Eat Local Challenge

Eat Local Challenge – Minnesota

Here in Minnesota, the “Eat Local Challenge” takes place in August during peak harvest time. The local co-ops have challenged folks to eat at least 80% of their food during this month from local sources. As you can see from the photo above, my family has no problem accomplishing that goal! When I need to pick up other ingredients from the co-op, they make it really easy by posting these big green “Local” stickers next to the item on the shelf, so I can be thoughtful about what I want to buy and to whom I will give my money. Since the co-op started doing this a few years ago, I am sure more of my food dollar stays in Minnesota. Fruit and coffee are really the only things we buy that travel long distances.

The bounty on the counter above is our week eleven CSA share from Foxtail Farm. For eleven weeks now I’ve been cooking, feeding, entertaining and creating. You might be thinking that I must be feeling a little fatigued by now, but no, actually not fatigued, just sad. Yesterday I looked at this gigantic pile of produce and the first thing I thought was, I need to have a BIG party. There is no possible way that I could cook all these veggies and have the food consumed by the time next Thursday’s box arrived. Unfortunately, our schedule will not permit a big party this week, so I go back to sad. I prefer to use fresh ingredients in my recipes, but am now facing the fact that some of this will need to be preserved for later use.

So, last night I took on the “What can I put in the freezer?” challenge. Here’s what I accomplished.

• Beet Stems and Leaves- removed stems and leaves. After washing them, I cut the stem from the leaf and chopped them into one-inch pieces. They went into a quick blanch pot followed by an ice water submersion and then into a freezer container. The leaves were then chopped and sent through the same process and packed separately.
• Beets – these were roasted, peeled, diced and packed.
• Mizuna or Vitamin Green – quick blanch, cold dunk and packed.
• Flat Leaf Parsley – This got washed, dried, chopped and packed.
• Corn on the cob – two minute blanch in boiling water, cold water submersion, cut corn from the cob and pack.
• Tomatoes – These got turned into a freezable soup – recipe to follow.
• Carrots – I have simply been washing the carrots the last few weeks and leaving them in the fridge for Max to munch on, but these got peeled, a 30 second blanch, a cold water dunk and packed for the freezer.

Still headed for the freezer are the tomatillos that will be roasted into salsa and tomatoes sauced with garlic, onions and basil. Fresh from the CSA I am left with yellow squash, cucumbers, some interesting melons, and a couple of onions. We’ll see what that turns into!

Frozen Garlic and Onion Puree

Onions and garlic are rolling out of the fields and into our kitchens, and school is about to start. What do these two ideas have in common? Kids, shortcuts and planning ahead. Here’s the kid part: I am fortunate to have a child who is proud to tell anyone that he likes onions, but I know lots of families with picky eaters who will go through great pains to avoid these foods. My Brazilian aunt couldn’t stand that her daughters wouldn’t eat onions or garlic, so she began to puree them with olive oil. When she cooked, the flavors were there, but no visible remains were to be seen or picked out by the girls. The adults in the family no longer had to suffer through a bland meal and the kids were happy too.

I’ve made pastes like Thai curry and roasted chile and frozen them successfully before, so I thought I’d see what happens with the onion garlic combo in the freezer. I wasn’t sure what freezing onions and garlic would do to their flavor, so I did a little test run, and I think I’ll be very happy having two containers of this stuff when it comes to whipping up quick soups and other one-pot meals in the fall when I’m busy with teaching. That’s the short-cut and planning ahead part.

I have an automatic ice-maker and no ice cube trays so instead I use a cake pan to freeze my purees.

Once the paste is a little frozen, I score it with my pastry blade then pop it back into the freezer to firm up.

After it freezes a little longer, score it again on the lines. Now the squares can be removed and placed into a freezer container for later use.

Next fall and winter when using the frozen puree, just start with some oil in a hot pan and drop one of the squares in. Once you break it all apart, lower the heat. You’ll want to just let it cook enough to release the flavors, but not burn the garlic.

Frozen Garlic and Onion Puree Recipe

Ingredients:

3 large onions

3 whole heads garlic, peeled

olive oil

Directions:

Peel the garlic, chop the onions and puree them in a blender. You will need to pulse and push the vegetables down. Add only enough oil to make the mixture smooth. Follow the directions above for freezing, or spoon into ice-cube trays. Once the cubes are made, they should be kept in a good airtight freezer container. I’ve used both freezer bags and the new ziplock brand freezer containers. I like the containers better because they can be reused many times.

Note: I have a Breville Blender with a wide bottom base. It works great for jobs like this.