Cider!

Is anyone else as incredibly excited as I am that the first Hoch Orchards apple cider came in today?!  It's the first batch, so it's a little tart...but it's incredible as always.  

I keep pouring myself a little jelly jar of it (you know, so I don't drink it all tonight).  But then I keep refilling my little jar. So far I've had 3 and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon.

Yum!!!!

The home stretch

So we're down to the last week.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm losing a little bit of steam on my local challenge.  I'm not necessarily eating less locally, but I'm just not blogging about it as much because I'm not thinking about it as much.  

 I really had no clue that I'd be able to eat so local for so long without feeling deprived.  When we started this back in June I thought I'd fall way off the wagon by the time the official local challenge started.  And I've certainly not eaten 80% local the entire 3 months, but it's been pretty close.  And all in all, it's not as hard as I thought it would be.  I mean, sure, I miss avocados and bananas.  But I'll  eat all the apples and raspberries I can while they're local.

I think I'm worried that if the challenge is not in the forefront of my mind (like it was for the first few months) then I won't stick with it.  It's sort of like when I first became a vegetarian back in 6th grade and used to have nightmares about eating hamburgers because I my dream I'd forget that I was a vegetarian.  But just like I rarely think about not eating meat now, I'm thinking less and less about eating local...even while I do it.  

Like today I barely cooked anything.  I grabbed a few berries from the backyard this morning before heading off to meet some friends.  I had leftover roasted baby red potatoes (from WI) with homemade hummus (MN chickpeas) for lunch.  Then I snacked on some homemade salsa and chips in the middles of the day and stopped at the Wedge while in Minneapolis for my dinner (Their deli's collard greens are awesome!).  Not too shabby.  

So I think local might be a long-term partner of mine now.  We've passed the lusty obsessive phase and have seen each other with ratty hair and morning breath...and we're still together.  

Anyone Else Feeling A Little Fractured These Days?

I've got to admit, the turmoil of our normally pleasant city this week has really distracted me from eating locally.

Not that I'm not eating locally, but I haven't found myself focusing on it with my usual gourmet gusto. Trying to keep groceries on the shelf at work (apparently, a fair amount of "anarchists" are omnivores) & spending my free time watching live feeds of citizen journalists being stomped & regular citizens terrified (not to mention a fair amount of internal conflict as to why I wasn't out getting stomped) has kind of... dampened my enthusiasm. It's hard to eat when you are angry.

So it's been a lot of local hot dogs & salsa, of late.

I did find time to wrap up the beef stock saga with a tasty soup made with leftovers & bulk staples, however:

Local beef broth & pastured lamb, with kale & barley.

The broth & bits of tender lamb were leftovers, the onion & kale were from my last allotment of farm goodies, & the barley is just one of many local items in our bulk bins at the Market (& a very useful thing to have around the house).

It has certainly been a wild, & often disturbing, week. But at least soup is non-partisan & good for you!



-nano out.