Local Food Inventory

Subtraction by Subtraction

As I mentioned on the Local Beet, the VI family went through one of its periodic local food purges. Too much ambition, too much travel, too much working, too much love buying. It was worst than first reported; yesterday I found more crappy food: collards, a few too soft pears, the rest of the grapes. We've subtracted quite a bit from the inventory, but we always manage to buy. Here's where we stand today. (Last report here.)

Strawberries - Yes, local strawberries (indoor grown). I managed to squirrel away two pints from Robin at last week's winter market. These are not truly part of the inventory as they've all been eaten, some cooked into pancakes. Not the world's greatest strawberries but not as bad as supermarket either.

Fennel - I took half of Robin's strawberries but all of her fennel. On Sunday, I slow cooked the two heads for fennel marmalade, which has not been eaten. I've saved a bit of the stems/fronds for stock.

Salsify - The key find at the first winter market, five or so roots worth.

Bok choi - Last week's CSA contained one head; one head of bok choi is not the easiest thing to use

Celery - 4 bunches of heirloom from the first two Fall CSAs; these are mostly for stock and related. I have a batch of vegetable stock in me soon.

Brussels Sprouts - Enough to fill a newspaper bag x 3

Cucumbers - I think there's one somewhere in the fridge. Could be more purge material.

Arugula - 1 bags, but some of questionable quality. Stock!

Apples - Each week of the fall CSA has included apples, but those are mostly gone. In storage: 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; a quart from Seedlings I'm forgetting which type...

Pears - Five bosc pears and some Asian

Tomatoes - I hit the Green City Market two weeks ago, and a few of the tomatoes purchased are still alive and well. There's some in the attic but let's not talk about them today.

Red bell peppers - All of the last red peppers have been roasted. Some have been packed in oil; the rest in vinegar.

Green bell peppers - About 2 or 3

Jalepeno peppers - Tons (still)

Serrano peppers - Some

Cayenne peppers - 1 pint, but letting them dry

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

Beets - Most of my beets have been roasted and eaten or have gone to mold, but about six holding out.

Rutabagas - Maybe 6

Cabbage - 3 larger green; 1 whole red

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

Turnips - We keep on getting turnips in our CSA boxes. I've steamed some. We also have some from long ago that might still be edible.

Radish - 1/2 beauty heart; some regular ol' radishes + 2 daikon

Celery root - About 8

Cauliflower - 1 head

Eggplants - The skinny had been around for weeks. I roasted them on Sunday, not the best of foods but passable. The several of the globe eggplants that I had plans for did not make it. The Nigerian eggplants, I bake tonight.

Lettuce - 2 bags

Carrots - lots

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

Leeks - 6 bunches of 3

Dry onions - Plenty, including some Tropea and several pounds of cippolini.

Shallots - 5 or so lbs of larger and about 1 lb of smaller

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; I thought I used the greens when I made the rest of our collards yesterday, but a check of the upstairs fridge finds them out and about.

Winter squash - 1 large-ish spaghetti; 8 delicata; 8 acorn, 4 Mexican style pumpkin, 4 butternut + 2 butternut that have already been souped, soup 1/2 drunk.

Herbs - rosemary, parsley, dill, marjoram, mint, cilantro

Parsley root - 5

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

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