I’ll tell you up front, we use a lot of eggs.  For instance there was that dinner last week. Mom baked eggs over locally sources corn grits, and garnished with frost-kissed winter spinach.

Did I say eggs.  Or did I mean spinach.  This was dinner two nights ago.  We used recently purchased spinach in a Rick Bayless inspired wilted salad with C&D Pastured Pork chorizo and cubed apples (the apple’s substituting for the jicama in Bayless’s recipe).

Brewing for tonight, locally raised beef braised in Chicago lager, accentuated by storage turnips, carrots, and leeks. We would have eaten this last night if it was ready, but instead had to improvise with pesto from the freezer and a side of local mushrooms browned in the pan.

It seemed like for the longest time we did not need to brew up anything new because we were working and working and working our way through a pot of Michigan beans my wife cooked up with a large Wettstein smoked pork shank.  In fact, after a while, she pureed the beans into soup.  She made soup partially for a first course in a dinner she was trying to impress her brother with, but mostly to trick us into keeping on eating it.  Those grits mentioned above, they came from this dinner too, where they served as the n’, in shrimp n’ grits.   Who cared anyways if the entree was shrimp, the meal also featured a salad of winter cabbage, the now famous sauteed turnips, and a soon to be famous “hypocrite” pie of apples and custard.

Like shrimp, rice is not local to our area, but as the Local Family believes in a practical approach to eating local, we include things like them in our diet.  And when the Local Mom makes rice, she makes almost as much rice as she makes beans.  The first of it supported leftover Chinese food, but the second batch went with Kim Snyder’s Faith Farm bacon, freezer peas, and a local duck egg for fried rice.  Leftovers from that, I made into rice salad with Wisconsin feta, salad turnips, and far-away anchovies.  See how local food works.

We eat local all winter using a combination of foods stored and preserved and foods obtained over the season.  Use what works for you.  Use what you have.  It helps to have made arrangements ahead of time so there’s a package of pesto from a fall market or you have several heads of cabbage in your fridge, but you can also hit one of the Chicago area markets for the mushrooms and spinach.  We don’t just keep local food.  We use it too.

Good thing she makes a mean turnip.  Not much to what she does.  Runs them through the food processor for even slices. Gets a cast iron pan pretty hot. Add olive oil.  Add your turnips.  Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  You want them soft and caramelized.  Believe me, that little bit of work will have you loving turnips.  We also make the Local Family teens take sliced turnips in their packed lunches, which they tolerate more than love.  Still, if you have all the turnips we have, you need to love turnips and tolerate turnips.

OK, it’s not all turnips.  In fact some days, the kids switch from turnips to radishes in their lunches.  Variety!  And we cook our radishes too.  We like them oven roasted.  We do continue to shop and find local foods.  Last week we added yellow peppers, cucumbers, and lettuce to our inventory, so it is NOT all turnips and radishes.  We recently made an order on Irv and Shelly’s Fresh Picks for a few things including carrots, and herbs–note, these are not including in accounting below as we have not received them yet.

Notes on food storage for eat local winter use: Our cold weather residing ancestors knew they could get by without the benefit of grapes flown in from Chile.  They knew that food kept in conditions just above  freezing, also damp, would keep foods fresh for several months.  Thus, food could be set aside for times when the grounds hardened.  The Local Family uses this knowledge to keep on eating local.  We put food in an un-heated attic, where it is cold enough–a big bowl of water adds the necessary dankness.  We also use our two refrigerators, but we note that the dryness there is not conducive to long term storage.  Other cold spots we take advantage of include our garage and our “mudroom.”

