localfoodie

You can read an article about our local eating experiences in the May issue of Portland Magazine. It is always exciting to see coverage of the local foods movement in the media and we really enjoyed having the opportunity to share our story as well as some favorite all-Maine recipes!

The first local green veggie of the season has arrived...fiddleheads! For anyone who has not tried these tasty wild greens, drop by the farmer's market this Wednesday and pick some up to sauté with butter and garlic. They make a nice compliment to the sweet over-wintered parsnips that are also available this time of year.

The past few weeks have been busy with traveling so today was the first day I was able to get out and work in the yard. It was wonderful just to be out in the warm sun digging in the dirt. I planted several strawberry plants which already have green berries! Picking season should start in about a month which is none too soon as my frozen berry supply is about gone. This summer we'll certainly be planning our winter food supply more thoughtfully, taking the time to store more summer crops as the season progresses.

It seems strange that we are quickly approaching a year of eating locally. It has become such second nature to us at home, but when we travel we are confronted with so many choices and options that it can become overwhelming, and at times even comical. Last weekend, en route to NY, I ordered a sandwich that actually came wrapped in packaging with the perfectly ironic slogan "eat globally!" It's things like that that make me even more grateful to get home to my kitchen and Maine food supply!

Judging from the green shoots coming up in my yard I think it's safe to say we made it through winter living on our supply of frozen and fermented Maine foods supplemented with items from the Bath winter farmers market, the "eat local all year" group, the Crown of Maine Co-op and my indoor growing/sprouting projects (the lettuce was worth the 4 month wait). It was surprising how much local produce we were able to get consistently through the winter months, including carrots, cabbage, beets, apples, potatoes, and onions. I guess this fall I don't need to buy 100 pounds of potatoes (which we're still eating) in order to have winter food security!

Now we're only a couple weeks away from the Portland farmer's market opening and the growing season kicking into full swing. We visited Broadturn Farm yesterday, where we will be doing our CSA this summer, and picked up some wonderfully sweet overwintered parsnips and fresh eggs. It's exciting to see the fields this time of year, knowing that there is so much in store, and of course so much work to be done.

I wanted to share info about a couple of great events coming up. Next weekend, April 25-27, MOFGA and Space Gallery are presenting Food+Farm which is a weekend of events examining access to sustainable food. More info at: http://www.space538.org/pages/calendar.php

Another exciting upcoming opportunity is a 4-day Certified Healing Food Specialist program, which will run from August 7-10. This class is typically held in NY and CA but I have been working with the group to bring this valuable information to us here in Maine. Learn more and sign up for an informative conference call (on April 22 or 29) at: http://www.immunitrition.com/wst_page16.html

You might think that after nine months on our Maine diet that we would have sampled every local item available, yet it seems that every time we turn around there is something new on our plates. This week we had goat from "Thyme for Goat" which is a collaborative of small family farms raising animals in Dresden, Windsor, Bremen and Waldoboro. We also tried several cheeses from Hahn's End cheese in Phippsburg. Their semi-hard aged "City of Ships" is particularly wonderful. We came home from the Bath Farmer's Market yesterday with dried shiitake mushrooms from Oyster Creek Mushroom Co in Damariscotta. And earlier in the week we were given some dried laver which is harvested by Maine Coast Sea Vegetables in Franklin. The variety of flavors and textures available here in Maine never ceases to amaze me!

Now as I look outside I can see that a new growing season is just about to begin. Things are already pushing up from the ground with the encouragement of longer days. It is exciting to think about the bounty to come, strawberries, sugarsnap peas, cucumbers, greenbeans and so much more. This summer I'll be busy preserving what is in season so that next winter we have a more diverse supply of veggies. We did get a bit tired of root vegetables and cabbage this winter!

I know I haven't posted since we did our fast and detox over the first of Spring. It was a great experience that left us feeling renewed and ready to shake off the winter. It was extremely odd to trade in our standard exemptions of olive oil, nuts and tea for that one week to eat lemons, rice, and fruit juice, but in the end it worked out great. It was rather funny though shopping for those items, there are so few places we go in the store these days that I forget how much stuff there really is!

