www.eatlocalchallenge.com

Another Harvest Season Passes

by Expat Chef

It seems like each year I do the Eat Local Challenge that it becomes a greater part of my life. Not only does the amount and types of foods that I buy locally increase each year, but I feel myself becoming more deeply connected to this way of life.

I tried my hand at putting up foods for winter, mainly freezing and seed saving, although my current tactic is stockpiling vast amounts of sweet potatoes, pumpkins and squash. (I actually have even more now). I just finished preparing many of the season's last vegetables as nine quarts of soup and stashing that in the freezer for a cold winter's feast. However, the one thing I did not try my hand at during September's challenge was canning. I wanted to, I just could not find the time amidst all the weekly cooking and little one running around.

This does not stop me from stockpiling information along with my pumpkins. I took some time to ask an expert, Julie Smith of Treehouse Berry Farm, for some good advice for a beginner like myself. Julie and her family have an orchard and can and sell a huge variety of jams, salsas, preserves and jellies at my local farmers market. They also make homemade lollipops to which my child became addicted. Julie was kind enough to answer a few questions for me despite a tremendously busy season of canning, wholesale business and fall festivals. We finally caught up and she shared some great tips for all of us inspired by this year's September Challenge.

Question: Canning is kind of a lost art. What is the most important advice you could offer someone who is just learning to can and preserve? How did you get started?

ELC Blog Highlight: Food on the Food

I have been reading Food on the Food, a blog by Tammy from Boston, for months now.  She makes me giggle with her wit and her stories of trying to feed her children and husband and picky father.  When she announced that she would be taking the Eat Local Challenge, I knew that we were in for a treat. 

Not only has Tammy been doing an amazing job with the challenge this month, but she's been tracking all her food consumption on her blog. 

The exciting news at Food on the Food is that the CBS Morning Show filmed Tammy and her family last week for a segment about the Eat Local Challenge!

Psst,...did you hear about the spinach?

By Jennifer BB

There hasn't been a national freak out the way there was  last year around the recall of E. coli infected spinach but food recalls are still occurring and there have been two within the last month.  The first was a recall at the end of August related to spinach infected with Salmonella and the most recent was last week's Dole recall of E.coli infected mixed salad greens.  Discrete signs at our local Wegman's Supermarket and a Google search gave me the low down on the latter but I'm left wondering if this is just becoming ordinary news these days.  "What beautiful weather we're having, hey, shame about that spinach recall." 

ELC Blog Highlight: Green-Lemonade.com

Liz and Rhaya are taking a one-week long eat local challenge and writing about it on Green-Lemonade.com.  Liz lives in Albany, NY and Rhaya lives in Indianapolis, IN.  Today is day four of their attempt, and they are doing great!

One exciting outcome of their challenge is that they are finding new products near their homes that they didn't know existed.  In Liz's words:

So in the first day I have already enjoyed two foods, edamame and black beans, that I never would have thought were grown in New York.  Over the weekend while shopping for groceries for this week, I was really surprised to learn that foods like these can be purchased from local sources and it made me think about how out of touch I am, as are many others I’m sure, with where my foods really come from and what the local farm community really consists of.

Rhaya found local mead, and is finding recipe help with an Indiana-focused site called Going Local.  Keep an eye on the progress of the Green Lemonade women through the "going local" section of their site.

(Aside from all that eat local talk, they also have a killer website design!)

Liquid assets

I have a treasured little crackpot theory. It's that many foodways started off with a conversation something like this:

"Oh, no, what's happened to our [food item]?"

"Well, I don't care--I'm desperate!"

Surely it must have been that way with wine: Someone leaves fruit or honey-water alone for a while, maybe in a cave, and instead of just going sour, it turns into something delicious and celebratory. "Hmm! Let's try that again as soon as this headache goes away," our experimenter says.

But in the days before refrigeration, wine was not just a delicacy; it was an important food preservation method. Even today, it's a great way to put up a bumper crop.

