What's a Rutabaga look like?

Rutabaga
Originally uploaded by ianqui

My Mom emailed me..."Rutabaga? Celeriac? Turnip? What do they even look like?" Great question..since I didn't even know they existed before we joined a CSA ( community supported farm).

Our farm (Vermont Valley) introduced us to all sorts of funky vegetables and ( luckily) recipes so we had some idea of what to do with them.

This time of year...if you want to eat local...it is root crops are us.

The other action we are working on is our commitment to eat more plant...specifically more beans and grains. Most of our protein still comes from cheese and eggs and we'd like to diversify. This week we are making dal ( an Indian lentil stew that both mark and I love....I'll let you know what the boys say)


Interested in the what the other veggies look like?
Celeraic

Flickr photo: ispy/1950484255
Turnips

Flickr photo:7bikeframesweldedtogether

It's Report Card Time

We got our first progress report. Here's how we are doing.

Gas- The goal for therms/month is 42. (this is 40% below the Madison average). We passed our goal. Our monthly average was 2 therms/month. But can we keep this up in the cold weather?

Driving- Miles/month should be around 650. ( 40% below the Madison average) We were 521(Aug), 853 (Sept), and 950 (Oct). We were on track in the warmer months. (Note: two people drive this car, not one which is what the 650miles are based on.) However we will still aim for 650 mil/month. This we be a real challenge now that the snow/cold is here.

Trash- The goal is less than 82 lbs/ month. We average 2.5 lbs/week. Well below Madisons' average. We would love to reduce this further and get our recycling down...as well as make sure we aren't "trashy" when we are on the road.

Electricity- Our goal is 360 Kwh/month. Our electricity/month is 336 Kwh, 415 Kwh and 372 Kwh in August, September and October. Here is our weak spot...we have our work cut out for us.

Food- With Willy Street West more accessible, it is easy for us eat 70-80% local/organic. This may become more of a challenge in the winter months as our local options shrink. Can we afford to eat more organic?

One additional challenge for this month is to pay attention to our holiday spending and see how well we do at shopping our values. I just shopped for our Christmas cookie ingredients at Willy Street. Our Christmas cookies this year will be close to 100% local/organic ( wonder if they will taste better?)

Roots R us!

I made confetti meat loaf for dinner ( local, pasture raised beef) mixed with grated carrot, potato and onion ( and some oatmeal and local eggs).

Plus sweet potato, potato and butternut squash. ( all local..thank you Willy Street West)

I took advantage of having the oven on to make dinner for tomorrow too. Roasted sweet potato pie. The crust is organic, corn tortillas, filled with sweet potato as well as corn from the farm ( from our freezer) and grated Tipi Farm carrots and local provolone cheese. and Yuppie Hill Eggs ( gotta love the name)

This is one of our favorites.

We splurged on organic bananas and mixed them with Ela Orchard apples for bread that is more like cake.

Here we are eating our Sunday dinner. When you spend more on food and cook from scratch...you want people to sit awhile and enjoy it.

Welcome Willy West

We shopped at Willy Street West today.
Produce: Got local sweet potatoes, potatoes, celeric, rutabaga, carrots and onion for potpie for dinner tonight. Dessert will be rhubarb, raspberry pie (both picked from our yard this summer)

For breakfast this week we got quick oats (Willy has a great bulk section.)

For lunches: local pasture raised deli meat ( ham) and local apples and Nature's Bakery bread. I have left over chick peas so plan to make hummus as well to go with our Nature's Bakery pita.

Plus Mark made black bean chili for the Packer's game today ( with a jar of salsa I canned this summer.)

We are feeling pretty good about our local food commitment this week. Willy Street makes it much easier to buy and eat local! Thank you Willy Street!

Eat Local Update

So how are we doing? Has being involved in the Greener, Faster Challenge changed our behavior?

Our first month goal was to buy more local and organic
We spent $739 on food of which $521 was local or organic.

We got much of our food from our CSA farm ( community supported agriculture) and the farmer's market. Our goal was 90%..which we didn't make but we did increase our local/organic purchasing.

Ben was reading our cereal box at the table the other day listing all the organic ingredients. When Ben and Nate went shopping on their own..they came back with local and organic ( with no prompts from parents)

When we are in town, our new Saturday lunch tradition is Thyme bread from Stella's, goat cheese from Dream Farm, and apples from the gentle apple man. All from the west side farmers market. ( the gentle apple man is our family name for the man we buy apples from..because he carefully and gently picks out each apple for you. You can't be in a rush when you buy from him..but boy you get the best apples.)

So have we changed our purchasing behavior....a big yes.
Pros
-we eat and shop more intentionally
-we are all much more aware of where our food comes from
-our food dollars are supporting our values
-we have discovered some fun local foods ( we had a great time discovering how many local food Brennans' carries...and if you like taste tests...Brennan's beats Whole Foods. You can eat a meal while shopping at Brennan's ..and it is a good meal)

Cons
- We spend more money on food
-We are spending more time shopping ( this may get better as we get better at knowing where to buy what)


Photo source: Vermont Valley Farm ( our CSA)

A Favorite New Tradition

Our annual Harvest Potluck is a favorite of mine.


We invite families from our neighborhood and the only "rule" is to bring local food. Highlights: pizza with local toppings from Vermont Valley farm, Pear Tart ( pears from Mary's back yard, sweetened with honey from Karen's bees), homemade salsa, cantaloupe from the farmer's market, and sweet corn from a local farm (may be the last of the sweet corn. Good food and good company= a great combination!

Harvest from the Farm

We woke to a white world this morning...our first big snow. To say official goodbye to fall, I've pulled out my photos from our last harvest at the Farm.

As part of our commitment to eating local, I went to the farm (Vermont Valley)to pick basil and tomatoes.

With the tomatoes I tried canning: our famous Nell's chili sauce, spagetti sauce from Animal Vegetable Miracle and salsa ( which Mark has decided adds just the right heat for football chili)

I made the basil into pesto which we freeze in spoonfuls on cookie sheets and then store in plastic bags. Pesto with corn is one of our favorite winter dishes.

100% Living our Values

Today I realized we didn’t have pita bread for dinner. Luckily Mark had the car because it would have been tempting to make a quick run to the store.

I decided to shop at Whole Foods: I can walk there, they carry organic and some local and I can recycle both plastic bags and #5 plastic.

Beautiful quiet walk (since neither of the boys was interested in coming along)

I stopped at Bagels Forever. Good local bagels, cheap and no plastic!

At Whole Foods, it took longer to shop since I don’t know where everything is and I am reading labels to see if there is a local or organic option. Whole Foods seems expensive but the positive side is
-beautiful place to shop
-easy to find either local or organic. They are carrying more local now but they should take a tip from Willy St Coop and make their buy local tags a different color.
-really good taste tests. I felt rewarded for shopping!

I did buy too much so my backpack was heavy on the way home ( felt I was 2 inches shorter by the time I got home)

All in all, it was a good trip. Took longer but on the “Living our Values “ scale= 100%