One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2016 – Week 5

By Sheetar 14 June 2016 14 June 2016

I actually have TWO this week for One Local Summer, so I’m jamming them into one post instead of splitting them into two. This week was husband’s final week home before going out to a ship for quite a long while, so he took advantage of the time home to cook up a storm. This is me, not complaining. First up! A house favorite, biscuits and gravy with a side of yogurt and strawberries and of course, coffee. We made our biscuits with lard – I have no idea where the recipe came from, but if I find out, I’ll add a link – and they come out so delightful. We had the buttermilk for the gravy and it felt like it would be a slight not to include it in the biscuits as well. The flour is probably my favorite part of this. We actually have an old stone mill locally that buys their wheat from PA farmers and then mills it with a gigantic water wheel just a few minutes down the road. They sell it, along with cornmeal, to help fund the mill’s educational programs and it’s SUCH a delight to have locally grown and milled wheat available to us, not to mention the historic aspect of the fact that it was ground in a mill that’s 250 years old! In order to make the meal just a little more healthy, we added the side of strawberries and yogurt. The coffee? Not local, but I dare you to tell me that I can’t have it with breakfast.

Ingredients:
Lard – M&M Creek Valley Farm
Sausage – M&M Creek Valley Farm
Flour – Mill at Anselma
Strawberries – Hoagland Farm
Yogurt – Seven Stars Farm
Buttermilk – Maplehofe Dairy
Non Local – Coffee, Salt, Pepper

I did mention this was a two-fer, right? Second local meal for the week features ribs with grilled vegetables, a cucumber salad and CHEESE. The ribs were cooked in the slow cooker first and then given a quick roast in the oven with our own homemade fruit ketchup using tomatoes and apples from the farmers market and peaches from our own tree. Pretty sure this is the same recipe we used from the Ball Canning Book for the ketchup. The veggies on the side were carrots, snap peas, and zucchini. Then there was the classic cucumber salad – cucumbers soaked in vinegar making not-quite-pickles, but a nice refreshing not-lettuce sort of salad for the side. Then there’s the CHEESE – I believe that’s all Birchrun Hills cheese between Fat Cat, Red Cat, and some Clipper. REALLY a good dinner – the ribs were absolutely perfect and it was a nice way to end a stormy evening.

Ingredients:
Ribs – Countrytime Farm
Cucumbers – Jack’s Farm
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Snap peas – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Charlestown Farm
Cheese – Birchrun Hills
Non Local – Homemade Vinegar, Salt, Pepper, Olive Oil

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2016 – Week 4

By Sheetar 2 June 2016 31 May 2016

Week four, cooked and consumed already during our One Local Summer. Husband was home again this weekend, so I was happy to step aside and let him take charge of the kitchen! The vegetable supply is really starting to diversify since so many farmers start seeds early, so we already have zucchini and snap peas available. The meal is a veal chop marinated in vinegar, salt and pepper, cider, and cilantro then grilled with some cheese on top. On the side are grilled carrots, snap peas, and zucchini and some more cheese (because there can always be more cheese), paired with a nice leafy green salad tossed with some olive oil and vinegar, and a glass of homebrewed cider. The cider we had here actually finished off a 5 gallon keg we’ve been nursing for over a year now, but fortunately we have the next batch ready to go, made from apples picked at my grandparents’ home some four hours west of where we live. Since the apples followed us on a trip we would’ve made anyway, I include them into local summer since their “food miles” didn’t count as just transporting food. We crushed and pressed the apples into cider ourselves, gave the juice some yeast, and let it do its thing. The resulting cider came out tart and dry, just how I like it, so while I’m a little sad to see this keg go, I’m also eager to see how the second batch tastes! Anyway, enough about the cider, the meal was a nice way to cap off the long holiday weekend since this was Monday’s dinner before husband left again for the week. Hopefully he’ll get in one last OLS meal before heading out on a long stretch for work, and then it’s all on me! I may have to entice some guest chefs to visit and contribute (read: beg friends to cook for me) during the summer.

