Rescued Plums and Why Putting Up Matters

I had originally intended this post to just be about my unexpected, delightful plum harvest, but a thoughtful comment from a SFFT reader on my previous post made me realize that my surprise plums meant more to me than just something else to fill up my canning pantry.

My plums came to me by a lucky chance. One of my dear friends and SFFT reader Sara Buss had recently discovered a cluster of old plum trees at the edge of her property, after some brush had been cleared away.

I happen to have a penchant for both plums and secret gardens, so you can imagine my glee when she showed me the find.

Some of the plums were too soft and overripe to be saved, but we both came away with quite a harvest. Most of mine ended up going straight into jars, pits and all.

Whole canned plums. Recipe from the book Tart and Sweet.

The rest of them went first into my crockpot ...

...and then were blended with spices, lemon juice and sugar for plum butter.



I shared in my last post how I had foraged a single pear from an old tree growing on an abandoned lot in my neighborhood. One of our readers observed that there is a great deal of food that ends up rotting on the ground, particularly in urban areas. Meanwhile, we have a staggering number of U.S. residents who suffer from hunger. There are a multitude of complicated causes for this very sad contradiction; how we can produce an excess of food and let so many go hungry. I don't claim to be an expert on this issue and others much more qualified and informed than I am have already explored it in depth.

But what I do know, is that food matters.

What we do in our kitchens every day matters.

What we grow in our gardens, on our balconies and on our window sills matters.

The attitude we pass on to our children about their food and where it comes from matters.

And when we share what we're cooking and eating and learning with others, that matters too.

And no, I don't think my canned plums are going to solve our deeply rooted cycles of poverty and hunger.

Canning condiments in pretty jars will not change the world.

But you have to look a bit closer than that. What if it's just the act of harvesting and preserving that makes the difference? That inspires and empowers us and others to feed our friends and families? What if making use of a few dozen pieces of fruit from an overlooked tree led to an entirely different outlook on the issue of access to available food resources?  What if it helped us to see with new eyes the need for a more generous and fair food system?

That might change the world.

I love so much this inspiring post from Alana over at Eating from the Ground Up. I'll quote part of it here, but please go read the whole thing. It's perfect.

"Because those acts of filling, preserving, creating, feeding–I really do think it’s the actions themselves that create change. The jars are pretty and the contents are delicious, and that seems to me to be enough of a reason to give it a shot. But for me, the real capacity for change comes in the events that come after we fill the jar. If I can do this, what else can I do? What else can I make and create?"

Those are powerful words, friends. Let's not underestimate ourselves. If we're making and sharing and creating with eyes and hearts open to the needs among us, I think we really might just accomplish something crazy.

Like that whole world-changing thing.

Thank you again to Sara Buss for sharing her unexpected plum bounty with me! Thank you also to SFFT reader Daughter of the Glade for her thoughtful observations.

Rebekah Pike 
Rebekah is happiest with her nose in a book and enjoys making the most of her pint-sized, apartment kitchen. After leaving work in media production to become a full-time mommy, she began exploring the sustainable living movement, reconnecting with the back-to-the-earth ideals of her hippie parents. She met her husband, Darian, in 2005, working as a camp counselor in Oregon's rugged outdoors. Most of their time is spent chasing after their two year old daughter, Ashlynn, and doing serious “research” at Portland's restaurants, coffee shops and markets.

Real Food Realities: Celebrating Small Changes

Every once in a while, I start to feel a bit nostalgic … oh for the good old days, when I would go to the grocery store and purchase cheap meat and generic packaged goods, with nary a thought for any health or social concerns! I believed, as many people do, that if all this stuff is for sale at the grocery store, then surely it must be safe and wholesome. In fact, I thought I ate a very healthy, well-balanced diet.


Why the nostalgia? Well … because to be honest, the way I shopped and ate back then was easier. A lot easier. And even though I’ve learned the little tricks for saving time and money while still eating well, it can all be a little intimidating at first.

The way I thought about food began to change after I found myself spending most of my time at home with a new baby. I started browsing through blogs. A lot of them. And although I became convinced that the way we ate needed to change and I was inspired by the wealth of recipes and strategies and ideas and tips - I was completely overwhelmed. I was reading about sprouting grains, baking your own bread, making yogurt and cheese, cooking absolutely everything from scratch … I tried to envision doing all these things, as I alternated between newborn feedings and diaper changes all day long. It all felt pretty much impossible. I imagine that a lot of people who want to change their food habits feel the exact same way.

So how do we make real food a little less scary?

I think this is a really important question and I’ve been heavily influenced by both Michael Pollan (specifically by his book, In Defense of Food) and Mark Bittman on this point. I’ve been leafing through Bittman’s The Food Matters Cookbook as of late and I’m impressed with his creative solutions for wholesome, simple eating. His approach feels doable – something that a busy family could reasonably accomplish.


This is my variation on a recipe from The Food Matters Cookbook ... Pureéd White Beans with Tons of Fresh Herbs. Easy and delicious!

