In the years since this compact between huge corporations and the government began, we’ve seen an increase in chronic illnesses, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and a glut of some of the most hideous phood products in history. We’ve seen the methods of food production become more industrialized and along with that, an increase in pollution, soil depletion, and food contamination and a decrease of nutrient density. We’ve seen a decrease in the number of farms and farmers while the remaining farms are concentrated in the hands of a few corporations.

In the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t been to any of the Occupy locations (although there’s an Occupy New Haven) and I’m waiting to see more before I decide if the occupations are a good idea, but I do agree with the premise: that it is time for the 99% to stop tolerating the greed and corruption of the 1%and their purchase of our legal and political systems.

So, I’m occupying the kitchen. As you may know, I am a local foodie (locavore) year ’round. Every dollar I don’t spend at Stop and Shop is a dollar that goes to the actual producers in my town, state, region. I like handing those dollars directly to the people who did the work. I realize that one person eating locally does not effect vast and sweeping change, but I believe in what Margaret Mead said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does.”

I live in New England and I’m no Eliot Coleman (even in the summer), so I count on others to raise my food for me. So, at this time of year, I’m working like a squirrel, storing food for the winter. (More of a pre-occupation than an occupation.)

I invite you to Occupy the Kitchen too. Try putting at least one local food away to consume over the winter. It doesn’t matter what or how—you can freeze it, can it, dehydrate it, ferment it, whatever you like. In addition to being additive free, each item you put by is one less item you have to buy from a Big Corporation.

My Occupy the Kitchen project today was dried garlic. I peeled and sliced the garlic and dried it in the dehydrator at 120 degrees until they were crispy. I’ll grind them in a spice mill and have my own garlic powder.

There are lots of resources available for putting by foods, including your search engine if you don’t want to buy a book. I’m personally fond of Put ‘Em Up, by Sherri Brooks Vinton. I hope you’ll decide to try this at least once.

There are some good reads on the Internet on the intersection of the food movement with the Occupy movement. Steph Larson at  Grist has a great article:

I believe one fundamental way to rebel against an unjust economic system is to grow my own food. This way, my primary means of sustenance is out of the hands of corporations. Most food sold in grocery stores — even organic food — is owned by a few, very consolidated agribusinesses. Growing your own food undercuts their power.

The 99 percent movement has been criticized for not having a specific policy agenda, but I agree with George Lakoff; this is about a lot more than policy. It’s about our collective values as Americans. Growing food, bartering, and supporting local businesses are only a few of the many ways to wrestle power away from corporations and put it back in the hands of the people.

Also check out the articles by Kristin Wartman at Civil Eats as well as Tom Philpott at Mother Jones, where he says, “Because Big Food makes Big Finance look like amateurs.”

As it happens, there’s going to be an occupy against big food event at Zucotti Park (Occupy Wall Street) on October 29 at 1 PM.

In closing, I leave you with this image of my current favorite sign from the occupation:

. .

Note: This post is shared at Hartke’s Blog Carnival.

• 1/2 dozen ears of corn
• 1 bag of potatoes
• 1 bag of sweet onions
• 6 sweet Bianca peppers
• 1 cantaloupe
• 1 bag of cherry tomatoes (mix-n-match)
• 6-8 red or orange tomatoes (mix-n-match)
• 1 yellow brandywine heirloom tomato
• 1 bunch of kale (bonus/optional)

I’ve learned a fabulous new way to cook corn (soon to be featured in another post). I’m particularly looking forward to that cantaloupe. Al picked the first two last week and I swiped one immediately. It was delicious, refreshing, and everything else you want a cantaloupe to be. The cherry tomatoes are in the dehydrator as we speak, becoming “sun-dried.” I can and do eat tomato salads every day, and that’s what’s in store for the rest of the tomatoes. I’m thrilled to have another bunch of the Toscano kale. Kale is one of the nutrient super foods and this is my favorite variety of kale.

Looks a little like Christmas.

