Let's hear it for local and organic!

All the meals I cook I check against my internal local and organic food monitor.  And Monday, I was surprise to find that I had created what maybe the most local and/or organic meal I've ever made.

Roast beef from local grass fed beef.

Succotash made with local and organically grown corn and lima beans from my back yard.

Bread I made with organic flour and local raw honey.

How awesome is that?  

When I hear stories like the recent egg recall (380 million!), it just re-emphasizes how important it is to get your food from people rather than corporations.  For corporations, you are one of the faceless masses, a calculated risk--an actuarial number of a predicted payout if the corporation's food sickens or kills you.  For the farmer at the farmer's market, you're Natalie, John, Billy-Bob--a customer that comes every two weeks for more fresh veggies for your two kids.  My egg supplier is Brian, my company's IT director.  My meat supplier is Laurel Creek Farm--people who are fine to take $350 out-of-town checks because "people who bounce checks don't drive an hour to buy our meat from a farmer's market."  We grow many of our own fruits and veggies.  We're not completely local and organic, but we're eating more local and organic than we were last year.  And we'll be further along next year.  

So we aren't vegetarians

Shawn and I went to Oak Ridge on Saturday with 2 coolers.  It had been nearly a year since we made our last trip to try out Laurel Creek Meats and we had been looking to get back and refill our freezer.  And we did.

10 lbs of hamburger, 4 lbs of filet, 3 lbs of boneless chicken breasts, 2 lbs of boneless pork chops, 1 lb of italian sausage, 1 lb of hot italian sausage, and bacon.  I also brought some back hamburger and steak for my parents.  Shawn tried to edge away when I prepared to deliver my order starting with 25 lbs of hamburger meat.  I think it was another, "I never imagined when I met her" moments.  But now we are stocked for an estimated 3-4 months with excellent quality, humanely raised, all natural, local meat.  Totally worth it.    

On a separate but related note, our IT department head keeps chickens.  So Thursday, I got my first order of local, organic, free-range eggs.  And not surprisingly, they are awesome.  The yolks are a color I've never seen before in store bought eggs, a deep orange.  They are also very tasty.

SUCCESS!

3 weeks, 5 lbs  of flour, 1 1/2 gallons of water and finally, it LIVES!!!  The tipping point seemed to come when I stuck it on a heating mat I use for starting seeds.  Maybe our house wasn't quite warm enough to encourage those little yeast suckers to grow.  At any rate, this morning I took the starter and carefully (not wanting to blow it at this point, after all this time) mixed up my ingredients for sourdough pancakes. Pretty cool.  Pretty tasty.  We couldn't decide which was better -the sourdough or the buttermilk.  So I might have to do buttermilk tomorrow for comparison.  It's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it. : )

Weekend Update

Yesterday was gorgeous.  Warm sun and blue skies do crazy things to a body.  Shawn and I were finishing up an early breakfast at Cracker Barrel when we started talking about the cheese.  You may remember the August 30, 2009 post about Sweetwater Valley cheese?  That cheese is very, very good cheese not cheese food, which is literally what the supermarket sells.  I'm not making that up.  Check out your Kraft cheese slices and note the "cheese food product" on the wrapper.  So what does that make it?  Franken food?  Anyway, the day was young, the sky was clear, so off we went to Philadelphia, TN for cheese.  Sharp, extra sharp, Colby, Governer's aged, and Fiesta, we stocked up.  

We were back by 11:00 am.  I started feeling this bizarre urge--the urge to clean.  Now I clean every week without the urge, but when the urge comes on, I take full advantage to get in there and CLEAN.  I attacked the stove, boiling the drip pans to make them nice and shiny and cleaning that no-man's land under the drip pans.  Then I started on the refrigerator, dusting and degreasing everything on top before scouring the inside.  

Then it was on to plowing and planting.  The broccoli is in the ground, though after the terrific rain storms today, it may be beaten into the ground.  I haven't screwed up the courage to go look.

All that to wake up this morning with a flamin' sore throat.  I've noticed the sinuses have been in over production for about the last 10 days but was thinking it was due to the pollen, which is in the very high range according to the meteorologist (why don't they just call it the miserable range?).  But maybe I'm coming down with a cold.  Eh, I guess time will tell.

The most eco-friendly meal

I have made and consumed my most eco-friendly meal yet.  Homemade chili!  The tomato sauce and chili peppers are from the garden, the beef and cheese is local, and the kidney beans are organic as are the garlic and other spices.  The only parts not organic or local are about as far from it as you can get--the Fritos and the hot dogs.  But it is completely delicious and hits the spot like nothing else can on a dreary cool Monday.  YUM!

Eating local

The idea of the 100 mile diet intrigues me.  I've been trying to hunt down local sources of the food stuffs we eat most often.  Meat and cheese are just some of the challenges.  

On Saturday, Shawn and I headed to Oak Ridge Farmer's Market (98 miles from home), where Laurel Creek Farm sells their pasture raised beef, poultry and pork.  We bought hamburger (3 lbs), chicken breasts (2) and thighs (2), bacon (3/4 lb), and sausage (1 lb).  All of it was $30, which I thought was pretty reasonable.  The local "green" grocery sells local grass fed beef for $6 per pound.  We only grabbed sample amounts and if we like it, we'll stock up more next time.

The local food purchase of the day was not planned.  We saw a billboard for Sweetwater Valley Farms Cheese shop on the way home.  I had read about it online but hadn't really planned a trip for cheese.  But hey, we were already out, so we detoured off the freeway.Very tasty stuff.  We ended up loaded down with cheese bricks as well as meats.  It was a very productive shopping expedition.  Now if I could find some decent local wine...