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PG food writer Marlene Parrish shows how to eat local -- and well.
Let's Eat Local! together.
But hey, with the trend towards eating local picking up ever more steam in the media as well as in our neighborhoods, you all have the momentum and information you need to carry on yourself. So enough about me!
I'm ready to quit preaching and go back to enjoying food without daily label inspections and checking the begats of everything in the kitchen. I look forward to having dinner conversations about things, thoughts and ideas instead of obsessing about food origins. We know what we need to know, so let's just do it.
As for this blog, it's a wrap.
Happy New Year to you all.
My daugher-in-law, Um, is Thai and grew up in Bangkok. She's a chef, now briefly retired to raise two children, and a fellow foodie. She and I ate street food for lunch every day either in a food court or in one of the hundreds of "hawker centers." The government took vendors and carts off the streets years ago so that all food can be inspected and safe.
Evening meals at home were a mix of American and Thai dishes, with lots of fusion thrown in. Yuni, the nanny-housekeeper, is Indonesian, and she helped with food shopping and some of the cooking.
Every other day began with a trip to the market. First we'd hit one of the modern high-tech supermarkets. These are not stand-alone buildings with parking lots that we know in the U.S., but stores built into the first or lower levels of multi-level shopping malls. Because Singapore is so tiny, most of the architecture is vertical. Think of South Hills Village stacked six stories high with a Giant Eagle on the lowest level.
Our only purchases there were from the well-stocked and super-clean meat and fish department. I stared at the cold cases. Packed next to the pork chops and roasts were pig maw, belly bacon, kidneys and trotters. Roasting birds shared space with crocodile hocks and tail meat. Next to whole salmon were huge snapper heads, complete with lips, eyes and cheeks, likely to be cooked in a spicy tamarind curry, a uniquely Singaporean creation.
We'd buy chicken to pound thin for satay. Later, Um would marinate the meat with lemongrass, ginger and turmeric, grill it and serve it with a spicy peanut sauce. Another day, she might choose cubes of beef for rendang, a signature dish of West Sumatra, Indonesia. Along with the richness of the beef, the aromatic curry mingles the flavors of nutmeg, lime leaves, cloves, garlic and chiles in coconut-milk broth.
Produce sections in some supermarkets had fresh organic greens. Unfortunately, most were depressing. They included staples such as broccoli, baking potatoes, carrots and hard, round tomatoes, imported from Australia or New Zealand. Storage apples -- Gala, Red Delicious and Granny Smith only -- looked wrinkled and tired. There was oatmeal, with the familiar Quaker spouting label directions in Chinese characters. There were Ritz crackers, Pringles and Poppycock. Except for Oreos, which my son Jack cannot be without, we ignored it all.
Yuni preferred to buy some of our fresh produce at Ferer, a covered wet market with open stalls, each attended by an ethnic seller. We need mung bean sprouts, cucumber and long beans (about 18 inches long) for gado-gado salad. I lingered over a bin of fresh turmeric roots, their flesh as orange as a yam, and I compared ginger and galangal roots, both fresh and pinky with new sprouts.
I was introduced to water spinach, bunches of pale green grassy leaves on hollow, straw-like stems; they would be stir-fried with minced garlic and chiles. Because we eat greens with every dinner, I wanted to buy every variety of deep green-and-white baby bok choy and Shanghai choy, as well as kai lan, a Chinese broccoli. We did buy slender, lilac-colored Japanese eggplants which Yuni cut into beautiful angled shapes and sauted with garlic and chilis. She selected stalks of lemongrass standing in a bucket, knowing that its essence is to her cooking what a bouquet garni is to a French cook.
Odd things, to me, were dropped into our pink plastic colander, our "shopping basket." (No wheeled carts here.) Candlenuts, distantly related to macadamia nuts, would be pounded to dust and used to thicken our curry. Ruby-red Holland chilis, often called finger chiles, are mildly hot compared with the tiny, fiery bird's-eye Thai chilis. Those, we'd stir-fry. Next, a trio of leaves considered indispensible in day-to-day Asian cooking: daun pandan, tied into a knot and added to rice and other dishes; daun salam, an herb of choice for curries; and kaffir lime, a signature aromatic.
I saw packets of tempeh and tubs of fresh tofu, and I passed by piles of tiny dried shrimp and cylinders of palm sugar, a necessary and subtle sweetener for savory dishes as well as desserts. My nose knew that nearby were bins of star anise, cloves and nutmegs. I also smelled something ghastly, rotten, horrible that turned out to be a vast pile of spiky durian, the fruit that tastes so good but smells so bad, that it is banned from many public places and is usually sold in the open air. A young man was hacking the grenade-like fruit open with a knife to remove pods of fruit. He does this all day. What a job!
We already had our chicken and fish, but I stared at some of the displays. A smiling Chinese held up a black chicken for my inspection. Not for roasting, these game birds are considered extremely restoratve and are used to make a soup used for tonic. A display of eels shimmered on ice like a row of silver yardsticks. I poked at a bin of snails, but I was afraid to poke at a cage of enormous live frogs, three deep.
Sensory overload took me over every time I shopped that market.
Later, after a late afternoon nap, I'd join Um and Yuni in the kitchen to take my turn at the stone mortar and pestle to pound seeds and spices into submission for the flavoring pastes of dishes whose names I've never heard and whose flavors are brand new to my palate.
Now I'm back. My not-local Eat Local! experience was memorable and stimulating. But, hey, I'm sure glad to be home. I need a burger, medium rare, at Tessaro's, an espresso from La Prima Espresso and maybe an Iron City beer, at least, to de-tox and get back into a Pittsburgh reality.
I think I'll make pancakes for dinner.
I've taken to ordering fresh tofu when I see it on the menu in the food court. It is made every morning in big tubs. When it's ordered, the server uses a tool like a bench scraper to pick up and layer "sheets" in a dish. If scooped or spooned, the delicate structure could collapse. It is served warm with a syrup. This is real comfort food, silken, sweet and smoother than flan. I hope to find a source in Pittsburgh when I return. I've heard that Lotus on Penn Avenue in the Strip District makes fresh tofu on weekends.
In Japanese restaurants, along with sushi, grilled fish and tempura, a wonderful tasting and nutritionally excellent appetizer is served. Deep-fried salmon skin. The skin, loaded with all those omega-3s, is cut into strips, tossed in seasoned flour and tossed into oil until crisp. Bet you can't just eat one. I'll try this at home, too, but without the Tiger beer.
Vegetables make an appearance in almost every course of the local food. Besides being a side dish and stir-fry star, veggies are featured in desserts and noshes. I had a sweet potato milk shake for late morning snack the other day. Don't laugh. Chunk a medium roasted sweet potato and toss it into the blender along with a cup of milk and some sweetener. It was surprisingly tasty and filling, and it satisfied my sweet tooth. No need for lunch after that one.
More South East Asian adventures in food later.
Yams are roasted and buttered and ready for tomorrow's warm-up. Dinner yeast-roll dough is made and rising and will have a slow rise in the fridge overnight. Tart dough is rolled, panned and in the freezer, mostly for lack of fridge space. Um has a 14-pound turkey defrosting away. She is making chestnut stuffing and gravy with our turkey, who grew up on a farm Australia, by the way.
A big salad is on the menu, too. Instead of green beans with mushroom soup, we'll have snow peas with browned shallots and garlic. I'm making maple walnut tart in a butter crust and that pumpkin pie. We have a half-liter of heavy cream, so I expect the calorie count will rival dinners past. Guests will bring mashed potatoes and cranberries. They'll also bring wine, nothing fancy. But expensive to be sure. Singapore's government doesn't like drinking, and there's a
huge tax. So the wine will be the most costly thing on the menu.
