The Story of a Meal

Last night we enjoyed a fabulous mostly local meal. IT was a pleasure! For me, the meals that mean the most come equipped with a story. Too much of our food is without story, just food. But when food has a history, some story that you connect with, I think that it has the ability to not only nourish our bodies, but our souls as well. And our souls could use all the nourishment that they can get these days.
So, how do you connect with your food and it's story? How do you find a way to make food more than "just food"?
I imagine that we each do this in our own way. For me, it begins with growing as much of our food as possible. Putting up the harvest by drying, canning, pickling and root cellaring as much as possible. It does not always last us all through the winter, but it is a start. It also means cooking from scratch with wholesome nutritious ingredients that are without artificial color, artificial flavor, food additives, pesticide residue, genetic modification, hormones or drugs. It is about being aware of where food comes from and what is in season.
The food we supplement our own produce with is bought, whenever possible, at the local farmer's market. At the Farmer's Market you get to talk with the farmer and ask questions about how the food was grown and where and even find out what variety of tomato it is. The varieties of produce available at the Farmer's Market are so diverse, especially when compared to what you can find in a conventional grocery store.
When we buy produce at the grocery store, we make sure to get organic. It does cost more and the regulations leave much to be desired.. but I know that I am NOT buying genetically modified produce and this is important to me. If I can talk to the farmer and find out how the food is grown, I don't need the certified organic label... but without the farmer, I want the certified label.
This fall we got a share in a cow that was raised locally and humanely. No feedlot meat for my family. Several folks went in on it and we have a great supply of wonderful beef. It has the flavor of life.
Another great source of local meat for us is Hickory Nut Gap Farms. It is the family farm of Amy and Jamie Ager. They raise wonderful meat. Last year we got a pork tenderloin from them at the Farmer's Market. The first bite brought memories flooding back to me, " This is what meat is supposed to taste like," I exclaimed. I had forgotten, I had actually forgotten what meat is supposed to taste like. As a child, we raised most of our own meat: each year a pig or two, a calf, and chickens. But it has been so long, that I had forgotten that taste of "Life" that is inherent in fresh meat. That one bite brought it all back to me and nothing else would ever be good enough again.
Now we get our meat from Hickory Nut Gap and have a great time going out to the country (all of a 15 minute drive) to do our shopping, talk with the farmer and see the baby animals. 
I will be honest with you, it does cost more. But the flavor is such that you don't need as much because it actually is satisfying on so many levels. Most of this country's food supply travels many, many miles to get to us, and average of 150o miles.  This food is breed to have long shelf-life and to look good. Taste is not even a consideration. No wonder so many of us simply eat to live...
Buying local should not cost more that food brought 1500 miles and imbibed with petroleum in so many ways. But for now, it does. The more we can support the local growers, the better it will be for all of us: economically, environmentally, nutritionally. In time, our support will make a big difference in so many lives!

I recently read the book, "Kitchen Literacy" by Ann Vileisis. This book rocked my world. It tells the fascinating story of "How We Lost Knowledge of Where Food Comes From and Why We Need to Get It Back". Check it out. It will change your relationship to food and the stories we attach to our food.

I am fond of recounting our food's story as we sit down to eat. We hold hands around the table and Rebecca says thank you for the yummy food. I love that she is always so sure that it will indeed be yummy before the first bite! Then I tell the story of our meal.
Here was last night's story:

Yum! Hamburgers made from our cow with homegrown onions and home grown garlic and fresh picked arugula. Yum. Sweet Potato fries made from the sweet potatoes that we grew in our front yard this summer.   And my favorite, Tomato Jam made this summer from our tomatoes, basil and cayenne pepper instead of catsup. Yum. Maybe next time I will make the buns from scratch and someday maybe we'll get a goat and make our own cheese, but for now we know that the bread is organic and the cheese has no bovine growth hormone or antibiotics. Thank you for good food! Yum!

Does your meal tell a story? Is it telling the story that you want to hear?

Dreaming of Fresh Tomatoes Already!