You can see our previous inventory report here.  Our current inventory of local food looks like this:

Kitchen Fridge

Cabbage – 2 + 1/4
Turnip (white “hakurei”) – about 10
Homemade quince-apple membrillo
Local eggs
Cucumbers – 2.5
Lettuce
Yellow bell peppers – 2
Herbs – parsley, thyme
Local grains

Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room

Winter squash – (blue “cinderella”)
Garlic – 6 or 7
Walnuts
Hot peppers – dried
Onions – 8
Dried herbs (marjoram, oregano)
Red onions – a few
Shallots – several
Honeybell tangerines brought IN Florida (not that it matters…)

Mudroom

Yellow onions – (medium and large) – somewhat less than a 1/2 bushel
Cranberries – 1/2 bushel, less 2 pies 3 pie’s and one cake’s worth
Sweet potatoes (assorted) – many
White potatoes (assorted) – some
Spinach – 3 big bags
Leeks – 8
Kohlrabi – 12

Basement

Onions – 10 or so
Garlic – 8 or so
Canned tomatoes – whole, sauce, puree
Spiced peaches
Peach chutney
Dried mushrooms
Misc. pickles, jams, jellies, relishes
Dried beans

Basement Fridge

Local grains

Basement Freezer

Frozen fruits – blueberries, grapes, cherries, peaches
Frozen veg – pureed squash, tomato puree, dried tomato, caponata, prepared green beans
Local meat

Root Cellar in the Sky

Potatoes – (assorted including fingerling, red, russets) – enough for a while
Carrots – (assorted) – several
Apples (mutsu, Northern spy) – less 2 pies worth
Radishes (long red Japanese “shunkyo”, watermelon) – a lot
Winter squash – (delicata) – 10
Turnips (purple top) – many
Parsnips – one big meal’s worth

Garage

Apples (Northern spy) – 1/2 bushel

Just try is what I tell people looking to eat more local.  Or local is where you find it.  And what I found when I made, a late in the morning, visit to the Faith in Place winter farmer’s market in Oak Park last Saturday was a table brimming with bell peppers, green and yellow; several big bags of lettuces, one cucumber, and a host of tomatoes.  I grabbed the cuke.  Filled a bag with salad.  Took three yellow peppers.  Squeezed the tomatoes enough to know n0t.  Paid.  Paid $9.  Paid really no more than I would have paid for such produce in the summer.  Left thinking I had that last cucumber, by the way, but it turned out they had many more.  I paid one more dollar for another winter special.  I got a nice haul to supplement our other winter fare.

Rainbow Harvest of Channahon, Illinois produces these crops using hydroponic, indoor production.  Sneer.  In fact hold that sneer for a bit because I cannot fully address your sneer, having put all my produce away for another day.  I accept that hydroponics may lack a certain veggie vigor indicative of what makes us locavores in the first place, but hey, it’s local.  It’s winter, and when you are looking for a cucumber, a tomato, a bell pepper, you are often getting an indoor grown, hydro thing regardless.  Might as well get it from a farmer you can meet.  Listen, sometimes we eat turnips.  Sometimes we eat cucumbers.  As long as it comes from around here, it tastes good to us.  (Which is not also to say, that the big bag of honeybell tangerines my Brother-in-law recently brought us from Florida don’t also taste good to us.)

I’ll catch you up on the inventory well within the next month,  probably in the next day or two.  For now, know that our Tomato Mountain CSA ended not too much after that last post.  It has kept us well stocked in turnips, radishes, spinach, and potatoes.  On top of that, we have good supplies of other stuff.  We’re getting by just fine, thank you very much.  I mean we just picked up lettuces, bell peppers, and cukes.

I dream and I compose.  Perhaps it is the clarity of thought that comes with the hyper-awareness needed to walk Molly the Eat Local Dog. We must remain vigil that one of her neighborhood enemies, the dreaded mixed Shepard, Piper from down the street, or the seemingly harmless–to us!–Springer, from the next block may appear from around the corner, and much hackles will be raised, teeth bared.  There may be a rabbit hidden to you but all so apparent to the endowed of nose; then the least becomes a cross-fit tool.  I like to think the attire of a prep school English teacher has me thinking like one, and as I walk Molly I compose posts, not just of exquisite detail, but with perfect parallal constructions and exquisite use of the pluperfect tense.  I drop Dublin references without even thinking about it.  Then, I arrive home.  Back in sloppy sweats I get sloppy thoughts.  What did I mean to say.

