Look forwards to posts here on these topics, and join the:

I did, however, empty my chest freezer and make a list of what I managed to preserve for winter.  Then I tried a sample of a month's worth of menus, combining frozen (by me) food, contents of the Abbondanza winter share, and a few (mostly processed) non-local foods.  The non-local foods, by and large, could be local if I made them myself, except I don't.  This includes pasta, mozzarella cheese, and pizza dough.  I did not end up with local grains, partly again because of not starting a local dry goods co-op.  In other words, possible, cheaper even, just inconvenient.

These are dinner menus.  Breakfasts consist of local smoothies, half-local baked goods, or non-local cereal, yogurt with granola or oatmeal.  I eat apples and local cheese, personally, and a hard-boiled egg, many times, but I am immune to the problem of disliking repetitive food, unlike other people I know.

Lunch is similarly not so local.  The kids eat at school.  Yecchh!  Just a statement of my laziness, and my decision to pick dinner as my battleground.  I am afraid though, that tater tots are gaining in popularity faster than homemade soups.  I'm not quitting yet.  Again, I eat leftovers, so I manage to stay local.

Dinner, then, is planned as follows:

1. Broccoli quiche with acorn squash

2. Turnip soup, eggs, corn

3. Pasta with basil or parsley pesto

4. Pizza with tomato sauce, green peppers, goat feta cheese

5. Tabbouleh (I still have a few fresh tomatoes in the fridge...)

6. Stir-fry with cabbage and snow peas

7. Roasted chicken with potatoes and greens - note: I always make chicken stock with the leftovers, and then look for a soup recipe that involves a fair bit of stock to use it up rather than freeze it.

8. Carrot soup, bread and eggplant salad, roasted shallots

9. Broccoli cheese soup

10. Pizza with tomato sauce, mushrooms, mozzarella

11. Roasted brussel sprouts, delicata squash, onions, peppers, garlic, whatever (this was my chance to try two roots that were completely new: scorzonera and salsify - grown by Red Wagon Organic Farm - thanks!)

12. Pulled turkey and corn with greens - this is made by Eastern Plains Food Co-op.  By the way their heritage chickens, including the Standard New Hampshire are delicious.  I haven't quite found a good way to cook the Cornish Game Fowl.  We have heritage Blue Slate turkey planned for Thanksgiving - will be reporting on that.

13. Pasta with tomato sauce

14. Butternut squash soup

15. Ratatouille (previously made and frozen; fast food!!)

16. Pizza with perso, mushrooms and goat cheese

17. Beet soup

18. Mushroom cobbler

19. Tomato soup made from frozen sauce

20. Mom's laziness special: poached egg on whole grain toast

21. Goat cheese souffle with bok choy

22. Leftover chicken with potato gratin

23. Wheat berries with onion, carrots, peppers, leftover chicken

24. Potato leek soup

25. greens with eggs - I have to report on the kale from Abbondanza 2 weeks ago: outrageously good!!

26. Turkey and trimmings

27. Post-thanksgiving fast

28. Face the leftovers turkey soup

29. Annie's Macaroni and Cheese (what really goes on in locavore households after dark...)

30. Don't you have friends? Won't anyone feed you if you begged?

This I can say - my life is still full of food.  Yesterday was the last Wednesday Farmer's Market.  It was hopping and bursting with produce.  Please plan to go on Saturdays and plan to spend!  I don't know what the farmers are going to do with all the extra produce given that fall has been so warm!  Even in my community garden, neglected and dejected as it is, there was basil, parsley, lovage, borage, broccoli, zucchini, corn, tomatoes, green beans and carrots to be had.  I finally picked the single slowly ripening butternut squash, and the aroma from the grapevine was just overwhelming.  I discovered whole new spinach plants (either that or a weed I am completely unfamiliar with) spontaneously sprouting from something I must have scattered 5 months ago - or volunteering from something I let go to seed last fall???

So winter will be here soon enough, but the season for locavores to plan ahead is far from over.

