug of Peet's tea from partner Emily.
The soup for tomorrow's potluck is made from butternut squash, frozen cocozelle summer squash, potatoes, leeks, celery, carrots from partner Gaston, turnips from partner Colin, kale, chard, fennel, dehydrated habanero pepper, marjoram from partner Franklin, rosemary from partner Gert and mixed dehydrated vegetables from partner Harvey.
Over the past couple of years, I have attempted to get seeds from beet plants, with varying success. In 2009, I finally had two types of beets blooming in the backyard at the same time: Chioggia and Detroit dark red. I hand-pollinated and came up with Detroggia, I guess, Chioggia being the mom. The germination was pretty good, but unfortunately, they aren't as nice as either star parent. Despite the parentage, these beets aren't getting into Harvard. They have the conical shape of the Chioggia instead of the nice round shape of the Detroit dark red. They have the more pale red color of the Chioggia without the interesting stripes. I haven't tasted them yet, but harvested several for myself and my trading partners to trial. The greens are of high quality, matching the red of rhubarb chard.
We went out to buffet dinner with friends. I ate everything except the lettuces and celery. It was a treat to have some raisins. I had a bit of difficulty with the vegetables. They just don't taste as nutritious as my home-grown vegetables.

Day 5 - I'm in a Rut, but the Garden Chuggs Away

2010-02-07T18:39:00.000-08:00

Today, finally, I could buy myself a bit more variety. I have been getting myself in a rut, with all the grain salads, but there is not much dressing left, and it is mostly just ice-cold and thick olive oil left the jar. All the other ingredients, especially the pungent garlic, have been poured out.
For breakfast, I ate homegrown pumpkin seeds, cooked winter squash with honey, and a glass of lime and grape juice, mixed with water.
I trudged out in the rain to Fresh and Easy, and had the whole place to myself as I enjoyed a cup of coffee, a piece of raspberry danish that didn't taste very fruit-like and bought a carton of eggs for $1.77. That leaves me with 20 cents left over for tomorrow. I'll have a total of $1.03.
For lunch, I enjoyed a large salad, made with romaine and buttercrunch lettuces, mache, purple mustard leaves, radishes, boiled egg, pomegranate seeds, one half of a large beet and the now-famous wheatberry salad, spruced up with extra ground celery and mustard seeds, dehydrated green and red peppers and parsley. I had a cup of the pea soup and a small handful of pumpkin seeds.
For dinner I ate the rest of the wheatberry salad, a bit of potato salad prepared in a similar way, butternut squash soup with a recipe similar to the pumpkin soup I served at the locavore potluck last year. I used almonds from partner Igor instead of the local walnuts. I had a tootsie pop for dessert and dried apples for an evening snack.
I added up the value of my garden produce for January 2010, and the estimate is at $155. February will probably be my lowest month, and not because of the shorter number of days, but because many fall plantings are finishing and the winter-spring plants are slow to produce. It looks like it is pretty much beets, lettuces, celery, greens, peas and onions until the fava beans come on board. I might have a couple of carrots in, we'll see.

Day 4 - BLT

2010-02-04T21:08:00.001-08:00

During the lunch hour, I ran a few errands and then planned to stop by the farmer's market, but it was so cold and dreary I decided to stop by Trader Joe's instead. I headed straight for the free food kiosk, where they were handing out this really decadent bacon dip on melba toast. I also had a small cup of coffee, but only because I tilted the coffee urn for myself and about 10 others so we could all enjoy the last drop.
I did my shopping and came back around, and a new store clerk was handing the bacon and toast snacks, so I had another one. Then she called out,
"Anyone want some bacon?"
As I was going to mention that the bacon was really good, I then realized that she was done with this dish. She actually wanted to hand out the leftover bacon, huge salty strips of BACON! Way too much salt, but really good.
I bought a banana for 19 cents and raced home so I could have the lettuce part of the BLT (that's bacon, lettuce and toast). I made a large salad with garden greens, a small beet, the rest of the wheat berry salad, sprinkled with a handful of pomegranate seeds. It looked like something that would be on the cover of Martha Stewart magazine only she would have put some pancetta on top, but that would have been a bit over the top, eating that with all the extra bacon already in my stomach.
I sat down next to my cats, who left me alone with my salad since it wasn't covered with pancetta, and thought that it sure is a nice time of the year when I can enjoy such high quality lettuce.
The bad news about the banana is that it is very green and I won't be able to enjoy it for a couple of days. I had a tangerine from partner Earl instead.
Tomorrow I will have a balance of $1.97

Day 4 - Soap Flakes

2010-02-04T20:55:00.000-08:00

Last night we almost had a disaster, when a certain overzealous dishwasher dumped a mug of soaking almonds into the hot soapy water. After fishing most of them out, counting them, and washing them several times, I decided that they were very clean yet still good enough to eat. I made some almond milk with a dash of Italian sea salt, and it frothed up pretty well in the blender and I hope not from the soap. It tasted pretty good over the corn flakes from partner Arlene, with some pomegranate seeds from partner Alex and tea from partner Otto.
I don't know how people eat these flakes in the morning. I was hungry about ten minutes later. So for a mid-morning snack, I enjoyed the last of the rice medley with a bit of the dressing from Alex, mache and red onion from the garden and some fresh vegetable broth with a touch of sea salt and some dried parsley.

Day 3 - Afternoon

2010-02-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

I planted potatoes in the garden today, and it was a huge job because I had to move and mix very much new soil and then shovel it back into the planting barrels. I ate a huge salad for a late lunch, with a mix of garden lettuces, arugula from trading partner Walter, radishes, snow peas, almonds and the wheat berry salad. I also finished the last of the bean soup made yesterday.
For an afternoon snack, I finished the vegetable stew, with some rice medley and fresh garden coriander.
For dinner, I ate a large serving of stuffing made with vegetable broth, celery, leek, parsley, bread crumbs from trading partner Arlene, sage from partner Bret, thyme from partner Tomas and salt. It was served with turkey breast from trading partner Cindy, garden beet greens and turnip greens from Colin. I had another Tootsie pop for dessert.
I am snacking on dried apples as I type this.

Day 3 - Naming the Partners

2010-02-03T20:51:00.000-08:00

Well, I sure have blown through all the 2010 hurricane names quickly. Before I started this project, I didn't really know how many partners I had. Now I need an additional list. I read that they don't go to the next year's list if they need more hurricanes, they just use the Greek alphabet. But that is more boring, so I am going to go ahead and use the 2011 hurricane list. One more example of me not following all the rules to the letter.
It was either that or start using Messier objects.

Day 3 - Kraut

2010-02-03T20:23:00.000-08:00

This summer, my mother decluttered her home, including many family farm relics she could no longer use, not that she ever used them in the way they were intended anyway. My grandmother owned several tin kitchen storage containers marked "FLOUR" etc. but Mom stored plastic bags inside instead. There was another contraption she stored right alongside a giant iron coffee grinder that she used for a doorstop. We weren't sure what it was. I had thought all along it was an apple corer, but upon closer inspection, there was no central core. It looked like a 10-pound mini pizza cutter.
We called a local college with a thriving history museum, and an expert in local antiques came over to pick up the donations. We asked him about the apple corer and, surprisingly, it is a cabbage chopper. I had never heard of one of these, and haven't ever seen one on Ebay, either.
We forgot to give the old crock to the historian. It had been in one or another garage for about 70 years, and was cracked and repaired several times. We ended up throwing it outside by the mailbox with a "FREE" sign, hoping someone would rescue it.
With $1.50 today, I decided to "buy" some salt. Actually, I purchased a huge container of sea salt last week because I needed lots to make sauerkraut. I haven't eaten any of the salt until now. This morning I started a fresh batch of sauerkraut so I can enjoy some during this February challenge and also the Locavore Lite 2010 challenge.
It would have been really fun to make sauerkraut just like grandma probably did, with her cabbage chopper and her large pickling crock. I hope my kraut will be just as good as hers probably was.

