Jam in summer, marmalade in winter. That’s how it seems to roll around these parts. A steady supply of preserved seasons to go with the endless sourdough that seems to drift out of my oven. It’s a simple pleasure that never ever gets old.
What have you been preserving lately?
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For something a little different, have a peak at ABC’s Organic Gardener magazine- feeling pretty happy to be squeezed in between the lovely likes of fermentation king Sandor Katz and Kate of Foxs Lane.
The day I found out I could eat the tops of carrots was a bit of an exciting one.
“You can eat them!” I cried.
“Excellent.” He said, in a less than thinking it really was excellent, voice.
I pushed that lack of enthusiasm to the side as I was carrying more than enough excitability for this one to carry us both. Carrot tops eh? Who knew, actually it turns out lots of people knew, and I was just a bit slow on the uptake. So that’s why they quite often sell bunches of carrots with the tops still on… I just thought they were trying to keep the carrots looking au natural.
What would I make with them? How would they taste? And would I get it by the rest of the family?
Carrot Top Pesto
Bunch of carrot tops, washed and finally chopped.
A couple of cloves of garlic
Juice of a lemon
Enough olive oil to get a good pesto like consistency.
Pop it all into a hand held mixer, and pulse.
With Carrot Top Pesto made, what was I going to eat with it? I had some potatoes that were whispering to be popped into the oven with some rosemary, and that looked like it could be it. Too simple? Surprisingly no. Mr Chocolate drizzled his with some Pukara balsamic vinegar, (which gave it an extra zing) and not a murmur of objection was to be heard about the ‘different’ pesto.
The following day I had more of the potatoes and pesto together, leaving out the snow pea shoots, (which just quietly I feel are a bit of a chore to eat.) Delicious, seriously delicious. I kept taking another bite just to makes sure. Armed with an empty bowl and green speckled lips, I decided that yes, carrot top pesto was indeed a winner.
A local, frugal, seasonal winner.
How about you? Have you made any food discoveries lately? Ever made carrot top pesto? Do you think snow pea shoots are a bit of chore to eat as well?
Where did my food come from?
Carrots- Rita’s Farm, Kemps Creek 50km
Sebago Potato- Naturally Grown, Naturally Better, Crookwell 240km
Snow Pea Shoots- Lin’s Organics, Londonderry 60km
Rosemary- My courtyard
Lemon- My parents in law’s backyard
Interested in taking the challenge?
Just how local is local? Well this depends entirely on you. Only you know how you and your family eat. Raise the bar just a little from what you already do. If making sure the majority of your meal includes solely food produced in your country, than make that your challenge. If you want to make it a little trickier, go for produced in the same state…trickier still within 160km.
My aim is to really know where my food is coming from for at least one meal a month, (where I will be posting here in the last week of the month).
The challenge was on. My Eat Local challenge, and this was the night to be doing. A chaotic evening after a rough day. Not the best choices to start off an challenge but I was wearing it. However it was what we were eating that was more important.
For the adults- A raw kale salad with hard boiled eggs. (rice, kale, shallots, brown onion, flat leafed parsley, corn, carrot, lime juice, olive oil, chilli and eggs.)
For the kiddo’s- A similar tamed down version, swapping the kale for lettuce. (rice, corn, lettuce, carrot, olive oil and eggs.)
Rice- from Randall Organic rice
Olive Oil- from Lisborne Grove, Hunter Valley
Vegetables- from Kurrawong Organics and Champion’s Mountain Organics, Mangrove Mountain
Eggs- Ed’s Eggs, Jirandali Farm- Mangrove Mountain (85km from Sydney)
Chilli- my courtyard
Over all dinner was a success. The kids were happy to eat it all and Mr Chocolate said it was all delicious. He did throw a little Caramelised Balsamic Vinegar on top of his jazz it up a bit- a company that produces 250km’s away. I didn’t, but was kicking myself three hours later for not putting a little more protein in there or fat of some sort…I was hungry!! I guess this is the tricky bit, locally produced vegetarian protein. Besides eggs, what other alternatives do I have? To find out next time.
