Colors

Fall is the time for bright vibrant colors around here in New England so I thought I'd share some interesting colored foods for you. And no, I'm not talking about green ketchup.

Purple cauliflower is tasty and very bright. The ones that I've found around here are more flavorful than the traditional white kind.

Yellow or orange tomatoes are almost commonplace these days but liven up a salad. I've found them to be firmer and not as sweet as ripe red ones.

Golden and striped beets Haven't tried the golden ones yet but that's next on my list.

Pomegranate November is National Pomegranate month! These seem like fussy fruit but I've heard about their health benefits.

Fall Favorites

Tomorrow is the first day of October. Where does the time go? It is funny how you can see the season progress through the farmers' markets. [BRB, have to watch a news segment on skinny whales as requested by mom.] I don't have any pictures yet but here's a quick run down of the bounty at the local market: apples- lots of them (it seems like everyone has apple trees), corn- very tasty, potatoes, onions, squash (incl. pumpkins), greens, beets, carrots, and still some tomatoes that they are trying to unload but at this point everyone is sick of tomatoes. If you didn't buy them, no doubt you know someone who grew them and had PLENTY to share with neighbors. I've gotten to the point where I am now buying stuff to cut and freeze for the winter. I'm too lazy to figure out canning, pickling, etc. but I can slice up a few peaches to save for later.

Last week I made my first apple pie of the season; it was a huge hit! (Tip: It's all in the crust and keeping you fats as cold as possible until it's ready for the oven.)

When you have a moment, check out this link http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/ about sustainable communities. The website asks you a series of lifestyle questions and figures out how many earths would be needed if everyone lived like you do. It's a bit of a silly exercise because there is no way everyone would live the same way but it gets you thinking about stuff like your commute to work.

Animal Attraction

This post actually has NOTHING to do with my eating local experiment but something very strange happened today that I thought I'd share.

So no sh*t, there I was... sitting by the lake in Lincoln Woods this afternoon when things got weird. After sitting on the rocks, not 1 foot from the water's edge, 5 Canada geese swam over to me. They were closely followed by 2 ducks. The parade of pan-handling birds obviously thought I would give them food. When they realized I didn't have anything, they literally turned their tail feathers in my face and swam away. About 15 minutes later, after the birds had moved to others along the shore, I looked down and there was a minnow in the water. This minnow was swimming as close to the waterline as possible and still stay submerged. I wasn't feeding him either. The minnow must have sent out some sort of bat signal because 2 more fish swam up to me. The water in the shallow area was pretty clear so I KNOW they saw me.

While observing all this I was thinking that in the most remote parts of the world where animals don't see humans, they don't know to fear them. However, Lincoln Woods is pretty popular with people so I figured these birds and fish are being fed and are a bit more domestic than your garden variety wildlife. Please Don't Feed the Bears. Put the "Wild" Back in Wildlife.

Global Warming- Weighing the Risks

Have you seen Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth?" . Although it tends to be a bit on the extremist side of things, there are a key issues that are worth thinking about. Check it out if you can. My friend Marco recently sent me this clip from You Tube where a guy talks about the risks of our actions vs. inaction when it comes to addressing the human impact on global warming. Check out the clip at: http://youtube.com/watch?v=zORv8wwiadQ.

Hope High School Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market Saturday! For Tara and Jeff who will be moving to Providence in the fall, here is what you guys can look forward to on Saturday mornings. The market is open Saturday mornings from 9:30 until 12:30. I suggest going early otherwise some of the lines get long. There's usually some guy playing music there as people mill about from stand to stand with their dogs and kids in tow.

Fruit is in season now and my new treat are sugar plums. They are little plums about he size of those really large gumballs. And true to their name, they are sweet.

Whole Foods

Whole Foods is now carrying produce from some of the local RI farms! But, get to the local farmer's markets if you can b/c the lettuce at the store was much smaller than at the stands and for roughly the same price. Good to see them in a large chain store though.

More Bounty

The Farmer's Market down at Hope High School in Providence yielded a bounty of goodies (see photo). I was so excited to see the berries and the cherries (grown in CT). The large zucchinis will be used to make zucchini bread. The fruit and beans will be snacks. The arugula will be part of a salad with roasted beets and goat cheese from Massachusetts.

I think I've out did myself with tomato and mozz. sandwiches lately so I'm going to have to come up with other ideas for lunch.

Local Liquor

There is an abundance of local brews but recently I came across a fun find. Cold River Vodka is distilled in Maine in Maine from Maine potatoes. I haven't had vodka in a while, this one is very smooth and runs a bit on the pricey side. I also saw a vodka from Nantucket which came in flavors.

Girl's Got Meat!

What an adventure this is turning out to be. I spent most of my morning driving around. Went to 2 farmer's markets and Whole Foods. Yes, this isn't a cheap experiment but hopefully as the markets open up in Providence, I won't have to drive all the way to South County. I've enjoyed talking to the farmers who raise/grow this stuff and sell it at the markets. I feel a bit less removed from the food I eat which is good and bad. It now has a face (see last week's blog) but I feel really good about eating stuff that has been grown in Rhode Island.


Casey Farm Farmer's Market, Saunderstown, RI
Girl's got meat- finally. The man we met at Watson Farm last weekend was indeed selling meat from his farm. If was all frozen solid so there is no need to use it right away. He was selling grass-fed lamb and beef that he raises on the farm in Jamestown. It's not cheap folks. A tenderloin was like $17/pound. The burger grade stuff was cheaper. So, I got a pound of burger, a chuck steak, and two little lamb chops (pretty much the cheapest stuff there). Good grillin' meat though.