Links for the food items mentioned above:

http://www.seaveg.com
http://www.oystercreekmushrooms.com
http://www.thymeforgoat.com

Well, it's not my lettuce, but a fruitful trip to the Winter Farmer's Market in Bath this morning yielded a variety of greens including beet greens, lettuce and mesclun mix. Tonight will be the first salad I have made in a long time and will include zucchini, mushrooms and turnips also purchased this morning. What a treat! In addition to salad goods, we came home with apples, goat meat, eggs, carrots, and beets. It is well worth the trip, with two winter dates left: April 5th and 19th. More info at: http://www.bathfarmersmarket.com/indexWin08.html

My lettuce and spinach are growing more quickly as each day gets longer, but my "grow-in-the-dark" endeavors continue to thrive. I have added broccoli and mustard sprouts to my cabinet garden, as well as kombucha! My first batch, pictured above, is almost complete. Kombucha is a fermented beverage made with tea, sugar and a colony of bacteria and yeast, often referred to as a "mushroom". It is always fun to find new fermentation projects and this one has been particularly exciting. I was fortunate to receive a "baby mushroom" as well as starter liquid and instructions from a member of the Foodnow buying club. The starter mushroom settled close to the bottom of my jar and a new "baby" mushroom has begun to appear on the surface over the past 8 days. Visit http://www.happyherbalist.com/ for more info on making kombucha and let me know if you are interested in a starter! Living foods offer so many health benefits and this ancient beverage, which has been consumed for over 2000 years, is another example of a wonderful probiotic food that you can grow at home.

It's hard to believe that the first day of Spring is less than a week away. We will be starting the new season with a two day fast, followed by a five day detoxification. Internal "spring cleaning" seems like a perfect way to transition out of the slump that comes with a long, snowy winter. We will be swapping our local food exemptions (nuts, tea, olive oil) that week to accommodate the particular detox we have chosen. It looks like rice, lemon, and some type of fruit juice will become our temporary non-local items. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to find a detox that called for coffee!!

Well, so far my career as an indoor gardener isn't exactly taking off. It's been 2 months since I planted my "winter greens" and I have enough spinach and lettuce to make one small side salad. Granted, I could probably be coaxing them along faster with a grow light but using electricity to grow mid-winter lettuce in Maine doesn't seem much different than burning fossil fuel to truck in California produce. So while I await my late Spring lettuce harvest I have taken up sprouting seeds which is an amazingly fast and easy way to get some fresh green foods with no sunlight required! All you need is a glass jar, a fairly warm dark spot, some water and about 4 days to generate a great batch of fresh, crunchy sprouts. Seeds can be ordered from Johnny Seeds in Winslow, Maine and they have several varieties including alfalfa, broccoli, mustard and more. Check out their selection and instructions (you have to look at the details on each variety to see the directions) at: http://www.johnnyseeds.com/catalog/subcategory.aspx?category=1&subcategory=543

My next "jar growing" project involves a kombucha starter that I am getting on Friday to ferment my own kombucha tea. More info to follow on that once I get started. I have to say it's been amazing to experience so many new things that have been grown, fermented, cultured or otherwise created in my kitchen over the past 8 months and to know that there are still so many things to try. I just picked up a great book called Wild Fermentation that cold keep me busy for years!

In addition to interesting things growing in my kitchen, we are still eating lots of stored potatoes, carrots, cabbage, onions, apples and squash. The freezer continues to yield flavors of summer including pesto, strawberries and blueberries. Our meat supply seems like we've barely put a dent in it, but we expected that a quarter of a cow and pig would last us a full year. We are currently researching meat options for 2008. We ordered half a pig again from Broadturn Farm, but they have ceased their poultry CSA, and we just heard from O'Donnells farm that they are not offering shares of grass feed beef this year. Fortunately the list of places to purchase local meats continues to grow. In addition to the Farmer's Market or "eat local all year" group, several small markets throughout greater Portland are stocking their freezers with local beef, chicken and pork, including Rosemont Bakery, Lois' Naturals, Royal River, and Fat Baxters. It's exciting to witness retailers increasing local offerings because it can only mean that more people are buying them!

I was compiling this list of Maine food related links and Yahoo groups for someone and I thought I'd post it here to share.

Portland Buying Club
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foodnowbuyingclub/
http://www.crownofmainecoop.com
http://www.unitedbuyingclubs.com

Portland Co-op Development
http://www.portlandfoodcoop.org
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/portlandfoodcoop

Eat Local All Year
eatlocalallyear@gmail.com
Email and ask to be put on the list which is being organized by Thirty Acre Farm. An availability list goes out by email of their available products as well as many other farms including Freedom Farm, Goranson Farm, Maine-ly Poultry and Townhouse Farm. You place your order by email and then items are dropped off in Monument Square every other Wednesday. They really have kept the Farmer's Market alive all winter with this endeavor.

