Celebrating our Farmers this Labor Day

I'm in Columbus this weekend visiting my family! Some of my aunts & cousins, granddad and extended family are coming to my parents house and we'll be playing games and hanging outside, hopefully. It'll be a lot of fun!

My parents are nice and they've humored my desire for a mostly-local Labor Day meal. Really- I can't think of a much better way to celebrate local Farmers- some of the hardest working laborers in our country with the most important jobs; feeding our families & our country!

We're starting to gather the ingredients for the big Sunday cookout. I brought some freshly-harvested produce down from my garden to share. 

The Labor Day menu so far includes:

• Caprese Salad w/ tomatoes from my parents garden 
• My fav Potato Salad w/ pink potatoes & garlic from my garden, & onions from my CSA 
• Sweet Corn
• Mango Bean Salad w/ peppers from my CSA & garlic from my garden
• Hamburgers 
• a fruit plate, with my one prize cantaloupe :)

We're heading to the Clintonville Farmers' Market tomorrow morning and hopefully grabbing some of the 'missing pieces' - sweet corn, hamburger meat, and maybe some peaches for a special dessert. I've already got some good input from Columbus buddies on what vendors I should hit up first at the market before I go. I'm looking forward to seeing a new farmers' market here in my hometown!

Here's hoping that your Labor Day is relaxing and maybe even invigorating. If you can, find a way to appreciate and support your local farmers this labor day!

2012 Local Eating Goals

Now that (I hate to say it) we've passed the middle point of summer, I am thinking about and preparing for Fall. This year, more than ever, I am trying to live in the moment and truly enjoy each day and revel in the season- the sweltering hot days, the strangely-cool days, and everything in between. 

However, part of appreciating these summer days is putting up some of my favorite fruits and vegetables for later on the in the year, and planting in preparation for fall. Every year I have a sort of mental list of Homestead-y things I'd like to accomplish- things to grow, things to can, things to freeze, things to dry and store through winter. I'm proud to say that this year, I have actually done some significant fall planting, and I've also done a pretty fair job at "putting up" or canning/preserving/storing & locally sourcing a good deal of the things that were on said mental list! 

I will say that I've give myself some exceptions- this list applies most to food that is eaten in my home. While eating out and about, I do try to have a strong focus on local food, supporting local businesses, and avoiding questionable meat (essentially, it's questionable unless I know where it's sourced from). BUT it's hard to find places to eat that meet all of my strict qualifications! So while I am an intentional eater at restaurants, I am my best locavore self at home, where I can better control what comes into my home, where it comes from, and what I spend our $$$ on.

As I have moved towards eating more and more locally, there is a natural shift towards eating things in the season they grow in. For example, when I say that I eat only local potatoes all year long, it is because I plant potatoes in the spring, I harvest them in the summer, and store them to eat throughout summer, fall, and into winter. Then I stop eating potatoes until I can find them locally again in the spring, or grow them myself once again!

With all that stuff in mind, here's an attempt at a typed version of my 2012 Local Eating Goals.

Happy Home 2012 Local Eating Goals
* crossed off= already preserved or ready to store

Veggies to store/source locally for the entire year-
(successfully achieved this part of the list last year!)
Onions
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Acorn Squash
Carrots
Garlic (50 heads)

Other food products to source locally for the entire year-
Wheat
Bread
Bagels
Butter 
Milk 
Eggs
Meat products

Herbs to dry & store/grow indoors for the entire year-
Cilantro/Coriander
Basil
Thyme
Rosemary
Oregano
Sage

Locally grown veggies & fruits to Can-
6 pints Pickles
5 pints Tomato Sauce 
10 pints and 12 half-pints Corn
10 pints Green beans
25 half-pints Peaches
15 half-pints Pears
6 pints Apricots
3 pints Cranberry Sauce
15 half-pints Applesauce
3 pints Blueberry jam

Locally grown veggies & fruits to Freeze-
5 quarts Blueberries 
1 quart Cherries 
1 quart Raspberries
2 quarts Strawberries 
3 quarts Corn

Locally grown fruits to Dehydrate-
2 bags dried cranberries

If you'd like to set some local eating goals for yourself, I have a few tips:

• Set some perimeters for yourself- be realistic about what you think you can do
• Have strategies in mind- Where will you shop/how will you grow things to meet your goals?
• Think it out- If you want to can 60 pints of tomatoes, when will that actually happen and do you truly have the time & resources to do that?
• Pat yourself on the back, even if you don't accomplish everything you set out to! You're still making progress, and you'll have a better idea of how you can improve in future years.

What do you try to eat locally year round? 

Are there things that you think are more important to source locally than others?

Planting in Late Summer for Fall & Spring Harvests

This is the year that I'm going to do it, guys- make the leap and do some serious Fall planting! I think I'm usually tuckered out by the time the end of the summer rolls around. Before I know it, the time to plant for fall has passed me by. Not this year!

I'm been direct seeding Fall veggies in my garden for the past 3 weeks now, and I will finish up the last bit of planting tomorrow. If you're in S.E. Michigan, Northern Ohio, or a place with a similar last frost date (Oct 7th), you still have a few days to hop to it!


Fall Planting list:
Super Sugar Snap Pea
Prize Choy
De Cicco Broccoli
St. Valery Carrot
Grandpa's Admire Lettuce
Winter Density Lettuce
Parade bunching Onion
Rhubarb Red Swiss Chard

I've tried to seed most everything in the new, larger bed (pictured on the left)- it's closest to the side door of our home so if I need to dash out during the winter I'm one or two steps closer, and it already has crazy, thriving Kale there.

I'm planning to put up some quick hoops over the first 8 feet of the bed, enough distance to cover up the Kale, fall onions, and sugar snaps. I might want to do another 8 feet of hoop down at the other end (by the lovely garbage bins), because there are broccoli, a few carrots, and some speckles lettuce down there!

I'll be sure to share pictures of the quick hoops once I get them put together, as well as some guidance and assembly photos. I've been wanting to do serious season extension for a long time, and it will finally happen this year! One step closer to that ideal Badass Garden that's always floating in my mind...

What are you planning on planting this Fall?

What's Up Wednesday

My first Cherokee Purple tomatoes are ripe!

 Cucumbers! Now I have two plants producing- twice the harvests :)

 

First batch of coriander seed is dried and ready 

to be harvested and put on the spice rack

New fall seedlings are germinating nicely- 

swiss chard, onions, broccoli, pak choi, and more

 Yum :)

What's Up in your Garden this Week?