November 2011... In Progress

November 2011... in progress
11/20 - 11/26
tomorrow will feature a best of for the month

reading:

Second Nature - Michael Pollan

Diary of a Very Bad Year: confessions of an anonymous hedge fund manager

The Ultimate Hunger Games - McSweeneys

Occupy the Art World: 21 OWS-Inspired Designs - Web Urbanist 

'Use-by' dates: A myth that needs busting - Grist

glancing at:

The Food Issue - The New Yorker

Amazingly detailed and astounding chard about Money - XKCD web-comic. 

Egypt Erupts with Fresh Protests - Boston.com The Big Picture 

Thanksgiving Flow Chart -from Chow via Dining and Opining

listening to:

Marc Maron - This Has to Be Funny

Doug Benson - The Benson Interruption #s 7, 9, & 10 

Childish Gambino - Camp

Warren Ellis - SPEKTERMODULE 01

Vinyls- Blitzen Trapper -American Goldwing, Big Brother and the Holding Company - Cheap Thrills, Duke Ellington - Greatest Hits

watchings:

Manchester City vs. Napoli - Champions League Soccer

The Simpsons - 'foodie' episode 

Bizarre Foods with Andew Zimmern - Maine

Up Close and Personal with Kermit the Frog via  The Nerdist

happenings:

thanksgiving,  brunch with friends, coming up with a game plan for both the Austin to Boston Food Swap (#atxbos) and The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap (impromptu baking!).

Great Black Friday Seed Deal - 70% Off Seeds of the Month Club.

On Tuesday over at GrafixMuse's Garden Spot this great deal was shared.

On November 25, 2011 between 5:00am and 3:00pm EST, if you order via the link below and use the referral code: Holiday you can receive 70% off a membership of 1 year or longer (Sorry, not valid on lifetime memberships)!

All seeds are non-gmo, open pollinated heirloom varieties that have been tested for a germination rate of 95% and higher. The seeds mailed are customized to your location and climate.

For more info check out GrafixMuse's original post on the seed of the month club!

To order, visit this post at GrafixMuse's Garden Spot and follow the link for the black Friday sale!

Giving Thanks

For those of you gathering to celebrate with friends and family today I hope you have a wonderful celebration and that there is lots to give thankful for in your life. Here is a look at some blog related pics from the last year. Regular posting will resume soon!

 

 

 

 

 

 Gail and I will be getting together with my family and some of their friends. I hope your celebration is as boisterous and fun as ours is sure to be!

Happy Thanksgiving!

First Seed Catalog!

The first seed catalog of the season arrived today, from Wolcott, VT's High Mowing Organic Seeds! While I look for holiday gifts for others I will be circling and dog-earring the pages of many seed catalogs.

Somerville Winter Farmers Market 11/19

We needed some supplies for the coming week, for my Austin to Boston Food Swap package (I've been partnered with the incredibly awesome Jess from forgiving martha) as well as dinner with friends last night so we visited a few stores and took a trip to the Somerville Winter Farmers Market on Saturday morning and ended up with a great variety of delicious local goods!
Here is a breakdown of all the awesome local goodies we ended up with from the farmers market & stores:
5 stalks of Brussels sprouts, cabbage & 2 small heads of romanesco broccoli from Heron Pond Farm. Butternut squash & carrots from NorthStar Farm. Onions & popcorn cobs from Enterprise Farm. Pork belly & garlic beef sausage from Austin Brothers Valley Farm. Asiago & Fromage Blanc from the great folks at Foxboro Cheese. Milk from Shaw Farm. Maple Syrup from Cooks Farm, whose baked treats I fell in love with this summer at the Brookline Farmers Market, some irresistible Taza Chocolate, and coffee from Dean's Beans & George Howell Coffee! What a great haul!

Did you pick up any local goodies this weekend??