Working in someone else's kitchen is a challenge. To complicate matters, we use centigrade temperatures and metric measures here. Much of our food is organic, but not local unless you consider New Zealand and Australia local. Food from Japan is very expensive, and we avoid anything from China as much as possible.
Thanksgiving dinner this year has an international cast. Two Americans, two Brits, one Aussie, one Chinese, two Thais. We'll set for two more guests because there are often ex-pats without an invitation.
Um and I had a late afternoon break. We each had a one-hour foot massage. In a special shoulder and foot massage only studio, we relaxed into white leather Barcaloungers. With feet extended onto a footstool (what else?), we waited. Our massage persons were blind Chinese men. Because everyone is expected to have a job here, the blind are trained in massage, all kinds. We dozed off to the sound
of various slappings of fist against flesh. Tingling tootsies, that's us. Now that's the way to recover from a day standing at the stove.
Happy Thanksgiving to all.
On Saturday, my daughter-in-law, Umarin, who is Thai, and I took 5-year-old Samantha to get makeup for a school recital. Our Chinese cab driver dropped us off at Takashimaya, the Japanese department store. The Muzak played "Feliz Navidad" while a Singaporean applied sparkly makeup. An Indian cab driver dropped us off at the performance center. Youngsters from China, the United States, Spain, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and probably more countries danced their little hearts out. Afterwards, we went for pizza at an Italian restaurant.
There is a very small but very representative world on our island.
We went to a birthday party on Sunday. All the women were Thai, and all the men Westerners, mostly American. The dinner was a scorcher with Thai chilies in almost every dish, particularly in a papaya salad. I helped myself to plenty of rice and noodles to subdue the fire, but I feel as if my lips have third-degree burns. The best dish there was a Singaporean specialty, Black Pepper Crab, created in the 1950s. I asked our host how to make it.
Go to the fishmonger and pick out lively jumbo Sri Lankan crabs, at least one crab per person. Get them home, clean and separate into serving pieces. Add some oil to a hot wok and stir-fry the crab until cooked through. Remove to a platter. Now add to the wok butter, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, thick soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and some stock. Stir in several tablespoons of crushed black pepper. Add back the crab, coat well with the spicy sauce. Never plan on leftovers.
There are something like 115 public food centers, each housing about 100 stalls each. Then there are the public food courts and stalls on this tiny bit of real estate. There's only one way to be sure to find the best of the best. So for the rest of the vacation, I will go nowhere without my Makansutra, the foodies' guide, bible and encyclopedia to Singapore street food.
Every morning, year-round, my husband and I drink local cider. Each October, I purchase 35 gallons of fresh-pressed cider, bottled in 40-gallon jugs, leaving space for expansion in each. I load up our freezer.
I'm picking up the cider tonight -- squeezed this morning and into my freezer by 7 p.m.!
If you can't finish a jug before it turns "hard," all you need do is boil it. That cooks off the alcohol. It also boils off some of the liquid, so you need to add a little water again.
I'm always surprised that people don't know this about cider.
-- Bette Dengel, Economy, Beaver County
One other thing: I buy my cider from Mrs. Douglass out on state Route 65 north of New Brighton near the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It used to be pressed by the Amish and was unpasteurized with no preservatives. I'm not sure, but I believe it now has to be pasturized. Genie Douglass can be reached at 724-843-6757. I think she gets it pressed at Sally's Cider Press in Harmony.
Many times over the past few years, in the dead of winter, summertime-type produce such as zucchini, eggplant and many others is labeled with a permanent, colorful sign proudly proclaiming "LOCALLY GROWN." If there is a produce staff member out working on the floor when I pass by, he or she gets an earful from me! Usually it is obvious that the fruit or vegetable in question could not possibly have been locally grown, but not always. Sometimes only a gardener would know that produce shipped from far afield is being passed off to the unsuspecting public as "locally grown."
One time when I challenged a worker in an Indiana, Pa., food store for their definition of "locally grown," after a moment's uncomfortable thought, the person said, "I think it can include New Jersey." When I pointed out that whatever it was could not possibly have come from there at the time of year in question, he replied, "Well, actually, it can be anywhere east of the Mississippi." Imagine!!! So they could be selling Florida corn, tomatoes, etc. and label it "locally grown"!
As the old comic strip declared, "There oughta be a law ..."
I wonder if some produce departments even consider as "local" any produce grown in the United States.
As a consumer, I would like to see each store post in a prominent place in the produce department its definition of "local" as it pertains to the items they sell.
-- Carol Kelly, Saltsburg
Sunday was such a gorgeous day, Bob and I decided to go on a picnic. I put the top down, and we headed for Settler's Cabin Park, right off the Parkway West. It was beautiful and so nearly deserted, it felt like we had the leaves and trees to ourselves. I packed what was probably our last all-local lunch for a while: Amish butter and chicken sandwiches on homemade bread, apples only a couple of days off the tree, sweet pickles from the Original Farmers Night Market in South Fayette, a thermos of cold cider and homemade oatmeal cookies. Back home, the hinges on our stand-up freezer are near to busting. It is crammed full of everything I can think of to freeze for the, shall we say, "spartan months" when the farmers markets are shut down 'til spring. Meats, fruits, pasta sauce, nuts, salsas, pesto and desserts pack the shelves. I put in a big order from Frankferd Farms in Butler County, so I'm set with whole wheat flour, corn meal and buckwheat flour. I picked it up at the Farmers@firehouse Saturday market. In January, I'll have the next order delivered. You really ought to check out their online catalog (www.frankferd.com I'll probably make it to January before I'm really on the ropes trying to eat local. I'm already giving way to and welcoming more seasonal produce from elsewhere with persimmons and cranberries brightening recent meals.
Recently, artists Robin Hewlett and Ally Reeves spent a day biking around Pittsburgh's South Side in search of food. Giant Eagle wasn't on their route. Instead the artists were looking for fresh food, growing within the city. More specifically, the artists were interested in a one-mile radius of Pittsburgh with the Brewhouse as ground zero. That evening, they presented their project: One Mile Meal. Ms. Hewlett is a Pittsburgh native. Ms. Reeves, originally from Tennessee, is a graduate art student at Carnegie Mellon University. The two artists designed One Mile Meal as an experiment, taking the recent local food trend to the extreme. While the "100-Mile Diet" has attracted significant attention, these two wondered what a meal composed of food collected within just one mile would look like. During an eight-hour day of foraging, here's what they found: Crab apples (wild), cooking qpples (wild), lady's thumb (wild), wood sorrel (wild), mint, daikon radish, French sorrel (wild), dock (wild), grape tomatoes, vine tomatoes, Jerusalem artichoke, lamb's quarters (wild), elderberries (wild), sage, violets (wild), red sumac (wild), green beans, green pepper, hot red pepper, wild carrot (wild), rocket (wild), cabbage, kale and acorns (wild). Slim pickin's if you ask me. Had they asked, I could have pointed them to one household I know that has chickens, eggs and honey. And had they come to Mt. Washington, they would find wild turkey and deer. But it was their party, after all. By the time audience members arrived for dinner, the artists had food preparation under way. Tasks were delegated, from chopping vegetables and shelling acorns to setting the table and identifying mysterious plants using a wild edibles field guide. The one-mile mandate was followed strictly and literally. Cooking oil, salt and other standard tools of the trade were forgone in order to prepare a truly one-mile meal. During the dinner, Ms. Hewlett and Ms. Reeves also shared information and stories. The day of scavenging was an opportunity to talk to folks they met along the way and connect with local gardeners. All of this was a jumping off point for conversation. Throwing out a few statistics about the global food system, the artists asked audience members to share their own thoughts and feelings about the foods they eat. The artists present One Mile Meal in other cities, too, as an opportunity to start a dialogue around food, which they hope will continue beyond the meal itself. The project also is an opportunity to bring focus to the extensive resources that exist within our immediate surroundings, from local farmers' markets and community supported agriculture schemes to the plethora of wild edibles available for the taking in the urban wilds of Pittsburgh. We have no information on the number of people who attended or how many of them stopped for a pizza afterwards.
