Root cellaring

In the middle of August's bounty, it's hard to imagine a time is coming when local food won't be so easy to buy.  It is a good time to at least begin thinking about longer term storage for some of the overflowing, fresh and local produce.  Here is a guide from a Chicago blog for "cellaring" produce with useful tips for storage.  And another Chicago blog, The Local Beet (which should win an award for its name) has tips for storing onions, garlic, and potatoes.  Who knew that the gasses from onions can cause potatoes to spoil?  Not me.  Keep them far apart from each other for long term storage.  

100 Mile Diet

This is a fun tool from the website, the 100 mile diet for mapping your own local 100 mile radius--even if you aren't restricting your diet to food grown within 100 miles of home, it will give you a sense of what local really means.  

http://100milediet.org/get-started/map

Watermelon drink

What is more refreshing than watermelon in the summer?  Here is a great little recipe from Local Flavors.  You can omit the orange flower water (I'm not sure what that is, anyway) and substitute blackberries or strawberries.

Watermelon Agua Fresca

3 lbs watermelon, with rind

1/2 c. simple syrup

2 large limes

pinch salt

1 Tbs orange flower water

Remove rind and seeds and chop watermelon into large chunks.  Puree in a blender and sweeten with simple syrup as needed.  Squeeze one lime, add salt, and orange flower water and stir.  Pour over ice and garnish with lime wedge.  Makes one quart.  

More author(s)!

Thanks to Laura in Colorado who will also be publishing to this blog.  For those of you with vegetable gardens, you will appreciate her first post on her backyard drip irrigation system.  Also, if posting to this blog is something you'd like to do, let me know so I might add you to the author list.  I originally hoped this blog would be a way to share information, so I'd love to hear more about your adventures in locavorish pursuits.

Broccoli & Potato Soup

The weather has been cooler this week, and I have been looking for warm things to eat.  This recipe is an adaptation of "New Favorite Green Soup" from the cookbook, The New Laurel's Kitchen.  The original recipe calls for 6-8 cups of fresh greens (spinach or chard).  I used broccoli, and it was fabulous.  

1 onion or bunch scallions

1 Tbs oil

2-3 potatoes, cut up

head of broccoli, including leaves and stems, cut up

milk

salt and pepper

Saute onion in oil.  Add the potatoes and water to cover.  Cook until tender and remove peels if you desire.  Add broccoli and simmer until soft.  Puree all.*  Add milk to thin and extend as desired, then add salt and pepper to taste. 

*Using a hand blender to puree this soup in the pot makes this recipe a breeze.  

High desert vegetables

I've been invited to post to cinnamongirl's blog about my locavoracious exploits in Colorado. Hello!

After moving out here from "back East," one of the first things we did was register for a Denver Urban Gardens spot. We were lucky enough to find a 20’ x 20’ square sunny plot in the neighborhood, which we’ve been tending since late May.

Watching the garden grow has been one of the chief amusements of our summer. In addition to the excitement of producing our own vegetables, we’re using the garden to showcase drip irrigation systems peddled to subsistence farmers in Africa and Asia by IDE: International Development Enterprises (hubby’s place of employment, in the interest of full disclosure). As we've learned, drip irrigation - essentially water containers that drip through hoses placed at the plant's roots - is a terrific way to fuel effectively without wasting water – a serious consideration here in the high desert – and without encouraging weeds (which need little encouragement) by watering everywhere.

This is our garden back in early June, after installing the irrigation barrel and most of our plantings:

The soil in our plot is awful: hard, clay, and automotive. (Before DUG turned the vacant lot into a garden, it was a car-repair zone for enthusiasts in the neighborhood. Broken glass and metal bits are still more populous than stones, several years later.) We amended like crazy with humus and other enriching dirt vitamins, and crossed our fingers.

The results have been more than encouraging:

We fill the 10 gal. tank and the two 5 gal. drip bags on each side of that T-post once each evening. Sometimes we add a bit of fish emulsion fertilizer if we’re feeling indulgent. It's working: our August garden has doubled in size since I took the shot above. And, it's produced zucchini like nobody’s business, summer squash, peppers, tomatoes, beans and peas, corn, fennel, and herbs - with more on the way.

The early August corn – it’s like dessert, so sweet! Aside from the usual cooking style, boiling and buttering and salting, one of the easiest ways to savor corn's full glory is to throw it on the grill – husks, silks and all – and let it steam in its own juices. Not much can top local summer corn, and what they say is true: it's even better when eaten the same day it's picked.

