I had the most amazing dinner on Monday night made all from fresh, local foods. Grass-fed sirloin steak, local morels, asparagus picked that morning, and a mixed greens salad with radish sprouts. Yummmm.The sirloins came from Eagle Ridge Ranch, a local cattle ranch where I recently purchased a quarter share of grass
-fed & finished, pasture-raised beef. This beef is as ethical and environmentally-conscious as it gets and I even met the rancher in person to make my purchase. My quarter share, which is filling my freezer to the brim, consists of a variety of different cuts, but mostly 1 lb packages of ground beef. I broiled the sirloins in the oven and they were amazing; they practically melted in my mouth.The local mor
els I bought from the Co-Op, although I dream about gathering my own some day. I just need someone to share their secret picking spot with me! Mark sauteed them with garlic, onion, fresh herbs, and a little red wine. Oh. My. God. The morels were absolutely heavenly. Although all of the components of the dinner were amazing, the morels definitely stole the show. The complex earthy flavors lingered in my mouth and I enjoyed their meaty consistency. Just writing about the morels has me drooling.The asparagus I picked Monday morning at the new CSA in town where I've been working in exchange for a share of vegetables. Picking fresh asparagus was a special experience- it was my first time. Not many people get to pick their own asparagus, let alone do they understand how it grows. Oh, the joy of fresh asparagus! The purplish-green stems emerging from the earth, reaching for the sky. I marinated the beauties in olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and tamari, then broiled them until tender and sweet. Delightful!
The steak, asparagus, and morels were all abed a simple salad made from butter bibb lettuce and spinach from my garden, as well as swiss chard and mustard greens that I picked that morning from the farm. I also mixed in some homegrown radish sprouts for a bit of tang. I've been harvesting fresh greens from both my garden and the farm for a month now. After a long winter of eating flavorless, store-bought spinach and lettuce, it is a complete joy to be eating fresh, flavorful greens. I love the rich shades of green and the perky crispness. The greens from my Community Garden are from plants that survived the Winter after I planted them last Fall. The lettuce is now literally growing out of control. There is way more than I could ever eat, so I've been giving big bags of it away to friends and neighbors as well as bartering it for rhubarb and handmade pottery (topic of an upcoming blog post!).I love Summer and Fall when the majority of the food I eat is local, organic, and super fresh. Beginning this time of year I remember how strikingly different real food is from the boring, bland, and ra
ther unhealthy conventional food I buy from the supermarket during the winter. Fresh food is real food- it is an absolute joy to prepare and eat. In fact, Monday's dinner was the first meal in months that Mark and I prepared together. Preparing fresh foods usually brings us together in the kitchen. We are more creative with the recipes and we are more loving with our preparation methods. Rather than a being a nightly chore, preparing dinner from fresh foods becomes a fun experience to share with one another. The best, most enjoyable meals I've ever prepared and eaten have been made from fresh ingredients.Other fresh foods have been finding their ways into our kitchen. Kale from my garden also survi
ved the brutal Montana Winter and is now growing in leaps and bounds. I've been sneaking it into our fruit smoothies, which arises the question: "What are these green specs, Emily?" "Oh, those are just health specs, Mark." (Shh, its a secret). Our neighbor across the alley has most graciously been giving us fresh duck eggs. From my back window, I can watch the ducks waddling through the neighbor's yard and I sometimes hear them quacking. These duck eggs are beautiful and delicious. The yolk is a deep golden-yellow and the consistency is dense and meaty, plus they don't flow apart at all after I break them. What a treat!What about you? Does fresh, local food bring you joy, too? Do you get giddy picking and eating fresh veggies? What fresh foods are you beginning to eat in your area?
8 comments:
One of the biggest joys of spring is local asparagus, in my opinion! I love that first week when our local farmer's market is full of new asparagus.
We also have a quarter of a cow and it has lasted us well over a year. It'll probably last almost two years actually, we're pretty sparing with it. My mother-in-law's side of the family have a lot of farmers and one of them raises a handful of cows each each to sell as shares throughout the family. So much better (and cheaper, actually) than store-bought beef AND I don't feel guilty afterward.
Hi Jessica! I hope you've been having fun racing. Not only was this my first time picking asparagus, it was also my first time eating local, fresh asparagus in general. I'd only ever eaten conventional asparagus before. What a difference!
I just remembered that I purchased an 1/8 share, not a 1/4 share. I'm trying to eat it sparingly, too- just once a week and occasionally twice (like this week we ate the two sirloins). I definitely like that it is guilt-free meat!
The morels sound amazing. Our local market occasionally carries chanterelles, but I've been wanting to try morels for a long time. They only sell them dried here, and at totally ridiculous prices!
We're having an unusually wet, cool summer, so a lot of the summer produce I love isn't out yet. But the strawberries are here, and some cherries, and interestingly shaped squashes. I bought purple potatoes, shallots, and parsnips at the farmers' market today and am planning to do a big vegetable roast for dinner later this week.
Hey Jennifer. How's your new job going? You're so lucky in California, home of fresh fruits, vegetables, and nuts practically any time of year! The first Farmers' Market I ever went to was in Davis, CA and I was amazed. No wonder Californians are generally very healthy.
Yum- roasted roots! Carrots and beets are good to add to that mix, too.
What a lovely update! I'd like to invest in a meat-share, but that will have to wait until I get a mini chest freezer or something. There's no space in my existing freezer (part of a traditional fridge/freezer unit) for much else with all of the frozen berries and frozen stock in the way!
I feel the same way about rekindling that old flame - preparing a meal together - when the ingredients are fresh and local. Due the unseasonably cool and wet weather we had all the way into May, I'll have to wait a little longer for my first CSA share.
Thanks, Andrea! I wouldn't have had room for all of this meat last Fall when my freezer was full of frozen veggies from my garden. My landlord has a deep freezer, though, and I don't think he'd mind if I stashed some food in it. I will, however, have a storage dilemma this coming Fall... I need a root cellar for all of the potatoes, beets, carrots, onions, and winter squash I plan to grow. Keep them in a friend's garage?
We've been having the same cool, wet weather, but it's not so much of a problem in my part of Montana- it's usually pretty arid here. I bet you're excited for your first CSA box!
Yummmm! I love CSA produce. They are the best tasting fruit and veggies I have ever eaten! It makes me feel so good to know that they were grown without chemicals and that I'm supporting local farmers. It's win-win-win! What's not to love? :D
Hi Lynn. Thanks for stopping by! It looks like you're jumping into a big farming endeavor of your own. With two gardens of my own to work in and volunteering at the CSA farm 5 hours a week, I already feel very busy. Farming full-time sounds a bit overwhelming to me! Good luck with everything. I'll look forward to your updates.
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