Springfield Locavore

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!

Day 8 - Yes, We DO Have Strawberries! And Green Beans!

Breakfast

On Wednesday, May 27, I had a cheese omelet for breakfast, using eggs from Bear Creek Farm & Ranch (Palmer, IL) and Wisconsin cheese. (I keep mentioning that it was Wisconsin cheese simple because, although it's not local, it at least didn't travel too far to get here!)

Farmers' Market

Dawn made sure that she left for the Old Capitol Farmers' Market early. On Saturday, Livesprings Berries & Produce was out of strawberries by 7:53 - and the market doesn't officially open until 8:00! She wanted to make sure that we got some this time, both for eating now and to freeze for later. Our 4-year-old son Orlando likes to have smoothies made with strawberries and bananas. Bananas almost certainly can't be found locally, but at least we'll have the strawberries!

In addition to the strawberries, Dawn also found green beans! Hooray!

Lunch

Lunch was a salad of lettuce and green garlic from Veenstra & Heck's CSA (Rochester, IL) with non-local dressing. More importantly, I had broccoli! The broccoli came from Dyer's Farm in Hillsboro. Yum! (If you don't get that excited about broccoli, you're probably not a locavore! Well, at least not a locavore that really likes broccoli.)

Dinner

For dinner, we had more broccoli, as well as local green beans! (Sorry, Dawn doesn't recall the source of the green beans.) We also had salad (local lettuce, etc, from Veenstra & Heck's CSA) and sugared pecans from Voss Pecans (Carlyle, IL). We also had semi-local bread made from a mix from Hodgson Mill (Effingham, IL)

Lastly, throughout the day, we snacked on local strawberries - lots of local strawberries - from Livesprings Berries & Produce (Chandlerville, IL).

Day 7 - We Eat Food. And Buy Oberweis Milk

Breakfast

On Tuesday, May 26, I was a bit slow getting moving in the morning, not to mention a bit tired of eggs for breakfast, so I had a very non-local breakfast of cold cereal, albeit with (semi-local) milk from Oberweis Dairy. (See my earlier post about my mixed feelings about Oberweis Dairy milk.)

Lunch

For lunch, I ate the rest of the soup Dawn had made (non-local potatoes and Wisconsin cheese, but local collards and local red spring onions from the CSA). I also had semi-local bread (made in our bread machine, using a bread mix from Hodgson Mill in Effingham, IL) and local honey from Vanderpool Apiary (Arenzville, IL).

CSA Share for Week 2

I'll do a separate post about this week's CSA share. The short version is that it was pretty much the same as the week 1 share, with some minor changes (e.g. green (young) garlic).

Dinner

For dinner, I had a salad, with lettuce and green garlic from Veenstra & Heck's CSA (Rochester, IL), Wisconsin cheese, and non-local dressing.

Shopping

In my last post, I forgot to tell you about getting that Oberweis Dairy milk. On Monday morning, Dawn wanted an omelet for brunch, but we were all out of the last of the (non-local) milk. I started talking about either coming up with something else to eat or else making the omelets without milk, but Dawn insisted that the eggs were much better with milk. And she wanted her omelet! So we decided that I would stay home with our son Orlando (it was Memorial Day, so I had the day off), while she made a quick trip to the supermarket.

After she went into the garage, I realized that she had forgotten the cloth shopping bags. I grabbed them up and dashed out the door to catch her before she left. She gave me a puzzled look.

"I already have a bag," she said.

"Sure, but... Well, aren't you going to buy anything else while you're there?"

"None of it's local," she replied.

Oh. Yeah. Old habits die hard!

Day 6 - Omelets and Broccoli!

Brunch

Monday, May 25, was Memorial Day. My dad and step-mom had finished visiting, and I had the day off work, so that meant we could have a nice, relaxed day at last! Actually, it was such a slow day that by the time we had breakfast, it was nearly lunch time!

So, for brunch we had cheese omelets. The eggs were from Triple S Farms (Stewardson, IL) and Bear Creek Farm and Ranch (Palmer, IL). The cheese was from Wisconsin. Dawn is a big fan of cheese; we'll get more adventurous with what we put in our omelets later. By the way, we do have cheese from Ropp Jersey Cheese. We're just using up the non-local stuff.

Dinner

For dinner, we had non-local pasta and the first local broccoli of the year! I bought the broccoli on Thursday at the Illinois Products Farmers' Market at the Fairgrounds, but I can't remember exactly which booth had it. It might have been Dyer's (Hillsboro, IL, 50 miles south of Springfield), but I wouldn't swear to it. They only had 2 smallish heads, but they were the only broccoli that I had found, so I bought both of them!

