Farmer's market

Yesterday I strolled from booth to booth at the farmer's market, admiring shining baskets of cherries, early zucchini and cucumbers, and wondering briefly if I could fit pineapple sage in my herb garden. I stopped at a table of multicolored tomatoes and bought five. I bypassed the bratworst stand and came upon a woman setting out gooseberries and raspberries. I had tasted gooseberries for the first time last year and, remembering the pie I made, bought a small basket. I picked up a large cabbage at another stall, and spent my last two dollars on a basil plant.

At Sharp Shopper I found Virginia peanuts, local honey, and a new item from the farm that produces the popcorn that Ben eats in vast quantities: white corn. I bought a bag along with a bag of popcorn. I also made a non-local purchase of black beans. Our black beans in the garden have pods of a size which I would eat green if we weren't growing them to dry.

I sliced one of the tomatoes and sprinkled them with the pinched-off top of the basil plant. We had them for supper along with leftover garbanzos and greens over rice (for Ben) and cornmeal (for me).

I've been feeling that it's time to bring our baseline phase to a close. We haven't yet decided what we should try to phase out. I'm inclined to continue eating dry beans until ours are ready to harvest, then re-evaluate depending on the size of our harvest. Cheese is often at the top of my food guilt list: non-local, refrigerated, processed, high fat, possibly from confined cows causing polluted run-off. . . but do I want to live without cheese? Or learn the complex-sounding process of making my own? Or pay $14 a pound for cheese from Charlottesville? Then there are rice, oats, sunflower seeds, vinegar, lentils. . . I can eliminate any or all of these from our diet for a week or a month, but do we really want to long-term?

Local-ish chocolate cake

This morning we had our oft-eaten breakfast of toast (local), eggs (100 foot), and tea (fair trade). Afterward I harvested our crop of garlic, planted last fall. We got some nice big heads as well as some small ones, probably 20-30. It's curing on our back deck.

Yesterday I cooked a chicken from a friend who butchered last summer. We rarely have chicken in the house (or any other meat) so I have been planning all my meals that involve chicken. For supper this evening I made a sesame chicken couscous salad (though I used quinoa instead of couscous) from the Simply in Season cookbook.
100 foot: Broccoli, snap peas, green onion
Local: Chicken, chicken broth
Non: Quinoa, soy sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, sesame oil, almonds

For dessert and breakfast tomorrow I made muffins and chocolate cake.
For the muffins:
100 foot: Black raspberries, eggs
Local: Butter, honey, flour
Non: Baking powder, salt

For the cake (of which Ben has just very kindly brought me a piece):
100 foot: Grated cucumber (frozen from last year)
Local: Butter, honey, flour, milk
Non: Cocoa powder (fair trade), salt, baking soda, vinegar, sunflower seeds, vanilla

The cake is a different recipe than what I usually use, and not as sweet. I think using local ingredients transforms chocolate cake into a healthy food, right? Perhaps I should have another piece.

Two meals from beets

I've missed a few days of writing, partially due to a suddenly leaking well pump tank, necessatating late-night trips to big-box hardware stores and a take-out meal due to no water. Since that has been resolved meal highlights have included a nearly all-local leaf soup and local popcorn, butter, and honey, along with non-local cinnamon.

For breakfast this morning we had a family favorite: flat pancakes (also known as crepes).
100 foot: Eggs
Local: Wheat, buttermilk, strawberries in jam, milk, ghee
Non: Sugar in jam, salt, coffee

Lunch was late, but very tasty: Roasted vegetables from the garden, bean salad, and just-baked bread.
100 foot: New potatoes, beets, turnips, onions, lemon thyme, parley, green beans (canned)
Local: Garlic, onions, bread, corn (frozen), honey
Non: Olive oil, white beans, garbanzo beans, vinegar, salt, pepper

For supper we weren't very hungry, so I cooked some of the beet greens left over from lunch. Ben is eating popcorn and I'm eating granola for a snack.

