Posts under ‘putting by’

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

I love this holiday—the connection and celebration between the farmers, eaters, and Providence.
Doing a local Thanksgiving in New England should be like fishing in a barrel since Thanksgiving was invented in New England as a way of celebrating the bounty. This year, I was only slightly tempted to send the men-folk out [...]

This week’s One Local Summer Challenge meal has been a year in the making!
I put by the main ingredients for Eggplant Parmigiana last season, thinking it would make a nice meal over the winter, but the winter came and went.  I finally got around to making it this weekend.

The eggplant was from Waldingfield Farm, dipped [...]

This is the last week of the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge meals.
First, there was beef tenderloin from Stuarts Family Farm and broccoli from Waldingfield Farm (courtesy of the freezer).

Then there were ribeyes from Stuarts Family Farm, with potatoes from Riverbank Farm and sauteéd fresh spinach from Starlite Farm.

But the best was the macaroni and [...]

This week, I had a few Dark Days Eat Local Challenge meals. Could be the warm weather, could be the mad rush to cook as many local meals as possible before the challenge ends. Or it could simply be that I didn’t have as many evening meetings or dinners out last week!
One meal was a [...]

This is what happens to potatoes in the cupboard when no one’s paying attention:

I should have put them in a cooler in the garage, but (…shoulda, woulda, coulda…) I didn’t. It’s too early to plant them and too late to eat them. Compost? Art? Thoughts anyone?

I had a fabulously local Thanksgiving! The meal was the culmination of a years’ worth of locavoring with several dishes from the freezer, jars, and vacuum-sealed packages, where they’d been since they were picked and preserved in season. I enjoyed collecting and preparing the various menu items as much as I did eating them!  I [...]

Macoun season is coming to a close so it’s time to gather up as many of these delectable apples and save them for the cold dark days to come.
We core and section the apples and simmer them in about one inch of cider. When the sections are fork tender, we crank them through the food [...]

I bought a dehydrator simply to make yogurt. Sure, I told myself at the time, I could dry berries and cherries and make healthy chips out of root vegetables. But the main driver was that I needed a reliable incubator for my yogurt and that was all. Sure, I’ve tried a few vegetable experiments, previously [...]

I just got the Summer 2008 Edition of the Edible Nutmeg (at New Morning Natural Foods). It’s probably been out awhile…I need to subscribe already.
Anyway, what caught my eye in this issue was an article called Putting By. I have to admit, I’m slowly warming up to the idea of food preservation, and not only [...]

To cap off a perfect day, we spent Saturday evening with the Sisters at Bluestone Farm, where we sampled many of their delectables as they were puttin’ ‘em by.
The Sisters had harvested some Nero Italian kale and some rutabagas. I learned that rutabagas can be cut into strips and deep fried, like French fries. I [...]