New Years Resolutions

I have done a miserable job of fulfilling my Dark Days Eat Local challenge. But in my failure, I have learned that this is not the time of year to take up cooking. While I used to love cooking, over the past 10 years or so, I've let my career take top priority and have fallen into some rather atrocious eating patterns. The Dark Days challenge has put me back into cooking mode, thinking about cooking as a craft that takes time and gives enjoyment rather than just an end-product intended only to assuage hunger or drown my problems with.

So this years New Years Resolutions have to do with food.

1. I renew my vow to fix at least one meal a week that is composed exclusively of locally grown foods, regardless of the season.

2. I also intend to invite friends over for a meal at least once a month. Cooking for others is great motivation to try new recipes.
food budget goes to purchasing commercially produced (e.g., over processed) yogurt. With Maple View Farms milk so easily accessible, there is no reason not to make my own and re duce my reliance on pre-processed food even further.

My other resolution is to get back into documentary making. Today I began documenting old store fronts in Orange County. I'm starting with Cedar Grove Township. Here are two stores on old Highway 86:

3. And last but not least, I plan to begin making my own yogurt. A large portion of my food budget goes to purchasing commercially produced (e.g., over processed) yogurt. With Maple View Farms milk so easily accessible, there is no reason not to make my own and re duce my reliance on pre-processed food even further.

My other resolution is to get back into documentary making. Today I began documenting old store fronts in Orange County. I'm starting with Cedar Grove Township. Here are two stores on old Highway 86:

Rain Barrels

With the continuing drought, I need some way to save the few remaining plants I have in my yard. What better way than a rain barrel, especially one that I can make myself thanks to an OWASA workshop. It was fun and easy.

Here's what the finished product looks like. It began with a 55- gallon barrel, provided by Mark Ray Rain Barrels. Mark had pre-drilled the holes, one for the spigot and one for the overflow valve, so all we had to do was install the hardware. Apparently these barrels are not only useful, but they are easily obtained through NC Wastetraders. The only problem is that they were originally used to store food products. The one I selected had a distinct eau de dill pickles.

The tricky part of making this barrel is installing the spigot. While the spigot itself simply screws into the predrilled hole, it's necessary to put a washer on the backside of the spigot to keep it in place and leak free. That means.....crawling into the barrel to get to the backside of the spigot. Could anyone ask for a better photo opportunity?

For every 1,000 square feet of roof, one inch of rain produces 625 gallons of water. I'm going to need to make a couple of more barrels to collect even a portion of the runoff from my roof. Unfortunately, we're not expected to get that much rain for the next several months so I've got some time.

Caroleena's Tuscan Kitchen

My friend and neighbor, Carol Barrow, who taught me to make the Spanish Tortilla has published a cookbook, Caroleena's Tuscan Kitchen.

Carol, who was once an Italian contessa, will be signing books at Weaver Street Market on Saturday, December 22, from 2:00 - 4:00 pm.

Locavore and Dark Days Challenge Recipes

The Oxford University Press’ 2007 Word of the Year is locavore, meaning a person who endeavors to eat only locally-produced food. “The word ‘locavore’ shows how food-lovers can enjoy what they eat while still appreciating the impact they have on the environment,” said Ben Zimmer, editor for American dictionaries at Oxford University Press. “It’s significant in that it brings together eating and ecology in a new way.”

In my attempt to become a card-carrying locavore, I've taken the Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. This is definitely a much harder challenge to meet than I expected. So far, I've managed one meal a week, but neither meal has meet a full range of nutritional needs. Here's what I've made:

Silken Chicken: Although I am primarily vegetarian, I do occasionally eat chicken or turkey but only if it it is ethically raised (free range, no hormones, etc). For the Dark Days Challenge, chicken is going to be my best bet for locally grown food. For the silken chicken, I was able to use locally produced cream also, but the spices and herbs aren't grown anywhere close to Carrboro.

