Tag Archives: eat local

Blueberries by the bucket

It’s that time of year again — blueberry season.  Hard to believe, but it’s been three years since we picked blueberries at Huckleberry Hollow!

Two years ago, I looked like this, and I was feeling grumpy, tired, and not at all like being out in the heat for hours picking blueberries.  My MIL and a good family friend generously volunteered to pick for us that summer.

Last year, we didn’t have the option of figuring out the logistics of picking blueberries with an infant because H-Hollow lost their entire crop due to weather conditions.  Yep, zero blueberries.

This year, the blueberries were back, and with Sir in childcare, I made a blueberry picking date with my MIL.

Photo06201236

As I mentioned three years ago, this place has some huuuge blueberry bushes, which provide some partial shade for picking.  The bits of shade helped, but by mid-morning it was still scorching!  Why can’t blueberries ripen at a cooler time of year???

Photo06201237_1

We arrived at nine in the morning and left at one, which meant just over three-and-a-half hours of picking, plus a much-needed twenty minute refuel and rehydrate break.

Photo06201237_2

Between the two of us, we picked almost six-and-a-half gallons of blueberries in that time.  We’ll be enjoying them fresh for the next few days, and the remainder (i.e., the bulk) are in the freezer.

While I didn’t brave blueberry picking with a toddler in tow (heck, I have yet to take him on a Whole Foods/Trader Joe’s run — I’m definitely not ready for blueberry picking!), I look forward to having him along in future years.  The trick to that will be making sure he puts more blueberries in the bucket than in his mouth, lest he meet an end like that of Violet in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

Garden update

It’s one of those, “I haven’t posted in over a week, where do I start?” kind of mornings over here.  So, how about a little June garden tour and update?

IMG_2267

Strawberry season has given way to red raspberry season (with black raspberries — my favorite!) soon to follow.

IMG_2316

We’re currently harvesting artichokes (those crazy, spiky Jurassic-looking plants in the background — see here for artichoke serving suggestion) and the garlic (on the right) is almost mature.

Matthew harvested over six pounds of garlic scapes a couple of weeks ago, four pounds of which we sold to Local Harvest Grocery in Kirkwood.

We’ve been incorporating the rest into our meals, mainly using it as you would garlic, but adding it toward the end of cooking time since it’s more delicate.

IMG_2310

Pictured from front to back: feathery fennel fronds, cruciferous veggies, onions, and potatoes.

IMG_2311

We’ve been harvesting fennel, including some for sale to Five.  We roasted most of the fennel the last two years, but I’m experimenting with very thin slices for use in salads this time around.

We had a beautiful lettuce harvest (and lovely salads) for a few weeks, but most of the lettuce is bolting now.

It’s probably just as well, as I’ve concluded that all the greenery in huge salads makes my stomach grumpy.  It doesn’t happen every time, but often enough that I’m scaling back a bit and trying for less lettuce and more toppings.

We’ve also been enjoying fresh peas, including our first experience growing shelling peas.  They require a bit more work (i.e., the shelling) as compared to sugar snap peas, but they’re sweet and delicious — worth it!

Sir finds peas of all kinds delightful, and I learned the hard way that sitting next to him on the floor, attempting to shell and snap peas while he played, was a losing proposition when my goal was actually having peas left for dinner!

What’s growing in your garden and/or what fun local produce is on your plate this week?

Garden duty

I’ve traded mommy duties for garden duties for the next few days.  It’s not a bad swap, since one of the major tasks is picking [and eating] strawberries.

At this point, the berries are just starting to trickle in, and (like so many crops), they would be best grown in your own yard, where you’re there to pick them fully ripe every day, instead of at a commuter garden twelve miles away.  I draw the line at hopping in the car every day just for a few strawberries, so I’ll be headed there every other day at the most.

Also on my garden task list for the day:

  • Pick asparagus (there was none)
  • Pick lettuce, arugula, and spinach (now have WAY too much lettuce, as I’d been planning to give some to my FIL who ended up with plenty of greens in his CSA share)
  • Squash flea beetles on eggplant — success!
  • Water areas with recently planted seeds

I also harvested some cilantro and mint (not quite sure what I’m doing with the mint).  There may be something else, but that’s all I’ve got at the moment.  Of course, it’s a three-thousand square foot garden — there’s MUCH more that I could have done, but I am, alas, a slacker gardener.

Also, I made it a quick visit so I could run by the farmers’ market and buy strawberries.  I know, I know, I just wrote about how I’m picking strawberries at the garden, but I’m not sure our harvest this [first] year will be enough to yield much for the freezer.

As long as I was out and about in the car, I decided to hedge my bets.  Once at the market, instead of buying tons of berries (as I’d originally planned), I ended up with a very moderate three quarts.  The price break for buying eight quarts was less than fifty cents per quart, and I just wasn’t sure we needed that many.  Turned out I could have gone by bike after all.

After spending the morning on spring bounty, I spent the afternoon working with some of last fall’s bounty.  Yep, we still have winter squash and sweet potatoes!  With possibly the coolest temps we will see for months, I fired up the oven and roasted three large squash, plus some sweet potatoes.

After all that, I thought about biking to Forest Park for some Shakespeare action, but I really just wanted to call it a day.  If you can’t give yourself a break, who will?