Ingredients:

Veal Chop – Birchrun Hills
Cheese spread – Birchrun Hills, Herb Cheese
Cheese – Birchrun Hills, Equinox
Zucchini – Jack’s Farm
Snap Peas – Jack’s Farm
Carrots – Charlestown Farm
Lettuce – Charlestown Farm
Cilantro – Our Garden
Cider – “Pine Haven” homebrew cider
Non Local – Olive oil, balsamic vinegar, homemade vinegar, salt, pepper

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2016 – Week 3

By Sheetar 30 May 2016 28 May 2016

Moving right along! I’m a little late posting this (a theme you’ll see as we get into mid and late summer and I just get too busy to blog), but it was definitely made during week 3, I swear! Here we have my sad attempt at an omelette and roasted asparagus. I learned that while I make tasty omelets, they’re not very pretty to behold and probably work better as open face egg creations more than properly flipped and perfect omelets. Presentation is just not as important as the flavor, and I can assure you that this disappeared pretty quickly! Inside the egg are scallions, spring garlic, mushrooms, goat cheese, and spinach. On the side is sliced asparagus, roasted with some salt and olive oil, and then given a little cheesy topping for the last few minutes. You guys, I may never eat asparagus any other way ever again. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great grilled, but roasted? It comes out so much more tender and crisps a little on the edges which is so wonderful. Of course, you can never go wrong with putting cheese on top! I plan on doing this for breakfast a few more times since I still have spinach and goat cheese, but it will probably be more of an unsightly scramble than a nicely plated creation. Did I mention that I’m a lazy cook? Oh, and the coffee, not local, but absolutely necessary for survival.

Ingredients:

Eggs – Deep Roots Valley Farm
Spinach – Jack’s Farm
Scallions – Jack’s Farm
Spring Garlic – Charlestown Farm
Asparagus – Hill Creek Farm
Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Goat cheese – Shellbark Hollow Farm, “Sharp II Chevre”
Cheese – Birchrun Hills, “Equinox”
Non Local – Salt, Pepper, Olive oil, Coffee

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2016 – Week 2

By Sheetar 20 May 2016 20 May 2016

Husband was home briefly over the weekend, and thankfully I had thought ahead enough to pull some pork butt steaks out of the freezer. I suggested we go out for our 12th anniversary dinner, but the man loves to cook, and I have a policy of never saying no to his cooking (any meal I don’t have to cook is a good one!), so dinner at home it was! The pork butt steaks were given a little time to marinate in some homemade riesling with some fresh cilantro from the patio planters. That stuff re-seeds itself and springs back every year, so we had plenty of cilantro to work with. The asparagus was given a rub down with olive oil, salt, and pepper and then both the butt steak and asparagus were put on the grill. Meanwhile, back at the kitchen, I was tasked with making spÃ¤tzle. I kind of did it by guesswork – it’s a combination of flour, eggs, and water (since we had no local milk) until the batter is almost the consistency of a thick waffle batter (thicker than pancakes, thinner than cookie dough). The spÃ¤tzle was then given a toss with some spring garlic, cheese, and pepper and plated together nicely with a glass of celebratory spumante. A really nice meal for a rainy Saturday evening!

Ingredients:

Pork Butt Steak – Countrytime Farm
Cilantro – Our Garden
Asparagus – Jack’s Farm and Hill Creek Farm
Flour – Mill at Anselma
Spring Garlic – Charlestown Farm
Eggs – Deep Roots Valley Farm
Cheese – Birchrun Hills, Experimental cheese
Non Local – Spumante, homebrew riesling, salt, pepper, olive oil

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2016 – Week 1

By Sheetar 13 May 2016 13 May 2016

The first of another year of One Local Summer! I’m going back to the weekly format this time since the husband’s work schedule is all over the place for the summer and, let’s face it, if I’m only cooking for me, I may only actually cook one meal a week large enough so I have leftovers for the rest of the week. Hi, I’m the laziest lazy cook there is. So, a recap of One Local Summer, the challenge originated with Farm to Philly back in 2008 with Farm to Philly. I picked up on it in 2009 (AWWW my first ever One Local Summer post!), so that makes this year my (counting on fingers) EIGHTH year of One Local Summer. The idea is that you make one meal a week your “local” meal, using only ingredients found, farmed, or grown locally with exceptions for spices and oils. I usually run from beginning of May through as long as I can, typically October or so. It doesn’t have to be fancy either – sometimes it’s a huge bowl of lettuce with toppings (coughcough this week coughcough), and sometimes it’s homemade tacos from the shells to all the fixings or bacon and cheese waffles. What constitutes local? That’s up to you. The idea is to reduce your food miles (the length food has to travel to get to you) which in turn reduces your carbon footprint since you’re not eating food from across the country. It also supports your local economy by giving your money to small producers instead of large conglomerates. There’s something really special about getting to know the people who grow your food since you get to put a face to the hard work that goes into growing vegetables or tending animals and ask them questions about their processes (pesticide use, butchering etc), AND you get to know that it’s all produced with love and care. I have sworn over and over that knowing the people behind the food makes it all taste better (even if that’s probably baloney, don’t pop my bubble!)