Slow Food
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/slowfoodportland

Maine Eat Local Foods Coalition
http://www.eatmainefoods.org/
(new networking site) http://eatmainefoods.ning.com

MOFGA
http://www.mofga.org
Resources CSA/Local Food finder http://www.mofga.org/Resources/FindLocalFoods/tabid/221/Default.aspx

Get Real Get Maine
http://www.getrealgetmaine.com

Maine Foods Network
http://www.mainefoods.net/

Maine Feeds Maine
http://snakeroot.net/mffm/mainefeedsmaine/

Portland Permaculture Group
http://permaculture.meetup.com/58/

I had the opportunity to explore two wonderful local co-ops this past weekend during a trip up the coast. The Belfast Food Co-op is clearly a community gathering hot spot. There were many people shopping among the tall shelves and we were lucky to get the last seat in the cafe. The atmosphere was very welcoming and the soup was fantastic! The next day we visited Good Tern Co-op in Rockland which is a gem of a place. The music, natural light, and well organized stock made it such a pleasure to be there. They had great selections of Maine products, including a wide variety of local meats. I could have spent the whole day there but had to content myself with taking a copy of their newsletter to read in the car on the way home.

Both of these stores are wonderful examples of what a co-op can be and the momentum for a Portland Co-op is clearly building. But in the meantime, the food buying club is offering a wonderful alternative to big store shopping. There will be a meeting next Wednesday 2/27 at the Munjoy "Hill House" (92 Congress St, Portland) to introduce people to the process for ordering through the food clubs. I would encourage anyone interested to check it out. The club is an offshoot of the Co-op development group so a groundswell of interest in the buying club will speak to the demand for additional consumer choice in Portland.

As February flies by, I would have to say that I am finally getting tired of squash and potatoes. My indoor lettuce is finally making what could be considered bite sized leaves, but all together they would make a scant salad. I'm hoping that as the days get longer they will grow a little faster! In the meantime I'm sprouting alfalfa to get a little fresh green in us and next summer you can bet on the fact that I'l be freezing green beans and broccoli!

Despite the snow falling (again) today, people are clearly starting to think Spring. We just came home from the Portland CSA Fair where a steady crowd was learning from different farmers about options for locally grown food. We have already signed up with Broadturn Farm again this year for our veggies and pork, but are still looking for a replacement to their poultry CSA which they have discontinued. We did find at least one option today with Deri Farm in North Yarmouth who does offer pre-order chickens.

This week we received our first order of food from the Crown of Maine Co-op: Maine grown oats, apples and chevre. The process with the buying club went very smoothly and I think that they had about 20 people who ordered this month. The club also orders from United Natural Foods through their catalog. Info on the buying clubs can be found by joining the yahoo group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foodnowbuyingclub/

We've been doing a bit of traveling lately which cuts into our local eating, but at home we are still contented locavores. We have not had to contend with any shortage of local food yet this winter thanks to many efforts of local farmers and merchants. In fact we overbought on some items in anticipation of limited supplies and now I have potatoes with bigger sprouts than my lettuce seedlings! A big pot of potato soup is definitely in order tonight!

A couple more events to pass along...

Farm to Consumer Teleconference with Joel Salatin
(For those who have read the Ominvore's Dilemma, this is the farmer that runs Polyface Inc, the farm that Michael Pollan spends week on and talks about in the book.)

Bringing Farmers to the Plate
The Challenge of rebuilding the local food web through farmer cooperation and consumer awareness
January 30, 2008
https://www.ptfassociates.com/secure/ftcldf/seminar_signup.html


RETHINKING THE WAY WE EAT
Presented by Roger Doiron

Part 1: Are We Going to Scarborough Fare? Or put another way “Are we heading towards a vibrant local foods system in Scarborough?” The reasons for moving towards more locally-sourced foods are numerous. We will be exploring these reasons – health, culinary, environmental, community, economic - in depth over the course of our four part series. In part one of our series, we will frame the discussion by looking at briefly at the town’s agricultural and maritime past, where we are now, and ahead at some of the forces that require that we rethink the way we eat. Roger Doiron will set the stage for the series with an entertaining and provocative multimedia look at food.
Founder and director of Kitchen Gardeners International Roger Doiron and the Friends of Scarborough Library invite you to join others and take a hands-on approach to localize our food supply.

Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Scarborough Library, 48 Gorham Road in Scarborough
http://www.library.scarborough.me.us/calendar.html

We took a trip up to Bath this weekend to check out the Winter Farmer's Market that is being held the first and third Saturdays and were rewarded with an assortment of fresh produce including apples, mushrooms and kale. There were about a dozen farmers and vendors selling meats, cheeses, honey and beeswax products, dried cranberries, bread and more. While in the area, we took the opportunity to stop in at Morning Glory Foods in Brunswick which also proved to be a fabulous place with a great assortment of items for the appetite as well as the home and body. In addition to clearly labeled local produce, they had Mother Oven breads which are baked in a wood fired oven in Bowdoinham and lots of other local items. (FOJ - Can you convince them to open a satellite location in Portland? We really need a store like that!)

On the way home we stopped to check out the folks in Freeport at the Cold River Distillery and left with a big bottle of Maine potato vodka. They grow all their potatoes in Fryeburg and ferment them to 192 proof alcohol in small batches at the distillery in Freeport. We dropped in and got a tour on the spot learning how 15 pounds of potatoes can find their way into a 750ml bottle that packs a mighty punch! We made our own version on Maine Apple Martinis with some cider...finally a local martini!

This past week the Portland Food Co-op Group held a well attended forum to engage the community with their progress and plans toward a storefront co-op. It is an exciting project that will take some time to complete. Hopefully they will be able to continue moving it forward as it would be a very welcome addition. For those of you who can't wait till a storefront opens, and want an alternative way to buy food now, there is a buying club making group purchases from Crown of Maine Co-op and United Natural Foods. You can join at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/foodnowbuyingclub/ and will get schedules and information on splitting orders emailed to you.

RECIPE: Maine Beef Stroganoff
1 lb ground beef
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced (I used baby bellas from the Bath Farmers Market)
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp whole what flour
1 cup cream
1/2 creme fraiche

Brown beef, add onions and mushrooms, cover and let simmer (lots of liquid will come out of the mushrooms)
In a separate pan, make a cream sauce. Melt butter, stir in flour, gradually add cream. Bring to simmer while stirring.
Combine cream sauce into beef mixture.
Add seasonings to taste (Sea salt, pepper, whatever you like).
Stir in creme fraiche and heat through.
Serve over noodles, rice, potatoes, toast.

Hand Cut Maine Wheat Egg Noodles
(This is easier than it sounds)

About 2 cups whole wheat flour
3 eggs
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt

Mix all the ingredients together. I started in my mixer with a dough hook, but it is a pretty dry dough so it wouldn't ball up but it made mixing it the rest of the way by hand easier. You will need to adjust a little based on how big your eggs are. You want it all to come into a ball when you squeeze it together with your hands. Add flour or oil to adjust. It shouldn't be wet or sticky. Knead on floured surface until elastic and let rest 30 minutes.

Roll out with a rolling pin to about the width of a spaghetti noodle and cut into strips with a pizza cutter. Hang to dry at least 15 minutes before cooking. Add to boiling salted water and cook about 3 minutes, depending on thickness.

As the availability of local food items has changed with the calendar, many items have come and gone from our dining table. Preservation is one way to ensure variety year round, but there are several foods that cannot be frozen, canned, dehydrated or fermented in a way that even remotely resembles their fresh self. So despite the gallons of apple sauce that I have frozen, it seems particularly sad to come to the end of our fresh apple supply. Our fresh produce stockpile now consists of potatoes, carrots, parsnips, beets, cabbage, celery root, and squash. I suppose if I picked every leaf off my lettuce and spinach sprouts I could probably come up with a bite of salad to add to the list as well, but I think I'l wait on that!

The vegetable fermenting last weekend was a success and yielded 5 quarts of a tasty (despite the powerful aroma) carrot, cabbage and ginger mix. I did learn this week that it is probably not a good choice for taking to work as people were congregating outside my office trying to identify the smell. When a co-worker mistakes part of your lunch for a propane leak it is probably time to limit that particular batch to in home consumption!