Friday free-for-all

All things go in cycles — for quite awhile there, my writing was very food-centric, almost to the exclusion of anything else.  My concerted effort to post more on the bicycling-side of things perhaps worked too well, as my food-related posting feels a bit sparse of late.

I blame this in part on my slightly blah feelings on cooking in general, as I’ve been feeling unmotivated and [finally] a bit tired of eating primarily from our frozen and root-cellared stores.  After a number of months, it began to feel like the same food all. the. time.

Fortunately, spring is here (today’s blustery weather notwithstanding), and abundant fresh, local produce is just around the corner.  We’ve already had a few small spinach harvests (from the plants that grew under the low tunnels all winter), and I can’t wait for more.

In the meantime, I finally caved and bought a head of broccoli at the grocery store.  That broccoli is the first non-garden, non-local produce (other than onions, garlic, and frozen corn and peas) that I have bought in I don’t know how long.  It’s easy to focus on the [still many] foods that we don’t grow ourselves or buy local, but in reality we’ve taken some pretty big steps to lighten our food footprint.

Back on the biking side of things, after debating whether it was worth thirty minutes in the car to meet a Craigslist seller (to buy a life jacket for Sir’s upcoming beach trip), I contacted the seller to set things in motion.  Rather then me going to her (over six miles away), she suggested a meeting point conveniently located about two miles from us.

I happily ditched the car for a lovely (though windy and chilly) bike ride and returned home with a worn-once (looks brand new) life vest.  Sir approved the purchase and happily wore the vest for the rest of the morning (you never know, our second story apartment could flood — better safe than sorry!).

IMG_1720

He’s carrying the pump for my exercise ball, which he pretends is a vacuum cleaner (complete with cute sound effects).  Something about the life vest and pump-vacuum combination makes me think of Ghostbusters, though I can’t say quite what, having only watched the movie once, a long time ago.  For those of you more familiar with the movie, does my association make any sense?

Risotto gets a makeover: Easy and healthy

In my recent post on lunches, I mentioned risotto, with the promise for a recipe soon.  I had to look back through my archives to make sure I hadn’t already shared the recipe here.

Turns out, this was NOT the first time I mentioned my risotto method — the previous instance occurred over two years ago, in December 2010.  At that time, I also said I would post the recipe, yet a search of my archives shows zero risotto recipes.  Let’s call it pregnancy brain, shall we?

If you’ve been waiting over two years for my top-secret-easy-and-healthy risotto recipe, I do apologize.  If you’ve only been waiting since last week, think how good you have it!

The secret to my risotto is using oat groats instead of the traditional arborio rice.  Though they sound like something a horse (or a goat?) might eat, oat groats are simply the whole oat grain — what they steam and flatten to make rolled oats.  It looks like a wheat berry.

So, why use oat groats?  Well, nutritionally, you get the health benefits of whole grain oats, with a good serving of heart-healthy fiber.  While this is not a fat-free, or even necessarily a low-fat recipe, the natural creaminess of the starch in oats produces an effect similar to arborio rice, and you can have a very rich tasting dish without having to add too much fat.

While oat groats take just as long, if not longer, to cook than arborio rice, they require less babying.  Traditional risotto has you standing at the stove stirring the whole time, gradually adding small amounts of hot broth every now and then.  With oat groats, after toasting the grain for a few minutes, you can toss in the broth, bring it to a simmer, cover it, and walk away.  Sure, you’ll have to come back every now and then to give it a stir, but it’s not a big deal.

IMG_8329

Butternut squash and asparagus risotto

Recipe by Melissa

Ingredients*
1 1/2 cups thinly sliced leeks (or sub. diced onions)
2 T. butter
2 T. olive oil
1 1/2 cups oat groats
5 c. vegetable broth
8-12 saffron threads
1-2 c. cooked butternut squash
2 c. asparagus pieces
1 c. frozen peas (optional)
salt (to taste — amount will depend heavily on how salty your broth is)
1/3 c. nutritional yeast
1/2 c. freshly grated Parmesean cheese

Directions
Melt butter over low heat in large sauce pan.  Add leeks, and cook gently until softened, 10-15 minutes.  Add olive oil and 1/2 t. sea salt.  Add oat groats, increase heat to medium, and cook for 5 minutes to lightly toast the grain.

Add 3c. broth and the saffron — broth can be hot or cold, but if you start from hot, it will speed things up a bit.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer while covered (the oat groats will need to simmer for a total of 60-90 minutes).

After 20 minutes, add the butternut squash.  You want it to dissolve into the risotto, adding to the depth and richness of the dish.

At this point, the risotto should be thickening nicely.  You may need to stir it a bit more frequently now.  Add the nutritional yeast, and more broth if necessary.

After 60 minutes of simmering, check tenderness of the grain, it should be chewy, but tender.  If it’s close to ready, add the asparagus and peas.  Maintain a gentle simmer for 10-15 more minutes.  When vegetables are tender and cooked through, remove from heat and stir in the grated Parmesean cheese.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

*Ingredient variations are pretty much endless. The picture above is actually a sun-dried tomato and leek [oat groat] risotto, originally mentioned here.