On the Seventh Day it Was Good
Today I spent my day of rest in my community garden plot with my kids. My five-year-old daughter loves to claim that she has found the “biggest zucchini ever” each time we go out, which is never something I want to hear. I have a friend who has a theory that when a zucchini reaches the optimum size that it becomes instantly invisible until it attains the dimensions of a baseball bat. My three-year-old son uses them like baseball bats, or golf clubs, depending on his mood, usually hitting a stray cherry tomato. He takes playing with his food to an all-new level. My daughter spent the majority of her time dead-heading all of the marigolds that she planted this spring and told me that she was collecting the seeds for next time. It’s always hard to think about next time when you are up to your eyeballs in squash, beans, tomatoes and cucumbers. That’s what kids are good for… “again mommy, again.”
A Family in Columbia, SC: Final Day: Did We Make It?
Thoughts:
We learned that in a week we, being a couple with a toddler, consumed more than 2 cups of honey (we didn’t use any other sugar and LOVED the taste of the Little Mountain Apiary Honey: not too sweet and not too thick), about 3/4 cup of salt (for cooking and other uses), 1 gallon of raw milk, 14 peaches, 3 pints blueberries, 5 onions, 2 pints cherry tomatoes, 5 beefsteak tomatoes, 8 sweet potatoes, 8 pattypan squash, 1 pound okra, 8 ounces of pecans, 3 loaves of bread, 3 packages of rice, 2 Ashley Farms whole chickens, 4 Ashley Farms chicken sausages, 4 Caw Caw Creek Italian sausages, 1 pound Caw Caw Creek ground pork sausage and 1 pound Eubank Farm ground beef. Had we been prepared, we could have eaten a lot more!
We definitely will order a lot from Anson Mills as soon as our supply of wheat, rice and oatmeal dwindles. We really missed our homemade breads, oatmeal and pancakes this week and are so happy to learn about an organic local mill!
We made it! Or did we? Lunch was at a Carolina BBQ restaurant… not a CFSA member but definitely LOCAL. We are all under the weather and couldn’t muster anything in the kitchen.
We are disappointed about the technical difficulties we have had not being able to publish our photos on this blog. But the point of the challenge was to learn, and that we definitely did. We are so happy we joined the challenge! Our world has been enriched because of it.
Day 7
Amanda from Rock Hill, SC
I’m kinda sad to have the challenge end, I’ve enjoyed the week! It will be nice to have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich again though. :) And I will definitely be making a loaf of whole wheat bread tomorrow. Peanut Butter, citrus, and whole wheat bread were probably the things I missed the most this week. If anyone knows of a Carolina source for whole wheat flour, I would appreciate the info!
Today, I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast using some blueberries from the CSA, leftovers took care of lunch, and for supper I put together a beef pot pie using leftover roast and lots of wonderful veggies from the CSA box. I made a biscuit topping using Adluh flour, Happy Cow milk and butter, etc. As my pancakes aren’t the prettiest in the world, I’ve posted a picture of some pot pie. It was a nice way to end the week.
and there’s still some fresh chard in the fridge.
Sorry about the ginormous pictures. My brilliant daughter knows how to downsize them in our ancient program but, alas, I do not. So you may enjoy the huge-ness of the bounty taken from the North AVL Tailgate Market yesterday.
Hi, it’s Byron the Village Witch, blogging at you one last time from Asheville. I actually haven’t eaten much today–I thought I’d be cleaning out the locavore section of our fridge today. But we’ve still got lots of delicious and almost hyper-local food to eat next week.
This has been a surprisingly moving experience for me. Part of it is the usual summer thrill of eating out of my own backyard and part of it has been the eye-opening lesons from this week of eating locally.
I’ve learned that most local eating (for me, at least) requires a commitment of time in planning, shopping and cooking. No quick snack of peanut butter in a slice of bread. when I’ve been hungry, I’ve had to make, ie cook, something to eat. If I’d had foresight, there might be some leftovers or I might begin thinking of what I wanted to eat before I was ravenous. But usually, I was cooking when hunry, which does not lead to creativity in the kitchen.
I have missed soy milk and olive oil terribly but I think I’ll stay off sugar for a while, at least, and maybe caffeine (though I haven’t decided that yet). I haven’t missed them much this week, which may be the biggest surprise of all.
Several times during this challenge, we’ve been to our usual grocery store for staples for the rest of the family and I’ve discovered that there’s almost nothing local there. Not even in the produce section. even our “green” groceries only have some local edibles, hardly enough to make an interesting week of eating. The place to go is to the people who grow what you want to eat and you find them at the tailgate markets that are all over our area.