I compose awesome posts that I forget to enter.  You would not believe the posts left on the Molly walking trails.  Would you believe that only last week I thought about local tomatoes.  I had a glorious post roll around my head about the pleasure of tomatoes saved.  Funny thing happened though.  In waiting for that post to germinate I ate more local tomatoes. Yes.  Really.  I’m eating local tomatoes.  I mean tomatoes.  Not tomatoes as in put away tomatoes or tomatoes processed by my wife’s employer, Tomato Mountain, tomatoes.  Tomato tomatoes.  Last week I went for the last of a platter of fresh tomatoes gently nursed from green-ness to salad worthy over the course of several weeks.  Believe me, what ever was lacking here in tomato flavor, in tomato of summer heat, they made up for in the bittersweet way it comes when you meet up with a friend for what you know will be a long time hence.  See you next reunion and see you next harvest.  Just don’t see you on the pages of the Local Beet.

Besides why compose posts on last week’s tomatoes when I can compose posts on this week’s tomatoes. Monday, was the fog of red-eye arrival from Las Vegas, the wife not quite better, coming airport to pick me up (and that led to a chain reaction with the kids having to be up earlier to walk the dog, etc.).  No one was in a mood for cooking dinner, and we tried Melrose Park Mexican. Tuesday night, my wife tackled a surplus of greens; kales and chards, in her beloved slow cooker.  Wednesday night, what to eat on Wednesday. Surely, the way my wife slow cooks, we could have eaten more greens on Wednesday, but we figured we’d give that a day’s rest.  What.  What forced the issue, some freezer work by my wife.  In knocking some frost off a packaged of Crystal’s sausages, I tore the package.  What better way to cook her sausage than in the Jamie Oliver inspired dish where sausages are combined with cherry tomatoes and oven baked.  Where could there be local cherry tomatoes be in December.  Well, in the garage of the Local Family.  OK, not cherry tomatoes.  I mis-lead you.  They were juliet tomatoes.

Maybe a bit vapid from the temperature swings of the last several weeks, these tomatoes were not the one thing unnecessary to dinner. Moldy. They were in fine, red, oval, shape.  At least fine shape for a dish of Jamie Oliver’s design.  Baked with his necessary glugs of oil, it made for a highly delicious meal, especially when combined with wide Amish egg noodles.  You would think such a meal, in December would be a dream unless I posted about it.

I like the Evanston Farmer’s Market. I like it about as much as any farmer’s market in the Chicago area. It is one of the few places one can get organically grown local apples. It is the only place to get the bio-dynamically grown variety of Henry and his farm (along with the nickel bag). It has some of my other favorites like Nichol’s Farm and Green Acres. There’s cheese and other dairy from Trader’s Point Creamery, and there’s a lot of other stuff from an assortment of area farmers. There are no donuts. And even if there were donuts, my wife’s planted, with car, at Oak Park. What Evanston is to top Chicago area market, the Oak Park to Evanston journey is to Chicago area schleps. Except last week she planted her Tomato Mountain flag in Evanston, and I made the long trek out there.

Where’s the squirrels?

We’ll get to that. Before getting out to Evanston, my wife and I talked about household needs. Where did we stand for the coming months. As you can see below, we stand well given the circumstances. We did decide we needed something. Sweet potatoes, sweet potatoes are one of the few things that have not shown up in our Tomato Mountain CSA, and for whatever reason, we have not taken to buying them yet this year. With Thanksgiving ahead, we needed sweet potatoes. I made good use of the Evanston vendors, buying an assortment of sweet potatoes, heirloom and straight, yellow, white and orange, big and skinny from Henry, from Green Acres and from Geneva Produce. I have more stuff to store.

Storing food has been a challenge so far in 2011. It’s all that damn nice weather. Every extra bit of Indian summer just makes me stew over the fate of my fruits. To allow the apples in the sky the ability to thrive, I’ve taken to opening the attic window. Unfortunately, this allows the squirrels the ability to enter, and those neighborhood varmints have taken a liking, not just for local apples, but for the highest price, most exclusive local apples. The went after our Northern spys! My wife, the Other Cookbook Addict, insists we keep the windows closed. I’m thinking I just move my office in there, you know wi-fi, and scream at any squirrels that enter.

