LocalCarnivore...

My husband has been known as a cheeseburger aficionado, so the way to best engage him in this project was via the local ingredients cheesburger. But we will come back to that...

A busy day today, business, canning (tomatoes, as mentioned and turkey stock from a bird we ate just before the challenge started, but never got to the apples), farm chores and afternoon babysitting of our granddaughter.

For lunch I had a cucumber and tomato sandwich on Co-op Bakery bread. My favorite, but sans mayo... I used Lindah's Hot & Sweet mustard instead. I LOVE this mustard... but something was lacking, so I had to make some mayonnaise.
I have not made mayo in a looong time, and then only by hand with a whisk, but I did not have the time. So I brought out my trusty Joy of Cooking (the latest edition - I have 4) and the blender and made a pint + of mayonnaise so easy & fast I couldn't believe it. Cool!
It is done thus:
Place in blender:
1 large egg at room temp
1 tsp. dry mustard
1 tsp. salt
dash cayenne
1 tsp. sugar
1/4 c. vege. oil (I did not want to use flavorful olive oil, so I used organic safflower, the other salad oil I keep around.)
Blend on high with lid on until combined well and slowly add 1/2 c. vege. oil followed by 3 Tblsp. fresh lemon juice, white wine vinegar, or a combination therof.
When thoroughly blended slowly add:
1/2 c. vege. oil and blend until thick, scraping down sides of blender as needed.

That's it!
This done and an extra pint size jar at hand. I started some sour cream as well by putting 2 cups heavy Humboldt Creamery cream and 2 Tblsp. of their cultured buttermilk in it and shaking vigorously. After sitting, covered, 24 hours in a warm place it should be thick, delicious, sour cream.

Dinner was our special all-American LocalVore cheeseburger with a side of coleslaw. I made the burgers the same as always, with local to our immediate area organic grass-fed beef, my "Meat Treat" herb blend, garden onion & garlic, but without salt or Worchestershire sauce mixed in. We melted some Loleta Sharp Cheddar on top and served them on Brio Bakery focaccia with garden lettuce & tomato and the new homemade Mayo. The coleslaw was the shredded cabbage & carrot classic with chopped parsley, all from the garden. The dressing was the American classic as well, with a twist: Homemade mayonnaise & red wine vinegar, local milk, honey, and - my exception - salt.
We paired it with the rest of the bottle of Vinatura Red Table Wine. It was much better with a stout burger to balance it.

To meet the challenge as closely as I can, I'm mostly cooking without salt and not adding any at the table. As much as possible, I have been seasoning exclusively with herbs and condiments.
My personal opinion is that most food is really just a vehicle for a good condiment and, because of that, I have always made a lot of them. I also keep good store-bought ones in the pantry. I am delighted that Fred's Horseradish and mustards are from our bio-region. One of them will work it's way into the menu before the month is out.

Federal recognition for Local Food

One thing I like about the Localvore Challenge is making one really aware of the wide variety of food that IS available in their region.
The benefits of this for our health, both physical and economically for the community are full of potential, as evidenced by this recognition by the President and his administration.

"What we've got to do is change how we think about, for example, getting local farmers connected to school districts because that would benefit the farmers delivering fresh produce."
-President Obama, Health Care Forum, August 20, 2009

"There are so many new producers cropping up in America. Their best opportunity to expand is a local market. It's enhanced if they can be joined together with other local producers so sufficient quality and quantity can be established for schools, hospitals, jails and other purchasers."
-Agriculture Secretary Vilsack, The Washington Post, August 26, 2009

With that in mind it is off to breakfast on Lundberg brown rice with garden vegies and some melon I bought (ours are not quite ripe) at Arcata co-op from Newsom (?) farm in Orleans. May have apple cider, may have water.
Lundberg's is actually in Butte county, right on the edge of Tehama & Glenn counties - just over our bio-region line, but it was indicated to me it was OK even so. Rice is a pretty basic staple.
I cook brown rice in our solar oven and keep it around to eat whenever. We love it always, but the long cooking time gets in the way sometimes - no?
The easiest solar oven recipe ever - 2 c. brown rice, 4 c. water.
place in covered pat or glass casserole (my favorite) in pre-heated solar oven.
Cook until all water is absorbed. Voila!

Today I hope to can applesauce (Clendenen's Gravensteins) and tomatoes after I get the orders out, so it is a food oriented day all around.

Day 2 -town trip

Today was educational. I did the long trip to town to deliver soap. I took our Australian Shepard puppy, Kumalie, for a vet weigh-in and to check her ears for burrs and foxtails - the bane of summer.
Vet is in Fortuna, farthest store in Arcata, we live about one hour inland from Fortuna. It makes for a long day.

Figuring it might be harder to eat local while out and about I had my tea and a good breakfast of the leftover tofu with chopped patty pan squash and bell pepper from the garden added. Then loaded soap and dog and, list in hand, we headed out.

