Eat Local, Save the Earth

Terra Talks Toxic

Last week we stumbled into the terrific program being offered at Eli's Cheesecake. Right now it's basically my wife and I, plus the kidz from Chicago Ag School. You should come too. We got a great talk yesterday from Ms. Brockman of the Land Connection as well as a few sage words from Joel Smith of Slow Food (whose pitch of eating well while doing good finally has my wife seeking to join, and if she wants to do it, guess who won't be far behind). Terra talked local. Her vehicle, the tale of two farms. She contrasted battery egg production and other industrial farming against her brother's organic farm. She offered much, in a witty and engaging way, but what I most took from the hour was that eating local was even better for the environment than I thought.

OK, I'll say that I am pretty familiar with the ills of factory farming. I'm aghast at the idea of a huge penned milk line going up in Western Illinois. Still, when I've thought about local and the earth, including in my recent speeches, I've focused almost wholly on food miles. And when I try to think of other environmental reasons for local, I tend to think of the lack of packaging in my CSA box. Terra fully reminded me of a range of problems with standard ag.

Battery eggs, the slightly nicer term for caged in total confinement is gross in many ways. Think about that again, caged in total confinement. It is also bad for the earth. These factories produce huge amounts of, well, chicken shit. The shit as well as the occasional chicken that cannot handle the heat (so to speak) get poured into a brew known as the lagoon. Regs require these pits of animal hell to be sealed and otherwise set off, but of course it does not always work that way. This toxic water finds its way to where it's not supposed to be. Terra also talked about the typical industrial ammonia based fertilizer, which is really a off-shoot of petrochemicals--she cited some numbers of the amount of natural gas that is needed to make fertilizer. I did not write it down, but believe me when I say, a lot. Again, you have problems of run-off and seepage. She showed a picture of a sign in a Wisconsin farming community cafe, where the denizens were warned that the local water was not safe for the young and infirm...because of the nitrate stew of washed off fertilizer, unsaid in the warning. She ended her talk with the notion that no human activity causes more earthly harm than the production of food.

Wait you say. Terra's brother Henry, is an aberration. His farm is totally solar powered. He rides to the market in a biodiesel powered truck. The only fossil fuels he encounters occur at the locker where his chickens are processed. That's not local, that's a freak. 'Tis true. It's not like there are not factory farms that are local to me. I love the foodstuffs at Fair Oaks Dairy, hate the farming practices. My response would be that local, local food, locavore, means more than just food within my foodshed, food grown or produced near me. It means getting my food from the places I want. Making choices about my food. Choosing my farmer. Knowing my farmer. If you question anything Terra said, go visit the farm this weekend. She reminded me that there's more to local than good food.

Frittatine alle Verdue

With Eggs

In cooking, eggs often serve as a binder. For a locavore, eggs often serve as a binder too, bringing together the disparate ingredients one has obtained over the weeks. For a while I've been hankering to make frattanine alle erbe, tiny egg pancakes filled with greens and herbs. While I have greens in the Bungalow, I decided to make what I'm calling frittatine alle verdue, with vegetables instead as I mostly wanted to use some hanging around scallions and my large supply of garlic scapes. These made for a nice Sunday brunch, with a green salad on the side and challah from Friday night.

The mis en place is below, at least my attempt as such. As I noted the other day, I've been channeling my inner Italian Grandmother. I'm also trying to channel my inner Escofier these days as well. Notice the assortment of egg sizes from Farmer Vicki's Genesis Growers. Also, notice how I trimmed off some scraggy ends and long growing roots from my scallions.






I rough cut basil, scallions and scapes and sauteed them for about five minutes in olive oil over medium heat. Until soft but not ashen.

To make the frittatine, you crack one egg into a bowl. Mix with a fork. Season with a bit of salt, a shake of nutmeg cannot hurt if you got.

Lightly oil a small, heavy bottom pan, preferably cast iron, add a dollop of the verdue, then pour in the egg.



It took me several attempts to master or at least determine the right technique here. The idea is to make something akin to a crepe not an omelet. My problem was my pan was exactly the right size for the frittatine, but exactly the right size made flipping difficult. It was hard to get a spatula in under the eggs.



My tendency at first was to revert to French habits [ed. you?]. I used a fork to pull back the cooked eggs from the edge, letting some of the uncooked eggs fill-in. I wanted to fold the egg to cook the wet inside. Instead what I found was just be patient. Let the bottom cook long enough, over medium heat, to really firm up the whole thing. Then it was possible to slip the spatula in and give a good flip. Under this method, the second side needs only about 10 seconds.



I kept the frittatine in a 175 degree oven until I finished the dozen.


The finished product served with some grated (local) Parmesan style cheese and some salsa verde I've had around (freshening up a bit the other night with some new herbs).

