One Local Summer - week 1: Mid-Atlantic Report

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

We had an impressive turnout here in the Mid-Atlantic region, despite hotter than hot temperatures. I think that’s the beauty of eating local. The food’s so deliciously fresh you don’t have to fuss much. And when the mercury is pushing 100, that’s key…

Danielle of Touch the Earth Farm set the bar super-high with a nearly zero-mile meal. She and her family enjoyed a pasta salad chock full of veggies grown right on their Maryland farm: radishes, lettuce and green onions. And as if that wasn’t enough, they had grilled pork tenderloin contributed by one of their own piglets. Home-baked ciabatta bread rounded out what sounds like an amazing meal.

Be sure to check out Pamela’s meal over at Asterisms in the Stars’ Set Order. She and some friends dined on vegetable frittata – a tasty combination of mizuna, mushrooms, cheese, and of course, eggs – with a super-fresh green salad on the side. This first meal was a real learning experience for Pamela. She discovered that the eggs she bought at her local Philly co-op actually traveled further than the eggs she would ordinarily buy at Trader Joe’s. Getting to know your particular foodshed is one of the best parts of the OLS challenge. And more and more, local foods are turning up in the most surprising places.

Frittatas were a popular option this week… and why not? They’re a great way to ease into the season because they’re so adaptable. You can toss just about anything in the pan, and you can’t go wrong. I joined the ranks of the frittata folks with this meal. I kept it simple with Jersey asparagus and some home-grown sage. A green salad on the side, courtesy of our CSA, and some home-baked bread made for one tasty dinner.

Smttwngrl, a city girl from Maryland, found her local meal at the farmer’s market. Her baby spinach and strawberry salad makes a tasty addition to her blog, Writing: My Life. What’s more, she includes a recipe! Fresh mint, radishes and spring onions add zing and zest to the already scrumptious pairing of spinach and strawberries.

Tomatoes? In June? And they’re local? I’m impressed. And, honestly, a little jealous, too. Pennsylvanians Robin and family over at simple.green.organic.happy. shared a meal of much the same description: spinach and lettuce tossed with eggs, cucumbers and, yes, tomatoes.

Amelia of Food on the Fire Escape knows a picture can speak volumes. I’m craving a turkey burger and it’s not even 9 a.m. Local turkey topped with local cheese, grilled to perfection. She fashioned a potato salad then served up some asparagus – all from the Union Square farmer’s market in NYC.

Visit The Purloined Letter to see how well-rounded you can eat following the OLS diet. Hannah of Maryland even grinds her own wheat! Accompanying the whole wheat bread was a ground beef patty stuffed with onions and horseradish. The beef was from their farm source while the rest came from the farmer’s market. To complete the meal, Hannah pulled some radishes from her own garden which she roasted. The radish tops were stir-fried.

Bonus points, if I had them to give, would go to Meghan over at Liberty on Tenth Street who has been ambitiously toiling away at local meals for the last three weeks. Check out her roasted chicken with a goat cheese custard for dessert (I’m always impressed when people can pull off a local dessert, too) and her bacon and roasted asparagus salad topped with poached eggs, and if that wasn’t enough, her flank steak salad.  A Brooklyn girl to boot, so Meghan’s sourcing her ingredients from her local farmer’s market and her own window boxes.

Pennsylvanians have it made, in my opinion. There’s just an abundance of farm-fresh goodies everywhere you turn it seems. And to prove my point, we have Chad whose meal of butter-crisp lettuce with radishes and red onions was accompanied by wine-braised beef, garlic-sauteed snap peas and new potatoes with bacon. Everything, even the wine, came from his homestate.

Lauren put her own spin on the OLS challenge by cooking up a delicious Sunday Brunch. Who doesn’t love an egg sandwich served up with bacon and cheese on a Kaiser roll? Since this one’s crafted from local ingredients, it’s in a league of its own, though. Lauren’s CSA contributed the side salad which was topped with radishes.

A kitchen redo and a sick baby kept some of you from posting this week. I look forward to reading next week’s contributions. Thanks all!

