Town again - and beyond...

I can barely believe this challenge has occurred in a month where we are away from home so often.  It definitely makes this more of a challenge. I am getting knowing "oh it's one of those" looks when I start asking about the ingredients in everything - and not meaning "one of those folks taking the Co-op's Eat Local Challenge". Oh well.

The morning dawns clear and warm. I walk the puppy, have my tea and breakfast on one of our lovely red pears. It is wonderful these pears are so delicious, as we must eat a lot of them for a while!
Today we have a bit of business and an appointment on the coast, then off to another bit of work in Mendocino and Lake counties. Thankfully they are both in our bio-region. It is a two day excursion and I pack pears, cider, coleslaw and leftover eggplant to take along.

Off to town, where we go to lunch at the Eureka Golden Harvest on Broadway. I feel like they will have some local fare, but not so. They figure the produce, etc. they get comes from Redding - and I realize that the key here will be to contact the distributor/trucking company and find out where the produce the carry comes from. It very well could originate within our region, but often the restaurant folk do not have any idea. And I need to learn to ask if they know "where it comes from" rather than if it is "local". No one knows the definition of that term -: Humboldt County? Eureka? California? Explaining the bio-region is a tad to complicated in a busy restaurant.
I decide to get something which easily COULD come from our region and end up with a vegie sandwich.

These complications in mind, we do some shopping at Eureka Natural Foods before heading out of town in the afternoon. I find some wonderful food to take with us. There are local ready-made burritos from both Casa Lindra and Rita's. I an assortment of three of those, a bottle of Orleans Coates Zin (on sale ($9.99), fresh salsa from Oxaca Grill in Eureka and local pistacio delmonicos for a treat. OK, pistachios are a stretch, but it is a local bakery. I tossed the label before I wrote it down. So I cannot recommend them directly, but just say they were delicious.

We pulled in fairly late to our room in Ukiah and taking advantage of the microwave, heated our burrito dinner. With the salsa, coleslaw and the wine to drink, we were set for the evening. I can see we will have to always pack road food for the duration of the challenge. Without knowledge of what is available in a given area and not enough time to really explore it, one's ability to determine what is local is very difficult.

Eggplant challenge

One week behind us, not perfect, but not so bad either. Today I will have some time after work for an eggplant experiment.

Breakfast - one of our StarkCrimson Red Bartlett pears. They are slightly under ripe at this point, which makes them apple-crunchy. Still delicious, in fact I rather like them this way. They have a day or two of heavenly perfection between under and over ripe. I prefer under ripe to over, and with so many on hand we have to start eating them now! These are the pears for salad and fresh eating. The green Bartletts are the ones I prefer to can. Good thing, as I have many more of those.

Lunch - We go crazy with a pepper tuna melt. Leftover tuna salad (local canned tuna, homemade mayo, pickles & garden onion and parsley), a fried garden pepper with melted Loleta cheddar on Co-op Bakery sandwich bread. Wholly decadent. A bit of the left over coleslaw on the side and water and lunch is beyond perfection.

Dinner - time for my 'experiment'.
I have 2 'small side of medium' eggplant and the Rumiano Parmesan cheese as my inspiration. First I make a sauce, sauteing chopped garlic and onion in some Tehama Gold olive oil. To this I add chopped bell pepper, yet somehow refrain from adding any summer squash. I sprinkle this with some of my Italian Herb cooking blend (see my blog: All Mixed Up) and cook until soft and onions are translucent, then I add copious amounts of chopped tomatoes. All this is from our garden. A few stirs and I turn it to simmer and leave it to cook while I prepare the eggplant.
I still want the effect of breaded eggplant, but without flour or breadcrumbs. First I sliced the eggplant into 1/4" slices. I beat an egg with about 1/4c. milk in a small bowl and grated a bunch of the Parmesan into another bowl. Then I dipped the eggplant slices into the egg mixture followed by the cheese, with limited success. The cheese did not always want to stick. My answer was to put the cheesiest side down in the pan and sprinkle a bit more on top.
I layered these as I "breaded" them in an 8" square pan, overlapping slightly. When it covered the bottom of the pan I spooned a small amount of sauce over, followed by another layer of the dipped eggplant and sauce, etc., until the eggplant was gone. I got a robust 3 layers! Much more than I expected given the size of the eggplant. Over the top I spread the remaining sauce and sprinkled with more Parmesan cheese. Really more like making a lasagna using eggplant for noodles!
I covered the whole with foil and baked it at 350 for 35 minutes, until the eggplant was tender. I am happy to say it was delicious, even without salt.
Served with a cucumber salad (sliced cucumber, onion, chopped tomato and basil, with homemade vinegar/olive oil dressing) and the last of the Elk Prairie Pinot we would call it a success all around.