• 1 dozen ears of corn on the cob (More niblets for the Dark Days. Although I blanch it first,  I hear you can freeze it raw—on or off the cob.)
• 1 brown paper bag of red tomatoes (I’ve been making lots of simple tomato salads: sliced with some basil, a drizzle of olive oil, and sprinkle of salt. Refreshing and delicious.)
• 1 bag of cherry tomatoes
• 2 cucumbers
• 3 peppers, Bianca bells, I believe
• 1 bunch of kale
• 1 bunch of collard greens (I don’t have any experience with collards to speak of and I’m thinking about using Paula Dean’s recipe.)

• 1 dozen ears of corn
• 1 bag of cherry tomatoes
• 1 head of cabbage
• 1 bunch of kale
• 4 red tomatoes
• 2 yellow tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1 bag of onions and garlic
• 4 squash

From the outset, I put by 10 ears of corn for the winter in my very own Sport Hill/Late Bloomers niblets. There is nothing on Earth like having sweet corn in the  middle of January (with a few feet of snow outside) to improve your mood. If everyone put up some sweet corn, we could wipe out Seasonal Affective Disorder in our lifetime.

Astute observers will notice two heads of cabbage in the picture when the CSA share of the week listed one head. That’s because the eater and the farmer are truly partners. My first attempt at fermenting cabbage into sauerkraut didn’t work out. With me having a few new ideas to try out, my farmer stepped in as my full partner in this experiment and invested a head of cabbage into the second trial. Like the CSA, if it works out, she gets half of the sauerkraut. If it fails, we both get nothing (except experiential education).

Thanks Sherri for the great recipes and instructions.

Carrots, hot cherry peppers, jalapenos, and garlic from Maple Bank Farm, Cherry Grove Farm, and Sport Hill Farm.

I need lots of tomatoes to put by for Italian Sunday red gravy (gravy, not sauce!) and plum tomatoes (Romas and  San Marzanos) are the best for that. A friend told me about another variety called Pompeii, but to get those, you have to grow your own like he does.

For the last few years, I’ve been processing tomatoes by blanching them to remove the skins and (sometimes) running them through a food mill to remove the seeds. Sherri Brooks Vinton and my Pompeii-growing-friend both recommend roasting the tomatoes, so I thought this year I’d give roasting a try.

Here’s how I did it:

1. Wash off the tomatoes.


25 pounds of Sport Hill tomatoes

2. Slice off the end.



3. Slice the tomato in half.





Tomatoes on the half shell

4. With two fingers, swipe out the seeds and pulp.



5. Toss the tomatoes in a bowl with some olive oil.



6. Lay the tomatoes out on a baking sheet. Use parchment paper for an easier clean-up.



7. Roast the tomatoes until the skins are crispy and peel off easily.



8. Peel the tomatoes and preserve by canning or freezing.

Twenty-five pounds of tomatoes yields between six to 12 cups of processed tomatoes, which needs to be further reduced to make a good thick gravy. You just can’t get enough tomatoes!

About the title of this post

Way back in the dark ages, my high school pals and I used to enjoy tinkering with song lyrics. Here’s the song. You can sing the title of this post instead of the original lyrics.  If you want this song repeating in an endless loop in your head for the duration, listen before you seed your first tomato.

Collection AFTER being wiped out by friends and family!

I’ve been making this recipe ever since, well worth sacrificing prime real estate in my refrigerator (along with some other spicy ice box pickling projects).

But I’ve been wanting to find a method of making this so that I could store it outside the refrigerator. I don’t can much, but when I do, I only use tested recipes from the experts.

Serendipitously, I saw an announcement at Sport Hill Farm for a Sherri Brooks Vinton food preservation demo with a book signing of her new book, Put ‘Em Up.

Sherri, just getting started

Up in the loft of Patti Popp’s new barn, Sherri shared the secrets and safety measures for home canning.

Pickled Asparagus was the cold-pack demo. Cold-packing is when the food goes into the jar raw. Classic Strawberry Jam was the hot-pack demo. Hot-packing is when you cook the food before canning. The strawberry Jam was made in the old style, with no pectin. You need to cook it for a long time, to let the sugars thicken the jam. You can also use a commercial pectin or you can make your own pectin.

