Tennesseetransitions


Eating Locally
January 20, 2016, 10:07 AM
Filed under: Buy Local, Local Food, Local food system, Localization, Seasonal Eating, Uncategorized | Tags: , , ,

On this snowy day, I’m recalling some recent conversations with friends asking what exactly am I eating that is fresh and local in this kind of weather? So, I made a list. I consider food that I grew last summer and preserved in some way fair game when making such a list but italicized them below so  you can tell what’s ‘fresh’ and what’s ‘preserved’. All grown or available right.here. 

Here’s what we’re eating these days: corn and corn meal, cilantro, tomatoes-yes, we’re still enjoying fresh Longkeeper tomatoes harvested in October-cabbage, broccoli, beets, parsnips, white potatoes and sweet potatoes, green beans, kale, parsley, herbs, butternut and spaghetti squash, pesto, salsa, dried beans, jams, V-8 and grape juices, peas, edamame, jams and jellies, honey, teas, hot sauces, salsa, flour and corn tortillas, corn bread and yeast bread, apple sauce, carrots, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, onions and garlic, molasses, and peppers and occasionally eggs, goat’s milk or goat cheese are given to me by friends. We also had fresh lettuce until just recently but the cold finally did it in, mostly due to our failure to protect it well. We enjoy stir fries, soups, pasta sauces, and one pot meals most of the time, occasionally splurging on a pizza from Main Street Pizza since they grow their own toppings on their nearby farm. There are lots of other local foods available that we occasionally enjoy but don’t grow ourselves-from  wheat for grinding into flour, to pumpkins, meats, cheeses, apples, pears and other fruits. I suppose most any food you might want can be found locally at some time of the year anyway! (OK, oranges and seafood excluded, but certainly some kinds of fish are available.) Rice, olive oil and spices are my main import exceptions, although rice is being grown in South Carolina now and I hope to buy from there this year. How far does ‘local’ go? That’s for you to define. Some say 100 miles, others feel 250 is still local. And why does eating local foods matter so much to me?

  1. Supports local farms: Buying local food keeps local farms healthy and creates local jobs at farms and in local food processing and distribution systems.
  2. Boosts local economy: Food dollars spent at local farms and food producers stay in the local economy, creating more jobs at other local businesses.
  3. Less travel: Local food travels much less distance to market than typical fresh or processed grocery store foods, therefore using less fuel and generating fewer greenhouse gases.
  4. Less waste: Because of the shorter distribution chains for local foods, less food is wasted in distribution, warehousing and merchandising.
  5. More freshness: Local food is fresher, healthier and tastes better, because it spends less time in transit from farm to plate, and therefore, loses fewer nutrients and incurs less spoilage.
  6. New and better flavors: When you commit to buy more local food, you’ll discover interesting new foods, tasty new ways to prepare food and a new appreciation of the pleasure of each season’s foods.
  7. Good for the soil: Local food encourages diversification of local agriculture, which reduces the reliance on monoculture—single crops grown over a wide area to the detriment of soils.
  8. Attracts tourists: Local foods promote agritourism—farmers’ markets and opportunities to visit farms and local food producers help draw tourists to a region.
  9. Preserves open space: Buying local food helps local farms survive and thrive, keeping land from being redeveloped into suburban sprawl.
  10. Builds more connected communities: Local foods create more vibrant communities by connecting people with the farmers and food producers who bring them healthy local foods. As customers of CSAs and farmers markets have discovered, they are great places to meet and connect with friends as well as farmers.

So, I’ve told  you what I’m eating these days and why. Now I’ll leave you with a little pictorial  of what we’ve been enjoying at my house…are  you eating any local foods that aren’t pictured here? Am I missing anything? 

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2 comments


What’s for Supper?
July 24, 2014, 9:09 PM
Filed under: Local Food, Seasonal Eating | Tags: , , ,

taters

I really enjoyed the rainy weather here in NE Tennessee last weekend! It got me OUT of the garden and IN-to the kitchen. I finished canning the last of the green beans and cooked a pot for supper, along with those little, teeny, tiny Yukon gold potatoes that you just have to wash- the skins are so thin that no peeling or cutting is even necessary. Most people don’t bother to harvest those babies→ but I gather them all up when we dig our crop, right along with the big ones.  I throw ’em right in the pot with the beans, chopped onions and a dash of bacon grease. The beans and baby taters, along with our very first ears of Kandy Korn from the corn plot down at the community garden, fat slices of  heirloom Cherokee Purple tomatoes and grilled garlic bread along with a sliver or two of the leftover rotisserie chicken I splurged on earlier this week make a frugal, dee-li-shus supper with very little prep time.

