Farmers Market

I visited the South Wedge Farmers Market yesterday (as I do every Thursday) to pick up my CSA share and some other items. Man, is it ever the season of abundance! The tables were loaded with produce! Here's what I received in my CSA share:
Blueberries
Apricots
Plums
Cucumbers
Swiss chard
Green beans
Summer Squash
Basil
Tomatoes
Green tomatoes

Some other tasty items I saw available:
Sweet corn
Carrots
Peaches
Raspberries
Sour Cherries
Cabbage
Cantaloupe
Garlic
Onions
Peppers
Potatoes

If you're in the Northeast, look for these items! They're all in season right now.

The Great (e)Scape!

Sometimes I'm hesitant to write recipe posts for lack of step-by-step kitchen pictures. Mostly I forget to take pictures while I'm cooking. Sometimes I do TAKE beautiful kitchen pictures, but then I lose my camera cord or just plain don't bother to upload them. The thing is, I should just post recipes anyhow. So, put your imagination caps on, y'all, we're making pesto. Here we go:


Step 1
Get yourself to the local farmers market and pick up some garlic scapes. They are the green stems of garlic plants that need to be trimmed off in the spring. And consequently, they are in abundance everywhere right now, but will disappear in about a week. They have a flavor like garlic but are much milder. Grab some locally made cheese while you're there--Parmesan is ideal, but any hard, aged cheese will work.



Step 2
Gather the rest of the ingredients from your pantry or neighborhood food co-op: some kind of nuts--almonds, walnuts, pine nuts, whatever--olive oil, salt, and pepper, and some lemon juice wouldn't hurt.



Step 3
Break out your food processor (unless you're a slob like me and it's already sitting on your counter because you never put things away). Throw in a handful of nuts plus 3-4 bite-sized chunks of cheese and pulse a few times. Then throw in a heap of roughly chopped scapes, the juice of one lemon, salt and pepper, and stream olive oil in while you process until you have a saucy consistency. If you can't stream the oil in, just add a bit at a time, blending between each drizzle.


Step 4
Eat it over pasta, spread it on bread, crackers, bagels, or anything! Mmm...

Farmers Markets

The time for farmers markets is nearly upon us. In about a month, my three favorite markets will be opening for the season! I typically visit at least one of the following every week:

Brighton Farmers Market

South Wedge Farmers Market

Monroe Village Farmers' Market

Where will you get in-season, local food this summer?

Earth Day Eating

Earth Day was this week, and in addition to organizing a group of kick-ass teenagers at an interfaith recycling drive this weekend, I've been thinking about how to practice earth-friendly eating. (Step one: blog more often, slacker). We seldom think about the impact of our eating habits on anything but our own bodies, but this week I'll be posting about how the way we eat affects the world.

There's a great post on Design*Sponge (a site I love to drool over) about "earth day eating, every day." Ashley put together a great list of ways to be earth conscious in your own kitchen.

Some that I'm already doing include:
*Composting kitchen scraps
*Keeping a kitchen garden
*Canning & Preserving
*Making my own dairy products
*Recycling all paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum products
*Repurposing used glass bottles
*Supporting CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture)
*Patronizing farmer's markets
*Carrying my own shopping bags to the market
*Reusing plastic food bags
*Seeking out locally grown and processed foods
*Buying/eating foods in season
*Running the dishwasher only when full
*Using homemade and/or non-toxic cleaning supplies
*Seriously minimizing the use of paper towels
*Storing foods in glass, ceramic, or metal containers instead of plastic

She had some suggestions that I'd love to do when I have more space--like keeping bees and chickens. She also had some suggestions I haven't been doing, but should--like bringing my own containers to the market for meat and fish and buying biodegradable trash bags.

These are pretty simple practices that someone like me can implement while working (more than) full time and living in a tiny city apartment. For those of you who have a little land or maybe a kitchen that fits more than one person in it at time (seriously, my kitchen is that small), think about what kind of impact your food habits can make!

Slow-Cooked Beef

*Update*
The beef was tender and delicious. It has a slight gamey flavor compared to supermarket beef, which I really enjoy. I could have cooked down the red wine in a pan at a higher heat to make a sauce, but it was really moist and flavorful without that. We ate at our new dining table for the first time! We've been couching it for way too long. It is so nice to finally sit at a table across from a person. It really makes eating food feel like Having a Meal.




I got some stew cuts of beef from Heiden Valley Farm at the South Wedge Farmers Market here in Rochester. They raise cattle, pigs, and chickens that are pasture-raised, grass-fed, and sold locally. I've had their bacon before and loved it, I get eggs from them every week (at $3/dozen), and I'm excited to try their beef.

Eating ethically, particularly when it comes to meat, is often very expensive. We have decided the investment in our health, the local economy, ecology, and general food culture is worth it. Still, we are not rolling in dough over here. Money doesn't grow on organic, local, community-supported trees. So I use some budgeting tricks like buying in bulk and freezing, buying a whole chicken and stretching it with other ingredients into several meals, saving the bones for stock. And of course, getting the cheap (read: tough) cuts of meat and cooking them slowly.



I thawed the beef (which is cut into 2 inch sq. chunks) last night.

Today at my lunch hour, I grabbed a bottle of Bully Hill semi-dry red wine, reflected on how great it is to live in the Finger Lakes area, ran home and took out my slow cooker.

I braised the meat (which was still a little frozen) in a hot pan, then threw it in the cooker, and covered it with salt, pepper, rosemary, oregano, and a little brown mustard.

I sliced an onion, sauteed it in some butter in the braising pan until it was starting to get brown, then I added a sliced clove of garlic.

After another minute or so, I added the onion and garlic to the slow cooker, poured about 1/3 to 1/2 the bottle of red wine over it all, covered, set it on high, and headed back to work. Were I not such a procrastinator, I could've done all that last night, put the pot in the fridge, and set it on low this morning to cook all day. Alas, I did not. It will still get 6 hours of cooking time.



I'm now about to head to the farmers market where I'll pick up some green beans to sautee on the side. I'll just cook them in some olive oil, salt, and garlic.

I may also cook the one new potato I have left from last week. I'll probably slice it pretty thin, toss it in olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe a little dill, throw it on a baking sheet and roast it at about 425 degrees.



I will update later on how it turns out! Also on all the lessons on pollination I learn from the overly friendly Bee Guy at the market--since I need to buy honey today.