thinking about food
With the advent of time on my hands and a fully functioning kitchen, I have been thinking more about the food I make and eat in it. I am trying to take steps to reduce the food that I buy at the grocery store and increase the food I find locally. In the summer this is easy - we even had a farmer's market down the street - that was convenient. More than once I went there covered in renovation dust and debris to buy veggies for the bbq or salad. I think they thought I was a bit insane.
As part of this effort, we're part of a meat-share. Have I written about this already? I don't think so.
Once a month there is a delivery of meat that comes to town from the farmer, which we split up among four households. The chickens? Huge and DELICIOUS. The beef? Tastes surprisingly like bison - in fact, it could have actually BEEN bison - or maybe that's just how beef is supposed to taste? The pork? Darker and fattier than you would expect. There is a 'hamsteak' in the freezer that I am curious about. Jake thinks it's going to look like the ham from 'Green Eggs and Ham', although I just looked that up for reference's sake and I sincerely hope it's not green. Gross.
But not to get side-tracked. Although we haven't always been thrilled about the amount of meat we've gotten for our money and the pork chops were half fat and half meat, buying meat from a local small-scale, ethical, free-range source is a big step in the right direction.
Related: With some of our wedding money we bought a stand-up deep-freezer. It is amazing. You don't have to hang over it by your hips to get at what is in the bottom! Also, it fits PERFECTLY in between the hot water tank and the cabinets/counter in the laundry room/utility room. I'm not looking forward to having to defrost it, but one thing at a time, right? In Germany I defrosted the fridge/freezer monthly, so I know how it's done.
If you know of a source of local, free-range, not-frozen chickens, lemme know. I need to get my hands on some I can cut up before freezing so-as to be able to make things like drumsticks and thighs. Hutterite chickens don't count. They may be local, but they are raised in a facility just as industrial as anywhere else.
Next year, now that I finally have a freezer to put things in, I am going to take full advantage of the season of goodness around here and preserve/freeze/can all kinds of goodies. In my head I have visions of the cold storage room at the farm with its rows and rows of pickles and jams, which I always picture in cheez-wiz jars. I can't wait! (I told Jake I was bummed we didn't have cold storage and he said 'Yeah, I really wish we had an uninsulated part of our basement too. That would have definitely made our renovation and new boiler make sense.' What a guy. It's because he doesn't know how awesome it is to have that!)
PS. My cousin Anneli organized one of the kindest and most thoughtful gifts I have ever received. She herself is a canner/grower/foodie genius (also a nutritionist by trade so I guess it makes sense!), and makes all kinds of delicious things. Before the wedding she asked if I liked canned things, and I thought I might score a jar or two of salsa or something. People, she organized her siblings and parents to contribute some of their fall offerings into a lovely gift basket of goodness. There are relishes, jams, grape juice from grapes grown on my aunt and uncle's back deck in Ontario, honey from my cousin's bees in Vancouver and more. She and her family are inspiring in this department.
PS 2. I probably will write more about this at some point, but it also seems to fit here, so here we go. Growing up we spent considerable time at the farm, that magical and wonderful place. There was always fresh homemade bread that slid down your throat like nothing covered in margarine (real butter was for the adults and Jason, who could tell the difference) and homemade raspberry jam (from a cheez-wiz jar, of course). Making supper often involved a trip or two to the deep freezes. That's right, PLURAL. Both chock-full of vegetables and fruit from the summer garden, as well as meat and baked goods. It was an extra special visit when we could go to the cold storage room and get a new jar of pickles. Don't get me wrong, my mom baked and canned too, when I was young, but nothing like the scale of the farm. It seemed, to me as a kid, that there was no need for a grocery store - everything they needed for countless meals was right there. Amazing. I guess that is sort of where this comes from. I want to run to my freezer when I need an ingredient, not the store. I want to use a jar of tomatoes that I canned myself when I'm making spaghetti instead of some tin of tomatoes from who-knows-where.
As part of this effort, we're part of a meat-share. Have I written about this already? I don't think so.
Once a month there is a delivery of meat that comes to town from the farmer, which we split up among four households. The chickens? Huge and DELICIOUS. The beef? Tastes surprisingly like bison - in fact, it could have actually BEEN bison - or maybe that's just how beef is supposed to taste? The pork? Darker and fattier than you would expect. There is a 'hamsteak' in the freezer that I am curious about. Jake thinks it's going to look like the ham from 'Green Eggs and Ham', although I just looked that up for reference's sake and I sincerely hope it's not green. Gross.
But not to get side-tracked. Although we haven't always been thrilled about the amount of meat we've gotten for our money and the pork chops were half fat and half meat, buying meat from a local small-scale, ethical, free-range source is a big step in the right direction.
Related: With some of our wedding money we bought a stand-up deep-freezer. It is amazing. You don't have to hang over it by your hips to get at what is in the bottom! Also, it fits PERFECTLY in between the hot water tank and the cabinets/counter in the laundry room/utility room. I'm not looking forward to having to defrost it, but one thing at a time, right? In Germany I defrosted the fridge/freezer monthly, so I know how it's done.
If you know of a source of local, free-range, not-frozen chickens, lemme know. I need to get my hands on some I can cut up before freezing so-as to be able to make things like drumsticks and thighs. Hutterite chickens don't count. They may be local, but they are raised in a facility just as industrial as anywhere else.
Next year, now that I finally have a freezer to put things in, I am going to take full advantage of the season of goodness around here and preserve/freeze/can all kinds of goodies. In my head I have visions of the cold storage room at the farm with its rows and rows of pickles and jams, which I always picture in cheez-wiz jars. I can't wait! (I told Jake I was bummed we didn't have cold storage and he said 'Yeah, I really wish we had an uninsulated part of our basement too. That would have definitely made our renovation and new boiler make sense.' What a guy. It's because he doesn't know how awesome it is to have that!)
PS. My cousin Anneli organized one of the kindest and most thoughtful gifts I have ever received. She herself is a canner/grower/foodie genius (also a nutritionist by trade so I guess it makes sense!), and makes all kinds of delicious things. Before the wedding she asked if I liked canned things, and I thought I might score a jar or two of salsa or something. People, she organized her siblings and parents to contribute some of their fall offerings into a lovely gift basket of goodness. There are relishes, jams, grape juice from grapes grown on my aunt and uncle's back deck in Ontario, honey from my cousin's bees in Vancouver and more. She and her family are inspiring in this department.
PS 2. I probably will write more about this at some point, but it also seems to fit here, so here we go. Growing up we spent considerable time at the farm, that magical and wonderful place. There was always fresh homemade bread that slid down your throat like nothing covered in margarine (real butter was for the adults and Jason, who could tell the difference) and homemade raspberry jam (from a cheez-wiz jar, of course). Making supper often involved a trip or two to the deep freezes. That's right, PLURAL. Both chock-full of vegetables and fruit from the summer garden, as well as meat and baked goods. It was an extra special visit when we could go to the cold storage room and get a new jar of pickles. Don't get me wrong, my mom baked and canned too, when I was young, but nothing like the scale of the farm. It seemed, to me as a kid, that there was no need for a grocery store - everything they needed for countless meals was right there. Amazing. I guess that is sort of where this comes from. I want to run to my freezer when I need an ingredient, not the store. I want to use a jar of tomatoes that I canned myself when I'm making spaghetti instead of some tin of tomatoes from who-knows-where.
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