Utah Farmshare

From Jess in Salt Lake City:

Our CSA share has turned from mostly lettuce to mostly not-lettuce, which is great for us AND makes for a much better photo. So here's a picture of this week's share--various squashes/zucchini, beets, apricots, raspberries, green beans, garlic, cabbage, broccoli, chard, and kolrabi. Not pictured are mesclun mix and spinach. We used some of the cabbage last night in great shrimp tacos, and have almost eaten all the apricots already!

Compost

Composting is fun and an easy way to enrich garden soils by putting kitchen scraps and yard waste to good use.  You can create a compost pile or invest in a bin to disguise and protect your compost from too much sun or rain.  The microorganisms do all the work, but I've found you can get faster results by following a few guidelines.  

Size.  The recommended size for a home compost pile is no smaller than 3 ft X 3 ft X 3 ft, and no larger than 5 ft X 5 ft X 5 ft.

Moisture Content.  To work effectively, compost piles should be about as wet as a squeezed out sponge.  If yours is outdoors in a pile rather than a bin, you will probably need to water it with a spray from the hose every few days.   

Biodegradables.  The correct mix of raw materials is one in which 'greens' are mixed with more fibrous ‘browns’ at the rate of four parts (by volume) of ‘greens’ to one of ‘browns’. Too many greens, especially grass clippings, can lead to a smelly, slimy mess which will take a year to compost.  

'Greens'

grass clippings

leafy hedge clippings

green weeds

vegetable trimmings

seaweed

fresh horse or farmyard manure

'Browns'

straw

dry grass or hay

shredded prunings

dead leaves

sawdust or shavings

A small amount of soil mixed into the heap will add soil microbes and contribute to the composting.

Beet Recipes

Think of beets as red spinach, asserts a recent NY Times article on some of the healthiest foods you probably aren't eating. I've always been wary of beets, but thought I'd give them a try. Here are some recipes I've found:

SIMPLE BEET SALAD WITH ONIONS

Grate scrubbed beets or cut into julienne; toss with chopped green onions and a vinaigrette you make or from a bottle in your fridge. Add toasted nuts and/or a sharp cheese (blue, Parmesan, feta). Serve alone or with lettuce.

GRATED SAUTEED BEETS

4 medium beets
4 tbsp. butter
Fresh lemon juice
Salt & freshly ground pepper
Chopped fresh dill or parsley

Wash, peel, and coarsely grate beets. In a covered frying pan, melt butter, add beets, and stir to coat with butter, then sprinkle with lemon juice to taste. Cover and cook over medium to low heat for approximately 10 minutes, checking occasionally to see that the beets don't burn. (You could add a few spoonfuls of stock or water to prevent sticking.) Cook just until tender, then season with salt, pepper, and additional lemon juice if needed. Sprinkle with dill or parsley. Serves 4.

Note: Grate other vegetables, such as cabbage, carrots, and parsnips, cook separately, and arrange in mounds on a vegetable platter.

Victory Garden Cookbook, Marian Morash

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/30/the-11-best-foods-you-arent-eating/

Salad days

Summer is the best time for crisp and fresh salad greens, though perhaps we can have too much of them. Try this recipe if you are looking for something different. I have not tried it myself, but I have not been disappointed with the recipes from Stonewall Kitchen’s Harvest cookbook:

English Pea and Lettuce Soup with Chive Cream

For the pea broth (or substitute 5-6 cups of vegetable broth):
2 lbs English or shelling peas, pods rinsed
1 large onion coarsely chopped
6 black peppercorns
Sea salt to taste
1 c. chopped fresh chives

For the soup:
1 Tbs unsalted butter
1 tsp. olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
½ c. chopped fresh chives
Sea salt to taste
Black pepper
3 c. packed tender green lettuce leaves (such as butterhead or leaf lettuce)

For the chive cream:
¾ c. heavy cream
½ c. packed chopped chives


1. If making the broth: Shell peas and set aside for later. (You should have 2 cups.) Put the pods in a large pot and cover with 8 cups cold water. Add onion, peppercorns, salt, and chives and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Remove lid and simmer 15-20 more minutes. Season to taste. Strain the broth: you should have 5-6 cups.

2. To make the soup: In a large soup pot, heat the butter and oil over low heat. Add the onion, chives, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes. Stir in the lettuce and cook for 2 minutes or until just wilted. Add the shelled peas and cook for 1 minute. Add 5 cups of pea broth and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Meanwhile, make the chive cream: In a small saucepan, combine the cream and chives. Place over low heat for 5 minutes to infuse the cream with the chive flavor. Remove from heat and let cool.

4. Working in batches, puree the soup and return to the soup pot. Taste for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper. Heat on low. Puree the cream and chives until it is the palest green color. Warm the chive cream in a saucepan. To serve, swirl 1-2 tsp of hot cream into each bowl of soup.