Full Moon Fireside

Wednesday night was the February Full Moon Fireside at the Community of the Holy Spirit (aka the Sisters at Bluestone Farm in Brewster, NY). An ordinary Fireside begins with half an hour of drumming, followed by half and hour of meditation, and then an hour and a half of discussion on the topic of the evening. This Fireside began with the drumming and then a movie, The Future of Food, and then a discussion. The movie is a well-made 2005 documentary discussing genetically modified foods, how life came to be patentable, and corporate control over the world's food system. It was horrifying. As you might imagine, the discussion was intense. Some things we can do: grow our own food. Buy from local farmers. Do not buy food grown from Monsanto seeds, even if the farm is next door. By the way, if the farm is next door, don't eat anything you've grown--you never know what the wind blew in.

Despite Monsanto, the evening ended up on sweet note, literally. We ventured out into the cold to watch the lunar eclipse but kept warm sipping sweet tea. Sweet tea is a liquid mid-stage between sap and maple syrup. It's light and sweet and so very warm.

Winter 2008 Dark Days Challenge

Curious about the Winter 2008 Dark Days Challenge? Check it out at Urban Hennery. I'm quite behind in my posting and have three challenge meals with pix for this two-week stint.

On 2/14 (Valentine's Day), we made heart shaped ravioli, stuffed with a mixture of butternut squash, a soft cow cheese whose flavor is a cross between ricotta salata and goat cheese, and sage drizzled with a brown butter hazelnut sauce. The ravioli stuffing was all local. The usual disclaimers about the ravioli shell (home made pasta using flour of unknown origins and a local egg and an Italian olive oil).



On 2/17, we had a beef short rib ragout over tagliatelle. The short ribs are from Stuart's. The wine is McLaughlin's Vista Reposa. The same disclaimer about the tagliatelle.



On 2/19, we had ribeyes from Stuart's accompanied by butternut squash, sauteed mushrooms, a frisse salad courtesy of Two Guys From Woodbridge, and wine by McLaughlin. The mushrooms were from Stop-N-Shop.



Hope your meals have been happy, healthy, and satisfying.

What we're eating!

When I think about it in a particular way, I think, how weird is it that I'm telling complete strangers what I'm eating and where I got it from. Yet such is the nature of the various local food challenges: a commitment to eat locally (your definition) for a given period of time; share your experiences, adventures, lessons, good futune, and encouragement (mostly menus, recipes, and perhaps leads on where to find a coveted item).

All in all, I've been viewing it as a positive experience. I've met (and virtually met) some interesting and wonderful people by taking these challenges. But I was wondering, what if there's blowback? What if someone in North Dakota reads my blog, and based on my prose, simply must have CT cheese for his (potentially local) macaroni? If he orders CT cheese online, do I have any carbon liability?

Seriously though, I'm going to spend the next few weeks eating non-locally except for the challenge-meal-of-the-week. We still have numerous items in our pantry and freezer from before and we'd like to use them up, prepare for spring, and make some space. It will be strange to do this deliberately, for sure! It will be cool when we are unequivocally able to say, "We know exactly where everything in there came from."

Dark Days Challenge 2008

Well, there have been several local meals over the course of the two weeks, but this one was my favorite: pork chops, macaroni, and gravy. When I say gravy, I mean the Italian-American red stuff which some might call sauce. I reserve the word sauce for the meatless varieties. The simmer-all-day-and-eat-at-three-in-the-afternoon stuff has meat (typically braciole, sausages, and meatballs) and thus, is a gravy.

I made this gravy by pan searing the pork chops (from Ox Hollow Farm) then adding two jars of Waldingfield Farm's organic tomato-basil pasta sauce. I let that simmer while I made the macaroni. I made rigatoni from scratch using Hodgson Mills semolina flour (not local, but as close as I can get to my home that I know of). The olive oil is from Italy (Marco Polo). I boiled the macaroni in water that came from my own well with salt that came from Rhode Island.

I grated some cheese from Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm, that was rather similar to a pecorino romano, although it's cow cheese. And of course, the wine was Vista Reposa from McLaughlin Vineyards.

Fairfield Winter Market

The Fairfield Winter Market (a new venture of the Westport Farmers Market) opened last week. It's indoors at the Fairfield Theatre Company at 70 Sanford Street, Fairfield, CT.

I finally got there today and as one who has done outdoors in New Haven, I am sure grateful for an indoor market! Of course, today it was unseasonably mild--a gentle 48 degrees. Sigh.