Day 3 - Settling in

2010-02-03T20:09:00.000-08:00

Today I continued to settle into my early-springtime routine. I am busy preparing the garden, cramming in as much as I can between the rains, and cooking with tons of leeks and celery.
Like yesterday, I woke up early and felt like cooking, so I started making almond milk and broth from all the vegetable scraps. I also put two more trays of parsley into the dehydrator.
I made a wheat berry salad using a similar recipe as yesterday's potato salad. I added the bits of leftover pimento gracing the bottom of the olive jar.
I was pretty hungry this morning, so I had a packet of the nutrition drink from partner Igor, some cooked garden-grown amaranth seed with honey, a bit of the leftover vegetable stew with rice medley, some Earl Grey tea from trading partner Virginie and a few pond scum tablets from partner Igor. I had to fight off the cats to get the pond scum for myself. This isn't from a local pond, it's from Japan.

Day 2 - Dinner

2010-02-02T20:43:00.000-08:00

I did quite a bit of work in the garden today and came in very hungry. For an afternoon snack, I made a potato salad out of my newly-purchased Idaho potatoes, mixed with dressing, olive brine, garden parsley, onion, daikon radish, celery, fresh jalapeno pepper, celery seed and mustard seed. I also had a small amount of yesterday's vegetable stew, topped with garden coriander.
I ate a late dinner, a bean soup made with the finest horticultural beans from partner Richard, carrots from Colin, ham from partner Shary, fresh thyme from partner Tomas, with garlic, celery, leeks and hot pepper from my own gardens. I finished the rice salad, and added lots of shredded garden lettuce. More dried apple slices for dessert, with a warm mug of lemon balm tea.
I don't usually have this much salad, but I am enjoying the salad dressing, knowing that it is expensive to buy and that it will go to waste if I don't use it up quickly.

Day 2 - I can Buy Something!

2010-02-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

I marched off to the supermarket with a fistful of cash, a whole $1.66 to drool around with. I had my eye on a potato sale at Ralph's. I almost didn't know where to look, since I hadn't been in the store for over a year and they did a complete renovation. It looked pretty nice and I am sure they will save on energy used to light up the place.
I bought a 10 pound bag of Idaho potatoes for 99 cents. While I was at the store, I checked a couple of other prices, and ended up in the packaged potato aisle. Turns out for the amount of money I spent on my spuds, I could have purchased half a package of Betty Crocker dehydrated potato dish. Who can afford to buy this stuff? I also ran into a trading partner, which is always nice.
Here's what I had for lunch:
Lettuce with garden radishes, snow peas and parsley, topped with rice salad made with the olive oil dressing, beet and parsley, and of course, my favorite olive brine. I had a few homegrown sunflower seeds, washed down with grape and lime juice from Danielle and Matthew. For dessert, I had a tootsie pop from partner Paula.

Day 2 - Berries for breakfast

2010-02-02T20:08:00.000-08:00

I did a fair amount of cooking early this morning, waiting to see if we would have additional weeks of winter. (The sun finally did come out.) I cooked (and tasted) some basmati rice medley from partner Matthew in some vegetable broth I made from yesterday's scraps. Then I pressure-cooked some wheat berries from partner Nichole that I had soaked the night before. I haven't cooked wheat berries in awhile, and these were much better than the bland and watery concoction I had tried right after I went macrobiotic. Maybe I am just more used to bland food, or just really hungry after yesterday's light eating.
I thought the berries needed a hint more sweetness, so I put a dab of honey from partner Alex on top. I also enjoyed a mix of tangerine, lime and aloe juice. The aloe comes from my own garden. I finished breakfast off with a dish of greens, seasoned with a dash of olive brine, with a mug of tea from partner Otto.

Locavore Lite 2010

2010-02-02T19:54:00.000-08:00

Please stop by the locavore lite 2010 site to learn more about it.
When I told my friends about the Localvore Lite 2010 challenge, they said they didn't have the time or energy to do it, but I mentioned that many of us are already doing it! At least everybody who knows me personally and will accept zucchini doesn't have to worry, even if they don't have time to shop at the farmer's market.
Join us!

Day 1 - Afternoon and Beyond

2010-02-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

Flush with harvesting success, I set about to dehydrate half a tray of parsley. This parsley preservation is going to get old quickly, I can already tell. Here's what I had for an afternoon snack:

Vegetable stew.
Chayote squash from partner Julia
Turnip and carrots from partner Colin
Tikka masala simmer sauce from partner Karl
Celery, leek, parsley, golden chard stalks and fennel bulb from the garden.
I had expected that the jar of masala would be terribly salty, but it was not. The sauce was a bit too bland for the amount that I used. I have to make this jar last, at least until I have enough money saved up for some seasoning, so I used only a couple spoonfuls.

Here's what I ate for dinner:
Handful of almonds from Igor (home grown!)
Leftover vegetable stew, this time with fresh cilantro from the garden. The cilantro really made all the difference!
Garden Rhubarb chard, Siberian kale and garlic sauteed in oil left over in a pan from dinner last night, and a dash of olive brine.
Sliced beets from the garden
The other half of the meal replacement shake
I made a large cup of tea, from herbs I grow in my garden.

I had planned to cook beans for dinner, but their tough skins made soaking difficult, and after a full day on the kitchen counter they were still shriveled and tiny. I pulled out the almonds instead. I don't really want to use all the almonds up in these first few days, since they are so expensive to purchase.
We sat down in the evening to watch House while I snacked on a Lychee jelly cup from partner Lisa, a couple of almonds and a few slices of apple. I thought it was Lupus for sure.
I didn't buy any food today, so I have an 83 cent surplus.

Day 1 - Lunch

2010-02-01T17:30:00.000-08:00

I stopped by the garden and many of my friends/trading partners were there. Since it is getting warmer, the gardens are overrun with winter greens. It is time to rip some older plants out and get ready for spring planting.
After spending waaay too much time gabbing and piddling around with compost, I harvested a large container of veggies for the rest of today and early tomorrow. So here's lunch:
Juice made from a blood orange from partner Danielle and a tangerine from partner Earl
Arugala from partner Fiona
Lettuce from the garden and partner Gaston.
Radishes, mache and snow peas from the garden
Broccoli from partner Hermine
Salad dressing from Alex
1/2 packet meal replacement shake from partner Igor
The lettuce was nice and crispy, and a blend of several varieties. I grew the Freckles and Red Romaine and Gaston grew the Bronze Mignonette and Four Seasons from some seed that I had grown out myself two years ago.

