Reflections

I'm starting to reflect on our locavore experience, wondering what I want to carry forward from here. 

I would like to try it again in February: it's a whole different set of constraints that time of year.

One big benefit of the challenge is that it spurred me to learn how to work with some of the locally available grains: in particular, live oats, barley, and corn. We've been using a lot more corn flour this month -- we avoided corn for several years because Sophia used to react to corn, too. Apparently she's gotten over that allergy (or maybe, as she puts it, "I'm only allergic to corn syrup.")

We will almost certainly continue to use the oatmeal and barley cake recipes, and add corn bread to our standard list of quick breads. Our experiment with rye bread was less successful, though I think I will probably try again at some point (the bread was good, and we might have been reacting to something else.) And I still haven't gotten around to making a batch of granola (though I suppose it's possible that I might do that today...)

Breakfasts and school lunches were easier than I expected. Sure, we had our share of mornings when I was scrambling to figure it out. But I do that anyway, even when pre-sliced lunch meats are readily available. We've established a morning routine now that works pretty well, though granted it would be nice to sleep in a few more minutes.

We're using less almond milk with our breakfasts, which translates to less almond meal for quick breads, which translates to more variety in what I'm baking. Conversely, I've been running through a lot more honey. Both corn bread and barley cakes are sweetened, which is not true of the waffles and biscuits I usually make with almond meal. I'm using more maple syrup, too, largely as a result of self-sweetened breakfasts (waffles, flapjacks, cooked cereals) replacing prepared cereals that come with the sugar already added. I don't think our overall sugar intake has changed very much, but it's a lot more visible when I pour it on myself. And less processed.

I noticed how, once I started using rice pasta, it immediately lodged itself into our diet and wouldn't let go. I think I may have burned out my baking-from-scratch energy a little too early in the month. (e.g. I could have come up with an alternative to pasta for the jardinera, if I'd been feeling a bit more creative.)

I also noticed how much more meat we ate this month. It's not that beans were unavailable; we had several varieties to choose from. But most of my warm-weather bean recipes are based on garbanzos and lentils, and I had limited interest in the heartier stews that northern beans are so good in. I could have done a bean salad, but Sophia doesn't like them, and I didn't have the energy (on top of the extra cooking I was already doing) to fix separate dishes for the two of us.

Another change that's huge (though it might have happened anyway) is that I've taken the leap of self-confidence I needed to start harvesting my own wild mushrooms. I've been buying them for several years now (in small amounts, as a luxury food), and it's mind-boggling how much money I'm saving by gathering them myself (or, alternatively, how much more luxury I'm experiencing...) Black trumpets, for example, run $8/pint at the Farmer's Market. I expect I've gathered at least $50 worth of mushrooms in the past couple weeks, possibly a good deal more.

It often seems that a switch to local foods produces an increase in luxury: for example, raspberries. We've been using almost a pint of raspberries a day this month. I would never dream of doing that if I had to pay supermarket prices for them. Or even U-pick prices, which is an intermediate stage I went through before my own garden patch filled in.

I appreciate my little luxuries...

Menus 9/28 (cont):

• my lunch: chuletas a la jardinera with pasta (leftover)
• dinner: butternut squash (my garden; alas not quite ripe after all) with butter (Meadow Creek) and honey (Greenstar bulk local); rainbow chard (my garden) with honey and cider vinegar (Littletree cider); mixture of ground buffalo (Glenwood), shallots, celery (my garden), puffballs and maitake (gathered), with salt, pepper, butter and cooking wine (from arbor grapes))

Sophia says, "I like the ones that explode in your mouth," and starts searching through her dinner to find more puffballs. Seems to me "melt" would be a more accurate description.

Menus 9/29:

• breakfast: butternut squash "pancakes" (Cayuga Pure/back yard chickens/my garden) with jelly (Kestrel Perch/Greenstar bulk local); honeydew melon (my garden)
• school lunch: rainbow chard and buffalo/mushroom mixture (leftovers); frozen blueberries (Locust Woods); squash pancakes with jelly (leftover from breakfast)
• my lunch: raspberries (my garden), squash pancakes with jelly (leftover from breakfast)
• snack: apple (Littletree), ants on a log (my garden, Thornbush, peanut butter exception)
• dinner for Sophia: a la jardinera (leftover veggies, as a soup)
• dinner for me: what dinner? I didn't have time for no stinkin' dinner...didn't have much of a lunch either...
• bedtime snack: melon (my garden)

Last night was one of those nights...