Once at the vet we discovered Kumalie had weed seeds lodged right up against both eardrums, so she was left behind and our schedule sped up so we could be back before the vet closed.

First stop, Clendenen's Cider Works in Fortuna. Aside from the Farmer's Market I don't think there are many places to get a variety of local food items in Fortuna. Brio bread at Rays, Bien Padre, some cheeses and Humboldt Creamery milk at Safeway. Maybe more at Ray's, I haven't checked lately. But there are a lot of items at Clendenen's, not including the apples. They had local melons, squash, tomatoes and other vegies as well as honey, jam and dried fruit. They were pressing cider and the aroma was incredible! I picked up a gallon of fresh cider for home and a pint to drink.

My method is to go to the furthest place and then work my way home, so it was off to Arcata. I delivered at Wildberries and Arcata Co-op. Both have plenty of local fare, but I did my shopping at the Co-op.

Following my list I bought plenty of Humboldt creamery milk, buttermilk, and cream to make yogurt and sour cream. a few bottles of Vinatura wine, table red and Heyseus, and one of the Elk Prairie Pinot. Some of Henry's olives (THANK YOU, Henry!), Cypress Grove Chevre log for cream cheese and some Midnight Moon to try as a Parmesan substitute.
As I never did bake yesterday I brought home some Brio Fococcia, olive bread, and a Co-op Bakery sandwich loaf. Another package of Bien Padre tortillas, whole wheat this time. From the bulk dept. I filled a bottle with Tehama Gold olive oil. Karl noted there was one other olive oil from our Bio-region, but I forget the brand now.
Lastly, I hit the fish counter to check out the catch of the day. WOW! There was lots of local seafood to choose from. I left with some ling cod and, our favorite, salmon steak, but there was local rock cod and astoundingly some local shrimp! I wish I had my camera as the seafood display was incredible, with a large whole salmon and colorful Butterfish(?).

Back in Eureka I delivered to Humboldt Herbals and the Eureka Co-op. By this time I was getting rather hungry and so I perused the deli to find something suitable to eat. Uh-oh... I suppose it may have classified as locally produced, but the items I looked at I could not guarantee all the ingredients were of local origin. If I had waited I could have found out, but who I talked to knew the distributor - but not the actual source of the onions, peppers, etc. in the dishes I was looking at. I ended up with a Co-op Bakery Sun Bun. Delicious, but not really what I had in mind.
I would suggest that the Co-op delis have more items during the Challenge that they know are made with local ingredients.

Last soap delivery was Loleta Cheese Factory (for their gift shop). Now we're talking! I could taste my way through their display guilt-free. They have a large block of cooking sharp cheddar on sale right now (not organic, but definitely local), Pepper Jack, Roasted Garlic Jack (my favorite) and some Rumiano Parmesan. It turns out that, while labeled Willows, Ca., this cheese is actually made in Crescent City. I see eggplant Parmesan in our future...

Back to Clendenen's where I picked up a box of Gravenstein apples to make applesauce, got my definitely no-longer-sedated pup and headed back up the mountain.

Once home and unpacked we dined on salmon, fresh from the garden salad, and fresh Brio Fococcia dipped in oilve oil with garlic and fresh chopped basil. All toasted with a glass of the Vinatura Table Red (OK, but not as good as my beloved Menage a Trois from Folie a Deux of Napa), washed down with good ol' H2O.

My experience in town has me concerned for this weekend when we will be at Blues on the Bay. I better pack my own lunch!

P.S. photo is from local food in the S. F. Bay area at a dinner last fall

1st day ends

Well, we've ended the day - food wise, at least.
So far - OK, but a bit of fudging until we can get to town tomorrow and clarify some things.

Lunch was easy. I had a salad from our garden with dressing made from our homemade red wine vinegar and Napa olive oil (will get more local oil in town) with Albacore tuna I bought off of the boat out at the marina on Humboldt Bay and canned last year.

The photo is of the marina at Woodley Island on Humboldt Bay.

Dinner was a house vegetarian favorite (never did defrost any beef), Tofu Tias. These are a tofu burrito that has converted some very anti-Tofu types to gladly eating bean curd - at least in this guise.

As part of the challenge I was told that spice mixes I made myself were OK, and the Tia spice is all mine. I have a fondness for premixing herb and spice blends for my cooking. See my post "I'm All Mixed Up" for some of my favorites. This one is derived from a favorite dish from Toby's Tofu Palace in Eugene, Oregon (and at the Oregon Country Fair). We experimented until we came up with a blend that mimicked the original close enough for our taste.