Class in the loft at Sport Hill Farm

Like baking, canning is more about chemistry. The ratio of ingredients is paramount. Luckily for us, the recipes have all been worked out and we just need to follow them exactly and faithfully for safe results.

The book is fantastic. Sherri takes you through the various food preparation and preservation techniques. It is chock full of advice for economics, time savings, and safety. It reads well and you feel like the author is in the kitchen with you. (A trait I have previously admired in Julia Child!) It is organized by food for the purpose of making it easy for those who may have come home from the market with too much of a good thing. Sherri suggests having canning parties to make it more interesting.

The book, like Sherri, is centered around locally-sourced foods. She says, “For home food preservation, sourcing local food really is the only choice.” I guess you could preserve food from the Big Y, but why would you? Almost everything they sell, they sell year round (it’s always in season somewhere in the world) and it was grown by a stranger.

I made the scapes in olive oil (preservation method is freezing) and I am looking forward to getting a crock and trying out fermenting vegetables.

You can catch another demo and signing at the Westport Farmers Market on June 24,2010 from 11 AM – 1 PM. The market is at Imperial Avenue, Westport CT.

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 with their muskets for wild fowl and game.

This year’s menu was incredibly similar to last year’s menu because it’s a tradition!

Appetizers

• refrigerator pickled hot carrots and peppers. I made these several weeks ago with ingredients predominantly from Maple Bank Farm,  Riverbank Farm, and Cherry Grove Farm.
  
• sliced roasted beets and fennel bulb slices from the Yale Sustainable Food Project
  
• roasted red peppers, roasted on the grill at the end of the summer from sweet red peppers from Maple Bank Farm.
  
• assorted cheeses from Beaver Brook Farm: Pleasant Cow, Pleasant Son (sheep) and Fresh (soft) cheese and Tumbleweed from 5 Spoke Creamery.
  
• bread (Wave Hill Breads) and hot dipping oil, cayenne pepper from Cherry Grove Farm, dried here.
  

Soup

Chicken soup with bow-tie pasta and/or brown rice

• chicken carcasses and necks, from the freezer, saved over the year, all from Kandew Acres chickens and a capon.
• carrots from George Hall Farm
• celery from Barberry Hill Farm
• garlic from Holbrook Farm
• onions from Shenandoah Farms, Easton, CT
• parsnips from Waldingfield Farm
• parsley from Northfordy Farm

Main Course

• Roasted Turkey from Kandew Acres via Holbrook Farm
  
• Pan gravy: drippings from the turkey, flour from Wild Hive Farm,
• Cornbread stuffing:
  Using this cornbread recipe with corn meal and flour from Wild Hive Farm, eggs from Cherry Grove Farm, Newtown, CT, maple syrup from Bluestone Farm, milk from Foxfire, Mansfield Center, CT. (Oil and baking powder from the world.)
  Using this cornbread stuffing recipe, with butter and heavy cream from Trinity Dairy, onions from Shenandoah Farms, Easton, CT, sage from the Yale Sustainable Food Project, more eggs from Cherry Grove Farm, and my own chicken stock.
  
• Fresh whole berry cranberry sauce with Ocean Spray cranberries, apple cider from Blue Jay Orchards and maple syrup from Bluestone Farm.
• Macoun applesauce: apples from Blue Jay Orchards, sauced and frozen by me.
• Smashed red potatoes. Potatoes from Maple Bank Farm, heavy cream from Trinity Dairy , Enfield, CT, butter from Ronnybrook Farm via Halas Market.
• Baked sweet potatoes (both orange and white) from George Hall Farm
  
• Roasted medley based on this roasted squash recipe: butternut and Delicata from Maple Bank Farm, and turnips from Shenandoah Farms, Easton, CT
• broccoli from Waldingfield Farm, garlic from Cherry Grove, oil from somewhere else.
  

Dessert

• Apple Crumb Pie: Northern Spy apples from Shenandoah Farms, Easton, CT, flour from Wild Hive Farm, butter from Ronybrook Farm. Brown sugar, cinnamon, sugar, salt, nutmeg from away.
  
