Revelation

I've been having a moment of revelation.   I've become a little teary eyed about my first consciously complete 'local' meal.  It can't have been my first- I'm sure I've had many-  A freshly fried trout eaten while camping perhaps. A meal made completely of our own garden grown corn and chiles - others, I'm sure.  But come to think of it- probably not totally 'local'.  There are all the condiments, butter and beverages.  

Even the snacks where local!   How about that Marble Street Brewery IPA?

But I can safely say that my meals this past week have been 95% local.   I know what farm the food item came from or I grew it myself.  That gap of 5% is given over to wine, chocolate and coffee.  Make that 10%- I haven't found a local source for butter or oil. I'm not sure about my math....?!  That would mean 5% of my diet was fat.  Could be!  :-) 

But it is more different than you would think.   It's a strange feeling.
 I'm conscious of every bite having a story.  I'm more thoughtful about what I eat.  The qualities and texture are different too.  I was a little startled by my first bite of local, pasture fed Pollo Real chicken.   If you've never tasted a true pasture grazed chicken the difference from the plump, puffy, moisture injected store bought bird is remarkable.  What have I been eating up until now?!  This was a Real Chicken.  This gal ran after grasshoppers, gossiped with her girlfriends and closed her eyes in the sun- minus any breast implants.   But I wasn't sure I actually liked the increased flavor and texture at first.   It was so non-supermarket, non-white bread, so unprocessed that I almost didn't recognize it as chicken.   But like my own farm-eggs, this was the real deal .   'Honey, baby!  Where've you been all my life?!'

And no iceberg lettuce on my plate either.  Not that I'm dissing a crisp head of iceberg but...given a choice between that and a bunch of Arugula I picked myself?  Guess what I'd choose!

I've been doing a mini-work share at one of our local CSAs, 'Los Poblanos'.  In exchange for a reduced price on a market box I go in and work a 2 1/2 hour morning once a week.  The farm has some fields near my home and its not a problem to go help pick vegetables at sunrise now and again.  In fact- it has been so enjoyable and I've learned so much that I really wish I had more mornings to go help the full time workers and interns.   They're at it all day and like Steven Colbert learned- 'its a lot of bending over!'

Some items from my first LPO market basket.   Yep- I helped pull this out of the dirt myself!

 My revelation while at Los Poblanos has been how productive our valley can be.   No doubt it's taken a lot of work and preparation but the soils are rich and loamy and support the most amazing produce I've seen locally.   It's a pleasure to work among healthy, productive plants so heavy with tomatoes, squash, eggplants.   And the people are nice too!

What does eating local look like? 

 What does eating local look like? Anything you'd like it to be- in this case my light supper was local bread with cream cheese (I made it! More on that later) An arugula salad with apples and pecans and some sweet, sauteed chiles on the side.  Everything local except the Sal de los Incas my cousin brought from Peru.  Thanks Adam!

'Putting Up'

If you start producing your own food or (buying in bulk) you will quickly find that much of your effort will have to be dedicated to 'putting up' the harvest.   You have to be able to save your bounty for later use.  Otherwise in August you will quickly get sick of shoving zucchinis down your gullet or trying to eat as many raspberries in one sitting as you can.   Humans aren't made to pack on calories and then hibernate like bears.  We have to have something to eat over the winter.
So what to do?  You can save your harvest in little bits and pieces, freezing excess fruit and vegetables as you go along.   I do it that way myself because I don't have huge amounts of produce ripening all at once in my little garden patch.  I cut up veggies in interesting ways that I can cook with later.  I blanch them quickly in boiling water then follow with a plunge in ice water to stop the cooking.   I then drain and pat dry the produce, spread them on cookie sheets to freeze, than package them as loose, independent pieces.
I like to fire roast anything I can find to 'put up'.   Might as well if you have the grill going anyhow.  Here in NM its a fall ritual to roast a bushel of green chile for storage in the freezer.   (more on that later!)

You can use zip lock baggies or -as I prefer -clear plastic containers that I get in large packages from a restaurant supply store.    Freezer storage can be vulnerable with power outs and the possibility of appliance failure.  (I lost almost an entire side of beef that way once)
Once freezer space runs out you can learn to jar and pickle if you have a large enough batch of produce to warrant that effort.  You can smoke meat or fish over open fires, stick duck legs in buckets of fat as a preservation method, stash potatoes in root cellars, etc. etc.  (not that I've done any of those things personally!) You can also dehydrate what you want to preserve on the dashboard of your car while you go hiking.  (That's more my speed)  You get the idea.

 Drying plum tomatoes as seen at a recent trail head in the Sandia Mountains.  Industrious!

