Eat Local Challenge

Did you know it's Local Food Week in Cleveland?

 
Local Food Week is being put on by Local Food Cleveland, an action network for everyone who is passionate about growing a thriving local food economy and culture around Cleveland. It includes a lot of great events including farm tours, movies, potlucks and restaurant dinners just to name a few.

I try to support our local restaurants and farmers everyday. If you've been reading my blog from the beginning you probably know I buy most of my meat & produce from local farmers markets, auctions or directly from the farmers. What I can't get from farms, I buy from Heinen's, a local grocer that also happens to sell a lot of local products. Whether I'm in Cleveland or traveling for work, I always try to seek out restaurants with farm to table menus. One of the goals of my blog is to encourage all of you to do the same!

I encourage you all to take the Local Foods Week "Eat Local Challenge":

1. Eat at least one local meal each day of the week and post photos and recipes on Local Food Cleveland
2. Attend at least one Local Foods Week event
3. Support your local farmers markets, restaurants and retail shops

Looking for more ideas how you can participate in addition to these events? Mike over at Dad Cooks Dinner gave a bunch of suggestions of how he will be "competing" in the Eat Local Challenge.

How will you bring home the gold medal in the Eat Local Challenge?

Vegetarian "Spaghetti and Meatballs"

After being pretty burned out from cooking for the past 2 months, I am finally starting to get back into it again. I even hope to have a new post from Michael Symon's Live to Cook in the next couple of weeks. Just a hint but it involves a few pounds of pork belly.

What I'm about to write about might make it so Michael Symon never speaks to me again - a vegetarian dish! If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably know I am a big supporter of local farmers and this is the second year we've belong to Plum Creek Farm's CSA. That means we have a fridge full of fresh veggies all summer long. Earlier this week, Michael Ruhlman, who describes himself as, "...someone who all but baths in animal protein and pork fat," created this simple - it took me less than 30 minutes to make - and satisfying recipe to take advantage of the garden's bounty - Vegetarian "Spaghetti and Meatballs."

As I was cooking dinner, my wife walked into the room and asked what I was making. I described the dish as Vegetarian "Spaghetti and Meatballs" with julienned zucchini, yellow squash, and carrots as "spaghetti noodles" and cherry tomatoes as "meatballs." She sighed and asked where the carb, protein and meat were. Fortunately we were both very pleasantly surprised how delicious this dish turned out. Check out Ruhlman's blog to see how he made it or read below to see how I adapted his recipe.

Photo courtesy of Donna Ruhlman via ruhlman.com

Vegetarian "Spaghetti and Meatballs”
Slightly Adapted from Ruhlman’s Recipe - http://ruhlman.com/2010/08/sauteed-zucchini.html

3 tablespoons butter (I would use less next time)
1 shallot
1/3 cup red onion
salt, to taste
6 garlic cloves
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
2 large carrots
Crushed red pepper, to taste
freshly ground pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to taste
Tomatoes, preferably cherry tomatoes (“meatballs”)

Using a mandolin or good knife skills, julienne the zucchini, squash, and carrot.

Finely chop the onion, shallot, and garlic.

Melt half the butter in a skillet over medium heat. 

Add shallot, red onion, and garlic and salt and cook for a couple minutes until translucent,

Add the zucchini, squash, carrot, and additional butter. Season with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper and saute until tender, 2 to 3 minutes. 

Plate the “spaghetti noodles” (squash & carrot mixture), grate Parmesan cheese over the top, and finish with the “meatballs” (cherry tomatoes or other tomatoes).

Enjoy!

Saturday is Opening Day!!!

No, not the Indians opening day, which I go to every year with my wife and a group of friends. Continuing the theme from my post yesterday about CSA's...Saturday is opening day for farmers market season! Say goodbye to imported fruits & vegetables from the Westside Market and grocery store, at least for the next 6-8 months.

The North Union Farmers Market (NUFM) at Shaker Square kicks off this Saturday, April 3, from 8am-12pm and the NUFM at Crocker Park starts next Saturday, April 10 from 9am-1pm. Both will continue to run every Saturday, rain or shine, until Winter.

Even though the bulk of produce grown in this area hasn't even been planted yet, there will still be plenty of great things to buy at the market. Are you planning to dye eggs for Easter? Why not buy the best eggs you'll ever taste from Plum Creek Farm? Planning to make lamb for Easter dinner? Check out The Great American Lamb Company. Get there early and you might even find some ramps or other foraged goodies! Some other examples of things you'll be able to find are locally grown spring greens, lettuce, mushrooms, maple syrup, apples and grassfed beef, heritage pork, & poultry.