In my own journey towards more sustainable eating, I’ve come to terms with both my strengths and limitations. I’m really not good at being in my kitchen all day. I occasionally still feel a twinge of guilt when I think of all the things I’m not doing that I know are excellent and ambitious endeavors. I don’t make my own yogurt, although it's on my list of things to try – I buy Nancy’s Organic. I bake my own bread occasionally, but I usually buy a sprouted, whole wheat loaf from Trader Joe's. I have made chicken stock in the past, but it’s not a weekly (or monthly) project for me. I buy boxed, organic stock and I don’t let myself feel too guilty about it. I’m interested in the idea of making my own fermented foods, but I haven’t been brave enough to experiment with them yet.

These compromises are reflections of my circumstances, my temperament and my current stage of life. We live in a small apartment, with a very small kitchen. One of the first things I realized when we moved in was that our new fridge was several inches shorter than our old one! It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when you need to maximize your food storage capacity, every inch counts. We have no real pantry area; just a few inches of space between the cupboards and the ceiling, where I stow non-perishables and an odd cupboard in our bedroom where I stash canned goods. This means that my bulk dry goods purchases have to be limited and carefully considered. We have no basement and no garage. This means no additional freezer space for bulk meat purchases.

The bottom line is that you have to make the best of what you have and not get discouraged by the imperfections. Baby steps still count! Instead of worrying about what I’m not able to accomplish at the moment, I try to focus on the things I can do right now to improve the health of my family and the greater community. This looks different for everyone, but here are some goals that my family and I have set over the last few years.

1. Higher quality meat and fewer meat-centric meals
For us, this was not simply a question of health, but also of budget. In order to afford better meat, we had to eat less of it. There was no way around it, especially with our lack of available storage for bulk meat purchasing. We currently eat 1-2 meatless dinners per week and our dinners that do include meat often utilize small portions of inexpensive cuts, like bone-in chicken thighs and beef stew meat or flavorful options, like bacon.

2. Prioritizing sustainably produced luxury foods
Primarily, this means coffee and chocolate. I do everything I can to hunt down organic, fair trade luxury foods and I don’t mind paying a little extra for them. They are definitely more expensive than the conventionally produced brands, so we don't have them all the time.

3. Shifting toward our local and seasonal food economy
Back in the day, I would think of something I wanted to eat and go buy the ingredients, without a second thought. These days, I rarely bother with any recipe calling for, say, fresh tomatoes, unless it’s summertime. I shop the farmers’ market in the spring, summer and fall and whatever I come home with is what we eat that week. In the winter, I make friends with root veggies and hearty greens, even though they aren’t as familiar and take some experimentation.

4. Gaining confidence with food preservation
I’m not going to lie … canning still freaks me out. But I push through my paranoia and do it every summer and fall, because it creates interest and variety in our diet, especially during the winter months. I also devote some of my precious freezer space to salsa, berries, beans, corn and pasta sauce.

These are not big things by themselves, but they represent an overall shift in my family’s attitude toward our food system.

Thoughts on baby steps toward more sustainable eating? Please share!

Rebekah Pike 
Rebekah is happiest with her nose in a book and enjoys making the most of her pint-sized, apartment kitchen. After leaving work in media production to become a full-time mommy, she began exploring the sustainable living movement, reconnecting with the back-to-the-earth ideals of her hippie parents. She met her husband, Darian, in 2005, working as a camp counselor in Oregon's rugged outdoors. Most of their time is spent chasing after their two year old daughter, Ashlynn, and doing serious “research” at Portland's restaurants, coffee shops and markets.

Spring Clean Your Pantry and Beat the Mid-Winter Blues

About this time every year, the marketing powers that be start trying to convince the public that spring is just around the corner. I suppose this “Spring Has Sprung” campaign would make more sense to me if I lived in a place where winter could be reasonably expected to end around March 20th. Alas, the six weeks of winter predicted by our friend the groundhog are probably optimistic at best for those of us living in western Oregon.

The only way I know how to survive six months of cold and damp is to fill my house with good friends and tasty food.

I have a tendency to hoard my last few jars and freezer bags of preserved summertime delights for that moment in February or March (or sometimes May – I’m looking at you, spring of 2010) when it seems like winter will never, never end. Strawberries are delicious in June, but strawberries over vanilla ice cream in the midst of a howling, February storm? Bliss!

Strawberries fresh from the field

I recently opened up the roasted tomatillo and pepper salsa that I made and froze last August. Each bite was like a tiny taste of summertime, even though it was 40 degrees outside! We also enjoyed strawberry shortcake in January, using the last bag of strawberries that we picked in June.

One of the best things about seasonal eating and food preservation are the memories attached to what you eat.

Strawberry shortcake immediately brings to mind the berry patch down the road from our home and how much fun my husband and I had, teaching our two year old how to pick ripe berries (not the hard green ones) and put them in her box (not all in her mouth).

Future pasta sauce, ready for roasting

The roasted tomato pasta sauce makes me think of hot summer nights spent chopping and seasoning and stirring and wondering vaguely if I was suffering from some sort of heat-induced insanity to be working for hours, over my 400 degree oven, in August. Those late, late nights in my inferno of a kitchen seemed more than a little crazy, but I’m so thankful for them here in February!

So what’s in your freezer or pantry that you’ve been holding on to? Late winter or early spring is the perfect time to sort through your stores of preserved food goodies and start using things up! Maybe you have some jars from a friend or a food swap treasure that you’ve been holding on to for an inspired moment. It may seem like winter will never end right now, but soon you’ll be needing space for spring’s bounty and there’s no better cure for the winter blues than a little taste of summer!

