Knitting 40 shades of green

Cooking Local: Week 5

Where has the week gone?  I have been busy, busy, busy as you can tell.  No blogging, very little knitting but we all have to eat.  When I started thinking about my one local summer meal, I realized that I rely on several recipes through out the summer to use up produce.  Part of this challenge for me is to keep eating local interesting and stretch myself so I looked up some recipes.  I had a lovely meal of zucchini custard with tomatoes, Spanish-style tomato panzanella (bread salad) and corn on the cob with basil butter.

Zucchini and summer squash --  Olin Fox Farms, Reedville, VA (81 miles)

Shallots  -- Summit Point, WV (55 miles)

Flour --  Byrd Mill Ashland, VA (76 miles)

milk -- Natural by Nature West Grove, PA (96 miles)

basil and oregano -- Olin Fox Farms, Reedville, VA (81 miles)

eggs -- Olin Fox Farms, Reedville, VA (81 miles)

Mountaineer cheese -- Meadow Creek Dairy, Galax, VA (257 miles, hmm this was the only VA cheese I found in Whole Foods but it isn't very local, I guess it is closer than the cheese I brought home from Vermont)

tomatoes -- Olin Fox Farms, Reedville, VA (81 miles) and Wheatland Vegetable Farm, Purcellville, VA (40 miles)

olive bread -- Caboose Bakery Alexandria, VA (6 miles)

onions and peppers -- Golden Goose Farm, Riva, VA (89 miles)

garlic -- Olin Fox Farms, Reedville, VA (81 miles)

sherry vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper -- non local

corn -- Olin Fox Farms, Reedville, VA (81 miles)

butter -- Cabot, Vermont

basil -- Toigo Orchards, Shippensburg, PA (88 miles)

Cooking Local - Week 4

I have returned from Vermont but haven't dug through the many bags to figure out what I did with my USB cord for the camera, so pictures will have to wait.

Eating local in Vermont in the summer is an easy proposition.  I was very impressed with the farmers' market in Middlebury.  I had to really try to not buy too much food (of course I wasn't very successful and was glad I had the cooler for the trip home).  The baked goods, the cheeses, and the localy produced products complimented the produce and made my mouth water.  It was a good thing so many of the farmers offered samples.  The Middlebury food coop was a fun place to shop for groceries as well.  Vermont even has two eat local groups here and here that have gotten lots of press and they will be having a challenge in August.  I wish I could find something like this in my area.

For my local meal this week I had SUN-DRIED TOMATOES, BASIL & MOZZARELLA TORTELLONI (yum) from Putney Pasta.  They sell it at the coop in plastic bags to reduce the packaging.  I made a sauce of fresh tomatoes and yellow peppers from my CSA with fresh basil chopped on top.  I found all of these ingredients at the farmers' market but wanted to use up what I had brought with me. My side dishes were a little of the first part of that Yankee saying "Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without".   I made  marinated golden beets  (olive oil balsamic vinegar and dill marinade, I think next time I will use different herbs) and beet greens with cheese sauce.

Sources:

tortelloni  -- Putney Pasta Company,   Putney, Vt (78 miles)

yellow squash Olin Fox Farms, Reedville, VA (81 miles from Alexandria although it is 456 miles to here -- but most of that was in my rental car in a cooler)

brandy tomatoes Olin Fox Farms  Reedville, VA  (81 miles from Alexandria although it is 456 miles to here -- but most of that was in my rental car in a cooler)

olive oil -- Bionaturae organic not local

balsamic vinegar -- Bionaturae Organicnot local

golden beets -- one of the farms at the Middlebury Farmer's Market will have to see if I have a picture as I didn't write down the name

dill  -- Middlebury Farmer's Market

milk  Stafford Organic Creamery, Stafford, VT (40 miles)

flour King Arthur Flour, Norwich, VT (47 miles) while I am not entirely sure the flour is local I could buy less than 1/4 cup at the coop and at least it was a local company

Cheddar cheese curd Vermont Quality Dairies, Hardwick, VT (52 miles)

butter Vt Butter and Cheese Co.  Websterville, VT (36 miles)

So it isn't all eating and vacation stories

I caught the vacation knitting fever from Cara and ordered some heavyweight yarn from Blue Moon Fiber Arts.  While visiting my sister before leaving for my vacation I took advantage of her ball winder and swift.

I wound 10 balls of STR heavyweight in all of the mostly solids in greens and browns.

