Quote of the Day: Robert Kourick
“Though food is basic, it has become just another service.
Shopping at a supermarket, the buyer is dependent upon the limitations of modern agriculture. Supermarket produce is often mediocre – bland and travel worn. The airplane, the truck, and the train have made it possible to soothe cosmopolitan palates with almost any food, regardless of the season.”
-Robert Kourick
Check out this photo on Flickr, everything inside the fridge is labeled so you can read exactly what each item is.
I thought about this quote when I was cleaning out my fridge last week. I noticed that just about everything inside was sourced locally. Even my milk comes from only a few miles away, fresh from the cow the day after it’s milked. The last couple years our diets have gone from: a healthy diet, full of lots of supermarket veggies and fruits to a diet full of veggies and fruits from local sources. We’ve learning to love seasonal eating, not relying on broccoli for our vegetable of the week.
It’s been a wonderful adventure and I can’t imagine not eating this way. It is a bit of challenge in the beginning and can seem a bit overwhelming, but it gets easier as you find local sources for more things. I actually feel like I spend less time shopping and acquiring my food now that I do it locally and grow some of of my own. I’ll be doing a series soon about learning to eat locally, I hope you’ll share lots of great insights into your journey so we can help those that are trying to follow the same path.
What percentage of your diet is local, either from your own garden or other local growers?
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Good Old Ohio Weather
Yesterday we woke up to temperatures in the 50’s with sunny skies. It looked like a beautiful day. I was headed over to my parent’s house to pick up Mr Chiot’s deer from the processor and was enjoying the sunshine and the warm weather. I knew bad weather was coming through, so I was planning on getting home before it got too bad!
The wind picked up about mid-day and the sleet/rain/snow moved in. I don’t really mind bad weather, unless of course I’m out and about in it. I noticed a lot of downed branches and a few trees along the road (no roads blocked entirely though). I managed to arrive home before the worst of the weather hit. About 5 pm last night Mr Chiots and I were working away in the office and we heard a huge “BOOM”. We looked out the windows and didn’t notice anything. We couldn’t see any trees on any of the neighbors homes, so we went back to work. A few minutes later we noticed the sheriff down the street.
We went down to check out what was going on and a HUGE tree had fallen across the road right down the road from our house. Fortunately it wasn’t any taller or we would have lost our electric!
Mr Chiots offered to help with the clean-up, but the local maintenance crew was already on it’s way. They brought out a big backhoe to clean up all the debris.
These gusts of wind up to 50 mph make me a bit nervous. Most weather doesn’t bother me, but since our home is surrounded by massive trees, the windy weather can be a bit nerve-wracking. Of course this is why we have insurance, but it would still be a bit of a pain to have a big tree come crashing through your roof, especially on a cold rainy winter day!
This is one of the reasons we’re prepared for emergencies. Back-up heat, cash on hand, food in the pantry, we’re ready for the electric to be out for a few days or to be snowed in for a week or two. Such is life in semi-rural Ohio. That’s why Ohioan’s say, “If you don’t like the weather, wait 5 minutes.”
Any crazy weather happening in your neck of the woods?
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Big – I Mean Little – Dreams
Winter is a time for dreaming. During the slow months of Jan-Mar we usually have more time than we do the rest of the year. We always have big plans for this time, things we want to build, places we want to go, things we want to see. We love camping and hiking vacations, so this time of year we always start dreaming of our next hiking excursion. Generally we car camp with tents and occasionally we backpack with or without a tent. We always admire little trailers we see when we’re out and about and have dreams of getting one “someday”. We spotted this little beauty on our last camping trip to the Catskills.
We decided that instead of searching for the perfect little camper that’s light enough to be towed by our MINI, we’re going to build a small teardrop instead! We may have enough time this winter, if not hopefully next winter. Until we build it we’ll keep dreaming about it and all the places we’ll take it. It helps keep us going during these cold dreary winter months.
What are you dreaming about during the slow winter months?