With attic problems, we’ve taken to putting a lot of our stuff in our over stuffed “mudroom” outside the kitchen. As this room is un-heated, it is fine now, although in a month or so from now, it will probably be too cold. Root cellaring requires cold but not freezing. I’m telling you, the hardest part about eating local year-round is the moving of food and in-gathering of food. We’ve got bushels of onions here that will have to be bushels of onions there. We have potatoes up there that require a StairMaster output each time they are to be used. And then, of course, there is the rooting around for bags in the basement fridge. If only it all looked like this. Alas, we do not have an old dark-room converted root cellar. We just make do.  Since we believe in the worth of eating local, we believe in trying to eat local year-round.  We fully believe, based on experience, that we can do it by putting aside food.

You can see our previous inventory report here.  Our current inventory of local food looks like this:

Kitchen Fridge

Cauliflower – remnants of a big, white head mostly already used
Turnip (white “hakurei”) – a lot
Sweet and hot banana peppers – waiting to be roasted and marinated
Hot peppers (habaneros) – 5
Homemade quince-apple membrillo
Local eggs
Asian pears – 10 or so
Radishes (long red Japanese “shunkyo”) – a lot
Broccoli – tons
Lettuces
Rocket
Zucchini – About 3 weeks ago, I purchased some of the last zucchini for stuffing, but we never used that way, now they sit
Red cabbage (2) – small
Cucumbers – A few left
Home-made harrissa
Herbs – parsley, mint, cilantro
Local grains

Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room

Winter squash – (delicata, acorn, butternut, blue hubbard, blue “cindarela”, pie pumpkins)
Garlic (10)
Apples – ongoing supply
Pears – only a few left
Walnuts
Tomatoes – the last
Bell peppers – (yellow, red, green) – 8
Hot peppers – (jalepenos) – several
Red onions – (6) – large
Basil
Dried herbs (marjoram, oregano)
Red onions – a few
Shallots – several
Watermelon – Family fight over including this, because some of us our embarrased we have not eaten it yet.

Mudroom

Yellow onions – (medium and large) – 1/2 bushel
Cranberries – 1/2 bushel, less 2 pies and one cake’s worth
Sweet potatoes (assorted) – many

Basement

Canned tomatoes – whole, sauce, puree
Spiced peaches
Peach chutney
Dried mushrooms
Misc. pickles, jams, jellies, relishes
Dried beans

Basement Fridge

Cauliflower – 1 each, romesco, cheddar
Leeks (6)
Kohlrabi (12)
Green beans
Local grains
Bok choy/tatsoi – probably more than we can ever get to

Basement Freezer

Frozen fruits – blueberries, grapes, cherries, peaches
Frozen veg – pureed squash, tomato puree, dried tomato, caponata, prepared green beans
Local meat

Root Cellar in the Sky

Potatoes – (assorted including fingerling, red, russets) – not quite enough
Carrots – (assorted) – several
Apples (mutsu, Northern spy)

We are entirely long in bok choy and its related Asian style cabbage-y green, tatsoi.  It comes in great big quantities in our Tomato Mountain CSA box.*  Bok choy is the leafier, stemier, version of kohlrabi.  Only CSA subscribers seem to have some idea what to do with bok choy and tatsoi.  You stir fry it.  With brown rice.  Hippie food.  But what if you have no brown rice.  What if you don’t want a mixed medly of soy sauce infused vegetables.  What do you do with all that bok choy.  The answer is, you can do plenty.  It is really not necessary to get out the Kikkoman to consume bok choy.  Like other cabbages, that’s brassica’s to you and me, bok choy goes well with mustard, it goes well with bacon, and it goes well with cream.  A few week weeks ago, the Other Cookbook Addict used the bacon.

I actually meant to write a column, not on bok choy, but on how she can put a crust on it and call it dinner, but time flies and now we’re just talking bok choy. Needless to say, that dinner, that bok choy cooked down with pork and its fat would never be served at the Chicago Diner. And we liked it that way. And we liked it as gratin, the softened bok choy beneath a layer of home-made bechamel, that’s a thickened milk sauce to you and me; the whole thing covered in breadcrumbs and baked into another far from hippie-ish dish.  Do not fear your bok choy, but another picture would help you believe.

Note, I’ll update the inventory for you soon. Needless to say, we are flush with produce.

*The Other Cookbook Addict works for Tomato Mountain.

