Meatless Monday

Thursday I ended up at South Station.  My school had had a field trip to City Hall and we dismissed students from there, so I kind of wandered, a little lost, looking for the bus that would bring me home.  Since I don't usually go to South Station I had no idea there's a farmer's market there...that goes all the way to December 23rd!

It wasn't a big one, and since it was the day before the Occupy Boston eviction, the tents kind of blended in, but there was a pretty good variety of winter crops available.  I didn't have much cash with me, but I instantly decided that I would center this week's local meal around something from the market.  I probably should have bought the chard, but I don't LIKE chard.  Instead I bought more squash.  I have so much butternut squash I really didn't need to buy any additional squash, but I saw some carnival squash, and thought that it would at least be a different squash this week!  I asked how far away the farm was, and it was 60 miles away, so not bad on the local score, plus 3 large squash were only $2.50.

I'd planned on cooking over the weekend, but meals over the weekend included lunch at a local bread bakery, leftovers, and a few bowls of granola.  It was just that kind of weekend.  Monday I realized that I'd better get my act together if I wanted to really live up to this challenge, so I stopped off at our little local shop in search of anything local.

I could have purchased some local flour, eggs, milk, or yogurt, but I really wanted to stay away from a traditional meal this week, plus I wasn't in the mood to cook anything.  If I was going to make local, it was going to have to be dead easy this week.  I picked up some sweet potatoes from Rhode Island (70 miles away) and some butter from Vermont (180 miles away, but man is that butter good) and decided to make do with other stuff at home.  I could have bought some local meat, plus I have some stocked up in my freezer, but I was more in the mood for a meatless Monday.

So what did I cook?  I made squash with butter and maple syrup (from Natick), roasted the sweet potatoes with some brussel sprouts (marketed by the coop as local, but I'm not sure where they came from) and added some homemade sourdough bread with butter.


Okay, the bread wasn't made with local grain (although we have some), but I'm not going to turn down my husband's sourdough.  He gets the rye from our coop, but as soon as I have time to experiment we'll be grinding our own.

All in all it was an okay meal.  Super cheap.  I estimate that the meal must have only cost about $3 in total (including the bread), and for 2 people, that's a pretty good deal.  I even have leftovers for lunch.  If I did the meal again, I would definitely add some meat.  Sweet potato and squash is just a little too orange.  Still, it was filling, and local, and pretty tasty. 

Dark Days: Leftovers!

I’m probably going to be using up Thanksgiving leftovers for the entire winter season.  I wanted to make sure I bought a local turkey, so I went to our neighborhood shop (American Provision) that specializes in local fare.  We had Thanksgiving the weekend BEFORE the actual holiday, so our options for a fresh, unfrozen turkey, were limited.  I ended up getting a 14 pound bird from Misty Knolls, which is actually 200 miles away, and not nearly so ideal as I'd previously been led to believe.  I would have preferred a bird from Natick Community Organic where I used to work and volunteer, but they tend to have big birds, and I didn’t want to end up with a 33 pounder.  For a group of 4, 14 pounds was more than enough.  Out of my turkey purchase I’ve made turkey broth, and then bone broth, and I’ve frozen a ton of meat.

This weekend, for my husband’s 41^st birthday, we went on a hike in the Blue Hills Reservation, only 20 minutes away by car.  It was wonderfully (and a bit unnaturally) warm, but cool enough that something warm, like a soup or stew, was just the thing after the end of a 3 hour hike.  Since I’m involved in the Dark Days challenge I decided to pull out some turkey and some homemade bone broth from the freezer and make a soup.

I have a bucket of sand in the basement preserving the carrots I grew this year.  I’ve “sanded” some of the potatoes I grew as an experiment to see which way holds them the best through winter.  Beside the turkey, broth, carrots, and potato, I needed to add spices, which were not local.  I did have some local spices in my weekly box this year, but I often failed to preserve them, so I’m using my stockpile of organic spices purchased primarily at our local food cooperative, Harvest CoOp. 

I have to confess, I also snuck some gluten free noodles into the soup.  The noodles were an unnecessary addition, but I was also feeding friends and I wanted the soup to taste close to chicken noodle.  It got me thinking about making some homemade noodles and drying them for occasions like this where I really want to fill out my soup.  For my first official entry into the Dark Days challenge I suppose it’s not quite there yet, but you’ve got to start somewhere, right?

