eat locally | The Roving Locavore

Posts Tagged ‘eat locally’

roasty, toasty, rainy

Posted in Baking, Fruit, Pasta, Sweet Things, Vegetables, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, berry crumble recipe, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, organic strawberries, roasted tomato pasta recipe, roving locavore, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

umrella hat

The other rainy night, we had a little casual dinner party with my parents’ best friends of four decades, who happen now to live on the same long dirt driveway in Norwich, Vermont. I’d been wanting to make a recipe from one of my favorite bloggers, Tribeca Yummy Mummy, for roasted tomato pasta with scallops. It was amazingly delicious, especially with picked-that-day organic sungolds and grape tomatoes and basil. Here are the tomatoes, slicked with olive oil, sprinkled with salt and pepper, ready to get roasty:

roast tomat

We had spicy greens in a salad, and then a berry crumble. I like making crumble, because it’s so easy. You don’t even need to look at a recipe for the topping if you just remember “it’s all 1.”

Mixed Berry Crumble

Topping:
1 c. flour
1 c. sugar (mix brown and white)
1 stick butter, cut into small nobs
1 tsp. salt
1 handful sliced almonds (or walnuts, or oats)

Filling:

3-4 c. mixed berries (I used blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries)
1/3 c. sugar
a sprinkle of almond extract

Preheat oven to 400. Mix the filling in the baking pan. Frozen berries are ok.

With your fingertips, blend the topping until it all clings together in clumps. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the filling. Bake for 40 minutes or so.

berry crumble

Get it before it’s gone!

crumble

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raw pleasure

Posted in Salads, Vegetables, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, Cedar Circle Farm, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, grass fed beef, Hogwash Farm, Killdeer, Killdeer Farm, local eating, local food, locavore, Norwich organic farm, raw salad, roving locavore, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 20, 2009| Leave a Comment »

When we got to the Hanover Farmers’ Market yesterday, thunder was rumbling in the not-too-far distance. We wouldn’t be able to linger. I went straight for the Cedar Circle Farm booth, where I was almost overcome by the vivid colors spread before me!

I spent all the cash in my pocket on this pile of (always organic) beauty:

cedar circ vegs

When we got back to my parents’ house at the far end of Turnpike Road in Norwich, it was still too hot to turn on the oven or even think systematically about a meal. I pulled out a tub of hummus, and we used it as dip for the celery (the most celeryish celery I’ve ever tasted!) and the sungolds.

In spite of the sky–another storm brewing after some hot sun–we decided to cook out.

dark clouds over the back hill

We had some grass fed ground beef from Hogwash Farm, so we decided to do burgers, corn on the cob, and a big chopped salad combining the tomatoes, some peppers, radishes from Killdeer, and cucumbers and herbs from our garden. Dressed with a bit of mustard vinaigrette, it was flavorful, cool, and perfectly satisfying.

This is the only season when a raw salad like that, with little adornment or special treatment, tastes so vivid.

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worth the heat

Posted in Baking, Fruit, Sweet Things, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, roving locavore, strawberry-rhubarb pie recipe, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie

pie

For the crust, check out my post of June 7, 2009, but make a double portion, since you’ll need extra pastry for the lattice. Make the pastry, shape into two discs, and chill for several hours.

For the filling, you’ll need 3 cups fresh cut strawberries and 2 cups fresh or frozen chopped rhubarb. Mix these with 1/2 c. flour, 1/2 c. sugar, and 1 tsp. corn starch.

Preheat oven to 375. Roll out two 11-inch rounds of pastry, put one in a 9-inch pie plate, and cut the other into strips. Pour in filling, and construct an over-under lattice with the pastry strips. Bake (with a cookie sheet underneath in case of drips) for 45 or so minutes, until the crust is golden.

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Summer Baking

Posted in Baking, Fruit, Ice Cream, Sweet Things, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, organic strawberries, pastry frissage, roving locavore, Shiro plums, strawberry rhubarb pie, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore, Vermont plums on August 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

It’s summer. It’s hot. The fruit is ripe. But what the heck, let’s fire up the oven.

We have Shiro plums, the mild little yellow variety which grew originally in Japan, and now grows all over the place here.

shiso

These plums are from Dummerston, Vermont. (The name brings to mind Fort Dummer, near Brattleboro, where we used to go cross country skiing, and where my Dad would release the squirrels he’d caught in his “Have-a-Heart” trap. These were crazed, ferocious squirrels that chewed our wooden siding and clung to the screens of our dining room windows while we ate dinner.)