Of course a family dinner’s worth of hand pies (and my wife cooks for an imaginary family of 9), we still had leftover cooked greens, not to mention a whole big bowl of chard stems we cannot simply compose.  We have gobs and gobs of bok choi and its baby brother, tats soi, and my wife has a plan for that too.  It involves bacon, so I’m happy here.  The six zucchini left from summer, we have a plan for that, our yearly attempt at stuffed vegetables.  Since I could not resist the large white heads of cauliflowers, and I mean, large, we have too much of that too, but she has a plan involving the food processor.  Yet, what of the green tomatoes coming any minute now (our CSA delivery comes on Thursday night); the hand basket of green beans I picked up last week, because I just don’t feel I ate enough green beans this year, and speaking of beans, what about the 20 lbs of fresh beans we recently shucked, blanced and shoved into the freezer.  You could think we don’t really need a plan on that, but with the freezing over-flowing sooner rather than later seems in order. On the other hand, the clear up freezer space, my wife just bought a new blender so we could make smoothies–possibly a true account.

A couple other notes, fruitwise, before getting to the inventory.  We are trying hard for ABA, anything but apples, knowing we have a long winter of them ahead, but our other choices are getting slim.  We have in the table fruit bowl pears and plums as well as apples.  For the long term, my wife has turned to various fruit vendors next to her at different markets.  For instance, on suggestion of keeper/baking apple, Hillside sold her a half bushel of Northern Spys, and on another day, she got a half bushel of winesap, also from Hillside.  These will go soon into the attic, but for now sit in the hall.

See below, our updated inventory and let me know some good ways to use it.  Note, although I mentioned above, the soon to arrive green tomatoes, the current inventory only includes stuff actually in house, no inventory accrual method here. The bok choy being used now, is also not mentioned for inventory’s sake.

Kitchen Fridge

• Homemade quince-apple membrillo
• Local eggs
• Watermelon radish – UPDATE: 4
• Broccoli – UPDATE: We have magic broccoli.  Although we made large qualities last week, in a braise and in a salad, we continue to have much broccoli
• Lettuces
• Rocket – UPDATE: Used
• Summer squash, zucchini – UPDATE: Summer squash used
• Cucumbers – UPDATE: Used, but new ones bought
• Eggplant – UPDATE: Tossed
• Herbs – UPDATE: Used, but new parsley purchased
• Local grains – UPDATE: Used some in polenta, hand pies, but much remains
• NEW: red cabbage, 2 heads
• NEW: Wettstein’s bacon (partially used)
• NEW: Scallions, bunch
• NEW: Chard, leftover, cooked with onions and garli
• NEW: Chard, stems

Kitchen, Dining Room

• Winter squash – (2 acorn, 1 butternut) UPDATE: Where’d I get the 1 butternut.  We have at least 8 right now (with more on the way)
• Garlic (5) UPDATE: About 8 more heads obtained
• Apples – UPDATE: Rotating supply of table apples, but also winesap, spy for keeping
• Pears – UPDATE: Used and new
• Grapes – UPDATE: Used and new
• Fresh beans, blackeye peas – to be frozen – UPDATE: Now frozen
• Tomatoes – many – UPDATE: Many tomatoes but all of the roma or plum variety
• Sweet peppers – many – UPDATE: less than many now
• Hot peppers – many – UPDATE: see sweet peppers
• Red onions – (6) – large
• Yellow onions – (4)  - medium – UPDATE: About 6 more, large
• Watermelon – large
• Basil plant – UPDATE: Gone
• Dried herbs (marjoram, oregano)

Basement Storage

• Yellow onions – (25) – medium and large
• Red potatoes – 10 or so pounds worth of small and medium – UPDATE: – Used and new
• Canned tomatoes – whole, sauce, puree
• Spiced peaches
• Peach chutney
• Dried mushrooms
• Misc. pickles, jams, jellies, relishes
• Dried beans

Basement Fridge

• Cauliflower – 2 very large heads: – UPDATE: Used one, about to use the other
• Leeks (6)
• Red cabbage (3) – small
• Kohlrabi (12) – UPDATE: The pleasure of a CSA, more
• Carrots (6) – assorted – UPDATE: Used and new
• Green beans –  UPDATE: Used and new
• Local grains

