It has begun...

Humboldt Abundance

 And so it begins, a month of a strictly local foods based diet.
I consider this more of a celebration than a challenge. I can't imagine many places having a more diverse variety of good food grown and produced in such a small area.

Being right in the middle of our garden harvest season, we are surrounded by wonderful choices from fruit to squash, onions to herbs.
My plan this year is to make all the main foods be locally grown or produced, but allowing myself my tea (locally roasted coffee fits the bill, but no one produces black tea), salt spices & things like baking powder, yeast.

To get in the spirit of things and prepare I baked a loaf of bread using grains from Shakefork Community farm in Carlotta. I now use a bread machine, as I only need one loaf at a time, and came up with a whole wheat, rye & buckwheat flour bread. Other ingredients are local honey, sea salt, yeast & gluten.

Yummy combo - mmmm...

After starting the challenge with a favorite breakfast of Shakefork cracked (not rolled) oat cereal with honey and some of the first fruit from our young Asian Pear tree, we devoted the whole Labor Day weekend to food, canning beans, pickles, tomatillos, & mixed vegetables with barley for soup.

We eat a lot of soup in the winter, and I love to have a lot in the pantry. It's a great way to put by food when you don't have a lot of any one thing & the best use of extra summer squash I know. Tossing a tablespoon of raw barley in the bottom of the jar before adding the vegetables & processing it adds a lot to the finished soup in flavor and texture.

Menu Sept 1 - Tea, Humboldt Creamery 1/2+1/2, Shakefork Cracked Oats with Humboldt butter, honey & our Asian Pear
Baked whole wheat/rye/buckwheat bread from Shakefork grain (recipe)
Dinner was fried pepper, cucumber & tomato sandwich, cucumber salad
treat - blackberries, peaches & cream

Menu Sept 2 - Tea, egg & mixed vegie scramble with Loleta Cheese's pepper jack
Snack - gravenstein apple, hard boiled egg
Dinner, steamed green beans & Crooknecks & fresh corn on the cob, toast with Humboldt Fog from Cypress Grove.

Menu Sept 3 - Tea, Local and locally cured bacon from Hatfield's Meats in Mad River, egg and toast.

Making fresh linguini!

Lunch was homemade pasta with fresh pesto and chopped heirloom tomatoes. The pasta was made with Lundberg flour from the central valley, I'm not sure if it's grown quite within our 250 mile radius, but it could be. But my daughter and granddaughter were here making pesto with me and there was no way we were NOT going to have some noodles to try it out!
Snacking on Asian Pears
Dinner - Oh my! Tuscan beans made with my favorite Yellow Eye beans from Warren Creek Farm in the Arcata Bottoms, soft polenta from Shakefork corn, with a dollop of fresh pesto and chopped fresh tomato. I cannot tell you how delicious this was. Hooray for leftovers!

I think we're off to a good start.

Wednesday - only one week left...

We are now full on into the harvest. It's mid- food season here. A great time for the Challenge, but if I do not preserve some type of food every day I get hopelessly behind. Firewood to stack as well. Getting ready for winter.

We start the day with vegie scramble with some of the Premiere Chicken Apple sausage. We have to finish it soon - as it will not keep much longer.
Computer work, paperwork - but a fairly open day and we manage to stack a couple loads of wood somehow as well.

Lunch is salad with home canned local tuna, and a quesadilla made with Loleta jack cheese, fried pepper and Rita's whole wheat tortillas.
After lunch I can some Italian vegetables. This recipe is from a Co-op handout I picked up in 1983 (? or 85?). I generally do several vegetable medleys. They are a quick, delicious soup come colder weather. It takes a pressure canner, and the rule of thumb is use the canning time for the vegetable with the longer processing time. The Blue Book has a chart.

Italian Style Vegetables
9 c. eggplant, peeled & cubed
6 c. small head cabbage, shredded
3 c. tomatoes, peeled, seeded, cubed
1 lb summer squash, cubed
2 c. large onions chopped
2 c. med bell peppers, chopped
2 c. water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tblsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper

In large pot combine all ingredients, cover and bring to boil. Boil 5 to 7 min. stirring once.
Pack hot vegetables into clean hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. If needed, add hot liquid to cover vegetables. Wipe rims, seal, and process in process in pressure canner at 10 pounds pressure 40 minutes for pints (50 minutes for quarts).

We actually made more - based on the amount of eggplant I had. We made a batch & 1/2, for 4 quarts and 8 pints.
Dinner was a Salisbury steak (bunless burger), corn, cucumber, pepper, & tomato salad and some of Henry's olives on the side. Oil and my red wine vinegar or the buttermilk Dressing.
Tomorrow we ship orders again and I am off to bed...