Tidbits
– Foodconnect- Sydney is no longer, and OOOOBY has taken over. Similar concept, and just as committed. This is from their $39 delivered veg box.
– The Locavore Edition– for Australian east coast readers, there is a comprehensive guide to both NSW and Victoria so far, (with Tasmania in the nominating stage.)
How about you? Interested in taking the challenge?
For more details see this post here and for the nitty gritty of ‘how local is local’- well this depends entirely on you. Only you know how you and your family eat. Raise the bar just a little from what you already do. If making sure the majority of your meal includes solely food produced in your country, than make that your challenge. If you want to make it a little trickier, go for produced in the same state…trickier still within 160km.
My aim is to really know where my food is coming from for at least one meal a month, (I will be post here in the last week of the month). It sounds easy enough at this stage, but as the year progresses will it continue to?
Edit– Have a peek over here at Christine’s Eat Local deliciousness
Slow Living Essentials- Eat Local #1
That moment when the Tiramisu sits on the kitchen bench, finished and ready to eat. A satisfied moment when you think, yeah…that looks alright.
That moment when you are gifted some homemade pickled garlic. Thankful for generous friends and impressed that she had got a farmer to grow ten kilos of organic garlic just for her.
That moment when you know the starter is ripe and ready. It’s time to get doughy.
That moment when you bite into a new concoction chocolate brownie, nod and smile a little. A chocolate brownie that was deadly simple to make and not disappointing at all to the taste buds, (with a few added surprises in there as well.)
That moment when you see at your friend’s house a pretty nifty kitchen addition that you know you have to give a look into. Enter the ‘Apiwrap’– “…eco friendly and reusable kitchen wrap, perfect for storing food in the fridge or to go.” So what does this mean? It means a pretty rocking alternative to glad wrap people.
And that moment of quiet inhalation of a tiny gifted pot of almondy goodness that no one else wants to know about. That is almond heaven right there, (all marzipan dislikers need not inhale.) Now what to make with you my pretty?
What’s happening in your kitchen at the moment?
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linking in with the lovely Celia for in my kitchen
It’s dark outside when the steaming kettle flicks off. Pouring the hot water into the little green pot, I wait, and I stretch. Then pour again. This time into my empty cup. The smell of the deep spices hit and I slowly breathe them in. Add a little milk and take a tiny satisfying sip.
My morning, my chai.
This is how I love starting the day. With most of my day being fairly unpredictable, I like the very start of my day to be predictable. A simple ritual of a small pot of chai.
When we were in Byron Bay at the end of last year. I came across a tea at the local markets. A tea, that I instantly fell in love with. Loose leaf, and chunky just the way I liked it. It was the best one I’d found so far. I’d never considered that I was fussy with my chai tea, but it turned out, actually I was.
I wanted loose leaf, (tea bags really are a needless waste of resources when you are drinking at home- plus it tastes better.)
I didn’t want my tea to look like someone had just scraped the bottom of the barrel, lining my teapot with a vague tea smelling dust.
I wanted spices in there and I wanted to see them.
I didn’t want an excessive amount of annoying packaging.
I also wanted to know my chai tea was fairtrade, organic and local (as much as possible).
(And I certainly didn’t want any chai powder or syrup… pffft!)
So there it was, all in my cup. I had found exactly the kind of tea I had been looking for. Simple happiness.
Branching out into some of the company’s other tea and I wasn’t disappointed. Each one that I’ve tried is lovely, really lovely.
Skin Glow– while I can’t attest to my skin actually glowing, it certainly felt good drinking. With ingredients of spearmint, calendula, burdock, echinacea and red clover- how could it not be beneficial?
Floral Love– this one intrigues me. I don’t know what it is, but I’m completely drawn to it. I can’t keep my nose out of the box. It’s got beautiful soft floral tones to it, without being too heady and over powering. It’s subtle enough to draw you in, making you want more, and to take another sip. This tea really is, a late summers picnic with a loved one- balmy warm weather, with a laden picnic rug, sitting in a field of beautiful flowers. If there was ever a tea that could be a soft finger being traced up an afternoons sun kissed arm, or tiny kisses at the base of your neck…well, this would be it.