Here’s a peek at how I’m planning on using up my summer and fall preserves to make way for spring: One of my very favorite things to do when we have friends over is pull out a few jars of pickles or fruit spreads and then add a few pantry staples that I almost always have on hand. This makes last-minute entertaining incredibly easy!

Jars of strawberry compote & pear butter

Right now, I have several jars of strawberry citrus compote and cardamom pear butter and some quick pickled red onions in my fridge. The pear butter will be perfect on a cracker with some creamy blue cheese. The red onions will make a nice complement to a dollop of mustard, sharp cheddar and a slice of salami. The strawberry compote will be happy alongside some mild, soft goat cheese or spooned over ice cream. I like to keep things like chocolate bars, almonds and maybe a bottle of wine or some bottles of my husband’s homebrewed beer around to fill out the menu and voilà – instant party and I won’t have to cook a thing!

• Do you still have an impressive stock of preserved food goodies around or are you down to your last few hoarded treasures?
• Is there a particular item that you were reluctant to spend time preserving last summer, but are now very glad you did?
• Any plans for how you want to use things up? 

Please share!      

Rebekah Pike 

Rebekah is happiest with her nose in a book and enjoys making the most of her pint-sized, apartment kitchen. After leaving work in media production to become a full-time mommy, she began exploring the sustainable living movement, reconnecting with the back-to-the-earth ideals of her hippie parents. She met her husband, Darian, in 2005, working as a camp counselor in Oregon's rugged outdoors. Most of their time is spent chasing after their two year old daughter, Ashlynn, and doing serious “research” at Portland's restaurants, coffee shops and markets.

Bringing in the Sheaves

I recently enjoyed the rare privilege of a solitary trip to the Beaverton Farmers’ Market.
I adore autumn, with all its old-fashioned little rituals.

Drawing in the last of the harvest…

Cleaning out the busy summer’s clutter and preparing home and hearth for winter…

Celebrating the end of harvest and joy of plenty with harvest time feasting and merriment…

Putting up and stocking up for the long, cold winter to come…

Slowing down from summer and preparing for the busy holiday season…

As I walked around the market on this seasonably chilly and breezy morning, I was struck by how different the energy around me seemed from the opening markets in the spring or even the high summer markets of only a few weeks past. The weather was different of course and the trees were now arrayed in their Technicolor best.  But the shift that I sensed was less tangible than that. The mood was cheerful, but a bit subdued from the exuberance and abundance of summer. The crowds were thinner. The farmers were friendly and helpful as ever, but perhaps a bit mellower, as though they were road-weary travelers, approaching home from a long, eventful journey.

As I filled up my bag to the brim with apples, pears, delicata squash, broccoli, potatoes, a few carrots and grapes, I reflected on the deep, abiding ties between humans and the changing seasons.

Here in the suburbs, I often feel divorced from nature, as I’m sure many people do. But I find it interesting that even if you’re not the type to spend a Saturday morning shopping an outdoor market and indulging in philosophical musings, everyone seems to feel a bit nostalgic for the need to bring in the harvest – even though the vast majority of us aren’t directly responsible for the reaping and storing of crops any longer.

Even in our virtually non-stop society, where our lives carry on pretty much as usual, with no thought given to quaint concerns such as “season,” autumn brings to mind the little traditions that link our very modern lives to the celebrations of yore –

Hay rides…

Drinking fresh-pressed apple cider…

Choosing pumpkins straight from the farmers’ fields…

Preparing our families’ favorite seasonal foods at home…

Even die hard city dwellers will find themselves pining for a visit to the farm in October. It’s fascinating to me that despite all our efforts at “modernization” and our attempts to grant nature as little influence over our busy lives as possible, we seem to have some sort of primal instinct that calls us back to the land at harvest time.

By and by the harvest and the labor ended,

We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.

-Knowles Shaw, 1874

Rebekah Pike is most happy with her nose in a book and enjoys making the most of her pint-sized, apartment kitchen. After leaving her job in media production to become a full-time mommy, she began exploring the sustainable living movement and reconnected with the back-to-the-earth ideals of her hippie parents. In 2005, her love of Oregon’s rugged outdoors led to a summer job as a camp counselor, where she met her husband, Darian. Most of their time is spent chasing after their two year old daughter, Ashlynn, and doing serious “research” at restaurants, coffee shops and markets around Portland.

Autumn PDX Food Swap Highlights

Cheers to harvest preservation and sharing the bounties of our kitchens! PDX Swappers met for our seasonal food swap on Sunday, October 23rd at Abby's Table in SE Portland, and we were blessed with another beautiful array of home made, hand crafted goods.

Many thanks to Lindsay Strannigan, local Portland food blogger and kitchen extraordinaire, for her assistance in running the event. Pay her a visit and take a peek at her recipe for Crema di Limoncello that made an appearance at the swap!

Our Winter PDX Food Swap will be held on Sunday, December 11th at Abby's Table.
Registration opens late November.

Want to keep up to date on future swaps?

The easiest way is to like the PDX Swappers Facebook page.

