Another successful market day! Saturday is the biggest market day in Columbus; in fact, we go to three markets in a row which are conveniently all located on or near High Street.
At the North Market we met up with friends and had some coffee and ice cream (both from local companies) with our shopping. Here's the haul:
Fruit CSA share: small watermelon, 4 apples (2 honeycrisp, 2 cortland?), ground cherries (like little tomatillos, and totally new to us.)
Other North Market buys:
-italian sausage and peppered bacon $7.41
-rocket microgreens $3
-locally milled pancake mix $4.50
-raspberries $4.50
-blackberries (it's the end of the season, *sigh*) $4.50 each I think
-goat cheese (I think they are slightly out of my 100-mile radius, but it's still Ohio) $6.95 and worth every penny
-fresh angel hair pasta
-rosemary and cilantro $1 each
-mango ice cream to take home, and frosttop (local root beer company) and sweet corn with blackberry sauce to eat there. Jeni's Ice Cream is beyond fabulous!
Clintonville market:
Not a thing! 2silos wasn't there, so no eggs. Sippel was out of the amazing sun gold tomatoes (everyone was talking about how good they were, so no surprise there.)
Worthington:
-2 fresh pasture-raised chickens ($15.50 for the pair, which wasn't too bad a price. They are small, though.) No eggs, she had sold out. :-(
-6 pound bag of red ruby popcorn $6
-mixed beans (kidney, lima, green) $4.50
-edamame ($2 this week! I got 2)
-10 pounds of canning tomatoes $5
-green and yellow beans $2.25
-honeycrisp apples $4
-2 ears of corn $1
I've included the prices to help me keep track, and to let you know what prices are current here in central Ohio.
My plans for the next few days include roasting both chickens and making a huge pot of stock with the remainders, making pasta sauce, and steaming edamame. I will be traveling to North Carolina on the 13th, so I need to prep some snack foods and a lunch to keep me local (at least from where I started!)
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
humanely-raised food
I thought I'd talk a little bit about what I'm eating these days, with regard to meat and eggs.
Eggs and chicken - I buy local, pasture-raised eggs and chicken. Anyone who has read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan knows that "free range" doesn't mean diddly-squat in the world of food production. Birds can still be crammed into pens, only these pens have a little door leading to a very small yard. The door stays shut for the first two weeks while the birds learn their surroundings. After this time it is opened, but the chickens have already set their world boundaries in their brains - so they never go outside.
I buy eggs from farmers who pasture-raise them. The chickens get to run around outside, eating bugs (so they are not "vegetarian-fed" but they are certainly not fed chicken parts in their food!) and doing chicken things. Chickens are big fans of this. Trust me, egg production was one of my 4-H projects as a kid. I cleaned chicken (and duck and goose and turkey) coops for 7 years. Chickens aren't brilliant, but they can still experience enjoyment (as well as suffering.)
I don't buy meat at the grocery store anymore. I do not want to support factory farming, and I don't trust the labeling for free-range meats. Our meat is more expensive now, but we eat less of it - and I work hard to utilize every scrap and bone.
Beef - I buy grass-fed beef and only grass-fed beef (from local farmers of course.) While feeding cows grain will produce a nice marbling of the meat, it is at a terrible cost. Cows are meant to eat grass. Corn (thanks to the crazy-huge corn surpluses in the US, cows get fed corn) causes all sorts of health problems for cows, from bloat and gastritis and all the way to liver failure (they are usually slaughtered just as their livers fail.) Why do you think cows are fed so many antibiotics? It's because they are crammed together in feedlots, knee-deep in shit, eating acidic grains that destroy their stomach lining and liver. E coli loves shit and an acid environment, so CAFO's (concentrated animal feeding operations) are pretty much perfectly designed for that. And you know the whole mad cow scare? Do you know how cows get it? From eating the diseased tissue of other cows. There is now legislation that makes it illegal to feed the brains and spinal cords of cows to livestock. But everything else is okay, legally. What kind of twisted and, excuse me, fucked up world do we live in, when feeding animal parts back to animals is a common animal husbandry practice? If people deem this as acceptable, then the world of soylent green can't be far away.
