Springfield Locavore

What We've Been Eating Recently

We just got back from a trip, visiting with friends and relatives in my old hometown of Centralia, Illinois over the July 4 weekend. As usual, a trip out of town means plenty of non-local food. Worse than that, it means plenty of processed food – potato chips and McDonald's in the car, hotdogs on the grill, sodas with every meal. We should get organized and be better prepared, so that we can eat more local food and less processed food on these trips!

When we're home, we've been eating well! Local potatoes, broccoli, green beans, sweet cherries, sweetcorn, peaches, cheese, milk, butter, blueberries, radishes, garlic, onions, carrots, tomatoes, even homemade ice cream -- we're definitely not starving!

Alas, when I bought cherries at the farmers' market on Thursday, I learned that they were probably the last sweet cherries of the season. :-(

However, to make up for that, I also bought the first sweetcorn of the season! :-) Ah, the excitement of eating seasonally! I love sweetcorn! We'll be eating plenty, of course, but I also need to research what is involved in preserving some for eating this winter.

I also bought one each of about 6 varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Nice! That's another thing we need to research – how to preserve tomatoes and how to make tomato sauce for eventual use on homemade pasta, homemade pizza, etc. I'm sure our friend Patty can tell us plenty about how to can tomatoes.

We also need to research preserving green beans, broccoli, potatoes, peaches, cherries -- lots of stuff! I've got a book, Keeping the Harvest: Discover the Homegrown Goodness of Putting Up Your Own Fruits, Vegetables & Herbs, that I need to start reading. Plus, for some of this stuff, we'll need to buy some equipment, so we'll need to make some decisions soon about that. I guess it's time to get busy!

Today's Lunch

Peaches and the first sweetcorn of the season! Yum!

Incidentally, a good way to cook sweetcorn quickly is to leave it in the husk and microwave it for 2-3 minutes. The husk keeps it moist and (I think) adds additional flavor.

Local Milk is Coming to Springfield!

We’ll be able to buy local milk soon! Real 100–mile local milk, not the semi–local milk from Oberweis Dairy! Woot!

Lindsay Record of the Illinois Stewardship Alliance posted to the Springfield Food Not Lawns mailing list today, saying that Kilgus Farmstead in Fairbury, IL now has a milk processing plant! They’re having a “grand opening” on Saturday. Their milk is pasteurized, but non-homogenized, from pasture-raised Jersey cows free of growth hormones and antibiotics.

The bad news is that Fairbury is nearly 100 miles from Springfield.

The good news is that Robert’s Seafood Market will be carrying their milk! They’ll be getting shipments every Tuesday and Friday, at least initially. I know where I’m going on Tuesday!

Here’s an article with more information about Kilgus Farmstead milk. (They might eventually be selling ice cream! Yum!)

And if you feel like attending their grand opening, here are the details provided by Lindsay Record:

KILGUS FARMSTEAD'S GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION
Saturday, June 20, 10 am - 5 pm
21471E 650N Road, Fairbury, IL
Located 1 mile south of Fairbury on 1st Street

There's something for the entire family:  Farm Tours, Milk, Beef & Ice Cream Samples, Milk a Cow, Bottling Demonstrations, Children's Activities, Farmers' Market and Much More!

 

Tags: locavore, dairy, farm

Day 30 - Peaches!

It showed up in the afternoon — an email from Dawn saying, “I just ate a peach!”

Peaches are here! Dawn went to the farmers’ market this morning, buying 2 quarts of strawberries, 3 pints of blueberries, 1 quart of raspberries, and a half-dozen peaches!

My parents grew peaches in a small orchard on their property, down in southern Illinois. That was about 25 years ago, but I still clearly remember the house smelling like peaches from the dozens of bushels sitting inside, waiting to be taken to a roadside corner to sell. I was spoiled by those fresh peaches, eating them literally moments after they had been picked, so I always look forward to the arrival of peach season! My mom also made peach jelly, which I never appreciated nearly enough at the time.

Two of the peaches are already gone, and so are 1½ pints of blueberries. Dawn won’t eat blueberries (she says that she likes them, but that they don’t like her). However, I love them, and it turns out our son Lando loves them, too!

