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.