There are several local eating events coming up over the coming months. The first of which is a community meeting this week regarding a Storefront Co-op in Portland. This would provide an independent and community driven alternative to the large corporate stores currently dominating the majority of food sales in Portland. If you are interested in learning more, the meeting will be held at the Williston West Church at 32 Thomas Street in Portland. January 15th, 7-9pm (snow date: 1/22)

CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Fair
Sunday, February 10 from 1 to 4 p.m.
Last year’s event was so popular that MOFGA, Maine Council of Churches and Slow Food Portland have decided to host the event simultaneously in Portland (First Parish Church, Parish House, Congress St.), Hallowell (St. Matthews Episcopal Church on the Town Green), Lewiston/Auburn (location to be determined), and Bangor (location to be determined). Admission is free for farms and the public. For more information, contact Beth Richardson, Slow Food Portland Events Committee at info@slowfoodportland.org

Food for Thought, Thoughtful Food
Presentations and community discussion on issues of sustainable agriculture and local food.
Freeport Community Center, 53 Depot Street, Freeport, ME 04032
Jan. 24, Feb. 28, Mar. 20, Apr. 17
6:30 to 7 pm, Reception with Local Food Sampling, 7 pm - 8:30 pm, main presentation
There is a suggested $5 donation at the door.
For More Information: Wolfe’s Neck Farm, 865-4469

Freeport, ME (January, 2008). Rising energy costs have increased the cost of producing and shipping food, which has raised the prices we all pay at the market. Maintaining local farms and gardens for a source of our food is part of the solution to the problem. The choices we make as consumers have far reaching effects on the survival of local farms, the health of the environment, and the security of our food supply. Wolfe’s Neck Farm presents “Food for Thought, Thoughtful Food,” a series of four events for the community to explore creating sustainable ties between the food we eat and the place we live. The presentations with public discussion will be at the Freeport Community Center, 53 Depot Street, Freeport, from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. on Thursdays, January 24th, February 28th, March 20th, and April 17th. There will be a reception featuring local food producers and sampling at 6:30 p.m. before each event: January’s event will feature When Pigs Fly Bakery; February, The Broad Arrow Tavern; March, Buck’s Naked Bar-B-Q, and April, Azure Café.

The first event, “Be a Bee Hero: Beekeeping for Beginners” on January 24th addresses honeybees and the buzz about Colony Collapse disorder and its potential effects on over a third of our food supply. This presentation is geared towards those with an interest in doing something practical to help maintain a healthy honeybee population in Maine. This event is timed so that those who would like to keep bees in 2008 can get started right away since midwinter is the time to order new bees. Rickie Cooper, one of Maine’s two master apiarists, and past president of the Maine beekeeping association, will bring his brand of wit, wisdom, and experience to this presentation on working with bees.

The series continues on February 28th. Russell Libby, of Three Sisters Farm in Mr. Vernon, and the Executive Director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) will present, “A Face, A Place, A Taste— Building a Local Food System.” He will present practical suggestions how we might work together to grow a more local organic food system.

The average distance food travels from farm to consumer is estimated to be 1,500 miles. How about if some of that could travel less than 15 steps? On March 20th, Roger Doiron, the Founding Director of Kitchen Gardeners International will present, “A Subversive Plot: Bringing the Local Foods Revolution into Your Own Backyard.” This provocative and eclectic presentation is for gardeners, food lovers, and other people concerned with their health and that of the planet. Roger works as an advocate to promote vibrant local, state, and regional food systems through his work with the Eat Local Foods Coalition (ELFC) and the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group (NESAWG).

Globalizing agribusiness, with its emphasis on efficiency and short-term profit, has created a high-input, mechanized agriculture increasingly exported to the developing world. The final presentation will be April 17th. Dr. Rick Clugston will present, “Strengthening More Humane and Sustainable Food Systems: Challenges and Opportunities.” Dr. Clugston is the director of the Center for Respect of Life and the Environment, an affiliate of the Humane Society of the United States. This presentation will describe the destructive side of industrial agriculture, epitomized in "factory farms." It will also explore how we can support more local, fair trade, humane, organic, carbon neutral, and food system worker supportive alternatives through individual and institutional food choices, and through critical policy shifts at the global, national and local levels.

There is a suggested $5 donation for each event, and reservations, while not required, are suggested, as the event was well attended this past year. For more information call Wolfe’s Neck Farm at 865-4469.

