fall's a comin'!

wow! i realized that i had too many blogs and am consolidating. i guess i'm going to focus on food here. my other blog is with fellow cook at BFF, Christina Furr, called Sizzling Pots. it's a cook and book dinner party blog.

so, this one will continue to include things about eating and cooking locally, whether that means what's available here in fort worth, texas in general, or perhaps just what is in season for our region of the U.S.

eventually i will move all my personal recipes over here as well!

last night the meal for the wesley was inspired by the local sweet potatoes at central market, as well as the availability and price of cabbage AND it being peach season (though, i missed the downtown farmers market tuesday and ended up using frozen peaches... my bad).

MENU

Chunky Cabbage Slaw with Peanut Vinaigrette

Channa Massala with Texas Sweet Potatoes (with a chicken option)

Reconstructed Peach Melba (plain frozen yogurt, fall-spiced peaches, and triple berry coulis)

i was so excited to make such a big meal! i've never seen that many college kids clean their plates of indian cuisine. all of the flavors were very warming in hopes of fall's soon arrival. i wish i had pictures!

Sustainable Table... and more!

I am so very excited about what is going on at TCU Wesley. For those who don't know what that is, TCU Wesley is the Methodist's student ministry for college students at Texas Christian University, here in good ol' Fort Worth, Texas.

Last semester I started cooking there for their Thursday lunches. The Wesley has a free/donation lunch for whoever wants to come (mostly TCU students attend) every Thursday from 11:30am to 1:30pm. You can eat for free or donate a few bucks which is always welcomed of course. Anywhere from a handful to 20 people show up. There's some regulars and floaters, and we love everyone as family. Which doesn't mean we all get along or agree. It's a real community with real discussion on real things.

My personal moral moves me to try to purchase local (minimally US, preferably Texas grown) and/or organic for the meal. I never buy from Wal-mart. In the beginning I bought from Kroger because it was close, but half-way through the semester I tried to rely on Sprouts, which isn't a local company, but has more to offer on organics and US Grown produce.

Personally, I am called to be a vegetarian for several reasons, the top reason being the effect on the environment. Many say that being vegetarian (even better, vegan) has a more positive effect on the environment than not driving a car.

I also like eating with the seasons. Instead of fighting against what the earth is more willing to provide, eating what is in season is a focus in my personal home-stock as well as with the meals at the Wesley.

Working with all of these concepts, their new Community Garden, and more- we are officially calling the mealtime Sustainable Table. We want to create an intentional community surrounding sustainability in all aspects of life.

I'm really excited to plan, prepare, and serve these meals. It is certainly a challenge! I have a budget where the average meal does not cost more than two or three bucks. Believe it or not, it's possible!

Here's a pic of the first Sustainable Table meal! I am going to start making pie charts of each meal to show exactly what is what. This meal included about 1/3 of each Local/Texas, Organic, and Neither. The goal of course is at least all local and/or organic. We'll see how I do this Thursday! Tomorrow is shopping day.

The Urban Conversion

This blog is about to change shape. Not only have I moved locations (several months ago mind you), but as expected my habits have gone through such turbulence for many reasons.

Now living in Fort Worth, Texas, the sources of struggling to eat local and healthy have changed. How spoiled was I to have an entire market (open all year!) but a few miles from my house which sourced produce, eggs and other fresh foods only from Texas?

Here we have Farmer's Markets and CSA's such as Cold Spring's Farm. Yes, you can go to these weekly to pick up your local and/or organic produce and other items, but as far as I know this is mostly a weekend activity. I was going to the Benbrook Traffic Circle farmer's market fairly regularly, tagging along knitting while Garold sold Avoca Coffee.

We have a Central Market and Sprouts here. I am lucky to have these great stores surrounding me, carrying organic, semi-local (mostly USA sourced) produce, some local produce when in season, and other gourmet and specialty items. Central Market however is located off I-30; Sprouts is off I-20. I live and dwell in between.

I currently work at Oliver's Fine Foods, which besides a great breakfast place/lunch deli and other things, is an urban grocery. We focus on providing a wide range of items (including produce) for people living downtown.

What I haven't found is what I had in Tyler with East Texas Produce. I miss it. I miss the prices I paid for produce. I miss the challenge of coming back with only sweet potatoes, tomatoes, onions and squash for several weeks in a row and coming up with creative, exciting dishes with the same-ol' same ol' because that was what's in season and that's what I could afford.