Getting broccoli was exciting because (a) I was getting tired of salads, and (b) broccoli is one of the vegetables that our 4-year-old son Orlando will actually eat!

Day 5 - Local(ish) Lunch, Dinner Not So Much

Breakfast

Sunday, May 24, began with a very non-local breakfast - cold cereal. My dad and step-mom were in town visiting, and I knew that I needed to get the lawn mowed before they arrived for breakfast. With all of the rain we've been getting, you can't pass up any opportunity to beat the grass back into submission! That's one thing about convenience foods - they're convenient! Plus, frankly, I was getting tired of scrambled eggs!

Lunch

When my dad and step-mom arrived, we had lunch on the front porch - cheese sandwiches, salad, and strawberries. The strawberries were local, as was the salad. The bread was made in our bread machine, using bread mix from Hodgson Mill, a company located in Effingham, IL (85 miles southeast of Springfield). Is the wheat they use local? Probably not, but it's as local as we can get at the moment. The cheese was from Wisconsin. The salad dressings were not local.

Dinner

For dinner, we invoked the social exemption and had dinner with them at Baker's Square. I had a BLT and fries. Well, at least all of the ingredients could have been local, even though they almost certainly weren't.

The next day they were heading back to Texas, so that was it for the social exemption for awhile!

Day 4 - Yes, We Have No Strawberries

Breakfast

Saturday, May 23, began with a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast. As before, the eggs were from Triple S Farms (Stewardson, IL, 77 miles SE of Springfield), and the honey on the toast was from from Sasse's Apiary (Chestnut, IL, 88 miles NW of Springfield). The bread, butter, and the milk were all non-local.

Market

I then made a quick trip to the Old Capitol Farmers' Market. My main targets were strawberries and green beans. I struck out on both counts. The guy at the Living Springs Berries and Produce booth told me that they sold out of their 35 flats of strawberries at 7:53 AM. Did I mention that the farmers' market doesn't officially open until 8:00 AM? The last of the green beans were gone by 8:30 AM. The trip wasn't a complete loss, however, as I got sugared pecans from Voss Pecans (Carlyle, IL, 90 miles south of Springfield), snow peas, and broccoli. Where did the snow peas and the broccoli come from? Well, I wrote that information down on a piece of paper, which I then cleverly lost. *sigh*

Food Not Lawns Talk

The reason the trip was rather quick was that I was scheduled to speak to the Springfield Food Not Lawns group at 9:30 at Lincoln Library. The title of my talk was "My So-Called Locavore Life". (I'll post a link to the PowerPoint file here as soon as I can figure out a way to do so!) I had briefly met Carrie and Don Moorman, the organizers of the group, at Meet Your Local Producers. Due to conflicts with my work schedule, I hadn't been able to attend a Food Not Lawns meeting before. The turnout wasn't especially large, which wasn't surprising given that it was 9:30 on a Saturday morning, but everyone was quite interested in the topic and I had a good time.

When I was preparing the talk, I was worried that it would be too short. ("Let's see. 44 slides, 30 seconds per slide, that's only 22 minutes. Hmm... I better ramble a bit.") Well, I rambled alot! Somehow I talked for over 2 hours about:

• how I became interested in becoming a locavore;
• my first steps last spring and summer;
• how things got sidetracked by the house purchase;
• our intentions to resume the project this year;
• the various reasons I have for becoming a locavore;
• and local resources for locavores.

Anyway, I enjoyed it, and I think everyone else did, too. However, if I ever give this talk again, I definitely need to ramble quite a bit less!

Lunch

For lunch, we had a salad, with strawberries and sugared pecans for dessert. The lettuce, chives, and radishes were all local, from Veenstra & Heck's CSA (Rochester, IL). The sugared pecans were from Voss Pecans (Carlyle, IL, 90 miles south of Springfield). I'm sure the sugar on the pecans wasn't local, but I won't quibble; they're good! The strawberries were also local, although I don't recall from where. The cheese on the salad wasn't local, but it was from Wisconsin, which isn't too far away. (After it's gone, we'll be using cheese from Ropp Jersey Cheese (Normal, IL) and other local sources.) The salad dressing was non-local.

Visitors!

Later that afternoon, my dad and stepmom arrived for a visit from Texas. We invoked the "social exemption" and went out to dinner with them at Panera Bread, where I had the Bacon Turkey Bravo sandwich and drank a Mountain Dew.

"Social Exemption?"

I probably ought to post a page here explaining what our "rules" are. For us at least, becoming a locavore isn't intended to be a religious conversion. Eating something non-local isn't meant to be a sin! So we have some "exceptions" or "exemptions". The most obvious one is that we're still using up any non-local food that's already in the house. And Dawn won't be giving up her chocolate, coffee, or tea. (I probably won't be giving up my oranges, although I won't buy them in the dead of winter!)