• Pumpkin Pie: pumpkins and eggs from Cherry Grove Farm, maple syrup from Bluestone Farm, heavy cream from Trinity Dairy, Ensfield, CT, butter from Ronnybrook Farm, and flour from Wild Hive Farm. Salt and pumpkin pie spice from out there.
  
• Fresh whipped cream: heavy cream from Trinity Dairy, Ensfield, CT. Vanilla extract and confectioner’s sugar from the world.
• Ice cream: Vanilla and Black Raspberry from Rich Farm.
  
• Caramel from the Groovy Baker (no HFCS!!)
• Fresh fruit: Macoun and Cortland apples from Shenandoah Farms, Easton, CT, and Bosc pears from Rose’s Berry Farm and figs, likely from CA.
• dried pears, from Rose’s Berry Farm dried by me.
  
  
• chestnuts, from a resident of Woodbury, via New Morning Natural Foods
  
• roasted pumpkin seeds, from the pumpkin pie pumpkin, from Cherry Grove Farm
  
• mixed nuts, from I-don’t-know-where

Beverages

• Foxon Park soda selection
  
  
• apple cider from Silverman’s Farm
• egg nog from Trinity Dairy, Ensfield, CT
• Wine: Walker Road Vineyards and McLaughlin Vineyards
  
• Beer: Cabin Fever from Birkshire Brewing Company

Whew! Took almost as long to make this post as it took to prepare the meal!

P.S. At the end of the day, when all the guests had left, I did not finish cleaning my dishes and kitchen. Instead, I watched Food, Inc. I highly recommend this film though it can be particularly upsetting for those who get their food from the corporate industrial complex.

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 in beaten eggs (from Ox Hollow Farm) and pan fried in non-local canola oil, then frozen last September. (I drained the fried slices on paper towels, then layered them between sheets of parchment paper in the vacuum seal bag, and presto.)

The marinara is constituted as follows:

• carrots and fresh garlic from Missy’s (from the Brewster Market), caramelized in olive oil (from Italy).
• pan deglazed with Vista Reposa wine from McLaughlin Vineyards.
• plum tomatoes from Don Taylor (from the Bethel Market), canned by me last September.
• plum tomatoes, from Waldingfield Farm, dried and vacuum packed by me last year. To make the tomato paste, I ground them to a dust in a coffee grinder then added a tiny bit of boiling water and stirred.
  
• dried thyme, from my garden from last year.
• fresh oregano, from my garden this year.

The mozzarella is from Calabro in East Haven, CT.

I have to say, I’m not as impressed with my own canned tomatoes as I am with Progresso. I usually use these:

I cooked my marinara down for quite a bit of extra time, yet it still had an acid-y taste. It’s as if the citric acid (required for canning) never quite cooked away. It wasn’t horrible; it just wasn’t the same. I didn’t get any complaints—in fact, I got a few compliments, but then again, these folks never had the other kind for comparison. Still, it was an interesting dish to bring to a brunch with local organic farmers!

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 meatball meal. I’d been meaning to make a local version of my Sunday meatballs and gravy since the challenge began, and finally, I did.

I made the meatballs using ground beef from Stuarts Family Farm dried parsley and basil from my garden, and eggs from Four Mile River Farm. I did use Progresso bread crumbs and imported Parmigiano Reggiano (mea culpa). I’ll save trying to reformulate the breadcrumbs with local ingredients for another challenge.

I made the gravy using my home canned tomatoes (originally plums from Don Taylor’s farm), paste I made from reconstituting dried tomatoes (originally from Waldingfield Farm), pork chops and sweet sausages from Ox Hollow Farm, thyme from my garden, and the meatballs.

The salad was from a red leaf lettuce bouquet from Two Guys from Woodbridge. The bread was from Wave Hill Breads (where else). Ziti were thanks to the folks at Barilla. And the wine was from Vista Riposa from McLaughlin Vineyards.

And the nephew is local too.