one local supper: 11

This week I focused much less on meals than on preserving food. I've been a bit of an ant preparing for winter. Fair warning, I'm writing a lot about processing and preserving local food in this post. We did have an entirely local meal- one I grew up eating frequently. Stewed okra with tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onions, and rice. The okra was in my freezer from last fall's CSA from Whitton Farms. Tomatoes and garlic came from two North Mississippi farmers. The rice was grown in Arkansas(Did you know that all Riceland brand rice is grown in the counties along the Mississippi River in Arkansas?) This is a simple, one-pot (not counting the rice) meal- sauteed onions and garlic, add peppers, add okra, add tomatoes and a bit of water, simmer down, serve over rice. The leftovers are really good. It's also fabulous with shrimp, chicken, or sausage. When we ate it again later in the week I added some sausage.

I spent so much time this week thinking about food- about school lunches, about preserving it. I've got a lot of good, fresh, perishable food that is either free or cheap right now. This fall and winter, this same food will be a) expensive and b) imported. I accidentally bought a bell pepper imported from Holland and had soemthing of a fit when I realized how far that yellow gem had traveled. Did it still have any vitamins? How much did it cost to ship a $1 bell pepper from Holland? All of this was in the back of my head on Monday, a good friend came by with 20+ lbs of pears and about 15 lbs of potatoes from his Mom's garden in Mississippi. I decided to make gnocchi with the potatoes (it freezes for up to a month- so I'll make some, use some, and see if it will keep for 2 months. The rest of the potatoes will go in basement storage for a bit) and pear sauce with the pears.

Now: canning. I'm not sure what's happened to me this summer except that I might be under my friend Jennifer's influence. She is a master canner. I've called her with questions, we've emailed about how-to and what-to. I attempted some canning in 2001 but haven't touched the weck jars or the huge stockpot I used to hot water bath process since. In late June, when I realized that my favorite tiny plums were about to go bad, I made a batch of jam with plums, blueberries, raspberries, and maybe some cherries. I put those up in some jars I had on hand, boiled them in the stockpot, and had 8 pints of jam. I could can food! And eat it later! It's silly, but I felt like embracing my inner pioneer woman.

A few weeks after the plum jam success, I borrowed my mom's huge (holds 7 quarts at a time) canning pot, some quart jars and lids, and bought a bushel (I think) of tomatoes. I put up 7 quarts of tomatoes and another 5 quarts of sauce (canned the tomatoes, froze the sauce). I had some free organic apples my mom's coworker gave her- those became 3 quarts of apple sauce. I ran out of quart jars and bought some pint and 8 oz jelly jars. When the last of my figs threatened to mold away in the fridge, they became 3.5 pints of jam (mixed with rosemary and lemon zest- yum). So when Michael and Lee showed up with all those pears, I knew I'd make pear sauce. And I did- ten pints. More apples are coming, more applesauce.

All of the blueberries we picked this summer went into the dehydrator (I lucked out 10 years ago and got an excalibur when my stepmother was clearing out her unused kitchen gadgets). Dried blueberries are so expensive, so good, and so easy to do yourself. We still have frozen berries from last summer, but we ran out of dried blueberries in October, so I concentrated on drying them this year. And Peaches! The essence of summer! Outside of what we've eaten, about half of the peaches I've bought, picked (25 lbs worth), or gotten for free because they were culls (scratch'n'dent produce, anyone?) have been dried, half have been frozen. The peels and bits of flesh from both of those were pureed and turned into fruit leather for little boy's lunchbox. Most of my fig crop was dried, but 6 gallons of fresh figs, when quartered and dried, only equal about 4 cups. Sad but true. The dehydrator has worked overtime this summer. We've even used it for grocery store bananas that had gotten a bit more spotty than we like- they dry sweet and chewy.

At this point, I feel a little like I have a mania. We even cleaned out the basement this weekend solely so that I'd have a place to put the canned food. But the pepper from Holland really made me open my eyes- and I've also just read ALL of Hodding Carter's humorous and thought-provoking essays for Gourmet. WHY NOT buy $2 extra of these wonderful 3/$1 pesticide free peppers at the farmers market, chop them, and freeze them for winter (and I'll be doing the same thing once my own peppers and tomatoes start ripening in my own garden). Too many cherry tomatoes? That seems to be all my garden's producing this year. So I'll pop them in a freezer bag for tomato cobbler this winter. I know how to can, why not turn free produce into something that my family loves to eat (and that I won't have to buy later). And yes, I have time on my hands. Yes, I want to save money (and time) later. No, I don't think this is something that everyone can (or will want to) do. But some of us can. So I am. And if you feel like it, I hope you do to.