Once in a while everybody gets a tune that plays in a continuous loop in their heads. It's enough to drive you crazy.
I'm the same way with recipes. Last week in Ipswich, Mass., my husband and I ate apple cider doughnuts. The taste memory lingers still. There's nothing I can do to stop it but make some.
I think I'll make them this weekend, frying them in my Fry-Daddy. And instead of an apple cider glaze, I'll make a maple syrup glaze. This cider doughnut recipe was in the Washington Post a couple of years ago. These apple cider doughnuts -- dense, richly spiced and with a faint taste of buttermilk -- are adapted from a recipe by pastry chef Lauren Dawson from Hearth restaurant in New York City's East Village. Hearth served the doughnuts with applesauce and whipped cream flavored with a syrup made from reduced apple cider. For the doughnuts: In a saucepan over medium or medium-low heat, gently reduce the apple cider to about 1/4 cup, 20 to 30 minutes. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. Set aside. Using an electric mixer on medium speed (with the paddle attachment, if using a standing mixer) beat the butter and granulated sugar until the mixture is smooth. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and continue to beat until the eggs are completely incorporated. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the reduced apple cider and the buttermilk, mixing just until combined. Add the flour mixture and continue to mix just until the dough comes together. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or wax paper and sprinkle them generously with flour. Turn the dough onto 1 of the sheets and sprinkle the top with flour. Flatten the dough with your hands until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Use more flour if the dough is still wet. Transfer the dough to the freezer until it is slightly hardened, about 20 minutes. Pull the dough out of the freezer. Using a 3-inch doughnut cutter, cut out doughnut shapes. Place the cut doughnuts and doughnut holes onto the second sheet pan. Refrigerate the doughnuts for 20 to 30 minutes. (You may re-roll the scraps of dough, refrigerate them briefly and cut additional doughnuts from the dough.) Add enough oil to a deep-sided pan to measure a depth of about 3 inches. Attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pan and heat over medium heat until the oil reaches 350 degrees. Have ready a plate lined with several thicknesses of paper towels. For the glaze: While the cut doughnut shapes are in the refrigerator, make the glaze by whisking together the confectioners' sugar and the cider until the mixture is smooth. Set aside. To fry and assemble: Carefully add a few doughnuts to the oil, being careful not to crowd the pan, and fry until golden brown, about 60 seconds. Turn the doughnuts over and fry until the other side is golden, 30 to 60 seconds. Drain on paper towels after the doughnuts are fried. Dip the top of the warm doughnuts into the glaze and serve immediately. Makes 18 doughnuts and doughnut holes.
Whatever charges his batteries would surely charge mine, so we picked days after the tourists left but before the leaf peepers arrived. I wondered: Could I Eat Local! out of town? You bet. Local is where you find it.
Off we flew to Boston on Monday morning, rented a car and drove to Gloucester, long ago the home of Portuguese ship captains and fishermen. From there we drove the short distances to Essex and Ipswich, absolute ground center for clams, fried or otherwise. In two full days, we made the rounds of the most famous clam shacks: Essex Seafood, Woodman's of Essex, J.T. Farnham's of Essex, Clam Box in Ipswich, and Red Rock in Swampscott. It was a full Ginsberg of deep-fried clams, fries, onion rings and coleslaw.
For testing purposes, ahem, we also sampled clam chowder at each place. And I'm sorry to have to break it to you, but there was a lobster somewhere in there, too.
To wash down the above, we drank local beer. I had no idea there were so many breweries. We sipped Ipswich Ale, Ipswich Dark Ale and Ipswich Porter.
In between, we walked. And walked. Our motel was right on the coast. From our room, we could walk over the front lawn, cross the two-lane, and there was a sidewalk just a couple of feet from the rocks with waves chopping into them.
Vacations, even mini-ones, are great.
Here are a few ways to squeeze organics into any budget -- big or small -- from Erin Huffstetler at the About.com Guide to Frugal Living.
10 Ways to Buy Organics for Less
• 1. Buy Store Brands. A growing consumer interest in organics has prompted many grocery chains to launch their own organic product lines. Make the switch to store brand, and you could shave an easy 25 percent off of your bill.
• 2. Look for Coupons. While you probably won't find many coupons for organics in your Sunday paper (yet), coupons for organics do exist.
• 3. Grow Your Own. Plant a garden in your yard and grow your own organics. You may spend a bit more for organic seeds, but otherwise it won't cost you any more (and may even cost you less) to grow organic produce.
• 4. Seek Reduced Produce. The organic trend is still new, and that means many stores haven't figured out how much to order. Look for reduced prices on produce (and other goodies) that need to be used today or tomorrow, and you could snatch up organics at or below the price of traditionally grown produce.
• 5. Buy in Bulk. Warehouse stores like Sam's and Costco are a great source for bargain-priced organics if you're willing to buy in bulk, as is Amazon.com -- a newcomer to the grocery market.
• 6. Buy Unprocessed Foods. Processed foods are more expensive than whole foods, whether they're organic or not. Spend the bulk of your grocery dollars on basic foods -- fruits, vegetables, dairy, grains -- and you'll be able to afford more organics for your money.
• 7. Shop Locally. Farmer's markets are a great source for value-priced organics. No markets in your area? Then look for locally grown organics in your grocery store. Since local produce doesn't have to travel far, the prices are often lower.
• 8. Shop Seasonally. Foods -- organic and otherwise -- are cheapest when they're in season.
• 9. Join a Co-Op. Farm co-ops and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) groups allow you to buy a share in a local farm in exchange for a portion of the food that the farm produces -- a real bargain. Locate an organic co-op or CSA in your area through Local Harvest.org and enjoy more organic fare for your money.
• 10. Stick to the Dirty Dozen. Can't afford to buy all-organic produce? Then stick to the 12 fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide levels. According to The Environmental Working Group, this includes: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, imported grapes, pears, spinach, potatoes.
"A Gourmet traveling writer visited the restaurant this summer," Chef Dick says. "She asked about how we forage for mushrooms and ramps and how the menu changes every day." He's also proud of Bona Terra's write-up in R. W. Apple Jr.'s "Apple's America: The Discriminating Traveler's Guide to 40 Great Cities in the United States and Canada."
Bona Terra, which translates to "good earth" in Latin, has been a hit with local foodies since it opened in September 2003. Douglass' menu is full of surprises and pairings, often with Spanish, French and Asian overtones.
No wonder it is almost impossible to get a weekend reservation, especially during this harvest season. The restaurant is located at 908 Main St. in Sharpsburg. If you want to know more, call 412-781-8210.
Artists Robin Hewlett and Ally Reeves are really going to do this. They will perform "One Mile Meal" at the Brew House on the South Side at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 29.
This is no joke. One Mile Meal is an interactive art project that gets participants talking about the food they eat and where it comes from. Ms. Hewlett and Ms. Reeves will spend a marathon day biking within a 1-mile radius of the Brew House in search of food growing in the area. The goal is to feed their audience come evening. The artists forage for wild edibles in urban green spaces and connect with local gardeners to find out what they're growing.
This will be the local artists' third presentation of One Mile Meal. Early in the summer, Ms. Hewlett and Ms. Reeves took the project on the road to Washington, D.C. and Chicago. In Washington, the project was met with skepticism. Locals expected a meager meal, but the artists returned with an impressive bounty, having found two community gardens within their mile.