On Saturday–was that only yesterday–I bought potatoes from a young man at the N AVL Tailgate market. He was telling my the virtue
The end, or is it the beginning?
Ahh, the final day of the challenge. Despite minor complaints of feeling too tired to cook, but having to anyway, it hasn’t been a hard experience at all. It was probably easier for us than some other challengers, though, because I’m a vegetarian so I’m used to finding non-meat protein sources and generally getting creative with my veggies. Frequently tthroughout the week, my husband and I talked about how this would affect us post-CFS Challenge. We both agree we will be eating locally as much as possible, though not strictly. Sometimes, he explained, he really wants a Filet-O-Fish sandwich from that creepiest clown of American fast food restaurants. I can’t blame him, sometimes I just want the Vegetarian Number 4 from our favorite Mexican restaurant that’s less than a mile up the street.
Although he carries quite a torch for what can only be described as the antithesis of eating local, the changes will be significant. A last minute attempt to add cheese to our vegetarian dinner several nights ago, prompted us to stop by Harris Teeter to see what they had. Nothing. The closest cheese they had was from New Jersey. It was too late to drive to Earth Fare, so we went home and tried the home made goat milk feta. As we searched for the nonexistent local cheese, I could tell he was pretty disturbed, knowing that Harris Teeter is based less than 2 miles from our house. Surely their buyers must know of the incredible local resources we have here in the Carolinas? Maybe they don’t, and if not, now we are 1) aware of other, often cheaper resources, 2) have a higher standard of flavor, something the grocery store foods often lack due to a variety of reasons, and 3) more likely to let the grocers know we demand local. No, Mr. Teeter, I don’t consider Florida local.
Also, nixing sugar from our eating has been tough, but learning to love the simple sweetness of a bright fuchsia plum has been monumental. We’ve both eaten a lot smaller portions because the food is satisfying, rich in flavor, and worthy of contemplation while we eat it. There are no weird preservatives I can’t pronounce, no additives to change my desire to eat more than necessary, a little more cooking but a greater reward. It’s not just the grocery store tomato that literally pales in bland, pink comparison to it’s farm fresh truly tomato red counterpart, it’s everything. Milk, eggs, cheese, the sweetness of a baby zucchini, the texture and mouth feel of fresh egg noodles. It’s a slower, more appreciative reflection of the process a brilliant, kelly green bean undergoes while traveling from farm to plate.
As we go forward, it’s only appropriate that I thank the Carolina Farm Stewardship for introducing me to a more colorful approach to eating. Thank you!
Last Day.
Kelly, Morrisville, NC
Last day of the challenge. I again forgot to take pictures of my dinner before I devoured it. What you see here is just a few of my favorite local things. This challenge was not as hard in some ways as I thought it would be, I really enjoyed it. I love meals that have lots of fruits and veggies, and going to the farmers market pushes you to buy more fruits and veggies, just cause they all look so good and there is such a huge variety. More than what you would in any grocery store. I will definitely keep up my weekly trips to the farmers market. Thank you so much to everyone that participated in this challenge, I have really enjoyed reading all the blogs.
Day Seven – The Last Day of the Local Food Challenge
Kate Silc, Eating Carolina Challenge Participant, Pittsboro, NC
Today is the last day for the challenge and it’s definitely the most difficult. It’s the most difficult because I step back into the real world. I’m talking about the world where the nation’s food distribution system, lack of quality local food, and messed-up sense of what people should be eating is so plainly evident. I’m going to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park for a ballgame that starts at 5 p.m.
I’ve been to the Bulls’ park many times and I know exactly what the concession food will be. It will include: fried baloney, funnel cakes, hot dogs, corn dogs, beer, soda, ice cream, and any number of food offerings that are mass-produced, tasteless, unhealthy, and trucked in from far far away. Needless to say, there will not be one single healthy item to eat in the place. I know. I’ve searched.
It’s not just the Bulls, I’m a die-hard baseball fan and I’ve been to many parks both major and minor league. All of the parks specialize in the same kind of “food.” (It just doesn’t seem right to call it food.) If baseball players had to eat the same food, they’d never make it out of little league.
I can hear you saying, “Lighten up. It’s only a day at the ballpark.” Well, to me it exemplifies what has become of the American diet since the advent of fast food. We find the same food at ballparks, airline terminals, supermarkets, and shopping malls. It’s the rule rather than the exception.