In addition, we have a "social exemption": When going out with friends or family, or when eating at their house, enforcing locavore restrictions just isn't practical. After all, part of my motivation for becoming a locavore is improving community ties; if we can't socialize with people, that sort of defeats the purpose! Dawn also wants an exemption for one lunch and one dinner out each week.

Of course, if there are too many exceptions, then you're not really being a locavore! We haven't really chiselled our rules in stone yet. I think we're both sort of feeling our way a bit to get a better feel for what we really can't do without.

In any case, as I said, this isn't intended to be a religion. There are benefits to being a locavore. We're just trying to make the changes needed to make those benefits a reality.

Day 3 - We Sacrifice a Pizza

Friday, May 22, was the 3rd day.

For breakfast, I had scrambled eggs and toast. The eggs were from Triple S Farms (Stewardson, IL, 77 miles SE of Springfield), and the honey on the toast was from from Sasse's Apiary (Chestnut, IL, 88 miles NW of Springfield). The bread, butter, and the milk were all non-local.

For lunch, I reheated some of the soup that Dawn had made the night before. This was mostly made from non-local ingredients: potatoes and vegetable broth, but with local collards and local red spring onions from Veenstra & Heck's CSA (Rochester, IL, 7 miles SE of Springfield), as well as cheese from Wisconsin (not local, but at least regional!). And for dessert, local strawberries!

For dinner, we ceremoniously ate the last frozen pizza. Well, okay, there really wasn't much ceremony involved. (om nom nom nom!) Dawn had a bad day, so it seemed like a good excuse.

Food Fantasies makes "Roll Your Own" pizza dough, which is just a refrigerated pizza dough that you roll out, then add your choice of tomato sauce, cheese, and toppings before cooking. I'm sure the flour isn't local, but it might be a "close enough" way to have pizza if we can't locate local flour.

No, Being a Locavore Hasn't Killed Me

Sorry for the long silence! The Memorial Day weekend was a bit busy, so I've fallen behind in posting. I'll try to get all caught up this evening. Stay tuned!

Day 2 Results

"Are you on your way home?" That was Dawn on my cell phone.

"Yeah," I said, "I went to the farmers' market out at the fairgrounds, remember?"

"Okay, well, I've got soup on the stove."

Oops! Okay, she forgot about the Illinois Products Market on Thursdays, and I forgot that she was making soup for dinner. Luckily I didn't get home too late and the soup was still hot!

So here's how day 2 of the locavore challenge went.

Breakfast was pretty much identical to yesterday: Local eggs, (this time both from Bear Creek Farm and Ranch and from Triple S Farm, near Stewardson, IL, about 80 miles east of Springfield), scrambled with non-local milk; non-local toast and butter with local honey (from Sasse's Apiary, in Chestnut, IL, about 95 miles northwest of Springfield). Luckily Dawn went to the Old Capitol Farmers' Market on Wednesday and bought some more eggs, because we were down to the last 2 from Bear Creek! (Triple S Farm, incidentally, is the possible source of wheat that I mentioned yesterday.)

While I was making breakfast, I realized that I had forgotten to prepare my lunch the night before, so I had to quickly throw together a salad. I only had time for buttercrunch lettuce and red lettuce, from Veenstra & Heck's CSA, leaving out the radishes, onions, and chives that I had added the previous time. In addition to the salad (with non-local dressing), I had local strawberries for dessert. Yum! Dawn had picked them up at the farmer's market on Wednesday, and they were very good! Strawberries are coming in fairly early this year, since we didn't have a late frost. On the other hand, sweet corn is going to be late, because it's been so wet!

The soup that Dawn prepared for dinner was mostly made from non-local ingredients: potatoes and vegetable broth (organic, at least!), but with local collards and local red spring onions from the CSA. She was also planning on using local garlic from last year's CSA, but it had all sprouted! We had left it in the garage were it was nice and cool all winter, but forgot to move it inside when the weather started heating up. Oh well. And of course, for dessert, more local strawberries!

Anyway, that was day 2.

At the farmers' market this evening, I picked up more strawberries, as well as snow peas and brocolli! I'm looking forward to that brocolli! Maybe I'll have some for lunch tomorrow.

When I was at the Bear Creek Farm and Ranch booth talking with Debbie Daniels, she mentioned that she had seen the article in the SJ-R, visited my blog, and saw that I had eaten some of their eggs for breakfast. Nice!