Some of my favorite vendors from New Haven were there: Two Guys from Woodbridge, Sankow's Beaver Brook Farm, and Beltane Farm.

Some of my favorites from other venues were there: Wave Hill Bread (Yeah!) and Goatboy Soaps.

A new vendor I met for the first time today was Ox Hollow Farm. I got some pork chops and a ham. They also have chicken (yipee!).

Westport Aquaculture had clams on the half shell and oysters. Two bakeries had delectabilities one expects from bakeries. I'm still dieting, so I tried to keep a respectable distance. One bakery, from Ridgefield (very sorry I did not get the name) had these wonderful oatmeal breakfast cookies that did not contain added sugar. All the sweetness came from apple sauce and fruit juice. Very nice.

A good time was had by all.

The Accidental Challenge Dinner

I'd defrosted some chicken from Herondale Farm (just over the border in NY). Tonight we roasted it with shallots from Cherry Grove Farm in Newtown, organic carrots (locals long since been eaten), some store-bought chicken broth, some red peppers we had on hand (origins unknown), and thyme and sage from Missy's Farm in Warwick, NY (dried and bagged by us).

For our vegetable or carb (however you want to call it), we had acorn squash from Waldingfield Farm (acquired at the New Haven Farmer's Market this weekend). We quartered and seasoned that with a little butter, pumpkin pie spice, and a few drizzles of maple syrup from the Community of the Holy Spirit's Bluestone Farm in Brewster, NY.

The funny thing (to me) is that we weren't even trying to create a mostly local meal. It was an easy after-a-workday meal made from the stuff we had on hand! Wish every day could be like this.

A Funny Thing Happened at the Winery

It sounds like the begining of a joke, which could as easily have begun: a Priest and a Locavore walk into a winery...

Anyway, we did (walk into a winery); McLaughlin Vineyards. It was Saturday afternoon and we'd spent the day Locavoring around New Haven. On the way home, we decided to stop into our neighborhood winery to replenish our Vista Riposa.

McLaughlin also sells eggs from Rough Cut Ranch, their neighbor. These are the most beautiful eggs I have ever seen. I wish I had a better camera to do them justice.

At McLaughlin's, Dee Dee's domain is the tastings and Frank (Francis) runs the retail store, among other things. We all got to talking about, what else, local food (and drink) and where you could get local honey. I told them that Holbrook's carries honey and the Stuart's carry honey. Frank wanted really local honey. I said that Cherry Grove Farm in Newtown has their own organic honey. And so the conversation continued.

As a matter of interest, Frank told me about this 93-year-old locavore in Newtown who keeps a Web site reporting on local foods and farms. I was intrigued--a kindred spirit, and a neighbor no less. He was impressed that this old biddy could still get around! I gave him my e-mail address so he could send me the link. He went on to talk about her Thanksgiving dinner of local foods and how she served McLaughlin wine. "So did I," I told him. He continued, saying that she felt bad that the Tom turkey wasn't local, but was a Butterball. The way he said it, got me thinking... That sure sounds like my Thanksgiving! "Are you sure she's 93," I asked? He was sure. He'd checked the profile at her blog and it said she was 93.

"Wait," I said, "it's me!" But I'm not 93. When I created my blogger.com account, I had refused to enter my year of birth and the original version inserted a year from the turn of the century (the other one). I recalled a friend making a joke about it several months ago. It turns out that the upgraded version allows you to leave it blank without making a wild guess. So, I've fixed it. I am sorry if anyone felt misled. Kind of comical, though...

So, while I am old by some standards, I'm young by others. I do have gray hair. (I might dye it if they start to grow hair color in my 100 miles.) If you really want to know how old I am, when I was a kid:
- We had to get up to change television channels (though we did have TV, even color, but only seven channels).
- Water wasn't bottled.
- Coffee only came in one flavor: coffee.
- People smoked everywhere: in the grocery store (in every store for that matter), on buses, trains, and, airplanes, even in the doctor's office. Really. (It was legal back then.)
- Cars only had AM radio and you actually got exercise opening and closing the windows.
- Soda did not have high fructose corn syrup.
- Margarine was thought to be good for you and butter was unhealthy.
- Jack LaLane was the only one working out on TV. Julia Child and Graham Kerr were the only ones cooking on TV.
I could go on--but you get the idea. Suffice it to say, I was too young for the first Woodstock and too old for the second.

Anyway, I hope you're here for the local food information and not just marveling that an old lady can drive from farm to farm. If it's any consolation, I've been told that I do drive like an old lady.