No sacrifice at all today... Town the next two days. We will see what that brings.

Fall is in the air...

Boy, you can definitely feel the seasons changing. Suddenly leaves are turning, not just drying up, there is a chill in the occasional breeze that is not just the fog sitting over the ridge. I'm chilly this 40º morning and I want Hot Cereal!
I see a problem here. No local oats, I haven't found local wheat or cornmeal. I could grind rice and toast it and make rice cereal... Naw. We will just have a brunch boogaloo full of rice, onions, summer squash, and eggs. Chopped tomato and Loleta Jalapeno Jack cheese on top, seasoned with herbs and "Ha-basco" Clendenen's cider on the side. However, I am getting tired of eggs & vegies. I will have to find time to make some yogurt soon. I'll pencil it in - Hah!

We are glad it is the Labor Day holiday,' we're moving rather slow and want to play catch - up today. Watering, tending critters, and checking messages, mail and garden. We stack more wood in the woodshed and then pick pears.
The ravens have been knocking our Red Bartletts out of the tree, and the green Bartletts are starting to fall on their own. Closer inspection shows them ready to pick and there are lots of them. And how!
After harvesting, sharing, eating, and throwing raven punctured pears to the chickens, we still have 4 lugs and 3 baskets of pears. Soon to be on the menu, I think!

All afternoon there's been stew cooking in the solar oven. When work is done, so is dinner! I pick a few ears of corn and some blackberries and we have an early supper of local range-fed beef, carrot, onion, pepper, garlic & summer squash stew, with a slice of Brio olive bread and corn on the cob. I use no butter or salt on any of this. Olive oil and herbs are the seasoning components, my Meat Treat blend in particular, as well as a shot of the red table wine as the liquid. To drink we have water and some of the Elk Prairie Pinot. Not bad.

And the blackberries? I take the last of our crop of small but delicious peaches, slice them, and cook them slightly with the blackberries and a bit of local honey to make a fine dessert with a bit of Humboldt Creamery cream or 1/2 & 1/2.

Delectable end to the day. Now I have to start thinking about pear recipes. Hmmmmmmmm...

Second Day on The Bay

Today dawned clear and dry, just perfect for the second day of Blues By The Bay. 

We rested rather than rushing off to make the first performer, I had brought fresh eggs with us from home so we were able to share a local breakfast at our friend's where we stayed overnight. We had toasted Brio multi grain bread with homemade blackberry jam (YUM!), eggs and fresh melon from the Farmer's Market. Water to drink.

The festival was well attended for this fine Sunday line up, with a flotilla of boats and kayaks with folks watching and listening from the water. We found a spot to sit & enjoy the show. Of course, we spent as much time standing and dancing and wandering.  A snack of Ramones iced Latte (it was so good yesterday!) and pastry kept me fortified. When lunchtime rolled around I was delighted to discover Pachanga's booth had a tofu taco with our local Tofu Shop's tofu. Pachanga restaurant is known to use local produce when available and also to make their own tortillas, so I felt fairly confident this was a mostly local taco, even though they were too busy to ask all the questions at the time.

By the time the show was almost over we were bushed. Between sun, great music, dance, and going back to the car to give the puppy a play break (she was in her crate where we parked in the shade of the Samoa Bridge), the 1 1/2 hour drive home was looking pretty daunting. We decided to eat and head out and listen to the last set over the radio so we could get home & unpacked before dark. We finished the festival with one last Humboldt Hot Dog, local to the core, and headed out.

Now I am wondering about which local restaurants serve locally harvested and produced food. I know a lot of them do. We have local foods to be proud of! But I would like to see a list. 