Oh!  Don't miss October peaches - by far the most flavorful of the season so far.  And Honeycrisp apples and red Bartlett pears from First Fruits.  Look for San Marzano tomatoes, they make great sauce - $2 per pound from Cure Farm.  If you haven't had tomatillo salsa, drop by Jay Hill Farm - you don't want to miss it.  There's lots of parsley available, and it is a nice change from basil in pesto.  I am using basil pesto as salad dressing by the way, as well as sandwich condiment.  It's also great a tablespoon or two at a time in soup, so it's a great item to stockpile right now and freeze, either in half-pint jars or in ice cube trays.

Menus this week:

Butternut squash or delicata squash soup - there's a recipe that involves stir-frying three perfectly ripe pears first - I promise to look it up when I have an extra minute.

Leek and potato soup - leeks at the market were availalble from a single vendor - a couple of stalls down from Morton's Orchards.

Corn soup - I am really tired of corn, but the soup freezes well. That will be a good use for the small ears I got from my "late" Silver Queen corn planting, which I abused by hesitating too long to thin the plants - not to mention forgetting (as usual) to fertilize.

Green beans, of course,  Omelets with zucchini from my garden and fresh eggs from Cure Farm.  No the kids won't touch this, but they eat omelets, and our four 4 year old has grown to love what he calls "big egg", which is hard-boiled egg...  On Wednesdays when I am scheduled to get another dozen from Cure Farm, I boil whatever is left from the previous week and keep them for fast food or short order cook item in the door of the fridge.

Pepper casserole with sour cream and melted cheese on top.

Roasted garlic.  We Bee Farms made a brief appearance at the market a couple of weeks ago, as the owner was on sabbatical this year.  I bought their variety bag of garlic, and it has been enormous fun preparing different varieties and discovering the range of tastes available - they have great names too!

My tomato sauce collection is pretty nice, but not up to the goal I had set just yet.  To my surprise, tomatoes continue to appear in my life, now at a reduced price.  The recipe I use most commonly is from Alice Waters and involves a quarter cup of oil and 5 cloves of garlic for each 2 lbs (5 cups) of tomatoes.  She recommends cooking tomatoes for no more than 25-30 minutes. Most of the work is in peeling and seeding them.  I've been playing around with the tomatoes I can find and now have yellow sauce, orange sauce, and red too - I might look for Green Zebras at the market Saturday!!

Another fun thing to do with tomatoes is to freeze them first, which makes them easier to peel, and makes their liquid separate - the result is a very thick tomato sauce.  I might try my hand at ketchup again.  The kids dismissed my last attempt, but my husband liked it...

In summary, this is a great time for the food obsessed!  However, the election is around the corner.  So I say freeze it all for later processing.  Volunteer for the campaign instead!!  There'll be plenty of time to make tomato sauce a month from now.

I did attack the tomatoes first, making a bacon-tomato sauce last night.  I found the bacon a little heavy and would recommend something lighter.  The tomatoes are so delicious on their own, it is hardly worth doing anything at all to the sauce.  Then I got started roasting eggplant slices for moussaka - one of these days.  I also made corn soup from leftover corn (last Saturday' s market) and the red bell pepper soup.  Then I found out with utmost surprise that I have run out of onions.  I guess I have been cooking a fair bunch! 

I finally made a wheat berry salad with Farmer John's wheat.  I simmered the berries for 2 hours, and added sauteed onion, and raw carrots and bell peppers.  I seasoned the salad with vinegar and a touch of honey.  It was satisfying and delicious, and I will be eating more of this.  Maybe about once a month.  It is still unfamiliar...

Finally, at the market, I bought edamame, okra and muskmelons.  The okra are presently sunning, sprinkled with salt and vinegar.  It is a way to make them a little tougher so they don't split open while cooking.  This allows them to become soft without becoming slimy I think.  The recipe also insists I don't stir the pot during the hour or two of cooking.  The okra must remain intact!

I hope you are enjoying the season of abundance and buying extra to freeze, can or dehydrate for the winter months ahead!