I also used eggs from my friend’s backyard flock to make deviled eggs  as well as bowls of potato salad and cole slaw that made good use of our home-grown cabbage, carrots, potatoes, red onions and herbs. We enjoyed the salads with our salmon/cucumber sandwiches for lunch today and have enough left for several more meals. Good golly Miss Molly, we’re eatin’ good these days!

supper

 

So, what’s for supper at YOUR house? Do you find  yourself eating more local and seasonal foods these days? Got any recipes you want to share? Comment below ↓

 

5 comments


A Zucchini a Day Keeps the Doctor Away
July 12, 2014, 3:28 PM
Filed under: Healthy food, Local Food | Tags: , ,

I do believe my zucchini have done better this summer than ever before. So well in fact, that I’m giving them away, drying them to add to winter soups and stews, making flavored chips and now-finally!- I’ve discovered some easy and great tasting new recipes. I wanted to share them with you because they both can be made in a few minutes and for just a few cents if you’re growing most of the ingredients. 

Here’s the first: 

Zucchini Parmesan Sammiches

Zucchini Sammiches

From The Moosewood Cookbook:

2 cups diced fresh zucchini

1/2 cup minced onion

1 clove crushed garlic

1/2 tsp. chopped basil

1/2 tsp. chopped oregano

2 Tbs. olive oil

salt, pepper

Fresh tomato slices

1/2 cup freshly-grated parmesan

Saute’ onion and garlic, with salt, basil and oregano, in olive oil until onion is translucent. Add zucchini and saute’ until soft. Spread onto lightly browned toast, topped with thin slices of tomato and a sprinkling of fresh parmesan. (I didn’t have any fresh parmesan, so just used what the ‘canned’ variety. It didn’t melt as well but tasted good nonetheless. Use what you have . This one should be broiled, not grilled. Parmesan loves to broil. And I loved these sammiches!

And here’s a recipe for Savory Zucchini Cakes, from a post that  I made last July:

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https://tennesseetransitions.wordpress.com/2013/07/30/z-cakes-and-chow-chow/

In my opinion, nothing, I mean NOTHING compares to putting an organic, made-from-scratch, grown-in-my-own-garden, meal on the table! The satisfaction of producing one’s own food in a globalized world speaks not only to my environmental consciousness; sharing with you the growing, gardening, cooking and preservation of all that home-grown goodness gives me a sense of connection to my roots and to my community. YOU’RE my community. Thank you! Hope you enjoy your weekend friends! I’m off to the ribbon cutting of my city’s new “Founder’s Park”. It’s a beautiful park, with art, and rushing water and lots of green space-and it’s an 8 minute walk from home. Here’s a pic:

park

6 comments


Downtown Farming
March 29, 2014, 10:21 PM
Filed under: Buy Local, Community Building, Growing Food, Liveable Communities, Local Food, organic gardening, Resilience, Sustainability, Urban Living | Tags: , , , , ,

Most of my readers know that I live downtown and am excited to be a part of the urban revitalization that is taking place in my community. For two years, the very premise of this blog has  been about finding ways and means that will enable us to transition, gracefully if you will, to a lifestyle that is more sustainable, resilient and fulfilling than the one that we find ourselves in today. It’s about re-creating our future in ways that are not based on cheap, plentiful and polluting oil but on localized food, sustainable energy sources, resilient local economies and an enlivened sense of community well-being. For me, the good life involved moving from our acreage in the country to an urban area with high walkability, a nearby community garden, and where I can work alongside my neighbors to help ‘be the change I want to see’. What I discovered this afternoon is all that.

