Jogging the Mind

 

A morning run is one of my favorite ways to start the day. As long as I can wake up in time, there is nothing like being out on the quiet neighborhood streets; the sweet smells of seasonal blooms saturating the air. On a lucky day, someone will be cooking bacon–deep breaths of joy. This time, by myself, allows me to think about the day behind me and the day ahead. Pushing myself in the morning tranlates into pushing myself to accomplish all my goals for that day.

The 2011 Eat Local, America! food challenge begins.

The 2011 Eat Local, America! challenge is about to begin and we’ve already harvested the first batch of veggies from our community plot. Tonight, I will make a casserole out of the 8-ball zuchinnis, eggplant, multiple types of paste tomatoes, and vidalia onions that we plucked from the garden. I have many new goals this year, but including locally grown/produced foods in at least one meal a day is my main goal.

There are many reasons to eat local foods. But for me and my husband, knowing where our foods come from and how they were cared for is the most important one. We grow a lot of our own produce, but rely on local farmers for eggs, meat, and the produce we don’t have room for. To be able to drive to the farms and see their practices, talk with the farmers, and get a feel for the place and the person behind the food is one of the best things about eating locally. I have met quite a few of our local farmers in the past year and I look forward to meeting more of them this year with this Eat Local, America! challenge.

This year, we have expanded our food production by planting self-fertile fruit trees. Considering we live in town, we don’t have room for a male and female of every tree. For now, we have an apple, plum, peach, pomegrante, loquat, satsuma, giant plantain, fruiting mulberry, multiple figs, and a sweet cherry that we are testing out for our area. We will have to make room for our next goal, which is paw-paw fruit. There is no getting around having two of those!

As the challenge starts, I can’t wait to try new recipes with all the local foods that are coming into season. Growing, preparing, eating, and sharing food is a big-time love of mine and I’m ready to get to it.

Join me for the 2011 Eat Local, America! challenge at  http://www.eatlocalamerica.coop/ where I will be blogging about my experiences and highlighting local farmers!

Goodbye Winter

It’s 3:15 here at the office and all I can think about is a sweating glass of tequila and tonic in my hand. Watching the lime wedge bubble at the bottom while the sugary-sour drink slips down easily, shoving the stress out from every pore. The splintered wooden chair leans with me as I push my feet flat to the deck, legs straight, head back to stare up at the top of the magnolia that towers over me. Beech leaves the hue of the percolating fruit in my drink are beginning to unfurl and the silverbell buds are about to burst. This is what I have been waiting for. Spring rolling down our road and summer on the tip of my tongue. The days are long now. It’s 3:30 on a friday and all I can think about is ice clinking to the bottom of an empty glass and watching winter wave goodbye; running from a flurry of frenzied flowers.

A Delicious Mahi Mahi Dinner

Tonight’s Menu:

Blackened Mahi Mahi on a bed of wilted purple kale. Drizzled with a curried red lentil and roasted red pepper sauce. Topped off with caramelized red onions.

Simply delicious.

A Garden Plot

Our house is 860 square feet. Our yard is half an acre. The yard is why we live here. Rich, fertile land, with a constant underground water source, that gently slopes down to the neighbors creek. Giant sweetgums, oaks, silverbells, and a majestic southern magnolia that looks like it came right out of a Miyasaki movie, tree spirits and all. We have cleared the scrap trees and shrubs and replaced them with an ever-growing garden filled with wildlife food and shelter. We have a small clearing in the back that gets enough sun to grown food for ourselves, family, and friends. It is our ongoing project, our passion, our garden. My parents visited recently and Jonathan started them on his famous garden tour that he loves to give to everyone that comes over. Near the end of the walk my dad asks, “Where is the garden?” Our jaws dropped in disbelief.

My dad had what he considers a “garden” when I was growing up. It consisted of sunflowers, poles strapped with long green beans, juice dripping tomatoes, and plump, red radishes nestled in the ground. I used to love to pluck those radishes from their darkness, rinse away their blanket of dirt in the pool, and then munch on them while I made mud pies in the playhouse my dad built. A garden to him is a place to grow food and sunflowers. His garden was enough to get his hands dirty, but, after my daily picking, not enough to actually put a meal on the table. Luckily, this was not his intent; instead it was a way for him to remember. To remember his parents garden which did feed the family. Vegetables grown to have on their plates year round, which otherwise could not be afforded. A way to remember what he has now, but not forget where he came from.

Feeling dirt between my fingers is like touching all things at once. That sweet smell of the perfect balance between decay and growth. The heft of things that have been and have yet to come. It is the soil that connects me to my father, and he to his. A garden can be many different things depending on the person. To me it is a lifeline.

A farm.

My friend told me this morning that she wishes she lived on a small farm in the country and all her time was taken up with physical labor to distract her from the drama. This is also my dream, but more than a dream it is an actual goal for me and my husband. To own enough acreage and have just a few close friends with their families live, grow food, raise animals, and garden with us. A large covered dining area with a kitchen will be the centerpiece where we can all meet, cook and share the harvest together at the dinner table. Storytelling, laughing, crying, kids running around falling to the ground in fits of joy; this is what I envision. It is funny that in talking with my oldest friend (in years known, not age!) I realize how we have not changed from those middle school girls who met and fell immediately into an easy friendship. Then it was based on loving the same music, clothes, and boys. Now I see we want the same things in life, but what I want most is for her to come skipping back across ‘the pond’ and live near me so we can grow old together with those closest to us. In sixth grade she thought my name was Contina Brown,  and that is how we met.

Dreaming of spring…

Woke up to cool, brisk air and sunny skies. It’s a day when I still need jeans and a sweatshirt to work in the yard. Perfect. The cherry and maple blooms are starting to show their faces while the apricots are flaunting their full colors. But I wait. I wait for the hydrangeas and azaleas. That is when I know it is spring. When my Waterfall hydrangea struggles to hold up it’s stems under the weight of the pure white blooms, then it is spring. When the azaleas open in a riot of pinks, oranges, whites, lavenders, and corals, then it is spring. The camellias get me through winter, but when their petals litter the ground underneath I start to dream of of spring…

Chicken & Dump Recipe

3 quarts chicken STOCK (not broth)

1 whole chicken

small bag frozen peas

6 carrots

6 stalks celery

1 large white onion

2 cans Homestyle Grands Biscuits

all purpose flour

Cut up onion, carrots, and celery and add to a large pot with stock and whole chicken. Season with oregano, thyme, garlic, and cumin. Simmer for 30 mins. Remove chicken and pull pot off of heat. Allow chicken to cool and tear apart removing all bones. Put chicken back in pot and bring the mixture to a low rolling boil (medium heat). Cut biscuits into sixths, roll in flour, and drop into pot one layer at a time. Wait a few seconds and then stir and add more until they are all in. Remove soup from heat and let sit in fridge overnight (if you have time, but this step is not necessary). When you reheat the soup add the peas. If you are not allowing to sit overnight, add the peas a few minutes before serving.

Enjoy!

Rainy days make me hungry…

Another stormy day and all I can think about is food. Warm food. Slow cooked food infiltrated with flavors from my garden. Thyme, oregano, garlic.  I think it is time to make a large pot of my chicken and dumplings soup. This is definitely one of my favorites. Plus it means I get to use my enameled cast iron dutch oven which always makes me smile. The ingredients are easy to find, but the quality of the ingredients is what makes this one memorable. I try to use as much as I can from my own garden and the rest is local or organic.