Back on topic here… plums make a scrumptious rustic galette. I had a helper this morning making pastry. A pinch of salt:

J baking

And a demonstration of the frissage technique, which spreads and flattens those yummy bits of butter, providing the basis for flakiness (push with the heels, fold with the fingertips, repeat):

frissage

We also have chopped rhubarb and strawberries in the freezer–remains from an earlier season. My sister, Bridget, has always loved strawberry-rhubarb pie. We always thought her red hair and freckles predestined her to be a strawberry lover: strawberry ice cream, strawberry shortcake, strawberry-rhubarb pie, strawberries on cereal, strawberry lip balm, the list goes on. She’s moving to North Carolina this week, where strawberries and rhubarb will be distant memories. I think I’ll make her that pie.

And serve it warm with local vanilla ice cream, of course.

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tomatoes, hot and cold

Posted in Baking, Cheese, Salads, Vegetables, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, Killdeer, local eating, local food, locavore, organic tomato recipe, panzanella, roving locavore, tomato bread salad, tomato salad, tomato tart, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Mmmm… I have such a craving for a luscious tomato tart. Roasting brings out such intense flavors. And melted cheese: the deliciousness of the thought speaks for itself.

However, it’s pushing 90 today, and I won’t be turning on the oven. How to celebrate high tomato season with something a little simpler, more “rustic” and conducive to lazing around than the pretty spiral of tomato, mozz, and basil (though I have nothing against that salad!)?

Panzanella! A bread salad made with summer’s basics: stale bread, tomatoes, basil.

panz ingreds

The structure of this basic flavor combination provides a strong background for additions, if they come in as accents. Have some leftover anchovies or olives? A wedge of lemon? Toss in a few capers, too, from that bottle that always seems full. Some other backyard herbs would be nice too, as long as the basil sets the tone.

We’ll have this tonight, with grilled chicken. Killdeer folks: see you soon.

For the cooler nights later this week, though, I’ll be turning to the tart. I think I’ll try this recipe, recently posted in the Times.

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On Nantucket

Posted in Seafood, Vegetables, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, bluefish, eat locally, eating locally, eggplant recipe, local eating, local food, locavore, Nantucket local food, Nantucket seafood, Nantucket striped bass, roving locavore, Something Natural Nantucket on August 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I’ve eaten much more fish in the past two months than I normally eat in a year. I’ve been lucky enough to visit these seafood capitals of the northeast. Eating locally on an island is pretty easy at this season. For Nantucket, in particular, striking a balance between conservation and sustainability on the one hand and the inevitable conspicuous consumption of a resort island on the other, is especially important, and tricky, because people come for the timelessness of its beaches and weathered shingle cottages, but also come to vacation and to do all of the spending and consuming that entails. My Nantucket Quaker ancestors rode the wave of one tide of American capitalism centuries ago, and helped to whale nearly all of the sperm whales out of the Atlantic. The great white whale is now a threatened species. Bluefish are abundant, due to regulated sport fishing, and stripers are vulnerable, so I’ll savor them when they’re fresh and local. We’ve come too late in the year for Nantucket Bay scallops, the sweetest, smallest morsels in the sea. When I worked at a restaurant in Somerville, near Boston, those of us in the kitchen snuck a couple of raw ones when the small, highly priced shipment came in. They have a brief season, anticipated by seafood lovers, and hopefully protected by sustainable harvesting practices.

We saw some small-scale fishermen working quickly the other night, just before the dinner hour, to clean and portion these tunas.

fish cutting

albacore

A large vegetable and flower farm here has turned to sustainable energy,

turbine

but I also saw some spray tanks attached to the tractors. Their seasonal produce, displayed in a bountiful tumble of color, is wonderful, though. There were at least four kinds of eggplant; I bought bunches of the Japanese and the “Fairy Tale” varieties, along with a pile of pattypan squash, and roasted them last night (it was chilly outside). (Olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh rosemary, 425 for 40 or so minutes.)

eggplants

pattypan

Another local institution I like to frequent when I’m here is the bread bakery and sandwich shop, Something Natural. They bake hundreds of loaves daily, and construct hundreds of jumbo sandwiches for a steady stream of people. Their chocolate chip cookies, with dark chocolate chunks and a chewy-crispy buttery crumb, are the best.

something nat.

bread
When the endless possibilities for people watching turn tedious, it’s fun to find the animals. We watched swallows gathering on the wires, and the flock seemed to grow by the hundreds every few minutes.

swallows

even more

Bunnies hop out of the bushes, and scurry back in when they see Jack coming.

bunny

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en route

Posted in Seafood, Whimsical, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, Nantucket bluefin tuna, Nantucket local food, roving locavore on August 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

We’re on Nantucket for a bit this week. My cousin’s getting married, so our family (minus Peter, who’s at Breadloaf) is crashing in a mothbally cottage that sits on a rare high hill on this island, and would have a 360-degree view if it weren’t for the fog, clouds, and rain. “It’s ANOTHER blustery day!” shouts Jack, thrilled by any weather.

