The Peaches of Wrath

My parents are in town this weekend, and they wanted to get some local fruit while they were here.  On their way up, they stopped at the Happy Berry Farm, and they brought me some very tasty strawberries and gigantic blackberries.  I like to keep frozen fruit handy for smoothies, so I was thrilled.  Now, our freezer is very well stocked.

This morning, we went to Fisher's Orchard, where Mom and I picked some peaches.  Afterwards, Mom and Dad went back to their hotel to rest, so I stayed at home and made a cobbler.  It's made from cherries, SC Sweet haven peaches, gigantic SC blackberries, Happy Cow butter and buttermilk, and some local honey I picked up at the Farmer's Market.  (I love that place.  I only had $10 on me, and the jar of honey I wanted was $11, so the sweet old gent running the stand told me to just bring it to him next week).

I haven't gotten to try it yet, but it smells pretty darned good.  I found the recipe here.

Herb Garden

Last year, we had an herb garden, but we didn't use it very much.  So, I'm making an effort to get more mileage from the herbs this year.

Yesterday, I decided to bake some bread.  See, I've been having some trouble with my knees lately, and I've had to cut back on my running a little.  This is very frustrating, since I am training for a half marathon in October.  I still have plenty of time, but I'm being forced to take it a little slower than I wanted to.  It's really been stressing me out, so I decided I needed a little lesson in patience... and nothing teaches patience like baking bread.

I found the recipe here: The Barefoot Kitchen Witch.

The bread includes rosemary and parsley from our garden.  The picture isn't great, but the bread was.

No CSA. Sadness

Sorry about slacking off for a while.  The CSA we signed up for got cancelled, and I was pretty bummed about that.  I've still been hitting the farmers market for veggies, but I was really looking forward to getting it all from one farm.  Oh, well.  Maybe next year.

We have continued to get local meat and dairy, so that's been a nice change.  We're just about to place another order with Native Meats, and I'm addicted to Happy Cow.  I've started making smoothies with their buttermilk, which have a nice yogurty taste.  I use about half a cup of buttermilk, some frozen fruit, and a spoonful of honey.  It's quite yummy and kind to one's stomach.

Chris and I have expanded our little herb garden to include a few more things.  So now, we have one tomato plant, two jalapeno plants, and the following herbs: parsley, sage, rosemary, lemon thyme, oregano, lemongrass, cilantro, basil, and catnip.  Here's a picture (the tomato plant is in a bucket, which is not pictured)!

Tasty Bread!

I have been having mixed luck at the Greenville State Farmer's Market.  I'm not sure when you have to get there to buy things from actual farmers' stalls... but I haven't managed to hit it yet.  I'll keep trying though.  On Saturday morning, I did manage to pick up some very delicious bread from Simple Gifts.  It really is some of the best bread I have ever had, and I'm sure we'll have no trouble eating it in the 2-day timeframe they recommend.

I'll be happy in June when our CSA share kicks in, so we can stop shopping for vegetables.  Still no word on where/when we'll be able to pick up our baskets, but hopefully that information will be available soon.  This is the first year Haddon Farms is doing it, so I imagine they're just trying to get all the details sorted out.

Tonight, Chris is going to cook the chicken we got from the Native Meats folks.  We're going to have some yummy asparagus with it, and maybe some purple potatoes and quinoa.  For now, here's a picture of a hunk of that bread I got -- we got the Basil Cheese Sourdough.

 

A Locavore's Breakfast

This weekend has been sort of hectic, so we didn't do a whole lot of cooking.  Yesterday, my sister and her boyfriend came to visit, and my sister and I ran a 5K together (her first!).  Then, I hit up the Greenville State Farmer's Market to get more Happy Cow tasties.  I was very happy to learn that I would not have to drive to Pelzer to get their products, since they carry the milk, sour cream, and cheeses at the farmer's market on Rutherford Road.

I had a revelation the other day, whilst devouring the HC cottage cheese.  It is incredibly creamy and delicious, and it reminds me of what cottage cheese tasted like as a kid, before the whole country got afraid of fat.  The stuff you can find in the stores now doesn't have much flavor or body at all.  So, I have resolved to stop buying low-fat versions of foods that I like, since all that means is that I will eat more of it and enjoy it less.  Food is a pleasure.  It is more pleasurable for me to eat less of a food, but actually find joy in the eating.  (This has brought Chris much delight, as he only really wants whole-fat versions of foods.  I should have known right away never to question a chef's opinion on food).

