Posts Tagged ‘local food’

Sunday Brunch

Posted on July 31st, 2011 by Tonia 2 Comments

We were out a *little* past our bedtime last night with friends. Ok, a lot past. And {old farts that we are} we paid for it bigtime this morning in the form of raging headaches and general orneriness. Luckily, we have a secret weapon against such mornings: brunch.

Brunch is maybe my most favorite thing that humans ever invented. Brunch is especially awesome when its contents are composed of fresh, local ingredients. And in that regard at least, this was a rockstar brunch.

The pretty pink potatoes came out of our garden, and so did the kale that we sautéed them with. The flour in the pancakes was grown and ground down the road from us. The milk, too. I picked the blueberries yesterday at a farm in Bayfield. The eggs came from Sarah & Bob’s chickens, living in our yard. The maple syrup was made by my family. The bacon came from Blaise and Jes’s farm down the road.

We fed our souls with laughter and fellowship, and our bellies with yummy morsels.

See how much happier we all look already? I’m telling ya, brunch is a miracle worker.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- we’re so blessed to live in a community full of family farms and folks who care about their community, the earth, and good food. Couldn’t ask for anything more than this right here.

And after this happened, I got my bum to the beach, read my book and fell asleep for a while, and floated in {the deliciously ice-cold} Lake Superior for two whole hours. So in other words, this was a pretty fantastic weekend.

Adventures in Jam Making, part two

Posted on July 15th, 2011 by Tonia 7 Comments

The ingredients and steps for making jam are deceptively simple: Take fruit, lemon juice, and sugar. Mix them together and cook them until they thicken. Put the mixture in sterilized jars. Boil the jars for 10 minutes to process away any bacteria that might be lingering and to seal the jars. Done!

So easy, right? Morale was high as we embarked on our mission. We gathered the supplies, we washed and hulled all the berries, we whistled while we worked.

We boiled mason jars for five minutes in a large stock pot, and we poured boiling water over the lids in a large bowl. We mashed berries and mixed in the sugar and squeezed in lemon juice. We brought it to a boil and sighed with contentment as the whole house filled with the smell of warm strawberries.

And then the thermometer told us that the mixture had reached the magic number of 220 degrees Fahrenheit, meaning that jam was happening!

Chaos ensued. We started arguing over how to best get the jam into the jars {funny, we hadn’t thought this through ahead of time} and realized that the only funnel we had on hand was a plastic one that was not sterilized and might melt if we tried to sterilize it in the boiling water. Oops.

Meanwhile, the sterilized jars were out of their boil-bath and cooling down too quickly. And then there was the question of how to get all the hot jam-filled jars into the processing bath {there was only room for four at a time} before they all cooled down too much.

It was kind of the opposite of the lovely and romantic morning we had. My brain was exploding and my nerves a little wrecked after a very long berry-devoted day, but it all worked out and we’re now the proud owners of way too much strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb jam.

…Which we promptly ate atop banana pancakes this morning.

Along side thick-cut bacon from our friend Blaise’s farm down the road.

Ok, that was definitely worth the work.

We used this recipe for the strawberry jam, but we cut the sugar in half and then eventually cut it down to just one cup for the last batch because we thought that it was just way too sweet with all four cups of sugar in there.

For the strawberry-rhubarb jam, we used this recipe as a guideline but again we cut the sugar by half and were very happy with the taste/sweetness.

We love the texture of both jams…plenty of chunks of fruit but smooth and very spreadable, too.

Now that we’ve been initiated into the canning world, we’re excited to try making blueberry, cherry, and pear jam as well. I want to figure out how to make “preserves” or “compotes” too…I’d love to be able to heat up a jar and pour it over ice-cream in the middle of winter when you’re really craving fruit.

Fresh Strawberry Shakes

Posted on July 4th, 2011 by Tonia 4 Comments

Yesterday was the first day that we were able to get local organic strawberries at the market, and we felt like celebrating their arrival by throwing them a party in our mouths along with our good friends Milk and Ice Cream.

That’s right. Strawberry milkshakes. We whipped them up and called some friends to come over and enjoy them with us, and sat around the table discussing the many merits of strawberries. There’s nothing wrong with eating huge amounts of sugar at 11:00 PM, right? Nahhhhh.

Tonia’s Totally Local Strawberry Shake:

1 carton of Hermit Creek strawberries, green tops removed

6 big scoops of Tetzner’s vanilla ice cream

1/2 cup of Tetzner’s milk {or more if you want to drink it verses eat it with a spoon- and it depends how strong your blender is. The milkier it is, the easier it is to blend.}

Blend it all up and enjoy!

…But, after the strawberry shakes were gone, we decided we wanted more. So we made more:

Tonia’s Not-So Local Pistachio and Honey Shake:

1 cup pistachios, shelled

2 tbs. honey {or to taste- some like it sweeter than others}

6 big scoops of Tetzner’s vanilla ice cream

1/2 cup of Tetzner’s milk {or more}

Blend it all up and you know what to do!

These are our two most favorite shake recipes. Pretty simple, but very satisfying. What’s yours?

Fresh Local Foods

Posted on June 17th, 2011 by Tonia 9 Comments

A couple of cool kids down the road from us, Alan and Alison, started their own organic produce company this summer: High Five Produce. They, together with a few other farms nearby, started the Washburn Farmer’s Market.

The next closest Farmer’s Market is a couple towns over, so we’re thrilled that they got one started right here in our town! It’s so much fun to be able to walk or bike over to their stand on Friday afternoons and chat with them and check out what’s good. We usually leave with a bag of salad greens, or a bunch of rhubarb {grown by the kids at the elementary school}, or a bar of soap.

We’re SO lucky to live in an area where fresh, organic, local food is plentiful. It seems like there is a farm around every corner, and we can get just about any kind of meat, dairy, and produce we want from a local source. Eating local is the greenest way to eat- the closer to home your food comes from, the less impact it has on the environment.

Al & Al grow their produce in their front yard currently, and they’re searching for a piece of land in the area to expand to. Someday High Five Produce might be High Five Farm! We’re happy and excited to see their dream growing into reality.

Maybe when our fruit trees are big enough and producing enough, we’ll join them at the stand and sell preserves and fresh fruit! It is going to be exciting to see the Market grow as more and more folks get involved.

Behind them is the studio of another cool kid in town, Jesse Woodward, who makes sculptures out of scrap metal. It has really been fun to get to know the kids our age in town. They’re doing some really cool things, they’re interesting and fun and have been extremely welcoming and friendly to us. High five to that!

Thank you all for making this a cool place to live!

Washburn Farmer’s Market members: High Five Produce {produce} / Maple Hill Farm, Washburn {whole wheat flour, soap, yarn, produce} / Northwind Farm , Bayfield {fruit jams} / Wild Girl Farm, Washburn {raw honey} / Washburn Elementary Farm-to-School {produce}

P.S. If you like the shirts they’re wearing, I could score one for you. Alison printed them herself on reclaimed t-shirts from the thrift-store and they’re selling them at the stand for $5.