A lot of the "groceries" I buy these days are not really food items: toothpaste, cat food, bird seed, etc. I've been thinking about ways to reduce those as well. A few days ago as I was thinking about sweeteners, I was thinking that I would only buy white sugar for the hummingbirds. Then I thought about planting a bird garden next year rather than putting up bird feeders. I could plant sweet peas, monarda, nasturtiums, and sweet william for the hummingbirds, and sunflowers, thistles, and grasses for the other birds.

We have lots of rabbits in our yard right now, but I have no intention of making my own cat food any time soon. If only I could convince Krikkit to live on pine voles. . .

Mulberries

This afternoon I went over to our neighbor's yard to pick mulberries from his tree. It's a giant old spreading mulberry that's been dropping berries on the edge of the road for a couple of weeks now. As I picked two squirrels chased each other up and down the trunk. The berries were not the best I'd ever tasted, but they were plentiful. I picked almost half a gallon just from what I could reach from the ground, plus all those I ate. I washed and froze the berries when I was done. There is a mulberry cake recipe I want to try, or perhaps it's time for more pie. . .

Breakfast and lunch today were granola and leftovers, respectively, previously documented. Ben was at class this evening, so I had a rather miscellanious supper of peas and new potatoes, wheat cereal, and a bit of ice cream.

100 foot: Potatoes, peas, dill
Local: Butter, milk, wheat
Non: Sugar

I was excited to find fair trade organic sugar at Red Front today! Now I can buy local honey and maple syrup, and fair trade sugar. I'm still hunting for local molasses.

Sourdough bread

This morning Ben got up early to pick the peas before getting ready for work. He also put our loaf of sourdough bread, which had been rising overnight, in the oven to bake, so when I got up 20 minutes later it was already starting to smell good. Here's our sourdough bread recipe:

Sponge:
1 cup (or so) sourdough starter
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup water
Mix in the morning and let stand until evening. Sponge should be bubbly and slightly risen.

sponge from above
2-4 T honey
1/2 t. diastatic malt
1-2 t. salt
2 T melted butter
4-6 cups whole wheat flour

Remove 1/2 cup sponge, mix with 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup flour; store in refrigerator for next time. Mix honey, butter, malt, and salt with remaining sponge. Stir in flour until dough is stiff enough to knead. Add flour until dough is easy to handle but still slightly sticky. Too wet is better than too dry. Shape into loaf, place in greased loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap, leaving room for bread to rise. Let rise overnight. Place in oven, turn on to 375 degrees, and bake 35 minutes. Turn out of pan to cool.

Breakfast: Bread, honey, peanut butter, coffee, pie
Local: Bread, honey, PB, some pie ingredients, milk
Non: Coffee, some pie ingredients

Lunch was leftovers which I've catalogued in earlier posts.

Supper: Omelet, toast
100 foot: Swiss chard, eggs, parsley
Local: Onion, butter, honey, bread

The most exciting food is to be eaten shortly: Homemade strawberry ice cream!
100 foot: Eggs
Local: Milk, cream, strawberries, honey
Non: Vanilla extract

Invented meals and picky hens

Yesterday we got home late after a trip to Staunton where we saw A Merchant of Venice at the Blackfriar's Playhouse--excellent theater as always. We also ate supper at the Baja Bean Co., all non-local most likely.

Breakfast yesterday: Cornmeal pancakes
100 foot: Egg
Local: Cornmeal, butter, milk, yogurt whey
Non: Syrup, corn masa, coffee, salt

Lunch: Salad, bread, yogurt, strawberries
100 foot: Chard, lettuce, borage, egg, strawberries, mint tea
Local: Bread, bacon, honey, yogurt
Non: Vinegar, olive oil

Snack: Pie and milk again. . . (one piece left now!)

