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Happy Saturday, everyone! Ready for today’s challenge?
If you missed the previous challenges, you can catch up here:
Today’s Challenge
This one may require a visit to the farmer’s market if you don’t have a garden this year.
Today, I want you to make an entire meal from local food. You can get ingredients from your backyard garden or homestead, or stuff from the farmer’s market.
But here’s the kicker: if rice, wheat, and other grains aren’t something you are growing or grabbing at the farmer’s market, your meal may be bereft of grains. Because that means no bread, no pasta, and no pilaf.
The reason for this challenge is to get you thinking about what does grow locally. No matter how well-prepped you are, at some point, you’re going to run out of food and you’ll be relying on the things you can access where you live.
What are you going to eat?
So, tell me, what kind of delicious and filling meal can you make from food right there in your own hometown? And report on the forum to qualify for prizes!
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What a nice surprise! I just went to the local farmers market. I usually go on Saturday.
I picked up some eggs, chicken, potatoes, tomatoes, salad fixings, vinegar, dried herbs, and white wine (all locally produced).
I plan to make a salad and one dish oven baked chicken with potatoes (an easy stand by dish with plenty of leftovers).
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Hmmm….in my part of the world the Farmer’s markets are closed for the season, and it looks like all the neighbors gardens are finished as well….my little garden efforts produced minimal things this season….so nothing is left growing outside….I have planted some turnip seeds but got them in the ground a bit late so there’re not even greens to pick…So, unless I get into my pantry stash, I could go hungry today….if this points out anything important to me is the necessity to get in a Fall garden on time so there is a continuous harvesting of something….
As far as not having grains available, we do grow corn and soybeans in my local area…the combines are busy right now so I might be able to beg a sack full of shelled corn that I could perhaps grind in my electric coffee grinder…maybe fry up some cornbread fritters the way my mother did…would be a lot of work that I’m not up to today…
I also have a cookbook for preparing grain-free meals…Danielle Walker’s AGAINST ALL GRAIN….dozens of really good and simple meals – gluten-free, dairy free and paleo compliant…but again this would require getting into my pantry….
Okay, if I’m truly out of food or access to anything edible in my neighborhood, I do have the last two cups of black cherry tomatoes from my garden on the kitchen counter…I have some basel leaves growing in a pot on window sill along with some onions I planted in the rosemary pot…so I guess I can make some sort of tomato salsa or a wee bit of soup….beyond that meal, I would be hungry thereafter
BUT, because I have been following the Organic Prepper for eight or nine months and have been building up an emergency food supply, I’m not going hungry and there’s more than enough to get me into next year’s garden produce…yeah! feels good….thanks Daisy
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This is a difficult one for us. We have a few things around here we can forage like blackberries (in season), poke greens, hickory nuts, wild plums, plantain and live trapping small animals. I try to grow a container garden almost every year with little success. We live in the woods with no good soil and little sunshine. We store a lot of food and go bargain hunting for it. I do a lot of home canning. I think we will sit this one out as we don’t feel like live trapping a squirrel today in the heat or eating poke greens. 🙂
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If you can find someone nearby who raises rabbits you can improve your soil tremendously (just add bunny poop straight, don’t even have to compost it!)
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I got nothing. The market is only on Mondays, when I work, so I rarely make it there. Haven’t had a garden this year. Looks like we would be hungry today.
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Yay, Muffy. You’ve had such significant progress in readiness! Is it catching on with your kin?
Well, if “local” is defined by this county….we’d all be hungry fairly quickly. If “local” is defined by 100 miles or the state, we’d do okay if transportation of those goods was available. All that arrives at the Farmer’s Markets. But in a StuffHitsFan….that’s the real catch. No guarantee that transportation is in place until traders get into business with horse and wagon, or some such. LOL As Muffy says, that’s the importance of stored food…for as long as it lasts.
Potatoes would be the big calorie count for this high region. Some wheat in the lower altitudes. Buckwheat might work but…the tannin coating is a problem.
Short season root crops: carrots, onions, garlic [fall planted], turnips [huge fine things! Tops and root], beets [tops and root]. Frost free days are not available for rutabaga or parsnips. Cole crops also do well….broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower [tho it’s been fickle], kohlrabi, etc. Sauerkraut and pickling would keep these things well through winter. Certain “Siberian” tomatoes work up here….especially cherry type. Not beefsteaks. Lettuce, Swiss chard, collards, etc. Those all do fine. If the burrowing varmints don’t get them. [One day those varmints will be our meat source! Hmph! Not kidding.] Peas and sometimes bush green beans. Row covers would help.
Further afield …not too far, would be a region with the fruits. Pitted fruits mostly: cherries, peaches, plums, apricots, and…some apples. Tried to find the fruit guy on Thursday but he wasn’t set up. 🙁 Grocery stores carry a lot of state wide local produce in summer/fall.
Trout in streams. Could shoot a rabbit or squirrel. Deer/elk in season with a tag.
In this season, we can have salad with that local produce today. Boiled eggs from our poultry will supply the protein on that salad. [no olives from Italy or cheese from Wisconsin?] Dressing? Ummm….?
