A Moment of Triumph

Inventory Update

It's been a bit since I've updated the inventory list. Plus, we got our first Spring CSA box last week, and I have a picture I can post too. Still, I needed to get my Winter recap post up over at the Eat Local Challenge blog.

The latest inventory includes a shopping spree at Robin's last Winter Market and the arrival of our first box from Farmer Vicki as well as a trip to Madison a few weeks ago.

The previous inventory report; from there you can follow the embedded links to all the inventory reports/updates. In addition, you can click the tag for storage to the right.

One very apparent thing, from the reports, is that we never came close to running out of food this winter. Even when it seemed like onions would be our sole vegetable, we seemed to run across stocks of indoor lettuces and such. It gave needed variety to the diet. The family also took very much this winter to mushrooms. We ate a dish from cultivated Wisconsin mushrooms about once a week. Eating local this winter was doable first by the discovery of our attic and the ever staying natural refrigeration. We stocked away enough food, and it stayed stocked away until needed. It was further doable, in a great way, by the supplies provided by Robin and her winter markets, Cassie and her Green Grocer and Irv and Shelly and their Fresh Picks. As I wrote today on the Eat Local Challenge Blog. I am here to tell you it is possible to go all Winter eating local in the Chicago area.

The current inventory/recent changes to the inventory:

Cranberries - They wait for...?

Celery - My plans to preserve the celery, like so many of many preservation ideas, has fallen by the way side. We've been using, a few stalks at a time.

Herbs - rosemary, thyme, basil, cilantro, mint, oregano - We purchased everything AquaRanch was selling a few weeks ago.

Winter squash - Our pace right now is: toss one about every two weeks; that still leaves about five. Like cranberries, the problem is, who wants squash now?

Keeper onions - We got got three or four in our CSA box, but have already used them; these stocks are getting pretty low.

Sweet potatoes - Blink and its gone. I thought the remaining sweet potatoes would last until Passover, but low and behold some mold found them. All gone.

Garlic - We are very good here.

Cabbage - A head of red cabbage remains from the winter, tired but eatable.

Sunchokes - I peeked in on the sunchokes last week, about 25% were going/gone. As I say, tired but eatable.

Carrots - The time of carrot restraint has past. We have stocks as well as new supplies from Vicki. The newest, wide "over-wintered" (i.e., stored in the ground) went into one of the trio of Bistro salads I made the other night.

Parsnips -Hanging in there.

Potatoes - OK, plus some reds from Vicki last week.

Apples - All Winter long, Robin's been talking about the apples being stored away by Hillside Orchards. They finally came out at her last market. We got some but have ate them already. We are still working through a big bag of Michigan red delicious from Costco.

Lettuce - Long on lettuce. It took so long to finish the mondo head from Vicki that we tossed before it was over. We picked up the last bags available at Madison; then got a few more from AquaRanch, and we got a head of butter lettuce in our CSA.

Microgreens/Sprouts - At Madison, my daughter took an over generous sample from one bag. After buying that, we had about four bags of sprouts/micro-greens in the bungalow. They go in the kidz lunch a lot.

Mushrooms - We picked up mushrooms both in Madison and at Robin's last market. Most of them have been eaten.

Celery root - I finally used the celery root, with remoulade as part of the Bistro salad trio.

Burdock root - 1 lb - No change, but I'm not quite sure where it is.

Wild watercress - Some, maybe.

Arugula - See lettuce, we keep on getting.

Beets - Local beets from Whole Foods (they swear!) as well as some from Vicki last week. The last of the Bistro salads.

Kale - From the CSA box.

Local Pantry
Cheeses, yogurt, eggs, noodles, pork, beef, lamb, bacon, granola, grains, milk, cream