There was something about working more with what was available that I miss about my culinary life then. Though now I eat mostly at local restaurants, such as this evening's Caribbean Jerk vegan sandwich from Spiral, my grocery bill seems to be coming from more corporate places such as mentioned above, and not from Texas-local sources. Though my last resorts on non-produce are Kroger and SuperTarget, a lot of my groceries come from Sprouts, Central Market or Fiesta.

I spend a fair amount of time in the Fairmont (...ha) neighborhood, and I feel like something is missing. For an upcoming place such as Magnolia, I feel a calling. My main "calling" is towards justice in the food & farming industry- dealing with the issues of responsibly farming (working with season, towards organics, fair wages and conditions for workers, etc.) and financial availability (there are lots available at markets... but who can afford to source everything from boutique farms?). Dealing with "food wasted" or rather "wasted food" and re-sourcing this is also in the mix.

Something must be done. I'm thinking about being the person who does it. This blog will probably be logging all sorts of things I am considering for the future, and I would love*love*love comments.

(As always, I should probably work on editing.)

Current Veggies at East Texas Produce

Well, well! Good news! Spring is in full swing. My friend at the East Texas Produce on HWY 31 says their crops were not negatively effected by the tornados OR drought. They have a drip irrigation system, and apparently the strong winds may have done more good by sweeping away the bugs! That's her husbands theory at least.

This time around:

Yellow squash

Cabbage (discounted to 29 cents a pound!)

Sweet potatoes

Eggs

Onions

CORN (from San Antone)

Tomatoes

Broccoli

She said there will be even more stuff coming in the next two weeks. Texas cantaloupes and watermelons will be making their debut. She said her personal farm will have tons of okra and heirloom tomatoes as well. I can't wait!

I realized that when attempting to eat completely local several problems arise. I eat a lot of the same thing. However, I also reflect back on what I ate when I WASN'T trying to eat local.... and I still ate a lot of the same thing! The same cereal, same sandwich, same mac-n-cheese/spaghetti, grilled chicken w/ veggies, you get it!

To eliminate this problem I'm experimenting with different recipes. Not just different recipes but creating a kind of standard cultural dish. When we think about traditional Southern food, it's steak and eggs, chicken-friend steak, mashed potatoes, BBQ, potato salad and cole slaw, that's really about it! We surround ourselves with potatoes (in all sorts of forms) because they grow so well here. I don't want to eat cole-slaw all the time... just because I just don't.

I look at what we think of as the traditional Tex-Mex meal. Something with rice and beans. This is great because 1) purple hull peas grow here and 2) Texas actually does grow rice (Try TexMati, they sell it at Fresh). I don't eat meat anymore so I'm pretty much set there.

I've been thinking about how to incorporate the cabbage on an everyday basis (other than cole-slaw). In many various Asian dishes, cabbage and carrots are put into the rice (much like corn, peppers or tomatoes are in Mexican dishes). Today sautéed some cabbage and onion together and had a "wilty salad" along with my rice and beans. Once the peppers start coming in I think this dish will be irresistible and heartily welcomed as a staple to my diet.

As other veggies rotate in and out of season I'm sure more ideas will as well. Canned things are good too, as I did add some local Peach Salsa made in Gun Barrel that I bought at Brookshires a while back.

Love=Red=Tomato

Wow, I have never been so excited to buy a head of lettuce or broccoli in my life!

Today I dropped by the East Texas Produce Market on Hwy 31 here in Tyler, and was excited to buy the following:

1 head Lettuce

1 head Broccoli

4Gala Apples

4 New Crop Tomatoes

4 huge Grapefruit

1 dozen Local eggs

(all for $12.. you can't ask for better, seriously)

How exciting! They also had plenty of sweet potatoes and sweet yellow onions, but I already had some from the last time I went.

All of these things are Texas grown, and the owners are in direct contact with the farms that they buy from, so according to the lady that runs the market- they're legit! So that is exciting!

The highlight of the experience though was the brief conversation I had with the girl who rang me up at the register. She said, "oh, these tomatoes are AWESOME!" I responded, "Oh yeah? The last ones I bought a couple weeks ago were pretty good too!" What came next was a sort-of coy grin as she tilted her chin inward, looking over her invisible glasses and said, "oh... these are even better!"

