One Size Fits All

I have managed to grow tomatoes!

 

These are the size of cherry tomatoes one would get at the grocery store but I am not sure if that’s how large they’re supposed to be since I grew it in a pot (or planter as home depot calls them). I’m learning that if I grow something in a pot I’m going to get miniature version of whatever it is that’s growing.

These are Siberian Tomatoes. I bought the seeds from Seed Savers and its a determinant early yielding tomato. I started the seed on January 5th of this year and they began yielding fruit about two weeks ago. I am not sure how "early" this is since I was able to get tomatoes from the farmer’s market in May (as well as hydrophonically grown ones). Seed Savers does say that these are "dwarf" variety…so maybe they are the right size?

Besides the cost of the seed (packet of 25 cost $2.75) I didn’t spend much money growing these tomatoes. The pot was under $10 from home depot. The soil was the compost and was entirely from my compost bin. I only began watering them in June because we had some steady rain from March onward when I placed them outside. And I didn’t have to act as some sort of sex expert on these tomato flowers because we had some visitors. That’s right, bees actually showed up to sex up my tomato flowers. I was so happy when I first saw the first bee that I had to check online to see that what I had seen was indeed a bee and not some other pesky bug.The only problem I had with the plant was some sort of white mould early on which was apparently caused by overwatering. So I learned to check the soil before watering. The cure for getting rid of the mould was to spray the mould areas with a mild soap solution.

So what did I do with these tomatoes? I made salsa, because my salsa is the best tasting salsa to me: Cilantro and lime juice is not local.

 

After seeing a picture of Melinda’s pancakes yesterday I knew I had to make it for breakfast this morning.

I was too impatient to wait for bubbles, but the pancakes still turned out to have the melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness!  I used honey instead of sugar so the meal is 100% local.

Tonight’s dinner is garlicky kale with tahini dressing. The recipe is from Vegan w/ a Vengence. And in case you can’t tell, its my favorite cookbook. The kale is local, but the tahini is from Istanbul (not Constantinople).

Today I made baked eggs with creamy leeks from Vegetarian Cooking by Linda Fraser. It was the first time I had leeks and I loved it! I topped it with crumbs made from the bread I baked yesterday.

I rode to the farmer’s market and only purchased from basil, garlic stems (?) and 4 quarts of strawberries. I used one quart to make smoothies using the yogurt I made yesterday.

I then baked some hazelnut biscotti from the Veganomicon cookbook. I didn’t have hazelnuts and the batter from the recipe was too dry so I used hazelnut liquor. I topped the biscotti with pecans.

Now I am making granola for this week’s breakfast. I added some flaxseeds to it. 

Several months after arduous suggested making a meatloaf for a dinner party, I’m finally going to make it for my husband’s lunch this week.

I’m also going to make some stir fried noodles (with buckwheat noodles) using whatever veggies are starting to get forgotten in the crisper.  

I’m also going to make some pesto for sandwich spreads and pizza toppings.  

Update: with pictures:

Granola

 

Strawberry Pie. I made the crust using the same local flour but added 1/4 cup of corn flour which made the dough easier to handle and roll out. For the topping, its the crumbcake style topping using flour, local butter, sugar, cinnamon and pecan nuts.

 

The purples things are purple cabbage. I also added snow peas(?), onions, sesame seeds a dash of sesame oil and soy sauce.

 

I still cannot make a pretty pie. The filling is a mixture of strawberry jam (which I made), rhubarb  sauce (which I made), local maple syrup and arrow root powder added as a thickner. The flour is also local - a wheat pastry flour that was a pain in the neck to use. I finally gave up and made a patchy pie as I couldn’t roll out the dough without it falling apart.

Radishes are in season and I don’t think I’ve had them prior to yesterday. I’ve been introduced to so many new fruits and vegetables since I began eating locally…who knew eating local foods to be so adventurous?

Last night I made radish salad which was most excellent. The recipe is from Blooming Glen farm - a farm that is a regular at the farmers’ market I frequent. 

The recipe is as follows:

1 bunch watermelon radishes or one medium daikon radish
2 tablespoons rice or balsamic vinegar (or a combination)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

Wash and julienne radishes, or grate them. Mix together the rest of the ingredients and dress the radishes with the dressing. Save your radish tops for other uses.

Yesterday I stopped by the fair food stand and got lotso goodies: meyer lemon curds (so good that I want to consume the entire bottle), rhubarb jelly, rhubarb, chevre*, potatoes and apples. I’m going to make rhubarb sauce that was posted on  the Healthy Cheap Cooking mailing list to serve on top of pancakes tomorrow morning. I’ll be getting some other veggies and greens tomorrow and next week at the other farmers’ markets that will be opening up.

BTW, I just could not eat the goat meat. Husband baked it with various spices and claimed it tasted like chicken. 

* Now that I know what chevre is, thanks to the authors of Plenty, I’m always thinking of that David Cross routine: "chevre lover? chevre?"

I didn’t have rice and beans for lunch today. I had a salad. I had butter roasted asparagus (made this morning) served on top of raw spinach leaves. Dessert is an apple. Very filling.

I checked out the Prospect Park Farmers’ Market when I was in NYC this past weekend. I was so impressed - it was huge! There was so much room to walk around and browse. I didn’t buy anything because that meant I would have had to haul the food all the way from NY on a 45 min subway ride + 1.5 hour bus ride and I was just too tired. Most of the produce and other products (maple syrup, yogurts) that were being sold at Prospect Park’s market was available at the Philly one, but I did notice the hydrophonically grown tomatoes. They were huge! And were $3.50/lb…about $0.44 less than the greenhouse grown ones currently available at Kauffman’s stand at Reading Terminal in Philly. I was a bit bothered by the amount of plastic packaging both in Prospect Park and at the Headhouse market in Philly…I was very conscious about the eco throwdown challenge.

