One Week Eating Local(2) Conclusion

How easy it is to eat local in July when there is lots of lovely produce in the garden.  It would have been much more difficult without, as it's so hard to find local vegetables for sale. Even the Hog and Hen Farm shop just a few miles from home gets most of it's stuff from a regional fruit and veg wholesaler - I happened to be there as they were unloading crates of all sorts.

The things which were needed that are not local were yeast and milk powder (why do bread-maker recipes always use milk powder?) salt, pepper,cornflour, tubes of garlic and tomato puree and coffee of course. I also 'cheated' and ate shop-bought apples (which come all the way from New-Zealand!) because of not having much fruit from the garden. My eating apples are still several weeks away from being ready to eat.

I ate hardly any meat all week so still have the local sausages in the freezer plus local flour, rape seed oil in the cupboard and the Hill Farm Garlic Mayonnaise(which is very tasty) in the fridge.

Breakfast with the local honey on toast never got tedious and sandwich or that fruit meringue for lunch was good plus finding different ways to eat Aubergines was interesting.

All in all a good few days experiment.

 I've now done this "sort-of" challenge in November and July - so perhaps I'd better do it again it  in late winter and the  middle of spring...........could be difficult.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

One Week Eating Local (2) part 7

Many thanks for comments about butterflies yesterday. It's so easy to photograph them on the Buddleia as they feed on them for ages. Not so easy to take photos of the smaller butterflies down the meadow - they are always in a hurry and very shy!

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 Another way of eating aubergines found on the BBC Good Food website. This was a bit of a faff for one person and as usual I didn't follow it exactly because of not having half the ingredients and using local! The ingredients below are for 4 people for a main course or 6 if served as a side dish to meat.

 Olive oil   (I used the Norfolk rape-seed oil)
3 aubergines,, sliced thinly lengthways (I used 1 medium sized home grown)

2 medium red onions, very thinly sliced (I used half a white onion home grown)

2 garlic cloves, crushed ( I used a squirt of garlic puree - not local)

5 large plum tomatoes, thinly sliced ( I used one of my large plum tomatoes)

4 lemon thyme sprigs, leaves picked ( I used common thyme as that's what I have growing)
zest ½ unwaxed lemon (Missed this out as I didn't have one)

175g soft goat's cheese, crumbled ( nope! just grated some local cheese on top after it had cooked a bit)
100g good-quality black olives, pitted and chopped ( No didn't have these either)
500g waxy potatoes ( I used one large  home grown Charlotte potato)

The full recipe is HERE but basically it's a layered gratin thing, even using a small amount made too much for one person.

Had a busy morning in the kitchen while I was doing this recipe as I also made a huge batch of the simple Aubergine/Tomato pasta sauce ( 6 portions into the freezer) and some Herby bread rolls.

I didn't photograph it after cooking as it wasn't very good looking but it tasted delicious although a tad oily even though I drained the aubergine slices on kitchen roll paper, so I was glad of a bread roll to mop up the juices. 

 The recipes are on the separate recipe page if you need them.

One Week Eating Local (2) Part 6 and Aubergines

Since I wrote about how quickly the first aubergine was growing on the 23rd June, the greenhouse has produced lots of aubergines, I sent some home with Eldest Daughter. It's always better to have too many than too few, yet until maybe 10 or 12 years ago I'd never even eaten one and certainly not grown them.
We didn't really grow many to sell at the smallholding until we had the third polytunnel up, that was when Col packed up County Council full time to go self-employed in 2012.
Aubergines or Eggplants (they were originally white and smaller) or Brinjal - so many names in different parts of the world, are members of the the nightshade family Solanaceae.

 Wikiwotsit says
 The aubergine is unrecorded in England until the 16th century. An English botany book in 1597 described the madde or raging Apple:

This plant groweth in Egypt almost everywhere... bringing foorth fruite of the bignes of a great Cucumber.... We have had the same in our London gardens, where it hath borne flowers, but the winter approching before the time of ripening, it perished: notwithstanding it came to beare fruite of the bignes of a goose egge one extraordinarie temperate yeere... but never to the full ripenesse.

Because of the plant's relationship with various other nightshades, the fruit was at one time believed to be extremely poisonous. The flowers and leaves can be poisonous if consumed in large quantities due to the presence of solanine.
The eggplant has a special place in folklore. In 13th-century Italian traditional folklore, the eggplant can cause insanity. In 19th-century Egypt, insanity was said to be "more common and more violent" when the eggplant is in season in the summer.

 In the past......before I started growing them........ they were very bitter. Old recipes always say that the slices need salting and rinsing to draw out the bitterness, but that's been bred out of them, making them easier to use. 

Last year I made lots of Aubergine and Tomato Sauce for the freezer which was a good use. Later in the year I did boxes of roasted mixed vegetables including aubergines - which wasn't a good idea. Roasted chunks of aubergines frozen and re-heated are  not nice!