(Rose petals, chamomile, lavender, rose hips, calendula, corn flower.)
Immunity– Was well timed after a run of three separate family illness over the last three weeks. I was taking anything I could get hold of.
(Echinacea, rose hips, ginger, licorice root, nettle, lemon balm.)
Calming– Goodnight kisses for small kids tucked in bed. Book by my side, and an exhalation. Mentally and physically letting go of the day and all she held. Long slow sips…
(Chamomile, peppermint, lemon balm and lavender.)
I love supporting companies like this. Knowing where my shopping dollar is going is always incredibly important to me. A local small family run company that offers ‘all natural, certified organic and fair trade tea, chai, naturopathic blends and herbal tissanes.’ The teas are designed by a naturopath, are hand blended and packaged, the company give one percent, believe in sustainability and…
…above all, it’s just really, really lovely tea.
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If you would like to try some of Love Chai, Love Tea‘s blends. I have some different blends to give away to three people. To win, I would love to hear what your favourite brew is and the setting in which to drink it, (real, imagined or perhaps a memory?)
Have you sipped chai at first light as the sun rose over the Himalayas?
Is it a quiet moment to your self sipping green tea before the family get up?
Do you wish you could go back in time- sharing a cup of hot sweet black tea with your grandmother aboard a Canadian bound ocean liner?
Paint me a picture, tell me a story.
(Giveaway ends 12pm Sunday 26th May)
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EDIT- winners are… Amber, Anne, Rose
and where to find it if you would like to buy some.
A hot sun is out, city traffic is building, and bleary eyed Friday night clubbers are slowly making their way home. It’s Saturday morning and Taylor Square has been transformed to it’s weekly sustainable markets. It’s not the biggest market around, but it has plenty of options for creating oodles of deliciousness for your dinner table, (and your it sure beats doing your Saturday morning shop in a supermarket.)
Seasonal, local, sustainable, organic…it’s all there.
Each stall holder has a sign showing who they are where they are from and how far their food has come.
A communal space to meet friends for a coffee, eat a little bakery goodness, read the paper and then go home with all your fresh food.
This rice is delicious. If anyone thinks that rice is rice, and there really isn’t much of a taste difference. Well they are wrong. I’m hooked on the Koshihikari rice at the moment. Yes, it’s more expensive than your supermarket rice, but it’s fresh, grown within the same state, hasn’t been stored for lengthy periods, it’s organic, and all from a family run business. That’s quite a lot to like isn’t it.
Stall holders change a little from week to week, and this week The Urban Beehive was back again. The taste comparison between a general commercial honey and this stuff is rather big. There are hives dotted all around Sydney, and within those hidden hives they make the most delicious honey. It really does wonders for my soul, drizzling some of the golden good stuff on to toast, knowing that this was created so close by. I can’t have my own backyard hive, so this really is the next best thing.
Taylor Square
Saturday 8am-1pm
There is only one problem with eating organically…
This guy.
This headless, antennae waving slippery slime bag.
There I was channelling my inner kitchen goddess, dinner pretty much sorted. The Monkeys behaving themselves, and ready to eat. A lovely enticing dinner aroma tickling the nostrils of those that happened to be passing by my back kitchen door. All that was needed was a chopped up bunch of spinach, wilt it through the dish a little and voila… dinner was ready.
I washed the bunch with intimate attention. I know where I bought that bunch of spinach from, and I know critters sometimes like to play hide and seek within amongst the green foliage. I was no fool, and hadn’t suspected there was still a hide and seek player amongst us. Happily washed, and chopped, I reached in to dump it all in the slowly bubbling aromatic pot of goodness only to find… him.
The slime bag.
Headless.