I follow the blog, Not Dabbling In Normal, whenever I have the time.  Recently they, along with another blog site, (not so) Urban Henry, posted a challenge that I just couldn't ignore! Now, I've never participated in a blog challenge, but it's right in line with what I've been trying to do anyway.  I'm going out on a limb and am going to try to make a 100% local dish once each week.  For more information on the challenge, go to this link, and you can find the guidelines and the bloggers who are participating in your area.  It's not to late to sign up if you want to join in as well. 

From the Cupboards

I'd like to post some of the meals that are a result of stocking up for winter, although I've already realized that I'll be doing quite a bit of shopping over the winter anyway.  I wasn't expecting to be on a gluten free diet, and that's really thrown my planning for a loop.  I'm hoping to post at least 2-4 meals per month that come from my pantry, but I'll let you know if I've had to buy anything for the meal.

One thing I can make this week is Vegetarian Chili!

I had a few wilting green bell peppers that desperately needed to be used up.  My garden did great until about mid-November, but then it was obvious that I needed to pull the last of the peppers off if I wanted them before the whole plant died.  Add to the bell peppers a jar of home canned tomato sauce, a local onion from one of my boxes (my onion cup runneth over), some spices, and two cans of beans. 

Okay, everything was pretty local until the beans (and I DO have local beans) but pre-cooked beans mean I can be spontaneous about my cooking.  I'm still missing a part to my pressure cooker (not canner), so I really should have planned ahead and soaked some beans overnight.  Yep, I'm not that organized.  I'm a look in my cupboards and see what I can do kind of girl.

I'd planned on pre-cooking and pressure canning some beans before the start of winter, but I didn't get around to it.  While making this meal I realized how nice it would be to have some home canned beans, but I have no idea when that's going to happen!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving marks the spot on my calendar when I go from hoarding, to using everything up.  I didn't get nearly enough stuff put away, but then, I really didn't expect to actually succeed.  I'm not sure how I could have done better, other than to not have other things going on in my life...as if that's going to happen.

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of my Thanksgiving meal.  My parents came up last weekend and we did it all early.  I can say, however, that the only things I bought fresh for the meal were the turkey, some bacon, eggs, and sausage for the stuffing (although a few things did come from my weekly box from Boston Organics a week prior).

So we had a "real turkey".  By real, I mean from the "real food" movement that I've been reading about.  Sure, we could have bought an inexpensive stand in, but I wanted a turkey from a local farm.  Real turkeys are far more expensive, and not any better tasting that the regular grocery store model, but I like to put my money where my values are.  What better time to support local farms?

The stuffing was made from my husband's homemade sourdough bread, the aforementioned sausage, and celery from my weekly box.  I made cranberry sauce with cranberries from the box (in season and local) and agave nectar I had in my pantry.  Mom made gravy from the drippings, and it came out great!

We also had brussel sprouts that I'd been holding off on cooking for a while because I wanted some veggies.  I didn't grow any sweet potatoes this year, but I did get some in my box a few weeks before hand, so I roasted them as well.  I'd also picked up some beans from our local shop, so my mom made baked beans.  I had a butternut squash, bought from a local farmer's market, that I roasted, but wasn't really ready on time so we skipped it.  Cole slaw came from our own carrots and some local cabbage.  The mashed potatoes were entirely from our own garden.  I also pulled out the homemade apple sauce I'd frozen and opened a can of home canned pickles (the cucumbers were grown in either my or my parents garden).

I made a pumpkin pie for desert...from scratch.  The pie crust had butter picked up from a local farm, but the flour was organic, stockpiled in my pantry for this purpose, but not specifically local (trader joes).  The pumpkin grew in our garden!  The eggs were local, but not in season.  I could have pulled out some frozen ones, but I think I'll save that for later.


Overall I'm feeling pretty good about our meal.  A local meal was a great way to give thanks for all the bounty of this years harvest.  I'm looking forward to making more meals out of the leftovers, and to exploring my cupboards, freezer, and pantry throughout the winter season.

Sand

According to a few web searches, the way to store carrots is in sand.  This weekend I got some sand, added some water, and played in the dirt.  Time will tell if this is an effective storage tool, but I can say, it's a fun way to preserve.  A little belatedly I realized that I'd better put the lid on the plastic bin I used...it looks a little too much like cat litter.  I'd rather not have some surprise discoveries in bobbing for carrots.  In the picture you can see that I've added some potatoes to the top row.  I've also got potatoes in an open basket, so I can compare the two to see if potatoes would do better in the sand. 