Pachanga comes to mind, as does Oberon and Los Bagels, but I'm not well versed in restaurants and would love to hear some other suggestions.

Blues By The Bay - Day 1

With some trepidation we prepare to leave for Eureka and Blues By The Bay. Not just because of my concern that finding something local to eat will be difficult, but because as the morning dawns it does so with precipitation. Hmmm... If it is showers inland, what will be happening on the coast?

We cover the things we forgot the previous eve (car windows?! How did we forget that?) and eat a hearty breakfast of a garden vegie scramble with eggs (cooked in olive oil) and Clendenen's apple slices. Thus fortified we head out, somewhat late, but on the road at last, umbrellas & rain gear in tow.

As we go down the hill we listen to the great performers we are missing on KHUM's live broadcast. Hey! The skies are clearing and things are drying out.

Once settled in, I toured the tempting crafts & started scanning the food booths around the edges of the Festival area. There were actually a few local offerings but one in particular stood out. More on that later.
This is a great area for microbrew. Someday I may learn to enjoy beer, but this was fine news for Dennis. Samurai, no longer a restaurant, has a food booth serving BBQ oysters and sushi, I don't know about the sushi, but I bet the oysters are local. There is an assortment of Mexican, Polish dogs, a local to Nevada burger booth with everything from buffalo to elk to ostrich burgers from a ranch in Wyoming, & more. There are several crafts booths with clothes, jewelry, local to Forks of the Salmon herb & spice blends (of Localvore interest), soap, pottery and misc.

We settled in to enjoy the music after getting an iced Latte from the Ramones booth, which also had local pastries.

The day was great, the music & entertainment pretty darn fabulous. I love our mountain community musicians, but it is sweet to hear these professional performers that are so clean and tight and talented. No to mention we love the Blues.

But the day is long, ultimately it was time to eat. What did I do? I had a hot dog!
My first hot dog in quite a while, this was a hot dog like no other! It was a Humboldt Hot Dog! Eel River organic grass-fed beef made into hot dog form in Shasta Co., on a whole wheat North Coast Co-op Bakery bun!!! I love it!
I did cheat a bit - with non-local mustard and about 2 tablespoons of sauerkraut, but this was as local a food booth as you can get. It shows I don't live in Arcata, where this Hot Dog stand makes a regular
appearance on the Plaza. Now I know.

We spent Saturday night in town. Dinner was at Plaza Grill. The wine was decidedly within our region, a Husch Chardonnay from Mendocino, bread was locally baked. But my salad and Snapper with rice & vegies? The fish is wild caught from the Pacific ocean, which I will stretch into a local context (Hey - isn't that the Pacific right there?) even though not from local fishermen. I was told that Plaza Grill gets organic and local produce whenever possible and, while the broccoli was known to be local & the waitress could have kept bothering the cooks as to the origin of each item, I do have a limit to what kind of pest I am willing to be when someone is busy working.

Back at our friend's where we spent the night we enjoyed some wonderful Elk Prairie Pinot Noir. Not only delectable, not only local to Humboldt County, but the grapes were grown on Fruitland Ridge in the area where Dennis and I first met long, long ago. A sweet celebration.

We look forward to another day of music and sun.

Friday - Food Madness

Since Friday can be a work optional day for us, we took the day to work on the farm as we'll be gone for the weekend at Blues By The Bay in Eureka.

After a start of what we call "boogaloo" (leftover rice, eggs, and whatever's on hand. In this case summer squash and onions from our garden) along with the rest of our Orleans-grown melon, we spent much of the day working in the garden. Before we began, I quartered and cooked the lug of Clendenen's Gravenstein apples, so they were cooling to be made into applesauce later. This project had been deferred a few days, so HAD to be done.

Along with the usual weeding, watering, & miscellaneous chores, there was much to harvest. Yet again, giant Zuchinni for the chickens (how do they get so big so FAST?), other summer squash, cukes, cole, peppers, greens & herbs. But today we also had a lot of tomatoes.