I’ve enjoyed being a part of the eating local challenge. We’ve had some delicious meals made with fresh local ingredients all week long. Unfortunately, it isn’t a perfect world and the ballpark won’t sell the fresh peaches that are available locally now. Oh well, I can dream.
More restaurants should be Bar 100!
From Edgy Mama (Anne Fitten Glenn) in Asheville
Enviro-spouse and I hit Bar 100 in downtown Asheville last night for our anniversary. I chose the restaurant because of the Eat Carolina Challenge. Our server told us that some of the foods may come from over the border in Tennessee, because Bar 100 provides food from within 100 miles–in all directions (thus the restaurant’s name). I figured a bit of Tennessee thrown in with my Carolina would be OK for a night.
We sat outside on the patio for the people-watching on Wall Street. The weather was steamy, but a brief rain cooled the patio off. When we said we didn’t want to go inside, our server pulled over an umbrella to protect us from the spitting raindrops. Sadly, the rain didn’t last long.
The Bar 100 menu is simple and short, which I like. To start, we shared the cheese platter featuring Spinning Spider camille with roasted beets, Meadowcreek Dairy mountaineer with pickled fennel, Spinning Spider cheddar with strawberry jam, and my fave, Clemson blue cheese with roasted pecans. The plate was served with housemade toasted crostini that we supplemented with wood-grilled flatbread topped with olive oil, fresh rosemary and Celtic sea salt. Amazing! The cheese plate costs $15–not inexpensive, but worth the variety of taste and freshness.
I drank a Highland gaelic ale with dinner. I’m slightly disappointed that Bar 100 doesn’t offer more local beers, particularly the organic Pisgah, because they don’t stock draft. I guess the foodie crowd there is more of a wine-drinking group.
For the main course, we split a butter lettuce salad topped with Benton’s bacon and house-made green goddess dressing. Simple but succulent. We also shared a pan-seared trout from Sunrise Farms. The trout was served over coarse milled grits and wilted greens, including a delicious peppery arugula. I wish I could cook trout as well as Bar 100’s chef–the fish’s skin, normally not very tasty, was crisp and crunchy, while the ,meat of the fish was fork tender. Yum!
The salad was $7 and the trout was $16. Again, a bit pricey for us, but worth the occasion.
Another entree that I noticed others enjoying was the smoked chicken with summer vegetables. Unfortunately, the veggies mostly consisted of squash, which I’ve about had enough of already this summer!
We’re lucky here in Ashvegas to have a number of restaurants that make use of local and organic foods: Early Girl, Tupelo Honey, The Marketplace, The Green Sage, and Sugo, to name a few. But I wish and hope that more would embrace the 100-mile concept. It rocks!
17 Kinds of Tomatoes!
My five year old daughter and I started from seed this season 17 different heirloom tomato varieties for our community garden plot. I let her decide which ones we should order. She wanted tomatoes in all colors of the rainbow and was disappointed when she couldn’t find a blue tomato. Annaka’s tomato picks are Green Zebra, Golden Jubilee, Henderson’s Pink Ponderosa, Pink Oxheart, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Rutgers, Royal Chico, Homestead, Fox Cherry, Big Rainbow, Pineapple, Tigerella, White Wonder, Yellow Pear and Lollipop. My question is “How do you know when a green tomato is ripe?”
A Family in Columbia, SC: Day 6: Craving Foods We Don’t Have!
Thoughts:
We’ve been craving ice cream, peanut butter and other non-Carolina foods. We decide to snack on Charleston Nut Company Cinnamon Spiced Pecans at Publix instead - and we are shocked that we pay almost $6 for just a cup! While we were there, we also bought Carolina Bonnie Blue Blueberries as they are on sale. My son was so disappointed at the berries! The taste was so far from the sweet and succulent blueberries he ate right off the bushes at Berry Hill Farm. But it sure was a welcome snack fruit after days of peaches. Wish we had more time to Pick Your Own!
Breakfast:
Cream of Rice and more peaches.
Lunch:
We didn’t have time for a proper meal, so we ended up eating some toasted Nova’s Bakery bread with scrambled eggs, topping with Heritage Farm cherry tomatoes and Happy Cow Cheese. We really prefer egg whites and I can’t believe we pay almost $4 for 12 egg whites, which when cooked can be eaten in one gulp by any big man.
Dinner:
Carolina Plantation Rice, Heritage Farm Eggplants and Baked Ashley Farm Chicken with Carolina Gold BBQ sauce. Nothing special… The weekend is just a difficult time to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.