Day 1 - Mid-morning snack

2010-02-01T17:16:00.000-08:00

I stopped by Trader Joe's on my way to errandland. I haven't given TJ's a hurricane name since it is already a trader and it already has a nautical theme. I am not sure if they should be counted as a real trading partner, since I do exchange money with them from time to time. But I did not do so today. The samples were free.
I stopped by the sample table, where they had laid out some very large pieces of toasted raisin bread with butter. I also had a small coffee with cream and sugar. Later, when I walked by, they had put out curried chicken salad. The lone piece of highly-yellow chicken rested on a tiny bed of leaves. The chicken was very cold, and also terribly hot. I hadn't expected all the pepper, and had a coughing fit, so I dashed into the pet aisle so I wouldn't cough all over everybody else's food.
I stopped by TJ's to check on the availability of grass-fed beef. This time, they had it in stock, but it was 6 dollars for a package, and it would take me over a week to save up enough money to buy it. I also checked the raisins. 3.6 days. I have some old home-canned grape juice in the pantry. It's not very sweet, but it will have to do for awhile.

Day 1 - Breakfast

2010-02-01T16:55:00.000-08:00

I realize that if I want a fair account of the first day, I had better start now. It does take some time to write down all I eat. So here's breakfast:
Radishes and buttercrunch lettuce from the garden.
Olive oil and local lime dressing from trading partner Alex.
Dried apple slices from trading partner Bonnie.
Dried apple slices from partner Colin. (Colin's apples are much sweeter so I mix the two.) Both varieties were drenched in lemon juice from Danielle before dehydration.
Yes, the radishes really were the French Breakfast variety. Despite the name, I had never eaten them for breakfast before. I picked them yesterday but forgot to bring them inside. I usually don't eat this type of breakfast, especially in the winter, but the radishes called out to me, for some reason.

Trade Winds

2010-01-30T22:42:00.000-08:00

I have a great group of trading partners. We trade all sorts of things like labor, food, advice, future compost, seeds, plants, books, clothing, and sometimes even the flu.
My trading partners aren’t wasteful (except the dumpsters). For the most part, they are a pretty frugal group. I think that most people don’t want to waste anything, it is just that they don’t always know what to do with the extra things in their lives. That’s why they give them to me. It is a way of rearranging all of the abundance.
Other trading partners are truly grateful for what I give to them, and so they repay me in kind.
Most of my trading partners do not know about the February Dollar a Day Challenge. If they stumble upon this and recognize a gift, they can identify themselves if they want to, but here I will only identify them by the pseudonyms I have assigned them. I will be using the designated names for the 2010 hurricane season.

February Dollar a Day Challenge Rules

2010-01-29T19:05:00.000-08:00

So! here are my rules.

1. Spend no more than a dollar a day for the month of February. I have figured that my gardens cost 17 cents per day, so that leaves me 83 cents per day to play around with at the grocery store or farmer’s market.
2. I am not going to eat anything else from my pantry except items I have grown myself or received from trading partners. Since I harvest from the garden all year ‘round, this rule will not be as difficult for me as it has been for others doing like challenges. In addition, I already have a small stock of foods from trading partners. Most of this stash consists of non-local food items traded during the Eat Local For One Year challenge in 2009.
3. I will replace what homegrown foods I eat out of my pantry with seasonal foods. So, if I eat a serving of frozen zucchini, I will add a rack of parsley or leeks to my dehydrator.
4. If my friends and/or trading partners want to go out to eat, I will go along, and the tab won’t be counted in my daily food total. I’m done with not going out with my friends because of a silly food challenge.
5. I will keep track of my experience on the blog, but I won’t post receipts! Not only has that been done before, but I don’t have a camera.
6. NO RAMEN NOODLES! Unless a trading partner gives them to me.

Why February? In deference to Lessisenough, who started her food challenge last February, and also because it is the slowest time of the year at the garden. Doing this in September would be too easy. I am still on the Locavore Lite 2010 challenge, of course.

Care to join me?

My next post will be all about my trading partners.

You Like Me, You Really Like Me...

2010-01-29T18:37:00.000-08:00

...And now here’s the end of my academy award speech, where I thank everybody that ever helped me, like Mrs. Meier, my first grade teacher, Mr. Hebel, my high school social studies teacher, and, oh, Jerry Maguire.
While I have been inspired by other people’s accounts of their experiments in simple living, sometimes some of them make me feel a bit uncomfortable. Sometimes there is a bit of, “if I can do this, anyone can do it.” Even worse is when it feels like, “if I can’t do it then nobody can do it.” And the very worst is, “If I can do it, you SHOULD do it!” I wish for this experiment to not be all that political. I am not doing this experiment to change any policy or prove any particular point. It’s not about nutrition, food policy, self-deprivation, or the world’s current economic challenges. It’s not about Weston Price, Dorothy Day or Barbara Ehrenreich. It’s more about adaptability, creativity and friendship (OK, and a bit of competition).
I struggled a bit with my rules, and how I would start this experiment. Should I start from scratch, with nothing in the house to eat? Or, should I eat what’s here, with the risk of my expenses being so low because I am just spending down the pantry?
No matter what I would try, there would be no way for me to start from scratch. My garden has been going along for awhile, the soil is in shape, the plants are in, and I know how to grow them. I learned much about gardening from Mom and Dad and how far back does that assistance go? My grandfather’s rose garden, my other grandfather’s farm, my great aunt’s cabbage grater? Many in my community, from undocumented Mexican gardeners who help me load grass clippings into my car every Tuesday morning, to my friends with horse and chicken manure, to the seemingly careless drivers who leave planting containers and shovels in the roadways, have contributed to my compost pile. There is no way to go back to scratch. I am not even going to try that much.
I’ll admit, not everybody can do this. Some can do better for sure. Nobody else has my DNA, my climate, my upbringing, my schooling, my relatively affluent neighborhood. Nobody has the same initial or current conditions, so everyone’s experiment, if they choose to do one, will have a different outcome.
I hope I have a good outcome. So, thank you all. I've misplaced that crumpled envelope I stashed in my pocket and they're starting to play music. You know who you are!

Raw January Morning

2010-01-22T23:37:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a bit too cold for me to seriously consider a raw food diet, but Randy's raw beet salad sounded really good. I hadn't been out to the garden since the rains began, and was running low on fresh local veggies, but I knew I still had some beets. I made a few modifications to the recipe. I added local tangerine juice instead of orange juice. Since my beets were a bit overgrown and a little tough, and they had at some point in their rooty lives experienced a bit of pretesting by various rodents, I decided to peel them first.
I placed the marinated beets on a bed of salad greens I gathered on Sunday afternoon during the first rain shower.
The salad was tasty, but I was unprepared for the amount of time it would take to chew the beets. They had almost a beef jerky quality, and despite being cold, the salad was pretty satisfying.

February Dollar a Day Challenge

2010-01-18T20:34:00.000-08:00

During the middle of the Eat Local For One Year challenge, Kris addressed the costs of adhering to a local food diet. Most participants found that our costs were down from when we were eating any old kind of food, mostly because we weren't eating the high-cost packaged or take-out selections, and pretty much everything had to be prepared from scratch. Others spent less money on food because they started putting up their garden produce in 2008. We were able to keep our food bill down to under 2 dollars a day per person during 2009, but I wondered if I could go lower.
I have been inspired by others who have participated in budget food challenges, like The One Dollar Diet Project and the Less is Enough challenge. So, for the month of February, I am going to try to eat for under a dollar a day. I think this will be easier than the other challenges for two reason. First, I plan to take advantage of my own produce gardens. Second, I have a group of trading partners. My trading partners may be locavores, far-o-vores, dumpsters, organizations and other trading entities. (OK, maybe the dumpsters aren't really trading partners since I rarely throw anything away.) I will not reveal the identity of any of my trading partners on any new posts. I will say that most of my trading partners have been gracious recipients of my endless stream of zucchini and buttercrunch lettuce, and they pass along to me what they have. Some give me gleanings, some their leftovers, some gifts for favors, but none of the trades are for money. We all help each other.
Please stay tuned for more details.

