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August 15, 2005
Tomatoes are finally here!!! I wish
there was a festival for them here in Michigan....there should be.
After all, I don't know any Midwesterner who doesn't crave the
meaty, juicy reds from January to June. Hot houses can't compare to
what a fresh garden tomato looks, smells and tastes like. Picking 6
from the garden, we immediately ate 2, sliced with a breakfast of
toast and eggs. For lunch, we sliced more, slid hunks of farm
cheese between them and toasted it between thick bread for the
worlds greatest sandwich (at least in my opinion!)
For dinner, we sliced the last two in
half, making for sections. I drizzled oil, salt, pepper and a
splurge of some fresh garden garlic minced on the tender insides.
Bake at 350 for 40 minutes for what surely must be something served
in heaven!
August 3, 2005
Leeks...
We lost our seedlings this year when
we had an unusual June frost. But I was fortunate enough to find a
local farmer who had gorgeous leeks (bunches and bunches of them)
for $2/bundle at the local farmer's market. When I asked her for
three bunches, she was overjoyed to find that I knew what they were
as well as how to cook them.
Being from a French family, leeks are
an important staple in the diet. We cook leeks with potatoes and
make leek and potato soup. We boil them until they are tender and
let them cool, then serve them with oil and vinegar as a side or a
light dinner main dish. If you are not a fan of vinaigrette, pour a
Hollandaise or white sauce over them and serve them hot or cold.
Leeks are milder than onions but are
extremely aromatic. Momo chopped some up with some tomatoes from
the garden and made a minestrone.
This week, we made 10 gallons of
potato leek soup in my great grandmother's giant kettle. We kept 5
gallons for us (2 we ate and 3 we froze), then gave a gallon to my
sister as she came over and helped pull weeds in the garden (fair is
fair) and finally the rest to my grandmother for her own freezer.
July 30, 2005
Last night brought an interesting
topic of isolationism to our table. After hearing an interview on
National Public Radio, discussion round the table was a question of
whether or not limiting our diet to only Michigan, local products
are we acting like the United States after WWI? Are we isolating
ourselves so much that we are cutting off ourselves from making
educated and helpful food choices?
This lead me to spending a lot of time
researching today.
July 27, 2005: Mom and Dad
Thus far, our biggest frustration has
been that the local dairy only has pasteurized and homogenized milk
along with a large array of ice cream. We've not been able to find
any milk that is strictly pasteurized or raw to aid in the making of
cheese or butter.
Furthermore, when we went looking for
rennet, the culture needed for making cheese, the local health food
store said they stopped carrying it.
Finally, today Michele (Mom) found a
grocery store that carried "natural milk" meaning it was only
pasteurized. It came in plain and chocolate, both which arrived at
our house.
Gabe (Dad) decided to try his hand at
butter making...modern style. Skimming the cream and some of the
milk off the top of the glass jug, he poured this into our Kitchen
Aid mixer and let it go for about 40 minutes in medium speed.
This first attempt yielded a small
bowl of unsalted butter and a very warm mixer. The pleasant and
unexpected part of it all was that we now also had butter milk.
As for the chocolate milk....
Well lets just say a visit by our
grandmother (kids' great grandmother) who NEVER drinks milk saw that
thick bottle of, well, heaven and even she wanted a glass.
Delicious! Something near Aztec cocoa and well, the very meaning of
delight. This stuff will be our biggest temptation as adults.
July 20, 2005: Momo's Log
My name is Momo and I am 11 years old.
Finding food in Michigan is getting really annoying. Especially
stuff like breakfast food. We have found eggs but I'm a vegetarian
and I think its wrong to eat meat and eggs. Though sometimes I do
eat meat on occasion. The Farmers Market has been a great resource
for food. Some of the people that go there are a bit strange. Like
this one lady who wore an open jean shirt with a sports underneath
it. (twitches) Did I mention this lady was really old?? But a lot
of the people that sell things are really quite nice like the nice
old man that sells the great soap and the Mexican couple that sells
crocheted and knitted scarves and baby clothes.