The strawberry season is starting to wind down, and I must admit that I’m getting a bit burned out on strawberries. At the same time, I know that it will be nearly a year before we get any more, so I can’t stop buying them. We’ve been freezing quite a few, primarily to use in smoothies. I’m not a big smoothie fan, but Dawn and Lando both really like their banana/strawberry smoothies in the morning! Of course, we’re not likely to find local bananas, but at least we can use local strawberries!

Meal Recaps

Breakfast was scrambled eggs and sausage, all local.

Lunch was broccoli, a tomato, bread, and honey, all local except for the bread, which was locally made (Bluestem Bake Shop in Elkhart).

Dinner was mac & cheese (non-local macaroni, but the cheese was from Ropp Jersey Cheese in Normal) and salad (local, except for the dressing), with blueberries for dessert.

Tags: locavore, fruit, food

Days 13 through 29 - Getting Caught Up

I'm back! It's been a ridiculously long time since I've posted here. I'm sorry! (Stupid Sims 3!)

My last post was about May 31, the 12th day of going locavore. Today is the 29th day. So what have we been doing for the last 17 days?

Local Foods

Well, we've been eating plenty of local food, including:

• Breakfast
  • Eggs (scrambled or omelets)
  • Sausage patties
• Lunch and Dinner
  • New potatoes
  • Yukon gold potatoes
    
  • Broccoli
  • Peppers
  • Garlic
  • Snow peas
  • Sugar snap peas
    
  • Butter
    
  • Garlic chives
  • Cheese
  • Carrots
  • Lettuce
  • Basil
  • Tomatoes
  • Green beans
  • Radishes
  • Turnips
  • Spring onions
  • Kohlrabi
  • Zucchini
  • Squash
• Dessert
  
  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Rhubarb

We've also been buying "semi-local" milk (from Oberweis Dairy) and bread mix (from Hodgson Mill).

Cooking

We've been doing quite a bit of cooking. (Actually, most of the cooking is being done by Dawn, but I help!) Meals have included:

• Veggie lasagna (non-local noodles, but local garlic, spinach, kale, chard, onions, peppers, zucchini, and squash) -- Yum!
• Strawberry rhubarb crisp (non-local crust, but local strawberries and rhubarb) -- Delicious!
• Potato soup -- Good, although a bit thick
• Turnip soup -- Frankly, not so great

Our garden is growing fairly well. We even had our first harvest -- some basil, which we used in the lasagna!

Non-Local Moments

Of course, we've also had some very non-local moments. Most notably, we went to a potluck picnic. Actually, to be more precise, we organized a potluck picnic for a club, of which I'm the chairman. In addition to all of the non-local food we ate there (bratwurst or hotdogs, anyone?), we also wound up being the ones to take home whatever unclaimed food was left over (e.g. potato chips, hotdogs, brats). That means we've had a recent influx of junk food into the house. Since Dawn is a vegetarian and Lando is a picky eater (he's 4), that means the brats and hotdogs have been my responsibility to finish up.

We also had an ice cream truck moment. There we were, minding our own business, when suddenly we heard it. "Hello!" If you live in Springfield, you know that sound. Lando immediately declared that he wanted ice cream. We dithered for a few moments -- long enough for the ice cream truck to pass our house and head around the corner -- before (semi-)reluctantly agreeing. Now I just needed to catch up with the ice cream truck! It was probably 3 blocks away before I caught up to it. When I turned around, there was Lando, a block away and running full tilt! I doubt there's anything faster than a 4-year-old chasing an ice cream truck!

I think we also went out to eat a couple of times. Dawn insisted from the beginning that we allow ourselves to eat out twice a week, although we haven't been doing so.

Onward!

So not too bad over the last 17 days. The variety of food we're getting from the CSA on Tuesday evenings and the farmers' markets on Wednesday mornings, Thursday evenings, and Saturday mornings have been keeping things interesting.

Finding a local source of butter was quite helpful, and I think we'll soon be getting some local wheat for grinding into flour. Once we get local flour, we'll be able to make truly local bread, as well as local pasta!

Now that I've given a brief summary to get things caught up, I'll try to avoid falling behind again. One problem I had was, the farther behind I fell, the more effort would be required to get caught up, so I put off posting, falling even farther behind!