I buy my beef from Ed and Nancy of Long Meadows grass beef or Dick from Flying J Farm. I like to be able to shake the hands of the people who raise my meat, and know that they care for, and about their animals.
Eggs and chicken - I buy local, pasture-raised eggs and chicken. Anyone who has read The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan knows that "free range" doesn't mean diddly-squat in the world of food production. Birds can still be crammed into pens, only these pens have a little door leading to a very small yard. The door stays shut for the first two weeks while the birds learn their surroundings. After this time it is opened, but the chickens have already set their world boundaries in their brains - so they never go outside.
I buy eggs from farmers who pasture-raise them. The chickens get to run around outside, eating bugs (so they are not "vegetarian-fed" but they are certainly not fed chicken parts in their food!) and doing chicken things. Chickens are big fans of this. Trust me, egg production was one of my 4-H projects as a kid. I cleaned chicken (and duck and goose and turkey) coops for 7 years. Chickens aren't brilliant, but they can still experience enjoyment (as well as suffering.)
I don't buy meat at the grocery store anymore. I do not want to support factory farming, and I don't trust the labeling for free-range meats. Our meat is more expensive now, but we eat less of it - and I work hard to utilize every scrap and bone.
Beef - I buy grass-fed beef and only grass-fed beef (from local farmers of course.) While feeding cows grain will produce a nice marbling of the meat, it is at a terrible cost. Cows are meant to eat grass. Corn (thanks to the crazy-huge corn surpluses in the US, cows get fed corn) causes all sorts of health problems for cows, from bloat and gastritis and all the way to liver failure (they are usually slaughtered just as their livers fail.) Why do you think cows are fed so many antibiotics? It's because they are crammed together in feedlots, knee-deep in shit, eating acidic grains that destroy their stomach lining and liver. E coli loves shit and an acid environment, so CAFO's (concentrated animal feeding operations) are pretty much perfectly designed for that. And you know the whole mad cow scare? Do you know how cows get it? From eating the diseased tissue of other cows. There is now legislation that makes it illegal to feed the brains and spinal cords of cows to livestock. But everything else is okay, legally. What kind of twisted and, excuse me, fucked up world do we live in, when feeding animal parts back to animals is a common animal husbandry practice? If people deem this as acceptable, then the world of soylent green can't be far away.
I buy my beef from Ed and Nancy of Long Meadows grass beef or Dick from Flying J Farm. I like to be able to shake the hands of the people who raise my meat, and know that they care for, and about their animals.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Why I shop at farmer's markets
I went to the local farmer's market today, and I spent 8 dollars on the following: a baker's dozen of sweet corn ($4), 2 cucumbers (50 cents each), 3 sweet potatoes and a small red onion ($2.89 for them all.)
Could I have gotten these items cheaper at a grocery store? I could have paid less for corn, that's for certain. As for the other items, it seems like I paid quite a low price. I'm not sure if a grocery store could beat that. But you know what? I don't care if they could. I shop at farmer's markets, and I am willing to pay more than the grocery store. I'm fortunate that I can afford not to worry about my food budget down to the penny. But even when I pay slightly more at a farmer's market, I still come out ahead.
For one thing, the produce is much fresher - and it tastes better! My corn was picked around 11 AM today, and the sweet potatoes were dug this morning. Fresh produce lasts longer! This means that when I've forgotten a lone zucchini in the depths of my refrigerator's produce drawer, the chance that it will still be good when unearthed is much greater than a grocery store buy. My vegetables were picked ripe, not shipped across the country - or international borders - while "green." They usually come to market in the back of a pickup truck. Shopping at farmer's markets keeps the money in the community, and supports local businesses. In this day of mega-conglomerates, the "little guys" need all the support they can get.
Also, I know where my food is coming from, and I am learning the farming cycles of my area. I've met the farmers, heard about their trials and tribulations, and rejoiced as each new type of produce ripens and comes to market. I look forward to seeing them every week. I know when my produce has been picked, I know when the chickens were butchered, when the eggs were laid, and I know what produce the neighbor has sent along to sell. Small farmers are more likely to raise multiple types of produce, practice crop rotation, and use sustainable farming practices. Their products often use less packaging than grocery store produce.
