The idea of eating locally being difficult this time of year makes me laugh, especially when I would really have to work to eat a mainly non-local diet. It's been pretty hot here so most of our meals have been of the non-cooked variety - like salads or sandwiches. We've had a lot of watermelon and feta salads, scads of BLTs, and I made mayonnaise with local eggs that was so good we made a meal of steamed vegetables just dipped in it. If you had ever told me that I would enjoy a meal that consisted mainly of mayo, I probably would have laughed at you. But homemade mayonnaise with a little garlic added is heaven.
When I do cook, I try to cook something that will last us for several meals. This week, I made a huge pork roast with meat from River Ridge Farms. I served it with tortillas made with homemade lard rendered from local pork fat and two types of salsa - both from my garden. We have a bumper crop of tomatillos this year so I made a roasted tomatillo salsa with local onions and garlic and added hot peppers and cilantro from our garden. The other salsa was a grilled tomato salsa with a bunch of heirloom tomatoes from our garden.
The only thing I haven't been able to escape from is canning. Nothing heats up an un-air conditioned kitchen quicker than canning. I don't really have a choice though because this is the time of year that everything is ripe. I made several pints of plum jam and took some frozen sour cherries and made black forest jam and cherry chutney. I made a deal with a local farmer and he gives me his "ugly" tomatoes and I can them and give him half. Cracked tomatoes won't keep so yesterday I spent several hours canning them in a 91 degree kitchen. I also got my hands of some elderberries and made some gorgeous elderberry jelly.
I'm not going to lie. There are times I wonder why the hell I do this stuff? When I'm standing over a boiling water canner, it seems so much easier to just buy canned tomatoes or jam. But come winter, there is such a feeling of satisfaction in knowing exactly where my food is coming from. I also like remembering the farmers I bought from in the summer during a time when it seems like winter will never end. Those little jars remind me that summer abundance will come again, no matter how dark or dreary the days seem.
Ooooh, I'd love to hear more about that black forest jam.
Posted by: Mama Urchin | August 12, 2009 at 08:32 AM
I'll try to get the exact recipe posted soon but think about adding cocoa powder and almond extract to a sweet cherry jam. Next time I make it, I want to use Pomona Pectin and make it lower sugar.
Posted by: TNLocavore | August 12, 2009 at 02:20 PM