Year Round Farmer's Markets

In 2007 I was fortunate enough to stay in Seattle for two weeks. I fell in love. The city had done a pretty good job of keeping big chain stores - excepting Starbucks, of course - out of the bulk of the city (outlawed to the suburbs). There were used book stores on almost every corner and the library was the most amazing thing I had ever seen! I had found my people.

One of the most amazing aspects was, of course, the Pike Place Market. There were art booths, soap booths, restaurants, and REAL butcher shops. Guys, we were visiting in the middle of January there were vendors selling produce. True - not all of the produce was in season, but a lot of it was. A lot of the people there were representatives of farms a few hours out of the city. I was in awe that it was this easy to find fresh, seasonal produce in a middle of a city.

Recently there was an article from The Huffington Post that discussed the growing trend of year round markets. I did notice that Birmingham's own Pepper Place Market had a few Harvest & Holiday weekends through out the fall - open sporadically for people wanting to get some locally grown butternuts and greens. In the article, a lot of the markets expanding are in the Northeast, where they have bitterly cold winters. I have been told repeatedly that the state or farms in Alabama are struggling. Right now, a winter growing season seems slightly out of reach. I am ready to start pushing the demand, it seems silly when we have such temperate winters not to be able to successfully have at least a once a month winter market at Pepper Place. I don't just want turnips and parsnips on my Christmas table, I want them on my Tuesday night table!

"It can't be a five-month-long thing and then just stop and everybody go to Walmart," said Dave Purpura, a farmer who participates in the winter market at Plimoth Plantation, a living history museum dedicated to the Pilgrims. "If you want to be serious about promoting the local food economy, you have to go through the winter."

This is sort of a continuation of my quest to find  local produce in the winter months. As I am aware, only Grow Alabama offers any amount of winter produce. What about the Finley market? Has anyone checked them out lately? Let's start small! If you could just send Pepper Place an e-mail telling them you are ready for a Winter Market - then maybe we can get the ball rolling. I am typing up mine right now!

Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

Parties | Three Kings Day

So, one of my goals for this year is to throw a get together once a month. Sometimes it might be an intimate dinner for 6 or maybe I'll open up my home to all my friends for a casual appetizer party. The first party of the year is of the later category. Mallory and I are busy at work cleaning our apartment and preparing food and drink. I am throwing my first annual Three Kings Day Party.

I've been interested in this tradition since last Christmas. I was watching Daisy Cooks, a cooking show on Create. The host chef was talking about this really neat tradition where people celebrate the day the Three Wise Men arrived at the manger and discovered baby Jesus. I am not sure if I am going to make the King's Cake or buy it from a bakery - but this should be a really fantastic start to my goal.

I also like what this means for my cooking skills. At this point, I have a solid base of every day recipes - stuff I can cook at home and feed myself with. Now I get to discover seasonal party foods! It gives me a chance to make larger scale recipes. By the end of the year, I will have enough appetizer and snack recipes to be able to whip up something seasonal and tasty for any occasion through out the year! Don't worry, recipes for two will return soon!

Recipes Coming Up Soon to Tiny Tables:
Mallory's Stuffed Mushrooms
Mallory's Spiced Apple Cider
Winter Root Turnovers
Champagne Punch
Sweet Potato Cake with Brown Sugar Icing

Do you have a home made party food that never fails you? Or are you that person that shows up with chips and dip?

52 Weeks 52 Letters | A Series

Katy, over at the (beloved) Non-Consumer Advocate, has inspired me once again! You may remember that I took part in her June Food Stamp Challenge last summer. To read my posts from that challenge you can read them here. This time she has decided to do something that I hope I am going to love! Katy has decided  to send one piece of real mail to someone once a week for a year - 52 Weeks 52 Letters. You can read about and sign up for the challenge on her blog.

I love this idea. I have been collecting post cards from around the city for about 3 months. You know what I am talking about, those free cards you find at places of business that usually advertise events or businesses. I try to find the really cool looking ones. Then all you have to do is paste some white paper on the back of the card (if it's not already blank), write a quick little note, and send it away to someone! I love post cards so much that it even inspired this short-short (a kind of a poem) I wrote years ago. Be kind people, this was one of the first poems I ever wrote.

Secretless Note


The post card features a young man surrounded by young ladies – Italian maybe? The post card was part of long series that had started three years ago after a string of cards wrapped carefully with thick, colored card stock. The young man had traveled from the tops of mountains to secluded islands. He always smiles and waves. The mail man enjoyed watching this young man find happiness in travel, a luxury he could never afford. He walked up to the mailbox and carefully placed it inside the mail box of Olivia Allen of 209 Robin Ridge Way. Her brother had abandoned her to deal with reality on the home front. The mail man looked up as he closed the box to see her watering some ferns on the porch. She pulled her long cardigan close to her body as if to keep the tension from escaping.As she walked to the mail box, she smiled wearily and waved at him. She fished through the mail and came upon the post card, she seemed to smile and frown at the same time. She flipped it over to read the message, “Wish you were here.” The mail man saw a glimpse of desperation in her eyes before she shoved it in her pocket and walked back inside.

