Locavore Week

Dear Reader, I started this post nine months ago, sorry I never finished it, I'll post it now.

I've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life," and this week it inspired an experiment. In the book, the author's family of four pledges to go a year eating only local food, grown conscientiously, and to grow or raise a lot of their food themselves.


Here in Oakland, my romantic roommate and I decided to go the whole week eating only from farmers markets. A much humbler promise.

Here's the thing: this is California, and it's late May. There are four farmers markets a week that are easily accessible to us, and plus it's spring and gardens are starting to flourish. It should be obvious that most or all of our food would from the beautiful local bounty within a hundred miles of where I live.

In or near my neighborhood, there are also two Safeways, a Trader Joe's, and various other places to get food that may or may not be local, or actual food. Although we frequently take advantage of farmers markets, we don't make a point of it, and we eat out quite a bit. This would mean no grocery store, no lunches out during work days, and no "I don't feel like rooting around the fridge for some healthy shit, lets just grab a beer and a burger down the street."
And speaking of beer...what would we do about that? There are a lot of things besides vegetables you can get at the farmers market, but beer isn't one of them. This lead to some other discussion as well, what about tea and coffee, respectively? They sell coffee at the market, but is it grown locally? Well, we said, if its at the market that's fine. But they don't have tea. Should one of us get our fix and not the other? That didn't seem right.

Here are a handful of exceptions we came up with to the "Only Farmers Markets" rule:
-Beverages (I mean, do we really want to think about kicking drug habits at the same time we try buying food conscientiously? Nah, that sounds hard.)
-Free staff meal at the restaurant where I work, 'cause it's free food.
-Those who find themselves accidentally stranded on a desert island (aka workplace) with no farmers market food are allowed to seek other sustenance. We're trying to do something good, not punish ourselves.
-Whatever we already had in the kitchen, we could use. Sweet, we have a bit of canned goods, condiments, rice, spices, etcetera.

Perhaps at this point you're thinking this is a weak promise, but these caveats make it so the plan might actually work. Besides, you've gotta start somewhere, and it will be interesting to learn how it will pan out, how life will be different this week.



This is a picture of all the farmers' market food we had on the Wednesday of Locavore week. In a vague zig-zag, from left to right are: crackers, caper hummus, eggs, broccoli, fava beans, red potatoes, soy milk, romaine lettuce, braising greens, fennel, tomatoes, cactus leaves, onion, limes, garlic, marinated tofu, tamari almonds, dill, samosas, cilantro, tofu, zucchini, lion's mane mushrooms, cherries, cookies, herb rolls, seed bread, olive bread.

It doesn't look like a bad lot to be dealt, and it isn't! What a georgeous spread. The problem is, we'd have to prepare it all, which means making time, doing it, and planning ahead.

Here are some meals we (I) came up with.

Shredded Tofu and Cooked Greens Sandwich with Red Potato Dill Salad












Rice and Nopales,

with homemade yellow tomato salsa.
and.....that's where I stopped writing.

Summary, if I can remember since it is now February of the following year:
-It's hard actually "preparing your own food" all the time.
-Romantic Roommate found himself stranded on an island several times; once he discovered that a can of vegetable soup does not a sustaining lunch make, and had to run out for supplemental calories, and at least one other time he didn't remember to bring lunch at all and went out for a burrito.
-I honestly can't remember if I had any emergency breakings of our goal, but I know my buddy was mostly the one, and we both did pretty well overall.
-We were relieved when the end of the week came because we could relax our rules once again, but we have tried to keep up with at least buying most of our produce from farmers market, and supplementing with other goods from stores. This past fall we decided we were on a budget, so we've been bringing our meals to work and eating in, though not necessarily locally. Since I live in California now, however, I have definitely emphasized seasonal produce in my life to a degree that I never did before in my life. It is sometimes hard to eat squash at all, let alone all winter, but it feels good to go many months without basil and tomatoes, since they really are meant for summer and tomatoes are generally not worth eating in winter no matter where you live. Plus it makes them all the more delicious when they do come into season because it's a treat! Same for any other yummy thing that doesn't grow all year. Eating somewhat locally and seasonally has made me feel much more in tune with the planet. Plus, if you're only buying what's in season, not only is it cheaper, but you don't have to think so hard about what to eat!!!

