by Sara Zoë
As our friend described his adventures attempting to cook a Shepherd's Pie for his wife, he listed all of the ingredients he put into the pie - and my husband B and I turned to each other and happily nodded. We could make that. We could make that with completely local ingredients, almost all of which we had in our fridge, cupboard, or freezer already.
With corn and tomatoes and the hot weather, we haven't been constructing complex meals. The ingredients are so delicious as is it seems sort of silly to go through the effort. But the sheer joy of realizing we could make something so familiar and yet make it in a much better way meant we gathered the carrots and corn, waited for a cooler day and then went for it.
Our only nonlocal ingredients were a splash of Worcestshire sauce, 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, salt, and black pepper. Other than that, all of the ingredients came directly from farms and farmers' markets from within 30 miles of our house. 
Into a pot of boiling water went 3lb of potatoes for the mashed potato top.
Into the skillet went a few tablespoons of bacon fat, in which we sauteed the onions, then the carrots, then the garlic and a couple hot peppers.
Then came the ground lamb, 1 lb. If you use beef, you must call it Cottage Pie, not Shepherd's. And I think the stronger lamby flavor adds a lot to this dish. After it browned we added the peas and corn.
We stirred the cornstarch into our cup and a half of broth/stock (beef worked well), then poured that into the skillet to bubble and thicken into gravy. For seasoning we added salt, pepper, the Worcestshire, as well as thyme and savory from the back deck.
Once the potatoes were done we mashed them up with plenty of butter and milk, and a bit more salt. We layered first the meat and veg and then the potatoes into a casserole, then let it all come together and brown a bit in a 450 degree oven.
It would never really have occurred to me to make this if I hadn't been talking food with my friend - now that I eat local so regularly, I plan meals from the food in my fridge, not the other way around. And I wouldn't necessarily think to put so many ingredients together when everything is so fresh and delicious, everything starring in its own meal.
But it is wicked fun to know it can be done so easily. I'll be putting some corn and peas in the freezer for this fall, when the weather is cooler and rich savory meals are more de rigour. All the rest will still be freshly available.
Sara Zoë is the coordinator of Seacoast Eat Local, which connects people to sources of local food on the Seacoast of NH and southern Maine.