Oops! I Did it Even More Again (The Sequel)

2010-01-17T10:07:00.000-08:00

Didn't I learn anything about squash this year? I grow plenty on my own, and now I am getting plenty of chayote to eat and pass around. Recently I planted a sprouting chayote on a little plot in the backyard. There is plenty of room for the squash vine to grow up some evergreen bushes, reach the olive tree, climb over to a grove of baby live oak trees and continue on down the street into my neighbor's yard, all the while clogging sewer lines, disrupting cable, irritating the Homeowner's Association Police.
I know better. I just couldn't help myself.

Are Freegans Local?

2010-01-11T22:00:00.000-08:00

Starting in February, I will be trying a new food experiment. I’ll admit, I think I’ll make a better Freegan than a Locavore.
One of the seemingly unavoidable consequences of starting the ELFOY project one year ago was food waste. One reason that I joined the project at all was because of my concern over environmental issues associated with wasteful food industry practices. It just didn’t seem right to toss perfectly good food after January 1 just because it came from far away.
A few weeks into the project, the core group had a meeting to discuss changes to the challenge. One of the changes we agreed to was that it would be OK to eat non-local food if it was going to be thrown away. This was supposed to be an occasional event, but exactly how often was never clarified. Is it a couple of times a month, or a couple of times a day?
If you were walking by a dumpster and heard a baby crying, would you dive in and rescue it? Of course you would! You would rescue the baby and call 911 and get that baby adopted into a loving family that will honor its right to its intended life purpose. Wouldn’t you? What if it wasn’t a real crying baby, but just a bag of European baby greens, or little baby patty pan squash or new potatoes? What if some farmer lovingly planted heirloom seeds, carefully watered, tended, harvested, packaged, padded and shipped it, only to have a grocery store overbuy and throw it away, the rest of its life and purpose interrupted, and all the accompanying energy consumption down the drain?
And what if the food was grown in Peru or Chile or Ecuador, flown here, and then thrown in a dumpster? Wow, for a locavore, that is even worse! OK, what if it was just harvested by a cog in the agribusiness machine? Wouldn’t you still want to rescue it? Well, I would, at least.
To my way of thinking, when the food is from the dumpster, the food-miles get set back to zero. If, by rescuing them, they stay out of the landfill, then the food-miles are even in negative territory, sort of like carbon offsets, without all that pimped out buying and selling at some European exchange.

Chayote Challenge

2010-01-11T11:03:00.000-08:00

I received a ton of local overgrown chayote and this month, I am determined to try them in as many recipes as I can. My first experiment was to cook the chayote whole, scoop out the cooked flesh and then "grill" it in butter, garlic and Indian spices. Unfortunately, I didn't get to try much of it because when I checked the fridge, it was all gone. Next I tried a mock mango chutney. It looked a little sad until I added some turmeric for color. It was a hit at a dinner party I attended, and my hosts asked to keep the leftovers. And I have to say, I can't think of a more perfect complement to corn chips. Here's the recipe:
Chayote chutney
1 large chayote squash
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup raisins
1 garlic clove
2-3 fresh hot red chili peppers, chopped and seeded
1/4 t powdered mustard
1/4 t powdered ginger
1 clove, crushed
1/8 t garam masala
dash turmeric for color
Cook the chayote whole by poking it with a fork and microwaving it (about 6 min) until slightly soft. Let the chayote cool slightly and then remove and discard the seed and skin, and chop the squash into large chunks. Mix the squash, onion, pepper, garlic, vinegar and sugar and raisins in a saucepan and cook the mixture until the squash is soft and the other ingredients are cooked through. Mix in the other spices and cook for 1 minute or until the mixture is slightly thickened. Cool and place into a clear glass jelly jar. The chutney will thicken as it cools.
For my next trial, I used an extremely overgrown squash and just sauteed the cooked squash in garlic, olive oil, fennel, salt and fresh parsley, as I would potato. I'll have to say that I prefer the chayote at a less-mature stage, and sure prefer the chutney. But, who needs all that sugar? I am going to tinker with a version with honey, and less sweetness overall and with more red pepper so the color is better.

Transition Times

2010-01-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

As soon as the ball dropped on New Year's eve, I reached for one of the last Christmas cookies. These cookies had been staring me in the face ever since I brought them home from a cookie party a week before Christmas. Now they were mine!
At 12:01, I ate the cookie, followed by some turkey with mayo. (I had purchased the mayo a couple of weeks in advance, in anticipation of the new year.) I woke up in the middle of the night, sick. Guess I will have to ease back into mayo, or maybe give it up altogether.
Many reintroduced foods have been a challenge for me in the past couple of weeks. There is something really wrong with lots of the conventional food that many of us buy. I visited a discount store and bought a few condiments and olive/type concoctions. Many of the food items in the store, if they were labeled at all, came from China. I don't really trust this food anymore, and will ease back into as much local food as much as I can muster.
This week, I have been enjoying the re-emergence of local navel oranges, limes and tangerines brought to the table. The Meyer lemons growing in my backyard are almost ripe. I have added beyond-100-mile California almonds, raisins and milk back into my diet, with an occasional banana from somewhere else. We enjoyed a large plate of steamed carrots, turnips and asparagus harvested from the community garden, along with the usual leeks and greens. I have prepared chayote in many new ways.
So this year I resolve to find more friends in warmer locations to grow backyard bananas, to learn how to make some decent pickles and kraut and to move farther away from "denatured" foods of all kinds.

We're Done!

2010-01-03T09:51:00.000-08:00

The yearlong food experiment is over, and we celebrated with a wonderful potluck at Jo and Kris's home. Most of the remaining core members brought a dish still made with local foods, but with a few non-local flourishes. Kris kept us filled with fresh coffee, offering dabs of local honey and some coconut milk. It sure is nice to have coffee all the time!
Though I had plenty of difficult days, I am certainly glad, now that it is over, that I participated in the food challenge all year. Things I thought would be really hard turned out to be pretty easy. I really had not too much trouble going without prepared condiments and exotic spices. I was surprised that the social aspect of eating with my friends would be the hardest challenge of the year.
It was pretty fun on the first day of this year, hearing each remaining core member recount their experiences. I wasn't the only participant who found themselves becoming uncharacteristically picky about the quality of their food, their lessening comfort level upon visiting a typical grocery store, their continuing commitment to local eating and the big reduction in their trash.
Will I continue? You bet, with the Locavore Lite 2010 plan. I will continue to try to grow as much of my own food as I can, eat locally-grown foods, trade with my friends and neighbors and eat as close to the ground as I can. But this week has also included Napa Valley wine, Indian spices, coffee, wheat berries and miso soup.