The End of Inventory

Starting in December, 2007 I started tracking our inventory of local foods in the Bungalow. The intended purpose was to show how my family and I managed to stay local in the darkest months through a combination of winter marketing and stored foods. I proudly reported on our ability to manage. Since then, with market and CSA supplies, I've had less need to post on the inventory, and have not made an inventory post since early May.

Last night, in seeking some garlic for Asian night (Thai inspired recipes need garlic), I found all of the remainder of our garlic supply kaput. About twenty heads of garlic given over to dust, insects and various micro-organisms. When poking around the basement, I also found a bag of potatoes with the types of beards one grows if stranded on a deserted island. Both went into the compost bin, and they will soon be joined by sprouting onions. It was only a week or so ago that the last Michigan apples went into the camp lunch of my younger daughter. Our inventory served us well.

I have not done a great job of tracking/reporting on our local purchases from the CSA, farmer's markets, Cassie's Green Grocer and the like. For the duration of the market season, I have replaced the inventory tally on the sidebar with a running tally of the last two weeks (or so)purchases. I don't have the memory to re-create everything we have purchased lately, but here's a stab. It'll be more accurate after we get our CSA box later today.

Genesis Growers CSA - 6/19/08

• 2 heads of leaf lettuce
• Mesclun bag
• Asparagus
• Strawberries
• Savoy cabbage
• French breakfast radishes
• Daikon radish
• Kale
• Eggs

Oak Park Farmer's Market - 6/21/08

• Strawberries, sugar snaps, snow peas - Nicholl's Farm
• Cherries (sweet) - Hardin Farm
• Raspberries - Skibbes
• Peas - Stovers
• Mint, basil - Genesis Growers
• Garlic scapes, green garlic - Sandhill Organic
• Duck eggs - Wettstein's

Maywood Farmer's Market - 6/21/08

• Garlic scapes, organic chickens, dill - Midwest Organic Coop
• Strawberries - Unknown farmer

Whole Foods, River Forest - 6/21/08

• Farmer's All Natural Creamery Whole Milk

Genesis Grower's Farm - 6/22/08

• Zucchini flowers

Green Grocer - 6/24/08

• Tarragon
• Trader's Point Creamery Yogurt
• Barley

Genesis Growers CSA - 6/26/08

• Red "salad" turnips (with greens)
• 2 heads leaf lettuce
• 1 bag mesclun
• Kohlrabi (with greens)
• Kale
• Collard greens
• Sugar snap peas (a lot)
• Eggs

Hines VA Farmers Market (Maywood) - 6/26/08

• Raspberries, snow peas - Unidentified Michigan farm
• Strawberries (flat), sweet cherries - Hardin Farms

Kolatek's - 2445 N. Harlem - 6/27/08

• Farmer's All Natural Creamery 2% Milk

Oak Park Farmer's Market - 6/28/08

• Snow peas, green garlic stalks (with scapes) - Nichol's Farm
• Basil, white carrots, arugula - Genesis Growers
• Cherries - Hardin Farms
• Peas - Stover's
• Raspberries, blueberries - Skibbes

MCA Farmer's Market - 7/1/08

• Raspberries - Ellis Farms
• Blueberries, strawberries, new potatoes - Noffke Farm

Eat Local Eggs

Some Help

On this blog I've tried to encourage the eating of local mostly by showing that it can be done, and also showing how pleasurable it can be. What I want to do more, in 2008, is be a bit more specific.

I linked to Hat Hammond's post the other day on local eggs because of the way it glorified the product (and not the least the nice pics and nice prose). I realized afterwards that readers would not want just to be tempted, to get a vicarious thrill. They'd want local eggs too. In the thread, Hammond mentions that Marion Street Cheese in Oak Park had local, farm eggs. I mention a few other egg options.

During the farmer's market season, it's possible to find eggs, at least in some markets--I know it's possible at Green City, Oak Park and Evanston. What about now. Well, you can try this site, which has a listing of egg producers in Illinois. Terragusta, on Addison, used to sell eggs from Country Cottage, a farm in Illinois; I'm not sure that they do now as I have not been there in ages. The Country Cottage web site lists one store in Chicago that sells their eggs.

The Wettstein's bring stuff to Oak Park's Buzz Cafe about once a month, and they usually bring eggs. Ann Fisher usually posts when they will show on LTHForum.

Has anyone been to the Geneva Winter Market (today and all Thursdays)? I imagine they have an egg vendor. Information on other winter markets can be found here.

Eat Local Eggs

David the Hat Hammond Testifies

I can do no worse on this blog than to crib from pieces like this, Hammond's excellent tribute to local, farm eggs he is getting from Farmer Vicki's Genesis Growers. Needless to say, in a hopeless act of me-tooism, we get our eggs also from Farmer Vicki.