Farming is a very difficult profession, and farmers don't make vast piles of cash. They usually run in the red, and many of them can barely stay afloat. I am happy, no, overjoyed to give my food dollars to my local farmers. Driving through the country the other day, I saw a number of farms selling their land for commercial use. If spending money at farm markets can help any farmer stay in business, keep the land planted (preferably organically), and give me fresher, healthier food as well - well, it's certainly worth the price.
Could I have gotten these items cheaper at a grocery store? I could have paid less for corn, that's for certain. As for the other items, it seems like I paid quite a low price. I'm not sure if a grocery store could beat that. But you know what? I don't care if they could. I shop at farmer's markets, and I am willing to pay more than the grocery store. I'm fortunate that I can afford not to worry about my food budget down to the penny. But even when I pay slightly more at a farmer's market, I still come out ahead.
For one thing, the produce is much fresher - and it tastes better! My corn was picked around 11 AM today, and the sweet potatoes were dug this morning. Fresh produce lasts longer! This means that when I've forgotten a lone zucchini in the depths of my refrigerator's produce drawer, the chance that it will still be good when unearthed is much greater than a grocery store buy. My vegetables were picked ripe, not shipped across the country - or international borders - while "green." They usually come to market in the back of a pickup truck. Shopping at farmer's markets keeps the money in the community, and supports local businesses. In this day of mega-conglomerates, the "little guys" need all the support they can get.
Also, I know where my food is coming from, and I am learning the farming cycles of my area. I've met the farmers, heard about their trials and tribulations, and rejoiced as each new type of produce ripens and comes to market. I look forward to seeing them every week. I know when my produce has been picked, I know when the chickens were butchered, when the eggs were laid, and I know what produce the neighbor has sent along to sell. Small farmers are more likely to raise multiple types of produce, practice crop rotation, and use sustainable farming practices. Their products often use less packaging than grocery store produce.
Farming is a very difficult profession, and farmers don't make vast piles of cash. They usually run in the red, and many of them can barely stay afloat. I am happy, no, overjoyed to give my food dollars to my local farmers. Driving through the country the other day, I saw a number of farms selling their land for commercial use. If spending money at farm markets can help any farmer stay in business, keep the land planted (preferably organically), and give me fresher, healthier food as well - well, it's certainly worth the price.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
eat local challenge - culinary update
Today has been mildly busy. I turned the sliced tomatoes into spaghetti sauce (note: do not attempt to puree them *before* cooking, it makes it kind of wonky) and received a present of an immersion blender right after I finished. So it looks like there will be more tomatoes in my future, now that I have a new toy. I also got a bean frencher and a french rolling pin. Let the good times roll.
Next I managed to turn a chicken breastbone into stock (with the help of other veggie scraps) which will become chicken soup very soon.
Then I made my second attempt at yogurt. It should be ready between 8 and 10 PM - I used a mixture of 2% and skim milk, so it's anybody's guess how long it will take. I have hung the grainy yogurt in cheesecloth in an attempt to make labneh (yogurt cheese.) It probably won't help the texture, but it was worth a try.
Lunch was a leftover pancake and a hard-boiled egg (made from these directions by The Foodist.) The egg was quite perfect, and the yoke remained beautifully yellow.
For dinner I made creamy polenta with Gouda from scratch (and in doing so learned how NOT to make polenta - add the cornmeal carefully or you will face indelible lumps) and Italian sausage with grapes. For a side dish I steamed pole beans and tossed them with shallots and butter. I've noticed that the more tired I get of a vegetable, the more butter I add. The shallots were a nice touch though.
The only non-local ingredients were seasonings.