{ Interested in Starting Your Own Swap? }

Soon, the Food Swap Network will go live, providing access to resources, FAQs, a swap directory, and all sort of juicy bits of inspiration to help you begin your own local event.

In the meantime, check out this smattering of terrific resources:

Hip Girl's Guide to Homemaking: Food Swaps
Brooklyn Homesteader: Food Swaps Across America
LA Food Swap: Start Your Own
Seattle Swappers: How a Food Swap Works
CHOW: Rules for Effective Swapping

PS: If you have photos or stories from the event, please share. Feel free to post on the Facebook Page, link in the comments below, or send us a note at sustainablefoodforthought@gmail.com. 

Until we swap again,

~Bethany

Grocery Shopping in Season: Our Food Life Calendar

Purchasing Patterns for Local and Seasonal Eating
vs.

Purchasing Patterns for Seasonless Supermarket Shopping

Summer bade farewell to the Rose City this past week (judging by the weather, if not the autumnal equinox), and with the appearance of fall comes the influx of ripened tomatoes, the returning allure of the oven, and a reminder of the until-recently too-hot-to-cook stash of pastured meat in the back of the freezer...tangible reminders of our seasonal food life.

Over the past years of experimenting and learning to purchase and cook in ways informed by natural cycles of "springtime and harvest," I've transitioned to conceptualizing my household food budget as spread out over the entirety of the four seasons rather than isolated to individual weeks or months.

{ Our Yearly Food Life Calendar }

Download as a PDF

Purchasing and preserving according to rhythms of the seasons rather than regularity of the paychecks takes a bit of planning, but I've experienced firsthand the the payoff in terms of quality, sustainability, and satisfaction at the dinner table.

Paying for our annual CSA membership takes a chunk of change at the beginning of the year, but it frees me up from paying for vegetables once the bountiful spring and summer and autumn months are underway.
Spending money on canning supplies at the onset of preservation season means shopping for "free" from my pantry stash all during the winter months instead of picking up cans of tomatoes at Trader Joes in December and January.

Writing a check for large amounts of honey and maple syrup all at once means a price savings on high quality supplies now on hand for easily sweetening morning meals of steel cut oats or a favorite brownie recipe.

Buying foods in bulk means a $50 minimum order for Azure Standard (that I could always split with friends), but cheaper prices per pound and less trips to the grocery store to refill the flour, spices, beans, and nuts throughout the following months.

{ A Few Favorite Opportunities for East-Side Portland Bulk Buys }

Thanks to Chris at Lost Arts Kitchen for coordinating these upcoming buys:

Freddy Guy's Hazelnuts (Orders due 9/26/11)
Organic Maple Syrup (Orders due 9/26/11)
Larson's Creamery Butter (Orders due 10/3/11)

For info on other related east-side Portland buys, check out one of my favorites:
The Montavilla Food Buying Club

Or check out the helpful list from our April meeting:
Food Group Re-cap: Buying Foods in Bulk

{ What About You? }

Any changes in your buying patterns over the past few years?
Any of them harder (or easier) than others?
Any favorite sources?

~Bethany

Sweets from Trees: Naturally Harvested Organic Maple Syrup

{Picture Credit }

In the Northwest, mouthwatering berries {and sunshine!} haven't yet emerged to cheer our plates and hearts, and February's glut of Valentine's chocolate is kindly in the past...but take heart ~ now's just the time for sweetness that comes from humble trees.

{ Picture Credit }

"The season of sugar-making came when the first crow appeared. This happened about the beginning or middle of March, while there was yet snow on the ground. This period of the season was looked forward to with great interest, and, as among the Minnesota Ojibwa today, became a holiday for everybody. Each female head of a household had her own sugar hut, built in a locality abounding in maple trees which might or might not have been convenient to her camp, but which was the place always resorted to by her, and claimed by right of decent through her mother's family and totem."

~ A European American's observation from 1896
As referenced in Jessica Prentice's delightful book, Full Moon Feast.
See her Sap Moon chapter for 13 traditional, unrefined sources of sweetness.

~

I took a vicarious field trip last weekend, when a good friend living in Boston told me over the phone about her adventures "sugaring" in Vermont. She recently drove north for a regional festival where small farms, producing anywhere from handfuls to hundreds of gallons, displayed their wares and offered delicious samples of maply-goodness.

Her stories reminded me that those small scale production operations can be a true labor of love.

The trees are tapped

They bleed their sap

And a diligent farmer must tend a boiling vat,
until the water evaporates to leave a golden syrup

{ Wood to keep the fires going }

For any of you in the Portland area interested in cooking with this high quality sweetener, Chris at Lost Arts Kitchen has made arrangements for sourcing "Certified organic maple syrup from Michigan and Wisconsin. Amish made, using horse power for collection and wood fire for the evaporation process."

The syrup will be available for pickup in NE Portland in early April; orders & payment due by the end of the month.

In the meantime, you may also enjoy this post that speaks to seasonal eating and sweetener choices: A Celebration Every Day: Sap Moon

Hope to see you at April's Food Group, where we'll be chatting about bulk buying (like...stocking up on syrup when it's in season?) and exchanging kitchen stories from the past month...