Dinner plans were slightly reorganised. Hopes were pinned on the now eight times washed spinach. Hopes that the little slime bag didn’t have any close friends still playing the now, not very funny game. I decided there was no need to share the good news with anyone else at this stage and instead keep it as an entertaining dessert time conversation treat.
Dinner’s ready!
The Monkeys and I were on a mission. Early to the farmers markets and then home again before it got too hot.
With Monkey Boy on the scooter, Little Monkey in the pram and me running, we actually got there in reasonable time. The sun was out, the sky was blue. Talks about turtles and all their merits while we ran and scootered along. A good start to the morning.
I had chevre on my mind, so once at the markets I set out for the Willowbrae stall. Eeeek, it wasn’t there! I scan again, sigh, there will be no goat cheese to be had this week for us.
To my right I hear a cheery “Bonjour”, it seems I have paused outside the French Patisserie stall…these things happen sometimes. The very friendly Malik entices Monkey Boy with a brioche. His eyes light up, eyebrows raise, as he starts to nod enthusiastically.
“Actually Mama, Little Monkey can have that one, I’d like a chocolate croissant instead.” He says eagerly.
It’s hard to resist all the delicious looking pastries…
If I half close my eyes and breathe in deep perhaps I can be magically transported away to a French countryside village. A small curb side table, my back to the warming autumn sun. My cafe au lait is being carefully brought out on a little tray accompanied by my still warm from the oven brioche. Pierre my waiter, pauses for a second first to ensure that everything is ok, his gentle old hand lightly touches my elbow. His eyes follow to where mine have drawn, we both gaze out over to a field of sunflowers on one side and rows of grapes on the other. Oui, oui…tres bien…
ACTUALLY, I want that one Mama!
Snapped back to reality I am back in the markets, Monkey Boy is pestering me for his croissant and Pierre, his brioche and cafe au lait are gone.
I do instead have the very friendly Malik. Malik has a cake or pastry for every palate that comes through the markets I’m sure of it. Starting his family run business 8 years ago, he saw a gap in the market for really great French patisserie goodies. He divides his time between 3 lots of farmers markets within Sydney, as well as supplying various retailers throughout the city. He is also soon to open a shop in Abbotsford, that will include some of their organic range produce as well as those dream enducing brioche.
.
I have meat on my mind. Not the usual thing on my mind and a little less exciting than the next sourdough to construct, but non the less it’s there.
A few things in blogland had prompted the thinking and also just a natural progression I guess of wanting to know where my meal comes from.
This household doesn’t eat a lot of meat. Monkey Boy and Mr Chocolate really enjoy it, but Little Monkey and I can take it or leave it. Free range chicken, organic minced beef, free range ham, and organic sausages seem to be the usual selection of what we choose from. Nothing too exciting there. Over the years, other meaty items just slowly got bumped off. Canned tuna, daily ham on sandwiches, fresh fish…all for various reasons, now don’t usually find themselves on our every day dinner table.
In my little world, the majority of our meat is bought from the supermarket, butcher, or if I’m lucky enough some farmers markets. Ideally what am I looking for? Meat that has been ethically raised, sustainably produced, not compromised on taste, and at a budget that doesn’t hurt the hip pocket. Is that just too hard though on a day to day level for most people?
Many people can’t argue with the convenience of a supermarket. However there is an increase in buying organic, local, free range pieces. If I can manage to get it, I love being able to buy meat either straight from the producer (easier at a farmers market) or at least knowing the area in which it is from and buying through a middle person.
Some of my recent meaty prompter’s…
Pick a pig– Friends put me on this link from the UK. A system that lets you buy your animal, it’s reared by the farmer, slaughtered and then gets delivered to you in the cuts you ask for. A large up front cost, but….you are getting a whole lot of pig there. Also you know where your pork cuts are coming from. I would love to know if there are any people doing something similar in Australia. On a large scale this is a really interesting way of cutting out the middle man. Another similar scheme again in the UK is Yorkshire Meats
Perennial Plate, an online short documentary style programme on sustainable foods- warning it is a little graphic.