I weeded my corner of the garden and
then jumped in the pool since its so hot today. We picked four
cucumbers and a cabbage out of the garden while we were at it.
Mom shredded on of the zucchini from
last Saturday's trip to the Farmers Market. She made a loaf of
bread from the family recipe and froze two bags of shredded zucchini
for winter bread.
July 19, 2005: Mom's Log
I noted in an entry last week that we
have been eating the chickens from the local farmer on occasion. It
is my usual practice to cook one with potatoes and carrots the first
night and then make stew the next. But it has been such a hot
summer and stew as a leftover meal has been unappetizing.
Recipe:
Thus, I have found that chicken, cut
up in small cubes along with chopped, leftover carrots and potatoes
are a nice base for a fresh chicken salad. Pour over lettuce from
the market or in my case, our city garden. As a sauce, skip the
store bought mayo. I make a vinaigrette out of 2 parts corn oil to
one part vinegar. Add salt, pepper and fresh herbs in season of your
choice.
Serve with some homemade bread!
*Note: it is best to make the salad
with chicken, potatoes, carrots and sauce the night before or first
thing in the morning. Then, pour the 'marinated' base ingredients
over the lettuce just before serving.
July 16, 2005 Mom's Blog
Cook's is the local dairy farm about
15 miles from our house. We went there this afternoon in hopes of
getting some fresh milk, cream and ice cream.
Packing up the kids, my husband and
our Great Pyrenees 7 month old pup, Lulu, we arrived at dusk.
Wanting to see the roaming cows before the sun had fully set, my
daughter walked to the back of the pavilion with Lulu in tow.
Herding instinct kicking in, Lulu decided to make the acquaintance
of the grazing cow my daughter was already petting. Nose to nose,
cow and dog when suddenly, Lulu got more than she bargained for.
Apparently, the munching cow approved of the dog and decided to give
her a wet lick with her giant tongue! Lulu jumped back, face soggy
with cud and grass. She went from snowy white to grassy green in
minutes. Customers had a tremendous laugh at the pup's expense and
enjoyed mile high mounds of fresh ice cream heaped into waffle
cones.
Earning her small vanilla scoop, Lulu
enjoyed her vanilla in a dish while I happily sampled the 'Holy
Cow', Kisai had a Chocolate cone, Momo enjoyed a mint chocolate chip
and my husband sampled the butter pecan. Before leaving we picked
up a couple of gallons of fresh farm milk.
July 15, 2005: Mom's Log
Today is Saturday and thus it's the
big market day. What an adventured we've had. This morning the
kids went out and picked wild black raspberries from the woods on
our property. Some we froze whole in freezer bags and others we ate
in a fruit salad at breakfast.
Next, it was off to the Oakland County
Farmer's Market. Having $30 with me, I started with staples; kale,
new potatoes, buck wheat flour, barley, black beans, carrots,
lettuce, onions and large, hothouse zucchini for shredding and
making bread and lastly green beans. When the staples were done, I
splurged on fruit. Blueberries are in and I got half a gallon for
$3.00. Early peaches are also in season and I decided on half of a
bushel. Total, I spent $26.
The late morning was spent blanching
the green beans and putting them in gallon freezer bags. The last 3
cups, I saved for tonight's dinner. Next, I froze blueberries in 1
1/2 cup servings per bag. I ended up with several bags and some
left over for blueberry pancakes tomorrow. Peaches were chopped up
raw and put into freezer bags as well. Peaches are great frozen for
smoothies and when thawed taste very so much better than any January
trucked in peach.
Dinner was a chicken from a local
farmer roasted with potatoes and carrots from the market.
July 12, 2005: Kisai's Blog
My name is Kisai and I'm 12 soon to be
13 at the end of the summer. This eating all from Michigan kind of
sucks actually. We can only eat out once a week and whoever
complains volunteers to make dinner for the whole family. Did I
mention this sucks? As for junk food, well there isn't any. Mom
has suggested popcorn...that's not real junk food.
I think if we're going to do this, we
should have a chicken farm or at least chickens in the back yard.
Mom says no because the subdivision behind our couple of acres would
never allow it. But I want eggs.