I must confess that I am terrible about using recipes. I tend to look at them as guidelines, and often don't read the ingredients or the directions thoroughly before starting. I will also cook from two recipes at once, merging them as I go. So while I could attempt to record my cooking process, it would be less than informative for the average person. I imagine that I cook the same way my grandmother did, but she was much better at it (and made less mistakes.) The school of "learned it the hard way" is an excellent teacher in the kitchen. Just remember to keep a fire extinguisher handy.
Next I managed to turn a chicken breastbone into stock (with the help of other veggie scraps) which will become chicken soup very soon.
Then I made my second attempt at yogurt. It should be ready between 8 and 10 PM - I used a mixture of 2% and skim milk, so it's anybody's guess how long it will take. I have hung the grainy yogurt in cheesecloth in an attempt to make labneh (yogurt cheese.) It probably won't help the texture, but it was worth a try.
Lunch was a leftover pancake and a hard-boiled egg (made from these directions by The Foodist.) The egg was quite perfect, and the yoke remained beautifully yellow.
For dinner I made creamy polenta with Gouda from scratch (and in doing so learned how NOT to make polenta - add the cornmeal carefully or you will face indelible lumps) and Italian sausage with grapes. For a side dish I steamed pole beans and tossed them with shallots and butter. I've noticed that the more tired I get of a vegetable, the more butter I add. The shallots were a nice touch though.
The only non-local ingredients were seasonings.
I must confess that I am terrible about using recipes. I tend to look at them as guidelines, and often don't read the ingredients or the directions thoroughly before starting. I will also cook from two recipes at once, merging them as I go. So while I could attempt to record my cooking process, it would be less than informative for the average person. I imagine that I cook the same way my grandmother did, but she was much better at it (and made less mistakes.) The school of "learned it the hard way" is an excellent teacher in the kitchen. Just remember to keep a fire extinguisher handy.
Monday, September 3, 2007
September challenge progress report
The September Eat Local Challenge is off to a good start. There was a brief moment of weakness involving a pizza (from a local pizza place at least!) as I learned to not let my blood sugar crash, no matter how many tomatoes need blanching.
The challenge this year has an emphasis on preserving the bounty of September, and I have been working on this for the last month or so. The purchase of a chest freezer (manual defrost and energy star) and a Foodsaver vacuum sealer have been a big help. So far I have frozen a good 5 dozen ears of corn (cut off the cob, which is easier than it sounds), 5 or 6 pounds of green beans, 6 quarts of strawberries, 3 quarts of peaches, 1 quart of raspberries, 1.5 quarts of vegetable stock, 2 pints of sweet corn stock, and 5 pints of pasta sauce. Also freezer jam: peach, mixed berry, and strawberry. The most onerous task was the blanching, peeling, chopping and seeding of the 15 pounds of tomatoes. I love the resulting sauce, but the labor is extreme. It would be a great (read:easier) two-person job though.
You can easily freeze vegetables without a vacuum sealer - just use ziplock baggies, and smoosh as much of the air out as you can. There are really great directions for freezing, canning, and otherwise using fresh vegetables and fruits at PickYourOwn.org. The site has been a great help!
There are some good books out there for preserving food (by freezing, canning, and other methods.) These are a few I have picked up:
Preserving Summer's Bounty: A Quick and Easy Guide to Freezing, Canning, and Preserving, and Drying What You Grow (by Rodale Food Center)
Putting Food By (by Janet Greene)
Stocking Up (by Carol Hupping)
Meals have been good, and I am learning new things. I have learned what not to do when making yogurt: over-incubating makes it separate, and not mixing it well enough makes it grainy (at least, according to some on-line troubleshooting guides.) My milk is non-homogenized from Hartzler Family Dairy. They don't make cream, which has foiled a number of meal plans. I may try skimming the milk to get the milk fat (being non-homogenized, the fat floats to the top.) It might work, and whole milk tastes like cream to me anyway (I have acclimated to skim.)