When buying eggs at the market at $4.00/dozen I asked the woman if she would take the plastic containers back. She laughed said I could bring it if I wanted to but wasn’t necessary. Does this mean she will not use it? I was too nervous to ask. I am hoping to run into the guy we bought eggs from last year because he was always asking for his egg cartons back and I have 5 months worth of egg cartons sitting in our kitchen waiting to be reused.

I spent $100 at the market yesterday mainly buying meat. I’ve decided to eat meat again…last time I decided to go back to eating meat it was after I read Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. This time, I am in the midst of Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon. I got goat meat as well as beef. I have never eaten goat meat before and I wonder what it will taste like.  My husband bought supplies to make beef pho.

Edit: I don’t recall any lousy music at the Prospect Park farmers’ market. But there was lousy music at the Headhouse that wasn’t just lousy…but also loud. 

Last year I tried many new fruits and vegetables that I’d never had before. While there has been studies on the time it takes for people to adjust to new foods, the asian pears I had from North Star Orchard was….unbelievably delicious! I didn’t need to convince my taste buds that they needed any "adjusting". North Star Orchard’s, Lisa Kerschner is featured in a Newsweek article titled "Farming as a Labor of Love". An excerpt:

Additionally, farmers are not always looked upon very highly. In some circles, announcing that your husband - or, worse yet, you - are a farmer is often met with looks of incredulousness. I’ve had a number of people ask why I choose to farm rather than do something more lucrative and be able to have a few vacations a year.

Last winter at a farmers-market meeting, I was asked this question by one of the market’s board members (who happens to be a banker). He had been astounded to hear about farming’s hardships year after year, both at the meetings and when he shopped at the farmers market. He emphatically threw down his pen and notes and said, "I just can’t take it anymore! Why, for gosh sakes, do you folks keep doing this?"

We all looked at each other, and one by one the various farmers in the room spoke up. Without fail, every one of us stated some version of this: "We love growing food for people."

I got some local tomatoes from Kauffman’s stand at the Reading Terminal Market. They were $3.99/lb and I bought two pounds. According to Bob Libkind, they were grown in greenhouses.

Meanwhile my own Siberian determinant tomato plants have been placed outside in our backyard. I hope they don’t die. 

A month after I posted pictures of these flowers, I have bell peppers! I planted two seeds in a pot last fall. They were from the last bell peppers I purchased at the farmer’s market. I wanted to see if anything would come of it…

Now I have bell peppers! They are really small and I’m guessing its because its in a tiny pot, thus creating some sort of bonsai effect.  I learned that bell peppers were self polinating so it makes for even easier growing. I harvested the first pepper already. I will be using it as a topping on pizza.

 

Its been a while since I posted a dark days update. And for me its still dark days since the farmer’s markets don’t open until May.

Last night I made black beans and acorn squash quesadillas. The filling was a recipe from Veganomicon (latest from Isa Chandra and Terri Romero) which I got via inter library loan. The recipe was actually for an empanada, but I’ve never had an empanada so I had no idea what it looked like. Plus I was too tired to be fashioning pretty little shapes out of dough. My husband always has a batch of dough ready to make tortillas which was what I used. We had just cooked the beans the night before in the crockpot, so I used the beans plus some old shriveled acorn squash that was starting to look really sad. To dress up the beans and squash, I fried onions, garlic in olive oil and added chilli powder (no japapenos), cumin and a bit of water to make the dish mashable.

It came out really well!

I also baked some potato chips which is one of my favorite and easiest snacks. I cut potatoes into bite size pieces and sprinkle oregano, chilli powder, cumin powder, salt and olive oil and bake it until done. I think these were called Jamaican jerk fries in Vegan with a Vengence.  

I think eating locally is starting to get easier despite the fact that we’re still buying at least 2 organic tomatoes (grown in mexico) at $4.99/lb every time we buy groceries. I will not be doing this anymore…because Mexico is far away and thus not local. I did go without tomatoes for about 2 months…but I still can’t completely stop eating it. There are too many dishes I eat that call for tomatoes and I just don’t like squash and turnips and parsnips and an entire assortment of veggies that are available in the winter season. Obviously if I had canned the summer produce I wouldn’t have this problem. But…I have many excuses for not canning including: school was driving me crazy and I was terrified of this toxin called botulinum toxin.

Except for oil, flour, rice, chocolate, coffee and some spices we’ve been eating local produce for nearly all our meals. I did experiment with local spelt flour and found it to be a good replacement for regular midwestern flour from King Arthur, but spelt flour is a bit too expensive for our budget right now.

One of the reasons I’m really looking forward to moving to Southern California is because of the food. There is a possibility that I can eat locally grown citrus fruits and bananas and avocados and have fresh cilantro all year round. Right now, I could just go out and eat the non local items like I am with tomatoes, but I can’t seem to do it. At some point last year I read articles and watched documentaries on the plight of banana workers. Google will yield many results. It really depressed me and I asked my husband if we could stop buying bananas. He had already given up avocados…so this was yet another item I was asking to give up. After he watched a documentary or two with me (Life and Debt depicts this issue quite well) he agreed. An added bonus to not eating bananas would be the elimination of fruit flies attracted to banana peals in our composter.

I am trying out all these challenges to test myself and for a bit of excitement…but now I have to grapple with all these moral issues to boot. I find it difficult to eat a freakin’ banana now because I have the image of banana workers getting beaten by cops for asking for higher wages.  

I’m looking forward to berry season. I’m sick of eating apples.