I've been sick for the last week, so not much more has been done on the path to a prosperous pantry.  I did manage to buy some tuna, beans, and flour this weekend.  I'm hoping to buy some apples this week and make apple sauce.  I'd also like to buy and can some pumpkin or squash.  I'm also thinking about eggs again. I'd just about decided they were something I would end up buying through winter, but a discussion at the Small Planet workshop at the Boston Book Fair reminded me that eggs really are supposed to be a "seasonal crop". 

I'm really feeling like the sand in my hourglass is getting low.  The growing season has been extended by our exceedingly warm fall, so I might have some peas and beans to put away after all.  Last weekend it got above 80 degrees and this weekend it was around 70.  Unfortunately, the farmer's market will only remain open through October, even though it could be mid-November before we hit frost.  I'll have to drive out to the farm myself.  I've still got a bunch of meat on the list, along with some fall vegetables. 

I wouldn't say what I've done so far has been particularly difficult.  Perhaps difficult in the sense of finding time, but despite a hectic fall, I've managed to do a little bit at a time.  I might actually get through most of my list.  Then we'll have to see how long the food will last!  I really hope the late fall doesn't mean winter will last a long time.  I'm operating on the principle that I could at least produce some food by the end of April (even if it's just spinach, salad greens, and peas).

The List So Far

Canned
16 (8) jars of tomato sauce
18 cans of soup
8 (4) jars of fruit pie filling
16 jars of apple sauce
16 cans of meat
8 (3) jars of tomato juice
8 jars of pickles (except we ate or gave away all but 1 jar already!)
4 jars Ghee
4 jars of creamed corn
4 jars of sauerkraut
6 jars black beans

Frozen
4 (1) dozen eggs (maybe more) for baking
4 whole chickens
16 pork chops
9 lbs ground meat (in 1 lb portions)
16 fish fillets
18 cups berries
4 cups broccoli
8 cups tomatoes
8 cups zucchini/squash mix
8 cups peas
8 cups green beans
8 cups cauliflower
8 cups corn
4 cups pumpkin puree
4 packages butter

Cellar
20 (10) lbs potatoes
4 (2)  lbs onions
10 lbs carrots
2 lbs brussel sprouts
2 lbs garlic

Pantry
10 lbs rice
5 lbs sugar
20 lbs flour
3 jars maple syrup
3 jars honey
Huge can olive oil
Large jar of sunflower oil
Large jug of vinegar
Dried milk (for baking)
Salt/Pepper
Spices

Other staples:
ziplock bags
paper towels
aluminum foil
parchment paper/wax paper

A Load of Carrots

I had a plan for carrots.  Since they're a root crop I figured I could over-winter them in the garden instead of preserving them some other way.  I'd throw a bag of leaves or hay over them and all would be well.  Of course there was one little problem.  Something, or rather somethings were eating my carrots.  I pulled a nice big one to have a bite, and discovered little bugs all over it.  I pulled another one...same thing.  I quickly realized that if I wanted to rescue my carrots I was going to have to pull them all up.  Bah, humbug. 

Now I'm looking at other ways to store them.  Many online recommendations include damp sand and a cool basement.  I suppose that's something I can handle on Saturday morning.  I've been thinking about that method for my potatoes too.  I think we did better with carrots than with potatoes this year (although I haven't weighed the carrots yet), but they will both need an easy storage method.

I have a feeling this may be the last crop I get from my garden this year.  I'd hoped to have enough beans to put aside some beans for winter, but I started a little late.  The brussel sprouts didn't sprout, the cabbage is about 2 leaves worth of plant, and the cauliflower was completely demolished by aphids.  I don't much like kale, turnips, or parsnips, so I didn't  plant any this year.  What's the point if you don't want to eat it?

So my winter planning continues...slowly.  At the rate I'm going I might last a couple of weeks without shopping, maybe.  But no worries, this is nothing that a trip to the farmer's market or the grocery store can't solve, yet.

Tomatoes

Well, I've had a few busy weekends, and a few upcoming weekends promise to be just as busy, so I'm happy to have at least gotten as much done as I've been able to (which isn't much).

I did manage to put away 9 pints of tomato sauce, 8 in cans and one in a freezer bag.  I'm planning on making and freezing pizza crusts to go with the sauce.  I'd also like to put together packages of toppings so that I can have a quick and easy option for days I'm not too keen on cooking.  I figure we can make pizza every 3 weeks or so. 