My Syncretic Food Culture - Part 4 - On My Own

2009-12-29T17:54:00.000-08:00

“Do you make sandwiches?”
Shortly after I asked, I realized what a stupid question it was.
It was my first week in New York, and I was lured out of my efficiency hotel into a strip mall by a yarn shop. It was situated right next to a deli. I had never been into a real deli before, but at the supermarket, we used to buy fancy rolls and sliced cold-cuts. Then we would take them home and make poor-boys in the oven.
The guys in the deli made a big joke of it, and it was like they were handing out wings, and not the blue cheese and hot sauce variety either.
Once in my own apartment and in charge of my own food choices, I tried many recipes found in my first cookbook, “Recipes for a Small Planet”. My first experiment with soy grits tasted a bit like barfed-up dog food. I made a weekly batch of the granola, and then branched out to various muffin recipes. Upstate New York was dotted with farm stands on the honor system, so in the fall I picked up a bushel of apples and a huge bag of table squash. I joined the local food co-op which offered an additional discount in exchange for extra work hours. My main job was to pick up free-range eggs and fresh milk from local farmers and bring them to the co-op.
One of my favorite jobs was to restock the macrobiotic section. I had never heard of any of these strange foods before, but was intrigued by the large wooden vats of miso and the tofu blocks floating in large plastic buckets. We were the only place in town that carried tofu retail, and we did a pretty high volume on the Saturday mornings I worked there. The macrobiotic way became my new lifestyle, and was really my first formal introduction to eating local foods on purpose. In macrobiotics, it is always better to eat local, both in place (especially latitudinally) and in time. (Of course, it was also OK to eat any kind of food from Japan.) I really warmed up to the idea of eating locally and seasonally, with whole foods. The co-op made it easy for me. All the foods and produce selections were labeled with place of origin, and if they were grown organically or transitionally. I enjoyed making the new signs when we started carrying a new product or vegetable.
When I got to California, macrobiotics didn’t survive the move. Somehow it didn’t seem right to shun certain tropical foods that were growing like weeds in my backyard. What worked in the cold Northeast wasn’t working as well in our Mediterranean climate. I started eating tomatoes, peppers and the citrus fruits that my neighbors gave me. But I never did give up my love of seasonal eating or my favorite comfort food, miso soup.

Stored sunshine

2009-12-21T20:17:00.000-08:00

Throughout the summer and into fall, pumpkins and winter squashes have been marching their way into the kitchen.
What is it about pumpkins? At all the corners of my garden, my baby pumpkins accumulate right by the fencing. It is almost like they run run run as fast as they can, and then when they hit a fence roadblock, they say, "Well, this is a good a place as any," and they flower like crazy and all the pumpkins are piled in a heap by the chicken wire.
The tatume plant employs a a different strategy. It likes to run along the edge of the fence, leaving the fruit at carefully spaced intervals along the way. The plants situate themselves so that the fruit sticks out through the chicken wire fence out into the pathway.
Whatever feng shui strategy the mighty orange ones decide to follow out in the garden, I am in charge after the harvest. I try to keep up with a FIFO system, and have put the babies up on cardboard box pedestals so they won't rot as easily. I dust, rearrange and dote over these orange Hummels, and like chickens, I bring the fresh ones in every night to keep them from predators and let them rest in their "nesting boxes". Every few days, an older pumpkin goes to the chopping block.
Today is the shortest day, but I made up for it by eating plenty of stored sunshine. When I am busy or tired, it just seems like too much work to "boot up" a squash. This week I tried something new. I cut up a buttercup and threw it in the pressure cooker. It cooked for only 12 minutes, and when I was still warm, I put on some local butter and honey. I think this is about the best squash I have ever eaten in my life.
The other squashes are looking a bit nervous, and they have good reason to be worried.

Es ist ein Ros' Entsprungen

2009-12-17T23:02:00.000-08:00

Behold, a branch is growing, right out of the place where I planted the chayote squash. I guess it is coming back to life after all. There is another branch a'growing on my kitchen counter, of loveliest form and grace, right out of the squash I was to prepare for a Christmas dinner. Right now, it's colonizing the kitchen, wrapping many tendrils around my window coverings and heading towards a light fixture. I must do something.

Cookie Exchange - My winning entry??

2009-12-14T20:24:00.000-08:00

Every year my neighbor hosts a cookie and gift exchange, and this year I have decided to use my last December exception meal to celebrate Christmas and eat lots of great locally-made cookies.
I thought long and hard about this one. What prize-winning cookie could I make with red amaranth, honey and chard? One year I DID make some interesting dog biscuits for the gift exchange, and last year made another really popular batch with favorite locally-sourced ingredients such as chicken fat, winter squash and dried kale. They turned out to be less of a hit when my husband popped one in his mouth before fully comprehending what they were all about, but the dog really loved them.
I couldn't do this to my friends again, after all, I want them to remain friends. I decided to make something simple and non-local, something I really like, but with an added decadence.
The cookie would have to contain lots of pecans, for sure, and probably macadamia nuts and cherries. I stopped at a couple of stores looking for cherries, but could find none.
Yesterday at the public market, a man was selling hoshigaki persimmons, so I bought a package to use in January. Today I decided to incorporate them into my oatmeal cookies. Here's the recipe:

Hashigaki Oatmeal Cookies
Use the recipe on the lid of the Quaker Oats box with the following changes:
use only 3/4 cup raisins
Add 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Add 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
Add 1/2 cup chopped macadamia nuts
Add 1/2 cup chopped pecans
Add 1 cup chopped hoshigaki dried persimmons
Bake according to package directions

Next week I hope to get to the public market again and purchase more of these wonderful persimmon treats before the season is over.

Stepford farmers market?

2009-12-14T00:01:00.000-08:00

I went to my new local Farmer's Market today. I guess all the real Ventura county farmers were at the Ojai market. Only a few veggie booths had food that looked real. Several fruit booths were staffed with knowledgeable and friendly merchants, but the fruit was mostly from Northern California. There was an egg guy from San Diego.
What I found most unusual is a complete absence of signage. These farmers and their farms have no names, no business cards, no addresses, no organic certificates on display.
Yes, yes, all the strawberries were from Oxnard, they said.
Then again, I stopped at a booth with all sorts of overpriced candied nuts, and artificially-colored dried fruit. When I asked about origin, the lady with the blank stare told me they were from Lancaster. I mentioned that they couldn't all have been grown in Lancaster, and asked which foods were grown there. She said most of them were. When I asked which foods specifically, she admitted that only the cashews had been grown in Lancaster.
I still haven't decided if I am going to join the Locavore Lites in 2010. I will have to agree to visit a farmer's market at least once a month. I sure wish there was a way to be a Locavore Lite while enjoying my own local vegetables instead of patronizing fake markets.

Hard Frost

2009-12-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

This week, I went outside to find that a heavy frost killed several basil plants and the rain that had collected on a container lid was freezing into large sheets, trapping a lone chayote seedling. Unfortunately, I did not move all my tomato and pepper plants out of harms way. I will know in a few weeks which plants will survive and which I will have to replace. The ice-locked chayote seedling is doing well, but unfortunately, another larger seedling located in an open area has died back. Hopefully it will regrow.
The dehydrator is bursting with peppers this week, filling my living room with the scent of sweet peppers and sending me into coughing fits from the drying habanero's.

