by Birdsong S.
Well, the first week of the Eat Local Challenge has passed and I am very happy to have a few small signs of success:
1. I made some yummy, fresh-tasting Green Garlic Pesto in order to use up/preserve the over-abundance of gg in my CSA boxes the past month... there was just no way that I was going to be able to put it all to use otherwise. I had to trim off some of the more wilted tops, but used about 15 stalks, cut into chunks and thrown into the food processor....
Look for any basil pesto recipe in your cookbooks and just substitute the green garlic for basil. This brings me to pointing out, that as a very recent purchaser of a food processor (I wanted to make saurkraut with my abundance of cabbage from my CSA a few months back), I am so grateful to live in a time when I can use this thing. It chops with much more completeness than my impatient nature was ever able to achieve, and saves my hands for knitting. I was able to source regional olive oil, and substituted Butte Creek Farm almonds for the traditional pine nuts, but unfortunately missed the opportunity to purchase regionally-produced parmesan the other day, and had to make an exemption in favor of the preservation effort. We sampled some on top of steamed carrots last night.
2. I got to visit some terrific new sources of produce, Blue Goose Produce and Newcastle Produce, while driving home from some software training midweek. Both of these stores thoughtfully had signs posted over almost every bit of produce, letting the customer know exactly where the food was grown... either which state or country, or if in California, which farm and town. I sure wish more places would do this! Both of these shops participate in the Placer Grown program sponsored by the Placer County extension, as does my cousin.
3. I made a few mistakes, but, hey, I might have done that anyway! One of them was buying a Calistoga mineral water to drink while driving home from work one day, only to realize that they are now a subsidiary of the giant Nestle Company....
4. I was treated to lunch by my new employer (readers of my personal blog already know that I just started a second, part-time job teaching GED preparation for Nevada Union Joint Unified School District Adult Ed), who catered our teachers' meeting from a relatively new Mexican restaurant, Diegos. While this meal probably did not qualify as completely local, I was delighted to learn that: "Our vision at Diego's is to .. select quality products with a conscious effort to source porducts that are friendly to our environment. We purchase meats that are free range and naturally raised without the use of antibiotics or hormones. We source fish that is Wild Caught and not endangered from over fishing and we purchase organic produce when possible". This blurb was printed at the top of the take-out menu - here in Nevada County! I was excited to see this restaurant shared my concerns about food and eating, and hope this will mark an expanding trend. Gourmet restaurants have patronized local farmers for vegetables and herbs for two decades, but more out of concern for taste than the environment - why can't we have both?!
5. I got inspired by my fellow authors and jumped in to re-start the long family tradition of sourdough bread products that I had let go for several years, in part because of an increasing sensitivity to wheat. Mine is being nurtured with rye flour, after I read the detailed section about alternative flours in Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions, and I will be attempting my first spelt loaf in a week, so tune back in.
6. I also began sourcing strawberries to "put up", as they are getting ripe in my area, and I dug out some of the prettiest jam jars in anticipation.
Parting shot of green garlic pesto, ready to head into the freezer:
Birdsong lives in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California, where she blogs about her passions at A View from Sierra County.