Basement Freezer

• Frozen fruits – blueberries, grapes, cherries, peaches – UPDATE: froze more blueberries
• Frozen veg –  pureed squash, tomato puree, dried tomato, caponata, prepared green beans – UPDATE: beans as noted above
• Local meat

Root Cellar in the Sky

Empty

We rely mostly on cold storage for keeping foods.  We keep a root cellar in the sky; our un-heated attic makes a great root cellar, but it has not gotten cold enough yet to use it.  Right now, we store in our basement and our basement fridge. Actually, a lot of the foods we now have, we simply have on plates and bowls in our kitchen and dining room.  We also store, as I mentioned above, in our extra freezer (and have some freezing planned in the next week).  We have canned in the past, and have canned goods to use, but did not do any canning this year.

Over the course of the next several couple of months, you will see the inventory expand, and then in the months that follow, you can see how we manage.

Kitchen Fridge

• Homemade quince-apple membrillo
• Local eggs
• Watermelon radish (8)
• Broccoli
• Lettuces
• Rocket
• Summer squash, zucchini
• Cucumbers
• Eggplant
• Herbs
• Local grains

Kitchen, Dining Room

• Winter squash – (2 acorn, 1 butternut)
• Garlic (5)
• Apples
• Pears
• Grapes
• Fresh beans, blackeye peas – to be frozen
• Tomatoes – many
• Sweet peppers – many
• Hot peppers – many
• Red onions – (6) – large
• Yellow onions – (4)  - medium
• Watermelon – large
• Basil plant
• Dried herbs (marjoram, oregano)

Basement Storage

• Yellow onions – (25) – medium and large
• Red potatoes – 10 or so pounds worth of small and medium
• Canned tomatoes – whole, sauce, puree
• Spiced peaches
• Peach chutney
• Dried mushrooms
• Misc. pickles, jams, jellies, relishes
• Dried beans

Basement Fridge

• Cauliflower – 2 very large heads
• Leeks (6)
• Red cabbage (3) – small
• Kohlrabi (12)
• Carrots (6) – assorted
• Green beans
• Local grains

Basement Freezer

• Frozen fruits – blueberries, grapes, cherries, peaches
• Frozen veg –  pureed squash, tomato puree, dried tomato, caponata, prepared green beans
• Local meat

Root Cellar in the Sky

Empty

I like CSAs.  For years, the Local Family got its box.  We started with an Angelic Organics box way pre-Beet, pre-Vital Information, even pre-world-wide-web if that’s possible, believe it or not.  When the kids were still in elementary school we got the Growing Power market box; the one with local food AND bananas!  And it was in elementary school where we began our relationship with Farmer Vicki, after she spoke to my younger daughter’s class.  I like the burden of having a box of local food to use each week.  I like, really, the variety of the CSA.  I mean who knows how good kohlrabi really is if not for their CSA.  What I really liked about a CSA was that relationship that came.  The weekly newsletters on farm life–hint, it’s all bad.  I liked the farm parties and the work days–hint, organic farming is back-breakingly hard.  I liked getting those boxes.  I liked having a CSA.

I liked those CSAs, but I loved the fall/winter CSAs.  I love getting the boxes in the fall/winter.  I like the fruits and vegetables that came during the summer, but I really liked the fruits and vegetables that came in the fall and winter, and I loved it for one simple reason.  I loved getting local fruits in the fall and winter.  When we started with fall/winter CSAs, there was barely any sources for local foods after the summer markets ended.  Now, we have more, many more shopping options come November, but none of these options will supply me as well as what comes in the CSA.  The simple reason for that, farmer’s prioritize their fall/winter CSA cutomers.  The first hoop-house stuff and the last storage crops go to the CSA subscribers.  My fall/winter CSAs have always filled me up with root crops, hardy greens, winter squash, onions and potatoes.  They have provided the bulk of the foods that make it possible to eat local year-round.

I’m giving you my feedback.  I’ve been entirely happy with fall/winter CSAs from Genesis Growers and Tomato Mountain. I’ve found the foods highly delicious; the variety plenty, and the value excellent.  I’d love to hear what you think.

*My wife works for Tomato Mountain.  Last year they waived their delivery charge for us because of her employment.