Packing up for the Winter

2009-12-03T23:50:00.000-08:00

My backyard garden is in transition. A few extra kale volunteers and some Chinese kale are safely tucked into a row cover. There is also one row of beets from my own seeds. (They are a cross of Chioggia and Detroit dark red beets, who knows what will happen?)
Today I picked the last of the sweet peppers and trimmed the branches down to stubs. Tomorrow I will tuck the plants under the eaves and try to leave them alone during the winter. I snacked on the last ripe tomato and a few jalapeno peppers. The peppers weren't hot, typical for this time of year.
This weekend I will harvest the rest of the poblano peppers and slowly turn them into ancho's in the dehydrator.
I had planned to remove the summer vines from several planters and start some winter baby greens, but apparently the tomatoes got the demolition twitter and got back to work. Will I have Sungold tomatoes at the final locavore potluck in January? They may be tasteless, but it will still be delicious.

Winter Squash at the Community Garden

2009-12-03T07:19:00.000-08:00

It was a real treat to get to the community garden after several days off for the holidays. I don't usually notice how much it grows when I visit every day. Since I am entertaining guests this week, I need lots of fresh veggies for soup and salads. Here's what is in the harvest basket this week:
I am still harvesting a bit of zucchini and baby butternut squash! They are tiny but very appreciated. The beans have been growing and flowering and I was able to harvest several servings. I harvested over a cup of small broccoli flowerettes, and a couple of small fennel bulbs. I left the leeks alone. Before Thanksgiving, I harvested gobs of leeks, only to leave them at home when packing our car for the trip, so I have plenty. I did snag a few scallions. I also brought home plenty of kale and chard, two greens that were greatly missed during our time away. I also harvested plenty of celery for the bean pot.
We made a large salad with freckles romaine lettuce and baby purple mustard. This practice will probably continue almost daily until late spring.
And the new events at the garden? The cabbage is bursting out of its cage, so I set them free. My transplanted lettuce has been eaten down to stubs inside its cage. Slugs? Not sure, but I am sure something is happy and well-fed. The garlic is up, and the newer broccoli plants are ready to start flowering.

Salad competition - Locavore potluck redo

2009-11-25T20:54:00.000-08:00

Kris posted his salad, but now we need a salad-off. Since I don't have a camera, I'll have to describe what I got to eat this week. I started with spinach from R, freshly plucked from his garden, crispy-tender and very curly. I added my own freckles romaine baby lettuce, and plenty of lettuce that B gave to me. (She was in Ojai this Sunday and went a little hog-wild at the farmer's market.) The varieties look like cos romaine, red oak, lolla rossa and buttercrunch. She also gave me some tender new asparagus, so I steamed it along with the haricot vert string beans and baby broccoli from my garden. I chopped a huge orange sweet tequila sunrise pepper and a small but deadly orange habanero and added it to the mix. The radishes came from M's garden. They were large and pink, with pink markings on the inside. I also slivered my own celery stalks, scallions and baby fennel.
I did have a dressing, made with local olive oil, sea salt, lime juice from La Casa, Italian and lemon basil from my patio, and R's dried marjoram. I topped the salad with sweet pomegranate seeds that P gave to me.

Chayote

2009-11-23T18:18:00.000-08:00

Rachel gave me some of these interesting squashes last year, but by the time I got to them, they were infested with bugs, and I had to throw them out. This year, I got another set, and they were doing well on the counter. Yesterday I noticed that all of them were sprouting. I planted one squash and cooked another. I still have one left for the Thanksgiving holidays.
I cooked the chayote in the microwave, and threw the cooked insides in the blender with a little water. I was unprepared for how GOOD the squash tastes plain. Creamy, green, buttery. I want to make a cold cucumber soup out of it, or any kind of soup, or a dip, or maybe try to pickle it.
I have grown this plant before. R donated a plant every spring for the garden plot we had for the food bank. I took care of it all summer, waited patiently for it to flower and fruit, took bags and bags of the squash to the food bank and tore the whole plant down after a hard frost, but I had never eaten it. The final year, the weight of the plant broke the metal trellis, and we tried planting another one in the back 40, but unfortunately it died.
This spring I will have to rig up some sort of sturdy trellis and grow it in an area that is protected by frost.

Lazy Housewife Ronco Gardening

2009-11-19T20:13:00.001-08:00

I have added another permanent plant to my garden, one that requires virtually no care or replanting, only an undisturbed place in the garden. First it was bunching onions. Then, to my surprise, I found out that overgrown leeks come up with baby plants all around, so when the leek is harvested (for soup!?) the tiny plants can be replanted. I have a couple of pole bean varieties that come up year after year. I just cut them down for the season and throw some mulch on top.
My scheme was to discover and promote plants that re-seed themselves like crazy, ensuring a steady supply year after year with little effort. The list started with celery, and then branched out with Italian parsley, leeks, amaranth, chard, kale, and my new favorite, fennel.
My fennel experiment last fall turned out so well that I tried to sneak another crop in this spring. Both batches of seeds took forever to germinate, and the plants struggled in the beginning, but I decided that the taste was worth it. The spring plants didn't do too well. They took forever to get going and then went to seed with the heat. I kept them around anyway, enjoying the tasty seeds and watching the birds devour them. One morning, the cat was going bonkers, so I looked out the window and saw about 20 flitty birds perched on a single fennel plant, eating all the seeds in a few moments.
Eventually the tomatoes overtook the fennel plot and I couldn't get through the thicket anyway, so I just left it. This fall, while cleaning, I discovered about a million fennel seedlings. After transplanting tons of the seedlings, I discovered that plenty of fennel bulbs were growing out of the roots of the plants I had harvested earlier. And, like the bunching onions and chard before, seed-saving and even transplanting is a waste of time if the plant just won't die and just won't quit. I get to eat fennel every day, tons of these little bulblets, much more sweet and tender than the best of last year's harvests.
A neighbor commented that my gardens had character, but I think that one of them is just overgrown. If I squint hard enough, there is a large area that looks like a lawn. Look closely and visitors will see that it is just a field of Italian parsley and fennel seedlings, mowed down by munching rodents.
I have decided that the many of our favorite foods through the years are just noxious weeds that also happen to be tasty. Ronco-set-it-and-forget-it growing, self-sowing, self-mowing. An elegant kind of laziness. This gives me more time this winter to curl up with a hot mug of herb tea and browse through all the seed catalogs.

Our last Official Potluck for the year

2009-11-16T22:09:00.000-08:00

Now we are into full-scale winter hibernation. There are no more official locavore potlucks for the rest of the year, AND the farmers' market is closing. I stopped by the community garden and almost no one else was there. The majority of gardeners aren't really into winter crops, so they don't come as often.
There is no better way to celebrate a hibernation than to make a big pot of soup. This morning I cooked up a pot of turkey, rice and vegetable broth. To the mix I added my last carrot, a good bit of celery, a leek, more string beans, fennel, broccoli, peppers, chard, kale, Cinderella pumpkin, baby butternut squash, dried and frozen zucchini, dried peas and some dried herbs.

Bean Wars

2009-11-11T15:51:00.000-08:00

My late beans are finally in! They seem to take so long this time of year, but well worth the wait. The first of the new crop of haricot verts was in this Monday, and now we are fighting over who gets to eat them all. I have only a few plants, but I am getting about one serving per day.
I had such good luck with this variety in the cold spring that it is here for another round. Hopefully the crop will keep going until the peas are ready. That may be a long time, since the first planting of peas is being trimmed mightily by some hungry animal.