If you're getting the image that she was giving me the bedroom eyes, then good! It was exactly like that! I'm not saying that she was hitting on me, but the passion that she had about these tomatoes was... very apparent! This isn't the first time I have encountered a passionate opinion about tomatoes in East Texas. I think it's a love-affair each of us country bumpkins has.

My brain/heart has many a'memory stored of summer tomato love. I can remember going out to my Grandaddy's cousin's house and sitting on the porch slicing into a tomato to test it out. I can remember going down to the garden my family and I made on the farm, my Pawpaw slicing a home-grown with his pocket knife to share between us. I can remember at least once that I took a salt-shaker down to that garden, so I could sprinkle the red deliciousness, and let the juice run down my hands, arms and face. Nothing could be better in a hot, sticky, July heat.

So, it wasn't an alarming experience, this encounter with the cashier lady with this almost devilish grin selling me these tomatoes. They are probably so good their sinful. And I can't wait to try them!

PS- the Gala apples were the crispest I've had from anywhere this year! They were so sweet! I'll probably have to go back and get more this week because I'll eat them to quickly!

Rolling a boulder up a hill

So, I have definitely found it difficult, no, overwhelming, to make this transition into eating local. I knew it would inconvenient, but I did not realize how the inconvenience would snowball into more anxiety and procrastination. This next season of Lent will help me, as I will be giving up a few more things.

On 31 and the East Loop, East Texas Produce has quiet a few things to offer. There's a lot of plants you can buy, and they have their own farm. They offer the following:

Cheddar cheese (I'm not sure where it's from, not their farm though)

Local eggs

Sweet potatoes

Onions

Apples

Peas and Beans

Cabbage

Local canned items- too many to list really! Jam & Jellies and canned veggies, salsas, etc.

They will be offering more things: peppers, okra, squash.. as they come in. They also sell a large variety of pumpkins and other winter squash in the fall!

The greatest thing is everything is decently priced! I think the potatoes are the same price as what Brookshires is! The lady who owns the farm runs the stand with her family. She did mention that she has non-english speaking workers on her land. I will have to inquire more about that and see if they are legal or not. I personally don't mind if they are illegal, but I think they should be getting paid fairly. I used to teach ESL (English as a Second Language) to some Spanish-speaking only students. I remember Carlota (name changed of course) telling me about the lengthy process of getting citizenship. She said she had been on 'the list' for ten years. Her husband had acquired citizenship and worked in a factory for 16 hours every day, without weekends. He only came to class probably 3 times, because he was always tired or working. Oh, and he was probably 55 years old too. You know, the age that many people start thinking about slowing down and retiring in the next 10 years. He was working harder than any dog I've ever seen.

As I step off my soap box, I will add that I am not boycotting Brookshires. They have a Texas Goat cheese that is fabulous! They also sometimes have Jacksonville Tomatoes.

Also, they offer Lamb's Stone Ground Yellow Corn Meal, which makes EXCELLENT corn bread!

More later...

New Blog, New Struggle

Ok Y'all! I'm starting a new, separate blog to take you on a new exciting adventure!

I am going to start eating locally. From this point on, I am only going to eat local foods or foods that I already have. For instance, I just bought a bunch of rice and dried beans the other day. I'm allowed to use the spices and whatever else I already have, because wasting food would be really dumb!

The goal here is a Julie&Julia styled blog about my inevitable struggles and sacrifices about eating locally, as well as a directory where I do find local foods. I am allowed eating at restaurants with friends, as this promotes fellowship. We normally eat at locally owned businesses anyway (with the exception of Julie and my Braum's ice cream run, which I may allow once a month).

As much as I can I will NOT go to either Wal-mart or Brookshires, though if I can't get anything to eat otherwise, I will. I still intend on eating healthily, which includes fruits and vegetables.

Though I see this as very individually beneficial, I hope you join my journey as well. Local farmers need help.

An extension of this project is my commitment to not buy anything new for myself. For example, I cannot buy new clothes (and haven't for... a long time!), but I can buy something from Goodwill. The same goes for books, music, kitchen items, etc. (I can buy new soap though!) The purpose here is not only to save money, but to lessen what goes into the landfill.

One of the hardest sacrifices will be not going to Starbucks for a cup of tea. The tea is not local. The business is not local. The local coffee shops are not open past like 7pm. I don't know how long this will last, but I'm willing to find out!

Tomorrow after church I'll be stopping by a local stand to get some vegetables. Side-goal: find out where I can get local milk and eggs!