Blurry

I am going to blame the blurriness of this photo on the tears that came to my eyes while cutting these amazing potatoes. Never mind the fact that the camera wasn't tearing up . . . I was just struck by the beauty of color and form--oh were they good to eat!

Still eating locally

So what does one eat at the tail end of winter before the bounty of the growing season is here again? Well, last night we ate quite well! (Remember we are not strict 100-milers anymore, just careful local eaters).

We had spinach salad thanks to Snug Haven Farm. We took bacon from Pecatonica Valley Farm (thank you wonderful Carr family) and sauteed it until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and fry finely diced onions or shallots. When the aromatics are crispy, toss in some balsamic vinegar and reduce it, pour it hot over the spinach--yowza that is good!

We also had homemade bread with canned tomatoes and Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese, (the little fresh mozzerella balls).

To round out the meal we sauteed leftover ravioli from RP's Pastas and topped with a bit of rosemary salt from Renaissance Farm.

Yummy!

We're baaaaaack!

Happy Spring everyone! Never mind that we got 8 inches of snow the day after the equinox, the robins and juncos are back and mailboxes everywhere are being flooded with seed catalogs. In a desperate attempt to assure ourselves that things would indeed grow again after this very loooooong winter in WI, we grew some wheatgrass on our kitchen counter. The mesmerizing sprouts has us all checking the progress of growth hourly. Our final crop was devoured by our chickens and we started another batch!



We have been blessed, over the winter, with a variety of opportunities to talk about our family and local food. Scott spoke at the North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association conference in February about the "anatomy" of a Farmers' Market customer, we have spoken as a family at a couple different venues and most excitingly we will be writing the weekly update for the Westside Community Market this year. I am excited to get to know some of the vendors we haven't bought from in the past. I am excited to meet consumers and hear how the market fits in with their lives. I am excited to promote the market as a place of food procurement and also as a community.

Want a little inspiration? Check out the writings and links of folks who participated in the Dark Days of Winter Eat Local Challenge.

Bounty

There is still so much available at the Dane County Farmers' Market. The market is at Monona Terrace until Christmas and then moves to the Senior Center on Mifflin. Go get your spinach fix!

In the news . . .

We were featured in a local news story last night, you can watch the whole thing here.

We haven't kept up the blog much, too busy eating! Maybe some pictures of the Dane County Winter Farmers' Market this weekend. Another Winter Market is the Northside Farmers Market.

How were your local Thanksgiving feasts?

Local eating goes super-mainstream

Here's the proof:



Yup, that's the cover story on an airline in-flight magazine (Midwest Airlines, to be specific). It's an interesting article centered mostly around a cool restaurant called Local Burger. Next time we go to visit family in Kansas, we'll be sure to stop in.

Also check out the article.

Preserving the Bounty

We had a wonderful time talking with people at the Westside Community Farmers' Market on Saturday, thank you to all of you who stopped by to chat! For those of you who couldn't make it, following is some info on the gadgets and gizmos we use and what we preserve.

First is the best book I know of for info on home preservation, Putting Food By. This book can tell you how to freeze cherries, dry apples and can shrimp--not that I would ever, ever do the latter!

Freezing

We freeze tomato sauce, berries (pureed into sauce), corn, chicken stock (not exactly a produce crop but made throughout the year), bread and pesto. We have a small chest freezer that we fill to capacity and we have a friend who generously lets us use the empty half of her GIANT chest freezer. The freezers run more efficiently when full so that is a win-win situation for us both. When shopping for a freezer check the Energy Star rating and think about how full you can keep it. Freezers start around $300.

Drying

We use an old American Harvest / Nesco food dehydrator, I am not sure if they make the model we have anymore but if you follow the link you will see the current offerings. I have seen them for as little at $15 on eBay. Ours has a thermostat, fan and 5 stacking, dishwasher safe trays as well as a fruit leather insert. We dry mostly berries, tomatoes and peppers. You haven't lived until you have crunched a styrofoam feeling raspberry in your teeth in February and then jumped for joy at the explosion of taste on your tongue! When looking for a dehydrator a thermostat is not essential, a fan is. Drying times vary enormously and it is hard to mess up food drying so stick some food in, check it occasionally and take it out when you think it looks and tastes right! We store our dried food in ziploc bags in the freezer. We don't want any residual moisture causing mold over the next six months. Our peppers we store on the shelf, they never seem to go moldy.

Canning

We can tomatoes and tomato products (ketchup, chutney etc.) during a tomato-heavy year, but usually we just can applesauce. We use regular old mason jars, most purchased at thrift stores. A brand-new dozen of jars and lids is around $15 depending on where you get them. Woodmans, your local hardware store, Willy St. Co-op and Farm and Fleet are all good locations to find canning supplies. We recommend a canning funnel and a jar lifter to make life easier. You can use a standard water bath canner with rack or you can use any big ol' pot that can fit you jars plus 1 inch of water. You will need to keep your jars off the bottom of the pot, we have used triangles of aluminum flashing under each jar with good success.

The "canning" part of canning is easy, whether you do water or pressure, the previously mentioned "Putting Food By" will walk you through every step. For us, it is preparing the food to be canned where we have made the most use of gadgets! After years of using a hand-cranked food mill (with good success but tired muscles) we bought the KitchenAid Food Strainer and Grinder. It has revolutionized applesauce making in this family. It attaches to the PTO on our KitchenAid stand mixer and we can pour in cooked apples (or tomatoes) and the skins and seeds come out one side and smooth, beautiful sauce comes out the other--brilliant!

Preserving food is about thinking ahead and being the ant instead of the grasshopper. Some years we are better about it than others. Preserving the bounty is part of the work of eating locally, it is also part of the fun! Let us know what you are preserving this year!