~Bethany

March Food Group: Planning Your Kitchen Garden

Our March Food Group was canceled due to a family emergency, however the seed swap will be held during April's meeting, and the outline and resources from the event are shared below. You are invited to chime in down in the comments section for additional discussion, and we'll put out the call for double the homemade treats in April to make up for missing homemade goodies this month!

Planning Your Garden ~ What to Grow & Where to Grow It

{SE Portland front yard kitchen garden circa 2009}

What level of gardener would call yourself?

Greenie
Your heart's in the right place
But your hands have never been in the soil

Green Thumb
You have dirt under your fingernails
And a few growing seasons under your belt

Garden Graduate
You've been harvesting veggies year after year
Now you're ready for new challenges

{ Food for Thought }

Which vegetables and herbs to you most often purchase at the market?

Think about your favorite recipes and seasonal dishes and the average number of times you grab a particular type of produce and put it in your basket. Would you rather buy New Seasons' organic cilantro imported from California for $1.49 a bunch, week after week, or harvest home grown cilantro all season long for the one-time cost of seed or starts?

What inputs go in to producing those crops?
What types of chemicals, labor, fuel for transportation, etc. are in play?

Do you know where those inputs come from, how they're created and funded? Do you have a sense of the sociological, ecological, and nutritional impacts?

What amount of trade off in time and effort would you be willing to invest for the opportunity to harvest those same foods from your own garden?

Be realistic; be educated. Even if you're not able to daily tend a 40'x40' plot out in the country, ask yourself which few crops would make the biggest impact to your food budget bottom line and which reasonable next step would be right for you. For those crops that you're unable to grow yourself, remember to use your dollars to support sustainable sources (small scale producers, farmers markets, CSAs).

{ What to Grow }

Seed catalogs & nursery sales are calling: what will you cultivate this year?

{Organic garden starts available at the Portland Farmers Market}

Greenie

Get your fingers dirty for the first time and focus on growing a few easy crops (lettuce, beans, peas, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, onions, zucchini, corn, strawberries) ~ perhaps avoid finicky carrots or overly needy heads of cauliflower.

Reward yourself with the gratification of color: string up a line and grow my favorite, Purple Podded Pole Beans. Plant a patch of edible flowers like borage and nasturtiums and liven up your salads for the rest of the year.

Choose when to buy starts versus seeds. Tip: when you're not bothering with cold frames and greenhouses and basement grow lights, buy hot weather, long season plants as starts to get a jump on Oregon's shorter growing seasons - tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, etc.

A quick kitchen garden jump start: plant your first herb garden to have fresh sprigs on hand and to reduce pricey purchases of minuscule bundles packaged in excess plastic and labels. Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme are popular for a reason.

Don't plant too early: remember that crazy Oregon frosts come rolling in long after the calendar says "springtime." Check for the region's last frost date before you set your tender little seeds and starts out to live a life on their own. Mother's Day was always our family's rule of thumb for safe vegetable garden planting in the Willamette Valley.

Green Thumb

Ready to extend the savings and the rewards? Push the growing seasons.

Stop buying starts at the nursery. Consider sowing seeds indoors well before the last frost date so that you're ahead of the game once the springtime weather is ready to place nice. Beware of what not to grow (for example, beans do not transplant well), but be encouraged by the possibility of harvesting your own melons well before the autumn rains kick in.

Add cooler weather crops to your planting mix (greens like kale and chard, garlic, and cover crops like clover to enrich your soil fertility during the slower seasons).

Introduce perennial plants into your garden (rhubarb, asparagus, artichokes, berry vines); these edibles will grow in place year after year and can become foundational elements of your garden's layout and design.

Use companion plantings to aid with pest control, soil fertility, and crop yields. Handy chart.

Garden Graduate

Eliminate the need to purchase seeds altogether! Plant seeds saved from previous seasons' heirloom varieties which will grow true to type. Build your own seed library and swap with other gardeners. (See notes below for details on the Portland Seed Library.)

Take on new cultivation challenges: Meyer lemons, limes, blood oranges, kumquats, feijoas, etc. (See a recent Portland foodie's article on growing Mandarin oranges.)

Supplement locavore meals with home grown and home brewed beverages:
Grow your own green tea (Camellia sinensis is available from Territorial Seeds)
Grow your own hops for home brewed beer
Grow your own sweet flowering herbs for making sparkling beverages (try Jessica Prentice's hibiscus and rose hip soda, yarrow ale, or lemon verbena ale from Full Moon Feast)

{ Where to Grow It }

Think about your available space and its proximity to the kitchen, water sources, and sunlight. Pay attention to soil health.

{Vestal Community Garden garden plot circa early 2010}

Greenie

Just starting? Try a few pots on your balcony, stoop, or windowsill. The larger the better for keeping moisture in the soil and giving ample room for roots.

Balance your potting soil mix with additional compost in order to ensure enough soil density to support strong root growth (especially important for taller, heavier plants like tomatoes). Any friendly neighborhood garden center will point you in the right direction for healthy, organic soils.

Siting tips: if you're surrounded by shade, focus on root vegetables and and leafy greens. If you're blessed with plenty of sun, put in more of the plants that require the sunshine to fully develop large, colorful fruits (tomatoes, eggplants, peppers).

Green Thumb

Ready to move beyond the bounds of pots?