Strawberry Almond breakfast sandwich

On the mornings when I have to get up and go, I usually try to bring a sandwich. More often than not it's bread and nut butter, with or without other things. Tonight's sandwich (I make them the night before, or else stumble through store-buying a meal) was a zag away from the intended, frenzied zig of a smoothie. I needed to use up my strawberries, as they were growing duller and more mushy by the second. I realized I could make a delicious smoothie of the berries, rice milk, and almond butter. I was all excited, getting out the fruit and my portable beverage bottle, when a smoky light bulb ignited over my head, and I spun around to rearrange my ingredients.

"Sandwich" I thought, and made this:


Ingredients:
-2 slices whole grain bread (Ezekial in this case), toasted
-Raw almond butter
-3-4 strawberries, sliced

Spread almond butter on both pieces of bread. Arrange strawberries on one slice of almond toast, tessellation style.

Cover with other toast, slice and serve, or refrigerate over night for a portable breakfast.

Hope it's good!

Dehydrating 101, Strawberries

In which I tell all about my first experience using my dehydrator.

Well I got the thing months ago, as a Christmas present from my dad, who knows I'm into food. I had never really considered buying one, but of course it seemed like a good idea if someone was gonna give it to me. When it came in the mail, I was a little taken aback. It's huge!!! It's a big white spaceship, adequate size for a raccoon to travel to the moon, and it is certainly too big for my kitchen table, counter, or cabinets. Because of that, and the fact that I didn't know what to do with it, it's been waiting patiently in the basement until now. This week I promised myself I would buy a large quantity of something at the farmers' market and dry it, so here goes.

Here is what is left of 3 baskets of strawberries, which I got for a mere 8 bucks and a guess that I was Brazilian. That's right, the farmer dude asked if I was Brazilian after I asked "how much?" in Spanish. I guess there are a lot of white people in Brazil, but that's definitely a first for me. Anyway, it seemed like Christopher and I ate strawberries with abandon last night, but there were still a lot left.

The first step was sorting, as the manual advised to only use the freshest, ripest fruit with no bruises or blemishes. Of course these are all fresh and ripe, but I picked out most of the ones that were bruised and set them aside. I was a little torn, though, because I think the bruised ones are the most ripe, and the tougher, more pristine ones are that way because they are a little under-ripe. Oh well, they're all beautiful.


I ended up with about a basket and a half of bruised berries, marked for immediate consumption. This will be a very difficult task, of course, for which Christopher and I should be pitied.
The ones left on the dish towel are the best and brightest fruits, destined to be robbed of their natural moisture and turned into chewy remnants of their former selves. The goal of this, I think, is to eat locally grown strawberries more often than once a year. Also it allowed me to save a buck (literally) on buying a bunch at once. I think there are other benefits to dehydrating things, but I'll probably discover those over time.

Next was slicing them all up, after rinsing and removing the stems, and placing them on one of the drying trays. I didn't think it was necessary to bring a second tray into the operation for a handful more of fruit slices, so the two that didn't fit went back into the "eat me" pile.
When I turned on the intergalactic vehicle, it commenced a loud whirring sound, and the hot air was blowing out from all sides. I took it off the table so it wouldn't partially dehydrate the other strawberries, our peaches, and the potted plant.
See? it's a spaceship. More so, and more raccoon-sized, with all four trays stacked in it.

The thing makes me nervous, and I don't think you're supposed to leave it unattended, so I've been home all day, checking on the progress periodically.

To be continued....

8:55 PM

I took the last strawberries off the rack about ten minutes ago, having put them on at 1:17PM. I swore I'd leave the house as soon as I flipped the switch, but now I don't know where to go. This has been an all-day event; drying strawberries, and meanwhile killing time blogging. I ate three meals and a couple snacks, all at home. I don't eat three meals at home often, so that's nice. They were all healthy and delicious, and pre-paid.

Oh! The verdict!
I'm sorry, they told me to put them in the freezer afterwards, and I forgot to photograph again, please hold.


Here they are. It would have been more dramatic, yes, if I had photographed all the dried ones on the rack, to contrast with how they looked on the rack at first. No deal, though, because you have to start taking off individuals as they dry, leaving the ones with any juice left.