Casey Farm also had a great assortment of veggies. STRAWBERRIES!, greens, plants, snap peas, plants, onions, beets (can you cook the tops?), radishes, and eggs. There were also other local proporietors there selling produce form East Greenwich, and local honey and beauty products.

URI Farmer's Market, Kington, RI
Stopped there on the way to Amy's house. Found more meat and strawberries. Stoney Hill Cattle Co. out of Charlestown, RI had beef and pork. Got myself a pair of pork chops (again, frozen solid). Cedar Edge Farm from RI had cheaper organic strawberries there so I got more berries. Lots of plans. Also there were people selling Matunuck oysters and clams, lobster, plants, RI maple syrup, kettle corn, and beeswax products.

How I'm eating
Still not 100% local- it is still early in the season. The easiest thing to make so far are tomato, mozz., and basil sandwiches on crusty bread. Lamb chops on the grill tonight (weather permitting) with a roasted beet salad.

The Trip to Watson Farm

Today I visited Watson Farm in Jamestown in hopes of learning more about obtaining local meat or poultry. First lesson: they don't actually sell things on Watson Farm as I thought. Their goods (lamb, grass fed beef) are sold at the farmers market at nearby Casey Farm in Saunderstown on Saturdays. So now I have to wait ANOTHER week to go find meat. ( On the way home I cheated and bought some non-local food at Whole Foods).

The farm was really fun and scenic. There's a self-guided tour which takes you through pastures and down around the water. We saw cattle, sheep, horses, turkeys, chickens, ducks, barn cats, and a few bull frogs. Part of the farm is bordered by the ocean so there is a nice sea breeze in the higher elevations and down by the water. The clover was very abundant. You can see the cows above are loving it.

Links

Urban Greens is a cooperative of Providence residents, businesses, and food producers that connects Providence people to Providence food. Urban Greens provides fresh, local, affordable groceries to Providence. (thanks Kristin D)

Providence Open Market up here in the big city. Haven't been yet (on account of rain) but it looks fun! (thanks Erica)

Kafe' Lila up in Pawtucket is opens soon. Enjoy great fair trade organic coffee and teas from irie tea, ice cream makde form Rhody Fresh dairy and eggs, vegan ices, and ice cream too, and food made from local farms like red planet organics. (thanks Erica)

Farm Fresh Rhode Island lists the local farmer's markets and has info on local foods.

What I've found

After my initial search which started on 5/27/07 I've found the following (in no order)
-Cabot cheese: VT
-Handmade Mountain Mozzarella: Maplebrook Farm in VT
-Butterworks Farm yogurt: VT (this is really yummy, sweetened w/ maple syrup)
-hydroponic tomatoes at Whole Foods: VT (Water Fresh Harvest) and CT
-Rhody Fresh milk: RI
-Newport Storm beer: Middletown, RI
-Harpoon Beer: MA
-Narragansett: CT (for real)
-Otter Creek beer: brewed in VT
-bread from Seven Stars bakery: RI
-Corn Bread and Muffin Mix: Kenyon Corn Mill in Usquepaug, RI
-Haddock at Eastside Marketplace: off the coast of MA (also available are mackerel, clams)
-no local meat or poultry at Whole Foods
-Casey Farm which sells meat and produce at farmer's market in Sounderstown, RI
-beef and lamb from Watson Farm (sold at Casey Farm market)
-beef and pork from Stoney Hill Farm in Charlestown, RI
-Ben & Jerry's ice cream- now in organic flavors: VT
-Ocean Spray cranberry juice: MA (well, I hope so)
-American Flatbread frozen pizza from Whole Goods: VT

And so it begins...

With all this talk of carbon footprints, global climate change, and the price of gasoline, I wanted to to something locally that might have greater impacts globally. I won't be solving any global problems but I thought that for the summer, I would eat foods that where grown here in New England. The reasoning behind eating locally is that you are a) supporting local agriculture and b) by buying a locally grown product, you are not contributing to the oil needs to transport the goods across the nation.

The idea in my head has gone through many phases of feasibility. First I thought about only eating stuff that was grown of produced within 150 miles which is about how far a local grower will drive to deliver their produce. Well, that seemed a bit restrictive in New England. So I decided to include all of New England (CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, ME) in this experiment. That done, I decided to think about WHAT I would be able to eat during a New England summer. Thankfully there are farmer's markets and farms that offer a bounty of fruits and vegetables during the summer. A friend of mine initially thought I'd be eating "taters 'n squash" all summer but there is much more than that. Fortunately Whole Foods has a current campaign running highlighting locally grown goods. I'll post what I find. Eggs and dairy are pretty easy to come by here in RI. Meat and poultry are a bit harder but I am looking into some options for that. A lot of the seafood in the supermarkets is shipped in, not a lot is local.

Here's a sample of what's off the list: bananas, kiwi, mangoes, avocado. Exceptions will be made for coffee and grains, neither of which are grown around here. Then there's the food chain. If lamb is grown in RI but fed grain that was grown in Iowa, does that count? Actually I don't even know if sheep eat grain but I'm drawing the line at the end product, not what it eats.

The self-made guidelines are the following:
-when buying produce, meat, and dairy, to buy as locally as possible
-eating out is allowed in which case the rules may not always apply.
-I can finish whatever is in my cupboards currently which includes spices, sugar, flour, rice, etc.
-local alcohol is allowed: Newport Storm, Narragansett, wine from Newport, and a host of New England micro brews.

The experiment started prematurely this Memorial Day weekend. It is still early for fruits and vegetables and the farms don't open until June 1st. But, I found a few things to start me off. I imagine it will get easier as the summer progresses and the farmer's markets start up.

Stay tuned for a list of things that I have unofficially dubbed as "local".