Our Victory Garden

I have been meaning to blog about our victory garden since January. Here's the picture from then.



I haven't quite gotten the dance down: live life, shoot photos, blog about it.

This is closer to how it looks now, taken on June 7.



Like children, these things grow fast and the gardens look different today. It's time for a new shot.

Our garden consists of three 4x4 raised beds, divided into one-foot squares, based on Mel Bartholomew's All New Square Foot Gardening. We also have several pots on the deck with tomatoes, and various herbs planted in pots and garden beds throughout the yard.

We mostly planted items from seeds. Organic seeds. Where seedlings were required, we got help from the Sisters at Bluestone Farm. Most of their seedlings come from their own harvested seeds. The Sisters are indispensable mentors, coaches, and cheerleaders for us.

We don't imagine we'll be able to feed ourselves from this garden. It's not that big, our garden needs more sun (and I'd have to take out a few trees to make that happen), there's really no protien, and I'm a lousy gardener.

It's primarily an educational effort. How do things grow? How do you manage pests without chemicals? I planted one square of lentils because I've been eating them my entire life and have no idea what they look like growing. I think I planted too many and that they won't survive because of that.

So far, we've harvested the spinach (as it was bolting), some kale, and two broccoli crowns. The broccoli rabe went to seed before it was harvestable. I understand we get a second chance on the spinach and broccoli rabe at the end of the season.

Saturdays Forage (6/21)

Our first stop was the Brewster Farmer's Market.
- From Bluestone Farm (Brewster, NY) we got maple syrup, strawberry jam, duck eggs, and some seedlings.
- From the Groovy Baker (East Fishkill, NY), we got biscotti. Lisa Wolf is the Groovy Baker, offerring a variety of organic and gluten-free confections.
- And from someone else from NYC (sorry I didn't get your name), we got imported (from Italy) suprasatta and provolone. Okay, not local but definitely legitimate Marco Polo items. I loved his apron, which said, "The problem with Italian food is that three days later, you're hungry again."

Our second stop was Holbrook's (Bethel, CT). We got beets, sugar peas, gorgeous fresh cut flowers, honey, bread, garlic scapes, early garlic (more like scallions), strawberries, peaches, spinach, raw milk, and fresh mozzerella. John and Lynn are looking forward to Sunday's CT NOFA Farm Tour.

We did some yardwork in the afternoon, and then had ourselves a local dinner:
- BBQ'd chicken from Herondale Farm, (Ancramdale, NY)
- BBQ'd pork tenderloin from Ox Hollow Farm, (Roxbury, CT)
- Sauteed beet greens and early garlic (from today's forage)
- Sauteed spinach and garlic (also from today's forage)
- McLaughlin Vista Reposa (of course)

My Local Farmer's Markets

There are lots of farmer's markets in the region. These are just the very local markets that I'll be frequenting regularly. Here's a complete listing of CT Farmer's Markets from the Hartford Courant.

Brewster Farmers' Market
- Wednesday & Saturday, June 18 – November 22, 9 AM–2 PM

Wholesome Wave (Westport Farmer's Market)
- Thursdays, June - October 23, 10 AM-2 PM, Westport Country Playhouse
- Sundays, June 29 - October, 10 AM-2 PM, Theatre Company

Sandy Hook Organic Farmers' Market
- Tuesdays, June 24 - October 14, 2-6 PM

Sandy Hook Village Farmers' Market
- Sundays, June 1 - October 12, 9AM-2 PM

Bethel Farmers' Market
- Saturdays, July 12 - November 1, 9 AM-1 PM

Weekly local meal, not a challenge

I'm not currently active in any of the challenges going on (like One Local Summer), but we're certainly still eating locally. Mostly, local foods are well integrated into our daily menus and often we are delighted that an entire meal came from local fare. Like last night...

Bok Choy and Garlic Scapes with Beef. Here's the recipe, courtesy of Maple Bank Farm (ingredients annotated with origin.)

2 garlic scapes (Maple Bank Farm)
1 bok choy (Maple Bank Farm)
Sesame oil
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp honey (Dave's Honey Farm, Easton, CT)
Salt and Pepper

Wash the bok choy and garlic scapes. Slice garlic scapes diagonally. Cut bok choy stems separately from the leaves. Cut bok choy stems in quarters. Slightly cut up the leaves.

Saute the garlic scapes in the sesame and olive oils.

Add the bok choy stems, then add the honey, salt, and pepper to caramelize as cooking. Cook slowly until stems are tender.

Add the chopped leaves and cook an additional two to three minutes on medium high heat.

At this point, we added some sliced beef (left over from the huge top sirloin we cooked the other night - from Stuarts).

Of course, we served McLaughlin's Vista Reposa.

Saturday's Forage (6/14)

We're back on the road in search of food.

First stop was Stuart's in Bridgewater for some beef stuffs for the family Father's Day BBQ. We got a bunch of burgers and a couple of huge top sirloin for the event and a bunch of other goodies to round out the freezer stock.

Then on to Maple Bank Farm in Roxbury for some fresh veggies. We got spinach, radishes, garlic scapes, bok choy, and greenhouse tomatoes (for those burgers)? By the way, they also carry goat cheese from Beltane.

Serendipitously, we found Earth Tones (Woodbury) on our Saturday circuit. (This is my favorite part of Locavoring: new discoveries.) Earth Tones a native plants nursery and a lovely place to visit just for the joy of it.

Then off to New Morning in Woodbury for a number of things, especially raw milk. A sign from Stone Wall Dairy announced that the cows were back on grass. I picked up the latest issue of Edible Nutmeg. As usual, their cover art is stunning.

I think (hope) my CSA starts next week...

Conference on the Environment

Saturday, May 31, 2008, the Episcopal Diocese of NY is having an event called, Conference on the Environment: The Christian Care of Creation: Reconnecting With Your Community at St. Matthew's Church in Bedford.

The Workshops are:
- Greening Your Life (Your buildings and lifestyle, in city and country )
- Advocacy (Affecting your neighborhood, village, or city policy)
- What Has Changed and What Needs Changing (The negative effects of environmental change, and what to do about it)
- What We Eat (Farmers markets, community supported agriculture. How upstate food nourishes city neighbors)

Back

It's been awhile since I've posted and I do apologize. My calendar got taken over by aliens and I've just wrested it back.

Yes, I'm still eating local. My milk, eggs, and beef are exclusively local and my cheese and other meats mostly are. My grains never were. (Yes, I'm still on that.) My vegetables are not--we've exhausted our put-by freezer supply. We joined a CSA this year, which will be starting soon, so fresh veggies are on the way. Hallelujah!

Among other things, we've been planting and tending our gardens. I'll be posting on that soon (with pictures, even).

While I was out, I attended a reteat at Trinity Conference Center, in West Cornwall, CT. The space is lovely and the weekend was good, but the food was fabulous. Chef Corey prepares exquisite items and several selections at each meal. I had an opportunity to meet him and we ended up having a long discussion about raw milk. (No, they don't serve or have raw milk at the Conference Center because it is against the law to serve it. In the nearby vicinity there are at least three dairy farms selling raw milk, which is perfectly legal.) Anyway, the best news is that several of these dishes were made using local, in-season ingredients. We had fiddleheads and ramps! Chef Corey showed me his map with a 120 mile circle radiating from West Cornwall. His goal is to source as much as possible from this foodshed.

If you ever have an opportunity to attend an event at the Trinity Conference Center, take it--at least for the food.