My kitchen currently sports the following, all local:
dairy/eggs: milk (skim and 2%), butter, gouda, eggs
fruits: plums, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, nectarines, muskmelon, casaba, honeycrisp apples, grapes
vegetables: zucchini, pole beans, swiss chard, celery, carrots (from the farmer's market, but of possible dubious local origin), Italian eggplant, heirloom tomatoes
legumes: edamame, pinto beans
root vegetables: blue, red, and new potatoes, sweet potatoes
other: garlic, white onions, sweet onions
meat: Italian sausage, grass-fed beef, chicken scraps
herbs: my garden is sporting thyme, oregano, flat-leaf parsley, tarragon, basil, chives
other: maple syrup, honey, soft wheat flour, cornmeal
I also have some local bread (imported wheat - hard wheat doesn't grow well around here) and pasta; locally-made ice cream, and locally grown red popcorn. I also have locally made maple granola (all ingredients are not local, but I can't face life without oatmeal.)
My biggest non-local ingredients have been: tea, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. I have a jar of jam from http://www.welovejam.com/ that I will continue to eat; it cost a lot, might spoil, and falls into the "terroir" category as defined by the Locavores. (Terroir was originally a wine/coffee term, referring to the special properties that the earth in a certain place bestowed on the items grown there.)
So that's my latest. I'll update more about what we are actually eating; below I will list a few of our recent meals:
Brunch: pancakes (locally grown and milled flour and produced mix) with peaches, raspberries, and maple syrup. Plus bacon. All local, though some of the pancake mix ingredients are probably not local.)
Brunch: bacon, eggs, home fries. 100% local (except for salt and pepper)
Dinner: chicken breast with herbs, heirloom potatoes with garlic and chives, brussel sprouts. Non-local ingredients were olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.
Breakfast: homemade yogurt (local milk, non-local starter), locally-made granola (see above), local honey, local berries
The challenge this year has an emphasis on preserving the bounty of September, and I have been working on this for the last month or so. The purchase of a chest freezer (manual defrost and energy star) and a Foodsaver vacuum sealer have been a big help. So far I have frozen a good 5 dozen ears of corn (cut off the cob, which is easier than it sounds), 5 or 6 pounds of green beans, 6 quarts of strawberries, 3 quarts of peaches, 1 quart of raspberries, 1.5 quarts of vegetable stock, 2 pints of sweet corn stock, and 5 pints of pasta sauce. Also freezer jam: peach, mixed berry, and strawberry. The most onerous task was the blanching, peeling, chopping and seeding of the 15 pounds of tomatoes. I love the resulting sauce, but the labor is extreme. It would be a great (read:easier) two-person job though.
You can easily freeze vegetables without a vacuum sealer - just use ziplock baggies, and smoosh as much of the air out as you can. There are really great directions for freezing, canning, and otherwise using fresh vegetables and fruits at PickYourOwn.org. The site has been a great help!
There are some good books out there for preserving food (by freezing, canning, and other methods.) These are a few I have picked up:
Preserving Summer's Bounty: A Quick and Easy Guide to Freezing, Canning, and Preserving, and Drying What You Grow (by Rodale Food Center)
Putting Food By (by Janet Greene)
Stocking Up (by Carol Hupping)
Meals have been good, and I am learning new things. I have learned what not to do when making yogurt: over-incubating makes it separate, and not mixing it well enough makes it grainy (at least, according to some on-line troubleshooting guides.) My milk is non-homogenized from Hartzler Family Dairy. They don't make cream, which has foiled a number of meal plans. I may try skimming the milk to get the milk fat (being non-homogenized, the fat floats to the top.) It might work, and whole milk tastes like cream to me anyway (I have acclimated to skim.)
My kitchen currently sports the following, all local:
dairy/eggs: milk (skim and 2%), butter, gouda, eggs
fruits: plums, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, nectarines, muskmelon, casaba, honeycrisp apples, grapes
vegetables: zucchini, pole beans, swiss chard, celery, carrots (from the farmer's market, but of possible dubious local origin), Italian eggplant, heirloom tomatoes
legumes: edamame, pinto beans
root vegetables: blue, red, and new potatoes, sweet potatoes
other: garlic, white onions, sweet onions
meat: Italian sausage, grass-fed beef, chicken scraps
herbs: my garden is sporting thyme, oregano, flat-leaf parsley, tarragon, basil, chives
other: maple syrup, honey, soft wheat flour, cornmeal
I also have some local bread (imported wheat - hard wheat doesn't grow well around here) and pasta; locally-made ice cream, and locally grown red popcorn. I also have locally made maple granola (all ingredients are not local, but I can't face life without oatmeal.)