I love eggs. My favorite way to cook
them is soft boiled or three minute eggs. I saw a comedian on TV
who said people don't live their lives anymore, they're all
pre-occupied with living longer. I agree with him. Pass the eggs
and butter!
One good thing I guess from this
experience of eating all from just Michigan gardens and farmers is
that I feel inspired to cook. I made French toast this morning.
And yesterday, I made blueberry pudding from a recipe I read in
Gourmet Magazine. Blueberries from the farmers market were great
but they are nothing in comparison to the huckleberries we had last
summer from a friend up north. Huckleberries are better than
chocolate!
July 9, 2005: Madge's (Mom) Blog
Woke up this morning early to pick 4
quarts of wild black raspberries out of the back yard as well as 2
quarts of red currants from some bushes my uncle gave us a few years
back. Put all the berries in the freezer using ziplocks before
breakfast. It is my experience that the frozen whole berries will
be lovely and welcomed additions to the January table while grocery
stores are selling berries that taste like nothing.
Then we headed out to the farmer's
market in Oakland County, Michigan. This morning, we bought cups of
freshly made coffee from the gentleman at the corner booth.
The woman from Hapshire Farms had some
wonderful buckwheat organic flour and large bags of dried black
turtle beans. I bought a bag of each. Next, my husband spied some
fresh sour cherries that reminded him of his parents farm and the
cherry trees that grew there. Living in the suburbs now, he misses
the farm cherries and I couldn't help but buy 2 quarts. We'll
freeze one quart and with the other, I'll make some cobbler this
weekend.
A young lady in a small booth has her
award winning onions for sale in bunches. They've won a blue ribbon
at the state fair for several years. I buy a bunch from her.
My daughter spotted a new booth inside
of the market building so we decided to check it out. It was an
answer to many requests from last year. A farmer from just north of
Flint has her organic beef, chicken and eggs for sale. No farmer
with meat has been at the market since we've been going for the last
few years. I am hosting a chess team picnic this week, so I bought
a few pounds of her angus ground beef to make hamburgers.
The next stop is a family farm who
have some of the best produce I've seen at the market. Much of our
own garden vegetables are late as we had to plant three times due to
frost and snow this past May. I happily buy 5 lbs. of red, white
and purple new potatoes, 2 large zucchini and a dozen eggs.
In total, I've spent $26.80.
Grilled lunch by Momo (age 11) Fill
aluminum foil packets full of sliced potatoes, zucchini, olive oil,
salt and pepper. Place them on the grill and cook the zucchini
packets 10 minutes and the potatoes 20 minutes. The potatoes will
turn out tender on the inside with a creamy texture and crispy on
the outside with a golden brown texture. The zucchini will be
tender and delicious!
Dinner:
French onion grill
Peel whole onions and place on a large
square of aluminum foil. Hollow out the insides and fill with olive
oil and one small beef bouillon cube. Wrap up and completely cover
with foil. Grill for 40 minutes. The foil packet will act as a
small bowl where an lovely smoky onion soup awaits. Serve with
sliced hard crust bread and slices of cheddar or Swiss cheese.
Sour cherry cobbler
Pit and halve 1 quart of sour cherries
and place in a mixing bowl. Add in 1 cup sugar and three TBS of
flour or corn starch. One combined well, pour into a 9" round pie
pan. In a separate mixing bowl, combine 1 cup oats, 1/2 c sugar
(brown or white) and 1 stick butter (melted). Mix all ingredients
with your fingers once butter is slightly cooled. Top sour cherries
and bake 45 minutes in a 350 oven. Serve warm. A side of home made
vanilla ice cream or whipped cream is always welcome.
For winter: This is our first week
just starting to put up stores for the winter months ahead. Some we
will keep for summer enjoyment, the rest is put up.
1 quart of sour cherries frozen for
winter
2 lbs black turtle beans stored for
winter
1 lb buckwheat flour for now and 1 was
put in the freezer for winter
2 lbs potatoes were halved and
blanched and cooled, then put in ziplock bags for winter. The
remaining 1.5 pounds from today are for the week ahead. |
