A first

Ever restored a chair?  Not me.  But I felt like I needed a little project.

I was excited to find this charming, little chair sitting on the curb for trash pick up.  I'll show you the finished product when I get there.  I'm liking having this little productive project on the side.  If I can ever finish ALL the sanding {sigh....;-}.  Do you have any projects that you're working on?  Perhaps something for Christmas?

Feasting on Florida Food

It's about time, right?

 
Here's what our place looked like Thanksgiving week.  I thought I would be able to continue posting my local food eating, but as you can see from the date on the last post -- my expectations for myself were too high!

My job during that week was to keep trouble little people out of the way - therefore - out of the house.

I did miss a few days of eating locally, however, I still feel like I've benefited from the challenge.  Those of you who participated, I hope this has been a good experience for you, too.  I've  tried some new recipes - some that will definitely be repeated - and have increased my knowledge of where to look to locate the local.  I think I can call it a success.

The Kumquat

Perfect for little hands to hold.  The peel is my favorite part to eat.

Halfway

I know.  What is a blog post without picures, right?

Yesterday: Navel orange and grapefruit sections.

Today: Salad with lettuce from the garden, adding our mint; Roasted honey gold potatoes with olive oil, kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and our rosemary. 

Anyone eat anything local recently?

In honor of my Seattle heritage...

and Jimi Hendrix, we have purple haze carrots growing in the second garden bed, along with broccoli and beets.

Days 9 - 13

Last week was a bit overwhelming.  I'll try to be a better blogger this week.  But, I have been eating locally.  Lots of sweet citrus over here - grapefruit and navel oranges; waffles with some Thomas wildflower honey; cucumber and peppers from KYV Farm; herbs from my garden; and finally, some lettuce from the garden, too. 

 Ooh, and some delicious pecans that a kind neighbor brought by the other day.  Now, they aren't Florida grown, but they're coming from a couple hours north of here, in Georgia.  So, I'm considering them local.  We've been cracking those open today, along with some hazlenuts I picked up at the store.  I sat down with my husband at the dining table after church today, enjoying his company, while cracking open some hazlenuts, pecans and eating slices of grapefruit.  Maybe we don't know how to crack open nuts, because  some of the shells were shooting across the room.  We laughed and the kids were playing well together.  It was a nice Sunday afternoon.

Days 7 & 8

Yesterday: Rosa Bianca egglants from KYV Farm.  I've eaten eggplant before, but didn't care for it.  I thought I'd give it a try again.  They're so pretty, how could they not taste good?  But they DID NOT taste good to me.  I felt like I was eating a big mushroom.  And, mushrooms aren't my thing.  I sliced the eggplant into 1/4" thick discs, covered them in olive oil and some grated parmesan, and baked them in the oven .  I tried... oh well. 

Today:  Made some Rosemary bread,  The recipe calls for dried rosemary, but I picked some from my garden.  I made it in my bread machine and it turned out well.  I think next time I will make the dough in my bread machine and then take it out to bake.  I feel like baked bread from the bread machine comes out differently than bread from the oven, don't you think?  It was light and had the perfect amount of sweet rosemary taste to it.  

quick visit to Switzerland

Switzerland Florida, that is.

Lovely organic vegetables grown thirty minutes from my home.

Just as a baby in utero needs the last month for fattening up, this tree needs a couple cold snaps to sweeten up.  Almost ready to deliver.  Can't wait.

 

The ladies.

Hello, Henrietta.

This is Miss Maggie Moo, just two days old. 

Days 5 & 6

cucumbers + yum-yum peppers + carrots + *grape tomatoes

Last week I was doing a lot of single parenting and this week looks like it will be similar.  My husband is beginning a trial at the courthouse tomorrow. It's difficult for me, but harder for him.  He hates to be away from our family, and the boys don't understand that he has to do it.  He misses us and we miss him.  I suppose we'll make it work, as we always do.  For this week, the local food I eat will most likely be very simple and basic (more than usual).  I'm not so concerned about fancy meals as I am about having happy, content children.  I may miss days of local food eating or some days I might just swig down a glass of Florida OJ, and call it a day.  Please bear with me.

