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.

A Couple of Links

I don't have a lot to report today, but I expect lots of tasty updates soon. Our meat comes tomorrow, and Saturday is Happy Cow day! I think we're going to hit up the Farmer's Market on Saturday as well.

I just wanted to post a couple of interesting links. One is a story from Time about grass-fed meat, and the other is a link to a very helpful web site if you're trying to find local meat in your area.

Steaky Dinner

I'm kind of in food limbo this week because I am eager to go get a lot of awesome new food, but we're not out of anything... so I have to keep eating all the stuff we already have. Waste not, want not, etc.

Last night for dinner, Chris cooked the other rib-eye that I got from Earth Fare last week. It was amazing. I love living with a chef. The one I Foreman grilled was ok, but this one was much better. The salad and macaroni were leftover from Easter, but here's how Chris prepared the steak:

1. Salt and pepper both sides of the steak.

2. Heat 1 tsp. butter in a cast iron skilled or non-stick frying pan, over medium-high heat.

3. Sear both sides of the steak for 2 minutes for medium-rare or 4 minutes for medium, which is what's pictured).

4. Remove and "rest" the steak. It will continue cooking after you take it off the heat.

5. Slice and serve.

Sauce:

In a saucepan, combine 1 tbsp A1 steak sauce, 1 tsp mustard (something spicy or full-flavored), two dashes of soy sauce (we use Kikkoman religiously), fresh herbs of your choosing (we used parsley from our herb garden), 1/2 cup water, and a "slurry," which is formed by mixing cornstarch and water. Add the slurry until the sauce reaches the desired thickness. You can add whatever vegetables you want and cook them in the sauce until they're done enough for you.

Clean foods involved in our meal: Home-grown parsley from our yard, grass-fed rib-eye from Greer, SC.

Free foods involved in our meal: Everything else!

I'd say it was a healthy compromise between good-for-the-world and good-for-our-wallets.

I wish we'd run out of this inferior produce, so I could go get something better!

I started watching "Food Inc." last night, but I stopped halfway through so Chris and I could watch it together. I figure, since I am imposing all my new food notions on our household, I should try to share more of my motivation with him. Netflix says the movie draws heavily from Fast Food Nation and The Omnivore's Dilemma, so I don't really expect any surprises. I read Fast Food Nation in college, and I'm about 3/4 through the other one. I'm sure it will disturb me though; the food industry (at least the part that involves animals) is certainly a subject where images are significantly more powerful than words.

We're having Easter dinner with Chris's Mom tonight, which should be fun. We bought all the supplies before I decided to re-think our shopping choices, though, so none of the food really qualifies as "clean." (I like the notion of "clean food." It makes much more sense to me than to continue saying "natural," "organic," "local," "sustainable," etc. In my mind, "clean" covers all the things I am striving for, so that's probably the designation I will stick with). I do think this will be the last holiday where the majority of our food comes from the industrial food chain, though, and that makes me happy. Last year, Native Meats offered Thanksgiving turkeys, which I hope they'll do again.

I can't wait until we run out of produce, so I can hit up the Farmer's market. Yesterday, I took a bite of a grocery store tomato, and it tasted like water. It looked like a tomato... and it had the texture of a tomato... but if I had had my eyes closed, I'm honestly not sure I could have picked it out as one. Evidently, I have been ignoring the fact that most of the "fresh" fruits and vegetables I've been buying don't taste like much at all. But that'll change soon, so I'm psyched.

For all my friends in G-Vegas, I just learned this morning about a very popular local salsa that you can even find at the Bi-Lo! (I know, I was surprised too). So, check out the Tradition Salsa next time you're in the market.

I think that about wraps it up for now. Once we start getting some local meat (I sent my order on Friday night, so I won't hear back until Monday) and veggies, I'll try to post some pictures and recipes. I'm still looking forward to the Happy Cows on Saturday. I tried their milk the other day, and even though I am not a big milk drinker, I do think it was probably the tastiest milk I've ever had. It has a really nice flavor. More to come!

At the Mercy of the Sun

Today was a big day. My husband and I mailed off payment for one full share in the Haddon Farms CSA. For those of you who don't know (which included me until yesterday), CSA stands for "Community Supported Agriculture." What it boils down to is that, for the $600 share we bought, we'll get one basket of fresh, local fruits and veggies every week from June through November. The farm doesn't use any synthetic pesticides or fertilizers, which is awesome, and it's just down the road in Simpsonville, so our food won't be traveling very far to get to us.

As great as this concept is, I agonized over it a little bit. I mean, $600 is a lot of money -- especially for a couple who's still saving up to buy a house in the near future. I wasn't on-board until I mentioned it to my husband, but his enthusiasm totally won me over. (He's a chef, and he can talk food like nobody's business). The more we talked about it, the more I wanted to do it too. So, we mailed away our money, and I'm really looking forward to June. This system is going to be a pretty big change for us. We're used to just deciding what we want to eat, then going to the store and buying whatever ingredients we need. When we start getting our CSA produce, we'll be more at the mercy of the seasons. I like the idea of being a little more in harmony with the sun and the natural cycle of the plants we'll be eating. If everything goes well this year and we decide to buy a share next year too, I'll probably try to get in early enough to get one of the "working shares." They're only $250 if you agree to work 3 hours a week on the farm (which I would love).

In other news, I've decided to start keeping track of all the money we spend on food this year (April - April), so I can see how much of a difference we can make in our food choices. Unfortunately, I didn't keep track of this sort of thing in the past, so I don't have a good base line for comparison. But, I can safely say that, while we always tried to buy nutritious food, we never made any special effort to buy local or sustainably produced food... so probably only about 1-5% of our food dollars went to that type of food. I'd like it to be at least 50%, which I think is totally achievable, between the CSA and the meat delivery.