- this section of Mid-Atlantic updates posted by Elizabeth of Seedling
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The lovely ladies at Philly Farmers made a great looking asparagus and scallion frittata, mashed turnips with swiss, and fried beet chips.  Yes, fried beet chips!  What a cool idea!  And there’s an absolutely charming photo of them eating the meal - we get to see a lot of food photos around these parts, but rarely do we get to see someone enjoying the meal.

Julia from Brooklyn cooked up a great-looking meal of grilled chicken and potatoes with sauteed mushrooms and quelites.  Quelites?  Huh?  Luckily, Julia included a link so I could find out more - it’s a type of Mexican spinach dish.  See, I learn something new everyday!

Naomi, one of our contributors here at Farm to Philly, did what the asparagus voices told her this week: the asparagus apparently wanted to be quiche, so she made a crustless quiche.  She multi-tasked while the quiche was baking and made an amazing looking meal of buckwheat pasta, onion, and kale.  I may need to steal that idea, as I have some kale lingering in my fridge.

Peg recently found a source for local flour in New York (always an exciting thing), and also shared this very cool link to an interactive seasonal ingredient map.  Her OLS meal was fritters with yogurt that her husband made. Great!

Buzz and Pat cooked up two OLS meals this week, both of which look amazing.  I know where they live, so they shouldn’t be surprised if I randomly drop by around dinnertime (I kid, I kid…I’ll call when I’m a block away).  The chicken florentine frittata includes a recipe, and their breakfast for dinner includes locally made scrapple. 

Linda, a New Yorker, wandered down to the Union Square farmer’s market and asked the question we all ask ourselves from time to time: exactly how local are the vegetables at the farmer’s market and can you trust the information people give you, particularly when you don’t know the farmer?  For her meal, she roasted some small potatoes, radishes, and spring garlic, and then broiled bleu cheese over the top.  She served that with a side dish of asparagus, and even had a locally dessert: raspberry yogurt with a touch of locally grown honey (you can see more of her update in the comments section of this entry).

Mikaela, another FTP contributor, shared her goal for this year’s OLS: quick meals with few ingredients.  And she definitely put that into practice for this week’s OLS meal - it contained only five ingredients: olive rolls, spinach, bell peppers, seitan, spring onions.  Mikaela’s meal is gorgeous looking, too.  She made a pressed seitan sandwich with a side of strawberries. 

Life at the Matriarchy household sounds pretty good - they hang around and watch movies on Sundays and eat really, really well.  The meal for the week was roasted corn grits, scrambled eggs, bacon, and and toast with nectarine jam.  Yum!

I always sort of wish I cooked more Indian food, so I was really interested in Beany’s OLS meal - she made matar paneer  And in the comments section on her post she shared how she makes the paneer - it sounds almost exactly like making ricotta cheese, so it’s something I can do!

Linda served up quite a Sunday meal - radishes and cheese for an appetizer, with grilled pork chops, baby greens with herb vinaigrette, roasted red peppers, and asparagus for the main meal.  And then she served up a cherry clafouti for dessert - it looks so good in photos that I just want to reach through the screen and steal a piece!

Anj served up several all local salads during the week, but her big OLS meal was a pot roast (made before the repulsively sticky heat wave hit us here in Philly this past weekend) with vegetables, and braised greens.  Interestingly, Anj used some vodka that she purchased in Maine that was made locally there. Very cool!

As for me, I made a few OLS meals last week, beginning with walnut mashed potato croquettes with homemade catsup.  My second meal was onion and rosemary stuffed chicken legs with asparagus and mashed potatoes (recipe for the chicken included).  My third meal of the week was pork chops with a buckwheat honey glaze and a side of my favorite vegetable in the entire world: Hakurei turnips with sauteed turnip greens.  My dragon boat team took the silver medal in our division the next day, so I think eating those turnips the night before was good luck!

- this section of Mid-Atlantic updates by Nicole

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Has your update been left out? Be sure to leave a comment with the URL to your fantastic One Local Summer meal!