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I am reaching out to anyone who is reading my blog these days. A restaurant in LA called Forage started a program a while back to have urban farmers give their harvest to the restaurant in exchange for a meal. The program was shutdown and now they are starting a group called The Homegrowers Circle. With the help of a grant, they are subsidizing the nominal certification fee so that those involved can grow and legally sell their product to this restaurant and others in LA. Along with this opportunity they are asking the circle to blog about their experiences growing and getting certified.

But before we can join this great group we need your help. I wrote a small blurb about us and now need your vote to be chosen. Click here and scroll down to vote for Malika + Donny.

Thanks!

Got Recycling?

Today I was reminded of the little efforts we do to recycle. The milk bottle our household just emptied was made in 2007 and the new one I bought today is from 2008.

Our favorite (featured) is Broguiere's from Montebello, CA. Plus, our market offers several brands & types of local CA bottled milks and whipping cream. A quick $1.50 refund at customer service for recycling each bottle makes it any easy choice.

This may take you back about 50 years ago when milk was delivered to your doorstep. Even if you are not trying to be nostalgic, bottled milk is a simple and cost-saving way to recycle.

Homemade Ketchup

Homemade ketchup is a tasty way to savour your tomatoes all year round. This recipe yields about 3 pints of ketchup. Feel free to multiply it for larger quantities. Other recipes use a food mill or food processor, but this blender ketchup recipe seems more accessible for the basic kitchen setup.

Step 1: Grow tomatoes.

Ingredients:

8 lbs. of ripe tomatoes

(1 pound is 3-5 medium sized tomatoes)

1 yellow onion

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper

3 cups cider vinegar

3 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 tbl. sea salt

cheese cloth spice bag:

1 tsp. dry mustard

2 tsp. cayenne pepper

2 tsp. whole allspice

2 tsp. whole cloves

2 tsp. ground or 1 whole cinnamon stick

2 tsp. whole peppercorn

Step 2: Wash tomatoes and dip in boiling water for 30 seconds or until skins split.

Drop in ice water, slips skins, core, quarter and remove seeds. Remove seeds from peppers and slice into strips. Peel and quarter onions. (Reminder - all skins & seeds can go in your compost pile.) Blend tomatoes, peppers and onions at high speed until liquified. Pour puree into a large pot. Boil gently for 1 hr, stirring frequently. You may need to do multiple trips with the blender.

Step 3: Add vinegar, sugar, salt and spice bag into pot. Continue boiling and stirring until volume is reduced one-half with no separation of liquid and solids. This took me about 2-3 hours. If it does not quite resemble ketchup after a few hours you can put the mixture back in the blender and liquify more. This should bring you the consistency we're used to. Taste it - if too sweet, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice.

Step 4: Remove spice bag and fill jars, leaving 1/8-inch headspace. Process jars for water bath or pressure canner. Process pint jars for 15 minutes at an elevation of sea level to 1,000 ft., 20 minutes from 1,000 to 6,000 feet and 25 minutes above 6,000 feet. So I've read it is recommended to use home canned products within one year.

Make Your Own Sundried Tomatoes

No matter what size your home garden - from a few herbs to a dozen tomato plants - food preservation & storage is key to making use of your harvest. Donny and I have spent the last few weeks learning about canning, drying and freezing our delicious food. I look forward to sharing several recipes and ideas we've used.

First on the list is an easy and delicious one - homegrown homemade sundried tomatoes. The great thing about this treat is that you can use just about any size tomatoes. I chose to use our little cherry grande and sprites...I had found that we were not using/eating them fast enough. They also ripen quite quickly, so its best to use them while you've got 'em. This is a great recipe for a sick or rainy day since you will need to check on them for at least 4 hours and possibly 10 -20 hours, depending on the size of tomato you choose to use. The smaller the tomato the quicker it goes. However you should know that the final product will be about 1/4-1/2 the size of the fresh tomato.

The easiest way to make sundried tomatoes without a deyhydrator is in your oven. Preheat your oven to 150 degrees or its lowest setting.

My lowest oven temp was warm, just below 200 degrees. Cut all tomatoes lengthwise in half. If using larger tomatoes you can quarter them. I seasoned the tomatoes with a dash of sea salt & about half of them with homegrown dried basil (stay tuned for that recipe). On a cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil, lay out the tomatoes seed side up so that they are not touching. They will start to shrink quickly, so its ok to squeeze them in. My suggestion is if you have the tomatoes - use them. I ended up doing 2 batches back-to-back that I could have done simultaneously had I just used 2 cookie sheets. Over the next few hours, check the tomatoes constantly. You will need to turn them on to the skin side and also move the sheets to other racks so they get an even heat. With the little tomatoes I found it easiest to turn them with my fingers. I enjoyed checking them every half hour - hour. You will know they are done once they feel like a raisin, but not brittle. They should have a leathery feel, but you should not feel water under the skin. For the remaining pieces you can speed up the process by cranking the heat to no more than 200 degrees, but be sure to check on them more frequently.