The colors are  Limestone, Beryl, Amber, Olivenite, Falcon's Eye, Sand, Copper, Bronze, 24 Karat, and Jade.

So here is my knitting lounging by the pool. What? I didn't mention that Jessie has a pool in the old house?
I have been eating my breakfast and knitting here on the deck before the sun gets too high and I need to jump in for a refreshing swim.
(That is cantaloupe from my CSA and blueberries and raspberries from Sherry's Berries at Riverside Farm n Hampton, NY.)
The knitting has decided not to swim, thought it might be a little soggy.
Here is the first log cabin square that I finished before leaving Virginia.  I think this will be a fun blanket.  I am almost done with the second square.  I am choosing the colors in random order and hope to make a blanket big enough for a full size bed.  But the knitting time has been limited by all the fun, so we'll see how far I get.

Vacation Part II

So as soon as I get on the road again I hit construction back up.  They have decided to do work on the Millard E. Tidings memorial Bridge.  They are taking the traffic from three lanes down to one and as soon as you get out of the back up they charge you $5 for the pleasure of sitting in that traffic at 9pm.  So here I am 6 hours since leaving home and I have only made it 90 miles.  Hmmm, at 15 miles/hour it will only take 34 hours to get to Vermont. 

I had bought a coca cola at the rental car place and hoped the sugar and caffeine would keep me awake and vowed not to stop for the night until I hit New York.  (I had planned on staying with friends in Albany but they had to work in the morning and I had to sleep at some point and that would be at least another 100 miles beyond my goal).  It was late when I found a place to stop in New York (maybe close to 2) and there were about 5 motels on the exit.  It looked promising.  I drove around the fist one and noted there was only one entrance, through the lobby (remember I have the dog with me and not too many motels allow dogs.) So onto the second, a Ramada and look separate entrances that are accessible with your room key.  So I snuck Tiger into the room (which I wouldn't have stayed in at that price if it hadn't been 2am.  The place needed major renovations and the AC was so loud you couldn't sleep with it on for long.  So the few hours of sleep that I got consisted of getting up every hour or so to turn off the AC for a little quiet once the banging became too loud and then turning it back on after the heat became unbearable (of course the windows didn't open).  At 6:15 someone left there room and let the door slam shut setting Tigger to barking.  Time to get up.  I smuggled him back out of the room and took him for a walk and then put him in the back of the car while I showered, ate a little of the free continental breakfast and checked out.  I had about 4 1/2 more hours of driving, I might as well get on the road.
The drive to Vermont is often beautiful and I started to relax as I got closer.  On the Vermont/New York border I saw this sign ... how could I not stop for some EARLY PRODUCE!!  So I bought some veggies and some cheese and some little Gherkin Pickles that had been made for Pattie's patch right there in Hampton, NY.

A little more driving through Vermont and I see the house with the for sale sign out front (a point of contention for Jessie) and pull in the driveway. Things are looking up (other than the fact that I called the auto shop and they said the engine is spent and will have to be replaced).

Cooking Local Week 3

Before I showed up at her house, Jessie had been reading my blog about my interest in local eating.

She thoughtfully presented me with a Welcome to Vermont present.  She was quite generous and gave me Miguel's Stowe Away chips (sorry for all the ads but the manufacturer's website is still under construction), Green Mountain Gringo Salsa, Otter Creek Wolaver's Pale Ale, and Orb Weaver Farm Farmhouse Cheese. 

Well with the craziness of the past couple of days, I needed a simple meal.  And while, technically speaking, all of the ingredients for this meal were not grown within a 100 mile (or so) radius of where they were eaten, they were all bought locally to where they were grown and I then transported them.  So I think they qualify as local foods. 

The meal started with a beer which is from a brewery right here in Middlebury.  Then I had a simple dinner of Red Hen Baking Co. pain au levain from Duxbury, VT (30 miles) with Orb Weaver's Farm cheese from New Haven (8 miles) and a side dish of fresh corn with tomatoes and basil.  The corn was grown about 20 miles from Pattie's Patch (I didn't link as they seem to be between servers) which is about 35 miles from here.  The tomatoes and basil are from my CSA, Olin Fox Farms which is 81 miles from Alexandria (although it is 456 miles to here -- but most of that was in my rental car in a cooler).  I heated it with a little oil and some butter from Vt Butter and Cheese Co. in Websterville, VT (36 miles).  It was simple and filling.