This morning's breakfast was scrambled eggs and toast. Our hens are laying 2-3 eggs per day these days, so we eat eggs frequently to keep up. Pastured eggs (which ours are) have something like five times the omega-3 of factory farmed eggs, half the collesterol, more vitamin B, and so on. My project this evening was trying to convince the hens that they would like to eat the broccoli worms that are attacking our crucifers. One hen, Zia, would eat a few of the smaller ones. The other two were skeptical. I'll keep trying; I had to convince them to try japanese beetles at first. Now there are few things they like better.
100 foot: Eggs
Local: Bread, honey, strawberries in jam, bacon fat
Non: Coffee, sugar in jam

Lunch was one of our favorite curry recipes which Ben discovered and we have since modified to use whatever we have.
100 foot: Peas
Local: Onions, ghee
Non: Rice, red lentils, garlic, spices, chutney

Supper was an invention of mine: one of those inspired by wanting to use whatever's in the fridge with a minimum of time and effort. I ended up making creamed turnip greens on toast with Swiss cheese. It was pretty good, though Ben would have preferred a base other than toast.
100 foot: Turnip greens
Local: Flour, butter, milk, toast, garlic flower buds
Non: Swiss cheese, dry mustard

I'll add here a perpetual item that I should have been including at the end of each day:
Snack for Ben: Popcorn
Local: Popcorn
Non: Olive oil, salt

Shelves vs. dirt

This morning I was on the east end of town for a meeting, so I stopped in to a new chain grocery store. Several people had told me that they enjoyed the layout and the wide selection of natural foods. While I wasn't sure if this meant local foods, I had some hopes. Not surprisingly, they turned out to be unfounded. I followed the directory toward the bulk foods aisle with hopes of finding brown basmati rice, but it seemed to consist largely of nuts, dried fruits, and candies. In the "natural foods" section nearby, I did find organic white rice for twice the price of my usual grocery store, Red Front. There was a large selection of what appeared to be organic junk food. I eventually selected cat food, non-scented shampoo, and vitamins and walked to the checkout past an employee unloading boxes of cherries from Washington state.

Now, there's really nothing wrong with this store. As chain groceries go, it's probably very nice. I am realizing more and more, however, that I don't want food that comes from stores. It sounds odd to say this. Cat food, shampoo, fine, but I'll eat the cherries that came from Ben's co-worker's tree. (Said cherries await my pitting in the refrigerator right now.) There is increasingly less and less food on the shelves of stores that I feel good about buying.

So, the meals for today:

Breakfast: Granola, milk, coffee, pie
Local: Milk, peanuts, honey, wheat bran, some pie ingredients (see yesterday)
Non local: Oats, sunflower seeds, flaxseed, molasses, coffee, some pie ingredients

Lunch: Turnips, sandwich
100 foot: Turnips, chard
Local: Bread (except salt), onion, PB, honey, yogurt

Snack: Pickled beets
100 foot: Beets
Non: Vinegar, sugar

Supper: Tamale pie, mint tea
100 foot: Cilantro, tomatillo salsa (partially), sweet and hot peppers (frozen), mint, stevia, egg
Local: Cornmeal, onion, buttermilk, yogurt whey, fat, honey, corn (frozen)
Non: Pinto beans, baking soda, salt

We have a 25lb bag of non-local rolled oats that go into our perpetual supply of granola, and I'm not sure what I could do without buying dry beans, BUT! Our bean plants, which I am growing to dry, are beginning to flower! I need to get out to the garden to pick the peas and strawberries before dark, so I shall close here.

Baseline

Ben had an idea: What if, for a period of time, we would track what we eat now, see what's local and what's not, then work to replace as many non-local items as we can?

As I am always up for food-related projects, I liked the idea. I had also wanted to get back to writing this weblog on a regular basis, and this seemed like a good motivation. I had also considered participating in the 100 foot diet challenge and this sounded like it would work well as a first step toward that goal as well.