Shopping Trip

2009-11-09T18:30:00.000-08:00

I can count the number of times I visited a typical grocery store this year on one hand, and still have some fingers left. But this week, I did venture into one to purchase an exception for this month. Turkeys are already on sale and I wanted to get a bird and roast it while it is cool enough to run the oven.
The first thing I noticed is how much stuff there was. Aisles and aisles of different stuff that people call food, and hardly anything out of stock or out of season. Everything was in straight rows and behind some type of square or plastic packaging. There was a notable lack of bluegrass music. It was very shiny and bright and cold, especially in the cheese aisle. I felt like I was in a bowling alley instead of a place to get food.
I checked out the bean and rice aisle and was amazed at the variety and size selection. It seemed endless! And the prices! They sure shot up this year on the formerly cheap staples. I had no clue this price climb was even happening.
I stopped by the produce aisle to check out a couple of prices. Wow, three dollars for a dinky butternut squash, and it wasn't even organic. My squash looks much cuter, and I am not counting the dollar signs going by as I eat a forkful of it.
This is the first time this year that any of my food was swiped. It seemed otherworldly. My checker was super friendly and quite a jokester, as he screwed up my tab and tried to fix it several times. We finally got it straight and they even offered to load up my car. Now that has never happened at the farmer's market.

Amaranth challenge

2009-11-03T17:43:00.000-08:00

I sure have harvested lots of the stuff this fall. Several plants ready for harvesting blew over during the Santa Ana winds, chucking lots of their seeds, which sprouted crazily, so I have a second crop. I really want amaranth to work out as a food crop. Who could argue with a plant that grows like a weed, yet grows so beautifully, with almost no water and no care?
Now, what to do with them. I tried cereal awhile back. I roasted the seeds and then ground them up with a mortar and pestle. I didn't get all the seeds, and the cereal was gritty.
Today I decided to give it another try. This time I made sure that all the seeds were crushed, although it sure did take a long time to process. The seeds don't work in the blender and are too small for my grain grinder or my pepper mill, so I am stuck with this hand method for awhile.
While enjoying my pounding meditation, my thoughts drifted to amaranth pancakes with apples. So, I tried mixing up a batter and cooking it in a buttered frying pan. It turned out with the look and texture of a blood clot, but it tasted much better than that. I could eat this again.
After breakfast, I headed to the garden, and stayed there over 5 hours, planting garlic, doing hard labor at the compost bins and helping a friend move a few yards of topsoil. I kept thinking about how unhungry I was, after eating the local breakfast.
I have to figure out more ways to prepare this nice food. This afternoon, the backyard birds were pecking away at the amaranth fronds laid out in piles to dry. They love picking through the leftovers I use as mulch in the kohlrabi bed. There will be plenty for everybody, and much entertainment for the cats.

Pumpkin at the Potluck

2009-10-31T13:39:00.000-07:00

The pumpkin soup I had been planning all year for the potluck was a hit! The hardest part was growing the pumpkins. I started seedlings in February, and got some of them into the ground by March. The Cinderella pumpkin seedlings were transplanted a bit later in April. Both pumpkin patches had lots of compost that I made through the spring and summer of 2008 with horse manure from a friend, food waste from the local food bank and garden refuse. In the early spring, I cleaned out a friend's chicken coop, so the chicken manure was also added to the soil.
Now that I have shared the recipe for the compost and the soil, here's the recipe for the soup. I cooked the squash and made the broth the day before, prepared the tureen on the morning of the potluck and then did all the other stuff shortly before eating. I fully cooked the tureen two days later and it will take us another month to eat it all. That was one big pumpkin!
Soup
1 butternut squash
1 small eating-type pumpkin (I used Baby Pam)
1 Cinderella pumpkin
1 orange or red sweet pepper
2 red serrano peppers
1/2 cup raw walnuts
2 leeks
several green onions
several ribs celery
1 clove garlic
1 t coriander
olive oil
salt
water

Cut the squash and small pumpkin into pieces, remove the seeds for another use, and simmer in a large pan with 1/2 inch of water, covered, for 20 minutes. Let it cool gradually while you are doing everything else.
Soak the walnuts for several hours, and throw the soaking water into the compost pile.
Chop the bottom part of the leek, the white part of the onion, the bottom part of the celery, peppers and garlic, reserving the veggie tops, leaves and skins for broth. Saute the chopped veggies in olive oil until tender and let cool until they are easily handled.
Finely chop the veggie tops and leaves and put in a pan and cover with water, simmer for 5 minutes, cover and let cool for 15 minutes.
Strain the broth and add to a blender with the walnuts. Puree on high until smooth. Pour into a large pot.
Add the sauteed veggies to the blender and puree with additional water until they are smooth. Put the veggies through a food mill and add them to the large pot.
Scoop out the squash and small pumpkin pulp and put through the food mill and add it to the large pot. Add more water or broth until you get the desired consistency.
Toast the coriander seeds until they are fragrant and then grind with a mortar and pestle, and add to the pot. Season with salt to taste. Heat on simmer, stirring, until warm enough to serve.

Tureen recipe.
Cut an opening in the top of the Cinderella pumpkin like for a Jack-o-lantern, scoop out the seeds and strings, put the lid back on and place on a large baking pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. This is enough to get rid of the raw taste but not enough to cause the pumpkin to cave in. The flesh of this pumpkin is not scooped out and used for the soup.
While the tureen is still warm, add the hot soup.
The tureen will store very well in the fridge with the lid on for a couple of days, and can then be fully cooked and used for even more soup. You can also toast all the pumpkin and squash seeds the next day as long as they are washed and dried well.

Apple Time

2009-10-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

This week has been the time for apples. I have a dear gardening friend who has a few trees, and like myself, not enough time or freezer space to save everything. The dehydrator has been on most of the week, and I have several large containers of the sweet and chewy dried treats.
When I got the first of this year's apples, I made a ton of applesauce. We are tired of it now, and I am tired of cooking it.

My Syncretic Food culture - Part 3 - Teen rebellion

2009-10-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

Once we went to a family reunion far out in the country, held in a large building with white wood siding, as white as the old white limestone foundation that matched the color of the gravel covering the parking lot. There were some older relatives in there, in overhauls, with braided hair much longer than their beards. At the last reunion, they brought squirrel meat, so this time I refused to join in all the fun, and just spent my time in the car, fingerknitting and trying to improve the reception to my favorite top 40 radio station.

Who could forget the year that Taco Bell opened up a store in town? A classmate told me about it, and how she loved tacos. She described them to me, but I didn’t get the picture. In Buckminsterfullerite-fashion, I asked,
“How high are they?”
“They aren’t high, they’re just tacos,” she replied.
“Well, are they flat?”
“They aren’t flat. They’re folded over, but they aren’t high.”
We had to travel quite awhile to get to the Taco Bell, but it was worth it. Finally White Castles had some competition. I fancied myself too cool to “drive through Steak” and quit going to that other burger place when my best friend renamed it McDonny’s. We went there all the time, and lingered for hours because one of the employees looked like Donny Osmond.

I got a job in an institutional kitchen, and started rescuing all sorts of foods that were to be thrown away. Soon we had as many bags of old French toast and containers of pancake batter as we had dabs of bacon fat to re-fry them in.

I wanted to be a hippie, just like my hippie English teacher. He lived downtown in gentrified co-housing with other hippie vegetarians. Unable to move into a hippie commune at that age, I become a vegetarian instead. The early meatless years were filled wheat germ brownies made from Jim’s recipe and home-made stone-ground whole wheat bread. I learned to cook my own soups and fend for myself at breakfast.