Spanish Tortilla: This recipe was given to me by Caroleena Barrow. She served it one night when I dropped by for dinner, and I've asked her to make it for me twice since. It has a very simple ingredient list--potatoes, onions, and eggs. Carol insists that white potatoes must be used, but in the spirit of the local challenge, I used locally grown red potatoes and couldn't tell the difference. Latta's cage-free, brown eggs and locally grown yellow onions made this a totally local meal, and once I overcame my fear of messing up a dish that I love, incredibly easy to make. boil potatoes in salt water (I didn't peel them). When cool enough to handle, chop into bite-sized bits. Sautee onion in too much olive oil. Scramble eggs with salt and pepper (no milk). Add in onions and potatoes and turn into a skillet. Cook over low heat so that the eggs cook slowly into omelet-like consistency. Flip when dry enough not to fall apart (I messed this part up). The non-local part came from the salsa used to top the tortilla. I'll be checking for locally produced salsa at Weaver Street since I suspect this dish will become my winter favorite.

The Role of Women

This excerpt came from the most recent email update of the E.F. Schumacher Society. It's from a book entitled "Why the Village Movement" by Gandhian philosopher and economist J. C. Kumarappa. The publication date is 1936, once again demonstrating the principle of what's old is new.

CONSUMERS DUTIES

Often buyers are only concerned with satisfying their own requirements as near as possible and as cheaply as they can. This way of going about the business is to shirk one¹s duties. What are the duties of an effective consumer or buyer? When buying an article of everyday use one has to take account of the full repercussions of one¹s transaction.

1) One should know where the article comes from,
2) Who makes the article?
3) Under what conditions do the workers live and work?
4) What proportions of the final price do they get as wages?
5) How is the rest of the money distributed?
6) How is the article produced?
7) How does the industry fit into the national economy?
8) What relation has it to the other nations?

DISCRIMINATE BUYING

If the buyer has to make her influence felt, the further afield she goes for her goods, the less will be the power of her influence at such distance, the less the chances of her information on various points raised being accurate, and the less will be her personal interest. If the goods come from a source which may be tainted with exploitation, either of sweat labor or of the political, financial or economic hold over other nations, or classes, or races, then the buyer of such goods will be a party to such exploitation, just as a person who buys stolen articles from a "chore bazar" creates a market for stolen goods and thus will be encouraging the art of stealing.

Therefore, any one who buys goods indiscriminately is not discharging her full responsibility when the sole criterion of her buying is merely the low price or the good quality of the goods. Hence, we should buy good only from sources from which full information is readily available and which source can be brought under our influence; otherwise we shall have to shoulder a share of the blame for sweat labour, political slavery, or economic stranglehold. We cannot absolve ourselves of the all blame by merely pleading ignorance in regard to the source.

If the raw materials for making cocoa are obtained from plantations on the West coast of Africa which use some form of forced native labour, are carried by vessels on sea routes monopolised or controlled by violence, manufactured in England with sweated labour and brought to India under favorable customs duties enforced by political power, then a buyer of a tin of cocoa patronises the forced labour conditions in the West coast of Africa, utilizes the navy and so partakes in violence, gains by the low wages or bad conditions of the workers in England and takes advantage of the political subjection of India. All this responsibility and more also is put into a little tin of cocoa!

Are we prepared to shoulder this grave responsibility and pander to our palate or shall we content ourselves with a cup of nutritious milk drawn from a well-kept cow at our door? These considerations are not far-fetched but actual. Anyone who looks on life seriously and as a trustee cannot afford to ignore these far-reaching consequences of her actions.

Dark Days Eat Local Challenge

I hereby accept Urban Hennery's challenge to cook at least one local meal through the lean days of winter. I don't have anything frozen or canned so I will probably have to learn a lot of new sweet potato recipes. Want to take the challenge? Here's the rules:

1. Cook one meal a week with at least 90% local ingredients
2. Write about it - the triumphs and the challenges
3. Local means a 200 mile radius for raw ingredients. For processed foods the company must be within 200 miles and committed to local sources.
4. Keep it up through the end of the year, and then re-evaluate on New Year’s Day
5. The challenge starts now, or whenever you sign up.