The local gardeners were proud to show off their handiwork and either traded fresh produce for a small donation or happily gave their veggies as a gift. In Chicago, Washington Park offered an array of wild plants to choose from and, with more time to spare, fish could have been on the menu. The artist met several fishermen along the banks of a lagoon at the center of the park. The men said they regularly eat their catch or share it with friends and neighbors, but the fish weren't biting that day.
So, why DO this? The process of discovery and unexpected interactions are central to the project. They've been easy for the artists to come by as visitors in two unfamiliar cities. Ms. Hewlett and Ms. Reeves don't expect to miss out on this aspect of the project in Pittsburgh, however. Presenting One Mile Meal at the Brew House on the South Side will put the two Bloomfield residents within a relatively unfamiliar mile of the city. Ms. Hewlett says:
"Pittsburgh has so many nooks and crannies. It's impossible to know everything that's out there, even in your own city. Often we don't even get to explore the whole mile that's available because we meet interesting people, get into a conversation, start digging up root vegetables in a park ... Before we know it, the day just slips by. When you start looking really closely, you realize how much there is to discover in every microcosm. This is local food to the extreme. But it's a way of getting a conversation started, and of realizing that we have more resources immediately at hand than we think."
Ms. Hewlett and Ms. Reeves created One Mile Meal as a way to start exploring what a truly local diet would look like. These themes are the focus of their dinner discussion. They start off by sharing stories about how the day's food was gathered, how they became aware of food politics and the questions and challenges they face when making decisions about what to eat. As they delegate food preparation tasks to the audience, the artists also invite their guests to join the conversation and share their own ideas, experiences and questions.
Ms. Reeves says: "Deciding what to eat for dinner is a decision we all have to make on a daily basis. Changing our relationship to the food we eat -- so that we're more aware of how and where it's grown -- could be a small step toward major change. One Mile Meal allows us to meet other people interested in local food issues, so we can share ideas and learn from each other."
One Mile Meal is being presented as part of the Distillery Program at the Brew House and will coincide with the I Made It! craft fair. The Brew House is located at 2100 Mary Street on the South Side. For more information, contact Robin Hewlett at 412-680-0612.
I'm betting they will find honey, mushrooms, eggs and lots of veggies from local gardens. Good pickin's on the South Side. Since they won't shoot anything, they might be able to scare a turkey to death. Same for rabbits and pheasants, if my back yard is any indication. We'll be back to you next week with a follow-up on their menu.
-- Richard Wilson, Oakmont
They're open Memorial Day to Thanksgiving, Fridays and Sundays from 11 a.m. till dusk, and Saturdays and Mondays on holiday weekends from 10 a.m. till dusk.
-- Samantha Bennett
The be-all, end-all Eat Local! event of the season is next week. Eleven Restaurant in the Strip District is celebrating with a Harvest Moon Dinner. It takes place on the evening of the Harvest Moon -- the September full moon traditionally associated with the fall bounty. I'll clink glasses with you as we watch the amber moon rise from the north. (Over the 16th St. Bridge and Route 28, actually, which isn't too romantic, but, hey, north is north.) Cross fingers it doesn't rain.
The fixed-price tasting menu is a collaboration of Eleven and Executive Chef Derek Stevens with Slow Food Pittsburgh. The emphasis is on locally grown fruits, vegetables and meats, prepared with fresh, honest methods.
Just about every farmer and producer I can think of will be represented. And the menu is just plain beautiful.
Here are the facts:
• Date: Wednesday, Sept. 26
• Place: Eleven, 1150 Smallman St., near the convention center
• Parking: Valet, on the street, or in the lot across the street
• Time: Hors d'oeuvres from 6 to 6:45 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m.
• Price: $85 per person, including beverages, but excluding tax and gratuity
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED: 412-201-5656.
And here's the menu:
Hors d'oeuvres
Elysian Fields Farm lamb, pickled local peppers
Shiso-smoked Pennsylvania chicken, corn bread, barbecued Pennsylvania Simply Sweet onions, yellow watermelon, sungold tomato, Virginia ham
Three Sisters Farm nasturtium, peach-goat cheese mousse
Harvest Valley breakfast radishes, Pennsylvania butter, Maine sea salt
Clear heirloom tomato gazpacho
Wine: Pinnacle Ridge Brut Rose, Kutztown
Three Sisters Farm mesclun greens
Heirloom tomatoes, zucchini pickles, opal basil, Hendricks Farm cheese
Wine: 2006 Nissley Vignoles, Bainbridge
Laurel Hill trout
Creamed sweet corn, warm bean salad, chanterelle vinaigrette
Wine: 2006 Pinnacle Ridge Chardonnay, Kutztown
Pork loin and house-made sausage
Toscano kale, turnip, squash, Simply Sweet onions, stone fruit mostarda
Beer: Church Brew Works Pious Monk Dunkel, Pittsburgh
Sweet Tastes of Summer and Fall
Buttercup squash pie, black walnut chantilly, poached Seckel pear
Berry clafouti, peach ice cream, grilled plum
Wine: Rose Bank Winery Blueberry Wine, Newtown
House-made chocolates, candies, and cookies
To see the menu in living color, go to:
http://www.bigburrito.com/eleven/events/2007/09/slowww.shtml
You've inspired another blog.
I've decided to start my own blog on trying to eat locally produced food in the hopes it will inspire/help others and could perhaps become a forum for people sharing information on the same. I need to get people to read it somehow. If you could see fit to publish the link (after you check it out, of course) I would be ever so grateful. Thanks very much for everything, especially the practical info on roasted tomatoes.
-- Cindy Green
http://eatinglocalinpittsburgh.blogspot.com
There was a crowd of about 35 to 40 last night at the main Carnegie Library in Oakland. All were there to hear a talk about Slow Food Pittsburgh and Eat Local by yours truly. It's heartening to see the interest in local food -- and to hear about backyard gardens, freezing for winter months and hints on sourcing local foods.
Jeff Krueger, a sculptor living on the North Side, had a good tip on shopping for tofu. "The best tofu I ever ate is from Lotus Foods, the Asian store next door to Wholey's on Penn Avenue in the Strip," he says. "It's made right there in the store and is brought out of the back steaming. Turnover is about every five minutes. The tofu cakes are about 28 cents a cake! It stays fresh and good in the fridge for a couple of weeks. It's the best bargain in town. They make it every Friday, Saturday and Sunday."
Jeff says the best time to go is after work to avoid the crowds. Lotus Foods is open on Friday until 7:15 p.m., on Saturday until 6:30 p.m. and on Sunday until 6:15 p.m.
There was much interest in local Web sites. Here are the best for Pittsburghers:
• www.fooddroutes.org -- on the food system.
• www.pasafarming.org -- local farms and where they are located.
• www.buylocalpa.org -- promotes locally grown food.
• www.localharvest.org -- allows customized updates for new listings.
• www.slowfoodpgh.com -- local chapter promotes events that are fresh, local, seasonal.
• www.eatwellguide.org -- for the traveler in the U.S. and Canada.
And a question for you, readers. Who else is selling good, homemade sauerkraut? I have a pork roast that needs company.
September is the time to make oven-dried tomatoes and roasted tomato sauce. When you see ripe, meaty plum tomatoes, buy a basket or two. You'll be glad in January.
Eyeball the cartons and baskets. You'll want about 20 or 30 smaller tomatoes to oven-dry, and the rest will go to sauce. When you get them home, rinse, nip off the stem end, and cut the tomatoes lengthwise. As you work, toss the halves onto your biggest baking sheet or two medium ones. The tomatoes should lie in one layer. To de-seed, take each piece in your left hand and, using the thumb of the other hand, ream out the seeds and pulp. If you are super thrifty, save the pulp for soup or stock. I mostly just rinse it down the sink.
For oven-dried tomatoes: You will have a tray full of hollowed out tomato shells. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. (I sometimes turn on the convection oven, which pushes the temperature up about 50 degrees.) Generously dribble the tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil and, using your hands, toss to coat. Then, turn the tomatoes cut side up. Sprinkle them with kosher salt.