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Local Variety
One of the things I love about eating locally is the variety of foods that available. A couple weeks ago my brother-in-law asked me if I’d be interested in some meat rabbits. He had found a local lady that raised them and she had some that were almost ready. Last week he delivered my 2 fresh meat rabbits. My local grocery store doesn’t carry rabbit, I would have to drive all the way to West Side Market in Cleveland to buy some, and I don’t even know if those are local.
I was trying to decide how to cook them, when I remembered the Jamie Oliver cookbook I read last winter featured a wild game section. Since his recipes focus on fresh local ingredients I knew one of his recipes would fit the bill. After some searching I came across his recipe for: Grilled Marinated Rabbit and Rabbit Stew with Dumplings. I decided to try them both. The stew was my favorite, probably because I’m partial to stews with dumplings instead of grilled things.
I was happy to have all the ingredients needed in my pantry, and most of them were local. The garlic was from my garden and the herbs are potted in the living room. The pearl onions were the little ones from my garden and I happened upon oyster mushrooms at the market on Saturday. I didn’t have local dark beer, although if I got some Great Lakes that would count. I generally keep Guinness around for cooking.
I love learning new things, so it was interesting to learn how to portion and cook rabbit (I did take some photos but I’ll spare you, they’ll be on my Flickr if you want to see them). This wasn’t my first time eating rabbit, but it was for Mr Chiots. I also just found a local source for Muscovy ducks and I’ll be getting one of those soon, perhaps instead of a Christmas goose we’ll have Christmas duck. I can’t wait, I don’t think I’ve ever had duck before. I just found out that there are wild boar in Ohio! I’ll be encouraging Mr Chiots to go hunting for those now that he’s an accomplished hunter.
What’s the most interesting local item available to you?
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BRRRRR… It’s Soup Season
Winter finally arrived to Chiot’s Run. We had a hard freeze 2 night ago, the night before last was in the teens and it was frigid again last night. This means the furnace is on more often, a few more layers are worn to keep warm, a big pot of soup is on the stove, and fresh bread is in the oven.
We love eating soup when it’s cold outside. We keep our house fairly cool in the winter, so soup is as welcome meal for lunch or dinner. We have a lot of favorites, one being the tomato soup I canned many quarts of this summer. We also like chicken stew with dumplings, butternut squash and chipotle soup, venison stews, sausage & lentil soup and curried red lentil soup. I found this recipe on-line somewhere a long time ago and have amended it a little to be a soup. If you want to eat it over rice omit the coconut milk and chicken broth.
Curried Red Lentil Soup
* 1 C. red lentils, picked over, rinsed, and drained
* 3 C. water
* 1 large tomato, cut into 8 wedges (or 8 oz. diced canned tomato)
* 1/4 C. olive oil or ghee
* 1/2 t. cumin seeds
* 1 medium onion (yellow or red), finely chopped
* 5 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced
* 1 t. ground coriander
* 1 t. ground turmeric
* 1/2 t. cayenne (or less if you like it milder)
* 1/2 t. ground black pepper
* 1 T. butter
* 3/4 t. salt (or to taste)
* 1 can of coconut milk
* 1 pint of chicken stock
Directions
Place lentils, tomato (if using fresh tomato, if using canned add later) and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered until lentils are tender and have lost their shape, about 40 minutes (begin checking that there is still water in the pot at 30 minutes and add small batches of water as needed). Pick out any tomato skins and whisk to break up the lentils. Keep warm over low heat.
Make the tadka (Indian spice prep) as follows:
Heat oil in a medium skillet over high heat when oil is hot, add cumin seeds. After seeds have stopped sputtering, add the garlic and onion and saute over medium heat until most of the onion has turned brown, 5-10 minutes. Add the coriander, turmeric, and cayenne, stir, and pour the onion/spice mixture over the dal. Add the butter tomato (if using canned), (cilantro/parsley), and salt to the dal and simmer for another 5 minutes.
If eating as a soup add coconut milk and enough chicken broth to reach desired consistency. If eating over rice you can still add coconut milk or omit, whatever you like. Serve hot. I like to serve with naan (Indian flatbread).
What’s your favorite kind of soup?