As they are done, take them out of the oven and leave to cool for about 20-30 min. After you complete the batch, store them in an airtight container or plastic bag. A small pallet of mason jars (varying sizes) is a good investment so that you will be prepared to start preserving your harvest. You can pick them up at your local grocer or drugstore.

Be sure to check on the batch of tomatoes for the first few weeks to make sure no moisture has formed. If there is any moisture, throw them back in the oven to dry them out more or use them immediately.

Enjoy them as tomato candies or in a pasta or salad.

Accidental Wheat

Donny and I planted some wheat grass seeds in a small pot. I thought it would be cool to make our own wheat grass like at Jamba Juice, but he just thought it would be good decoration. Either way, the wheat grass has grown quickly and plentiful. What we didn't expect is this:

...actual wheat.

1st sign of Summer Flowers

In my mind the best kind of summer flowers are that which turn into tomatoes. In the past week almost all of our tomato plants in the rooftop garden have begun to produce fruits. I've seen maybe a half dozen of the tiniest tomatoes you could imagine. The rest of them are little flowers that almost look like marigolds. Any day now they will all be that gorgeous red color. It is very uplifting to know this year's crop is likely to do really well. We are already looking into canning options.

Beet Holiday Harvest

This past weekend we excitedly harvested and consumed the 1st of the season beets. See their 2 month story.

Quick Beet Salad

Trim the greens and add to your compost. (I have seen some beet green recipes online, but haven't tried them myself.) Rinse the beets and use a potato scrubber to get the dirt off and clean them up. Cut them in half and toss them in a pot of salted water. Boil the water and let them simmer for about 30 minutes or until tender. Drain and cut into smaller pieces or whatever you choose. The skin should easily peel off. Compost the remaining waste.

I chilled the beets and added toasted almonds, blue cheese and a quick dressing (1 part olive oil, 1 part orange juice, 1 part balsamic vinegar wisked together).

We just planted some more seeds and may try pickling them next time.

Taking stock of our Local Urban Garden

Last weekend Donny and I spent a good chunk of Saturday & Sunday planting more and cleaning up our garden.  We are preparing for a light spring harvest and a plentiful summer feast!  See down below for a taste of whats to come AND here is what we have growing:  

FRONT GARDEN

BLUE BERRY BUSH Ω

DILL *

LEMON TREE Ω²

MINT ^

(9) WHITE ONIONS °

(2) PARSLEY PLANTS

(2) ROYESTA TOMATO PLANTS **

(2) SAN FRANCISCO TOMATO PLANTS ** 

(tomatoes & onions in raised bed / everything else planted right into the ground)

ROOFTOP GARDEN

(2) ASPARAGUS PLANTS ^ 

(2) SPICY BASIL / SWEET BASIL Ω 

(8) BEETS *

BUNCHING ONIONS Ω

(4) WHITE ONIONS ° 

(2) PEPPERONCINI PLANTS *

(2) SALSA HYBRID PEPPER PLANTS *

(2) ROSEMARY * 

(2) CELEBRITY TOMATO PLANTS ***

CHERRY GRANDE TOMATO PLANT ***

(2) ROMA TOMATO PLANTS ***

SPRITE TOMATO PLANT ***

(2) "VOLUNTEER" TOMATO PLANTS ▲

(containers only)

KEY: 

 ° from bulb

* from seed

** indeterminate / from seed

*** determinate / from seed

² transplanted from last apartment

^ continuing to grow from last summer

Ω started as seedling from nursery / farmer's market

▲aka "the others" / unknown plants that sprouted in other pots

Beets soon to be harvested.

President Obama's Local Garden

This story has been out for a little while, but it is still no less inspiring.  If you have not heard already Michelle Obama has begun the process of setting up a vegetable garden at the White House.  The space and weather conditions are pretty ideal, not to mention the greatest impact will be what it says to the rest of the country.  More and more I am hearing friends tell me about their own small herb or vegetable gardens.  People seem to be really excited at not only eating the "fruits" of their labor, but also having a project they can watch grow.

Local Pennsylvania Edition: Dining in Harrisburg

Donny and I had a brief, but busy trip back east for the holidays.  While visiting friends and family in the Harrisburg area we had planned a night out.  Since we spent the week eating mostly home cooked meals & fast food we thought a dinner at a nice restaurant was in order.  One of Donny's friends picked the place.  Our only request was that it didn't serve light beer or hot wings.  Let's just say we didn't have high expectations.

Upon our arrival to Mangia Qui, I was pleasantly surprised. This Italian restaurant Ben brought us to had a romantic interior and a nice wine list.  After just a few moments I heard the waitress describe one of the appetizers and all of a sudden I heard three magic, unexpected words "local and organic".  To our shock, we had found the one restaurant in all of Harrisburg that not only serves organic, but also local fare!  The food was delicious and I look at central Pennsylvania in a new way.  The wine list and some of the ingredients are not all local, but their mantra is simple: We embrace fair trade, environmental, and economic sustainability. We do this, with you in mind, as well as the health of our planet. 