I promise, I'll start writing about pottery again this week. I've been sneaking a little making time in over the past few weeks, but school starts tomorrow so my pottery break is officially over. Have a happy week!

last handful of summer

handful of summer
Originally uploaded by Bridgman Pottery

Hi, I'm still here, still summering. Yesterday was the first day of staggered enrollment kindergarten- classes REALLY start on the 17th. I'm slowly making pottery here and there, checking my glaze supply, ordering some new colors (to test the waters- what about red? Would it be worth it to you to pay $10 more for a berry bowl, mug, or cereal bowl just so it could be red? The glazes are crazy expensive- $100 for a gallon of red! So let me know what you think), and finally, finally gathering my monies to get a giffin grip, because there's nothing more frustrating than trimming a pot and watching with horror as it flies upside down across the room and lands with a thud. Yes, there is. Opening a kiln full of cracked berry bowls is worse, but I digress.

So on Monday, I'll be the full-time potter again, from 8am to 1pm. And I'll be here more, as well. In the meantime, I'm having summer, preserving it (literally, in apple and pear sauces, jams, dried and frozen fruits, and in photos) for the future. Enjoy the rest of your summer, friends.

one local supper: 10

tomato tart with polenta crust
Originally uploaded by Bridgman Pottery

This is a summer staple that I haven't made yet this year- since June was so very hot and July so very rainy, tomatoes have been a little spotty in the mid-south. It is so, so easy. Polenta (3 c water, 1 c polenta from Delta Grind, a little salt), add cheese if you want. Spread it over the bottom of a pie plate, casserole dish, tart tin. Bake at 350 until it is set up and barely browned. Top with sliced tomatoes, basil leaves, any sort of cheese (I used goat). You can also use sliced zucchini, leeks, onions, summer squash. I added a bit of zucchini. Bake for about an hour. While it is baking, make a pesto mayonnaise sauce with basil, garlic, and mayonnaise (I've been making my own mayonnaise with local eggs since June). Drizzle or plop sauce over the top of the hot tart, let cool briefly, serve. I added a side of elote, or grilled mexican corn, that I made for our bookclub last night. Next time I'll boil the corn, because I forgot about it on the grill pan and it was a little more chewy than fresh and juicy. Elote is simply grilled corn coated in a mixture of lime juice, mayonnaise, sour cream, cojita cheese, and spices. Mine was a mix of mayonnaise and local buttermilk, cayenne, and a bit of cilantro.

We also had some cheater peach sorbet we made earlier in the week with frozen peaches and a little local milk in the food processor. It is fast, super easy, and sugar-free. It freezes hard, but if you add a teensy bit of rum or fruit liqueur, it won't be rock-hard. We didn't, so we just let it sit out for a minute before dishing it out.

one local supper: 9

Nine! Can you believe it? I have been feeling particularly uninspired about cooking this summer. It's been a little difficult to cook 100% local meals simply for lack of inspiration. We've been eating almost 100% local produce, dairy, and meats, but sometimes getting all of them into a delicious-sounding and photographable meal isn't up my alley.

That being said, this week we had two local meals. On Wednesday I made an oven-roasted baby eggplant, tomato, and feta dish, plus a baked cherry tomato-feta crustless cobbler (cherry tomatoes, smashed, 1T flour, well-mixed in, crumbles of feta, ribbons of basil). We had some other non-local food (with local lady peas, couscous, lemon juice, and LORDY big fat decidedly non-local shrimp) with it, but I made enough to have for lunch on Thursday. It was a good, good lunch.

Last night I used up a lot of produce we'd had languishing in the pantry and crisper. I roasted a lovely porkloin from Barnes Farm in Jackson, TN with local onions and shallots. I also roasted beets and sweet potatoes, cubed them, and dressed them in a mustardy vinaigrette with arugula. Earlier that morning I mixed up a big batch of dough to keep in the fridge (I use the basic boule recipe with 1/3 whole wheat from this book) and made both a sandwich loaf and six dinner rolls with whole wheat and all purpose flour from Delta Grind. I used up my last leek, some aged swiss chard, and kohlrabi in a mixed-vegetable sautee. My seemingly random mix of ingredients- the last dregs from the fridge- I haven't been to the farmer's market in two weeks and won't be able to go again until next week- was pretty good.