Housed in an old brick bakery just behind the Farmer’s Market, on the corner of Buffalo and Cherry St is ‘DOWNTOWN FARMING’, a great new store for organic and hydroponic gardeners. I know this isn’t a great picture, but wait ’til you step inside! OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt was raining like crazy outside but the worn wooden floors and brick walls were as warm and welcoming as Kyle’s smile was. The store been closed for 2 hours when we arrived, but the shopkeeper, Kyle, opened the door and invited us in like we were old friends when he saw us peeking in the windows. He told us about all the products that were for sale; many familiar, some new and strange, but he also shared with us the owners’ mission: to be an integral part of this urban community while advocating the growing of sustainable, local, organic food. There were bags of organic worm castings, soil mixes, and fertilizers, along with the fans, lights and other components to put together your own hydroponics system. In fact, we took pictures to show you what they had growing there, at the tail end of the most vicious winter we’ve seen in recent history:

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A 5 foot tall blooming sunflower, along with fully grown peppers, lettuces and tomatoes were all growing there in the confines of those brick walls!

We bought a package of sage seeds from Seeds of Change but they also had a full rack of heirloom seeds from Sow True Seed Company, from nearby Asheville, NC. I could see this store becoming  a wonderful replacement for the recently-moved Mize Farm and Garden store, minus the poisons. They had growing pots and trays for sale, but could use some tools and a few more familiar gardening needs to fill that niche easily. I hope you’ll pay them a visit, support their early efforts and let them know what you’d like to see them stock. I think they’re ‘all ears’ and might be willing to fill the empty spot in our hearts and gardens that Mize once occupied. ‘Downtown Farming’ indeed! Those two little words embody the very essence of this blog.

                           Store hours: Monday-Friday 10 AM to 6 PM

                           Saturday 8 AM to 2 PM

                          Closed Sunday and Monday

                          downtownfarming.net

                          downtownfarming@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 comment


It’s About Time!
February 26, 2014, 1:39 PM
Filed under: beekeeping, Buy Local, Community Building, Community Gardens, Contributionism, Earth Day, Liveable Communities, Local Food | Tags:

clock     As I listened to my husband’s metronome keeping time while he practiced some music, and as I heard the minutes ticking by on the old mantle clock, I realized I haven’t been able to post here as often as I like lately because of time constraints. But, I always seem to make time for the things that are most important to me, and this blog is one of those things. I’m currently putting together a presentation on ‘Natural Beekeeping’ for the local beekeeper’s annual school that’s coming up in March; it’s a topic that would never have been considered 10 years ago when we first got into beekeeping! But with the passage of time has come new knowledge of how to be better beekeepers without using all the harsh methods that we were advised to use then. Now there are practices that offer the bees kinder, gentler, more natural ways of maintaining good health in their hives. (here’s a link to more info about the bee school: http://www.wcbeekeepersassociation.com/

Michael and I are also marking time again while he undergoes his final chemo treatments. We’re on Week 3 of 10, spaced every other week, so we’re looking at mid-June before it’s all done. With spring  just 3 weeks away, the demands of serving as the coordinator of the community garden are at a seasonal high, marked by meetings, plantings, grant writing and more. To that end, there will be a seed swap and giveaway this evening at the Carver Center, (where the gardens are located) at 6 PM.  You don’t have to have seeds to swap, just a true desire to plant some, whether at the community garden or in your own home garden. Following that will be the application and screening process of potential new gardeners to fill the five vacant plots that are available this spring. If you’d like to have a plot, be sure to be there at 7 PM for that. It’s important to be ON TIME. Michael has decided to start a monthly newsletter for the Community Garden and has been spending a lot of his time putting together the first edition.

There’s also our church that we like to contribute our time, talent and money to, friendships to nurture, new songs and music to learn and play, soups to simmer and loaves of bread to bake, errands to run and exercise to make time for each day as well. Oh yeah, and watching Netflix too! All these things take time, and when  you’re ‘our age’, they demand plenty of rest as well, but luckily, I find writing is restful for me. I like writing this blog, sharing with you ideas that we can use to make our lives more resilient, healthier or simply more joyful! The ideas take time to research, to write about, and certainly to implement, but I consider it time well spent. Our retirement years have been fulfilling and busy to say the least, but these activities serve to give meaning and purpose to my life, and I get back far more than I give.