If you live in the area, I suggest signing up for their newsletter and updates.  I learned that the owners are in the process of opening another restaurant in the area.  According to one of the servers this new place will in fact be all local.

What is Local?

I probably should have done this post awhile ago, but it is a difficult question to answer. Plus I also think the answer is different for everyone. We were talking about this subject a few nights ago - what do we consider local?

To the Eat Local Challenge - they consider local within 150 miles, but they also allow you a short list of things you can't get local, i.e. coffee or spices.

To the couple of the 100 mile diet - they consider 100 miles of where ever you are to be local.

And my personal favorite, Sunset Magazine has been working hard at a one block feast. All the growing, raising, and making happens in the magazine's backyard.

I found this chocolate in the Whole Foods. It had a Local sign on it. The company that makes and distributes this chocolate, called Chuao, is in San Diego. They sell exclusively to WFM. Based on their packaging alone - they appear to be a small company. The cacao beans, however, are obviously not local. They come from Venezuela. This is an interesting dillemma. For some localvores, the fact that the ingredients are not local to this area means they won't eat it. However, if you dig deeper you will find that this company not only purchases their ingredients from "locals" in Venezuela, but also contributes to their communities. And considering that the rest of the company is based in SoCal, this is still a pretty local product.

I personally think eating locally means partaking from vendors and local products in your neighborhood and local area. I am aware of the different levels of local, but I like to support them all - wine from northern California to green peppers from my own roof to my local paper store.

I know some of you subscribe to the Living Locally postings or read the blog via email, which is awesome. Please pop on to the site and check out the poll I have going. I would love to know what you already do or are willing to do to live more locally. Or leave a comment here and let me know other things that you think qualify as living locally. If it is something so outrageous that you couldn't dare try yourself, maybe it is something Donny and I would be willing to start doing. We're definitely up for the challenge!

Planning

My ex-roommate and her boyfriend came over for dinner. I bought a 3 pound grass-fed bison roast from the Santa Monica Farmer’s market and my ultimate goal was to serve a completely local meal. Local in the sense that we could use ingredients already in the house, i.e. spices and condiments. And that as long as an item came from the state of California we wouldn’t discriminate. We already had asparagus from a recent trip to the farmer’s market. Early that morning we went to the Beverly Hills Farmer’s Market and bought potatoes and bread, in addition to Chilean sea bass and broccoli for another night. Donny has been snacking on apples lately and we didn’t find any good ones in BH, so I promised to ride my bike over to the other Santa Monica Farmer’s Market. This one edges on the Venice border, so it is just a short ride from our house. I pulled up to the awe-inspiring bike valet next to the petting zoo. So many people out and about. No good apples in sight, but I did pick-up some grapefruit and flowers. After I got home we started to go over the menu. Realizing we had not picked up tomatoes or garlic, Donny wanted to just walk over to the Ralph’s. This is where I started to get frustrated. I remind him about this “local” meal and we get into a whole discussion about organic vs. local vs. convenient. It’s hard for him because he doesn’t have the passion for this project like I do. If Donny wants something at the last minute, he wants to be able to go out and get it. Since he doesn’t taste chemicals on the fruit and he isn’t the one going to China to pick-up the vegetables, then he doesn’t think about its effects on our bodies or environment. Out of sight, out of mind, really. In the back of my mind I'm thinking - he's getting off easy. The couple in the 100 mile diet and the No Impact Man are extremists in my mind. I think their stories are very inspiring, but I'm not making him give up every chance at convenience. Right now I'm just asking for one complete local meal. After a long talk we realize that just a little bit of planning could relieve a lot of tension. It is definitely hard to plan every single ingredient. We have so many farmer’s markets in a 20 mile radius yet without any planning, 4 trips to the markets in one week is pointless. Genny and Jon brought over 2 bottles of California wine. The bison was a bit dry, maybe overcooked, but everyone wanted more meat and potatoes. It is sort of funny that we had such an American classic for our menu. I have never thought of myself as patriotic. In fact, I relate much more to the European style of life. If being American means cooking for friends, while eating literally home-grown food then I’m okay with that label.

Water

The plan is to eat locally as much as possible. I was inspired by the 100 mile diet book, Plenty* - written by a couple in Vancouver, Canada. In that duo the husband was the instigator. He cooked most of the meals and was willing to take more risks with food. My situation is a bit different. I would like to jump right in and eat local foods only, even if that means not getting to eat my beloved foods, like sushi and french cheese. Donny, on the other hand, is a bit more skeptical. He has been working out a lot lately and wants to be healthy, but could not give up soda or In N Out. After his 24 mile bike ride to Manhattan Beach today, Donny went to the Ralph's and picked up some maple bacon, granola bars and a copy of Men’s Health. He read this article and now by some strange miracle he is a water believer. If he is really able to give up soda, maybe we will be on a local foods diet sooner than I thought.

*My Aunt Jan should be credited for recommending this book and challenging me to eat as locally as possible.