Wow, how bad was that? So bad, that I feel I need to explain it to you. It's supposed to be a glimpse of these two siblings who lost a parent. It's told from the mail man's perspective. The "string of cards carefully wrapped in colored card stock" is supposed to be a reference to sympathy cards. So, the brother bailed out and left the sister to take care of everything. The mail man has been putting the story together just from mail he has been delivering. Okay okay, enough of my dramatic angsty poetry.

I'll try to do a monthly update of all the mail I have sent out. Maybe you'll be lucky and receive a post card with some bad prose written on it! Or maybe a care package of baked goodies! Do you still send old fashioned mail? When was the last time you hand wrote a letter?

Happy New Year | The Southern Tradition

Happy New Year, readers!

I had a blast last night with all my friends! We did 2011 proud! I am just popping in really quick on this dreary January 1st to share a couple of recipes from the blog's collection.  Here in the South we have a tradition of eating black eye peas (good fortune), collard greens (good health) , and corn bread (to keep you humble) on New Year's Day. The meal is supposed to bring you luck for the upcoming year. I think there are variations on what each menu item represents. But these are the meanings I found when I ran a search on them. I even found a couple of things saying to include pork (like that's hard) and to eat peach cobbler. I don't really understand the peach cobbler - peaches are not in season. Hopefully we all put peaches in the freezer last summer.

Sure, you could cook them separately and make meal out of it. But thankfully I have a soup (complete with bacon), cornbread, and peach cobbler recipe that will make it easier. The soup isn't for two - but freezes nicely!

New Year's Menu:

• Collard Green and Black-Eyed Pea Soup
• Old Fashioned Corn Bread
• Southern Peach Cobbler

Do you have any food traditions for New Year's? Or do you just stumble into Waffle House and chow down?

My New Year's Resolutions

Tonight is hopefully going to be all about a sparkly dress and glass after glass of champagne. Despite losing my last two grandparents and becoming single again, this year has been excellent. I learned a lot about vegetables, I got the Pink Lady, and I now live in a really awesome apartment with a good friend. I feel that I learned a lot about living a greener life. Let's not forget the best part of 2010 - I started this blog! For eight months now I have been showing small households how to enjoy fresh foods.

I never resolute to lose weight, because my health is always something I want to work on everyday of my life. Also, I will no longer promise to life a greener life. I am actively working on that every day... so no need to beat a dead horse. I am never good at picking one thing, I usually have two or three I want to do. So here they are...

1. Have a dinner party once a month: Some will be formal, some will be casual - but I want to bring people together to enjoy seasonal foods. I want to see all my friends around the table, drinking wine, and laughing so hard that we almost choke on mashed potatoes.

2. Obtain the perfect American Girl look: Meaning I want to find the perfect white t-shirts, blue jeans, and cowboy boots. This is my just for fun resolution.

3. Community Involvement: I want to try and volunteer at least 60 hours this year. I probably volunteered right about 20 hours this year. I already regularly volunteer for the Birmingham Museum of Art, but I would like to also volunteer regularly with at least two more organizations.

How are you ringing in the New Year? Got any resolutions you are excited about? Just point, click, and leave a comment!

Grow Alabama's Special Treat

I have been using Grow Alabama as my main source of produce for over a year now. With a name like "Grow Alabama" you would think it would be pretty self explanatory. I signed up late last summer all excited about supporting Alabama farmers. Then winter rolled around and I noticed that some of the produce wasn't coming from Alabama.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't mad about the citrus from Florida or even the mushrooms from Tennessee. In my mind, it was some sort of fair trade with neighboring states. Then I saw spinach from Arizona last winter, a red flag sprung up.

I sent Facebook messages asking if this was true. I stated that if the only crop Alabama could grow was cabbage and sweet potatoes, then I would passionately eat them all winter. They explained due to the harsh weather that summer, a lot of crops weren't successful. So they were supplementing until the farmers could really develop their winter selection. Um... I guess that's okay. Maybe not everyone is so passionate about their cause that they're willing to eat cabbage soup all winter (but maybe you should be!).

Well, during the 2010 growing season I went to Pepper Place Market several times and to a workshop at Jones Valley Urban Farm. I found myself no longer content with just getting a box at my doorstep. Something was missing. I was yearning to have a deeper connection. So I thought that meant I wanted to try and start a container garden on my back patio that gets three hours of sunlight. Um... negative.