Realizing that if these lovely red-ripe babies sat all weekend while we were in town we would come home to a gazillion fruit flies, I decided to make them into a quick and easy salsa, the kind you use to dip tortilla chips in. We use the "Zesty Salsa" recipe from the Ball Blue Book.
If you want to learn to can, or want new canning recipes and don't have this book - this is THE book to have. Sort of like having the Joy of Cooking for general cooking. It is generally found in places where you get canning supplies, like hardware stores! Of course, they have it on Amazon.
I use a food/meat grinder for this type of salsa. It gives it a nice texture and is much faster than chopping by hand. I simply cut the ingredients into quarters as needed, and run them through.

That done, we had a late lunch of tuna salad made from local albacore I canned last year (Ball Blue Book again) using the mayonnaise we made the other day, onions, home canned sweet pickles (NOT Ball Blue Book - I'll add the recipe when I get home), etc. served with Brio bread and Clendenen's cider.


Finally time for the applesauce. We ran the cooled soft apples through the Victorio to remove the peels and seeds and make them into sauce. This can be done by pressing them through a sieve or Foley Food Mill, but the Victorio is really the tool for the job. It was one of those things advertised as "You CAN'T do without it!", which always aggravates me - but indeed, I can't.
By the time the applesauce was made, heated, and canned it was 9pm and I was bushed.
We a sort of dinner Boogaloo of rice, vegies, some leftover local burger from making hamburgers last night, Humboldt Creamery milk and Loleta cheese. Astoundingly it was quite good topped with the extra zesty salsa that did not make a full jar.

I can a lot. I have done it for years. You get a lot for what may seem daunting, but really is not so hard.
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Addendum: The Sweet Pickle Recipe.
This is worth every bit of what goes into it, chopped, these pickles are the secret ingredient in potato salad, tuna salad, and such. I only make them about once every 3 years. Some people can eat them whole, but they are much too sweet for us. It is a 4 day process!

SWEET GHERKINS
5 qts. baby cukes, 1 1/2 - 3 inches long
1/2 c. pure granulated salt
8 c. sugar (sorry, honey will not do)
6 c. white vinegar
3/4 tsp. Tumeric
2 tsp. celery seed
2 tsp. whole mixed pickling spice
8 1-inch pieces cinnamon stick
(1/2 tsp fennel seed - optional. I rarely have this on hand)
2 tsp. vanilla extract

1st Day: Wash cukes, scrub with vegie brush leaving stem ends on if desired. Drain and place in large container and cover with boiling water.
6 to 8 hours later drain. Cover with fresh boiling water.

2nd day: Drain, cover with fresh boiling water.
6 to 8 hours later drain, add salt, cover with fresh boiling water.

3rd day: Drain. Prick cukes in several places with a fork. This is impoortant or they will be rubbery instead of crisp! Make syrup of 3 cups each of the sugar & vinegar. Add the Tumeric, celery seed, pickling spice & cinnamon. Heat to boiling and pour over cukes (they will only be partially covered).
6 to 8 hours later drain syrup into pan, add 2 cups each sugar & vinegar and bring to boil. Pour over cukes.

4th day: Drain syrup into pan. add 2 cups sugar and 1 cup vinegar, bring to boil and pour over cukes.
6 to 8 hours later drain syrup into pan, add remaining 1 cup sugar and the vanilla extract. bring to boil.
Pack pickles into clean, hot pint jars and cover with boiling syrup to within 1 inch of top (this is called headroom). Wipe rime and secure the jar lids. Process for 5 minutes in a boiling water bath. Voila!

Origins

I know we have a completely different take on this experiment, living in the rural part of the county, with a big garden, hens, home canned local food, and rancher neighbors. Sometimes I think we may have an advantage - but then I think of all that is grown at lower elevations such as Willow Creek and Orleans, Shively and other coastal areas, that comes to the Farmer's markets and I think, perhaps, those in town have the advantage.

I do have a passion for growing, preserving, and making our basic foodstuffs. From applesauce to vinegar, I love to experiment with food in a way that this challenge allows me to indulge.

The original Humboldt Localvore challenger was Megan Blodgett.
She challenged herself in a much stricter way than I am, with my "Loophole" level.

Read the excellent BLOG of her 2007 challenge eating only Humboldt county foods: My Month of Local Food.