Incidentally, they will have fresh chicken (whole or cut up) every 2 weeks at the Old Capitol Farmers' Market on Saturdays, starting May 30. The price is $3 per pound, plus $1.25 for cutting. Dawn's a vegetarian, but I'm not. I do eat less meat than in the past, and I've drastically reduced the amount of beef and pork that I eat ever since watching King Corn and reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. I tend to stick to chicken and fish (I know, overfishing - *sigh*), but I still eat some beef and pork. A good breakfast sausage would be nice!

"Are you on your way home?" That was Dawn on my cell phone.

"Yeah," I said, "I went to the farmers' market out at the fairgrounds, remember?"

"Okay, well, I've got soup on the stove."

Oops! Okay, she forgot about the Illinois Products Market on Thursdays, and I forgot that she was making soup for dinner. Luckily I didn't get home too late and the soup was still hot!

So here's how day 2 of the locavore challenge went.

Breakfast was pretty much identical to yesterday: Local eggs, (this time both from Bear Creek Farm and Ranch and from Triple S Farm, near Stewardson, IL, about 80 miles east of Springfield), scrambled with non-local milk; non-local toast and butter with local honey (from Sasse's Apiary, in Chestnut, IL, about 95 miles northwest of Springfield). Luckily Dawn went to the Old Capitol Farmers' Market on Wednesday and bought some more eggs, because we were down to the last 2 from Bear Creek! (Triple S Farm, incidentally, is the possible source of wheat that I mentioned yesterday.)

While I was making breakfast, I realized that I had forgotten to prepare my lunch the night before, so I had to quickly throw together a salad. I only had time for buttercrunch lettuce and red lettuce, from Veenstra & Heck's CSA, leaving out the radishes, onions, and chives that I had added the previous time. In addition to the salad (with non-local dressing), I had local strawberries for dessert. Yum! Dawn had picked them up at the farmer's market on Wednesday, and they were very good! Strawberries are coming in fairly early this year, since we didn't have a late frost. On the other hand, sweet corn is going to be late, because it's been so wet!

The soup that Dawn prepared for dinner was mostly made from non-local ingredients: potatoes and vegetable broth (organic, at least!), but with local collards and local red spring onions from the CSA. She was also planning on using local garlic from last year's CSA, but it had all sprouted! We had left it in the garage were it was nice and cool all winter, but forgot to move it inside when the weather started heating up. Oh well. And of course, for dessert, more local strawberries!

Anyway, that was day 2.

At the farmers' market this evening, I picked up more strawberries, as well as snow peas and brocolli! I'm looking forward to that brocolli! Maybe I'll have some for lunch tomorrow.

When I was at the Bear Creek Farm and Ranch booth talking with Debbie Daniels, she mentioned that she had seen the article in the SJ-R, visited my blog, and saw that I had eaten some of their eggs for breakfast. Nice!

Incidentally, they will have fresh chicken (whole or cut up) every 2 weeks at the Old Capitol Farmers' Market on Saturdays, starting May 30. The price is $3 per pound, plus $1.25 for cutting. Dawn's a vegetarian, but I'm not. I do eat less meat than in the past, and I've drastically reduced the amount of beef and pork that I eat ever since watching King Corn and reading The Omnivore's Dilemma. I tend to stick to chicken and fish (I know, overfishing - *sigh*), but I still eat some beef and pork. A good breakfast sausage would be nice!

Day 1 Results

Day 1 of take 2 of the locavore challenge went pretty well. Here's how I did.

For breakfast, I had scrambled eggs and buttered toast with honey. The eggs were from Bear Creek Farm and Ranch (bought at the farmers' market on Saturday). The honey was from actually from 2 sources - Mackinaw Valley Apiaries (in Mackinaw, IL, about 65 miles north of Springfield, near Peoria), and Sasse's Apiary (in Chestnut, IL, about 95 miles northwest of Springfield, near Galesburg). The bread and butter were both non-local, as was the milk that I added to the eggs. I've found a local source of butter (hooray!), and possibly a local source of wheat flour, as well as a few options for local or semi-local milk, so eventually those will be local as well.

For lunch, I had the salad I mentioned yesterday. The buttercrunch lettuce, red lettuce, Pink Beauty radishes, red spring onions, and chives were all from Veenstra & Heck's CSA on the Vincent Family Farm (near Rochester, about 9 miles southeast of Springfield). The dressing was a very non-local catalina. I was a little worried that I had overdone the onions, chives, and radishes, but it was fine. And the chive flowers were particularly tasty!

For dinner, Dawn prepared the stir fry mix with rice and butter, with strawberries for dessert. The stir fry mix was from Veenstra & Heck's CSA. The strawberries were from Saturday's farmers' market (sorry, I don't remember which vendor!). The rice and butter were both non-local. As I mentioned before, we've located a local source of butter (we're just finishing up the non-local stuff first), but I doubt we'll locate a local source of rice!

Not too bad of a start!