I’ve recently accepted the position as the chair for the ‘Livable Communities’ group that is a subcommittee of  a larger group called “Community Partnerships”. We have developed a strategic plan based on feedback that was given at the Economic Summits that took place in 2011 and 2012. Turns out that the results of the surveys that were taken at those summits show that some of the very things that I’ve been  writing about here are also the very things that folks felt were most important to them: supporting local food growing efforts by developing community gardens while at the same time increasing our resilience, beautifying the city by increasing greenway spaces, improving public transportation, developing interconnected beautiful, clean and safe bike and walking paths, and encouraging new and repurposed commercial and residential development in the downtown area, are just some of the things that our group will be looking at. They’re important enough to me to make the time to help implement them, and will be an endless source of  things to share with you on this blog in the months to come. I like the solutions-oriented approach we’re using, and feel it’s a good use of our time together. Our meetings will be held only every other month, with the next one scheduled for March 18th at 5 PM at my house. A schedule any more ambitious than that might prove to be too time consuming, but, every other month? Even I can fit that in, and I hope you can too!  We’d love to have your input and ideas, as well as your TIME, in helping our community become a more livable and resilient place to live. Yes, it IS about time you joined us. If  you need directions, let me know. Check us out on Facebook in the meantime:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Livable-Communities-and-Community-Partnerships-Group/163798207018404

One final note:  After giving this post a bit more thought, I want to make this clear: this is NOT meant to be a guilt-inducing blog post! Working parents, students, business owners, caregivers and all you others that are already busier than you want to be shouldn’t feel that my invitations to ‘come’, ‘join’ or ‘help’ are slanted at you. You’re already doing your part! I’m appealing here to those lucky souls like myself that have empty nests, work only a few hours a week, or just, in general, find themselves with time to spare. Forming friendships and working on projects that help me as much as the one’s they’re designed for, all while improving my own life as my community becomes a better place to live, is a win-win situation for me. Pick something that’s important to you and carve out some time for it. You won’t be sorry, I’m sure of it.

DO something!

2 comments


And the beet goes on…
January 4, 2014, 9:12 PM
Filed under: Community Gardens, fall gardening, Growing Food, Local Food, organic gardening, Seasonal Eating, Seed Saving | Tags: , , , , ,

My beloved grandmother died 10 years ago today, at the age of 100. She taught me a lot of things growing up; from useless nonsense like: “Never wear white shoes after Labor Day”,  to priceless information on how to cook vegetables and raise “Food”…

organic food

But this Southern girl had never eaten, nor even seen, a parsnip, until I married my London-born husband. Nor did I care to. His love for this carrot-like root vegetable prevailed however, and now I love them as much as he does. So much so that I now plant them in my fall garden. Much like cool weather greens, parsnips ‘sweeten up’ after a few hard frosts. Since we recently had some nights down in the teens, I figured that was cold enough to sweeten them, so I walked down to my plot in the community garden today and harvested some of the parsnips and carrots I’d planted there last August. Aren’t they beautiful? They look good enough to eat, huh?

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I harvested 5 pounds of those fat, stubby carrots that grow so well in the fall, and 3 pounds of the parsnips, along with some ‘spring’ onions too! None of these veggies were protected in any way except for a 2″ ‘blanket’ of shredded leaves, proving that you don’t have to use expensive greenhouses or heavy cold frames or even plastic covered hoops for these cold-hardy varieties. As an experiment though, I decided to leave some of them in the ground because I’m curious to see how they fare after being in the ‘deep freeze’ we’re expecting next week-temps are predicted to be -4 Monday night! I’m hopeful they won’t freeze and get mushy but the only way to find out is to let them be. I’ll post later to let you know how they fare. I couldn’t bear to lose a single beet though so I harvested all of them.

Even though this time of year can certainly cause the window of locally grown foods to narrow considerably, there are still many fresh foods that can survive winter growing conditions or can be stored fresh without any or much preservation. Last week I took the fourth cutting of broccoli side shoots since the main heads were cut in early October and harvested 2 fresh heads of cabbage at the same time. Brussels sprouts look like they’re surviving with the sheet of plastic I put over them around Thanksgiving. I’m harvesting kale and parsley from my hoop house twice a week, but I’m pretty sure I lost my Swiss Chard during the recent cold night when the wind took the plastic off the hoops that covered the plants. That happened a few years ago, and even though the plants looked completely dead I left them in the ground, and because they are biennials, they literally came back to life the following spring in a beautiful flush of growth! I’m hoping for the same this time too, because I failed to save the seeds from those plants that reinvented themselves in spite of the odds, but you can be sure I will this time if I get a repeat performance. I did notice that the tiny spinach and bitter greens that were in that same hoop house didn’t seem to be bothered too much by the unfortunate exposure so I fully expect to be eating them by late February. 