I'd like to have canned more, but our garden hasn't really produced that many cannable tomatoes.  We have a ton of yellow tomatoes (which are great too) but we can't can them.  I have put aside 2 quarts of whole tomatoes so I can make some sauce later.  So I bought a box of tomatoes for $20 at the local farmers market.  I doubt there will still be any boxes available by the time I can get to a farmers market again, so I'm not likely to put any more tomatoes away for the winter.  That's okay, they really are best when fresh.

There's not too much from the garden that we've managed to set aside lately.  I did freeze some broccoli and I've got some green peppers ready to be picked.  I also have some carrots, but I'm planning on overwintering them. Our raspberry are still doing well. I've put away a few pints of our own raspberries, along with 2 pints from the farmers market.  There'd be more in the freezer if we didn't keep eating them all the time :) 

I'd really like to start canning soups soon.  After that I'll move on to buying supplies for the pantry.

Super Slow Progress

Well, an earthquake and a hurricane aren't really the reasons I'm behind in my winter planning.  I'm not going to say I'm lazy, exactly, but I will say that I'm a little on the unmotivated side right now.  I've not completed half of what I'd hoped to by now, and that doesn't bode well for my little experiment.

What I have done the past couple of weeks:
Froze a half dozen eggs
Froze some berries
Canned some blueberry pie filling and froze the shells
Made pickles (but need to make more)
Bought extra ground beef and pork chops for the freezer
Bought a pressure canner (but haven't yet opened the box)

By this weekend I was supposed to have canned some soup and tomato sauce, but I haven't yet.  I lost my master plan, but I know I was supposed to can and freeze some additional vegetables as well.  I also should have made and frozen at least one quiche.

I've discovered that freezing eggs is annoying.  I've broken an ice cube tray trying to get the eggs out of the tray, so I'll have to see if there's another way.  If I have to use a knife to get eggs out of an ice cube tray again I might prefer to just not have eggs in winter.

Last weekend I was out of town, and although I've had a few extra days off for vacation, I haven't really felt like doing anything (probably because constant rain sucks away my energy).  Next weekend I'm going on a church retreat, so I won't get much done then either.

I'm either going to have to start working on things during the week or have a really full weekend sometime soon.  That'll happen sometime in October, maybe.

Planning For the Future

Four months isn't really that long, in the larger scheme of life.  It's roughly equivalent to one semester of school, one season, or one trimester.  In other words, I expect the time to go both very quickly, and very slowly at the same time.  Four months is equal to 122 days this year, it's a leap year, which means I've got a few meals to plan for. 

Something I've noted as I've sat down to contemplate what to stock up on, is that we eat a lot of food.  I'm not a heavy eater, but I do manage to eat 5 times a day.  Of course there's breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but I also need snacks through the day.  If I don't pack a baggie of carrots, a piece of fruit, or a yogurt, I will end up buying something from the vending machine before the workday is out. 

Because I eat so much, I have almost no idea how to go about planning for the winter without making an elaborate 4 month meal plan.  I'm trying to make estimates based on what we've been eating over the past few months, but I haven't been fully successful.

In general we eat eggs with veggies, french toast, crepes, cereal, oatmeal, or yogurt for breakfast.

Snacks often include yogurt, fruit, nuts, baked goods, carrots, cheese and crackers, or chocolate.

Lunches are often leftovers for me or the occasional frozen entree.  I either make my husband something meaty that will last all week (like a meatloaf or stew) or he has bread with cheese, butter, or meat.  He's likely go to out for lunch at least once a week, if not more.

Dinner is frequently some sort of meat, some sort of vegetable, and some sort of grain.  I also make noodles with sauce sometimes, or semi-homemade pizza (homemade dough is one of the things I hope to accomplish throughout this experiment, but I'm still in the learning curve).  In winter we eat more soups along with bread or sandwiches.  We've cut way back on eating out, but we do still go out at least once a week for our weekly Stammtisch, and frequently we'll go out a few more times withing the month.  I have a weakness for pizza delivery, but as I've been making pizzas at home, that practice has already been waning for a while.

Desserts are somewhat infrequent, although my husband and I both have a sweet tooth.  Usually desserts are spontaneous and revolve around my desire to bake something.  Otherwise I cave in at the grocery store and buy something that looks delicious.  We haven't regularly gone to the bakery around the corner, probably because I've been doing a better job at cooking breakfasts and dinners (we're too full to need dessert).