OldMtWoman
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Oh dear Farmers Market day is Wednesdays here. But I picked up salad fixings (tomatoes, onions, greens and carrots), the peppers are from our garden. I made a salad for lunch today. Son 1 is taking us out for dinner tonight but we’re doing breakfast in the morning with the eggs, fruit I got along with the salad stuff on Wednesday from the market. I also had some chicken and a ham slice (leftovers) that I put in the salad today. Both sons and fams will be here for breakfast. Making a veggie, hash brown potato & egg casserole, fresh fruit, bacon, sausages AND “magical” pancakes for the grands.The pancakes are regular pancakes with food coloring in the batter and sanding sugar on top. Grandpa is going to cook the bacon and sausages on the grill in the morning. DIL 1 says that certain smells make her nauseated and it’s only since she had the baby that bacon is one of them. Drives her nuts because she loves bacon.Son 1 has to cook it on the grill for her outside when they want bacon.
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OK. While I appreciate this challenge, and would happily participate if I could, the Farmer’s Market is a 2 hour drive away, and there is no way I am making that trip today, and they are already closed today anyway. Many folks lost their gardens this year due to all the rains this spring. So, will have to forgo todays challenge. But it does give us something to think about and shoot for next year!!!
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Farmers market, well this one has Dole pineapples so not everything is local, and honestly I do question the age and the origin of the some of the products. The white potatoes were soft and cold; so they were sitting around in a refrigerator?
The red potatoes looked ok, so it was that, onions and squash.
Farmers markets here are all year round.
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corsaire. DH’s classmate runs her family farm. According to her, Potatoes NOT marked new crop HAVE been in cold storage since the last harvest, end of season plantings. She wasn’t sure about the others from other states but she suspects they may do the same. Hold potatoes till new crops come in. That’s what DH told me, I didn’t speak to her myself so I don’t know how true that may be.
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I didn’t go to the Farmer’s Market this week but all the pork and lamb in my freezer is from there. Zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, and peppers abound in my garden. Dinner tonight is going to be grilled pork chops, grilled zucchini and tomatoes. Dessert will be peaches that I bartered some of my honey for.
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Farmer markets done for the year here. But the challenge is easy here we are having ox tail pressure cooked with tomato paste, garlic, and beer. There is some other garden herbs. It’s served with fried potatoes cakes and fresh salad.
Only thing not from farm but from village is the beer but we trade our hops and some honew for a keg of beer a month.
Our neighbour with help of big city University has produced a bushel of seed wheat that can grow I our short season and supposedly Ug99 resistant. We have enough seed for 10 acres on our farm for next year. Mainly for seed but some for food. Will find out next year. It’s a fall plant for us so feild getting prepped now waiting for rain to stop before seeding. 1/4 bushel going to Uganda next week to plant in infected Zone.
For dessert there is a choice ice cream (mint with chocolate) was made yesterday so the chocolate chips are bought mint is garden or fried milk we sub honey for sugar.
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Farmer’s market gone here too. Life was too busy for much of a garden this year but BIL picked cukes, squash and cherry tomatoes for me.
I also went down the road and picked some plums (a neighbor had several trees and shares) and picked apples from my own yard. I can’t grow coffee here so the drink of choice would be several kinds of tea from the yard.
We had bagels and coffee before reading challenge and leftovers tonight. Grains is something to think about here. If I had made dinner from scratch tonight from local it would be potatoes, maybe fish and veggies.
I went to yard sale today and scored a big box of canning jars. Will be canning plums and making plum jam and apple syrup for pancakes and French toast.
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Farmers markets about gone here. But from back yard, had cherry tomatoes, Had a couple of cucs. in fridge and lettuce. Still had a few carrots left from the beef stew I canned. So made a salad, baked chicken and baked potatoes. With us both being diabetic, we don’t eat bread with dinner most nights. The potato takes it’s place. also cooked some green beans that I canned from garden this year.
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I have cherry tomatoes, lettuce, yellow squash, rainbow chard, potatoes, and onions from the garden. I have chickens and eggs. The neighbor sells fresh ground cornmeal so jalapeno cornbread ( I still have a few jalapenos left in the garden). Apples ripe from the two trees in the back yard. Good amount to use for a great meal.
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14: Farmers Market meals: salad veggies, green beans, eggs, bacon and sausage, milk (cow) and cheese (goat), tea, melons, apples and plums, herbs, local honey, sweet potatoes, and numerous baked goods were available this week. We’re in a good location for fresh (?) food stuffs, so it’s easy to find foods for all three meals if you’re not too picky. No grains, but can we count the baked goods??
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Grits, eggs and sausage, all off my place<span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>.</span>
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This is the first year I got serious about a Fall garden, so I was able to cobble together a fine meal of yard long beans, cucumber salad, sliced tomatoes, and zucchini fritata.
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Our garden yielded a bell pepper, a few Roma tomatoes, some green beans, oregano, chives, and some drying black beans. We made a trip to the town’s farmer’s market and picket up sweet corn. I put them all together into a stuffed pepper. No rice or grains.
For a beverage, I picked some of our mint leaves and added nettle to them to make a “sun tea.” A few hours in the sun yielded minty flavored beverage.
I chose not to use anything that I had canned or preserved already. I could have gotten cheese at the market, from a local produced, but we were there too late so I did not add the cheese I had in the refrigerator. Interesting how we lack some basic items…meat, dairy, grains.
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