Brain food

2009-10-10T16:06:00.001-07:00

A week ago I harvested my first Jerusalem artichoke. I thought I would get a few small roots, since the plant had been attacked several times and had blown over during the Santa Ana winds. I was surprised to dig up a very large root, about the size and appearance of a brain.
The next day, the burrowing animals made a dash towards the remaining tubers and created a very large hole necessary to cart off the goods. So I harvested the other plant, and got another really large brain.
I really like the smoky flavor and texture of these chokes, and have let it be known that my temperamental potatoes are in danger of being replaced by a new BFF (best food forever). I think they got the message. After tearing out some old tomato plants, I found some really great potato plants, and they are trying their best to grab my attention.
I am now in the process of preparing soil for an additional choke bed. Thanks to Donna for introducing this new food to the locavores and for giving me the cuttings. Many folks at the community garden are also getting cuttings this year. They appreciate the perennial and drought-tolerant qualities, and it is just so cool to have pretty flowers all summer and then get all this great brain food at the end of the season.

October exceptions

2009-10-01T17:46:00.000-07:00

This month's selections: Rice, cinnamon and something else. Not sure yet. Not sure I care anymore. Now that the dry beans are harvested I am perfectly fine with a wide variety of vegetarian foods for now. Perhaps I will choose milk. I can find local milk, but I miss aged cheeses. I fear that if I pick it as my main protein option, cheese is all I will eat all day long. Any suggestions?

Cinnamonizing

2009-09-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

I have been cinnamized! Now that the apples and squash are an every day part of my diet and my canning and preserving routine, I continue to use cinnamon as an exception. I guess I'll have to pick it for the rest of this food experiment, because the craveable spice has worked its way into just about every batch of sauce.
Every year, I promise myself two things. One is to label my seedlings and plantings properly, so that I know what I am working with in case a new plant is successful. The second thing is to label all the stuff that goes into my freezer, you know, all that important information like date and contents.
The other day I almost made a big cooking mistake by defrosting 3/4 cup of melded lime juice cubes and almost putting it into the brown rice. Now it isn't as bad as if I was fumbling for the toothpaste and ended up brushing my teeth with something like progesterone cream or Bon Ami. But I realize that my freezer, and my dehydrated food stash has gotten out of control, and I don't want to wait until January to start enjoying some of my stash.

29 pounds!

2009-09-15T17:40:00.000-07:00

I wish I could say that 29 pounds is the amount of weight I lost so far on the locavore diet, but I have even better news. With just one last pumpkin in the field, it looks like the largest is in, weighing in at the title weight.
It looks pretty nice curing on the patio, and next to it, the baby pie pumpkins look like sungold tomatoes.
This summer I have successfully replaced corn with pumpkins and squash as my ubiquitous food ingredient. I enjoy pumpkin and walnut shakes for breakfast, pumpkin butter, squash chips, squash pickles, pumpkin with applesauce and blueberries for an evening snack, squash "spaghetti", pumpkin seeds, pumpkin seed milk, cheese-stuffed squash blossoms.

Update on the V11

2009-09-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

I waited a whole day for the newly-minted juice to chill, and I think it was the oregano or other herbs, but it just did not work. I did have a cup of soup for dinner and it was wonderful.

V11

2009-09-09T21:24:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I don't know how my aunt canned 40+ quarts of tomato juice every season. Even with my new food mill, it does take some time to make even 1 quart. My first attempt was by accident. I had too many tomatoes on hand, and had to process them or lose them, but I didn't have enough time for sauce so I just cooked them, milled them, and threw the juice in the fridge for later. Well, it sure was looking good all by itself after a hot morning in the garden. I mixed it with a little bit of lemon juice and it was wonderful.
Today I made another batch with other vegetables. I haven't enjoyed very much of it yet, since it needs to be Arctic-cold and that won't be until tomorrow.
Here's my recipe:
4 cups tomato
1 rib celery
1 red serrano pepper
1 slice cooked chopped beet
1 green onion
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup chard (I used the red kind)
pinch oregano
pinch summer savory
2 sprigs Italian basil
1 sprig lemon basil
Cut the tomatoes into chunks. Finely chop the other ingredients. Simmer for 15 minutes and put through a food mill. Chill.

Fall is here!

2009-09-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

Not according to the weather, only according to what is being planted and harvested in the garden. The tomatoes are finishing up and I am tearing them out to get the soil ready for fall. I have already planted broccoli, onion, parsley, chard and cauliflower seedlings, and direct-planted bush beans, spinach, daikon radish, and several kinds of kale. I am harvesting many leek seeds, the late amaranth, and the last of the dry beans.
I also direct-seeded lettuce seedlings today. This is the earliest I have attempted lettuce. I just got tired of cleaning and winnowing some seed, so I just decided to toss it into some shady nooks and see what happens. Every year I push the seasons just a little but, but this is the first time I have planted the coolest crops when it is near 100 degrees outside.
I also tried to clean out more of the overgrown chard, and I scattered the seedlings all about. I don't even bother to plant that much chard anymore, unless I need a specific color. This fall, I am looking forward to a variety of gold and red volunteers.

My syncretic Food Culture – Part 2

2009-09-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

Dad was from the heartland, and we lived there, too. He grew up on a farm, and even though he eventually went to school and work in the city, he always had a huge vegetable garden. It wasn’t too fancy by today’s standards, but we had all the basics. The garden was strangely ark-like; there were two kinds of lettuce, two kinds of squash, two kinds of beans, etc. We also had two kinds of apples: wormy macintoshes and wormy yellow delicious.
Summer mornings were spent picking, washing, weighing and delivering tomatoes and squash for sale to all the neighbors. I lined up the tomatoes by size to dry on the patio before packaging them in paper lunch bags. I weighed the tomatoes on an old baby scale, decorated with blocks and a stork. It was not legal for trade, but nobody turned me in to the authorities. As I recall, I did not collect or turn in any sales tax either.
Summer evenings were spent on the porch shelling lima beans or cutting worms out of fruit. Mom made peach and strawberry jam and several batches of grape jelly, and they were lined up in a large red cabinet in the basement, all topped with slabs of creamy white wax. Every year Dad put up a huge ice-cream tub full of sweetened apple sauce that nobody else would eat because of all the “worm juice”. It disappeared into the freezer and I am not sure what happened to it after that.
We lived near a woods that we explored and caught craw-dads. During a thunderstorm, a big old tree was struck by lightening and fell over the creek, simultaneously shortening our travel time to the other side considerably, and revealing a secret and extensive honey stash. Well, you’d think that Dad and discovered El Dorado, and soon we had a pot of honey on the kitchen table.
I was endlessly entertained by Dad’s stories on the farm, especially when he grossed everyone else out at the dinner table with his hog-butchering stories. It really helped if we were eating pork steaks or bacon. And this was often, as most food that wasn’t boiled was cooked in bacon fat. I am not sure how many containers of bacon fat we had in the back of the fridge, but the selection was extensive.
Except for summertime, our other food came from the suburban supermarket. The butter came in a plastic tub, the fish was square, the round steak was flat and the corn, sprouting what looked like a serious case of periodontal disease, was stripped and lobotomized on both ends and placed under plastic wrap. Nobody ever called it sweet corn. I learned that it was supposed to be sweet only after I moved to New York.