This summer has been a fabulous time for eating local. As our favorite foods took their turn in providing an abundant harvest, we stopped planning our menus in advance and started letting the market plan the menus for us. Ratatouilles; eggplant "steak"; tomato pie; crisp green beans; lentil soup with fresh peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes all filled our table. Some nights we still went for the simple side of life. I was surprised at how much that's changed from what it would have been a few months ago. In the spring this would have been from a Seeds of Change jar of sauce, boxed pasta, and Whole Foods Market frozen broccoli. It will be again in a few more months, I know. For now though, we get to enjoy broccoli and purple cauliflower hand picked and delivered to be selected at the market that morning, pasta handmade less than an hour away, sauce made with ingredients that came exclusively from our garden (with the exception of oil and salt), and homemade bread for garlic toast. The spirit of local, slow food makes this simple meal something magical.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
How Local Can You Go?
This summer has been a fabulous time for eating local. As our favorite foods took their turn in providing an abundant harvest, we stopped planning our menus in advance and started letting the market plan the menus for us. Ratatouilles; eggplant "steak"; tomato pie; crisp green beans; lentil soup with fresh peppers, tomatoes, and potatoes all filled our table. Some nights we still went for the simple side of life. I was surprised at how much that's changed from what it would have been a few months ago. In the spring this would have been from a Seeds of Change jar of sauce, boxed pasta, and Whole Foods Market frozen broccoli. It will be again in a few more months, I know. For now though, we get to enjoy broccoli and purple cauliflower hand picked and delivered to be selected at the market that morning, pasta handmade less than an hour away, sauce made with ingredients that came exclusively from our garden (with the exception of oil and salt), and homemade bread for garlic toast. The spirit of local, slow food makes this simple meal something magical.
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6 comments:
So I've been thinking.....(OK, that's why it's getting hot in here :-)...about how Stine and Foward Hope have a co-blog about the "process" of weight loss and self love and the journey to get there and I was thinking (I said that already) about how you and I seem to be making parallel entries around gardening, harvesting and eating local, cooking, baking, etc.....would you consider starting a new blog *with* me all about this subject???
I do a cold frame in the winter under which I grow greens. Can you do something like that? Up again a protected, south-facing wall???
Do you have enough preserved food to supplement your winter fare?
What do you think?
Oh and by the way? It was lovely to wake up to blog comments from both you AND Beo!
love,
Maddy
Hmmmm...interesting thought, Maddy. We ate so much fresh this year that we didn't preserve much. I think we'll only get through a month or two with garden goods. I'll e-mail you when we get back from vacation!
I just finished reading Elliot Coleman's "Four Season Harvest". Great stuff. I love his approach.
I don't think I'll do any cold frames this year, but hopefully next year. I'm also thinking about a simple hoophouse / greenhouse type structure next spring. I've seen some really cool bent cattle panel designs.
And hopefully the garden will be expanding to include more grains and legumes. And more food preservation...
Aahhh, hypothetical garden plans.
Thanks for the great post, Mia.
I just found this blog, so I'm not sure if you are familiar with the 100 mile diet site (http://100milediet.org/home/) which I also just stumbled onto recently. We belong to a CSA and love, love, love fresh local food but I am only now trying to figure out how to take it a step further. We live in a condo in an urban area and try as we might, have not been able to grow anything on our porch. It makes me miss our much larger house with a yard even though we feel better about the size of our house and the resources we use now.
Anyway, my point is, I am glad to see someone eating locally and glad to hear you have found more than produce. You have inspired me to see what is possible. Thanks!
Welcome, Boring! I am familiar with the 100 mile diet--what a great thing! LocalHarvest.org is a great site too. It's in the links section on the left hand side of my site as well. Hope you continue to enjoy the blog.
Thanks for the link! I am excited to find out more about this!
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