all about meat

tuesday i ordered some meat from our local free-range, organic ...meat farm? with a 'first-time customer' discount of twenty dollars off a fifty dollar purchase, i thought, stock up!

no sooner is the meat in the freezer than i get an email about their 72-hour sale. so here i am on thursday with six more pounds of ground beef and two skirt steaks.

so far i've imagined "dark days" meatloaf, carbonara, stuffed pork chops with homemade applesauce and roast beef sandwiches. i think i should create a meal road-map, give me something to look forward to.

there is something nice about not eating a lot of meat. for under sixty dollars, i have probably procured enough meat to sustain me for the winter months. its always been a hope of mine to eat meat infrequently but of superb quality. i think this winter season will be a time to push myself to do just that.

i have definitely hit my 'store up for the winter' stride. need to pick up some oats on the way home and then call it quits for a few weeks. the shopping, not the cooking. that is just getting started.

dark days shopping list

okay. dark days challenge is underway and i need to get my rear in gear.
this will be my second year and i am looking forward to doing things a little differently. i'm excited to pick up local pasta from cugini's, make my own yogurt and find local grains. added bonus? cooking for one, i think i'll have a little more flexibility

i have a bushel of beets, butternut squash up to my ears, a consistent source of eggs and a variety of canned salsas, sauces and jams. today i started thinking about what else? and then all the best things came to mind: meat! cheese! pasta!

tonight i'll stop by the local co-op and look at their selection of bluebird grains. i'd like to have some whole grains for grain salads or pilafs, as well as some flour to make my own starter. i have an order at Thundering Hooves for a roast, ground beef, pork chops and bacon ends—it should last me awhile.

in other preparation-related news, i am working on connecting with Schreiber & Sons farm which is outside yakima. they typically have local lentils, chickpeas and dried beans which would be an awesome score.

as for cheese and milk. it looks like Organic Valley has three farms within 150 miles of Walla Walla, and i will wind my way out to the Monteillet Formagerie before the end of their season and snag a few treats.

mmm. all this talk makes me hungry.
get excited! i hope to cook my first meal tomorrow night!
can't wait to make the kitchen fill with the smells of roast.

cold holiday weekends? no fair.

the cold wet april weather that is holding us in her grasp now into june is starting to grate on me. it hasn't done much (if any) damage to the garden but it does prevent me from spending all my time out of doors, which is my favorite spring and summer activity.

saturday i barbecued for my family and a major overhaul of the patio area was required just to make sure we could all stay dry should the weather turn unexpectedly. the layout is nice, i'll probably keep it that way for awhile. i whipped up asparagus and salad from market purchases and grilled some chicken with a couple of tasty rubs i whipped together. i'll try to get the recipes posted later today.

sunday we were blessed with a sunny afternoon, just in time for the second barbecue we assembled at our place. no sooner did we all go home to nap than it began raining on patio set draped lovingly with old thrift-store sheets. talk about timing.

sunday we barbecued turkey and tofurkey sausage, whole ears of corn and pork kabobs. with a no-spend-meal goal in mind, i threw together some vegetarian chili (featuring local chickpeas, home-canned tomatoes, spring sweet onions and backyard herbs) and some corn bread. add salad and asparagus and we were a well-fed bunch.

even though all the other moments i didn't mention were rainy and chilly, it was still a decent holiday weekend.

spring cheating

this past weekend i missed out on the nicest weekend in walla walla yet.
but in return i did get to spend one especially lovely afternoon in seattle at gasworks park and the opportunity for two farmer's market shopping sprees. (photos to come this afternoon.)

so i am a little envious to have missed out on a sunny day in the mid-80's but i am super excited to play with my farmer's market finds over the next few days. i've got the spring staples (literally) in the bag: rhubarb? check. raab? check. asparagus? check. i was disappointed to not find any pea shoots or fava beans, but i did manage to score some mint, leeks, and kale—not to mention two items i've been dying to try: sunchokes and stinging nettles. (just last week i was reading up on stinging nettles.)

and for good measure i picked up some beauregard sweet potatoes. a few to eat and a few to sprout. just before my mini-break i decided i would try and sprout some sweet potatoes this spring and plant them by the driveway. i picked one up at the grocery store, but am more excited to know what varietal i'll be growing.

this is going to be a good (and eventful) week.