As you can kind of tell, the container I just had in the freezer has a bit of condensation lining it. This means that some of them weren't properly dried, and that's supposed to be bad. I kinda knew that, there were a bunch at the end that I gave up on, which was wrong. They were mostly the tips, the pieces that were cone-shaped. I tried to rip them open, ruining their cute shape, so I could expose more flesh and get them to dry faster. Then I took them out again not too much longer and threw them in with the rest. I don't think they were dry. Oh well, maybe they won't ruin the whole lot of them.

A fuzzy picture of the reward:
Remember the super ripe berries that I left on the table? Well I had some for breakfast, and had a couple randomly throughout the day, but by the end of the day they were much different. It was a rare hot day here, and the dehydrator, though I moved it slightly from the table, made the whole cottage even warmer than the outside. This is with all the windows open, and most of the day with both doors open. The strawberries went from slightly bruised to bruises, and one went from bruised to moldy. What a difference a day makes!

Remember how I joked about the chore of trying to eat them all?!
Christopher took half to share at band practice, we each topped off dinner with one or two, and I invented a new breakfast sandwich. We still have about ten wet berries left.

What will I dehydrate next??
Nothing until it cools down a little. We'll see.

Coming soon!
"How to eat my dried strawberries"

Cereal with Ripe Fruit

So this isn't really a recipe, and if you've never sliced ripe fruit and eaten it on cereal before, I feel sorry for you, but I'm just trying to post a lot of meals I eat at home, to share ideas and satisfaction.

Today's cereal topping was about three strawberries and a whole, small peach, all sliced up and followed by a generous pour of rice milk. The peach, my first sample of the year, was perfect, absolutely delicious. The strawberries two, but I had already eaten 20 or so since I bought them yesterday.


These flakes I bought last week for the first time. I've heard amaranth is good for you, and I don't see myself cooking any in the immediate future so I figured I'd try this cereal, which actually has a bunch of other grains mixed in as well. I've been trying to add more grains to my life so I don't survive on mostly wheat with a little corn and rice thrown in. Most of us eat a LOT of wheat, which is the grain used for any baked good that doesn't specify otherwise, and anything called simply "flour."

Anyway, I haven't had a lot of cereal-worthy fruit lately, since it's mostly been oranges and apples for the last few months. I guess apples would be okay for cereal, but I tend to use them more as a portable fruit option since their such tough guys on the road. Point being, this simple bowl of cereal was sort of exciting.

Just to confirm there were some flakes in the bowl, and not just fruit:
Also, this strawberry hearts you, and I do too.












Love, Julia

Quinoa with Fresh tomatoes and Mint

Usually if I have Thursday off, as I do today, I take myself out to a lovely lunch at Cafe Gratitude in Berkeley, and I feel very healthy and inspired. Because of a project, however, which I will write about later, I was compelled to stay home for my afternoon meal. I decided to make something that would be reminiscent of the meal I'd of had there, which the last two times has been their "Macro Bowl," as in macrobiotic. I'm still not sure about all the principles of the macrobiotic diet, but I do know that it has to do with balancing foods that are yin and yang (every food is more one than the other, apparently), using a lot of grains and vegetables, and usually (always?) including a pickled item. Gratitude's Macro Bowl is shredded raw kale, steamed quinoa, homemade kim chee, teriyaki raw almonds, sprouts (the kind with big green leaves) and tahini sauce. I never thought it sounded good, but after it was recommended to me I finally found out it's delicious.

I didn't have a pickled item, unfortunately, but I did have leftover quinoa from last night. Quinoa cooks much more quickly than rice, so this kind of meal could be done easily without having it leftover, and using whatever you have for toppings. I added some fresh, frozen, dried, and bottled things I had in the kitchen. I was going to use Annie's Goddess dressing to simulate the tahini sauce experience, but when I tossed and tasted the mixture before dressing, I liked the flavors so much that I didn't want to overwhelm them. I chose oil and vinegar instead, which is my favorite dressing almost always.

I think the tomatoes that are at farmers' market already must be greenhouse...

The pistachios were an excellent touch, as are the almonds in the restaurant meal. It's satisfying the have an occasional hard, crunchy bite. I never would have thought to mix pistachios with much of anything except they were the only nuts I had. I love improvising!

Ingredients:
-one serving of leftover quinoa, about a cup
-half a fresh tomato, chopped
-a little fistful of chopped fresh mint
-1 clove garlic, chopped finely
-bit of red onion, chopped, about a tablespoon
-bit of frozen peas, rinsed but not cooked
-bit of frozen corn, rinsed and then cooked in a little water for about a minute
-handful of pistachios, shelled
-a tablespoon or so nutritional yeast
-olive oil
-balsamic vinegar

Stir and enjoy!