Roast for 30 minutes. This first period of cooking time is for softening the flesh and evaporating the tomato water. Roast another 20 to 30 minutes longer. What you want are dehyrated tomatoes with a singe, almost a char, on the edges and bottoms. Since every oven is different, times will vary. The tomatoes shrink, and their flavor concentrates. When they are cool, use a spatula to transfer them from the tray to a container. Drizzle with more olive oil and refrigerate or freeze.
How to use them? Let me count the ways: Toast baguette slices, rub with a piece of garlic, drizzle with olive oil and top with a tomato half for an instant bruschetta. Tuck several into a sandwich panini. Chop and add to pasta. Chop and add to salad. Serve with a composed salad. Use as a pizza topping with curls of prosciutto. Or eat them straight out of the jar. Bet you can't eat just one.
For roasted tomato sauce: Use the same technique to make roasted sauce, but toss a few fat garlic cloves and a chopped onion onto the tray. Roast and cool, but spoon the soft veggies into a Foley food mill, NOT a blender or processor, and puree, leaving behind the skins. This makes a pure, smooth sauce to be seasoned later. I freeze it in 8-ounce containers for use in recipes all winter.
Since it's just Michael and me, I don't do much canning anymore, and we don't have a separate freezer. I usually turn the extra produce into spaghetti sauce, kale soup and other dishes that I freeze in two-serving containers. I know that kale will be in the garden as late as December, but I'm dreading January, February and March more than usual this year. This winter we are going to try to keep a cherry tomato plant in a pot and a flat of spring mix in the basement near a sunny window.
I have always felt that the way Michael and I eat we should live in the East End. If it weren't for McGinnis Sisters, we'd have nothing near us. Yes, there's Trax Farm, but it doesn't make sense that people have to pile into cars to drive to the farm. That's a lot of gas. One truck from the farm to a local market makes more sense to me. We need a market that is available year round in the South Hills. The Whole Foods site says they are planning one.
-- Pamela Grabowski, Brookline
-- Carol Ballance, Pine
Do ask the farmers at your local market about buying in bulk, or if they have a lot of something that they don't want to haul home. Last week a farmer offered me all the large, delicious cantaloupes I wanted to purchase
for $1 each.
I suggest your readers check out the information on Home Food Preservation from the Penn State Cooperative Extension Service at http://foodsafety.cas.psu.edu/preserve.html.
-- Candy S. DeBerry, Ph.D., associate professor of biology, Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, Pa.
P.S. Was chatting about your blog the other day, while shopping for native plants at Kathy McGregor's nursery, Sylvania Natives, in Squirrel Hill. You'd posted something she had written to you a couple of weeks ago. Neither of us knew the other tried to eat local. Your articles and blog are helping us connect with each other!
When we first sent troops into Iraq, I wrote a feature on Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs). As a result, I got onto a government surplus mailing list. This latest one really tickles me since I'm in the midst of this Eat Local challenge. And I quote:
We have purchased an excellent quality Freeze Dried/Dehydrated Boneless Pork Chops and Cottage Cheese. These came as surplus from the Government/US Military, and once they are gone it is likely that we will never see them again.
They are a fantastic way to add good quality protein to your food storage plan -- and they both actually taste great as well!
• 30 to 50 Year Shelf Life
So much for fresh, seasonal and local.
Lots of readers are taking this journey with me, including Point Breeze's Maryanne Loebig, who e-mailed about "local nuts."
"And no I don't mean the people!," she quipped. "Just catching up on my online reading and noticed in your 'locavore' blog your interest in locally grown nuts. I don't know how local they really are, but at the Saturday morning East Liberty Farmer's Market (the one on Sheridan St. near Home Depot) the "egg people" (Greenawalts) have had some nuts from time to time along with some Amish cheeses. I think she's had black walnuts even, small bags of them, and I thought they were local. It's been some time since I've paid any attention to that though. If you'd like me to call Ina Greenawaltthis week to see if she has them, I'd be glad to do so. I'm a volunteer of sorts with the farmers there - have occasionally sent news items to the paper on their behalf, etc. They're trying to maintain their market despite the still-unsolved arson there this spring, and they are all small business people from W. PA, welldeserving of our business, bringing in their wares year round. I recently read the Barbara Kingsolver book about local eating (Animal, Vegetable, Mineral) and it has changed how I walk through the Giant Eagle, that's for sure. I hope that when the trend dies down - and it will, in the way of all trends - that it does lead to some permanent changes in our acquisition habits. I (somewhat guiltily) bought plums today from who knows where, and wondered how much of the $1.29 a pound was fuel costs; ditto on the Minute Maid orange juice.
I hope that more of your blog can get into the paper where a wider audience will read it. Keep up the good work.
In response to Cindy Green of Squirrel Hill (below):
Check out the canning stories that Amy Schaarsmith did a wonderful job on last year in the Post-Gazette food section. See also an excellent guide published last year is the "Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving" edited by Judi Kingry and Lauren Devine (Robert Rose, $19.95, available at Borders). It's an updated version of all things canning, with contemporary recipes (salsas, for one), and it's very easy to follow.
There's still lots of time to can : The tomatoes are still coming in, peaches are still out there. Thank goodness, because I still have to do both. -- Margi Shrum, Mt. Lebanon
Thanks for doing this blog. I, too, have three children (like your son) and I am having a very hard time eating locally and keeping them on whole foods. Luckily, I stay home with them and can devote a bit more time than a working mom, but not as much as I'd like. Plus, two of my children seem to only be capable of eating processed food. Especially if it's dusted with cheese.
I was turned on to eating locally by Barbara Kingsolver's book, joined the Harvest Valley Farms CSA (community supported agriculture plan) and have been shopping the East Liberty Farmer's Market religiously. I have two areas of interest I was hoping you could address.
I feel like I am reinventing the wheel. I was wondering if you came across or know of a support group, blog or listserv for people eating locally in the city (we live in Squirrel Hill). I know there must be people out there who know exactly where local milk can be found closest to here. I am doing great with the produce and enjoy the beef and cheese at East Liberty, but for other things I have to go to the East End Co-op, which can be limited and quite expensive. There must be another way. I know local eggs must be cheaper than $3.79 a dozen somewhere. I love McGinnis Sisters but it is too far for us. Frankferd Farms is a great resource. Thanks for that. Any other ideas?
My other area of interest is preparing for winter. I have never canned anything and am hoping for a recommendation of a book, web site, group, whatever to help with that. Plus, I don't know when the season for various things will end and when is the best (and cheapest) time to purchase these things. Probably not at the very end of the season, I'm guessing. A local guide would be the only
thing that would help with that knowledge.
Anyway, it's been great being in this part of the country where there are (or used to be, anyway) so many farms. I hope to be able to take full advantage of them during harvest time. I hope you won't quit while you're ahead either. I look forward to reading more. -- Cindy Green, Squirrel Hill
In an early comment in your blog, you reported trouble finding local flour. Are you aware of the mill run by the Benedictine monks at St. Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe (Westmoreland County)?
And here are two other local products:
• Laurel Vista Farm in Somerset makes incredibly delicious "Somerset Sweet Onion & Garlic Jam" (1665 Coxes Creek Road; 814-443-2415; www.laurelvistafarm.com
• A local beekeeper near my house sells a quart for $7 (compared to the $15 they wanted today at the farmer's market). He is James C. Hoffman (424 Golden Grove Road, Economy, Beaver County; 724-869-4890). It's self-serve from his front porch.
I've always enjoyed your writing. Thanks for encouraging local foods!