Dark Days—Recaps!

i just completed my first (and only this year) turn at the recaps for the Dark Days Challenge.

in a word? —whew! i'll admit that last night i was a little overwhelmed as i was counting up the thirty or so odd posts that i needed to read, experience and appreciate, in verbal form. but here it is 11am on a tuesday, i started around 7pm monday night and i got a full night of sleep in. even better? it pulled me into the Challenge in a whole new way and got me reading some blogs that i had yet.

more than anything it made me supremely jealous of anyone still able to access a farmer's market this time of year. at the start of the challenge i thought i'd have an advantage with my small agrarian town, and i was extra proud of all the home-grown, home-canned food i had at my disposal.

right now, in the middle of winter, i wouldn't mind being able to hop out and pick up some locally grown kale or better yet, mache. and i would absolutely adore the opportunity to meadering through a bustling farmers market...even if we were all bundled up to our ears.

the only lesson i can take from this at this point is to grow more next year and enjoy it while it lasts. in the meantime, check out my work on the regional recaps for the East and the South.

the new eating local: my house

i am challenging myself to limit my grocery purchases to twice a month.
the rules might change, but i think it is a good way to go.

for one—i have a great store of food squirreled away. this year i have more than i have ever had before—beets, potatoes, carrots, apples, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, zucchini, strawberries, peaches, pears, peppers...that is just the fresh stuff and that's not all of it.

the fact is, i'm somewhat of a food hoarder. i like the idea of having jars with rice and beans and lentils and noodles lining my cupboards. i like having a fridge filled with my garden and a freezer brimming with more.

so i don't really need groceries most of the time.

naturally i am not going to let myself skip out and eat out all the time.
i think we'll put a two time cap on that as well—two is a good number.

there is just no reason. and i should revamp my spending levels on all levels.
it will be good for me.

tiny morsels of summer

this weekend i ran off to portland with one thing in mind: boysenberries.
well, mission accomplished. i came back with 17 pounds of berries. black-, marion- and boysenberries, not counting the three pints of black caps in tow too.

it couldn't have been better timing.
my memories of berry picking on Sauvie Island were of hands-and-knees, thorny, under-the-bush endeavors in the heat and sun. on saturday we walked out in to the cool portland weather with jackets on, out to the marionberry patch and the berries hung out from the bushes, just asking us to pick them. i secretly wondered how i could have remembered so poorly.

...then i found the boysenberries. oh yes, that's what i remember. how is it that boysenberries seem to want to hide their juicy goodness so much when the other berries are handing their candy out for free?

either way, i was smart enough and early enough in the season that their wiles didn't hold me back for long. and when the sun started to break through just after noon, i was mighty glad that it had been overcast and cool through most of my efforts.

(the farm and the hills)

on top of my berry delight, i also had the chance to pick up some cherry tomatoes, broccoli romanesco and bakery treats from my former employ—Baker & Spice. (if you live in the Portland area, or are planning a visit, i highly recommend stopping by the bakery. they make wonderfully fantastic treats.)

while in portland, a friend and i saw Food, Inc.—how devastating. it was of course, everything i already knew and have read, but this time coupled with visually compelling video footage.

no sooner had i thought to myself how i have been reading about the travesties of slaughterhouses since i was in grade school, then did the narrator mention Upton Sinclair's The Jungle—a book i read in fifth grade.

i'm glad i saw it. i would like to see Fresh too. it looks like it has a more uplifting vibe to it and i'm a sucker for seeing people excited about food.

now i am home, three two-gallon bags of berries in my freezer, and three bowls of fresh berries awaiting my attention and delight. renewed commitment to eating locally and in season.

not bad for my first mini-break in nine month.

very excited for beans

this weekend was something of a quiet one but i got a few things out of the way.

saturday morning i made a plan to do my weekly grocery shopping at the farmer's market by bicycle. it was a great way to start off the day. then i hung laundry out to dry and drank french press coffee. magnifique!

had intended to work in the garden on saturday around the house but ended up at the farm, growing a sunburn and hauling scrap metal and creating burn piles in an effort to clean up the farm for the first CSA delivery (today!) it was exhausting but rewarding.

got to the garden on sunday—planted my bush beans with broccoli raab, cilantro and dill between the rows. threw some chamomile down as well in an attempt to choke out any bermuda grass. my grandparents came by and gave me some daisies and feather grass, so we planted those and i worked on cleaning up my backyard a little.

things are looking good.
and now it will be cold, windy and wet for the next several days, giving me ample reason to stay in.

a lesson in buying local

over the weekend i worked on my raised beds. built one, of six.

my original plan was to buy the wood from home depot and i estimated it would cost me roughly $120. my plan was to get twelve 2x8x10 boards and have them cut into four foot and six foot sections. at the last minute i traded up to twelve foot boards for beds that would be 5x7. looking at my first finished product, i'd say i'm glad i did.

home depot was incredibly unhelpful—boarding on negligent.
2x8x12 boards are heavy. and unwieldy.
especially when you are 5'4" and they are located approximately a foot-and-a-half above you.

after talking to the building materials service man, i was left there to load these monsters myself. i have never had an employee of home depot leave me to haul my own wood.

this man even came back and talked to me while i was obviously struggling to get these behemoths down without taking off my head, my fingers, or taking out someone else.

its not safe to be pulling things down from above your head that are that big and heavy.

i got fed up and left.
and called the local building supply store. guess what? the very same boards i wanted—almost three dollars cheaper!

sunday i went down.
even with the nominal cut fee they charge, i saved close to forty dollars. and the loaded to the saw and they loaded it in my car.

so, if you ever need a reason to buy local—think better service, better deals. i will definitely be buying my lumber there from now on.