Spilling family secrets

Yesterday we processed apples into applesauce, today it was the tomatillos' turn. A few hours' work (counting cooking and canning time) sufficed to turn a large bowl of tomatillos into four pints of tomatillo sauce. We were handicapped by our shared desire to work and be entertained so one of us read aloud while the other worked. It made the job take longer but we advanced five or six chapters through The War of the Flowers.

In the early evening, after we were finished with the tomatillos and both our voices were tired, Sarah made corn chips while I assembled a quick garden salsa. Most of the salsa components were ordinary enough--and we used tomatoes not tomatillos!--but in place of non-local vinegar or lemon juice we used sorrel from our herb garden. We both agreed that the result was indistinguishable from salsa made with the more traditional additives--a pleasant surprise.

A note in closing regarding mashed potatoes and applesauce: if you haven't tried it you really should. The combination of starchy, slightly salty potatoes and sweet, fruity applesauce is marvelous. My family has enjoyed the blend for years. It's a family secret too good to keep.

Ten apples up on top

We declared an exception to our month of eating local foods for the MCC Relief Sale this morning. Since the funds from the sale go to feed hungry people around the world, among other things, I felt that a higher cause was being served by attending than by skipping it this year. I suppose I could have just donated money instead of buying a donut and plate of Laotion food, but I'm not that high-minded. We did come away with five gallons of local cider, which I managed to wedge into our freezer between the sweet corn and swiss chard.

This afternoon we began making applesauce with our many apples from our tree. This apparently will be a time-consuming project--we have seven pints finishing in the canner right now, plus five we did before taking a supper break. It barely made a dent in the containers in the picture here.

For supper Ben made delicious mashed potatoes from our crop dug earlier this year, to which I added dill, chives, and yogurt, and he added applesauce(!) We also tried some of the edamame--green soybeans--which we bought last week at the farmers' market. They taste similar to lima beans and were quite good.

I couldn't bear to throw away the apple skins left from the sauce, so we may be trying apple skin pie or some other similar concoction in the coming week.

Our Daily Bread

Tonight Sarah and I agreed that, while we spend less money eating locally, we spend more time preparing and preserving food. I'm probably exaggerating but it seems that every minute I've not spent at work or working or studying has been occupied by food. I'm not complaining--not exactly--but at this moment the biggest allure of non-local, commercial, processed food is its casual simplicity. There's a part of me that wants to grab a bag of peanuts off the shelf and chow down, without worry about where they came from or spending hours preparing them.

I know all the reasons why we're not eating this way, of course. I know that convenience for the end consumer is purchased at every other stage of the production chain. I know that some of those purchase costs are represented in the supermarket price tag but many of them--environmental, economic, health, even spiritual costs--are not. I know all this but when I'm tired from a week at work I find it a little hard to care.

When she spoke at EMU last week Mary Beth Lind, one of the authors of our favorite Simply in Season cookbook, encouraged us to think of activity surrounding food--its consumption, yes, but also its preparation, preservation, even planting--as a spiritual exercise. When I keep that in mind I'm grateful that Sarah and I are spending more time on our daily bread. It nourishes more than our bodies.

Green bounty

Today I got to share the joy of local eating: I brought our grain mill to school and the kids ground corn and wheat, shook cream into butter, and baked cornbread in the toaster oven. They all ate it and liked it too.

When I got home I canned tomatillo sauce--like tomato sauce, only green. Though our tomatoes did poorly this year, we've had a huge abundance of tomatillos. We've had green spaghetti, salsa verde, green pizza. . . and after much fruitless searching on the internet and finally one quick phone call to the county cooperative extension, a recipe for canned tomatillo sauce.

Since Ben had class this evening I didn't bother to cook supper, just had some garlic bread and some of the sauce as it was cooking down. Mmmm, local garlic!

Oh, the conversations we have...

To celebrate our third day of eating local I'll recount for you a bit of our dinner table conversation.

Me: Dr. Brian Fagan, professor of anthropology and well regarded lecturer on human prehistory, says that says that far-flung trading networks were a hallmark of early civilizations. Ten thousand years ago those networks already spanned continents. If humans could do all that back then I think I should be able to put pepper on my vegetables.

Sarah: Mmm.

I didn't get the pepper. Then again, the vegetables didn't really need it.

Day 2

This morning got off to a tasty start with pancakes and grape jam. I had purchased a 50lb bag of wheat from Heartland Harvest Farm in Augusta County last week, and we ground some for the pancakes. Along with an egg from our hens, butter and milk from Homestead Creamery, and a bit of non-local salt, it made very tasty, if flat, pancakes. They were sort of like small crepes. The jam was from a batch we canned a few weeks ago, a recipe that used just grapes (from our vines) and honey (from Singer's Glen). It turned out more like syrup anyway so it was perfect for the pancakes.

Lunch was leftovers from the weekend, using our "don't let it spoil" exemption. For supper we made a recipe from Simply in Season for spinach squares, using sorrel and swiss chard instead of spinach. We have an abundance of apples from our tree this year, so we made an apple pie with honey for dessert. We debated adding cinnamon--dried spices in tiny amounts can't use that much fossil fuel to ship, right?--but I ended up forgetting to put it in and it was delicious as it was.

We still don't know what kind of apple tree we have. The apples look a lot like red delicious, but they sure don't taste like it. And they held together in the pie fine, which I've heard red delicious don't. So it's still a mystery.

A new month, a new challenge

Though we've been eating more local food since our week-long stint in April, we've decided to try another intentional challenge--this one for the entire month of October. Though we didn't go hungry this spring we're better prepared now. Our pantry shelves are full of canned goods, the garden abounds in produce and--wonder of wonders--I found locally grown popcorn.

We've also decided to be a bit more flexible this time. Since they won't keep for a month, we're eating our (non-local) leftovers which makes for a gentler transition in to locavoraciousness. Further, we've decided that we can eat locally and eat socially too: we have no objection to offers of meals or church potlucks. On the other hand, fishing for invitations to get around the local diet restrictions is very bad form. In addition, we're maintaining our list of exemptions from last April: coffee, tea and salt are permissible.

To kick off our month of local food Sarah made a delicious soup made from garden produce and served with sourdough bread made from locally-grown, home-ground wheat. Thank goodness we've been able to find local butter.