Consider gardening in your yard: remove an area of lawn and build up the soil. Plant edibles among your flower beds (be certain you're using herbicide and pesticide free gardening methods).

Construct raised beds for ease of soil building, of maintenance, and harvesting.

Interested in more growing space and opportunity to rub shoulders with your neighbors? Investigate the Community Garden plots available near you and jump on a waiting list or start a local effort.

Garden Graduate

Ready to take on multi-seasonal planning? With a little strategic forethought and effort, crop rotation zones will push your garden toward optimal soil health and higher yields.

You guide the formation of ecosystems when you plant your garden. To introduce a higher diversity of soil-living microorganisms, balance the populations of beneficial (and non-beneficial!) insects, and build the overall soil structure, move the location of certain types of plants from one growing season to the next.

To learn more, browse Julie Day's Crop Rotation Made Easy and the No Dig Vegetable Garden.

{ What Next? }

Local Seed and Start Sources:

Victory Seeds
Territorial Seeds
Portland Nursery
Pistils Nursery
Urban Farm Store
Portland Farmers Market
Ferguson's Fragrant Nursery

Great Books to Have on Hand:

Maritime Northwest Garden Guide: Planning Calendar for Year-Round Organic Gardening
Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades

Helpful Web Resources:

Planting a Vegetable Garden by Rod Smith
Oregon State University Extension Service Gardening Encyclopedia
OSU Planting Guidelines

Hands On Learning Opportunities:

Growing Gardens
Portland Nursery
Joy Creek
Oregon Tilth: Organic Vegetable Gardening Classes

**Note: Although we weren't able to meet in person for Food Group, Bethany W. provided a few great resources over email to share with the gr0up:

Borrow (and return) Free Seeds from the Portland Seed Library and seed saving project. "We had a seed swap there this past weekend and I can tell you with certainty there is no need for anyone in the Portland area to buy carrot, spinach, chinese cabbage or orach seeds! [There] are plenty of other seeds too but there is an excess of these and some others due to a mammoth donation from a seed company and since they won't last forever we are really trying to get people to take them." See the Seed Ambassadors Project e-zine for more news and updates.**

Remember, gardeners are a friendly bunch - grow something new, ask questions, learn along the way, and celebrate serving up the fruits of your labor...

{Garden Fresh Produce = Joyful Meals}

"If you've never experienced the joy
of accomplishing more than you can imagine,
plant a garden."
~Robert Brault

Again, so sorry to have missed the company and good food for our March Food Group. Hopefully the ideas outlined here will be a helpful jumping off point as we all begin to plan our springtime plantings. Be sure to bring seeds and stories for swapping at our April Food Group ~ and feel free to share discussions below in the meantime...

~Bethany

Preview ~ March Food Group: Planning Your Garden

Are you tired of root vegetables yet?
Bethany and I were talking the other day about how winter eating is starting to get a little stale. We may not be able to enjoy a ripe juicy tomato or savor a crisp salad straight from the garden yet, but by golly, we can talk about it!

Join us for Food Group March 2nd at 7pm for an evening devoted to planning our gardens. Whether you are a beginner gardener (a.k.a someone who kills everything) or an experienced green thumb or anyone in between, you are not going to want to miss this Food Group!

We will discuss how to plan your garden this year, be it in containers or on several acres. Topics will include crop rotation, siting your garden, DIY pest control/soil amendments, seed saving, and more!

In addition to our discussion on garden planning, we will end with a seed swap! If you are interested in swapping any extra seeds you may have, bring your seeds, some containers to bring seeds home, and a digital camera (to take pictures of the seed packets).

Food Group: Planning Your Garden
Wednesday, March 2nd, 7pm
Emily's House, SE PDX (Address will be provided in confirmation email)
Food Group is FREE but don't forget to bring seeds to swap and a snack to share!
RSVP at sustainablefoodforthought@gmail.com

Space is limited to the first 10 people to RSVP.
We will put together a wait list and ask that those who RSVP are committed to coming out of respect for the wait list.


Can't wait to see you there and talk about all the fresh bounty this summer will offer!
~Emily

Wintertime Local Eating- Interview with Gretchan Jackson

"Eating local" and "eating in season" are popular phrases these days, aren't they? However, do you find yourself eating locally more in the summer than in the winter? If so, you're not alone. Many Farmer's Markets around the area are only open during the spring and summer months, when the crowds and crops are at their peak. The demand for local food decreases as cold weather sets in and the non-flashy crops of winter make their debuts. Jessica Prentice, author of Full Moon Feast, says it best:
"At the height of summer, when there are bountiful fresh juicy tomatoes, sweet corn, crisp green beans, and peaches that are bursting with flavor, we may flock to the farmer's markets and celebrate the joys of the harvest. But our enthusiasm doesn't last through the Hunger Moon... During the Hunger Moon we return to the supermarkets to buy produce imported from tropical countries where the sun still shines. Our interest in seasonality is seasonal."