...I meant to take a picture after tossing, but the meal mysteriously disappeared before I remembered to photograph it again. mmmm!!!

Composting made very easy! for me anyway...

A couple of months ago I figured out that in Oakland all I have to do is separate my compostable trash and then dump it in a barrel, and it will be composted. The thought of composting has always been attractive, but I figured I'd have to wait at least until I had a yard, and then until I was motivated enough to construct an elaborate rig-up with earthworms and regular rotation. Turns out all I need is to live in a city where they'll pick it up once a week and rot it for you. Not that I have access to the finished product, but I also don't yet have access to a garden, and simply would like to know that my trash is being dealt with in an appropriate manner. Above is a somewhat odd picture of dumping the small kitchen pail into the sidewalk barrel used for the three households on the property. Lest you think I was discarding a beautiful, whole bean pod, rest assured that I took the beans out and ate them last night, and that pod did not appear edible.

Letting food waste go into the landfill is saaadd, because even though it is biodegradable, it won't break down in that environment and will just sit and pile up like all the other trash. Also, lots of non-food items that can't be recycled can be composted, so finally there is a spot for greasy pizza boxes, other paper food boxes like the ones you get as doggie bags or at salad bars, waxed paper, tea bags and their paper wrappers (I used to put the wrappers in the recycle bin, but I figure they probably get lost in the shuffle), coffee cups and wooden stirrers, and any other dirty paper. Then there's the food items, which include carrot tops, egg shells, coffee grounds, any peels, husks, stems or other parts of foods that your not eating, as well as leftovers, your sad old cut flowers, and yard waste. Don't tell Oakland, but I also think the compost bin is an excellent place for nail clippings and hairbrush hairballs, the latter of which was included in my last load. They say you can put meat, bones, and shells in, so I don't see why our own discarded animal bits can't be added as well! They do put a restriction on diapers and pet waste, and while I think it's tragic that every baby and dog poo in the Bay Area will be preserved for eternity in plastic bags, I understand it is probably for the safety of the workers.

San Francisco has the same arrangement, so I think slowly all the businesses and households who haven't already will begin to throw their organic matter into a different bin, so it can break down like nature intended. Hopefully lots of other cities will follow, and eventually we'll all be doing this. I'm sure lots of other cities compost already, but I know that many positive trends start in California!

Now I have three spots for waste in the kitchen, and I'm very happy to say that the recycling and compost bins are emptied about four times more often than the trash, which sits there for weeks before getting filled. Pretty cool!

Here is a slightly closer look at the adorable trash can illustrations done by my crafty domestic partner.











I think it's so cool that the government could be doing something as positive as this, and then I think, "wait, duh, right? It's so uncool that they wouldn't."

If it hasn't already, I hope your town starts composting soon! Until then, happy recycling, and maybe composting on your own! Peace.

Three Random Sides

This dinner was based around a very odd mushroom, and an attempt to use pantry items I already had.


I'm always intrigued by the mushroom stand at the city farmers' market, and when I went the other day I decided to go for the weirder of the two specimens that were marked organic. Lion's Mane, it's called, puffy and yellowish white. The woman told me to just pan-fry them, and I left them without any seasoning to see how they taste. I've read they're similar to lobster or crab, and while I don't have enough experience with either of those to confirm or deny that, it seems vaguely on point. Chewy and meaty with a bit of sea flavor. Pretty tasty, kinda bordering on really good.

Here's what they look like raw, I didn't think to take a picture so I grabbed this one.



After having blown through the market as it was closing, and left with two odd mushrooms in a paper bag, I decided to grab a bunch of organic asparagus at the produce shop. At Christopher's suggestion I broiled those in the oven after tossing them in olive oil, salt and pepper. Five or ten minutes, I forget, but check on them a lot, as with anything you're broiling.



For my third random side dish, to complete the meal, I cooked up garlic, onions, and pinto beans, then stirred in italian herb pasta sauce, and some cooked, og, whole wheat fusilli. Pasta with red sauce, but made more nutritious by using whole grain pasta and beans.