My biggest non-local ingredients have been: tea, sugar, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. I have a jar of jam from http://www.welovejam.com/ that I will continue to eat; it cost a lot, might spoil, and falls into the "terroir" category as defined by the Locavores. (Terroir was originally a wine/coffee term, referring to the special properties that the earth in a certain place bestowed on the items grown there.)
So that's my latest. I'll update more about what we are actually eating; below I will list a few of our recent meals:
Brunch: pancakes (locally grown and milled flour and produced mix) with peaches, raspberries, and maple syrup. Plus bacon. All local, though some of the pancake mix ingredients are probably not local.)
Brunch: bacon, eggs, home fries. 100% local (except for salt and pepper)
Dinner: chicken breast with herbs, heirloom potatoes with garlic and chives, brussel sprouts. Non-local ingredients were olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.
Breakfast: homemade yogurt (local milk, non-local starter), locally-made granola (see above), local honey, local berries
Thursday, August 23, 2007
I am participating in the September Eat Local Challenge (which is done in association with the Locavores.) Stay tuned for stories, triumphs, tribulations, and sample menus.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
A pause from summer travels to enjoy the bounty of summer in Ohio.
I travel a lot in the summer, living in my tent for two or more weeks at a time. I'm glad to be home for a few days before my next adventure, so I thought I would post about today's market experience.
I traveled to Pearl Alley Farmer's Market in downtown Columbus, Ohio. It's not one of the major markets in town, so I was uncertain what I would find. Boy, was I surprised.
I almost bought more than I could carry. Here's the haul, with prices if I remember them:
edamame (quart) $3
summer squash (yellow, zucchini, and patty-pan)
eggplant
green beans (quart) $2.50
corn (6 ears) $2.75
sweet onions
red potatoes
blackberries (quart) $5
strawberries (astonishing! quart) $4
the mother of all cantaloupes (HUGE!) $3.50
peaches (4 large) $5
The prices do run a tad bit higher than grocery store sales, but the produce was all local, and harvested within the last 24 hours. I spent about $40, and half of that was the fruit. Nowadays I go to the grocery store once a week and spend less than twenty bucks. I'd guess that 85-90% of the food I currently consume comes from local farmer's markets. The glaring exceptions are cereal, oils, dairy, grains, beans, and the occasional prepared food. I'll be switching to local milk and butter when I return from my travels in mid-august. I've found local corn meal and soft wheat flour, but not bread flour, rice, lentils or beans. (I know that some of those things simply don't grow in Ohio. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled though.)
I traveled to Pearl Alley Farmer's Market in downtown Columbus, Ohio. It's not one of the major markets in town, so I was uncertain what I would find. Boy, was I surprised.
I almost bought more than I could carry. Here's the haul, with prices if I remember them:
edamame (quart) $3
summer squash (yellow, zucchini, and patty-pan)
eggplant
green beans (quart) $2.50
corn (6 ears) $2.75
sweet onions
red potatoes
blackberries (quart) $5
strawberries (astonishing! quart) $4
the mother of all cantaloupes (HUGE!) $3.50
peaches (4 large) $5
The prices do run a tad bit higher than grocery store sales, but the produce was all local, and harvested within the last 24 hours. I spent about $40, and half of that was the fruit. Nowadays I go to the grocery store once a week and spend less than twenty bucks. I'd guess that 85-90% of the food I currently consume comes from local farmer's markets. The glaring exceptions are cereal, oils, dairy, grains, beans, and the occasional prepared food. I'll be switching to local milk and butter when I return from my travels in mid-august. I've found local corn meal and soft wheat flour, but not bread flour, rice, lentils or beans. (I know that some of those things simply don't grow in Ohio. I'll be keeping my eyes peeled though.)
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