-- Bette Dengel, Economy, Beaver County
The inevitable happened. I fell off the wagon. Big time. While on vacation in Seattle, my grandsons wanted to watch a TV movie. Halfway through, they said, "We're hungry. Can you make us something, Grandma?" So I made up a box of Kraft macaroni and cheese -- the cheesier kind, the box said. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
But on the upside of local, the next day we were all picking wild blackberries, for a cobbler for supper.
Then it was out to SeaTac airport, where I planned to pick up a box of locally made Aplets and Cotlets, the jellied fruit candy with pistachios. After six hours of pretzels and juice in the air, it was back to Pittsburgh for more local eating.
One of Tom and Kathy's pals is a chef and caterer. When he and his family came to dinner one night, we had a full house with 5 adults and 5 kids. Since he's a foodie too, we decided to eat local, Seattle-style.
Almost, anyway.
To get ready, we spent an hour at a farmers market here on North Capitol Hill. We talked to a farmer who sells "grass and potato-fed" beef. What's that all about? we asked him. "Our farm is in an isolated valley north of Colville, Wash., in the Selkirk Mountains," said Mr. Olsen. "Our angus and angus-cross cattle are raised on grass pastures and fed our own hay and potatoes in the winter. There are no outside food sources or animal by-products given to our cows. They lead a pretty no-stress life."
We bought two tri-tip roasts from him. And since he had bags of freshly dug potatoes, we thought we'd try a bag of those, too. Nate saw a bag of tiny marble-size (not shooter-size) potatoes labeled "spud nuts." Mr, Olsen said, "Those are really popular with chefs. You can almost eat 'em like peanuts. About a dozen makes a serving. We just dug those tiny potatoes a few days ago." We bought those, too.
Tom knows an Italian shop that makes homemade mozzarella, so we picked up a container to go with our fresh tomatoes and soon-to-be-made pesto. I couldn't resist pumpkin ravioli, Seattle-made.
Our menu was all local except for Spanish wines from our guests. I steamed the potatoes for 10 minutes, tossed them with olive oil and coarse salt and we ate them like popcorn. Tom grilled the tri-tips and sliced them down. We added sliced tomatoes, corn on the cob, and pumpkin ravioli with toasted Oregon hazelnuts and crispy fried sage. For dessert, we polished off a peach pie.
Pretty local, pretty good.
I wonder how many of you are eating local on your vacations. There's great seafood at most beaches.
Tell us about it.
Spending time in Seattle with family gave me a reality check. It's more than hard for anybody to try to eat local when there are kids and working parents.
Kathy goes to work and lunches with friends and colleagues. Same with Tom.
Breakfasts are bagels and cream cheese, sometimes an egg. Oscar likes one kind of cereal, Nate another kind and Ava wants a bagel.
None of this stuff is "local" or artisanally made. This is what feeding a family is all about. They eat local fruits and vegetables and buy milk from the local dairy.
But the rest? Cereals, chicken and meat and snacks are from the center of the supermarket. Much of the food is organic, and that's good, and most of it is as low in added sugars as they can manage.
This tells me that it takes a huge committment to eat local. And to eat food without a bunch of additives and sugars.
I'm proud of anyone who at least makes an effort.
Keep up the good work. Tell us your experiences. You know what to do. E-mail to mparrish@post-gazette.com.
I'm all settled into the family groove in Seattle. Kathy and 7-year-old Ava are now with my son Tom and his sons, Oscar and Nate. When I told them of my Eat Local! challenge, they all but yawned. "What's so great about that?" Oscar said. Hmph. These Northwesterners are all about a healthy lifestyle, outdoors living and supporting local everything, including farmers and wineries. Who knew?
They're not zealots on the issue. I spied plenty of convenience foods in the pantry, and with three kids and two working adults, the parents need as much help as they can get. But I also found an abundance of fresh fruit set out at kid-eye level, locally made cheeses and just plain good food, much of it with local roots. Including wine.
Our ritual trip to Pike Place Market was made special because the market is celebrating its 100th year in business. Not only were the usual vendors selling, but the street out front was blocked off for local farmers. Buskers performing bluegrass, gospel and off-key singing were on every corner. Flowers and balloons were offered to the kids. We loaded up on peaches and blackberries (just coming into season), zucchini and blossoms, and other stuff on our list. What a fun day!
Fish and seafood? Tom and the boys were headed out to Puget Sound to lower crab pots, hoping for Dungeness crab. And so was I. We planned to steam the critters (we hoped that's plural) and serve them with herb mayo and a big Caesar salad.
Talk about the sincerest form of flattery: My buddy Anne Quinn Corr was inspired (she says peer pressured) by this one to start her own "Eat local!" blog for the Centre Daily Times Web site. She lives amid some of the state's most lush farmland. But you can find her here: http://www.centredaily.com/opinion/blogs/. Here's an excerpt:
Dining out can be an option -- there are many area restaurants that support local foods with their menu offerings. Maybe other restaurants will see the marketing value of supporting the farmers in the area if we, the customers, ask each server to point out items on the menu that use local meats, dairy products, eggs, cheese and produce.
We live in Shangri La in central Pennsylvania, blessed with abundant food. Let's make the most of it this month and celebrate with every bite. Take $20 and see how many different farmers you can talk to at the market this week. You can be a part of the solution to our National Eating Disorder.
Every Saturday morning from April through Thanksgiving, the Farmers @ firehouse market in the Strip District hosts a local chef. His or her drill is to demonstrate -- using only hot plates, saute pans and lots of ingenuity -- one or two dishes made with ingredients purchased that very morning from the week's vendors. So far, chefs from Eleven, Casbah, Vivo and others have had starring roles, cooking for all passers-by on Penn Avenue. They never have leftovers.
Last Saturday, Dan Leiphart was there. He's executive chef at Isabela on Grandview, and he brought his sous chef and his wife, who in real life is the sous-chef at Le Pommier. Chef Leiphart sauteed wild salmon (from Sara Pozonsky's Wild Alaska Salmon Co.) and combined it with sauteed dice of zucchini, onions (Next Life Farm) and herbs (Goose Creek Gardens). Wonderful.
But the hit of the day was a simple dish of orecchiette pasta, ground pork and chard. I watched them and took notes, and here's how to make it. You can figure out your own amounts.
Set a pot of water to boil, then cook a curly or curved pasta such as orrechiette. When it's done, drain, toss with a bit of oil and keep warm. Thinly slice garlic and toast it in olive oil. Add a pinch of red pepper flakes and saute a minute more. Crumble ground pork or pork sausage (from Heilmann's Hog Wash Farm) and cook until browned. Add salt and pepper to taste, and please be generous. Add handfuls of greens, spinach, chard or escarole (Blackberry Meadows Farm), and let them wilt in the heat. Serve it up and top with a good sprinkling of grated parmesan or pecorino cheese.
Make it dinner with side dishes of sliced tomatoes with basil vinaigrette and corn on the cob.
Woe is me. Today I head for Seattle to visit family for a week. I can't wait to be there, but it's the getting there that will be, uh, loads of fun. Eating local is trumped by survival in the air. There hasn't been decent airplane food in quite a while, so I'll do what I've been doing for years: just pack a lunch to tide me over the fly-over. Peanut butter and jelly on walnut bread sandwich, a hard-cooked egg, couple of carrots, a peach, homemade cookies and two Powerbars. The latter is in case there's any unscheduled tarmac time.
Once I'm settled in, it's back on the horse, and I plan to eat local Seattle. That will include lots of salmon, eggs from my son Tom's backyard chicken coop, marionberries and wild mushrooms. We'll drink Washington state wines and Washington beer. I think Starbuck's counts as local, too. You should have such hardships. I'll send postcards.
I love this series and the blog! I'm also glad to see the mentions of
Frankferd Farms -- great people with a great business.
I have to go and make my list for the Original Farmer's Night
Market!