 Need new ideas and when I searched among all the photocopies and cuttings in my folder I found

Aubergines with Goats Cheese
For each person
One aubergine, halved lengthways
Olive oil (I used rape seed oil)
Sun Dried tomato paste (I used one of my own plum tomatoes sliced)
Fresh Basil leaves - torn
Goats cheese (or brie or cheddar)

1. Preheat grill. Brush both sides of aubergine with Olive oil and season. Place aubergines cut side up on a baking sheet and grill for 7 minutes. Turn them over and grill for 5 minutes
2. Spread the cut sides with tomato paste and arrange basil leaves on top. Slice goats/brie cheese and arrange on the aubergines. Season and grill until bubbling.
3. Serve with salad leaves and crusty bread.

I tried this a couple of weeks ago with goat cheese and then last week bought Suffolk Gold because as far as I know there are no local-ish producers of goats cheese selling it in Suffolk.

Grated it over the top and it was better than goats cheese as it melted really well

This is so quick and easy to do and  I ate it with one of my homemade herby bread rolls.

I've got one other aubergine recipe to try (if I can find it again) which is a layered aubergine and potato concoction. But for freezing for winter I'm definitely doing some batches of the tomato and aubergine pasta sauce.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

One Week Eating Local(2) Part 5

It rained here yesterday morning so no boot sale. The only rain for days and it falls on a Sunday morning! Ho Hum

The eating locally produced is ongoing and so easy with all the garden produce.When I made the Bacon and Egg Pie last week I saved a small bit of pastry and rolled thinly, just enough to do a pastry case for a mixed fruit meringue pie with odds and ends of fruit from the garden.


Some almost past-it  gooseberries, last of the redcurrants and a couple of early very sharp cooking apples, all cooked up with quite a lot of sugar. Stirred in some cornflour (sadly not local) and  egg yolks. Then used the egg whites and sugar to make meringue for the top.

It's very pink and divides into 6.I've been eating for lunch instead of a sandwich some days.





These were a surprise from the garden

Two of the 4 calabrese plants have produced a head already, much earlier than they should and very small due to dry/chilly weather I guess.

I made a little cheese sauce and fried some of my potatoes..........After peeling - as this is the damage ants have done to some of the lovely Charlotte spuds. Every year I threaten to stop bothering with potatoes as this always happens.

Then it gets to February and the East Anglian Potato Day and there I am again getting some seed potatoes as usual.

Breakfast was toast and the very local honey which I'm enjoying as a change from toast and marmalade.

I keep forgetting to welcome some new followers - Hello, thank you for pressing the follower button  hope you like reading my ramblings.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

Saturday Round-up + One Week Eating Local (2). Part 4

Did anyone watch the programme about how the 2012 Olympic open ceremony was organised yesterday? I caught the end. There were so many bits I'd not seen at the time (or when this programme first went out in 2016). 2012 was a busy summer for us - as Colin had given up full time County Council work in March so we were growing and selling even more than usual and he took on lots of local work too. The Olympics went by in a blur, so I shan't mind watching a few bits again although I'd rather have seen what we should have been watching from Tokyo. Hope it happens next year - perhaps Covid 19 will be long forgotten by then. Boris says things might be more normal for Christmas - goodness knows if he is right or not. We can only wait and see.

Meanwhile I'm going to be shopping even less than I have been after next Friday because I find wearing a mask very claustrophobic (Wow I got the right spelling first time!). For the last 4 months I've been once a fortnight to either Asda or Morrisons and then a quick trip to the local Co-op in between. I've not been in any town centre shops and other than food shops have only been in the bank, post office, farm shop and local hardware shop. Far from encouraging me to rush out to all the other shops in Stowmarket or Diss the mask wearing will make me visit less - no help to the economy at all!

A mixed weather week but OK for getting some grass cut and weeding done.  Wednesday evening was positively chilly and when I got up Thursday morning I found the boiler running - not good for mid July and then Friday the temperature suddenly shot up to the high 70s. I haven't been far all week again, just local Co-op, Farm shop and Post Office where I sent another parcel of books off to Music Magpie. Not a lot earned but better than nothing.

The Runner bean seeds sown late on July 1st have now been planted out and  the Basil cuttings which had rooted really well in their modules have been put in bigger pots. 6 very healthy plants from that £1 pot from Morrisons and all the remaining leaves were used  fresh and or dried in the microwave.

The eating local carried on with the rest of the bacon and egg pie with home made potato salad and my own cucumber and beetroot. Still honey on toast for breakfast. Cheese and tomato sandwich for lunch with beetroot.