TOFU TIAS:
Take firm tofu and cut into 1/2 inch cubes and let sit to drain. I use a wooden bowl, but I think a colander might be better.
Chop some onion and garlic.
Sometimes green pepper as well.
Saute these vegetables in oil, then add tofu cubes and fry until lightly golden. Sometimes they don't turn, but just keep sweating. No matter, it's good anyway.
Sprinkle with the Tia Spice at the rate of 1 Tblsp. spice per pound of tofu.
Stir and cook a bit then add a shot of tamari soy sauce.

Serve in heated tortilla with shredded lettuce, green onion, chopped tomato, sprouts - whatever. Top with salsa and a dollop of sour cream if desired. Enjoy!

TIA SPICE
NOTE: All measurements are very, very approximate!
Mix together about 50% nutritional yeast, 25% chili powder, then add onion powder, garlic powder,dried parsley, tumeric, salt, & white pepper.

Our Tias used Tofu Shop tofu from Arcata, Bien Padre tortillas from Eureka, lettuce, tomato and homemade salsa from our garden. On the side was a cucumber salad and corn on the cob - all from the garden. And a splash of that Diablo Sauce (we like to live dangerously!) We drank water.
The ingredient that may have been a no-no was the Tamari Soy Sauce. I buy it from the bulk dispenser at the co-op, so it is in an unmarked bottle. I have no idea at all as to its point of origin, so will find out tomorrow.

Did have a glass of nice Napa wine. A bottle or 2 of Humboldt, Mendocino, or Lake Co. wine will have to wait until I get to town as well.

Not, perhaps, a perfect start, but quite acceptable, I think.

I see tomorrow, having to eat on the road, as being a much bigger challenge. We'll see.

One day down - 29 to go!

Breakfast...

Today is the first day of our month long "Eat Local Challenge", sponsored by the North Coast Co-ops (Eureka and Arcata, California).
They have made it as easy as possible with 7 levels, from the "Hardcore Localvore" (only locally harvested products for every meal & snack - no exceptions) to the "Toe in the Water Localvore"(at least one local ingredient in each meal). In addition to this you can choose from foods from anywhere in the Klamath/North Coast Bioregion, which includes 7 counties (Siskiyou, Del Norte, Humboldt, Trinity, Shasta, Mendocino, Tehama, Lake, Glenn, & Colusa) and a diverse set of climates from sea to central valley.

I have taken on the level of "Loophole Localvore". This means locally harvested & produced products for every meal or snack - no vinegar, mayonnaise, etc., unless I make them or get them from someone who does. Local beer, wine, bakery products and locally roasted coffee, etc. are permissible in this category. Fortunately you are allowed a few exceptions - I would have a hard time without my morning cup of hot tea and may not be able to forgo salt to use in cooking.

My partner has taken on "Lifestyle Localvore" Planning on 100% local harvested/produced food for at least one meal a day. He is in charge of eating all the non-local stuff in the refrigerator before it goes bad!

I must confess, I felt this would be an easy challenge for us, as we produce much of our own food right here and have access to a broad range of foodstuffs in this bioregion. But the more I thought about it, the more challenge I can potentially see. Being an hour and some from town and the stores which carry much of what I want may turn out to be an issue. Then again, we have on our homestead much which town folks don't, right at hand.

As an example - we are starting our challenge with eggs fresh from the hencoop. Scrambled with peppers and onions from our garden, using olive oil from Napa (I'm getting some from more local Tehama Country tomorrow). They will share the table with tortillas made in Eureka at Bien Padre and Loleta cheese. We have some apple cider from last year's pressing should we want more than water. To spice it all up we have a variety of home canned salsas, should I not make some fresh, as well as "Thai-basco" and "Ha-basco" made from our own peppers. As well as the notorious "Diablo Sauce" (or sauce of death - a sort of Tapa Tio made with Habasco peppers in a bottle with a too big mouth. What was I thinking!).

I will be baking bread today (I was told I can be my own bakery). We will see what lunch brings. I am happy always with my summer favorite: tomato; cucumber & fried pepper sandwiches. I haven't made mayonnaise in a long time... looks like I will be now.

Our freezer is stocked with local grass-fed beef and I will find something there to defrost for dinner. Looks like things are lining up OK so far.

Tomorrow I have to go to town and deliver soap (what we do for a living - Simmons Natural Bodycare), and I will be picking up a lot of local Humboldt Creamery milk and cream. There will be yogurt and sour cream to make. Hmmmmmmm... I better go work on that list.

Coming up with meals is always creative enough - this challenge will make it even more intriguing.

Taking the Challenge

We have signed up to offically participate in our "local" (out on the coast. - 1 1/2 - 2 hours away) Northcoast Co-op's annual September Eat Local challenge.

For the entire month we will strive to eat only those foods produced in our northern California bioregion. Fortunately this is a large and varied agricultural area.

This new blog is to chronicle this culinary adventure, recipes and pitfalls alike. Stay tuned!