So, that all out of the way, that photo above is my first week! We’re still in early spring around here despite it being almost mid may, so most of what the farmers market has to offer as far as vegetables is a lot of leafy greens. Kale and I have never really gotten along well (it tastes like angry dirt to me), but I LOVE the abundance and variety of lettuces and other greens available this time of year. I routinely buy a big old bag of greens and make a GINORMOUS salad for dinner in a bowl that could double as a helmet. On top of the lettuce mix are slivers of cheese, some tomato and basil pork sausage, Portobello mushrooms sautÃ©ed in butter with some spring onions, and some bok choi that I wilted over the pan with the mushrooms and onions. The only non-local thing here is the salad dressing which was just olive oil and vinegar. I think I did pretty well this week, getting back into the One Local Summer routine, and I’m already dreaming up ideas for next week!

Ingredients:

Salad Mix – Charlestown Farm
Tomato and Basil Sausage – Countrytime Farm
Portobello Mushrooms – Oley Valley Mushrooms
Spring Onions – Jack’s Farm
Bok Choi – Jack’s Farm
Cheese – Birchrun Hills‘ Equinox
Non Local – Olive Oil, Vinegar

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 22

By Sheetar 19 October 2015 2 October 2015

Husband is at it again for this installment of One Local Summer. It was more like a One Local Fall sort of day – gloomy and rainy – so soup it is! The soup is a chunky potato leek soup since we happened to have all those things on hand and husband is truly the soup master. He somehow manages to make everything work well together in one pot whereas I tend to make disasters that skirt the line between edible and fodder for the garbage disposal. We used up the last of the pretzel rolls from the freezer and paired the roll with some mustard seed gouda made from local milk. Top the whole meal off with a glass of cool cider and we have a filling and warm dinner for an icky day. This may be the last of the meals for 2015 seeing as there was a vacation happening during the time the last three OLS posts went up, but fear not, we’ll be back next year!

Ingredients:
Flour Mill at Anselma
Egg Deep Roots Valley Farm
Butter Spring Creek Farms
Honey Baues Busy Bees
Cider – North Star Orchard
Leeks – North Star Orchard
Onions – Clover Hill Farm
Potatoes – North Star Orchard
Garlic – North Star Orchard
Cilantro – My garden
Milk – Birchrun Hills for homemade cheese
Whey – frozen from cheesemaking using Birchrun Hills milk
Non Local – mustard seeds, salt, pepper

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 21

By Sheetar 14 October 2015 1 October 2015

Husband has returned home and cooked up this classic summer meal – a pulled pork sandwich. A good part of this one was a long time in the making. The sauerkraut was made months ago, fermented from fresh cabbage in a huge stoneware crock. The pickles were started a month ago and came out as terrific sour pickles. The buns were made last year and pulled from the freezer. The cider in the glass was also made last year and was just kegged and ready to drink this past month. The only thing new on the plate is the pulled pork which cooked up in the crock pot all day with some cider, peppers, onion, vinegar, and tomatoes, and came out DELICIOUS.

Ingredients:
Cabbage – Jack’s Farm
Pork Butt – Countrytime Farm
Cucumbers – My Garden
Peppers – Steer Vegetables
Tomatoes – My Garden
Onion – Clover Hill Farm
Cider – Fermented from apples picked at my grandparents’
Buns:
Flour Mill at Anselma
Egg Deep Roots Valley Farm
Butter Spring Creek Farms
Honey Baues Busy Bees
Non Local – Salt, pepper, spices, homemade vinegar

One Local Summer

One Local Summer 2015 – Week 20

By Sheetar 8 October 2015 1 October 2015

Winding down to the end of One Local Summer with just a few weeks left of our set. Usually we drag this out through November, but we’re taking a break and wrapping it up soon. At the top of the meal, we have a bowl filled with all sorts of tomatoes, drizzled with some balsamic vinegar and topped with basil. Next around is a mug of homebrewed beer. The on the main plate is zucchini, sweet potatoes, lamb sausage, and banana peppers stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped in bison bacon. This meal involved a good bit of prep work, but once everything was cut and wrapped and ready, it all went onto the grill (except the tomatoes). Pretty easy! The lamb sausage was absolutely delicious and I’m glad I sprung for it at the market. The whole thing together made for a great dinner.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes – My Garden, Full Circle CSA
Basil – My Garden
Zucchini – Full Circle CSA
Sweet Potatoes – Jack’s Farm
Lamb Sausage – Canter Hill Farm
Banana Peppers – Steer Vegetables
Bison Bacon – Backyard Bison
Cheese – Birchrun Hills, Blue Cheese
Non Local – Balsamic Vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper