It's All HER Fault!

When we decided we were going to document our summer of local eating by keeping a blog, we had a few things in mind. First we thought it would be the perfect way to stay accountable to ourselves and to each other . We aren't the kind of people who take things so seriously that we would feel the need to lie to each other if we cheated (we are more the type that would poke fun at each other if we did) but coming clean and putting it "out there" would certainly shame ourselves in to stepping back in line. Doing it is one thing...seeing it in writing is another. I don't know about Shannon D, but keeping our blog has certainly helped in that department for me.

Secondly, my brain is like swiss cheese and I can't count on memory for anything. Recoding our project would make life so much easier for next summer. With just a few clicks we'd be able to find the awesome recipe for Kohlrabi we made last year at the end of July, or where we found that great cheese on a road trip.

Thirdly we planned to post meal plans, shopping lists and share recipes on here too. We live about 5 minutes apart, but life is busy, telephone time isn't easy with little kids around and our husbands at work, so if we finally had time to sit down at midnight or 6 am, then we could do so without waking the other. I was thinking about that today and realized we really haven't done this. There's been a few things here and there, but not much. This must make this a bit dull for the readers we do have.  I got to wondering how that happened and had a "Aha! Moment". There really just hasn't been any of it to post, because that's not how it works when you are Eating Local!

Eating Local means Mother Nature decides for you. You can't sit down on Sunday night and decide your menu for the week, chose your recipes and then go out shopping for those ingredients. I find out on Monday what is likely to be in my CSA box on Wednesday night, I can order some meat, flour, honey, etc and then that's about as far as my planning gets. I may know ahead of time I'm getting tomatoes, but I don't know if it's enough to make spaghetti sauce, BLT's or just enough to add to a salad. Shannon D. is even more at Mother Nature's mercy because she has to wait and see what's at the Farmer's Market or the road side stand. We never know what ELS will have either. You may plan on having T-bones, but it doesn't mean you'll get them. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It makes perfect sense to eat what's available. It opens you up to trying new vegetables or cuts of meat, you might not have bothered with...and after all, a cow is made of more than T-bones anyways!

The other thing I'm noticing is that I have done very little cooking from recipes this summer, so there hasn't been many to share.  It also turns out that I don't like kohlrabi, so that's why you won't find one of those. When food is this fresh and this good, each deserves to be appreciated all on it's own. There just hasn't been a need to mix our goodies together, making stir-frys, casseroles, stews, or soups and spicing them up with exotic flavours. Dalew pork is so good, masking it with BBQ sauce would be a crime! Same goes with veggies...a little steam and some butter....I'm drooling! I'll save the recipes for the winter when we have to make due with frozen veggies past their prime and need some help to be palatable.

So unfortunately, our readers will have to settle for our food porn and the after the fact descriptions of our meals. Sorry...but I can't mess with Mother Nature!!

Shannon A.