It's no wonder that we find ourselves eating more locally and in season during the summer...it's just, well...easier! Here in the Montavilla neighborhood, we have the privilege of having a farmer's market which hosts a Winter Stock-Up day about once a month during the market's "off season". To gain more insight about the issue of eating locally in the winter I talked with Gretchan Jackson, the Market Manager for the Montavilla Farmer's Market, and here's what she had to say:

1. Tell us a little about yourself! What is your position with the Montavilla Farmers Market, how long have you been involved with it, and what is your favorite part about your job?
My name is Gretchan Jackson and I am the Market Manager at the Montavilla Farmers Market. I live in the neighborhood and have been an avid locavore since discovering the bounty of local farmers markets in college. Montavilla Farmers Market is in its 5th year and I have been on board as a market founder and manager since its inception in 2007. My favorite part of the job is working to connect local farmers and producers with a community of supporters here in Montavilla.

2. It seems like there is a trend to “eat locally” only in the summer months when it is most convenient. Why is it important to support local vendors and farmers year round versus just during the summer months?
With Portland's mild winters, there's no reason to stop eating locally and in season after October. The real secret is that winter crops are at their sweetest once it gets cold outside. Shopping at year round farmers markets encourages local farmers to extend their season to provide us with the best and least traveled food available. Supporting the local farm and producer economy in the leaner months, ensures that growers and small businesses can remain financially viable, allowing them to return and thrive as the crowds and crops return in summer.

3. What are the biggest setbacks for farmers and vendors participating in the Winter Stock-Up Market?
When the weather shifts and skies are grey, cold and wet, folks forget that there's warmth to be had a local market, conversing with neighbors and vendors about the delicious abundance found here in the Pacific Northwest. No matter the weather, it is important to show up to support the farmers and vendors who have traveled to your locale to meet you.

4. Are you finding that the Winter Stock-Up Market is well-received/attended and do you expect that more markets around Portland will become year-round or have winter stock-up days?
We have been very pleased with the offerings found at our Winter Stock-Up Markets in December and January and also happily surprised with the customer turn out. A Winter Market offers a unique chance to experience a farmers market with smaller crowds. Often times the farmer or producer themselves will be vending, so you can speak directly with them about their farming practices and varieties they offer, without a rush. Prices are often lower with storage crops too, and bulk buying is encouraged. Certainly, as the demand for winter farmers markets increases, other farmers markets will follow suit by offering cold weather dates. We've already seen that phenomenon with the November Harvest Markets prior to Thanksgiving that many markets now feature.

5. What can the Portland community do to show their appreciation and support of year round markets and the Winter Stock-Up Market, and how can they get involved?
Come visit the Montavilla Farmers Market at the February 13th Winter Stock-Up Market from 11am - 1pm, at the 7600 Block of SE Stark Street here in Portland. You will find 25+ varieties of local apples and pears, beef, pork, soft and aged goat cheese, dry-cured sausage, likely some storable crops like carrots, turnips, garlic and onions and more at the Market. Plan to stock up as it's our last Winter Market until our regular season begins in June! Come participate by joining us as shoppers.

Thanks again to Gretchan Jackson for giving us some insight into eating local during the Winter! My hope is that there will no longer be an "off-season" for farmer's markets as the demand for local food in the winter increases. Let's finish the "Hunger Moon" well, and savor the rich and nourishing flavors of winter.

Join me on February 13th in attending the final Winter Stock-Up market from 11 am - 1 pm. See you all there!

~Emily

Using Jams in Winter Baking: Strawberry Coconut Breakfast Muffins

My favorite recipes are the ones I can make without any special trips to the market.*

(*My favorite recipes are also those which require lovely planning and list making and special ingredient sourcing and involve the thrill of the magician illusionist's grand finale. But I contradict myself and digress.)

It's wintertime, and we're stocked to the hilt with preserved foods and bulk ingredients. Yet, despite my obsessions with late night canning and weekend milk runs, I am often challenged to make the best use of the stores we keep on hand before I run out of steam and resort to additional purchases.

I'm a working girl with an 8-5 routine, and I'll admit that I revel in the simple success of making up a Sunday evening batch of muffins for the coming week. These habits are the ones I hope to continue to cultivate.

Prompted by an extra stash of raw milk just begging to be used for baking and the need for a few easy breakfasts, I reached for my Sue Gregg Soups & Muffins cookbook (a helpful throwback from home school home-ec!) and scanned to find something that would work well with the ingredients I had on hand.

{ Sue Gregg's Strawberry Coconut Surprise Muffins }

Blend together and let stand for 30 minutes:
1 C. buttermilk (I used soured raw milk)
1 C. uncooked rolled oats

Blend into oat mixture:
1 egg
1/4 C. honey
3/4 C. shredded coconut, unsweetened
(I had sweetened on hand, oops!)

Blend together in separate bowl:
1 C. whole wheat flour (pastry flour preferred)
1-1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt

Blend dry ingredients into wet until just mixed.
Fill prepared muffin cups about half full, place in center of each
1 scant teaspoon of strawberry preserves
(I may have gone overboard on the "scant")

Add dab of remaining dough to cover preserves in each muffin.
Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Yes, there is a certain thrill to cooking with blackberry poison oak honey.
(Thank you to Andrea for sourcing our terrific local raw honey from Meadowlark Farm in Roseburg, OR.)