So - what do do with all my garden herbs?   I have a 'as-seen-on-TV' dehydrator that I bought a million years ago.  It's small but has multiple trays and seems to do the trick.  You can also bundle the herbs and place in a paper bag to dry.   I've been told to never,ever use your oven to dry herbs.   Even on a low heat you would basically be cooking the plants and thus would loose a lot of their oils, flavor and color.

In my little garden I have plenty of sage, parsley, tarragon, fennel, mint, basil and chives.   The all get pulled off the heavy stems, placed on separate trays, dried in the dehydrator then closed up in jars for future use.   Dried herbs should last on the shelf for one year.   Just in time for next year's harvest!

Local Flour

I've been thinking about what I cook the most and the ingredients I would need to make it 'All Local'.
I suppose- if anything- I would first call myself a baker.  That's my strength in the kitchen and what I enjoy most.   I love to make a good loaf of bread and I find myself baking it as often as my schedule allows.
I knew that NM had a history of good wheat production and that there had been many, many flour mills in the state's past.  Unfortunately that is no longer the case so it took a bit of research to find a local producer of unbleached flour- which is what I prefer to use.
I knew about Blue Bird flour from Cortez, CO.  It's a fine product but to my knowledge they don't distribute any unbleached flour so I continued to search.   I remembered I had once tried some nice cake and pastry flour years ago from Valencia Flour Mill.   I live in Valencia County so I figured I might be on to something really local.  Nothing on the shelves though until one day......
I saw a package of 'Sopapilla + Frybread Mix' (a delicious deep-fried, puffed bread often on menus in New Mexican food restaurants) labeled 'Valencia Flour Mill.  Jarales, NM'.  Bingo!  That's just spitting distance down the river valley from my town.

Sopapilla and Fry Bread Mix made with Sunflower oil. 

It even had a phone number on the package so right there in the store I dialed and got owner Jose Cordova on the phone.
Yep.  He made an unbleached flour but only sold it to restaurants or out of his mill location.   Could I come down on a Saturday?  Sure thing.  I was on my way.

Valencia Flour Mill, Jarales, NM

I found his mill on a tiny two lane road-east side of the river, cross the train tracks and north of the school- if we're getting specific.    Jose greeted me and gave me a little tour of the mill - that his father started when Jose was a child.  I purchased a 25 lb sack of the beautiful flour for around $10.00.   Can't beat that!   He even started up the mill to show me how quietly this early 20th century machine could run.

Parts of the mill date back to 1913

I'm looking forward to baking with this soft flour, flecked with traces of bran.   Turns out the wheat is grown on the Navajo Indian reservation on an 70,000 acre farm just outside of Farmington, NM.  It's exciting to find such an important food staple grown in my relative back yard.  It just took a bit of poking around.  You never know what you have till you start looking.  Right?

Windowsill Farming

     This is farming on a smaller scale - sort of like a flea circus- for those of us who - for whatever reason- can't or don't want to get any dirt under our fingernails. Think of it as a terrarium that you can eat.   Salad in a jar.  Cool.
Growing sprouts is nothing new (there is nothing new in any kind of farming) but I just rediscovered it for myself -so indulge me a little and play along.   First you have to decide what type of seed to use.   I chose a radish, alfalfa and  broccoli mix. (Did that bother you that I listed them unalphabetically?   Then you have OCD.  No kidding.)
I bought a little package at the health food store.
Then you decide the container- a clear glass mason jar works best.   Put a ventilated top on it- I bought the green plastic one when I bought the seed mix or use the ring for a jar lid with a piece of nylon stocking over it.  (boy - did I have to dig for that-  I don't know when the last time was that I wore pantie hose!)
Then soak the seed for 6-8 hours in clean water.  Drain.  Put the jar on it's side in a dark place.  (Not in a kitchen cabinet.  I did that once and forgot about my project for 3 days.)  I loosely wrap mine in a kitchen towel and put it near my coffee machine.  ( I was determined not to forget this time!)   Over the next few days rinse and drain the seeds once or twice a day.   And voila!  Sprouts! 

After the 3rd day or so put them in the light so they green up a bit.   Add to salads or sandwiches as you wish.  
We over did it the first time and the jar got too full early on.  We ended up separating the bunch into two jars then a 3rd as they continued to grow.   When finished we put them in plastic tubs in the refrigerator.
It's nice to have something fresh that you grew yourself - now isn't it?  It's a fun project for kids too-
don't 'cha know?!

Simply Sheep

So- I think I'll raise a few sheep she says.  Simple, right?  Well- I grew up in the city and missed out on that Future Farmers of America deal early on.  And I don't think they had a Girl Scout badge with the 4 S's (Sheep Selection, Shearing+ Slaughter) so I've been kind of learning on the hoof - so to speak.