I would definitely be wasting food if I was not preserving it.  I froze cut up peppers and tomatoes.  Along with what I grew in my garden, I have a large bunch of carrots I want to cut up and freeze for soups.  I would like to put some in cold storage as well, but I am not sure how to do the bucket of sand system, and what part of my house will actually be cold enough for the next two months.  I would rather store carrots from October there and freeze the sweet smaller ones that are available now.

Before it gets too cold, I want to make vichyssoise - a cold smooth potato soup.  I also would love to try this tomato bisque - it sound very nice! 

Sorry no photo - the vegies were cooked and eaten before I had a chance to think about it.  My new thing is opening the fridge door wide and putting everything out on the kitchen counter, then deciding on three or four dishes to make (and freeze), then chopping and cooking madly until it's time to pick up the kids.  In the evening, I might re-heat anything I was planning to can and boil the jars after the kids have gone to bed.  Otherwise I tend to burn something as I get distracted by needy children (don't you love the first couple of weeks of school!).

I do suspect I have nowhere near enough preserved for winter.  I'm getting corn again at the market tomorrow, and more eggplant, and waiting on the tomatoes to come at a better deal since I am aiming for 24 quarts of tomato sauce (!).  By the way, I bought a box of imperfect peaches from Ela Family Farms ($20 for 20 lbs) Saturday and the peaches were outstanding.  Most went into peach crisp, peach sorbet (6 peaches and some mint simple syrup) and puree (5 peaches with 1/2 cup of grape juice - sorry not local) to make popsicles next summer.  I know most things officially last 6 months in the freezer but I am hoping this will go for 9 months.

Needless to say I have cut back on bread baking and I am still putting off learning to make yogurt while this deluge of produce continues to occupy my life.  Next I will have to devote my attention to the kids' homework...

I then made ratatouille with the eggplant, tomatoes, onions, basil, and some red bell peppers (from Safeway! OK, shoot me but I am tired of driving around, and the real reason is I tried to go to the market to get red bell peppers yesterday with all three kids in tow, and made it as far as "Music with Madelyn" - when she started in on "I've been working on the railroad" I knew there was no way anyone was following me.  I did get some crackers from Rustica Baking a little later when the kids got hungry enough to wonder what there was at the market besides music...)

The long hot peppers I plan to make a green chile sauce with, which can be fun with quesadillas, or whatever New Mexico fare. The parsley and basil (supplemented with basil I grew) will turn into parsley pesto.  I also want to make cilantro, broccoli, and mint pesto, but I'll need more of everything for all that.  I did harvest some of my broccoli, very excitedly, as I grew Brazilian novelty "Piracicaba" broccoli, supposedly so sweet you can eat it off the plant.  Well, wrong.  It is actually very strong.  Probably delicious cooked, but I haven't tried that yet.

That leaves the cucumbers and some tomatoes and peppers, which sounds suspiciously like a lineup for gazpacho.  Given how I heated up the kitchen today cooking ratatouille for an hour, that will be a welcome relief!

I do plan to go to the market again Saturday.  First, Elizabeth from Rustica Baking is hinting at bringing some bread made with local flour (such as focaccia, which we could kill for...).  Also, last week's strawberries from Monroe farm were stupendous (though small, I admit),, and if I can find blackberries or raspberries, I'll be canning more jam.  I also highly recommend their watermelon, and would like some melon!  Finally, I'm ready to freeze a bunch of roasted eggplant, as there are highly credible rumors that Columbine Appliance finally received the back-ordered part they need to fix my oven.  If so, I'll also be stocking up on potatoes and perhaps more tomatoes to roast, and well, you know where to find me next week!

We had an interesting talk last night, an "introduction to the 100-mile diet", so named  because my diet is such a "work-in-progress".  One of the questions was whether my family accepts this sort of diet easily.  The answer is no, as readers of this blog already suspect.

So for reality check, in parentheses, I have included what I actually expect the kids to eat...