I've got photos from the CSA, a tour of Veenstra & Heck's garden, farmers' market stuff, and more! Stay tuned!

It's a Boy!

Okay, I know I'm ridiculously behind on posting stuff here. (Blame it on the recent release of The Sims 3.) However, I did want to make a quick post that Garrick Veenstra (of Veenstra's Vegetables) is now the proud papa of a baby boy! I've no other news than that. Andy Heck was handling the CSA pickup at Decatur, while Andy's friend Nancy was handling the pickup in Rochester, so I got the news from her.

Congratulations, Garrick! As if you didn't have enough to do already!

I promise to write a real post soon!

Day 12 - Local Once Again!

Sunday, May 31, was a day for lazing about the house and recovering from Saturday's trip to the renfair.

One consequence of going to the renfair on Saturday was that we missed the Old Capitol Farmers' Market. Eek! That meant we were running a bit low on some of our local food.

Unfortunately, I forgot to write down what we ate on Sunday and my memory isn't all that great, but I'll give it my best shot.

Breakfast

If I remember correctly, we had eggs and sausage for breakfast. Well, since Dawn's a vegetarian, she just had the eggs. The eggs were from The Lazy T (Dawson, IL, 12 miles NE of Springfield). The sausage patties were from a family farm in Madison County (75 miles south of Springfield).

Lunch

Umm... I don't remember. Salad and tomatoes? Dunno.

Dinner

Mashed potatoes, made with new potatoes from Dyer's Farm (Hillsboro, IL)! Plus local butter from the Vincent Family Farm (Rochester, IL). And of course strawberries from Livesprings Berries & Produce (Chandlerville, IL)

Day 11 - Fair Food!

We spent Saturday, May 30, at the Greater St. Louis Renaissance Fair in Wentzville, MO. If you go back to the Renaissance yourself, you'll find that they apparently imported all of their food from far, far away. We didn't expect to find any local food, and we didn't. Pork sandwiches, sodas, lemon shakeups, brownies -- all of the usual suspects. Of course, they also had turkey legs, but so far I've never been tempted to indulge in that unique renfair delicacy.

They did have homemade ice cream, though, so we had that. I've no doubt that the ingredients were very non-local, but it was the best we could do. And it was delicious!

At the end of the day, we dragged ourselves back to the car and stopped for dinner at St. Louis Bread Company (known around here as Panera Bread). After more non-local food, we were finally ready to drive back to Springfield.

Home at last!

Day 10 - Dinner at McDonald's!

Breakfast

On Friday, May 29, breakfast was rather rushed - cereal with milk from Oberweis Dairy. The last of the milk, by the way, so 3 half-gallon bottles lasted us less than 4 days. Wow!

Lunch

Due to my usual bad planning, I didn't have lunch ready the night before, so I just grabbed a few things on my way out the door - a tomato from Garrett Hydroponics (Chambersburg, IL, 64 miles west of Springfield), bread & butter pickles from Kathy's Kitchen (Virginia, IL), and lots of strawberries from Livesprings Berries & Produce (Chandlerville, IL).

Hydroponics

I have mixed feelings about hydroponics. On the one hand, it's a way to grow food locally when it might otherwise not be possible. On the other hand, I suspect it's fairly energy intensive (although I admit that I haven't researched it at all). More importantly, I find that hydroponic tomatoes just don't seem to match the taste of tomatoes grown in soil. Perhaps it's just psychological, but that's been my experience. Still, a hydroponic tomato for lunch beats going hungry!

Dinner

Dinner was 100% non-local. Actually, it was practically anti-local. McDonald's!

Yes, I know, but we have an excuse. We were traveling. We enjoy going to Renaissance festivals, and this weekend we went to the Greater St. Louis Renaissance Fair in Wentzville, MO. As soon as I got home from work, we finished loading up the car, then headed out. About halfway there, we stopped at a McDonald's in Pittsfield to have dinner.

I was reminded of the opening chapter of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan. The first of the four meals was from McDonald's, eaten in their car as they drove. We at least went into the McDonald's and sat down to eat!

Day 9 - Parkay! Butter! Parkay! Butter! Parkay! Butter!

