Sustainable Eats

Things are getting sparse at the farmer’s market as everyone is now feeling the effects of that deep freeze in December and the subsequent near constant rain we’ve had. It’s ironic that food is disappearing in the face of some pretty mild-spring like temperatures. If you have been planning to make kraut and kimchee you might want to get your food stores next weekend just to be safe.

I remember from last year February and early March were pretty bleak as we faced row after row of kale and the carrots, cabbage and onions disappeared. One week Tonnamaker’s with their steady supply of cold storage apples just stopped coming.

Now is when it gets really tough to eat locally and fairweather fans drop out. It’s more important than ever for you now to support the core vendors and this is a great time to get to know them. The friendships you strike up now just might pay off big time this summer when certain items are hard to come by and you need to call on favors.

If you are interested at all in growing things yourself I recommend you talk to Wade or Judy Bennet of Rockridge Orchards. They have tested just about every edible you can imagine on their farm near Puyallup. In the spring they will have plants by special request. Last spring is when I bought my Yuzu and this fall I bought a tea plant from them. This spring I plan to buy some hardy ginger, black pepper plants and horseradish starts.

It was only after I had finished pickling most of the things I had plans to pickle and we started eating that I realized I would never again buy store bought vinegar. Their apple cider vinegar makes the most amazing pickled beans and beets and I have no idea now how I ever managed to get by without it. Forget any notions you have of vinegar and think “apple cider with a really long shelf life and useful acid content.” I use it to brighten soups and gravies and even my pumpkin pie.

Plus their apple cider helped my husband kick his OJ habit and I’ll always love them for that. I heart Rockridge Orchards.

But on to this week’s menu:

Uli’s bratwurst with Charlotte’s kraut made from Nash’s cabbage, applesauce from Tonnamaker’s apples, honey glazed carrots from the garden and I swear to you the last of the store bought mustard. I ordered some mustard seeds from Mountain Rose Herbs in Oregon and have been planning to make mustard using local beer but haven’t gotten to it yet. Since the mustard jar is getting dangerously low it should be soon.

Cheese crackers with Beecher’s cheese and Lentz spelt.

Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies. Just kidding. No children were harmed in the making of these, I promise. Lentz spelt and Golden Glen butter pie pastry stuffed with Cascade Range beef, Nash’s rutabagas, turnips, Skeeter’s potatoes, our carrots, thyme and a beef broth sauce. No children or barber shop customers.

Pizza made from Azure Standard hard white wheat crust, freezer pesto, and soft mozzarella which Met Market makes on site Fridays and Saturdays. It was spendy ($13.99/#) so the same price as the Golden Glen mozzarella but much nicer. The only thing is I’m not so sure where the milk came from. I’m really hoping to get back to making mozzarella again soon so I can control both the quality and the source.

The tomatoes came from the freezer. Last summer I dried quite a few jars worth with the black plum tomatoes from the garden. I left several jars of them still soft and they are working perfectly on burgers and pizzas – providing very concentrated color and flavor where right now there is none to be had in the garden…the few black olives that you see are the last jar from 2008 that we are hoarding away. I’m thinking another month until my own home-cured olives are ready. I just hope the ones in the fridge last us that long!

I’m working on reverse engineering my pizza crust right now. This week’s experiment, my standard whole wheat pizza dough but triple milling the flour to get it talcum powder fine. Back in the day we would buy xx flour imported from Italy for our pizza dough to get that ethereal Neopolitan crust that I love. I got some nice bubbles on the kid’s pizza made with the last of that pepperoni we bought as our January grocery store choice. See that bubble? That’s whole wheat baby. Now I’m getting somewhere.

Homemade pudding for dessert night. Chocolate made with Guittard chocolate chips, although you could omit them and just use cocoa powder if you wanted. I added a pinch of cinnamon to this. If it was for me I would have steeped the milk in coffee first. But caffeine is the last thing I want to put in my rambunctious children. The butterscotch was for me and I used Macallan’s for that. You could certainly use Canadian whiskey or bourbon. But I used what I had. A little for the cook, a little for the pudding.

Skagit River burgers on store bought buns with Nash’s cabbage, Mt. Pleasant jalapeno gouda, home grown and partially dehydrated then frozen tomatoes, home grown bread and butter pickles and Nash’s lacto-fermented carrots.

Tacos made with our Cascade Range Beef, freezer corn and a small can of 2009 tomato sauce from the pantry. I just have a few jars of home made tomato sauce left so I’m saving them for spaghetti where the flavor is really important. Sadly, I have a great many jars of homemade ketsup that would have been perfect for this (and I made them for this) but I simmered it too long with the spices so now it’s all cinnamon and cloves and not at all something that I can use in many recipes. Next year I’ll know better. No spices until it’s done.

Nash’s cabbage, grated Beecher’s cheddar and homemade hot sauce from last summer rounded them out. I made 3 kinds of hot sauce last summer and my husband asked which army was going to eat all those gallons of sauce. Let me just say that we are halfway through them already. This army, apparently. See how smart I was?

So keep a journal now of all the things you are buying at the store or wish you were buying so that this summer you can make them.

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