And with that ~ Sunday night's success:

a) a ready-to-go breakfast for the upcoming week of busy-ness
b) quality ingredients (and a delicious way to use June's sweet strawberry jam)
c) a cheaper price tag than the local cafe's jammers (delicious though they may be)
d) a tasty something to share with our kind neighbors (who surprised us with a knock on the door and fresh homemade enchiladas!)

If you're feeling inspired, here's another great muffin recipe I tried recently: Whole Wheat Spicy Carrot Coconut Muffins. I made mine with milk-soaked flour, dried cranberries, and toasted cashews, and they were lovely. Even Ted (the resister of all vegetable-filled baked goods) asked for seconds...

~Bethany

{Weekend Breakfast} Autumn Waffles with Kale and Egg Cups

Few mornings prove more fulfilling than ones spent with friends over fine food. New day. Time enjoyed at a pace of luxury. And appetites easily enchanted; fine food for breakfast is quite another thing altogether than fine food for dinner. {And may I say, much less intimidating and time consuming!}

Case in point: Kale & Egg Cups

I try to keep myself honest in the kitchen and, as often as possible, whip things up from what I already have on hand instead of taking another opportunity to buy more at the store. We had friends coming for breakfast, so I first took stock and then headed for the keyboard.

~ I had eggs galore thanks to Full of Life Farm. (Conveniently, their pastured eggs are available for purchase when I pick up milk at Champoeg Creamery)

~ I had milk and cream. (Conveniently also located at Champoeg Creamery. Of course.) And I had plenty of the basics. I'd already settled on waffles (see below), and we had all the toppings we could need (and then some!).

~ I had veggies coming out my ears...kale, leeks, onions, potatoes, celery...plenty to assure me at minimum a semi-impressive culinary amalgamation.

Roll on, Google search. Recipes. Blogs. Sucker me in with a few glamorous photos. I'm sold.

The inspiration for this dish came from Scarpetta Dolcetto's take on a Julia Child recipe. (Oh, it's a long, dark tunnel full of twists and turns whenever you follow my cooking notions back to their respective points of origin.)

I seem to have kale almost literally coming out my ears this year, so that dutifully stood in for the spinach, and it was easy enough to substitute a tad less onion in place of the 1/4 cup of shallots.

She mentioned in the recipe setting the ramekins in a cake pan or baking sheet. What she didn't mention, and I suspect, is that I should've filled the pan with water to help keep moisture in the oven while they were cooking. Oh well. Next time.A final tidbit ~ I proudly served these with a side of homemade ketchup. And they turned out splendid.

A Smattering of Notes about our Autumn Waffles:

A) The recipe I followed said "Serves 4 to 6" ~ I was cooking for four, but I might as well have doubled the amounts because as soon as I started spooning batter onto the hot waffle maker, I realized I'd soon come up short.

B) Coming up short sent me into a tizzy, and to recover from the tailspin of hostess panic, I quickly reached into the pantry to pull out my as-yet-unopened Organic Buckwheat Pancake mix that I'd ordered this fall from Azure. Two things:
B.1) Maybe if I'd been more ready for a new experience, I'd think differently, but I was sad to eventually take a bite of said buckwheat waffle and have the sensation of eating a cracker.
B.2) As it turned out, with the diverse toppings to accompany the four regular waffles, we didn't truly need the extra Buckwheat-to-the-rescue backups after all.

Okay three things:
B.3) Despite the cracker episode, I'm glad to have ventured again into new cooking territory, and I'll experiment again...sans guests. (Or maybe not. So watch out if you're the next ones invited for a meal!)

C) Returning to the original waffles ~ the recipe came from the lovely Deb at Smitten Kitchen: Rich Buttermilk Waffles. I had extra cultured buttermilk (quote unquote?) from my recent sour cream making foray (perhaps a post will surface about that adventure in upcoming weeks), and this recipe was perfect. My friend, Sara, made similar waffles for me at a recent breakfast {+ tea & company}, and I'm now fully won over by the beating of the egg whites.

D) Usually, I'm crazily snapping pictures of food in my kitchen, and my sweet husband puts up with it quite well. I thought I would draw the line, however, at bringing my camera to the breakfast table when we had company...and so, I have no photos to show of the waffle feast. I'll attempt a verbal substitute, and you'll simply need to fill in beautiful images from your imagination:

Autumn Waffles
(recipe above + toppings of choice)

~ Sliced pears (thank you, Amber, who gifted us with fall bounty from Mountain View Orchards in Hood River, OR)
~ Sliced bananas (nothing special, but since I don't buy them very often, a treat)
~ Honey (thanks to Andrea's lovely source for raw gold)
~ Lacto fermented Marionberry syrup (Berries thanks to Gardenripe CSA; Recipe page 111, Nourishing Traditions)
~ Maple Syrup
~ Cardamom apple butter
~ Fresh apples, simmered with cinnamon (thank you, Ted!)

De. li. cious.

Our friends brought Sterling Coffee (Ted was in heaven). Orange leaves glowed outside the window. Oregon rain fell. The warm candle burned through breakfast, and we ate our fill. And then...we attempted learning Pinochle. (I have mad bidding skills when it comes to eBay. Not so much card games, apparently. But I digress...)

The gist?
Hearty breakfasts ~ happy hearts.
And if I do say so, the whole thing gave any Portland $16 breakfast plate a fare and square run for the money...

~Bethany