Details from the North Union Farmer's Market e-newsletter (join their newsletter here):

Saturday, April 3, 8am to Noon on Historic Shaker Square 

Featuring:

 Annual Blessing of the Market

 Sheep Shearing 

 Live Alpacas from Alpaca Meadows

 

Chef at the Market Brian Doyle from Danny's Organic Marketplace (I will have some more exciting news from Brian soon)

Life Music from 3 Sheets to the Wind brought to you by Cuyahoga Arts and Culture

Free $100 Market Basket Raffle

Live Capoeira Demonstrations

And, of course, the finest local fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, baked goods and more!  The market will have an abundance of EGGS for your Easter holiday, spring greens, lettuce, mushrooms, maple syrup, apples and grassfed beef, heritage pork, poultry, lamb...all from your friendly local farmers!

 

Plus, spring flowers!

Support Your Local Farmers - Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

If you've been reading my blog for a while now, hopefully you've picked up on the fact that I like to support local farms. I also believe in eating food when it is in season and preserving food so I can enjoy it when it's not. I still have a few frozen strawberries left from last June and it's amazing how much better they still taste than the "fresh" strawberries from California at the grocery store. 

 One of many boxes of strawberries we picked last year with 2 month old Isabel

There are many ways to support your local farms. Things like shopping at farmers markets, dining out at restaurants that buy food from local farms, and even shopping at a locally owned grocery store like Heinen's that carries produce from local farmers when it's in season. Another way to support your local farmer that some of you may not be familiar with is through Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA for short. Joining a CSA is an increasingly popular method of supporting local farmers while obtaining fresh, in-season, local (and often organic) produce, meat, eggs, etc.


A little more about CSA's from Local Harvest: 

Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a "membership" or a "subscription") and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.

This year will be the third season we have belonged to a CSA. Our first year we were members of the Covered Bridge Garden's CSA. My wife and I split a full share with another couple for about $15 per week, per couple. Every Wednesday evening we traveled to the Lakewood library to pick up our overflowing bag(s) of goodies. Our shares were filled with a wide range of vegetables. Many things I'd never even seen or heard of before (what the heck is kohlrabi?) Prior to belonging to a CSA, there were very few vegetables I would eat. Corn, green beans, carrots, salad & green peppers were about the only veggies I'd eat. But when you are getting pounds of new vegetables each week, it forces you to go outside your comfort zone and try new things. Who knew how much I would love tomatoes, beets, cauliflower, egg plant, sugar snap peas, zucchini, squash, and so many other veggies! And our shares weren't full of just vegetables. We received fruits such as apples, strawberries, blackberries, jam, popcorn (fresh, not the microwave kind), and more. 

Covered Bridge shares waiting to be picked up

We were planning to join the Covered Bridge CSA again last year until we heard one of our favorite farms, Plum Creek in Valley City, was starting a CSA. Plum Creek Farm is a family farm that dates back to the early 1800's. We had been buying their amazing chicken, eggs, veal, and other stuff from them for a couple years and were very excited they started a CSA. The great thing about Plum Creek's CSA is they include meat & eggs along with the produce. So in addition to all the great fruits & veggies I mentioned above, we also received a chicken or some veal scallopini each week, along with a dozen eggs. Their CSA lasts a few extra weeks and even includes a Thanksgiving turkey and a Christmas duck (or goose). Plum Creek's CSA is much smaller in membership than Covered Bridge. They only have 15 members vs. the 450 that Covered Bridge Garden has grown to (they only had 200 when we were members). Because Plum Creek's CSA is so small, it is already sold out for this season but I still highly recommend checking them out the next time you are at the Shaker or Crocker Park farmers market. Their eggs, chicken, and veal are some of the best I've ever tasted, and their kids make a mean glass of lemonade. You can also place orders directly by contacting Don & Amie Sprinkle at 330-483-0222. Make sure to tell them you'd like to sign up for next year's CSA early and tell them that Dave sent you!

Plum Creek Farm

There are many other great CSA's in NE Ohio. I have friends that belong to the Crown Point Ecology Center's CSA in Bath and they have amazing things to say about it. In addition to providing their subscribers with beautiful, organic produce, Crown Point also donates massive amounts of food to the Akron/Canton Regional Foodbank. To date they have donated 250,000 pounds of fresh, healthy produce to the less fortunate. Sure beats the heck out of a canned food drive! Crown Point also has an heirloom plant sale every spring. This year's is scheduled for May 15-16, mark your calendar's now!

Basket of Life is another CSA that I have been interested in over the past couple of years. These passionate gardeners turned farmers took over 30 acres of land in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and have been producing beautiful heirloom produce ever since. Take a look at some of the amazing produce they raise. In addition to the CSA, they also sell at the Countryside Conservancy farmers markets in Peninsula & at Stan Hywet Hall in Akron. Basket of Like also writes a blog about life on their farm. It's an interesting read, check it out here.

I put together a spreadsheet with some information on the CSA's above, plus a couple more that I've heard good things about. If you have trouble reading it, email me and I will send it to you.

Click to Enlarge

Finally, here's a site you can use to search for more CSA's close to you no matter where you are in the United States: http://www.localharvest.org/search-csa.jsp

Have you belonged to a CSA in the past? What did you like / dislike about it?

Do you know of other CSA that I do not have listed here? Please leave me their info in the comments or send me an email and I'd be happy to add their information to this list!

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