November 2011... In Progress

November 2011...in progress
A not entirely food related exercise to note what I am reading, watching, and listening to.
next week will have a few new additions, but will be more of  a 'best of' what I've read, watched, listened to, this month.
11/13-11/19
reading:
Second Nature - Michael Pollan

Diary of a Very Bad Year: confessions of an anonymous hedge fund manager

Lucky Peach- Issue #2

Young Farmers Find Huge Obstacles to Getting Started - New York Times

Historic conservation project by Global Heritage Fund begins at "Machu Picchu of the North" - Artdaily.org

Direct and Intermediated Market of Local Foods in the United States - USDA

Farmer's Dilemma: Setting a price - Edible East Bay

glancing at: 

American Food Consumption

twitter

listening to:

The Doubleclicks-Blatant Pandering

St. Germain - Tourist

Thievery Corporation - Culture of Fear

watching:

Botany of Desire - PBS

The Doors Sing reading rainbow theme - Jimmy 

happenings:

cider in the city, trip to first winter farmers market, a little more baking. dinner with friends.

Garlic Rosemary Focaccia

Squares of rosemary infused heaven!

If it isn't already apparent, I really love bread. The impetus to hone my baking skills sprang from a desire to teach myself to make delicious bread, everything would be a bonus! Last year I had some great success with the very easy Blitz-Bread/No-Fuss Focaccia recipe. A very simple, beginners recipe to make a fluffy seasoned bread that somewhat resembled focaccia. With some recent baking success to encourage me I decided it was time to tackle the real thing. Using our often drooled over and much loved Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe cookbook I set out to make my own pan of the amazing, flavorful and pillowy bread that I love so much from the countless sandwich's I've devoured at Chang's Flour Bakery. My first attempt was not the delicious golden brown perfectly seasoned squares of fluffy goodness you see above, no the first result was a bit more... well done. The initial attempt at making the bread ended with my having over-baked the bread due to the oven running hotter then I anticipated. 

Don't you just want to reach into the screen and eat some?

Despite the first attempt yielding a big square of overcooked, slightly darkened bread  that wasn't exactly soft, Gail and I managed to devour the focaccia cracker in a few short days. The recipe had all the potential in the world, I just had to try again, and keep the fickle oven in the front of my mind. 

My second attempt yielded a perfect pan of fluffy, garlic infused rosemary focaccia that would be awesome for soaking up an infused oil, great for sandwiches  and the potential base for a really fantastic pizza dough! I followed the recipe in the book as directed with only two minor adjustments: mincing two garlic cloves to sprinkle on top of the bread and sticking to the lower end of the cooking time to ensure that the bread was not overdone. Gail and I agreed the second attempt was a rousing success, and this is definitely the focaccia recipe I will be using from here on in, if I have the 3.5 - 5 hours required to produce such a delightful outcome. 

So far I've really enjoyed this cookbook! Gail has had great success with the homemade oreo's, and I loved the rosemary shortbread. I'm looking forward to exploring more of the recipes within, until I feel confident enough in my baking skills to tackle Flour's legendary sticky buns!

(submitted to Yeastspotting, which will be hosted next week by Hefe und mehr)

Cider in the City at Allandale Farm

Despite a steady rainfall which put a damper on the barrel fire and cider pressing, last nights Cider in the City event at Allandale Farm was packed with young and old alike sampling a variety of lesser known apple varieties paired with cheeses from around the world! There was also the cider. Hot & cold cider circulated around with an offering of hard ciders from Farnum Hill Ciders from Lebanon, NH's own Poverty Lane Orchards!
The abundance of cheese and apples (one of my favorite food combination) would have been enough for me, but the addition of hard ciders along with some other delicious treats made this a really fun, and only slightly crowded event!
We even took home some treats with us! Our haul included cheese: Valdeon, a really nice earthy blue as well as a buttery smooth Manchego! Along with the cheese we also brought home 2 bags of  apples, 2 small rosemary seedlings, a few cider donuts and a gallon of cider (duh!).
With the farmstand ringing with laughter and conversation and full of seasonal produce specialty goods from Allandale and other producers, the event felt like a kickoff to the thanksgiving/holiday/winter season. The event left me in really great spirits and has me looking forward to the upcoming weeks of food and celebration with friends, family, and loved ones.
What has gotten you in a seasonal mood? Are you ready to celebrate?