Preserving a peck of pears with panache

By Marc

I was fortunate to receive a gift of twelve pounds of a pears from Cookie Crumb and Cranky a few weeks ago (which was just a small fraction of their trees' amazing output this year, as noted here).  Unlike some backyard fruit trees (like my plum trees), the fruit was actually delicious on its own, and I suppose I could have eaten a few each day until they were gone.  But with the farmers market full of summer fruit, it would be foolish to binge on pears for a week.  So, of course, I turned much of the gift into preserves.

[The beautiful photo to the right was taken by Jen Maiser, not me]

ELC Blog Highlight: Kale for Sale

One of the reasons listed in the "10 Reasons to Eat Local" is:

Buying locally grown food is fodder for a wonderful story.

It's one of the reasons that I relate to the most.  It's a difficult reason to describe, but it is so powerful when it happens. I literally clapped when I read Katrina's post this morning.  She did a great job of capturing the story aspect that comes with buying food from local farmers.  Katrina writes Kale for Sale, and is participating in the Eat Local Challenge from San Anselmo, near San Francisco.

Here's a bit of what she wrote ... please read the entire post.

Tonight I popped raspberries into the freezer that I bought from Rose at the Ferry Building Tuesday market. As I placed each raspberry finger-puppet side down on a cookie sheet I thought of her. She's like chicken soup with an apron. Her smiles are an anyday remedy and I want to fill the freezer with them.

Saving the Harvest — for Generations to Come

by Expat Chef

A couple weeks ago we went to pick up our CSA bag. Part of the week's harvest included an small melon with a light green rind. It smelled crisp and citrus. I can't even remember the name of it. As we placed it in the car, the farmer said, "Hey, be sure to save the seeds on this for me. They cost me a dollar each."

He gave my husband instructions on how to save the seeds. When my husband cut into the melon, the texture and flavor were just like the smell. It was a very interesting fruit. He did as the farmer asked, and saved the seeds. When he counted them, he said, "You know, there's like $150 in here." The next week we returned the seeds to our farmer, keeping a few to try and plant ourselves.

2007 ELC Blog Participants

Once again, the Eat Local Challenge blog participants represent areas far and wide, including Hawaii and France.  Check out some of these blogs to find out how everyone is doing in their challenge!

10 Signs Like This*
A View from Sierra County*
Add More Wine
Belly Timber*
Chez Denise et Laudalino
The Chicken Dumpling
Cookin' in the 'Cuse*
Cooking Vintage*
Cucina Bella
The Daily Grind
Dirt to Dish
Eating Local in Aspen
Evidence of my Self-Obsession
The Expatriate's Kitchen*
Fast Grow the Weeds
Feeding the Boogie
Food on the Food
FoodShed
Fork & Bottle*
Garlic Breath
Green Leanings
Green Lemonade
Green-Savvy
The Herbwife's Kitchen
The Hungry Foodie
Kale for Sale
Knitting 40 Shades of Green*
Knitting Dahlias
KonaYoga
Life Begins at 30*
Lighted Window
Livin' La Vida Local
Liza Was Here
Locavore on Core
Loulies
Maybe Local
Meals by Marlene
Mental Masala*
Mom's Pizza Dough
Music and Cats
My Room with a View
Nani's Blog on Vox
Nine Tons of Marble*
Pocket Farm*
The Public, the Private and Everything In Between
Raw Food, Right Now!
Red State Green
The Salted Cod
Seacoast Eat Local*
Shibaguyz
Six by 10 Tiny Kitchen
Subjects are Silly
Taster Spoon
Tea & Cookies*
True Epicure Says*
Tusconivores
Urban Hennery
Vital Information*
Yankee Food

The blogs represented by an asterisk (*) are blogs belonging to authors of this site. 

(Last updated 9/27/07, 1:53 pm.  Don't see your blog?  Drop me an email.)

Canning with the Ethicurean

by Jen Maiser

Our friends at The Ethicurean have a couple of posts talking about their efforts with canning and preserving.  The observations are interesting, and will be helpful when I try my hand at canning later this month.

Time to Put Up or Shut Up
Putting up with your Friends