I am learning that these responsible choices won't be easy to make in grocery stores -- even the ones that purport to cater to the healthy lifestyle. I went to Earth Fare tonight to pick up a few things, and of the $42.97 I spent, only $9.86 of it went towards products from my state. I tried to find locally produced items, but it was really hard! They had the Happy Cow milk, which I bought. I found some bean soup mix from Charleston, but I can't speak for how it was grown. I also picked up some Ezekiel bread because it's tasty, a container of raisins for making granola, and a few odds and ends. It was fine for a supplemental grocery store trip, but I'm glad I've found some alternative means of obtaining protein and produce. The meat section at Earth Fare does have a reasonable selection of pastured SC meats, but -- as far as I could tell -- the produce section was all imported from somewhere else.

Tonight, I'm placing our first order with Native Meats! We have opted to create our own box of ground beef, a couple of filets (we are spoiled), some Italian sausage, a box of bacon, and one whole chicken. I will post pictures and a full report when the meat arrives.

"Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity." ~Voltaire

Grass-Fed Beef

So, one of the main things I am getting from The Omnivore's Dilemma is how screwed up it is that we feed corn to cows. Their stomachs did not evolve to eat corn, and the only way they can handle it is by being fed medications to keep their stomachs in check. They wind up making fattier, less healthy, antibiotic and steriod-riddled beef, which we then eat by the truckload. (I won't go into all the oil necessary to get that beef to us, or the government subsidies that led to the surplus of corn that our cows are now forced to eat. You're smart folks. You can read the book yourselves.)

I had never had grass-fed beef before, but I was anxious to try it. Nerd that I am, I did a lot of research online beforehand, and I found a place that will deliver it right to my door! It's called Native Meats, and it sounds awesome. They only deal with farms in South Carolina, so you know that all your money is going to support local farmers; also, they have a pretty strict code of conduct for their producers, which prohibits using antibiotics, steroids, hormones, etc. I'm going to put in an order with them as soon as I get paid. It's a little pricey, but my husband and I don't eat that much meat, so it will last us a long time.

Today was my first official day of ... let's just call it "the food journey." I wanted to try some pastured meat right away, rather than wait for my mail order, so I went to the Earth Fare and bought 2 grass-fed rib-eye steaks from Bull Hill Ranch in Greer, SC. Not being the cook in the family, I called my husband to find out how I should cook it. He recommended I just salt and pepper it and throw it on the Foreman grill for a few minutes (we are a rare meat family). So, that's what I did.

It was a very tasty steak. I have to say, I really could taste a bit of a difference. I guess I've never had beef that tasted like what beef is supposed to taste like. It was a little gamier than I am used to. I could definitely grow accustomed to that though.

The other local highlight in my day was the peanut butter and banana smoothie I made, which included some local honey from my friends' bees.

Right now, I am trying to take baby steps. For example, I am in love with these pre-packaged cups of brown rice that I found at the grocery store. They're super convenient, cooking in only 90 seconds, and they're very tasty. This week, though, I decided to skip the easy rice in favor of something better for my wallet, the environment, and my body. So, on Sunday, I steamed a pot of plain brown rice and portioned it out into individual servings for the rest of the week. It was much cheaper, didn't have the oils and preservatives that they put in the cups of rice, and didn't generate a bunch of waste. It didn't taste *quite* as great to my mouth, but it tasted much better to my conscience.

Also, today, I popped real popcorn while I was watching a movie, instead of having strange-chemical-laden microwave popcorn.

Baby steps. But I am excited.

Coming soon: Next weekend, my husband and I are taking a trip to the Happy Cow Creamery. They're giving a tour, and then we can buy some great local products in their store. I'm particularly excited about getting milk, eggs, and cheese. Stay tuned!

Learning New Ways to Eat

Why I am starting this blog:

I want to learn a new way to eat.

I want to learn to eat more responsibly -- both for my own health and for the health of my community, state, nation, planet, etc. I was partly inspired by Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma (which I am reading now and will probably mention a lot in this blog), but I have been interested in "thoughtful eating" for several years.

I've always had a strange love-hate relationship with food. My weight has yo-yo'ed back and forth for as long as I can remember. I'm not a horrible eater now. I try to eat a lot of whole grains and fresh fruits and vegetables. My husband and I cook at home about 90% of the time, and we almost never eat fast food. I try to make sure the house is full of healthy food choices. The older I get though, the more I realize that there's more to eating than just fat and calories. Our culture has deconstructed food until all we really see are the chemical reactions, the microscopic angels and demons that make one food "bad" and another "good." In our effort to be healthy, we seem to be getting farther and farther away from the natural state of FOOD. Heck, if my great grandparents were transported to my kitchen right now, I doubt they would recognize half the things in my kitchen as food.

Is it really better for me to eat a meat substitute that's been shipped halfway across the country, rather than a steak from a cow that was raised in a pasture 20 miles away? Is this fruity, antioxidant-enriched, superfood beverage, created and bottled in a town I've never seen, really preferable to a glass of whole milk from the dairy farm down the road? How difficult would it be to erase highly processed foods from my diet? Can I afford to spend more money to buy local, sustainable foods? Can I afford not to? Wouldn't I prefer to give my money to food producers who are using responsible, ethical, humane processes, than to those responsible for pollution, poverty, disease, and animal cruelty?

These are just a few of the questions I hope to answer in my quest to rediscover food. I do know three things. 1) I want to replace as much of the food in my diet as possible with local products. 2) I want to eat foods that were produced by sustainable practices. 3) I want to eat food that has been processed as little as possible before it reaches me.

I probably won't post every day, but I will try to share my journey as fully as possible. Stay tuned for episode 1!