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I had Fire on the Mountain Horseradish Mustard from Stowe and yellow pear tomatoes from my CSA on the bread. Yum!!

Vacation

Well, I have been buying yarn and reading Jessie's blog for a while now, longing for Vermont. Here was my latest stash enhancement.  The colors are beautiful although hard to capture; tidal pool and slate.  The all Vermont yarn  would help me for a little while but never long enough.  We would e-mail back and forth every time she showed a hiking trail or other reminder of the Green Mountain State.  Then she started talking about how she had bought a new house and was having trouble selling hers. She was nervous about making two mortgages and she mentioned the possibility of renting it short term -- maybe for the summer.  Well, I e-mailed that I would love to come up and rent the place but how could i since I don't have the summer off.  And after some back and forth I knew I had to visit Vermont anyway (my friends were thinking it was long over due) and we agreed that I would come up for a week and a deal was struck. So I am staying in a great farmhouse in Vermont but the road to Vermont was a little more bumpy.

I spent Wednesday and Thursday canning the 25 pounds of tomatoes that I got a great deal on at the market and wouldn't last until I got back. I bottled 12 quarts of Italian tomato sauce in small batches due to my lack of a huge canning pot. It was the hottest and most humid two days we have seen this summer.   I am sure opening these beauties come winter will seem well worth it.
Then without much thought or planning I packed a bunch of stuff into the car. (You don't have to be too careful about packing when driving a car -- there is loads of room and it doesn't all need to be contained.) Tigger jumped in the back seat. (He likes to hang out in the wheel well behind my seat -- since I have it pulled all the way up and there is lots of room).  And we were off...
I had waited until after 3 to leave so that I could pick up my CSA veggies. (I was renting a house and would have a kitchen. I would hate to see all that good local produce go to waste.) Well, in DC, rush hour starts at 3 and I didn't find myself across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge until 4. At 5, I had traveled 30 or so miles when the oil light started flickering. I figured I would pull off at the next exit and get some oil. (I know, I know, I was going to get the oil changed before leaving but with all the sauce making I got behind.) Within moments the engine was making a horrible noise, like there was a hole in something and I was pulling over to the shoulder as the car lost compression. I looked down at the speedometer -- look this trip would have put it over 100,000 miles. I say "would have"...

I started making calls, the first to AAA for towing. They couldn't get a truck there until 7:15. I called the local auto shops asking if I could tow the car in and then started calling local car rentals. Everyone closed at 6:00.  I sat, I stewed, it was hard to knit because I couldn't move the seat back because Tigger was sleeping behind it.  I watched the traffic pass and back up and clear out and back up again. 

But wait, I paid extra for the AAA plus membership because they tow up to 100 miles. The airport was only about 40 miles away and the car rental places stayed open until midnight. I was bound and determined I was going to get to Vermont. I sat on the road for just under two hours when the tow truck called. I had found an auto shop called Airport Auto, surely it was close to the airport.  I managed to call them just as they were going home for the day and they said I could leave the car and the key and a note.
So I had the tow truck driver take me there and then left the car and the dog and all my stuff.  But because he had a big flat bed truck he didn't want to go into the airport due to the additional security since September 11.  The auto shop was down a pretty lonely road so I set to thinking again and had him drop me off at a satellite parking lot. I jumped on the shuttle and the driver asked where I had parked my car (I guess I came from the wrong direction and had no luggage). I told her my story. I got to the airport and got on another shuttle to the rental car building. It was after 8:00 when I got back to Airport Auto loaded all my stuff into the rental car and Tigger and I set off again.
To be continued...

Happy Birthday, my silly!

This is my older niece.  She turned 5 on Tuesday.  And I wanted to post a picture of her finished present on Wednesday but I could not access typepad all day and then I got caught up yesterday getting ready and leaving on my vacation.  So a few days late, Happy Birthday.

She is funny and social and smart and polite.  And she likes my knitting.  She wants me to teach her how although at this early age she is a bit of a perfectionist and worries about making mistakes and so hasn't learned yet, but soon.  When I was visiting last week she was practicing on her spool knitter that is shaped like a little rabbit.  I should have taken a picture. 

Here is the peacock poncho that I knit for her -- I know, ponchos are so two years ago but she is 5 and I had to figure out a way to use this novelty yarn that I bought on a whim because it reminded me of peacocks.

And a close-up and an inside picture with a little more contrast. Happy Birthday and I'll see you soon!