-- Lori Fulton, Canonsburg
With all the peaches and berries in the market, I'm on a binge. No gateaus or tortes here, only the homeliest of desserts for me. Cobblers, bettys, crisps, grunts and slumps.
Slumps and grunts are similar to cobblers in that they combine fruit with nubs of biscuit dough. The difference is that they are simmered on top of the stove rather than baked.
Cooks who are visual types note that the biscuits slump down into the fruit as they bubble away. The cooks with aural sensitivities say that the berries grunt as they simmer. Or maybe that's the satisfied sound you make when you bite into one.
I am making all the topping stuff with Frankferd Farms whole wheat bread flour instead of Pillsbury's white. The flavor is toasty and nutty, both wonderful partners to fruit.
I'll print a gang of these recipes in the Thursday Food & Flavor section soon.
Special request: I'm still looking for a source of nuts, fairly local. Love to get my hands on some black walnuts. And yes, I'm prepared to have black-stained hands for a week after I dig out the nut meats.
And here's a special note: If you are planning to make jams or preserves this month, better check your jars. I just bought two dozen jars at Rollier's Hardware in Mt. Lebanon, and the supply didn't look too big. You don't want to get caught without.
TGIF. August or not, local or not, I need to get out of the house more. I'm tired of all this cooking, but not at all tired of the commitment to eating local food. A few days ago, my husband, Bob, and I had a wonderful barbecue dinner at Six Penn Kitchen, Downtown. We pigged out on local pig, chicken and lamb along with house baked beans, buns and coleslaw. Peach cobbler never tasted so good.
Over the weekend we're planning a casual supper at the Mt. Lebanon Mad Mex. I know they source corn, tomatoes, zucchini and basil from local farms. (And I know I can find a bartender willing to swear his margaritas are local, too.) Our community is having a corn-roast tonight, and a like-minded Greek friend who's a wonderful cook is having us over for dinner. No starving this weekend.
Found a local source? Read a good article? Send the link. Keep those e-mails coming.
I suspected I'd be admonished by some readers after I dissed Pennsylvania wine.
One woman, whose name and e-mail address I unfortunately lost, wrote:
"It was great to see an article supporting local food in the paper! I'm out here in Ohio for grad school, but I still read the PG every day to keep up on happenings in the 'Burgh."
She also recommended West Deer's La Casa Narcisi (www.narcisiwinery.com), noting, "They make a lovely blueberry dessert wine and a nice Concord. They have a storefront where you can go in for tastings and also offer classes and other social events. I discovered this place through North Country Brewing in Slippery Rock, purveyor of many fine local beers to thirsty undergrads. :)"
And here's another supporter of drinking local:
Many of the wineries can't afford the exorbitant fees of the PLCB to have their wines stocked in state stores, so the only way to get access to them is to attend tastings and festivals or directly visit the wineries. When I do find these wines in the state store, I'm sure to purchase my favorites (Mt. Nittany's Tailgate Red is great with pizza and Chaddsford's Proprietor's Red, which is a little further than your reach seems to be, is just a fabulous wine.)
While I support your efforts to eat local, much like many residents of Pittsburgh, it seems as though perhaps you are afraid to branch out of your previous experience to seek out alternative options.
-- Amber Marchewka, Bethel Park
All this blogging is making me hungry, so how about a recipe?
All-purpose flour was chosen as one of the "gimmes" on our Eat Local! challenge. I managed to justify it because I bake a lot and didn't want to give up baking just so I could say I was eating food from within a 100-mile radius. Well, my editor and others gave me considerable flak. "Can't you find a locally ground flour?" "Have you even tried?"
Fine, sez I. Fine. I bought a 5-pound sack of Frankferd Farms whole wheat bread flour at the Farmers@firehouse market ($6). Dumped into the big canister on the kitchen counter, whole wheat would be the flour of choice, for this month anyway.
Fish fillets were dusted before saut??ing in butter, gravy was thickened. It was key to the cakey topping for a peach kuchen and made up the flour part of the batter for zucchini blossoms fried in olive oil.
This Frankferd Farms flour imparts a fresh, toasty flavor, although maybe any whole wheat flour would. So far, so good.
The thought of sour cream chive buns piqued my interest. Was there enough gluten in this local whole wheat bread flour to stand up to rising? To give it a test, I bought a bale of chives, local eggs and sour cream and set to work on a wonderful cool rainy day. The only un-local ingredients were salt and yeast.
This is a no-knead dough that is beaten with a hand-held electric mixer. When the sticky dough is flopped in flour after rising, it becomes easy to work with. Quick-rise yeast cuts the rising time, and butter and sour cream add richness.
Like most homemade breads, these buns are best eaten the day they are made. To make ahead, bake, barely cool them, then put two or three into small sandwich bags and freeze. Defrost and warm just before serving.
Ham is a wonderful sandwich partner; so is pulled pork in barbecue sauce. But the buns are especially good split, stuffed with smoked salmon and spread with whipped cream cheese, topped with a scattering of freshly snipped chives. Split, toasted and buttered, they make a good stand-in for English muffins.
In a medium bowl, measure 4 cups of flour. Measure 1/2 cup flour and set aside. In a large warm bowl, place 1/2 cup warm water. Sprinkle over the yeast. Sprinkle half of the sugar over the yeast and allow the mixture to bubble and proof for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the butter and snip the chives. When the yeast has proofed, add the remaining sugar, salt, eggs and sour cream and beat with a hand-held electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes.
With mixer at low speed, add 1 1/2 cups flour, the melted butter and chives and beat for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl with a rubber spatula. Add another 3/4 cup flour and continue beating the thick batter for 2 minutes. Remove the beaters and clean them of dough. With wooden spoon or heavy spatula, stir in the remaining flour, about 2 cups, to make a soft, sticky dough.
Cover bowl with a piece of waxed paper and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 50 minutes.
Scatter about 1/4 cup of the remaining flour on a work surface. (You will probably not need all the flour.) Stir down the dough, and turn it out onto the floured surface. Turn and flop the dough until it is filmed with flour. Using a bench scraper or sharp knife, cut the dough into thirds, then cut 6 pieces from each third. With floured hands, shape dough into 18 balls. Flatten slightly and place on greased 11-by-16-inch baking tray. (You can also place balls in 18 greased 3-inch muffin pan cups.) Let rise in a warm place until almost doubled.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake about 20 minutes or until golden brown; remove from pans and cool buns on a wire rack. Rewarm, if you like, just before serving.
Makes 18 buns.
TO REHEAT: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Wrap buns in single layer in foil and bake 10-12 minutes or until heated through.
Editor's Note: Marlene's buns are excellent!
Other people have asked me to repeat the "rules of the game" for this challenge. Here's my personal playbook for eating local:
• Aim for food that is locally grown (beef), family-farmed (produce), or produced by a local business (bread and cheese). Organic is preferred. If not those, choose fair-trade. Choosing seasonal food is a given.
• Allow a small percentage of food purchases as "gimmes" such as olive oil, lemons and limes, seasonings, baking supplies, tea and coffee.
There's more involved in this than just food, as many folks have pointed out.
Squirrel Hill's Eddie Shaw wrote: "I couldn't agree with you more about eating locally for all the obvious reasons. I think you are missing an important piece, though, by failing to mention the pressure on local farmers and farmland (ranchland, too) all over the country by unplanned development, much of it for second homes and ridiculous ex-urban McMansions.
"Waiting for local municipalities to do the right thing and regulate zoning is a cumbersome process and politically charged. I recommend that you look into American Farmland Trust, a 30-year-old, top-quality organization whose mission it is to identify critically endangered farmland and purchase the agricultural development rights of same. The farmer is free to sell the land to whomever he chooses with the proviso that the land remain forever in agriculture.