In stark contrast to the wintry scene outside my window, I have tiny green shoots breaking through soil in containers on my sun porch. With any luck these little sprouts will yield a few lettuce and spinach leaves in February!

I also have new life activity in my kitchen cabinet where jars of carrots and cabbage are actively fermenting (as evidenced by the aroma that fills my kitchen whenever I open the doors). They were produced as part of a group effort this weekend where 5 of us prepared about 25 quarts of veggies to extend the fresh veggies still available well into the winter. It will be interesting to see how these batches turn out as they were done with a culture starter as opposed to whey which is the only method I have ever used. It was a fun group endeavor and made me think that when people used to store more food, there were probably many more gatherings like the one we had, where the work, cost and end product are shared. It is a nice way to build community.

Thanks to those of you who tuned in to hear me on Big Talk this week. It was a lot of fun to do the show and my hosts were very pleasant to work with. I have a recording of the interview which I will try to figure out how to post sometime this week. In addition to my first foray into radio, I gave an interview this weekend to a woman writing a book about connections between farms, food, and eating in Maine. It's exciting to see so many people interested and spreading the word about the many benefits of eating locally!

It doesn't seem possible, but we are only a couple days away from six months of local eating. I never expected that we would have continued so long, but it has simply become a way of life and now it would be harder to stop than to keep going. So we'll start the new year grateful for a full freezer and for the hardworking farmers who produced such a wonderful bounty this year to sustain us.

I am also particularly thankful these days for the farmers who are endeavoring to extend the farmer's market through the winter. Freedom Farm and Thirty Acre Farm have been taking email orders and doing bi-weekly drop offs in Portland. They are a great source for local foods and the fact that I was able to buy fresh local carrots in the middle of December is nothing short of miraculous. Hopefully the year-round market concept will generate enough interest that other farmers will consider growing more storage crops so they can continue their sales in the winter months. I'm planning to visit the newly established Bath winter farmer's market at some point in January to see how it is working out up there.

Another project that is under development here in Portland is a food cooperative. The group who is working on it is holding a community forum on January 15th to give an update on their progress and solicit input from the community. I plan to attend as I feel that a coop would be a huge benefit to Portland and another way to support local farmers. Meeting is January 15th, 7-9pm (snow date: 1/22) at Williston West Church, 32 Thomas Street. Visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/portlandfoodcoop/ for more info.

Wishing everyone a new year filled with peace and happiness (and local food)!

By the way, anyone interested in hearing even more of my ramblings on local eating can tune in this Thursday, Januray 3rd, at 7:30 pm to WMPG radio (90.9 FM) where I will be the guest on Big Talk. You can stream it online at: http://wmpg.org/include/listenlive.htm

I have heard from several people wondering exactly what we're eating these days so I thought this weekend I'd do a throwback to the summer (sorry it doesn't come with warm weather) when I was posting daily menus and the origins of all ingredients. Supplies have obviously changed quite a bit since then and of course we continue to find new local items all the time. Today I purchased a cheese we had never tried before, "Gloriana" by Nezinscot Farm in Turner. http://www.nezinscotfarm.com/ It is a hard cheese, made with goat and cow's milk, that should go nicely with the pesto I have frozen from the summer basil crop. It is available locally at K. Horton Specialty Foods in the Portland Public Market House.

I'd also like to make a quick mention and extend my thanks again to the Portland Permaculture Meetup Group http://permaculture.meetup.com/58/ who hosted me this week for a presentation on local eating. It is always great to gather feedback and share ideas with people interested in sustainable living. I was stuck by one observation in particular that we as a society must be pretty far off track if something as natural as eating local foods has become a phenomenon or a political statement. How true.

Here's the weekend Menu:

Friday Dinner
Cheeseburger soup - recipe below

Saturday Breakfast
Potato Pancakes - recipe below
Apple sauce (made from Ricker Hill apples and Uncle's Farm cranberries. Previously frozen)
Creme Fraiche (made from Smiling Hill cream)
Bacon (Freedom Farm)

Saturday Lunch
Leek Soup (Previously frozen. Recipe in 10/29 posting)
Aroostook Wheat bread (Borealis)
Pineland Farm colby jack cheese
Broadturn farm onions, caramelized in butter (Kate's)
Fermented carrots (prepared by Thirty Acre Farm)

Saturday Dinner
Grindstone Neck smoked haddock (available at K. Horton Specialty Foods)
Sunset Acres Farm goat cheese (available at Whole Foods, K. Horton)
Borealis Aroostook Wheat bread
Freedom Farm carrots, with honey/cider (Ricker Hill) glaze
Broadturn Farm beets (fermented)

Sunday Breakfast
Baked custard french toast with blueberries (Borealis Aroostook wheat bread, Libby's farm blueberries, Mainly Poultry eggs, Smiling Hill Farm milk and cream, Maine maple syrup)

Sunday Lunch
Chicken soup (Broadturn chicken, Snell Farm carrots, Chartier & Co potatoes, kitchen grown thyme, Maine sea salt.