Cooking Local Week 2

I love getting up on Farmer's market mornings and grabbing my bags and heading out to see what is fresh and local at the market today. Always my eyes are bigger than my stomach (and likely my refrigerator) so usually the trip to the Farmer's market is followed by lots of cooking to clear out space in the fridge. This weeks meal was a cleaning out for the bounty I had bought and ending up being a rather filling meal -- the cherry cake will have to wait (the cherries have been pitted and frozen).

First course was gazpacho. I spent the summer several years ago looking for the perfect recipe. This one has tomatoes, cucumbers and roasted red peppers. I usually use bottled peppers from Trader Joe's but the market had some hydroponic red and yellow peppers, so I roasted my own.

Tomatoes -- Del Ray Farmers' market (farm from WV)

Cucumber and Garlic my CSA

Basil --  Wheatland Vegetable Farms in Loudon County, VA

Roasted Peppers Toigo Orchards

Onions (should have paid more attention to the name of the farm) Mt. Vernon Farmers' Market

Then I made a main course of eggplant rolotini, sauteed squash, and salad.

eggplant - my CSA

ricotta cheese - Natural by Nature

Monterrey jack  - Lancaster County Fresh (Del Ray Market)

The tomato sauce I start making as soon as second quality tomatoes start showing up.  I buy them in 5 pound increments and cook them up with an onion and a green pepper and can it into bottles for the fall and winter.  This was the first 10 pounds of the year which I hadn't bottled yet (and I bought 25 pounds of tomatoes to cook up tomorrow).

yellow and green squash - my CSA

onion - Golden Goose Farms

Chardonnay -- Prince Michel

The salad greens are from D & S Farm in St Mary's County, MD with dried cherries my sister dried and some goat cheese (from Apple Tree).

Girls in knit dresses...

Because of my knitting ADD (and likely my lack of organization), I needed to go buy some more #6 knitting needles (which seems to be a popular size here at 40 shades).  While at my LYS, I soon discovered that Noro Lily was 25% off.  They had a basket of the stuff with lots and lots of Red and Pink, my older niece's favorite colors, and well, I had to buy some.  Then I got to thinking that I had missed the younger niece's birthday and I could hardly be buying yarn for a project for her sister without getting her something...the family birthday would be coming up (their birthdays are a little over a month apart and my sister will try to keep it to one party until they are old enough to complain). 

So I bought four skeins of King Tut Cotton and started knitting. I only have a few hours left to knit the back bib and then have to decide if and how I am doing the edging on the bib.  I am a little worried that it might entail buying one more skein and I am not sure I want to do that for the several yards I will need.  It is based on a lion brand pattern for a toddler dress and I made it in three year old size so she won't immediately grow out of it. 

As for the older niece her birthday is in 6 days.  I think I might wait to use the Noro Lily and instead make a peacock poncho before ponchos are so incredibly passe that even a 5 year old won't wear them.  Maybe I'll make her a bunch of calla lilies from the latest knitty as well.

But remember all those baby sweaters that I had to make and you only saw one?  Well the babies are here.  The sweaters aren't finished -- I better get to work. 

Cooking local throughout the summer

Liz over at Pocket Farm has proposed a challenge: to eat one entirely local meal a week through the next 12 weeks allowing only exceptions of oil, salt and spices. I am going to add vinegar to that list and join the challenge although I think White House Fruit Company apple vinegar is made in Winchester, VA and I can get raspberry and blackberry flavored vinegar at the Del Ray Farmers' Market, so maybe I don't need an exemption for vinegar

Here is my first local meal for the challenge: I made a zucchini frittata that includes Zucchini, spring onions, and eggs from my CSA tomatoes from Golden Goose Farms at the Del Ray Farmer's Market, and goat cheese from Apple Tree Goat Dairy in PA from the Del Ray Farmers' Market. I made a modification on a favorite green bean recipe from Cooking Light which can be found here.  I used green beans from the Mount Vernon Farmers' Market Tomatoes from Basil from Wheatland Vegetable Farm and skipped the feta cheese. Lastly, I made an arugula, beet salad. I cooked the beets using Shuna's method (you can find it in the farmers' market category)and then wilted the arugula in the leftover water from cooking the beets (both from Wheatland Vegetable Farm) . I then plated this with the beets and goat cheese and sprinkled it with the last few of the pecans from my CSA.

I was going to claim an exemption on my beverage but the seltzer water is from PA and falls within the 100 mile limit.