Buying Local: Week 6

We still have so much produce from our CSA share last week. Thank goodness we did not get the full share where we would pick up every week.

Since we still had so much to work through, we did not visit the farmers market this past weekend. We needed to concentrate on what we had left!

 

We ate everything with an “X” through it. The others we are still working on! 

 

A variety of recipes were tried this week. We had some pasta with sauteed spinach and spring onions one day.  One night was veggie pizza night and I am usually against having vegetables on my pizza, but it was delicious! We used the broccoli raab and asparagus for that. Kale and quinoa were also on the menu one night.

In order to work through some of the spinach, I forced myself to start making some smoothies as well.

What We Bought:

• Oberweis milk from family farms around IL and WI
• Turano bread from Berwyn, IL
• Greenridge Farm lunchmeat from Elk Grove Village, IL
• A couple other things that don’t make it under the local label

What We Learned:

• Shaved asparagus pizza is amazing! Check out the recipe.
• Our blender is really bad (we have no idea where or who it came from)

Buying Local: Week 5 & 1st CSA Share

We had been waiting in anticipation for our first CSA share and oh boy it was a lot of greens! Our box was jam packed with goodies and I am excited to eat the produce that I know and the new ones as well.

What We Bought (all from CSA box):

• Baby leaf Salonova Lettuce
• Avon Spinach
• Red rover radishes
• Red spring onions
• Russet potatoes
• Rapini (Broccoli Raab)
• Asparagus
• Red Russian Kale
• Earliglow Strawberries (plus an extra box because I love strawberries)

What We Learned:

• I have gotten a little caught up in trying to get everything local that I really forget how I originally laid this challenge out. We were going to focus on produce, meat, dairy, and eggs, and I basically forgot that. Back to focusing on those main pieces from now on.
• Is local olive oil even possible?
• CSA shares are awesome
• We are so glad we got the half CSA share, where we get a box every other week, instead of every week. We would need a bigger refrigerator!
• We can bring back our CSA box to the farmers market for them to reuse #score
• We are going to have to start making smoothies
• Rapini tastes like leafy broccoli and we are in love!

Starting Tomorrow: Local Food Only

Since making the decision to purchase a CSA share this summer, K and I also decided to take it up a notch.

We figured we were already devoting ourselves to local produce, why not add in locally sourced dairy, meat, and other staples? Since I will have to walk over to the farmers market every week to pick up our share, we might as well grab some eggs and meat too.

How we are defining local:

350 miles from Chicago

(Basically, it is about how far a truck can travel in a single day)

What is included:

• Produce
• Meat
• Dairy products & eggs

What is not included:

• Going out to eat
• Eating at other people’s homes

Potential Benefits:

• An increase in vegetable intake
• A decrease in meat intake
• A decrease in processed foods
• A decrease in food packaging, so less waste
• A decrease in GHG used to transport our food around
• A decrease in our  waistlines

Potential Costs:

• $$$$

While our CSA share does not start until June, we are starting when our local farmers market returns outside tomorrow.

HRC telling us how it is on Sesame Street 1993.