The seed catalogs are beginning to show up in the mailbox. When David brings them in, he calls them  my "garden porn".  Funny man! For me, I am reminded of the arrival of the "Christmas Wish Book" when I was a kid.. think about it.. the photos are bright and colorful and sunny and oh so tempting.. I spend time dreaming and planning and dog-earing the pages. I make lists, lots of lists. I do love the planning and dream-time of the winter months.

I canned and dried lots of tomatoes this summer so this winter we are enjoying our pasta with yummy homegrown, home-made tomato sauce and soups made with a handful of dried cherry tomatoes dropped in and bursting with concentrated goodness, yet I find myself dreaming of those fresh tomatoes straight off the vine, warm from the sun, popping them into my mouth.. like a burst of sunshine! WOW.. dreaming of good things to look forward to in the summer.

WE eat in season NOW, so no grocery store tomatoes for our family. During our first winter together, David and I would disagree about buying tomatoes from the store.. he'd WANT them.. and I would argue that they were simply "tomato shaped objects" with no real food value or taste... by the following winter he "got it" and now.. we just spend the winter dreaming of the real thing and making plans! When you eat in-season, you develop a different kind of relationship with your food, a healthy relationship! Eating in-season also supports your local food growers because eating in-season and eating local go hand-in-hand with each other!

This summer I planted lots of varieties of tomatoes... what to plant for next year?? I adore the many shapes and sizes and colors of the heirloom varieties.

My favorite tomato is an old Italian Heirloom. The seed for this variety came to me 17 years ago from an Italian friend in WV. Jimmy got the seed from Joe Bova who was 90 back then.  The story is that Joe came to WV as a young man from Italy. When he left Italy for his new life in America, he brought the seed for this tomato with him. I have no idea what the variety is called... but I call it the Bova. It is a large paste-like tomato that makes great sauce but also make a great salad and eating tomato... SO much flavor! If I could only grow one tomato variety.. it would be this one!

Then there is the Purple Cherokee, and the orange cherry tomato and the weird green tomato that stays green, the Old German that is both yellow and red at the same time... dreaming... and planning... Yum!

Still here... just SO busy!

IT has been way too long since I posted! But as you know summer is the busy time. We were away for nearly 2 weeks and playing catch-up with the jungle that my garden has become. Rainy days while I was gone made it easy on the garden sitter.. and encouraged lots of growth. Everything is doing well but I have been battling Harlequin Bugs... yuck.. they do some serious damage! It has been hard to throw the affected plants in the trash.. I just want to compost everything.. but I don't want to invite those dastardly bugs back for a free feast next year... the affected plants are covered with eggs! SO to the dump they go. I know they will compost there and be far away from my garden!
Tomato plants are gargantuan this year.. 6 feet plus. Giant tomatoes... but mostly still green... I have been liking the cool temperatures this year... but a little heat would do all of my heat-loving crops some good!
I am dreaming of getting some chickens for eggs and compost! WE are looking at plans for a manageable chicken tractor and learning about different breeds and other chicken stuff before we take the leap!
So much happening here that it will take weeks to catch you up.. but I wanted to at least make a stab at getting back to regular posts.. Wish me luck!

Tomato Bounty!

I have honestly been SO busy keeping up with my tomato harvest and the demands of the garden that I have had no time to write!
My tomato plants are the most amazing ever. I have about 50 plants and an unknown number of varieties. I planted a mixture of Heirloom Tomato Seed from Gurney's this year, so a real variety of red tomatoes, cherry and mini tomatoes as well as yellow, orange and purple tomatoes!
The plants have been really prolific but are starting to wind down. One day in August I had a 40 pound harvest day! It has been amazing.
Canning has taken up a bunch of time and I have a cabinet full of canned tomato sauce to use through the winter.
My sweetie gave me a super dehydrator for my birthday in August.. so I am also drying cherry tomatoes and sheets of tomato paste! In the past I have cooked some tomatoes down for paste and frozen them in ice cube trays then transferred them to freezer bags. The cubes were then added to sauce as a thickener or soups for extra flavor. I never would have thought of drying the paste... but the dehydrator instructions suggested it and I really like the idea! The amount of room it takes up is dramatically diminished. And I am not storing water... the paste should work really well as a thickener!
I imagine that I will spend the winter catching up with posts!