Good lord, has it been a whole week already? That holiday on Tuesday really threw our regular routine for a loop. Consequently, I don’t have a photo (cheers from the crowd) from our local meal this week, which kind of bums me out since it’s our last week, and I think I had a nearly perfect record. Oh well!
We ate quite a bit of good local food over the past few days: bacon, eggs, hamburger, potatoes, onions, strawberry jam. For the spotlight meal, we had a quick dinner of a ham steak, kale and fresh greens, carrots and watermelon radishes from the holiday market.
Watermelon radishes? Hang on a second…Wait, I do have a photo! Aren’t you all lucky?! Turns out, see, that a watermelon radish pretty much looks just like a watermelon when cut. And I thought that was pretty nifty so, behold, the watermelon radish:
The round up:
- Ham steak: Rock Farm
- Kale, carrots, salad greens, radishes: Holiday Market (my apologies for not remembering which great farm I picked these up from)
- From away: olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh ginger for the kale
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So, what now?
First, a big, huge thank you to Laura for coordinating all this amidst her own holiday preparations, vacations, family emergencies and house hunting. Bravo!
Second, how did we do? Here are my original goals for the challenge:
- We’ll eat at least one 90% local meal each week (and post it!) CHECK!
- I will seek out (and post) new sources for local food as my old standbys close up for the season. SEE BELOW
- I’ll hold at least one dinner party before the new year that focuses on local foods (I might waive the 90% rule for this). SCHEDULED FOR SUNDAY
- I will catalog what I’ve put up for the winter so that I can plan better for next year. DONE!
So, I posted regularly, I’ve got people coming tomorrow night for dinner, during which I plan to serve local cheese (and maybe homemade crackers if I’m up for it!), local chicken, potatoes, green beans and carrots, and something homemade and mostly local for dessert – maybe a pumpkin pie or blueberry pie. I also cataloged my stash, but I just haven’t posted it here. I’ll do that next week.
As far as new sources go, I think I’ll still need to leave that one open. I visited our beef/pork/chicken farmer and met new farmers at the holiday markets, but I haven’t updated my resources page at all. I think I’ll just have to be content with that happening as it happens!
Overall, I’d say we did quite well. I think our weekly meals, along with the items we eat daily from our own foodshed, saved lots of oil but also tasted great, and made me feel like I was supporting my own community instead of an industrial farmer (and the giant corporation that supplies that farmer) thousands of miles away.
And now? Well, my next project is to use up as much of the food in my pantry as I can. When my parents moved this summer, we inherited a lot of pantry items, along with all the stuff we already had. I’m going to see how long I can go subsisting on that, our frozen stash, and only limited fresh items. I think I’ll post on these pantry meals once a week, as well. Let me know if you want to join me in this one!
Meanwhile, I wish you all a happy, healthy new year!
Those radishes are gorgeous! I might have to plant them this spring….
I love the idea of the pantry meals — I need to work on that myself. I know I’ve got some aging goodies in the freezer to use us as well, plus it is Maine shrimp season and soon Dan will be bringing home shrimp and scallops from his colleagues at school with fishing relatives. YUM!
Pantry meals are a great idea – I catalogued what I had in my pantry awhile ago, and I was shocked at how much food was actually in there!
Ali- they really are pretty in a salad – these particular ones don’t have a whole lot of flavor, they’d probably be good dipped in something, too, on a veggie platter. I WANT SHRIMP!
G+N: I’m afraid to actually catalog it, I think – I might just take a photo, or two and compare it in a few weeks. Ugh.