I made us breakfast this morning, and, aside from some jar garlic, everything we ate was purchased from a local farmer or at the local farmer's market.  Here's what we wound up with:

The eggs are free-range eggs from Wil-More farms in Lugoff, SC.  The bacon came from Native Meats, and the sausage is from Wilson's (we got it at the Happy Cow store).  The tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, and asparagus came from the farmer's market.  There's some Happy Cow milk in the omelet, and the parsley garnish came from our yard.  There's some Happy Cow "fire cheese" in the omelet as well.  I also used some of the gigantic roll of Happy Cow butter that we bought, to cook it in.

Tonight, my project is learning to cook split pea soup.  I shall report back.

Cows!

Saturday, we went to see the Happy Cows in Pelzer. The tour was pretty basic. We rode around the farm for a while on a trolley, while Farmer Tom (Tom Trantham) told us a little bit about the grazing system and the history of the farm. I wish that there had been a separate tour for kids and adults because the kids obviously didn't care about how he rotated the cows from one paddock to the next, or how much more nutritious grass-fed milk was, and I wanted to hear a little more about it. It was still fun though, and after the trolley, we got to see the barn where they milk the cows and the old silo, which they've converted into a bottling room. We spent a lot of money in the store because you can buy not only the Happy Cow dairy products and produce, but also some pantry-type things from other SC growers. So, we brought home two types of Happy Cow cheese (10-year cheddar and a very spicy "Flaming Pepper" cheese); a bag of rice from the lowcountry; a bag of asparagus; some Happy Cow cottage cheese, chocolate milk, and butter; some local free range eggs; a bag of grits; some bread from the Palmetto Baking Co.; and some local hot sausage. When we got home, Chris made us a delicious brunch sandwich, all the ingredients of which were produced within a 50-mile radius of our house. Unfortunately, yet again, I ate it all without taking a picture.

After lunch, we hit up the Greenville State Farmer's Market for the first time (for me -- Chris had been before). The selection was reasonable, for the time of year. They had a few imported things, to fill in gaps. For example, the G'Vegas area bell peppers didn't look so hot, so the bin also included some nicer ones from Honduras. We went ahead and took the wrinkly ones from here, though. I was happy to find that the farmer's market on Rutherford Road also carries the Happy Cow milk and cheese products. Earth Fare has the milk, but I hadn't found the butter or cheeses anywhere else, and I thought I'd have to drive back to Pelzer if I wanted more... so that was a pleasant surprise.

Since Chris had cooked lunch, I offered to make dinner. We found a good Beef Stroganoff recipe online, so I tried that. We omitted the horseradish because we didn't have any, but it was still very tasty. (Also, we just used olive oil). Here's how it came out:

We used the stew meat we got from Native Meats, the asparagus from Happy Cow, and some more of the parsley from our yard.  Also, both the wine in my cup and the wine in the dish were things we'd gotten for free, so they are not subject to my new eating rules... all in all, another successful dinner!

Let Them Eat Meat!

Our meat order was delivered today. Here's what we got:



There's another pack of sausages and another bag of ground beef not pictured because I couldn't get them to fit nicely in the picture. Chris made some pasta and sausage today for lunch, but I was super hungry and didn't think to take a picture until it was too late. I'm still not sure what we plan to do with all of it. Mostly, I just wanted to get a good supply for us, so if we want to cook something on a whim, we'll have meat that I approve of in the house.

I doubt I'll be doing much of the cooking anyway. I'm not a stranger to cooking meat, but I haven't done it a lot. I stopped eating meat in college and didn't start again until I started dating Chris, so the part of my life when I cooked entirely for myself was spent cooking vegetarian dishes. Even simple things like searing a steak or grilling a chicken confound me. (I can grill some mean tofu though, and talk to me about the quinoa tostadas I love).

I just got through a chapter in The Omnivore's Dilemma about the ethics of eating meat. That's always been a tricky subject for me -- so much so that I bowed out entirely for several years. But honestly, eating humanely handled meat takes a lot of my former objections out of the picture. I used to rattle off a list of reasons for not eating meat, when people asked me why (because people always ask you why) -- concern for my health, disdain for the meat industry, worries about the animals' welfare. I'm still a little uncomfortable with killing animals to eat them, but I can live with it now, as long as I know where my food is coming from. I really don't want another $ of mine to go towards industrial meat production. I'd hate for that system to get the mistaken idea that I support or approve of it. Because I don't. Not one bit. Never have. I just didn't realize how easy it was to opt out.

I'll try to be better about posting pictures when we cook with some of this stuff. Also, I am going to take lots of pictures of the Happy Cows tomorrow! I have a busy weekend ahead of me.