Meals for this week (kale, carrots, beans, potatoes, garlic, tomatoes are from Cure Farm CSA; onions, broccoli, eggplant and basil are from the market, Cure farmstand and Jay Hill farm):

- buffalo burgers and broccoli (the broccoli works for 2 kids out of 3)

- onion tart with kale (um, no... sounds like a macaroni and cheese night for the kids...)

- tomato salad, green beans with hard boiled eggs and skillet potatoes (they had eggs mostly, some tomatoes)

- roasted potatoes, carrots, eggplant (2 will eat this, 1 will have probably a peanut butter sandwich instead)

- pesto with pasta (I do have to omit the pesto for my 6 year old; but a few months ago I had to omit it for everyone, so this represents progress)

From Cure Farm, we had another exciting box of vegetables. The potatoes and fennel, along with some carrots, broccoli and a little garlic, were served roasted with poached egg. The three heads of lettuce are outrageously good. That dark-leafed one has these incredible buttery inner leaves which are simply the best I have ever had.

I have to mention the fruit share, as well, which is turning out to be kind of like Christmas every Wednesday. This week we had the last of the strawberries, as well as lots of cherries and the first of the apricots. These apricots were simply amazing, and within a day, interestingly, they became a little mealy, kind of like what you get at the store. Still good (my husband ate half a dozen), but not like they were on day 1. Would have been amazing in a crisp... oh well, next time.

OK, on with the vegetables. Lettuce is becoming a daily habit. The beets, I have finally had enough of. I can eat more beet greens, but I am not sure how to keep up with the beets themselves. I may try some raw recipes. I will be blanching and freezing the snow peas, as we have had enough of those too. The kids never really took to them, but they will be good in some winter stir-fry. I'll be exploring further Saturday at the market.

So it's carrots (maybe glazed with mint?), snow peas (here's a hint: all the recipes on epicurious recommend boiling them first, for either 30 or 60 seconds, then stir frying them, maybe in sesame oil). There were two kinds of kale, and I might just steam or stir fry the kale, then dress with lemon and oil (geez, it is time to find some local sunflower oil!!), and fennel.

OK, fennel you may not be familiar with. Actually you can do anything you like with it. Eat it raw in salads (slice it very thin, mix in parsley, radishes, a little fennel top, and dress with oil and vinegar; roast it; saute or braise it; or make a gratin. There is a recipe at epicurious, that is generally well-rated. I am making Alice Waters' from "The Art of Simple Cooking" - it blanches the fennel first, for 5 minutes in salted water, then adds a thin white sauce made with butter and flour, and equal proportions of milk and fennel blanching liquid. Then of course, a bunch of grated parmesan cheese.

Other new produce available as of last Saturday at the farmer's market include new potatoes, collard greens and garlic. The garlic from Jay Hill Farm was unusually smooth roasted, with an incredible flavor - look for them next Wednesday at the market, or order directly.

The Western Slope cherries are worth their weight in gold - for a recipe that will cause your family to worship the ground you walk on, try a cherry-almond crisp. My version of that is as follows:

CHERRY-ALMOND CRISP
Fruit
7 cups sweet cherries, pitted 

½ cup sugar
(or more to taste)
1 to 1 ½ tablespoon cornstarch

1 teaspoon kirsch (clear cherry brandy) or brandy
Topping
1/3 cup whole almonds, chopped – or somewhat fewer

½ cup flour

1/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar

1/3 cup old-fashioned oats

1/8 teaspoon salt

¼ cup (1/2 stick) chilled unsalted butter, diced
Vanilla ice cream

For Fruit:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously butter 13×9x2-inch glass baking dish. Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Transfer to prepared dish. Bake until fruit is tender and juices bubble thickly, about 50 minutes. Cool in dish. (Can be made 4 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)

For Topping

Preheat oven to 375°F.
Place almonds in medium bowl. Add flour, brown sugar, oats and salt.
Mix together. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Sprinkle topping over fruit.
Bake until fruit is heated through and topping is golden brown and firm to touch, about 25 minutes. Serve crisp warm with ice cream.