When our family moved to this patch of land in 1992- we basically needed a few lawn mowers for 4 acres of pasture.  We acquired a motley crew of  sheep and goats and raised the small herd up to 30 animals at one point.  I lambed quite a few, sold some to those aforementioned 4-Hrs and had several end up in our freezer via commercial butchers or from a friend's skilled knife.
I kept the herd going for several years but life sort of got in the way and I stepped away from having livestock just as I was climbing the learning curve.   But I decided to start over again just last year.  I bought a few ewes via Craig's List  ('Have lambs.  Will sell or trade') and borrowed a ram from old Joe Otero down the road.  (His family has been here in the Rio Grande valley for 400 years at least and they've been raising sheep for much of that time)  I picked up another ewe or two and was up to 10 in the herd.  We bred them and wintered over waiting for the spring lambs.  Well- Christmas Eve with 2 dog attacks and 3 mortalities (life on even a small farm can be brutal at times) shrunk the herd.   But we lambed with all the girls having twins this spring and the mini-herd is now back up to 10 again.
We ended up with just one buck and I must say he is quite the handsome fellow.  He has some new girlfriends now as we recently found a new home for him.

The herd is still not big enough so we won't be doing any of our own butchering this year.  You gals are free to munch that nice pasture and enjoy your little sheep lives- for the time being that is....!

This must all be very boring (unless you're in to sheep I suppose) but my point is...(what is my point?)hmmmm... that train of thought just left the station....
Anyhow- I have been trying to educate myself about the livestock so that I can be a better steward instead of just winging it- like I did in the past.  (remember- no Future Farmers of America training here)   I have learned more about proper pasture management (more on that later) and more about doctoring and maintenance of the animals.  (More on that later too!)
So - to finish- here is a sheep joke for you:
  Farmer #1 'Why didn't the ewe get pregnant?'
  Farmer #2 'She was under the wether!'  
Get it?   If you're a real farmer you can explain the joke here - on this very blog!  Let's hear it!

Foraging Part 2

A few years back my friend Dan invited me to go mushroom picking near Taos, NM.   It was the perfect time- we hit the mountains under ideal conditions and returned with pounds of delicious King Boletes mushrooms.   So when he invited me to go 'shrooming again recently how could I decline?!

Dan gets off the beaten track

So in to the forest it was!
Now- you really shouldn't do this on your own.  Always go with an experienced fungologist.  (I don't actually know what a mushroom dude is called)
You don't want to put anything in your mouth that you're not sure of..(at least that's what grandma always said)  You can always have a taste tester along to try things out first but it's kind of a quick way to loose friends and it does limit your hiking companions to people foolishly willing to stick odd organic matter in their mouth.  So.... that said.... go with someone you trust to know what they're doing.

As it turns out- you either hit the mushrooms exactly right or you don't- and ....
We Didn't.                                                                                                                                                                            We looked at a lot of other Boletes wanna-be type fungus

but in the end came home empty handed.

That's not 100% true.  We did each eat a handful of delicious wild raspberries (grown at over 9000' elevation)

Still- I don't know how our ancestors did it.. I would've come home with an empty stomach....
I don't think I passed 'Foraging 101'!  

But what's to complain about hiking in the mountains of Northern NM with a buddy?  We had a great picnic (after we worked up an appetite imagining all the things we'd be cooking with the mushrooms we didn't find!)

Plums plums plums

Well- I think it's valid to say that  part of feeding yourself locally is that its going to have to include some foraging.   It's kind of fun hopping fences but don't take that to mean that you shouldn't ask permission when possible.  But hey- I say waste not want not- and I hate to pass up a fruit tree full of fruit that the rest of the world is ignoring.   Long story short- I hopped the fence at a seemingly abandoned property-(well- there is a realtor's sign up- so does that count?) 
The apple trees I found were pretty poor.  No water for ages, fruit full of bugs.  The decent looking ones I took a bite of but they had no flavor.   No love lost here on these neglected trees.  (One thing you can't do in NM is leave trees or non-native plants to fend for themselves for water- the desert is just waiting to take over again.)  I picked a few apples and pears but the prize was a lovely plum tree covered with succulent, ruby colored fruit.  I stuffed my face and filled my basket and hopped the fence to get back home.  (I could've just walked out the front gate but fence jumpin' is so much better.  Nothing like getting your pants hung up on a barbed wire fence for a good story. 'How'd your pants get ripped?' 'Oh. Just hoppin' a fence'. )

We've enjoyed eating a lot of the fresh fruit but I also covered a hot grill with plums to roast.  I brushed them with honey and some black pepper.  They're in my freezer now waiting for a lamb roast to accompany.   I read a good recipe for plum, ginger chutney. (shout out to 'Nice Buns'  Thanks!)   Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas?!
If I go picking again I'll be making plum jam next.   I'm not the most successful at jam making though.  I need a pectin-injectin' I guess!