Sunday Dinner
Meatballs (O'Donnell beef, Broadturn pork, Mainly Poultry egg, Borealis bread)
Mashed potatoes (Chartier & Co.)
Fermented carrots (prepared by Thirty Acre Farm)

RECIPE: Cheeseburger Soup
This is a very hearty soup that can easily be a main course and all ingredients are still currently available locally.

1lb ground beef (O'Donnells Farm)
3/4 c chopped onion (Broadturn Farm)
3/4 c grated carrots (Freedom Farm)
4 tblsp butter (Kate's)
3 c chicken broth (from Broadturn chicken)
4 c cubed potatoes (c, Steep Falls)
1/4 c whole wheat flour (Maine wheat flour available at Whole Foods)
2 c cubed cheddar (Pineland Farms)
1 1/2 c milk (Smiling Hill)
1/4 creme fraiche (made from Smiling Hill cream)

Melt 1 tbsp butter in large pot. Stir in vegetables and beef, cook until beef is browned. Add broth and potatoes, simmer till potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

In separate pan, melt remaining butter and stir in flour. Add milk stirring till smooth

Gradually add milk mixture to soup. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer. Stir in cheese. When cheese is melted add creme fraiche and heat through. Do not boil.

RECIPE: Potato Pancakes
3 potatoes, peeled and grated with excess liquid squeezed out
1 small onion grated
1 egg
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients and shape into pancakes. Cook in butter over med-low heat till golden.

Last spring when I started considering the Maine diet, I didn't give much thought to the impact it would have on other people. I thought I was undertaking a simple personal project to eat clean food from sources I could identify, but over the past half year the project has taken on a life of it's own and has become much bigger than anything that comes into my kitchen or ends up on my dinner table. It may sound funny, but I feel a growing responsibility to the project to share it with as many people as possible in the hopes of building excitement about local eating in my own community or anywhere that people might be reading this from.

So despite my inclination toward the anonymity of blogging I have started putting things out into the world with my name attached and suddenly opportunities are popping up for me to spread the word. It's exciting and daunting at the same time. You can visit MOFGA to read my guest editorial published this month at:
http://www.mofga.org/Default.aspx?tabid=861 which I'm sure is a big part of the recent flurry of activity, as is an event that I will be speaking at tomorrow night: http://permaculture.meetup.com/58/ Also thanks to fellow blogger Margery Niblock http://margeniblog.typepad.com/ who is making connections for me as well. My locavore life seems to be taking on a life of it's own and I'm happy to be along for the ride! -Alison LePage

With the first winter storm upon us, I have turned my focus toward finding additional resources for local food this winter. We visited Pineland Farms in New Gloucester over the weekend and I was happy to find that in addition to carrying their own line of cheese, they also sell Wolfe's Neck Farm meats, Grandy Oats, and several other Maine-grown products. I was particularly interested in their creamery as we have been enjoying their cheese for some time and have been noticing it for sale in more and more places. The person we talked to said that it is even available at many Hannaford stores. On cheese making days, you can tour the creamery and watch the whole process; a schedule is available at: http://www.pinelandfarms.org/cheese/news.htm.

Saturday was not a cheese making day, but we were able to visit the dairy barn on our own to admire the big Holsteins who were eating hay and listening to country music. The entire scene had a rather comical air to it with, "Take this Job and Shove It" being piped over the speakers, no other humans in sight, and several dozen cows just chewing and gazing at us. It gave me a Gary Larson-ish feeling that they were in the middle of a party, and quickly resumed bovine activity when they saw us coming, forgetting to turn of the stereo in their rush!

