Natural food, sustainability, and delicious living.
So, last Tuesday was our final Hellgate CSA distribution of 2011. I won’t deny that it will be strange not picking up later tonight. What we got last week was:
1 bunch lacinato kale
1 celeriac
1 pound carrots
1 pound rutabagas
1 head cauliflower
1 bag sunchokes
I’ve eaten half the kale and carrots. The sunchokes were used for carrot-sunchoke fritters. Celeriac for remoulade. Rutabagas will be for roasting, as will the cauliflower.
As I eat more and more real food, I find myself craving more meat; I’ve sure come a far ways from the vegetarian days of my youth that consisted of a lot of soy. I still eat plenty of meatless meals, but meat is taking more of my attention these days. And since I’ve learned to braise tough cuts of meat until they turn into silky, flavorful meals, it will be even easier to eat meat on a budget.
I also attempt to be as thoughtful as possible when I’m buying meat. We do not cook conventionally-raised meat in this house, and instead we gravitate toward grass-fed and wild meats. They are better for everyone involved – the animal, the human consumer, and the environment – and in my opinion, these meats are just plain tastier. Sometimes I eat conventional meat, but it’s not as often as it used to be, and it’s always outside the home.
When I was a kid, I loved hamburgers; as an adult, I love them, too. I’ll admit – I like consuming meat that is ground up, including sausages. So, I’m fortunate to have a burger place that recently opened up near my apartment that serves organic, grass-fed burgers: Bareburger.
Continue reading “Bareburger – Grass Fed Burgers in Astoria, Queens”
As I have mentioned before, I’m one of the organizers of the Queens Swap, a food swap based in the borough of Queens. We are one of two organized food swaps in NYC. Another one is coming, though, focused on traditional foods (called the Traditional Food Swap), which is very exciting. You better believe I’ll be participating!
I am happy that Queens Swap got to welcome another organizer on the team: AJ Simone, my friend and fellow food fanatic (and super crafter) from the blog Handjobs (For the Home). He really helped make this event a success.
Anyway, we held our second food swap on Saturday, at Fresh Start Market in Astoria. We used their back patio, which is where we do our Hellgate CSA distributions, so it was a really familiar space for us. It turned out to be a perfect amount of space for our group, with enough room to spread out all the swappable items, along with space for refreshments (lemonade, cookies, olive chips and wasabi popcorn) and room for socializing.
While shopping at one of my local produce markets (Greenline Organic aka “The Tiki Hut” because of the thatched overhang), I checked their cheese section and found they carry this 5 Spoke Creamery raw cheddar from Port Chester, NY (that’s near the Connecticut border). I saw that it is raw, and decided to check it out. It is delicious!
I was particularly impressed with how the Redmond Cheddar melted in the quesadillas I had for lunch (raw cheddar and CSA tomato between two Tortilleria Nixtamal corn tortillas, fried in pasture butter) today. I also snacked on it a bit and found it very satisfying. It has a wonderful texture.
I’m really happy that a delicious raw cheddar is so close at hand!
A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting the garden of new friends in the neighborhood, WT and Erich; I met them at our last WHA blogger social. They are the forces behind Gardenfreude, a terrific Astoria blog about food, health, gardening, design, and knitting. I hear they are excellent knitters and make some amazing sweaters and things over the winters (I, on the other hand, can make a scarf and a hat, but that’s about it). They are also passionate gardeners, and we three connected over gardening and food especially.
Their garden is quite large, especially for NYC standards. They have an arrangement with their neighbors to use their yard, which gives them a lot of land to work with. In face, they currently only use half the yard, but have gotten the green light to use the rest of the space, so they have plans to expand next spring.
A couple weekends ago, I visited the Socrates Greenmarket for the first time – what a great market! It’s small, but packs a punch in its offerings. There, you can find all sorts of vegetables, fruit, bread, honey, juice, and even duck.
Apart from wanting to check it out for personal reasons, I went there as part of a meetup event with the Traditional Community Kitchen, a Meetup group focused on real, whole, unprocessed and traditional foods (I’m a co-organizer with them). Members come from a wide range of backgrounds – from those that follow a Nourishing Traditions way of eating, to Paleo, to vegan and vegetarian. Our events are a lot of fun, and the meetup at the Greenmarket didn’t disappoint.
We met around 11am and proceeded to take a tour of the market with the market manager, Markella Los. She took us to each stand and talked a little bit about the farmers and the farm and what they had to offer. It was really interesting and so nice to have more insight into each market vendor.
Continue reading “Socrates Greenmarket and Mexican Panzanella”
Over the weekend, New York City got socked by Hurricane Irene. We weren’t harmed at all at our apartment, but there was some damage in Astoria – mostly trees uprooted, some flooding, and no doubt some buildings were affected structurally. Some lost power – a small percentage, but the percentage size doesn’t really matter if you are the one without power. I lived through the 2006 Western Queens blackout, and was without power for 7 days – I don’t wish that kind of experience on anyone.
We did prepare – we have a hand crank flashlight, which is cool; I bought an extra lighting wand in case we needed to light the stove manually; I bought extra batteries, and some candles. I even bought some baby wipes in case we were out of water for washing (our bathtub does not have stopper, so we couldn’t fill it). I filled up glass containers with water, as well as my 16 quart stockpot, so we’d have something to drink in case the water supply became problematic. We also had enough non-perishable food, plus I harvested a bowl of garden food Friday morning before everything hit.
Saturday night, we treated ourselves to taco salad without the chips, made from grass fed/finished beef from the CSA and Taco Salad seasoning from Kate at Modern Alternative Mama. We love it and prefer it to the stuff in the taco seasoning packet. Topped it with tomatoes from the garden, some raw cheddar from Washington, and raw red onions.
We waited for things to get really bad, as a tornado watch and warning was declared for all of last night. However, I feel asleep around 11pm and slept like a rock – I didn’t hear a thing over night! A few hours after I got up this morning, the eye had passed us and we were on the south side of the storm. The hurricane was pretty uneventful for me, from my perspective. I’ll know more tomorrow, though, after I check the garden and backyard.
My friend Lia took some pictures of our local park, which was flooded to an extent. Here are some shots (used with permission).
I’m really, really glad the hurricane wasn’t nearly as destructive as it threatened to be. Glad we were prepared, too – it makes a huge difference. The city was prepared – some believe over-prepared – but I’d rather they be that than dropping the ball.
I hear the week should start out with beautiful weather, too! Monday morning should be a great time to go for a run, too – a welcome change after being cooped up most of the weekend.