Last night, plate of veges; some of them from KYV Farm.  I so enjoyed visiting a part of KYV this weekend.   I have yet to see the 100 acres of farmland, ten minutes down the road from the family's home (where I visited).  I plan to tour the farm in the near future. The part we visited Saturday was the chicken and citrus portion of the farm. 

Tonight, cucumbers from KYV, with some ranch.  Keepin' it real - real simple, that is.

*purchased from my every day grocer, grown in Boynton Beach, Florida.

Days 3 & 4

Yesterday was my husband's birthday, so we celebrated with fresh basil and sweet campari tomato pizza.  The basil came from my small herb garden, on the side of our house.  It's hard to see the basil; it's there though, buried under the cheese.  ;-) Along with the mozarella I added some parmesan, because you can almost never have too much cheese.

Instead of cake we had pie - Key Lime Pie, my husband's favorite.  Wish I could say I made it with fresh Florida limes, but we had to settle with lime juice from another place.  Summer is the peak time for limes here.

Today, a glass of Florida orange juice and a couple slices of local grapefruit.

Day 2

Local grapefruit + a pinch of salt.  It was so yummy! 

I've received some emails and comments on the local food you've been eating.  Great work!  It may sound silly, but I get excited when I see a note from you telling me what you've found.  I know some of you who are participating are from other parts of the country.  It's interesting to see what is growing in your area at this time.  At the end of the week I'll make a post of all of our local finds!  Keep it up!  It's never to late to start.

Local Sustenance Day 1

Mid-morning I concocted a tasty smoothie with my FLORIDA tangerines. 

tangerines + bananas + frozen berries + spinach + oj

I enjoyed it and felt good about including some local food, even if it is just a small addition.  I figure it's a start.

And it must have been good.  Just look at his face.  Babies aren't good fakers.

The Challenge Begins...

Tomorrow!  Even if you can't participate every day, it's okay.  Do what you can. 

Over the weekend I shopped at my every day grocer and picked up some local food.  Let's just say citrus time is just beginning in La Florida.  Mmm... my favorite.

A few places to look for the local goods:

• your every day grocer
• health food store
• Wal-Mart  (WM is now the nation's largest purchaser of local produce.  Did you know this?  News to me!)
• farmers' markets
• CSA's
• farms and U-Picks
• grow your own food!

Send me pictures of the local food you're finding and I'll post them to the blog -- miltonsara@gmail.com, or leave me a comment.  Good luck and have fun!  I can't wait to see what you find!

Week 5 in my backyard

Looking at the garden pictures from one week ago I see a considerable increase in the amount of green.  My garden is growing!  The satsuma tree has birthed one lonely satsuma.  We weren't expecting much from our citrus tree until next Fall, but this little one was a pleasant surprise.  The red leaf lettuce is changing with the leaves on the trees; the hammock is up and plenty of lounging has been going on in the cool breeze.  My three year old lays very still in it, hanging his toddler legs over the side.  I've always been impressed with his ability to abruptly halt play, making time to kick back and relax; a rare thing for someone so young, and a good reminder to me that sometimes the answer is simply to: 

s  l  o  w    d  o  w  n . 

And, since 80% of our household is male, and we have a couple of foam swords lying around, sword fights are inevitable. 

There you have it - week five for my little garden.  Year five for my oldest little person.  There's a whole lot of growing going on over here!

Local Farm

A perfect way for you to get fresh, seasonal produce is to become a member of a CSA - Community Supported Agriculture.  When you become a CSA member to a particular farm, you are buying a share of the season's harvest.  A CSA is all about offering what the season brings.  As a member, your money goes to operating the farm -- seeds, equipment maintenance, labor, and so on .  And in return, you get a bagful of freshly picked produce.  So...