Another resource that recently came to my attention is the Bath Winter Farmer's market which starts the 16th of December and runs till April. It will be held the 1st and 3rd Saturdays at the Bath UCC Church, 150 Congress Street from 9-12. Camden and Orono also have winter Farmers Markets but are a bit out of reach geographically. The Public Market House in Portland continues to have some local produce, as does Whole Foods. I've been busy roasting and freezing squash, but my freezer is still desperately lacking in green things! If anyone hears of a year round lettuce supply, please let me know!

The past two days I have been fortunate to participate in the experience of bringing a pig through the entire process from slaughter to table. I have realized in trying to describe it to a couple people that it is difficult to explain without people projecting their own preconceived notions or fears that it would be gruesome or violent, but neither of those emotions were a part of the process for me. It was in fact a deep and satisfying learning experience which left me feeling quite a peace with my own choice to eat animals and my decision to choose animals that I believe are treated well in life and death.

I really had no idea what to expect when I arrived at the farm on Friday, I didn't even know how the animal would be killed. I am not going to be giving a detailed account of the slaughter or butchering here, except to say that the pig died blissfully unaware of what was happening, with his head in a bucket of feed and a single shot between the eyes. What came after that was a great deal of hard work. Over the course of two days several of us worked side by side, focusing on the tasks at hand. I feel that an observer might come away with a different perception, but by participating I quickly realized that once the animal's life was gone, everything else we did was about completing a harvest, ultimately not that different from digging potatoes or milking a cow. It was about bringing food to the table and at the end of the day yesterday when we all sat down and shared in meat from the animal that we had labored over it was a truly gratifying experience.

For those who are interested in the details of the process as well as a few images you can visit the following page: http://web.mac.com/alisonlepage/Site/November_23-24.html

I'm not advocating that this experience is for everyone, but I certainly will hold it as a positive experience that has brought me again closer to my food supply and given me deeper appreciation for how much work it takes to run a farm and produce food for people. (Thanks John & Stacy!)

More good press for the local eating movement...

Locavore is New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year
The word "locavore" has received the esteemed honor of being the New Oxford American Dictionary 2007 Word of the Year. For you non-locavores, the word is defined as "a person who endeavors to eat only locally produced food." It was coined about two years ago by four San Francisco women who popularized the idea of the 100-mile diet. The eco-friendly terminology beat out such worthy contenders as "tase" (to stun with a Taser) and "cougar" (an older woman who romantically pursues younger men).

Source: http://www.grist.org/news/2007/11/16/locavore/index.html?source=rss
(Includes links to a couple articles about the word of the year)

I should have bought a bigger freezer! Our 1/4 cow (from O'Donnnells in Monmouth) and 1/2 pig (from Broadturn in Scarborough) arrived this week, about 100 pounds all together. And yes, for those of you who are wondering, it all came butchered in nice neat little packages.

This coming week I have an opportunity to attend a pig slaughter at our farm. The animal is one that was raised alongside the pig that is now in our freezer. I feel that although it might prove to be an uncomfortable experience, it somehow feels right to lay the whole process bare. I have been able to see many of our meat animals grow and develop this season, but as it is for most people, there is a pretty big disconnect between live animals and the tidy little packages they are presented in at the store or from the butcher. I'm sure that it is a powerful experience to be part of taking an animal's life for food, but I feel that ultimately it is another opportunity to deepen my connection with the food I eat.

I bought what will probably be about the last of my local veggies yesterday at the Farmer's Market. There were only a handful of stands and I picked up a few more squash and root vegetables for my "collection." I have a lot of potatoes at this point and like to use them to make frozen soup starters. I cook them with leeks or carrots, whatever is on hand, and then freeze the mixture to later finish into soup with cheese and bacon, ham, or even fish. It takes a lot of the prep time out of making soup and is a good way to preserve the potatoes. All told, I expect to be able to easily sustain through January on my storeable/frozen/fermented vegetables, and I definitely have enough berries and onions to get through the whole winter. Plus, even though I'll have to buy them at the grocery store, Backyard Beauty tomatoes from Madison are available year round and will be a great supplement over the winter.

We're still milking Dulcie on Tuesdays and her milk has been changing quite dramatically as of late. This past Tuesday what we milked separated into almost half cream, half milk. (Usually in a half gallon jar there is a little over and inch of cream that rises to the top.) Our farmer explained that it could be due to a change in diet from fresh grass to more hay, or if could be hormonal as she was just inseminated and could be pregnant. Either way, it means lots of good butter!!!