Monday, October 06, 2008

The Return of Inventory

Updated 10/7/08 and 10/14/08

From December 2007 until May of 2008, I tracked how our eat local attempts were working by tracking the local food we had in the Bungalow. Starting in May, when eating local was more about what we purchased each week instead of what we had laying around each week, I took to chronicling our weekly acquisitions. Since the launch of the Local Beet, I have been reporting on the latest purchases there--an update should be online tomorrow, until then, here's the last tally. This is a transition period for the locavore. The supplies of local food remain high enough to support weekly eating, but the time is also now to put-away. We have started buying food for storage. Also, my wife did a bit of cleaning up today, so we got a better handle on some of the vegetables that remain from earlier. Thus, it is a good time to re-report the inventory. Note, we have been canning, drying and freezing and otherwise looking ahead all the time. These preserved foods play a role in our off-season eating, but will not be separately reported on in the inventory.

Apples - We have about 15 or so lbs or apples, several varieties - 10/14: added 1/2 bushel of mutsu

Pears - About 5 lbs of Bosc pears; then another 13 lbs - 10/14: added 4 lbs of Asian pears

Grapes - 2 quarts of Concord grapes - 10/14: added two quarts from CSA

Watermelon - 4/5th of a medium sized melon - now down to 1/5th

Nectarines - 4 (from 8)

Tomatoes - Some cherry tomatoes, about 8 heirloom tomatoes; about 20 keeper tomatoes already wrapped in newspaper and set aside. - Cherry and heirloom eaten and replaced with same.

Red bell peppers - About 8 + a few marinated - 10/14: added 6

Green bell peppers - 4

Jalepeno peppers - 5 - Update: miscounted, have about 12

Serrano peppers - 8 or so

Wonder beans - 1 quart - eaten

Beets - Maybe 24 smaller and 10 larger 10/14: added 6 or so large beets

Cabbage - 1 small green, 1 larger green; 2/3rds of a red - used some of the red, but a lot remains

Garlic scapes - forgotten but amazingly holding up, will make a strange taste of Spring in Fall

Turnips - 3 red "salad" turnips plus a dozen or so sitting around since last spring

Radish - 1/2 daikon, 2 beauty heart 10/14: 1 bunch of French breakfast radishes

Collard greens - 4 bunches 10/14: + 1

Celery root - 1 large

Cauliflower - 2 large

Eggplants - 2 large - used - 10/14: 8 thin

Tomatillos - 12

Zucchini - 12 small - used 6

Baby lettuce - 3/4th of a bag

Agugula - 1/2 bag + 1 head - used - 10/14: new bag

Carrots - lots

Garlic - Some

Green beans - 2 quarts

Dry beans including yellow-eye, Great Northern and red kidney - A good amount

Dry onions - Maybe 12 each, red and yellow

Sweet potatoes - 6 - 10/14: 6 more

Potatoes - 25 or so smaller 10/14: bag of WI Yukon gold, some already used

Kohlrabi - 2 large - 10/14: 2 medium

Hot banana peppers - 8 or so - roasted and marinated, some eaten

Fennel - 3 stalks

Winter squash - 1 large-ish spaghetti, 6 delicata

Herbs - rosemary, parsley, thyme, mint, basil

Grains - Michigan grown and ground pastry flour; Illinois grown and ground corn meal; Illinois grown and milled all purpose flour

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do you mean by "dry onions"?

VI said...

Jean, a quick run on the Google suggests that maybe I used "dry onion" not totally correct in the sense that all mature onions are also called dry onions. Still for the purpose of this post and for what I mean, I would catagorize onions into three catagories:

- Green onions; these can be immature onions or true scallions. So it's already confusing, just think, does it look like a green onion.

- Summer onions or early onions or un-cured onions - These are the onions with a soft, kinda clear skin. They are meant to be eaten sooner than later.

- What I am calling "dry" onions or cured onions. Onions with tough, papery skins that can be held for long periods.