Bernalillo Wine Festival

Monday September 6th.  Labor Day
Here's what I'm talking about! Lets go local.  (or loco- whatever the case may be...!)
The Bernalillo Wine Festival is an annual event in Bernalillo, NM.  This community just north of Albuquerque on the east side of the Rio Grande (for those of you who aren't 'in the know'!) showcases local vintners who are breaking their backs to coax quality wine out of the Land of Enchantment.   This past weekend the Festival featured tastings from over 20 vineyards situated in all corners of the state of NM.  There is actually a 400 year history of wine making in the Rio Grande Valley.    Who knew?!
  I hit the festival with my mom and dad (nothing quite like drinking wine and using a walker! -my dad gets kind of tired so we had this cool, rolling walker with a seat so he could take a break...But I digress...!)
Anyhow - we sampled delicious vintages from nearly every maker- and most made from entirely estate grown, New Mexico grapes.
We tasted quite a few Cabernets (is it 'swish, swallow' or 'swish, spit'? I don't know how you really are supposed to taste wine.) but my dad and I gave 3 stars to a Tempranillo from Casa Abril Vineyard in Algodones, NM.   I'm so impressed with the dedication of all these producers. 

Several regional food products where on display as well including booths from NM Pecan Company. (Did you know NM out produced Georgia in Pecans this year?  Represent!)

Yummy, freshly shelled pecans from NM Pecan Co

Locally produced goat cheese, Lavender, fresh fruit and Garlic were also available to purchase.
I would have liked to see more regionally grown, prepared food to purchase for lunch- my only complaint- but hey- this isn't a review- is it?

Coon Ridge produces fantastic cheese made from the milk of open-range grazed goats.

All said- the sun was shining, there was no work on a Monday, people were sipping and swishing their wine samples and spitting on the lawn.  Women in big hats, men in stylish loafers- what's not to like?! 

New Mexico is getting so sophisticated!

Kitchen Garden

Yes!  I grew these beauties!

Anyone who is lucky enough to have any outdoor space at all ought to think about having a kitchen garden.  You can be one of the proud ones who puts a little fresh produce on the family table. You might just find yourself enjoying a little dig in the dirt on a Sunday afternoon and then save yourself a trip to the grocery store to boot.   You can turn over a sunny spot of your lawn and put all that water to use making vegetables.  You can put some big pots on a drip line on your back porch and surprise your guests when they see all those decorative plants picked for their dinner salad.   Find a plot in a community garden.    I saw some young entrepreneurs in Brooklyn who had planted a one acre roof top garden to supply restaurants and a garden stand.  Check it out.  http://brooklyngrangefarm.com Ok?  Got anymore excuses?! I mean- there's no elevator for this building.  They carried ALL the dirt and everything up with a pulley system.  Unbelievable!

My grandpa had a huge garden on Upper Canyon Road in Santa Fe, NM.  He and grandma fed 3 boys out of that garden. We lived in a few different small towns in NM-mostly Albuquerque- and my dad always managed to put in a backyard garden.  (pulling weeds always a favorite chore-Not!)
I'm lucky enough to have a cozy 12'x24' plot to call my own.  There've been good years, better years and some pretty sucky years for planting.  Anyhow- I've been learning what works and what doesn't.  I'm trying to do better by the soil and deal with some pretty invasive weeds.  We can't live off this little spit of land but there's a lot of pleasure and pride that comes out of the soil.  It's done alright.  We even won a few ribbons at the Bosque Farms Fair once upon a time!
Here a few shots of whats in my Kitchen Garden today, Labor Day 2010!

OK- So, I stole these Santa Rosa plums from my neighbor!

Twinkie Nation

I'm reading a book by farmer Joel Salatin- he's the owner/creator of Polyface, Inc 'Farm of Many Faces'. I first read about his farm in Michael Pollin's book 'The Omnivore's Dilemma' section on 'Grass'.   I love so many of Joel's quotes and philosophies about 'keeping it local' for all the right reasons.
'The sooner we involve people with their food and show them there is something better than Twinkies and Pop Tarts, cardboard tomatoes and cellulose apples, greasy spareribs and pale eggs, they will realize that the 'system' is totally rotten.  We cannot get an educated, proactive populace as long as we have an agriculture so far removed from end users that they think milk comes from a jug and fish sticks swim around in the ocean.' 
Joel Salatin 'You Can Farm'
www.polyfacefarm.com