spinach

I went to the grocery store today and noticed price increases in canned beans, tomatoes and milk. I suspect that may be due to the continuing severe drought in California. It’s been said that our next wars will be over water instead of oil. Those of us lucky enough to live in a place with an annual rainfall of 52 inches don’t have to worry too much but that could change tomorrow. I like knowing that I can grow fresh food year round with very little irrigation necessary, but a few rain barrels under the downspouts is still a good insurance policy! But there’s been no increase in the costs of my beans and tomatoes-in fact, I want to show you the last four Longkeeper tomatoes I have been waiting on to ripen-we ate fresh tomatoes in our salads the day after Christmas and I suspect these last ones will fully ripen in the next week or two… note to self: plant earlier next summer so we’ll have enough to last through more of the winter.

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Starting the new year with boxes of locally grown apples and tangelos from Florida, white and sweet potatoes that still have our garden’s dirt clinging to them, baskets of butternut squashes, garlic and shallot bulbs, and all the other canned, frozen and dried goodies that I’ve put up and written about in the pages of this blog gives me a sense of gratitude and comfort. Having the skills needed to provide yourself with good food, regardless of winter storms or droughts, regardless of Peak Oil or ruined Fukushima nuclear reactors, will hold you steady all your life. No doubt I’ll suffer some losses to this extreme cold snap that’s headed our way-probably my beautiful rosemary bush or some of the fruits and berries that were planted last summer. But it’s not the end of the world, and the setbacks continue to teach me new lessons that were begun by my grandmother 60 years ago. The BEET goes on.

beets

1 comment


Christmas Simplified
November 30, 2013, 6:30 PM
Filed under: Buy Local, Local Food | Tags: ,

today

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christmas shop local

I’ve informed my grown kids and teen-aged grandkids that this year, when they visit from Ohio during the holidays, their gift from Michael and me will be the gift of experience. This just means we’ll take them somewhere fun they’ve never been before. I’m thinking a trip to  Wonder Works in Gatlinburg, or to the Blue Moon Dinner Theater to watch their production of ‘A Tuna Christmas’ and a spin around the skating rink at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Lights would make fine memories. Their time here will definitely include a meal at One Acre Cafe, a pizza dinner from Scratch and maybe even cupcakes from Cake Buds. But most of all, I want our gift to support local businesses and be something they’ll remember for years to come. Christmas simplified, fun and local.  I’ll let you know how it goes…

3 comments


Feeding Our Future
November 20, 2013, 5:21 PM
Filed under: beekeeping, Canning, Climate Change, Community Building, Community Gardens, Creating Community, Economic Collapse, Emergency Preparedness, Global Warming, Growing Food, Liveable Communities, Local Food, Mindful Consumerism, Peak Oil, Reducing Waste, Resilience, Sustainability, Urban Living | Tags: , , , , ,

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For those of you new to this blog, I moved to my 113 year old urban house in the summer of 2012 with a deliberate mission to grow a garden and cultivate a sense of community in my new neighborhood. Today my next door neighbor brought over two slices of still-warm lemon pound cake. I suspect she’d spotted my husband Michael a half hour before, trying to increase his stamina with the daily 2 minute walks he takes (still in his sleep pants!) from our back door to the alley and back, and thought to herself: “That poor old man! I should take him some cake!”. Whatever her reasons, we were both happy with her decision to share. Michael’s happiness was with the delicious cake. Mine was in the fact that I’ve FINALLY been able to ‘connect’ with her. (OK, I loved the cake too) All summer I’d left little bags or recycled butter bowls filled with tomatoes, peppers, herbs and more at her back door, picked fresh from our garden. We’d speak in the back yard, just polite ‘hellos’ and ‘how are yous’ but her kind gesture encourages me now to continue to get to know her, and her pound cake recipe! I’ve spoken lots more with her son and his pup than with her, finding out that they’ve lived there for over 6 years, he’s a grad student, and the dog’s name is Pippa. The point is, sometimes it can be difficult to ‘reach out and touch someone’ but almost everyone will eventually respond to small gestures of food and friendship.

Why do I care so much about getting to know the neighbors? Before moving to our urban home, we’d lived quite remotely in the country and I’d missed having neighbors during that 10 years, but it’s become more than that. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know that I am concerned that our country is facing an economic collapse-in our lifetime-right along with depleted energy and water sources and ever-increasing global temperatures that are already affecting everything in our lives from food supplies to wildlife. To that end, I’ve learned how to grow food for my family, can and preserve it, and cook our meals from scratch. That alone has given me much peace of mind, and empowered me to discover other resiliency strategies. I’ve learned to live by the adage of “use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”. Our home is stocked with several months worth of food, fuel and water, we stay out of debt and try to  live simply but still yet, I realize there is no hope for any of us outside of a community. We must learn to work with our neighbors in developing sustainable lifestyles based upon reduced consumption and sharing of resources. What good will it do for me to have food and water supplies when my neighbors are hungry and thirsty? How long could WE eat on what I have stored? What if there were bank failures in this country, like the ones in Cyprus this past spring? How would we access cash once the ATM’s were empty? What if there was a massive power failure for an extended period of time? There would be looting and  rioting if folks in the South couldn’t buy their Mountain Dew and Moonpies, I tell ya! How would we pump gas into our cars, light our homes, cook or stay warm? How would we flush the toilets and clean our clothes? Do you ever think about these what if’s? I do, and the only way I can rest easy is by being prepared for those scenarios. That includes making sure that my neighbors are too. Then, if those things never happen, we’ve simply got a well stocked pantry and a productive garden, right along with extra toothpaste and a support system too.

I write often about how these changing times demand that we grow a strong local economy. Michael and I have been attending bimonthly meetings for the local ‘Liveable Communities’ group and are greatly encouraged by the sharing and feeling of ‘we’re all in this together’ that we get from the group, but liveable communities really start right. next. door. This holiday season, why not use the natural conviviality of the season to get to know your neighbors better- perhaps take them a card and some cookies, signed with your name and address so they can remember you later too? (I intend to put the internet address of this blog on the cards I hand out too, hoping they’ll read it and get interested in ‘feeding our future’ as well.)  I left a card for a neighbor congratulating her on the new beehives I’d spotted in the driveway, and later, when we made a face to face connection, she told me she’d wept when she read the card because she had been so worried about having the bees and how the neighborhood might react to them. She and I are friends now, and she tells me she’ll let me work with her in her hives next spring! I’ve begun talking to another neighbor about his struggling bread baking business, brainstorming with him on the feasibility of building a COMMUNAL outdoor wood-fired oven at the Community Garden next spring. (would the city EVER allow that? We intend to find out!) Not only are we working on ways to build a local foods network, at the same time we’re having fun building friendships and feeding the future. This poster hangs in my kitchen. May it offer you some hope and inspiration too:

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5 comments


Loco for Local
October 31, 2013, 4:52 PM
Filed under: Climate Change, Growing Food, Local Food, mulch, Resilience, Seed Saving, Sustainability | Tags: ,

I attended a lecture last night at Emory and Henry College given by Gary Nahban, a renowned scientist and local foods pioneer. He explained that with the challenges that climate change presents for gardeners, farmers and ranchers, there are ‘best practices’ that are being developed and already being used (in the Southwest) to address those challenges. Practices like building greater moisture-holding capacity and nutrients in soil, (by adding compost and organic matter) protecting our gardens and fields from damaging winds, drought and floods by planting trees, harvesting rainwater, and creating swales and raingardens, reducing heat stress on crops and livestock and, selecting fruits, nuts, succulents and herbaceous perennials that are best suited to a warmer, drier climate can all be used to coax production and increase sustainability. One other thing that he is a big proponent of is seed saving. Seeds saved from plants that have been isolated from other varieties like it and that produced healthy offspring without being coddled during their production periods are going to be the best candidates. Seed saving is a radical resilience idea by the way, something I’ve written about ad nauseum in this blog.

I’ve been thinking about handing out little packets of Hopi Orange Lima Bean seeds tonight, right along with the little candy bars, to my Trick or Treaters. The seeds are not only beautiful, they just happen to be Halloween colors! So, what do you think? Have I gone completely ‘loco for local’ with this idea?

