Wednesday, August 1: Day 1

We went out with a bang last night at the annual REAP potluck. We brought a quiche with the most traveled ingredient came from about 30 miles away. We met Terese Allen who will be mentioning us in her column in the Isthmus later this month, learned about the work of REAP and made some wonderful new acquaintances.

Today we made crackers (turned out great), popcorn (in the microwave in a paper bag, no oil needed) and peanut butter. Turns out I was supposed to roast the peanuts in the shell but I ended up toasting the shelled peanuts in a dry skillet. I needed oil to smooth it all out in the food processor, the only fat we had besides butter was bacon grease, melted--it worked like a dream and OH MY GOODNESS is the peanut butter good!

Thanks to a tip from a reader Scott went out to meet another wheat farmer today who grinds with a stone mill. They only had a little available for experimentation but will have more this week--we are hopeful.

Finally:

Breakfast was wheat bran hot cereal with honey and Sugar River Dairy yogurt with strawberry sauce I had preserved last month.
Lunch was beets with hot peppers and onion, fresh corn and melon.
Dinner was fresh pasta with homegrown tomatoes and herbs, cheese and butter. We also had broccoli, tomatoes, lettuce and onions from market and cucumbers from our neighbors.

Day one down, all within 100 miles of home!

Soy Sauce

A number of readers contacted us about the Kikkoman plant in Walworth (thank you!) We emailed the company and received the following response:

"The all-purpose Kikkoman Soy Sauce is produced at Kikkoman Foods, Inc. in Walworth, Wisconsin but the soybeans and wheat are purchased throughout the USA and Canada."

Wheat and soybeans are some of the biggest commodity crops in the world, origin traceability would be remarkable from a company as big as Kikkoman, using solely local crops for a local plant is, I guess, out of the question.

Out of curiosity we looked into brewing our own--it would be ready by September of 2008. Maybe for next year!