I have no idea how people planned their meals before the age of refrigeration.  I'm pretty sure bread was baked all year round, and there must have been cheese and dried meats, but that couldn't have been everything.  I imagine there must have been stew and oatmeal and whatever game had been snared.  Potatoes, onions, and carrots would have stored well for the winter, but fresh eggs and milk would have been out of the question.  I'm not sure when canning became commonplace, but fermenting things has been an age old practice. Sauerkraut, Pickles, Sushi...all originally done with fermentation.


I suppose the easiest way to go about this would be to change our diet for the winter.  Realistically, however, I know I'm going to want what I consider a "normal meal" more often than not.  I've tried to live on bread and cheese before, and no matter how good the bread or the cheese, I want "real" food.

So here's my first list:

Canned
16 jars of tomato sauce
18 cans of soup
8 jars of fruit pie filling
16 jars of apple sauce
16 cans of meat
8 jars of tomato juice
8 jars of pickles
4 jars Ghee
4 jars of creamed corn
4 jars of sauerkraut
6 jars black beans

Frozen
4 dozen eggs (maybe more) for baking
4 whole chickens
16 pork chops
9 lbs ground meat (in 1 lb portions)
16 fish fillets
18 cups berries
4 cups broccoli
8 cups tomatoes
8 cups zucchini/squash mix
8 cups peas
8 cups green beans
8 cups cauliflower
8 cups corn
4 cups pumpkin puree
4 packages butter

Cellar
20 lbs potatoes
4 lbs onions
10 lbs carrots
2 lbs brussel sprouts
2 lbs garlic

Pantry
10 lbs rice
5 lbs sugar
20 lbs flour
3 jars maple syrup
3 jars honey
Huge can olive oil
Large jar of sunflower oil
Large jug of vinegar
Dried milk (for baking)
Salt/Pepper
Spices

Other staples:
ziplock bags
paper towels
aluminum foil
parchment paper/wax paper

I have no idea if I've thought of everything, or if this would be enough for 4 months, or if I'm going overboard...it's a work in progress.

A Different Kind of Journey

Once upon a time mankind roamed the earth in nomadic tribes. Hunter-gatherers had simple homes, hand-honed tools, and a miraculous propensity for survival through adaptation. That which was taken from the earth was generally returned to the earth with very little adaptation.

Of course nice things like refrigerators and cars and computers didn't exist, all of which now do, and which have permanently altered the natural substances of earth through chemical processes, as well as our lives. The benefit of these changes means that we live somewhat stable lives, detached from the primal need for the basics of life, except for nations with endemic poverty of course and that we have reached a point in life where we can create museums and theaters and universities.

I can't claim that our adaptation from survival to innovation is all bad, in fact I consider central air one of the wonders of the world. I can, however, point out that there is an opportunity cost for all choices. As we become more and more "advanced" we loose something too, and we drive our world closer and closer to the point of our own eviction.

I happen to like my comfortable life, and I have to believe that we are capable of creating a comfortable life that is less taxing on the environment. After all, people have prospered on earth without electricity for thousands of years. As we've become more dependent on modern infrastructure we've somewhat forgotten that we can live pretty well without many of the toys we've become accustomed to.

My task, over the next 8 months, is to return to a different way of thinking. No, I'm not going completely off the grid, I'm not starting my own biosphere or commune, and I'm not giving up coffee or sugar. I'm simply going to figure out how to store food through the winter.

Why?

Well, for a few reasons:

1) If it doesn't grow near me in winter it's taking energy to get whatever it is I'm buying from wherever it came from.
2) If it did grow near me in winter, either a) I could be growing it myself or b) it's benefiting from a hothouse, which uses energy.
3) I can get far closer to an understanding of the fragility of life if I stop relying on a system of food delivery that is poorly designed and likely to break.
4) I will come out of the experience more educated on the basics of preservation than I would have been otherwise and I will be able to pass along what I've learned.

I'm aware that I'll still have an energy footprint. I will be using a freezer, a stove for canning, an electric dehydrator, glass jars and freezer bags, all of which are fueled by, or made from oil. I'll also purchase some foods or other items from places far away. Some things may come as far away as from China. That distance will be available due to our use of oil. I will, of course, attempt to keep everything as low tech and local as possible, but I intend to make the most of the oil that I'm using.

I should also point out that I have no hope of actually succeeding in preserving myself through a whole season on my first attempt. Likewise there are some things that I will continue to buy throughout the experiment (my husband would likely shrivel and die without a supply of milk throughout the winter) and we tend to enjoy a few meals out a month. But the goal is educational in nature, and I hope that the next few months will help me better understand a simpler life.