Gourmet Farmer– you know I am a fan. What the man has documented on his show is his journey of going from city fella, to small town living. Rearing animals for his own consumption, learning how to kill chickens, and send his heritage breed pigs to the slaughterer.
Slow Living Essentials- cute fuzzy ducks, and I was thinking dinner.
So whats my beef? (every pun intended.)
Have we become completely desensitized to seeing animals being killed for our plate? I know I don’t feel completely comfortable with it. I would like to think I could do it. Raise an animal, bump it off and then eat it, but could I? I feel if I am willing to eat it, I should be willing to admit that cute little piglet is going to get its head taken off and make some truly delicious ham. It could be a real turning point to vegetarianism for me. However… I would like to think I could rear an animal and either assist in some way in the slaughtering process or do it myself…. Confronting as it most certainly would be.
When you see the meat being sold in the supermarket all wrapped in styrofoam and plastic, all cut up and ready to go. There is usually very little to show you that this pink piece of flesh was once a mooing four legged creature. Feathers still stuck to your chicken pieces? Most people get rather unhappy if this was the case. I remember unloading some groceries from the supermarket in Italy once and there tucked away under the cling wrap and styrofoam was Ms Guinea Fowls head still intact. In my world, I’m not used to that. If I see meat I don’t expect it still to look like the animal it once was. I don’t want any happy memories of a life it once had floating around the room still. But this also seems ridiculous…almost a little precious. It is meat, which means it used to be an animal. Is that as silly as denying a chip in front of me used to be a potato growing in the ground?
Is it merely enough to know what you are eating and where you bought it from? There being no need to kill it yourself, when some one else can do it for you? Will more people begin to choose their meat while thinking of it being sustainably sourced, organically produced, locally harvested and ethically raised. I would like to think so, but feel we have a loooong way to go first. It’s turning around a whole mind set. A whole meat eating culture that needs to be slowly changed.
Should we be taking a moment to acknowledge and honour the life that has been giving up for our plate?
I understand why someone would become a vegetarian for ethical reasons. I also understand why people truly enjoy eating meat. (we still talk about that pork dish at ARIA.) I do think however, that people should know where their dinner came from if at all possible. How many primary schools would teach young children about where their meat comes from? How many parents would talk about it to their young children? How many highschool students would get to study the make up of an animal, different breeds, how to raise them, slaughter, and then cook them? (Agriculture is a chosen subject, in very few highschools.) If this is a part of our every day lifestyle why wouldn’t we be able to learn about it from the beginning.
English, maths, science, food*.
Incorporate it in to learning how to grow, and harvest vegetables. Surely these are important principles that people seem to be so far removed from these days.
I’m still trying to work out where I stand with it all. It’s not easy. Do you eat meat because it’s there, it’s healthy, it’s what everyone else does? Do you eat all parts of the animal avoiding any wastage? I’m not a fan of any kind of offal, however it does seem rather silly to breed a huge beast for consumption and then only eat half of it.
I would like to think that any meat I ate was treated as humanely as possible in their life beforehand. A chance to live as a young calf, piglet, lamb should, before going ‘down town’. Being mindful of every mouthful of meat that I eat. Being thankful that a life has been given up to feed my families belly’s. Thinking about it where it came from and not taking it for granted that I am here and I need and deserve to eat that eat meat! Happy paddock loving animals look differently to large production ones. Australians are one of the top meat eating countries in the world. A weekend BBQ isn’t usually a success unless there is an array of meaty goodies on offer.
Now I could waffle on and on about this meaty topic and go round and round in circles. For the sake of not boring you all to numbing tears I wont. However I will pass this over for discussion. (Feel free to disagree.)
What do you believe in?
Is buying our meat at the supermarket simply progression? Modern times. We have moved on from backyard butchery. A time now of convenience of food…
Do you consider where you meat comes from when selecting it for the dinner table?…
Do you like having that distance between you and that furry beast/ succulent juicy steak on your plate?
Could you rear and slaughter your own animals for eating if you had access to it. (Either via someone elses farm and livestock, or your own.)
…and would you want to?