So without further ado, an inventory of our eating today:
Breakfast: Pancakes, homemade syrup, honey, jam, strawberries, yogurt, peanut butter, coffee, milk
100 foot ingredients: Egg, strawberries
Other local ingredients: Wheat, milk, butter, buttermilk, yogurt, honey, strawberries in jam, peanuts in peanut butter
Non local: Buckwheat, flaxseed, salt, baking powder, sugar, maple flavoring, coffee
Notes: With the syrup (homemade) and the jam, this meal probably contained more sugar than most that we eat. The sugar or the coffee probably traveled the farthest. The coffee was actually roasted locally and is organic and fair trade, so I don't feel as bad about that as the bought-in-a-bag-from-who-knows-where refined charcoal filtered white sugar.

Lunch: Mexican-style rice and beans
100 foot: Swiss chard, cilantro, canned tomatillo salsa (partially)
Local: Onions, bacon/chicken fat
Non local: Rice, pinto beans, cumin, cheese, salt

Snack: Pie, milk
Local: Cherries, wheat, butter, milk
Non local: Sugar, almond flavoring, tapioca, salt

Supper: Omlet, turnips, bread
100 foot: Eggs, turnips and greens
Local: Onions, garlic, milk, bacon/chicken fat
Non local: Soy sauce, bread, black pepper
Notes: The bread was an impulse buy from the farmer's market--locally made, but (probably) not local ingredients.

Snack: Pie, milk
100 foot: Rhubarb, strawberries
Local: Wheat, butter, milk
Non: Sugar, corn starch
Notes: I know, I know--two kinds of pie in one day. My sister visited on Monday and we spent the day picking and cooking.

Today is looking like a lot of sugar for the dominant non-local food. This is kind of surprising to me because I don't think I eat that much sugar. I think the pies are an anomaly.

Now that it's over

Wednesday was the last day of our month-long eat local challenge. We had a tasty supper of hamburgers with the rest of our Polyface Farms ground beef, and made french fries with some of our potatoes.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store, intending stock up on all the things we'd been missing during the last month. During October my trips to the store were very straightforward: check the produce section for anything local (I rarely found anything), ignore the bulk foods, cereals, and dairy aisle, pick up cat food, toothpaste, toilet paper and other inedibles, and check out. This time, there was suddenly a dilemma: What now should I buy?

The bulk food section was pretty easy: no-brand corn chips, lentils, organic brown rice, almonds and walnuts. I felt fine about buying those; non-refrigerated, dry, nutrient dense foods (okay, maybe not the chips). I moved on to the produce section. Here, we still had a good supply of most of the foods we eat. I briefly admired the oranges, decided to check the farmer's market one more time for onions, and picked out a bag of organic carrots, grown in California and no doubt shipped cross-country in refrigerated trucks. I justified a browning bunch of bananas on the reduced price rack because surely they'd be thrown out the next day and just go to waste.

Now I was through the bakery and on to the dairy aisle. I knew we still had some cheese we'd frozen before the last month, and we wouldn't be buying milk or butter anytime soon because of a happy occurance earlier that day: I had finally gotten off the waiting list for a cowshare! At a farmhouse just outside of Harrisonburg I had signed papers, paid fees, and walked to my car with two half-gallon glass jars of milk while the cows grazed nearby along with chickens and frolicking goats. Nearly the top quarter of each jar was risen cream.

Back in the grocery store, I pondered the frozen vegetables. I had discovered earlier in the week that we had no frozen peas left from our garden. Which ones to buy? The cheap store brand? Look for something organic? Pull out packages and try to divine where the peas were grown? In the end I decided we'd just eat our own green beans instead.

Though our month was over, I left the store with a single bag of groceries, rather than the three or four that were standard prior to October. Yet we have plenty of food. Today and yesterday I've eaten barley, lentils, sugar, raisins, bananas, carrots, nutmeg, black pepper, dried italian seasoning mix, baking soda, cheese, cocoa powder, and bagels. I'll probably continue to eat those things. But I likely won't be buying other non-local produce (unless we can't find those onions!), pasta, milk, butter, yogurt, or flour. I want to try buying rice and oats in 50lb bags. I still buy fairly traded coffee, tea, and chocolate. Maybe someday I'll be ambitious enough to make mozzerella cheese.