My garden, at the end of July, is just beginning to produce. Thanks, miserable dry hot June. Our July's been more like a typical May. My tomatoes are going crazy, peppers blooming, green beans- well- they're languishing. I'm going to rip them out. Last Friday little boy planted our fall crop of Arugula- we've eaten the last of ours. This week I put in purple sprouting broccoli, broccoli raab (my favorite), more beans, lettuces, swiss chard, and a few other things. I'm hopeful for my little garden. I laugh at the thought of all of my tomatoes coming in from August to November's first frost, just in time for my fall CSA to begin. I think September and October will be heavy-duty canning months for me. And heavy duty pottery months, but that's a different story.

Happy weekend!

butter crocks

butter crocks
Originally uploaded by Bridgman Pottery

A little project I've been working on. Butter crocks. A lidded vessel with an lid attached to an inverted cup to fill with butter. You put a little water in the base- an inch or so. When you put the lid on the base, the water forms a seal to keep air out. The butter stays soft and sweet.

They aren't hard, exactly, but they do have to fit right. I made three, ditched one, need to refire a second, and am happy with the third. The piece with the obvious gap between the lid and the bowl? Because the cup is just a hair too long.

My friend Elisabeth introduced me to these a few years ago. She made some and I used it quite a bit. Her's were a bit larger than mine, but about the same shape as the piece on the right. For a long time I tried to make them in the same shape as my honey pots, like a bee skep, but they never worked well.

I played with the idea a little yesterday- tinkering with the shape and size, but I think once I get it down, I can crank them out. Once school starts, that is!

quartet

Hi, just popping in to say that I have these four little bowls up over in the shop. Two are seconds, priced accordingly. A few nicks and bumps = $s off for you. The other two are near perfect. Not that anything is perfect, but you know. All four are 100% functional, and at least to my eye, lovely to look at, hold, and use.


School starts so so soon. Little boy is at art camp this week so I'm sneaking in some studio time. Working on some new ideas. And old ones. I had a request for a mug in the speckled egg glaze, but I'm having a hard time with the shape. Delicacy is a must, but not so delicate you're afraid to pick it up and use it. Perhaps a handle-less form?

But I won't attack this issue in full until after August 17. Until that time, the afternoons belong to the boy. Peach picking? check. Another round of blueberry picking? check. Weekend off to the lake- checking off this weekend. Afternoons of treehouse fun with friends- check, check, check.

the fig post

the fig post
Originally uploaded by Bridgman Pottery

Every year I have a glut of figs. We eat them fresh by themselves, with goat cheese, dry them, blend them with butter and honey, turn them into pizzas/tarts, freeze them to pop in oatmeal in the winter, mash them with good vanilla icecream, and this year, I made fig sorbet.

I looked around on the internets and combined several recipes to come up with this:

1 lb of figs, trimmed
4T honey (local is best, light is better than dark)
the juice of one lemon (this, unfortunately, is essential for color and flavor)
2T each rose and Mathilde raspberry liqueur (you could use something else, like port, red wine, etc. but the alcohol keeps it from becoming a brick in the freezer)
almost 2 c water


Briefly cook figs with honey and smash them up. Add the zest of your lemon and the water. Puree with an immersion blender (or in a regular blender). Add your chosen alcohol. You'll notice with some disappointment that your mixture is the color of gravy. And the taste is somewhat flat. Add your lemon juice and change all that. The color perks back up, as does the flavor.

Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to its directions. If you don't have an ice cream maker, pour it into a loaf pan, cover, and stir every half hour or so.

Most people would make fig preserves, but they're too too sweet for me. I much prefer a savory treatment (you'll find a basic recipe under the fig tart photo- I make this at least twice each brief fig season, for any potluck we might attend or for our church's hospitality hour), but the sorbet may change my mind.

If you didn't buy your house based on the fact that it had the biggest fig tree you've ever seen in its backyard, you could use black mission figs that are sometimes available in gourmet markets. Or if you're down south, you could make friends with someone who has a fig tree. I know I'm happy to share.