This week I'm grateful for

• Locally produced food
• Lots of veg. from the garden
• Time to get back to the cross stitch 

I hope you have good plans for the weekend.
If the weather is fine I shall have a socially distanced coffee with Col's sister today and the car boot sale tomorrow............ MUST get up earlier, although the forecast says rain first thing. I need to look for a rolling pin and palette knife as I'm making things with terracotta coloured air-drying clay (More hamper gifts so I won't be putting the photo up until December 26th!) and I don't want my good kitchen tools stained or spoiled.
Otherwise I'll be reading, cross stitching and probably a bit more grass cutting - the only way to keep up with it is to do some almost everyday.


Back Monday
Sue

One Week Eating Local(2) Part 3

My Mum was a Plain Cook. Meat and 2 veg was the norm but long before the age of the quiche she used to make a bacon and egg pie. I seem to remember the bacon was always a bit chewy - so she obviously didn't cook the bacon before making the pie and I'm sure there was never any onion in it.

I decided as a change from a quiche a bacon and egg pie was one thing I could make with the local produce - local flour from Essex, butter from a few miles down the road, bacon from about 10 miles away and eggs from 4 miles from home plus a tomato and onion from the garden. Loving the green beans.

One fruit growing here which I nearly forgot about were the Cherry-plums on a tree in the bottom corner boundary of the garden. These were all I could reach and the wasps had found a few but better than nothing.

Home made toast and local honey for breakfast and a BLT sandwich for lunch which I ate too quickly to take a photo - it's a rare treat.


Back Tomorrow
Sue

1 Week Eating Local (2) Part 2

Before I write about eating local - have you heard the warnings about courgettes? Both Thomson and Morgan and Fothergills seed companies have withdrawn seeds from sale as people eating the courgettes grown from some of their seeds have complained about sickness and stomach cramps. It seems cross pollination may mean some seeds are producing bitter courgettes of a slightly different type from what they should be. Mine are T & M so a bit concerning. Haven't noticed a problem yet.



If you want to look back at my one week eating local in November last year, it's HERE.

Returning to this year.

Breakfast of homemade bread toasted, with the local butter and local honey bought a couple of weeks ago (half a mile and many bee-miles!) I put it in the fridge and it's set nicely so doesn't run off the toast.

As you can see I'm not drinking local!

Lunch......... Egg (4 miles)+ Hill Farm Garlic Mayo sandwich  with my own beetroot and little tomatoes

This simple Bacon, Brie and tomato salad was delicious. The leaves are rocket and small beetroot leaves from the garden. Topped with a large sliced home grown tomato. Then Brundish Farm(10 miles) local bacon bits fried until a bit crispy, the Suffolk Brie cheese (7 miles) and home made croutons.

A salad dressing made with a little honey, rapeseed oil and cider vinegar (The Aspall factory is about 4 miles as the crow flies) with a spot of wholegrain mustard - not local sadly........... the only local I could see was Horseradish Wholegrain Mustard from Hill Farm at Halesworth.....not keen on Horseradish and I had Morrisons Wholegrain in the cupboard already . I know Colmans of Norwich do a Wholegrain Mustard but neither Morrisons or Asda stock it and I'm not sure the mustard is actually made in Norfolk anymore anyway.


Last of the raspberries - the few left are being attacked by wasps, I think there's a wasp nest somewhere down the meadow. I've tried to see where they are going but can't spot a nest anywhere.

 

My week eating local actually ended up being done in two parts and this first day was early last week before Eldest Daughter came. The day after this I had some bad effects and when I had another look at the Brie I found it was Not Good . I'd only bought it two days before but had no receipt so couldn't take it back. I shall be more careful with their cheese in future and check dates properly.

Back Tomorrow

Sue

One Week Eating Local (2) Part 1 = The Start

It was last November when I did the One Week of Local Eating, eating only food produced in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex as much as possible - that's nearly 8 months ago - good grief.

I decided it would be interesting to do it again with so much of my own food available and bought brie and butter from the Dairy Farm down the A140

Then from the 'Locally Produced' shelves at the Co-op. Flour from Essex, Hill Farm Garlic Mayonaisse from near Halesworth in Suffolk and  Rapeseed oil from Norfolk. Co-op usually do Hill Farm Rapeseed oil but perhaps that's not available at the moment. Bacon from Brundish (10 miles) and Sausages from Bury St Edmunds

From the garden I've got the first onions, not very big but already the tops have gone over thanks to wind and rain

Also available are aubergines, tomatoes and cucumber from the greenhouse. Courgettes, potatoes, mangetout peas, beetroot and green beans from the garden.

Not a lot of fruit left in the garden as the strawberries have finished, but there are a few raspberries left. Most gooseberries and redcurrants are in the freezer but windfall apples are just about use-able with plenty of cooking and sugar.

The cheapest local eggs are only 80p a half-dozen

Bit blurry, had to take the photo in a hurry as another car pulled up for eggs just behind me.

That's my start position

Back Tomorrow
Sue