Eat Local Now and Forever

Inventory Update

When the Localbeet's new design is up and running, you can see how this local family has continued to build its inventory for now and the foreseeable future. We eat some, set much aside, and process other to make it last. Some of the processing makes it last a lot longer, some of the processing makes it last a bit longer. For instance, of the last red bell peppers arriving, some went into the freezer, others were roasted and oiled and still more were roasted and vinegar-ed. Half our giant stalk of Brussels sprouts was shredded, a Mado inspired dish to last a bit. Another Mado dish my wife loves to make is Delicata squash, roasted, which will also last a bit. The tomatillos in the fridge finally went into salsa, and then, some of our large stock of beets were roasted and marinated. The full accounting of what's been processed is here.

The inventory of raw foods is below. We won't be starving for a while, but I worry that its staying too warm for all of my keepers.

Bok choi - 2 large heads

Celery - 2 bunches of heirloom

Brussels Sprouts - Enough to fill a newspaper bag

Cucumbers - 2

Arugula - 3 bags

Apples - Cox orange pippen for immediate eating, then another six or so in the weekly CSA + 1/2 bushel of mutsu, a 1/2 bushel of mixed including northern spy, akane, winesap, courtland, granny smith and a few other varieties; 1/2 bushel of granny smith; 5 lbs of mixing baking (cortland and law rome); 5 lbs of mixed, empire/fuji; 8 large romes (for baked apples) + quart bags of raritan and empire.

Pears - About 15 lbs left including 8 new Asian pears from Oriana, the papple lady, (sold via Green Grocer Chicago)

Grapes - A big handbasket is mostly full of grapes in our downstairs fridge - Somewhat forgotten

Tomatoes - All of the red tomatoes have been eaten; the keeper tomatoes did not keep, but we have a bunch of green tomatoes to process or fry

Red bell peppers - About 8 or so medium peppers

Green bell peppers - About 4 or 5

Jalepeno peppers - Tons

Serrano peppers - Some

Cayenne peppers - 1 pint, but letting them dry

Other hot peppers - poblanos, habeneros, pasillas, etc. - tons

Beets - Maybe 24 smaller and 16 larger

Rutabagas - Maybe 6

Cabbage - 2 larger green; 1 whole red

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

Turnips - 2 large white, 3 red "salad" turnips plus a dozen or so sitting around since last spring

Radish - 1 beauty heart; some French breakfast radishes, some regular ol' radishes + 2 daikon

Collard greens - 2 bunches

Celery root - About 8

Cauliflower - 1 head

Eggplants - 1 large, about 8 Nigerian red and 8 or so skinny

Lettuce - bag

Carrots - lots

Garlic - More than enough as we got a braid of local garlic

Leeks - 6 bunches of 3

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

Dry onions - Six or so smaller red; two quarts red torpedo, about five Tropea, several pounds of cippolini; 22 lbs of yellow + more red torpedo

Shallots - 5 or so lbs

Sweet potatoes - A good amount

Potatoes - 25 or so smaller + 1/2 bag of Yukon gold; when I did the move from basement to attic, I found more potatoes than I thought we had, cool + many heirloom (German butterball, fingerlings, etc.) + several pounds of yukon gold, kennebec, norland

Kohlrabi - 2 large; 2 medium

Winter squash - 1 large-ish spaghetti; 8 delicata; 6 acorn, 4 Mexican style pumpkin, 4 butternut

Herbs - rosemary, parsley, thyme, mint, oregano, marjoram, dill

Parsley root - 5

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