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* I know that in some wonderful schools the Edible School Yard programme or Kitchen Garden programme is up, running and doing really well. This is still a minority in most schools as far as I am aware though. It is also still dependent on the community to get it up, running and maintaining it.
I like buying organic celery. I like it being available at my local large chain supermarket, and when it’s not there I get cranky. It doesn’t cost that much, it’s usually fresh and crispy and I like to add it to a lot of cooking. It was so fresh and crispy recently that it had two resident slugs and an earthworm worm in it. Now that’s a happy celery.
I tried to buy it the other day, and it was out of stock. Other supermarket no organic produce. Fruit shop says no to organics and health food shop all out…. sigh.
Fine, I will do with out it….
No damn it, I want my organic celery!
Swimming lesson for Monkey Boy and it happens to be near a rather large shopping centre. Right I will pop in there and get it. Their chain supermarket is really big in there, no problems…. in I go and they have completely gotten rid of their organic vegetable section, except for a couple of flaccid looking zucchinis. Flaccid zucchinis are not going to cut it.
Feeling a little deflated now, I half heartedly walk into a really large fruit and vegetable shop and ask if they have an organic celery…
say what?…
organic celery?…
you want what?!…
organic….
oh never mind do you have any organic anything?…
Organ?…Oh organic, no no no no.
Right.
Feeling like I wanted to stomp my foot and yell “I want my celery!” I left.
Leaving the shopping centre all I felt was an overwhelming sense of I don’t fit in here. The consumerism that was surrounding me made me feel as if I was going to choke. The jacket suddenly felt tighter, the neon lights that bit brighter the donuts that bit more pinker. Through the sliding doors I rushed, (without my celery) Why does no one else want to buy organic celery?! (Ok, so it wasn’t all about the celery, I was having a bad day, and this just topped it.) Outside, I breathed in the late afternoon drizzly rain, and walked back to where my boys were watching my boy swim his first ever lap. Suddenly the celery didn’t matter. The consumerism while annoying, it wasn’t my life. As I watched Monkey Boy get out of the pool, a twinkle in his eye and a proud walk in his toes. I knew that the organic celery could wait, and I would get some next time. (And if it wasn’t there next time?… then I was going to be one of those annoying customers that keeps badgering them until they did.)
* Shoppers guide to residual pesticides in fruit and vegetables. While this is a USA publication, (at this stage I am unable to find an Australian one) I am led to believe that Australian grown produce would be similar in its residues. With celery topping the list.
A morning spent at Fox Studio’s Farmers Markets. My wallet a little leaner, my fridge a little fuller and my locavore selection criteria for the day, well and truly ticked.
Shopping list
Free Range Ham– Bought from Quattro Stelle, a small Italian family run business that runs out of Kingsgrove . All products are made from Berkshire free range pork. The Berkshire pig is a heritage breed, ( like a heirloom tomato). This ham was sooo tasty. When you compare the taste of normal shop ham and then this one…. phew! No comparison. Thumbs up for this one for sure.
Fetta– Bought from Small Cow Farm. Located in Robertson, Southern Highlands. This company also runs cheesemaking courses- which sound fantastic. Taste wise, pretty good too. There are two fetta wheels in the little bucket, and priced at $14.50 for 400 grams. Monkey boy couldn’t get enough of this stuff.
1 kilo Sausages– Bought from Spring Hill Beef. Located in Burrawang, Southern Highlands. A company that farms grass fed Black Angus cattle.
1 large bag of assorted vegetables– Bought from family owned business located at Horsely Park in the Sydney basin.
Freshly ground coffee- 3 Amigos/Cafe East Timor, is my favourite coffee. At this stage they are only selling it at the markets, or you can call up and they will post you out some. Grown in East Timor, roasted in Sydney, and ground when you order it. 100% Arabica beans are used, organically and fairtrade produced. This is a lovely fresh coffee. I get a little antsy when our stock is running low, until we buy up again. I have tried a lot of different fairtrade coffees available and this one consistently still sticks out.
cityhippyfarmgirl 