Now, if I could get that greenhouse built and plant my orange tree. . .

Pepper harvest

Last night we had our first frost. We hadn't checked the weather until late afternoon, so we spent last evening hurrying to get everything picked and inside before dark, mainly peppers and pole beans. All the houseplants came inside as well, and I dug some of the herbs--we'll see if they'll grow inside in pots.

We have many peppers to freeze. How many? Here's an illustration:

On my way home from work today I stopped at a produce stand near our house. I had gotten sweet corn there last year, but hadn't stopped this year. The man running it told me their last day this year is the 31st. I got some Granny Smith apples as a change from our mystery Red Delicious cross, sweet onions, and a free watermelon (last one of the season).

I decided to use my finds along with our abundance of peppers for supper, so I made sweet and sour chicken. I cheated slightly by using vinegar from some of our pickled hot peppers. Here's the recipe, heavily adapted from More-With-Less.

Apple Chicken

1-1 1/2 cups chicken breast and other meat, cut into pieces
1 large onion, cut in wedges
1 red pepper, cut in pieces
1 tart apple, thinly sliced

Saute chicken, onion, and pepper in a large frying pan. Once chicken is cooked reduce heat and add apple. Fry a minute longer.

Make a sauce with:
3/4 cup apple cider
2 Tablespoons vinegar
2 Tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons salt

Add to frying pan, stirring until sauce thickens. Serve over noodles.

Chili!

Tonight was our church's annual chili cook-off. As such, it fell under our free food and social exemptions. In addition, we were on the committee that coordinated the event so we invoked a seldom-used ox-threshing-grain exemption.

With three simultaneous exemptions working for us we ate a lot of chili. Sarah says she gained five pounds since this afternoon--she claims our bathroom scale proves this. I don't have such definitive proof but I certainly feel as though I've gained weight.

By our count, there were twenty-two different types of chili at the event. Sarah systematically tasted each one; I was less deliberate but--I think--equally thorough. We also served fruit, vegetables, cornbread and iced pumkin bars but with that much chili to choose from who needs anything else?

Yesterday was a busy day, so in lieu of cooking a local supper we patronized a great local restaurant, the Little Grill Collective. They serve local meats and eggs and make an effort to buy local produce. So I felt I could semi-justify a meal there during our month of eating locally.

Unfortunately, last night left us with no leftovers for today. My in-a-hurry lunch packing effort yielded a midmorning snack of a sweetpotato, and lunch of radishes, baked potatoes, yogurt and cider. Not quite what my ideal would have been, but filling.

For supper this evening I made hamburger stew and spoonbread. I think it was the first time I had cooked ground beef since living at home before college. This ground beef was from Polyface Farms
(courtesy of a natural food store in Harrisonburg). I remember ground beef as being slighly greyish and greasy. This was completely red before cooking, and when I tried to drain off the fat, as the recipe instructed, there was none to drain. I've been semi-vegetarian for a long time since I don't particularly enjoy most meat, it's expensive, factory farming is an abomination, etc. This discovery of local meats may change things. It'll probably still be a rare thing (because now it's really expensive), but I can think of some very tasty recipes which may need more than the other half of this ground beef pound.

Clam Chowder

The way Sarah tells it, she asked the folks at Kroger if they had any local food and after much thought they suggested Chesapeake Bay clams--the bay just falls within our hundred-mile line. She happily purchased them and created a delicious clam chowder with local potatoes and milk, and cuttings from our herb garden. Since I'm not much for seafood Sarah was even kind enough to make clamless chowder for me. It was delicious too.

To accompany our chowders I opened a jar of homemade white grape* juice. It was the perfect complement: sweet and pungent to set off the creamy, earthy flavors of the soup. I tend to take a utilitarian approach to food but this was a meal worth savoring.

