While I have two CSAs that provide me with local produce year round, we have finally reached that point in spring where I feel I can rededicate to mostly local eating rather than using some local ingredients in my meals. A trip to the farmers' market yields everything needed to make yummy meals and the fresh produce is young and crisp and so enticing. This is the time of year that I have to watch myself carefully so that I don't end up with more produce than I can eat (let alone fit in my refrigerator) because it all looks so good. With the fresh local strawberries in full force, it is hard not to come home with a few quarts as well as fresh veggies that will be mixed with eggs and cheese for a wonderfully local and tasty breakfast. Which brings me to think about the Eat Local Challenge and to search the Internets looking for new and tasty recipes and ideas. On one of these searches, I came across another challenge.
Liz, formerly of the Pocket Farm blog (still of the Pocket Farm), decided she would stop blogging. Fair enough, but that left us with a hole in the Eating Local Challenges, as she had organized summer challenges for the past two years that encouraged participants to eat one meal a week made entirely of local foods. Nicole, over at Farm to Philly, has taken up the task and will be hosting the challenge this summer.
Sign-ups are now closed but feel free to follow along and join us as we eat fresh local produce. Just make one local meal each week (with the exception of oil, salt, and spices). Updates will appear over at the Farm to Philly blog each Tuesday.
Today I am headed off to Vintage Virginia to sample some great local wines and hear one of my favorite local bands who have started playing nation wide Celtic festivals so keep your eyes open for a performance near you. My local meal was a breakfast frittata and strawberries. I had planned to make biscuits but I was out of baking powder and decided to go without.
Frittatas are my go to Saturday and Sunday morning breakfast. They are a great way to use up little bits of leftovers in the fridge and sneak in a full serving of vegetables at breakfast.
For this one I browned some rosemary sheep sausage from Smith Meadows, then sauteed some onion and wilted the swiss chard I got from oneor the other of my CSAs. I mixed some eggs from Olin Fox Farms with a little ricotta from natural by nature and a bit of water and poured this over the vegetables and sausage. I cooked this on the stove until the center was still a bit moist and then threw it under the broiler until it was set when I threw a bit of smoked Gouda from Fields of Grace in Remington, VA. Not a bad way to start the day.