You are eating with the seasons.
Your food couldn't be fresher.
You can build a relationship with the person growing your food. 
You can know exactly how your food is grown (organic, without pesticides and fertilizers, etc.)
You support small, local business and they support you. 

Doesn't that sound wonderful?

KYV Farm is a local (for you Northeastern Floridians) organic family farm/CSA.  I found it in my search for locating the local for next month's challenge.  I'm thrilled to have found this local jewel!  I'm going to take a tour of the farm sometime soon.  Anyone want to join?

Only ONE week until the local food eating challenge begins!

fall garden week 4

some lettuce from the Mesclun Mix is 5" tall!

baby bibb.

more from the mesclun.

 

 

trail of kale.

 

 

 

My little helper in the garden.  Sweet boy.

The Locavore Challenge!

Here it is: Eat locally for 30 days.  

This may sound daunting, but don't let it be!  Allow me to explain...  You do not need to prepare an entire meal with as many local ingredients as you can dig up -- although you may. 

What it does mean -- eat ONE local thing a day. 

A locavore is someone who makes an effort to eat food that is grown, raised, or produced within a 100-mile radius of home.  Let's broaden the "local" boundaries to mean anything in your state.  You could pull a few mint leaves from your potted mint and toss it into your salad; or, spread a teaspoon of local honey on your toast; another idea, you could roast a halved squash that you purchased from your neighborhood farmer's market.  This can be as simple or as complex as you'd like it to be.  It is up to you.

By doing this we may not be making a huge change in our diet yet but, it will push us to search out what our surrounding area has to offer - because it is there!  And, our local food growers need us and we need them! This will give us knowledge.  And, knowledge empowers us!

We will begin November 1st.  This way you have time to hop on the internet and locate the local.  Any sort of organic grocer will have items; your neighborhood farmer's market; even your common, every day grocery store is likely to have some things.

You may email me pictures that you'd like to share on this blog of the local foods you added to your daily diet.  I would love to see what you're eating (and others would enjoy too, if others are out there... hope you are!). Or, you may simply leave a comment about what you ate that day.  If you can't do this every day, that's ok.  Keep on trying throughout November.  Eat locally as often as you can.  This isn't about us making a great change to our diets, but rather it gives us the knowledge we need to start making changes.  Perhaps you will try some new fun recipes along the way!  This will be just as challenging for you as it will be for me.  Until now my local food purchases are few. And, if you are already living this way -- WONDERFUL!  Please share your knowledge with us!

Ooh -- this is going to be fun!  Begin searching now.

Sara's S's

STRAIGHT FROM THE GROUND

Ok. So you may rinse your food off first.  But otherwise -- leave your food WHOLE - in its natural state - as much as you can.  The less our food is altered, the better it is for our bodies.

SIMPLE

Eat simply.  This goes hand-in-hand with eating our food straight from the ground.  Prepare your meals with few ingredients.  Not only will it save you money on your grocery bills, but it was what your body was made to consume.  

SURROUNDING AREA

In other words, eat locally.  By eating food grown in your surrounding area you have more control over it.  Consider the pesticides used or the path taken to grow and transport a banana from Central America up to your grocery store. It is impossible to know all the variables.  This is only the tip of 'the importance of eating locally' iceberg.

SEASON

We can all agree that it's a beautiful thing to eat a red, ripe strawberry year-round.  But, I believe that our bodies were made to eat what the Season brings.  For example, the time for berries is Summer; Wintertime yields meat, as vegetables and fruit do not typically grow during this, the coldest season of the year.

I am not a pro at my four S's, but I fully believe that our bodies were meant to eat according to them.  I think I'd like to try harder.  Maybe a 30-day challenge. Hmmm... Any ideas?  And, any takers?

seeds sprouting

It's begun!

charming little bibb

heart-shaped kale

red leaf from a mesclun mix

and, spinach.

week three