uvlocalvores : field notes

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[cross-post from the northern New England Localvore discussion list]

Hello to all Upper Valley Localvores,

Thanksgiving Day is less than two weeks away. How local will your meal be? Some of us are planning localvore meals (with wild cards) and others are aiming for 80% local. Are you up for a challenge?

If you are not hosting the dinner, you may be limited to making your own contribution local . . . but if the meal will be at your home, how
about nudging others to include some locally grown foods in their recipes?

The Upper Valley Food Co-op has Vermont Cranberries. Last night I made a delicious cranberry sauce using a ratio of 1 cup cranberries to 1/4 cup water and 1/4 cup maple syrup. (Multiply as needed.) Cook carefully for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries”pop”. Cool to room temperature and serve.

This is my menu for a vegetarian Thanksgiving:

Stuffed Acorn Squash*
Fresh Cranberry Sauce
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed Sweet Potatoes (from Cedar Mountain Farm at UVFC)
Kale-Apple Sauté (cooked in cider)
Mushroom Gravy (if I can find local mushrooms–otherwise Onion Gravy)
Maple-Cornbread with Butter

Maple-Apple Pie
Maple-Pumpkin Pie
Strafford Creamery Smooth Maple Ice Cream

Cider, Maple Seltzer, and a local wine
Mint Tea

*stuffed with sauteed onions, garlic, celery or celeriac (optional), sage, thyme, Trukenbrod whole wheat bread (toasted and diced), chopped walnuts (wild card), and maybe some chopped cranberries with some grated cheese, salt and pepper. Adapted from the Moosewood Cookbook
“Comprehensively Stuffed Squash”.

Mad River Valley Localvores have posted a 100-Mile Diet Turkey Dinner menu with recipes.

Here’s an interesting article on the original Thanksgiving.

Remember that there will be a Winter Farmers Market at the Norwich Grange from 10:00-2:00 on Saurday November 18; Killdeer Farmstand may be open that day as well.

If you have a favorite Thanksgiving recipe that can be made from locally grown foods, would you be willing to share it at our new site? Jenna Dixon is developing an Upper Valley Localvore web site. Please check it out, check the wiki, check the blog . . . and add your recipe to our new wiki. Never wikied or blogged before? Experiment with it–Jenna has simplified the process. If you have difficulty, please let me know.

Best wishes for a Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Pat McGovern

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Harvest Stone Soup Festival
Thursday, September 21, 12:00-7:00

During the Farmers Market On the Green in South Royalton, FREE, local, fresh vegetable soup, cooked in a giant cast iron pot suspended over a wood fire on the South Royalton Green.

Volunteers are needed to start chopping donated vegetables at 12:00 pm. The soup will be served from 4:00-6:30. Come early and bring a few items from your garden to add to the stone-soup.

Acoustic string music supplied by the Freight House Band.

The soup is free to all comers, and so is the music. Call Randy Leavitt at 763-8866 to find out what you can add to the pot or how you can help.

-Pat

Vital Communities list of farmers’ markets

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“My family hasn’t been able to do a full day of localvore eating, but we’ve done lots of localvore meals. And I printed off world and north america maps, and at the end of dinner we write down all of the ingredients and mark where the foods come from (although I haven’t yet tracked the sesame seeds from the coop bulk section). I explained to the girls (3 and 6) that we want the circle to be as small around Thetford as it can be. I next need to print off a New England map so we can mark our 100 miles.”

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“We have really enjoyed this ‘challenge,’ and while there were days where we have cheated, we have had many discussions, and those have spread to our work places. While the challenge is basically over, we have decided to really make a huge change in our diets based on how we have felt physically, and emotionally. We have made a list of our wildcards that we will start to incorporate, back into our diets, and except the chocolate and coffee, it’s all minimally processed (like lemons, avocados, and bananas). Our goal now for maintenence is about 75% local, and going back to making our own bread, and ice cream, etc….

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“I only signed up for the localvores challenge for a week. I have had quite the learning experience you described. Every time I thought something was local I would then have to ask the next question about well where did all the ingredients come from. A person can starve following through to get all the answers! In any case, this has been a wonderful way for me to begin my journey into eating locally… The implications of all this are quite astounding. I am trying to pass on examples to my children as well but I have to tell you, at least at my house teenagers just don’t get it. Please keep me on all of your lists as this is just the beginning for me.”

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“We’re going to make the pepper & squash dish that was at the Lebanon farmers market this past Thursday. Fun fun!”

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“This is our localvore week — we have not been as pure as most… but it’s been tremendously rewarding and eye opening. I made your recipe for soft flour tortillas last night and they were wonderful! I don’t like the commercial ones around here — they are waxy and cardboardy. The dough was great to work with, rolled out nice and thin, and the tortillas were delicious filled with garlicky refried soldier beans, local cheddar and cilantro from our garden. We accidentally grew a jalepeno pepper plant, so I made salsa from our tomatoes with chives, cilantro and parsley from our garden.”

“I nearly decided not to do this after all because my work schedule has been so hectic and I’ve had family visiting and other obligations — hunting down local food does take some planning and extra time, especially if you don’t already know exactly what to look for. But we decided to go ahead and do the best we could and I am so glad. There is something about rolling out dough, the feel of it under your palms… ”

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“How many localvores are into wild foraging? I’ve been collecting daylily buds, nettles, chicken of the woods mushrooms and chenopodium (pigweed, goosefoot), and will be going blueberry picking. The blueberry fields up in Goshen VT are scenic, wonderful and FREE, and well worth the drive, especially if you carpool — you can get a good supply of berries for freezing and then take a dip in Silver Lake or in Lake Dunmore at Branbury State Park. (It’s about 20-30 min. north of Rutland right off of Rt. 7.)”

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“I’ll try freezing some basil in ice cubes. The smell is so heavenly. Jon and I have been focusing on local eating (with a few wildcards). Mostly we are eating very simply and loving it. We have had corn, tomatoes and basil a number of times for dinner and are not sick of it yet. We are heading to the farmer’s market this evening. We’ll munch there and bring goodies home.”

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“I listened to you all on VPR tonight. You were all great and I thought covered many important issues. I was inspired yet again that this local eating can truly happen if we all work together.”

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