Altogether the meal was preetty good, not amazing, but probably nutritionally sound. Next time I would chop up the mushrooms and the asparagus, saute them with garlic and vegan butter, maybe a red pepper, then I'd stir all that over pasta (minus the red sauce). I'd serve it with salad, and garlic bread made with lots more vegan butter, sauteed garlic, and a delicious fresh crusty bread. I like olive bread or sourdough whole wheat for garlic bread. mmmmmm. I wish I had made that meal. Maybe next time!


P.S. The farmer lady told me the mushrooms were healthy, and when I looked them up online I found out they are alleged to prevent, cure, or heal the symptoms of; dementia, cancers of the digestive tract, ulcers, alzheimer's, high blood pressure, and HIV-infected patients with sensory neuropathy (whatever that is, sounds painful). They stimulate nerve cell regeneration, and are anti-inflammatory. They are a superfood, who knew? Chinese doctors, apparently, so probably a lot of people. They're definitely tasty enough to eat too!

Spring Bruschetta and Salad with Fresh Peas

I'm experiencing my first year in a new climate, and I have to say that plants coming into season months before I'm used to is much more disconcerting than I ever would have thought. I never really noticed how much I expected strawberries and asparagus, for example, to come out in late summer, but when they began lining the shelves here in Northern California in mid April, I was really thrown off. It's too early, I'm thinking, and what have I done to deserve this so soon? What will I look forward to now? It just doesn't seem right.

All that said, tonight's dinner was delicious, regardless of the fact that bites of it conjure up images of summer in New England, and I'm all types of confused and sort of tentatively excited that tomatoes are in season, one of my favorite parts of life.

Bruschetta Ingredients:
-2 small tomatoes (ripe and in season!!)
-2 cloves garlic
-red onion
-fresh mint
-fresh cilantro
-fresh lemon
-olive oil
-pinto beans (rinsed, from a can)
-2 slices whole wheat sourdough bread
-1 slice vegan mozzarella
-vegan butter (organic Earth Balance)

Assembly:
-Chop tomatoes into quarter inch pieces and place in roomy storage container, leave it open as you cut the other ingredients and add them as you go.
-Chop the garlic finely, and then finely chop the onion, cilantro, and mint so that you have about as much of each of these things as you have garlic. Add more or less to taste, of course.
-Toss in a handful or two of beans.
-Squeeze about a quarter of a lemon over the whole thing. Add a pinch of salt and a dash of olive oil.
-Mix thoroughly, cover, and refrigerate while you make salad and bread.

I did each of the two slices of bread differently, so that in case the vegan cheese ruined that one, at least the other one would be good. The cheesy one was surprisingly good, though, and the other one was surprisingly not the favorite. Liked 'em both..anywho...

-Set your oven to broil.
-Place one slice of bread in the toaster and toast, meanwhile lay the slice of cheese over the other piece of bread and place under broiler.
-When the toaster pops up, butter that slice, then check on the broiling cheese toast, it'll take about five minutes.
-Top bothe slices toast with the bruschetta mixture, adding more oil, salt, or herbs as desired.
-Eat with a fork and sharp serated knife, or by picking it up with your hands. MMM!

Serves One, but with leftover bruschetta mixture.

Salad
-2 leaves red leaf lettuce, rinsed and chopped into bite-sized pieces
-bit of red onion, sliced
-3 english snap peas, shelled
-sesame oil
-ume plum vinegar

Assembly:
-You know, put these thing together.

Serves One.

Liberal sprinklings each of sesame oil and ume plum vinegar made this salad SO GOOD. I was experimenting with an alternative to my usual olive oil and balsamic vinegar, which I love but gets boring. I wondered if eschewing the more Italian inspired favorite for the Asian-oriented o+v I went with would be weird with the bruschetta, but the only weirdness was that after taking a bite of the salad I didn't touch the bruschetta again until until my salad was gone. Normally I would keep shifting back and forth, maintaining roughly equal amounts of each food item, but there was no ripping me away from this salad, which had seemed so very simple. mmmm. Also, my plan was to just slice up the peas in their pods, but the first one practically shelled itself when I tried to cut it, so I figured that was the thing to do. Left 'em raw though. Crunchy and sweet.

Overall a pretty refreshing, delectable, summery meal on this first day of May in my new climate. The mint was one of the predominant aftertastes, and who can complain about that? Plus I dare someone to try and get me sick after that does of vitamin-C-rich tomatoes and illness-fighting fresh garlic.

Happy Spring!