As part of the Keep it Local challenge, we have pledged to make one meal per week from only local ingredients. You can see the rules of the challenge here.
For this week’s meal, I deemed that “Ontario produce and meat” was local enough. Next week, it’s going to be much more local… More on that next Sunday.
On the menu this week:
Summer patty pan squash and zucchini from Dolway Organic Garden, eggplant and green pepper from Healthy Organic Produce Enterprises, an Amish co- operative near Aylmer (read about it here) as delivered to us from Front Door Organics. FDO also delivered some gorgeous local fingerling potatoes and a green pepper (farm not specified). Also some local Chinese eggplant, leftover from last week’s Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 dinner.
For the protein part of the meal, we opted for sausages from Rowe Farms. This is where our pig belly for the BLT challenge comes from, and you can read about their farmers here.
We bought two kinds – French farmhouse and spicy Mexican. LOVE the ingredients non-list:
To round out the meal, we added some rosemary from our garden:
and some basil:
and of course, what’s a local meal without a local wine?
(sadly, this picture reflects my life a bit right now – local wine – for the blog, of course! – the tomatoes, source of much concern as in “will they be ready for next weekend’s BLT meal or will they be overripe?” and my laptop – for the blog, of course!).
We bought the wine on a trip to Prince Edward County last fall when we went there with my mum and dad, visiting from Sydney. LOVED this vineyard – they also make wonderful cider!
For the meal, we simply grilled the vegetables in the oven (not my choice but our BBQ burner needs replacing) and added some basil at the last minute:
We par-boiled the potatoes and then sautéed them, adding some rosemary at the last minute.
And voilà: Local Meal #1
Check out the rest of this week’s entries here (note link no longer valid).
Yum! Great meal!
Love the plural "onion powders". It's really not oniony enough with just one powder, I guess.
I think it might be garlic powder and onion powder but love your idea of it not being oniony enough!!
I share the same passion-Eating and traveling!
Your dishes this week look great. The challenge to eat locally is a great one. I strive to do the same thing. Some weeks I am more successful than others 🙂
Nice blog post!
Thanks Velva! I know – we all have good intentions but sometimes life gets in the way! This challenge – one local meal a week – is totally do-able for us though!
perhaps local eating will return us to the days when we had "seasonal" fruit and veg. These days, everything is always in season because if it's not, it's flown/shipped in from somewhere else. The seasonal change disappeared and great pity too…
Geoff – well the organic delivery has taught us to be better at eating seasonally – especially in the winter when tons of stuff like kale and chard are delivered!!
Looked really beautiful Mardi
Pam
Yay mum – you figured out how to comment! Yes, you would have approved of the meal!
What a great challenge! I am fortunate to be a member of a local CSA, so a majority of what I have made lately has been all local (with the exception of some olive oil and seasonings here and there)… But it's so great knowing that you're supporting local agriculture and eating healthier at the same time!
Thanks for commenting Jen – it certainly is great to start becoming more aware of where the food comes from!
what a great looking meal! i wish we had a rowe farms here in our area – it looks like they have a nice selection of local meats.