--

* In the past we've waited months for these grapes to ripen to concord purple. This year we were smarter.

A change of pace

This afternoon at work, after eating a non-local lunch (thanks Ben!) I was trying to come up with a supper plan for tonight. I visited the farmers' market this morning, and though I didn't find carrots or onions, I did buy eggs (we were down to one from our hens), beets, and radishes. That combination didn't inspire any supper ideas, however. I jotted down a few ideas, but none of them really struck my fancy.

When I got home, I remembered that I had marked a few recipes in the More-With-Less cookbook a couple days before that I thought I could make with all local ingredients. I decided on a breakfast-for-supper theme and made a modified version of High-Protein Pancakes or Waffles (waffles, in this case). Ben made decaf coffee (our exemption), and I blended some of our peanuts for peanut butter, thawed a few strawberries, and got out the honey and maple syrup.

Here's the slightly modified recipe:

1 cup yogurt
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
4 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup melted butter

Whirl in blender until well mixed and foamy. Bake in waffle iron.

The taste and texture reminded me of cheesecake. I suppose we didn't get our serving of vegetables for the evening, but it was a nice change.

A confession

I need to make a confession: I ate lunch at a Thai restaurant. In my defense, it was a business meeting and my colleagues don't always pack lunches. I carefully saved half the meal and brought it home to Sarah. She assumed I was being thoughtful and was very appreciative; she doesn't realize I was sharing the forbidden fruit.

Gadgets

Yesterday we bought a pasta maker at a kitchenwares store in Dayton. When we got home Ben set to work grinding wheat, setting up the machine on the edge of the counter, and eventually feeding out sheets of thinly rolled whole wheat pasta dough. He made spaghetti while I foraged in the refrigerator, basement, and garden for ingredients for spaghetti sauce. We didn't let the pasta dry before cooking it, which may be why it came out a little gluey, but all in all it was pretty good. Much preferable to my previous mashing out of stiff dough on the counter with the rolling pin.

Ben also was inspired to try using the pasta machine to roll out today tortillas, so I made the dough this afternoon and for supper we had tortillas with scrambled eggs and swiss chard topped with some of our canned tomatillo salsa. Again, the pasta maker made it easy to get things nice and thin.

I also found local maple syrup on our shopping trip (inspiring me to make french toast for breakfast this morning) as well as cheaper local peanuts. These are still in the shell, but at $1.49 a pound, versus $4.99, I'll shell my own. I still haven't made peanut butter. I'm not sure how our blender would handle it, and I'm reluctant to gum up our grain mill. Hmm, maybe we need a peanut butter grinder. . .

The other gadget of the day was the apple sauce strainer. We made another 5 quarts of sauce this afternoon. I currently have the leftover sauce in the oven on a cookie sheet, attempting to make apple leather. I've never done it before--I hope it's done before bedtime.

Where food really comes from

Recently I've been listening to a lecture series by Prof. Brian Fagan about human prehistory. An entire section of the series is devoted to the domestication of wild plants and animals by our early human ancestors. Access to these reliable food sources, in turn, changed the nature of humans' interactions with each other--the whole hunter-gatherer versus farmer-herder dynamic--and allowed humans to create colonies in otherwise inhospitable parts of the planet.

One fascinating side-light of Dr. Fagan's conversations about domestication is the information he gives about where foods were originally domesticated--at least to the extent that archeology can tell us. It turns out that some of the foods we've been eating have--forgive the dreadful pun--deeper roots in the area than others. Wheat, for example, was domesticated in south-west Asia. Chickens, according to Wikipedia, are descended from south-east Asian wildfowl. Corn, potatoes and tomatoes are American crops and have probably been grown in this area for millenia. Beans are found the world over but, again referencing Wikipedia, it's likely the varieties we're eating fresh are American in orgin.

None of this directly relates to our local eating challenge--we're concerned with food that's been grown locally in the past year or so, not the past ten-thousand years--but I find it interesting to think about none-the-less.