Winter Markets

In the last few years there has been a boom in year round availability of local food, my ability to participate in the Dark Days Challenge is a direct result of the increase in markets and year around availability of produce, cheeses, meats, and an increasing variety of specialty foods.
Many of the 'in season' markets have closed or are closing around thanksgiving. Finding local food involves a little more effort but isn't very challenging.
I work near Boston's Downtown Crossing neighborhood, and the holiday market runs everyday from November 26 through December 24th. Last year it featured a local orchard, root vegetable, honey, baked goods & local free range meat. Also open everyday until about Christmas time is Allandale Farm which transitions to holiday related stuff but features a variety of local produce from their farm and from around southern New England, as well as local specialty foods.
The Somerville Winter Farmer Market is already open as of this Saturday, and stays open each Saturday from 9:30 - 2:30  all the way until May 26th, making it the longest running. Last year it featured a huge variety of specialty foods, as well as root veggies and storage crops. I look forward to visiting soon.
Along with Somerville I was also a regular visitor to the Wayland Winter Farmers Market at Russell's Garden Center, which runs each Saturday from 10 - 2  from Jan 7 through early spring. This place had fresh baked goods, bagels, an orchard, multiple farms, specialty food producers, meat, and much more. Probably my favorite though it is a little out of the way it's well worth the trip.
New this year is the SoWa Winter Farmers Market which opens this Sunday, November 20th through April 29th and runs s from 10 - 2  each Sunday. It will feature produce, live plants, baked goods, herbs, free range meats, cheese, organic coffee, art, crafts, and more!
If those options aren't enough, and I am a little west of town there is the Natick Winter Market which is open Saturdays from 9 - 1 Jan 7th through April 28th.
All of these options are under 20 miles from where Gail and I live, and may require some planing to visit, but really aren't out of the way. I can't wait to share all the great market finds throughout the winter!!

Do you have any winter market favorites??

Taking Stock for Dark Days

Below is a peek into what we managed to can & freeze which will assist us in eating locally for the Dark Days Challenge, which I posted about yesterday. Tomorrow I will be looking at some of the winter markets in my area.

homemade sauce. garlic, onions, some herbs, for seasoning, little else.

Here is a look at what we've got in the freezer as well as what we canned from our garden and local farms and farmers markets!
We have a small kitchen and limited storage space so we do the best we can. We also use some of the canned jams and relishes as gifts, because sharing is one of the best parts of canning all this wonderful stuff!
Canned & Refrigerated Goods:

corn relish. green bean/zucchini relish, pineapple salsa

Pasta Sauce 18 1/2 Quarts
Corn Relish 6 1/2 pints
Green Bean & Zucchini Relish 1 1/2 pints
Pineapple Salsa 4 1/2 pints
Blueberry Jam 1/2 pint & 4 oz jar
Peach Butter 1/2 pint
Apple Butter 1 1/2 pints
Triple Berry Jam 1 pint
Cranberry-Jalapeno Jam 1 3/4 pints
Beet Relish 5 pints
Cranberry-Apple Sauce 4 pints
Plum & Spiced Port Jam 4 1/2 pints
Ketchup Base 1 quart                                                                                   Horseradish (ground) 4 ounces                                                                                   Pickles 2 quarts

1 4 oz jar unlabeled jam. Based on color either Cran-Apple sauce or Plum & Port jam.

Frozen Goods:
Garlic Scape Pesto cubes
Basil Pesto cubes
2 1/2 lbs Frozen whole Tomatoes
cranberries, blueberries, strawberries, huckleberries
bacon, breakfast sausage, Italian beef sausage, hot Italian pork sausage, garlic and feta turkey sausage, beef kabob cubes, 1 whole turkey meatloaf, beef stew
frozen pepper strips, chives, & dill
chocolate zucchini muffins & bread, regular zucchini bread.
The meat comes from a variety of sources including Stillman's Farm, Bob's Turkey Farm, & River Rock Farm.

All this stuff, along with tomorrow's summary of some of the winter markets in my area is what we'll be relying on to make sure a portion of our food throughout the winter is from local sources!