I’ve been enjoying local food steadily, but don’t have a steady stream of internet access. I’m sitting in a corner in the “Atheneum”–the town library–right now, but I forgot to upload the great pictures I took last night of three tunas being butchered dockside.

So… more on tuna and other treasures of the sea, and the organic farm, and Something Natural, later.

Jack and I enjoyed a simple meal on the ferry on the way over: slices of Jarlsberg, “crispy wheats,” amber ale, lemondade.

Jack ferry

His favorite part was watching the wake.

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Purple Green Beans

Posted in Vegetables, Whimsical, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat locally, eating locally, Killdeer, local food, locavore, purple green beans, purple string beans, roving locavore, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 12, 2009| 5 Comments »

Artist friends, look at this!

Purple beans

Look at these colors. They don’t spring out. They are dark and intuitional, like Arthur Dove’s. Not as overt as Georgia O’Keefe’s, though I’m asking you to look at the small, wet extremity that splits the color spectrum into two.

It’s shocking, disappointing, and then, simply life. These beans, when boiled, go from purple to green. The most intense purple, deep, darkly fertile. To green. Basic beany green.

Romano. String. Wax. Green. Jack and the bean stalk. There’s still some magic, despite the Anglo-Saxon simplicity of name.

Jack's sprout

Jack is thrilled to see his bean coming to fruition. Fruition. It is a fruit. First the little, tender stem. Then, the tiny, furled leaf. He planted it in a Dixie cup full of soil. He didn’t, and doesn’t, know what it was. But his enthusiasm for the greenness of the green shoot is boundless. He’s contemplative, in awe, amazed, incredulous, proud. It’s a pleasure to watch. Does it have anything to do with his asking, “Mommy, why did you decide to grow a baby? … I mean me?”

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escape

Posted in Cheese, Eggs, Vegetables, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, eat local Vermont, eat locally, eat locally Vermont, eating locally, heirloom tomatoes, king arthur flour, local eating, local food, locavore, roving locavore, Tarentaise, Thistle Hill cheese, Vermont farmers' markets, Vermont local food, Vermont locavore on August 11, 2009| 1 Comment »

This summer, while we live–on extended visits–with various units of extended family, my cooking life has been tyrannized. Not by non-omnivores or picky children so much as by the need to please everyone. How to do so? In our family, it’s with the Square Meal. Protein, veg, “starch,” bev.

Last night, I said, “forget it, I’m making what I want and I’m not cooking.” Well, I did cook, but just two 8-minute eggs for Jack and a handful of green beans. We ate a cold and warm assortment of fresh, ripe, local foods. Remember those heirloom tomatoes I bought on Saturday? Black and pink brandywines. I sliced them thick and sprinkled them with fresh mozzarella, basil chiffonade, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I cooked the green and yellow wax beans just a bit, and tossed them with leftover sweet corn that had been cut off the cob, and with an assortment of chopped herbs from the back yard. We also had Tarentaise, the cheese made by the Putnams of Thistle Hill Farm in North Pomfret. A bowlful of mixed greens with mustardy vinaigrette. A King Arthur baguette. Vinho Verde, the effervescent, airy as seagrass Portuguese white that I love.

I know, doesn’t sound like a very adventurous escape. Ah, well. It was a good meal.

And escape from the tyranny of square meals is a topic that warrants discussion. We eat that way quite a bit more at home, and not just because we’re busy parents of a busy four-year-old. It’s refreshing to eat picnics inside, or to make a meal of the humble egg.

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morning memories

Posted in Baking, Sweet Things, Whimsical, tagged Amy Campion, Amy Campion food, berkeley food, cheese board berkeley, eat locally, eating locally, local eating, local food, locavore, peets, peets coffee, roving locavore on August 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

It’s been nice hearing from all of you, good friends, from Berkeley, in the past few days, especially after getting an official notice telling me my email account was being closed. Is that some desperate attempt at cost-cutting on the part of the university?

I have such good memories of Berkeley, and these memories tend to focus on food and walks.

Running down the hill this morning made me think about another regular route I used to take all the way down a steep hill, and then back up. Not the one to campus, no. The one to the Cheese Board and to Peets. Especially during Jack’s first year, I had the need to walk a lot. Sometimes I’d walk with Bea and our boys in the strollers all the way down the streets and paths to Solano Ave., to Thousand Oaks School, where they had a tot playground with lots of castoff Little Tikes toys. Most days I’d walk by myself, with Jack strapped in the Ergo on my back, down Euclid, the Vine Lane path, and Vine, to Peets for a latte and across Shattuck Ave. for a corn cherry scone: the yummiest, most comfort-foody cornmeal drop scone full of dried slightly sour bing cherries. No other scone has ever measured up.

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