Breakfast

On Thursday, May 28, for breakfast I had my usual scrambled eggs and toast with honey. The eggs were from Bear Creek Farm & Ranch (Palmer, IL), the semi-local milk was from Oberweis Dairy, the bread mix was from Hodgon Mill (Effingham, IL), and the honey was from Vanderpool Apiary (Arenzville, IL). However, there was one difference....

Parkay! (Not Really)

The butter was local! Whoot! The Vincent Family Farm (Rochester, IL), where I pick up our weekly share from Veenstra & Heck's CSA, actually makes and sells butter! He did warn me that it would only be good for a couple of weeks after we thawed it out, but that's okay. It's local! We had used up the last of the non-local butter, so I was finally able to try it out on my toast. Nice!

One other difference is that, rather than being in quarter-pound sticks, this butter comes in a tub (naturally). That isn't a big deal, but it does mean that if a recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of butter, you won't be able to just cut off the proper length; you'll have to either actually measure 3 tablespoons or make a good guess!

Lunch

Lunch was local green beans (yum!), strawberries from Livesprings (YUM!), and a salad (lettuce and spring onions from the CSA), plus a non-local dressing.

Farmers' Market

The Illinois Products Farmers' Market was back to its normal location this week - the Commodities Pavilion behind the Grandstand on the Illinois State Fairgrounds. I picked up quite a bit of stuff:

• 2 dozen eggs from Lazy T
• 6 quarts of strawberries from Livesprings Berries & Produce (Chandlerville, IL)
• new potatoes from Dyer's Farm (Hillsboro, IL)
• radishes (German giants) from Split Rail Gardens (Riverton, IL)
• breakfast sausage patties from a farm in Madison County, IL
• spring onions from Odelehr's (Brussels, IL)
• zucchini (!) and snow peas from Buds & Blooms (Decatur, IL)

I got plenty of eggs, because I want to let a dozen of them sit for 2-3 weeks before I hard-boil them. Supposedly, it's easier to remove the shell from old eggs than from fresh eggs. It's a bit of a shame to let farm fresh eggs become old eggs, but I really don't like peeling hard-boiled eggs one tiny shell fragment at a time!

I picked up 6 quarts of strawberries because Dawn keeps wanting to freeze some and I keep eating them before she can! I figure 6 quarts will ensure that she gets to at least some of them before I do!

There seemed to be just a single quart of new potatoes in the entire farmers' market, and I got it! The Dyers said that it was the first quart that they had harvested, dug up the night before just to see whether things were ready. It will be nice to add some starches to my diet! You can only eat so much salad! We haven't yet decided what we'll do with them. Fried? Baked? Hmm...

It was also nice to see some zucchini there. I'm not a huge fan of zucchini, but Dawn likes it quite a bit. I primarily like it breaded and fried. Yum! I just picked up one zucchini, so I'll let Dawn decide what we'll do with it.

I'm on the lookout for ways to add variety to my breakfasts. Eggs are nice, but there can be too much of a good thing! The sign by the booth just said "family farm in Madison County". I was running out of time, so I didn't chat long enough to ask the name of the farm and where exactly they were in Madison County. He did say that he'll be back next week, so I'll ask him then. He had plenty of frozen meat products, but the thing that caught my eye was the breakfast sausage patties! Dawn's a vegetarian, so it adds no variety to her breakfasts, but I'll eat them!

Split Rail Gardens (Riverton, IL)

The radishes (German giants) were from Split Rail Gardens in Riverton. I talked to the owner for quite a few minutes about his garden and how he got into it. He said that back in the 1990s he had a U-pick strawberry operation, but that after several years business dropped off as people lost interest in picking their own strawberries. He got out of the business, but then about 10 years later became interested again. With the upsurge of interest in buying fresh, local food, he figured it was a good time to get back into the business. He now has 4 acres, planted with a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, including (from my memory) strawberries, onions, and radishes.

Dinner

Dawn made lasagna! She used non-local lasagna noodles and Wisconsin mozarella cheese, but everything else was local - spinach, kale, chard, green garlic, spring onions, hydroponic tomatoes, plus one special ingredient...

First Harvest

Basil from our garden! Okay, there's not much yet, but there was enough purple basil for Dawn to harvest a few leaves and immediately add them to the lasagna. It doesn't get much fresher than that!