Well, I settled back in with the box and as it got colder the idea of container gardening left. I was getting tomatoes well into November and December and that was making me nervous. I distinctly remember getting mostly cabbage, roots, and greens this time last year. Well then I received avocados in my Grow Alabama box... in December. They came with a note explaining that due to a harsh freeze that week, green beans were being replaced with this special treat. WTF?

I became angry. I knew quite well that avocados could not bear fruit in the state of Alabama. On top of that, the only place that you could possibly grow them is Southern Florida. These avocados looked just like someone had gone shopping at Publix. So what does this someone do? Oh no... I didn't call. I am too passive aggressive for that. No... I sent an angry Facebook message.

Where did the avocados come from? I highly doubt they came from Alabama. Y'all make me nervous when you put stuff like that in the box.  I'd rather have a box full of Alabama grown cabbage than have produce from other states. If that's all there is available, then I will happily eat that. I support your organization because it supports Alabama.

Then their reply was...

There was a note in your box about the avocados. When the beans froze out last weekend i had to make a quick substitute and decided to do something daring and take the opportunity to do something rarely done. they came from california. We have more from alabama at this time of year than Alabama has ever had. enjoy the avocados.

 
What makes me really angry about this "daring" action is that Grow Alabama consistently spouts off figures about how much money Alabamians throw into the pockets of Californians. They even villianized their strawberries earlier this spring. For an organization who wants so desperately to put money back into a true food system, they sure are quick to throw it somewhere else when times get tough.
 
I stand by what I said... I'd eat cabbage and sweet potatoes all season if it meant an Alabama farmer was getting a real paycheck.
 
So... the point of all this? I am currently searching for a new CSA. I want to meet the people growing my food and talk to them. Grow Alabama was a great starting point and hopefully they'll get to their goal, but my days of supporting them are coming to a close end. I've already contacted a few organizations for information. So as all this unfolds, I will share what I find with my readers.
 
Do you have a CSA or support any local farms? Is it something you are interested in? Please share any information you can in the comments section.
 

Apple Turnip Mashed Potatoes

I hope you aren't tired of root vegetables yet. We've got a long way to go my friends! This is one of those great recipes for people scared to try a new root vegetable. I made this once or twice last winter and really enjoyed it. The turnips are there and if you look for them, you can taste them. But the garlic and apples help blend everything together into a really great mash. When my room mate tried it she said "I don't know what turnips taste like." I then told her to look for the taste that wasn't potato. She then nodded and said she could kind of taste them, but on the whole - the garlic, apples, and bacon hide the taste.

This recipe comes from Southern Living: 2008 Annual Recipes. Yes it serves eight, but with a little effort it can easily be cut down for two. When making it for two, I use two small sized of each turnips and potatoes, 1 bacon slice, 1/2 an apple, 1/2 head of garlic (maybe less), a couple of tablespoons of buttermilk, 1/2 tablespoon of butter, and then salt and pepper to taste. This is not a science... so don't worry about exact measurements. Oh yes... and for anyone who doesn't know. To roast garlic you put whole head or whole cloves into a packet of foil with some olive oil. Put in a oven safe dish and bake it for like an hour 350-400F. Your garlic should come out a beautiful golden color and just squish out (after you let it cool - of course).

This also makes the perfect dish to bring to winter parties. It's seasonal and something different than regular mashed potatoes. I made it for a party end of the semester party at a friends house. I even made it vegetarian for the friends party - which just means I cooked the apples in vegetable oil and left the bacon out completely. . Yeah... it's not the same but they all enjoyed it - and I guess that's what Christmas is about? Making others happy?

Did you make any new side dishes for your holiday dinners? Are you mashing roots together and hoping no one notices? Share your tips, tricks, and recipes in the comments section!

Apple Turnip Mashed Potatoes
(Serves Eight)

1 lb turnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 lb Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
3 bacon slices, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
2 medium-sized Golden Delicious apples, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup roasted garlic
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoon melted butter
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring the turnips, potatoes, and salted water to cover to a boil in a Dutch oven; cook 15 to 20 minutes or until tender. Drain.

2. Cook bacon in a medium nonstick skillet over a medium-high heat, 5 to 6 minutes or until crisp; remove bacon, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings in skillet. Crumble bacon. Saute apple in hot drippings in skillet, 6 minutes or until tender and lightly browned.

3. Combine apples, turnips potatoes, garlic, and thyme in a bowl; mash until blended (will be chunky). Stir in buttermilk and butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer to a bowl.

4. Serve immediately. Sprinkle with bacon just before serving.