"They do much more -- it's worth checking out and informing your readers. I love receiving their magazine, very informative and worth supporting."
The group's Web site is www.farmland.org.
Today we hear from a not-local writer who hails from these parts:
Eating local and just even getting people to think and talk about it are an important first step in the process of taking responsiblity for our food safety. People often ask me if being in northern California is the be-all and end-all of food happiness. I remind them that some of my happiest and fondest memories are of seasonal local food traditions in the Pittsburgh area -- and they can be still found there.
-- Thom Fox, executive Chef at Acme Chophouse, San Francisco
Another source of good local food is Friendship Farms -- a true family farm in Westmoreland County. They bake breads, make jams from local and organic fruit, grow grass-fed beef and sell organic flours, etc. Their breads are available at some Giant Eagles. The Web site is www.friendshipfarms.com or e-mail joe@friendshipfarms.com.
-- Kathy McGregor, Greenfield
Eating local has been easier than I thought it would be. The hardest part so far has been getting around to eating all the good stuff. But, at our house, an overstocked fridge is the mother of invention. At the back of the vegetable drawer I found a bunch of wrinkled beets and a couple of cucumbers about to go squishy. A quick pickle gave new life to both of them. The pickled beets will go into salad or onto a cold plate, and the pickled cucumbers will be added to sandwiches for crunch. I plopped a spoonful of the last of a batch of pesto onto last night's pizza. One ear of corn? I cut it off the cob and sauteed it in butter with the last twists of garlic scapes.
Saturday morning's breakfast was a winner: Buckwheat waffles made with a Frankferd Farms mix (just add local eggs and local milk), topped with Amish butter (both bought at the East-End Co-Op) and maple syrup from Somerset, plus a bowl of sweetened blueberries on the side.
Then it was time to head for Farmers@firehouse down in the Strip District. Every time I return from a farmers' market, my husband says more or less the same thing. "Who's going to EAT all that food? Did you invite ten people to dinner tonight?" I got ears of white corn, heirloom tomatoes, peaches, the usual. Also picked up another pork butt roast ($4 per pound) from Heilmann's Hog Wash Farm and lamb steaks and ground lamb from Pam at the Puckerbrush Farm table.
I'm not very good with prices. I'm the sort of gal who doesn't go in for furs or diamonds. I spend, often extravagantly, on food and travel. So I buy what I like and usually don't even ask the price. But I'll try to do better from now on.
Yes, I do miss certain very unlocal foods on this Eat Local project. No midday Diet Coke, no anchovies for the pizza and no nuts to speak of.
Does anybody have a source for nuts? Walnuts, black walnuts, any kind of local-ish nuts?
I've been hearing from lots of you local readers. Keep it coming!
• There's a great little shop outside of Slippery Rock (in Harrisville, Butler County) called Willie's Smoke House. Their specialty is hams, but they have other items as well and, sometimes, homemade sauerkraut.
-- Jean Kestner, Emsworth
• "The Omnivore's Dilemma" is a great book. I've been passing my copy around to friends for over a year now.
-- Tom Hays, Saxonburg, Butler County
• As for restaurants, The Pines Tavern in Pine has very good food and, in the spring and summer at least, grows much of its own veggies in gardens across the street from the restaurant. They also use locally produced lamb.
I also suggest that readers share good sources of information about the Farm Bill making its way through Congress. It's a vitally important bill that has a huge impact on the ability of local farmers to grow and provide their products and to help other farmers move from barely scraping by just growing two or three "commodity crops" like corn and soy to move into more profitable and organically/sustainably produced vegetables and fruits. One great place to start, though, is the Ethicurean blog, www.ethicurean.com.
-- (Mr.) Carmen Phillips, Pine
• Your article about eating local was fantastic! However, I implore you to try some local wine from the C.T. Miller Winery in Avella, Washington County. They are a lovely boutique-style winery and offer some impressive wines. Since the governor just signed the law allowing Pennsylvania wineries to sell their wares at farmers' markets, we, the Main Street Farmers Market in Washington, are privileged to have them selling at our market each week. We also have Plum Run Winery, whose forte is good old-fashioned berry wines like elderberry!
-- Jeanne Berkley, Main Street Farmers Market volunteer
• Bravo to you for eating locally! But, I have a correction for you: You can get locally produced wine at a very nice winery in West Deer called La Casa Narcisi. The last time we made a trip there, most of their grapes were still coming from Erie, but they had planted many vines that are likely producing by now. The wine is made and bottled right in West Deer. I'd encourage you to give it a try!
-- Jen Dixon Bussler, Oakmont
• There are lots of people who live south of Pittsburgh who like to eat local, too. In addition to Elysian Fields' lamb in Greene County, we have Toboggan Hill Farm's excellent free-range pork and free-range eggs, and Strath an De farm's tasty grass-fed Scottish Highland beef. Emerald Valley Artesan Cheese in Washington County makes amazing cheese (their parmesan is supposed to be ready for sale in December). We also have a variety of sources for vegetables and fruits, including the wonderful Bluebird Organic Farm in Cadiz, Ohio; Apple Crest Orchards near Washington; Zrimm's Farm in Avella and Simmon's Farm in McMurray.
-- Candy S. DeBerry, associate professor biology at Washington & Jefferson College
And we're off. Thanks to all of you who've already checked in with me here. There's a lot of interest in eating local.
While doing the homework for Eat Local! month, I shopped ahead at the East-End Co-Op and the McGinnis Sisters. Since neither store is on my usual grocery run, I figured I'd better get ahead on beef and chicken. With the freezer well-stocked, I can now rely on short trips to the store and farmers' markets for a few weeks.
I started eating local the last week of July to get the hang of it and build some momentum. Breakfasts are usually some kind of egg with toast and a piece of fruit. "Elevenses" is usually fruit or a small dish of sweetened ricotta cheese. Lunches are usually leftovers, often tucked into a tortilla or pita, or sometimes melted cheese on sourdough toast. This is prime season for BLT lunches, and I'll make my own mayonnaise.
Here are some sample dinner menus. I'll add recipes soon.
• An Amish rotisserie chicken from McGinnis Sisters. Finding a local one is a major breakthrough. (Can't imagine a week without one.) That was dismembered and served with, what else, corn on the cob, tomato and cucumber salad and Boston coolers -- a scoop of vanilla ice cream settled into the hollow of a sweet cantaloupe -- for dessert.
• Garlicky slow-roasted pork butt from Heilmann's Hog Wash Farm. One night we tucked the shredded pork into Reyna's corn tortillas and served them with black beans with melted cheese and white onions. Another night, said pork was mixed with homemade barbecue sauce and piled on soft buns and served with PG colleague Jim Heinrich's wonderful coleslaw. I made little peach cobblers, too.
• Spicy corn -- cut off the cob and sauteed in just a little bacon grease with onion, garlic, a diced hot and a red pepper, then sprinkled with chili powder -- was a bed for sauteed scallops from Penn Avenue Fish Co. in the Strip District.
My crystal ball says pesto and gazpacho and lots of peaches are in the future.
Talk to me. What are you eating? Where are you shopping?
The weirdest thing so far is finding Marburger milk and dairy products and their line of fruit drinks at my Sunoco gas station. Love is where you find it.
I'm Marlene Parrish, and, since mid-summer, I've been making most of my food purchases things that are grown or produced within a 100-mile radius of Pittsburgh. I started with 80 percent local (or a bit farther if need be), but now that that percentage is dropping as the farmer's markets are closing. We are planning for the holidays. The big challenge will be trying to stay as local as possible in January. Stay tuned. I'll regularly update you here on my successes and welcome hearing from you with your ideas, sources and other feedback via mparrish@post-gazette.com 1 cup apple cider
U.S. Gov't/Military Surplus!
• No Refrigeration Required
Pick some up quickly, as these won't last forever!
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