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I’ve long been fascinated with these beans, because I happen to believe the Native Americans knew what the hell they were doing and all we need to do is relearn what they figured out long ago to continue to thrive on this warming planet, while using fewer resources to do it. The plants are extremely drought and heat resistant and when dried, can be ground for flour too. The flour can then be used to dredge tasty little goblins in before adding to the kettle:

hallowween

Happy Halloween Ya’ll! Stay safe tonight!

9 comments


A Bog Blog or: More Local Food News
October 13, 2013, 9:07 PM
Filed under: Buy Local, Climate Change, Growing Food, Healthy food, Local Food, Resilience, Seasonal Eating | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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Look carefully into the center of this clump of Native grasses…do  you see them? They’re cranberries, growing in a wild, Southern Appalachian cranberry bog! What does that mean? They are exactly 33 miles from my front door, which means we can now add CRANBERRIES to the list of local foods that CAN be grown in NE Tennessee. I didn’t even know about them when I wrote last week about our ’emerging local food economy’. Now, even though it’s a little blurry because it’s a close up, I wanted you to see how delicious they look:

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Michael and I drove over to Shady Valley, TN yesterday to attend their annual Cranberry Festival and even though the food, crafts and music were top-notch, the thing that grabbed our attention the most was the tour we got to take of the wetlands and stream restoration work that is taking place on 150 acres that is owned by The Nature Conservancy. Their little 1/4 acre bog preserve is being nurtured into existence by many dedicated volunteers. They have also established cranberry nursery beds, which were in full fruit right now. The Shady Valley Ruritan Club established the beds in 2008 for the purpose of propagating native cranberries and keeping alive the genetic strains from Shady Valley’s five distinct cranberry colonies. Cuttings and plants from these nursery beds provide stock that is transplanted elsewhere in the Conservancy’s restoration area.

More cool news: the endangered ‘bog turtle’ which is only 4″ and a native of this area is making a reappearance in the newly established bog. This little guy feeds on water insects and plants that are typically found in cranberry bogs. No turtle soup for you!

Bog_Turtle

Turns out the festival celebrates a history and heritage dating back centuries to when the valley was filled with wild cranberry bogs left over from the last ice age. More recently, residents of the valley would gather each fall to pick the locally grown cranberries and the resulting harvest became a time for celebration. Now don’t misunderstand: there’s not enough berries yet to go around but, God willing, and if the creeks DO rise, there will be ‘enough’ some day soon to go around. One of the conservationists explained the primary reasons the original bogs failed to thrive was because the water tables had been lowered so drastically by man’s engineering of streams and of course by beaver dams as well. The conservancy has worked hard to restore those streams back to their original paths. This little bog is meant to be natural, with only enough moisture needed to keep the plants’ roots wet, but the guide explained that irrigation would be another way to grow cranberries. Not necessarily a better way, simply another way.

Why am I writing about cranberry bogs? Because I want to get us all thinking about the traditional foods that are grown in our personal food sheds, wherever that might be. The foods that are local and native to your area are easiest to grow and will be sure winners in the future global competition for low energy food sources amidst major climate change. I want YOU to share with growers and CSA owners and market vendors and even  your favorite gardener that you’d LOVE to buy their locally grown cranberries (and pecans and cushaw squash too-see recipe below) As I find out about more foods that once were, or could be again, part of our emerging local food economy here in Southern Appalachia (and I’m sure there are plenty more!) I’ll be sure to pass them along to you. In the meantime, here’s a great recipe that uses all three!

Cranberry Cushaw Bread

bread

Yield: 1 loaf

Cranberry Cushaw Bread is the perfect escape from all of the typical Pumpkin recipes at this time of the year! Enjoy this delicious bread over coffee in the morning or for dessert at night while standing over the kitchen sink. (full disclosure: I haven’t made this recipe, but I’m sure going to-it’s ‘the season’ for all its major ingredients!)

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon all spice
a pinch of cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup cushaw puree
1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen whole cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and line a 9 inch loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving 1 inch of parchment paper hanging over two sides of the pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the first 9 ingredients.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Add brown sugar and cushaw puree, whisking until well combined.

Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the center. Using a large spatula or wooden spoon, gently fold together until there are no lumps. Then carefully fold in the cranberries and pecans.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 55-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Be careful not to over bake this bread or it can become dry. Let bread rest in the loaf pan for 20 minutes before removing.

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