Midwinter Eating

(Local Eating Challenge Update)

Apples at the Hillsdale Farmer's Market. They have a "Newtown Pippin" that I tried this week and it was amazing! I rarely munch an apple for a snack but fruit is pretty limited right now and I brought one to my Master Gardening class in an effort to avoid their evil "snack" table which is a nightmare of sugar goods. The apple was huge, juicy, crisp, tart, and flavorful. I also bought a couple "Black Twig" apples to try but I admit I'm afraid of finding out that I don't like them which would be a shame since they have such a great name.

There is a surprising amount of variety to be had at this winter farmer's market. Lots of onions, potatoes, sun-chokes, salsify (I am not attracted to anything that can be described has having an "oyster" flavor), turnips, cabbage, collards (I got some because I've never had them before), leeks, chard, apples, pears, cheese, mushrooms (way too expensive for me but they look wonderful!), fresh milled polenta made from locally grown antique corn varieties, and a few winter squashes. I'm a little alarmed by how little winter squash is left. I am going to try to grow a lot more on my own this year. I also plan to bake and freeze more squash in the early season.

Some vendors came with lettuce but most of that was sold out by the time we got to the market. I got a very expensive bag of "lettuce" mix which mostly consisted of tough baby winter greens like baby kale, chard, beet greens, radicchio, and very little actual lettuce. Soon I will be planting my own.

I am waiting for only a couple more seed packets now to complete my seed collection for planting this spring. I am especially excited to grow "Lazy Housewife" pole beans. I am now trying to come up with strategies for seed saving this year. I need a good reference book for seed saving and I think "Seed To Seed" is the one I will get. I have been intimidated by seed saving for years. You have to isolate many plants whose seeds you want to save to prevent cross pollination or you have to net the plant entirely. I'm considering asking some various people with property to let me plant specimen plants for seed saving on their property if they are not also growing what I am.

I am beginning to lean more on my freezer goods. Last night we had pesto pasta with a sauteed bag of mixed frozen vegetables. Frozen vegetables will never be a favorite of mine but when it gets difficult to get my hands on broccoli and cauliflower I'm happy enough to be able to pull some from the freezer.

Speaking of the freezer though...I am still concerned by the use of so much plastic. I am beginning to experiment with glass jars but my soup didn't turn out (potato) which Lisa B. tells me isn't surprising since potatoes often don't freeze well. I would like a much larger proportion of my frozen goods to be frozen in glass rather than plastic. For things that really seem to need to be in plastic, if anyone knows of a safer (and biodegradable) vacuum seal bag product, please let me know. I'm concerned about the plastic contaminating our food. Lisa B. also mentioned the possibility of vacuum sealing jars for which there are attachments. I'm wondering if they make the vacuum seal lids for canning jars? These are things I must look into.

Mustard. I made some more mustard this week using mustard powder and I have to say that I'm not satisfied. It's too hot and I want something more similar to my standard Gulden's*. I don't like hot mustard and I don't like it to have that horse-radishy finish that Dijon usually has. It's funny because Gulden's calls itself a "spicy brown" mustard but I would call it mild and tangy. If I can't make a decent home version of Gulden's then I might be forced to re-examine my exceptions list and trade something out.

Mustard is really important when you are trying to prepare tasty foods using less fat. As boring as it is, I'm trying to cook food that isn't as fattening. Potato salad isn't too fattening if you don't use too much mayonnaise and add a lot more mustard.

The trick is finding the right mustard seeds. There are at least three different varieties commonly used in mustard making. I think a book on making mustards might be really useful at this point too since I seem to have exhausted my Internet resources for mustard making information.

Some things I will be pulling from the freezer this week: ratatouille, Brussels sprouts, green beans, hot peppers, zucchini fritters (just like latkes but with zucchini).




*I have just read that Gulden's is a ConAgra product. Even though the recipe is supposedly "140 years old", and it's nice to note that there is no crap in Gulden's mustard, I don't want to support ConAgra in any way if I can avoid it. So I really must work hard to become a great mustard maker. It isn't a difficult condiment to make, but it is certainly tricky getting the right seeds to start with.