Chickens and chicken

This afternoon when I got home from work I was greeted by three of our hens who had decided to escape and explore the front lawn. This is not a usual occurance--especially three at once!--and they seemed to know when I got out of the car that this was not where they should be. They took off for the portable fence we have set up under the grape arbor where I let them graze when I'm home (since it's not secure from preditors.) I figured since they were out anyway I might as well get the other two, so all the hens had a happy afternoon of eating blades of grass and dustbathing.

When Ben put them in this evening he found a brown egg in the coop. We think it might be from one of our two Delaware hens that are due to start laying in November or so. Our Buff Orpington also lays brown eggs, but she's quit while she's molting, and this one was quite small. Egg production has tapered off in the last few weeks to about one per day, so maybe it'll start picking up again.

For supper this evening I cooked some of the chicken a friend has donated to our local eating effort, from broilers that they had butchered earlier in the year. I'm not always a huge fan of chicken, but this meat is delicious. I made some stovetop stuffing with some of our sourdough bread, got some corn out of the freezer and made gravy to go with leftover mashed potatoes. It was a meal that needed almost no adaptation to be completely local. I think I would have used black pepper normally, but that's the only change I would have made.

My stuffing recipe:
2 green onions
2 stalks celery
1 T. butter

Chop onions and celery and saute in butter. Meanwhile, mix in bowl
4 slices bread, crumbled
2 eggs
1/4 to 1/2 cup chicken broth
salt to taste

Add to pan with onions and celery. Lower heat, cover, and cook 10-15 minutes or until eggs are cooked through.

Smells Like Soup

(Apologies at the outset to anyone who now has the John McCutcheon song running through their head. I certainly do. Oh, and full credit to Mr. McCutcheon for the wording, too.)

Today has been a soup day at our house. After a week's beginning that had more in common with July than October the weather has finally settled into a fall groove: highs in the sixties and lows around forty degrees. We were debating whether to start a fire in the fireplace this evening. That means it's time to make some soups.

Soups are one of Sarah's kitchen specialties. I scour our cupboards and conclude that there's nothing there that could ever become food; Sarah glances at their contents and begins assembling a culinary masterpiece.

Tonight's supper was a staid potato corn chowder. Lunch, though, was something different. I'll let Sarah share the full recipe if she likes. All I know is that sweet potatoes, peppers and peanuts went into a pot and half an hour later we were eating a delicious, spicy, filling soup. I think it's magic.

P.S. Eliza, thanks for the tip. I'm trying to work myself up for hot breakfasts; a different texture for the cereal just might help.

The good, the bad, the best

As I drink my local cider and Ben eats his local popcorn this evening, I've thought about what I've missed and what I haven't thus far into the month. As we've said before, this has been much easier than the week in April when it felt like we were surviving on onions, flat bread, and eggs.

What I've missed: Spices have been a big one. I want cinnamon in my cider, black pepper on my potato soup, cumin for my chicken. Of course, we do have many herbs available: cilantro, corriander, basil, oregano, parsley, mint. . . I have fantasies of finding wild ginger in our woods, but since I have no idea what it looks like that doesn't seem very likely.

I've also wished for rice, olive oil, and cow cheese (as opposed to goat cheese). The first two are out of the question, but I still hold out hope of finding at least local mozzerella.

What I haven't missed: Sugar. Okay, not much. I would like to pick up some maple syrup as a change from honey. Lemons, lentils, baking powder--all things I normally use weekly--I haven't given that much thought. Sorrel, lima beans, and . . . well, flatter pancakes have taken their place.

Favorites to rejoice in: Cherry tomatoes straight from the vine, my favorite right-after-work snack. Peanuts! Local peanuts! Pricey, but a very nice addition to lunches. And sweet potatoes in the raised beds, waiting for me to dig my fingers in and pull them out. The one I ate today was about the sweetest I'd ever tasted--perfect just as it was with nothing on it.