Over 600% increase in Alabama Farmers' Markets since 1999

This article in today's Birmingham News is very exciting to me. It's great to see that people are taking advantage of the opportunities to purchase locally grown produce. With such a tremendous increase in the number of farmer's markets in the area over the past decade, there are amazing opportunities that local residents can take advantage of.

Of course, there are always caveats. I cannot emphasize how important it is to talk to the sellers at your local Farmer's Market. Not every vendor at these markets grows their own food or sells locally grown food. Ask questions not only about where the food comes from, but how it is raised. Knowing the facts can help you make better informed decisions about what you eat. The same advice holds true for roadside stands, which are even more likely to sell non-local products.

Some farmers markets (Pepper Place, for example) will only permit vendors to sell products that come from Alabama. Others have far less stringent rules. If you aren't comfortable asking these questions of individual vendors, contact the market organizers and find out what their regulations are.

No recipe today - Happy Mother's Day, and good eating and fellowship to all of you!

Canning Season is Here!

There are plenty of reasons to love the warm months - great weather (well, except when it's 95+ out with 90% humidity), summer festivals, everything is in bloom... but for me and my kitchen, it's also peak canning season.

I started canning 3 or 4 years ago, while doing my PhD work at Georgia. There was a lovely peach stand on US 129 south of Athens, and one day as I passed by I realized that it had been years since I'd had any homemade peach preserves. My grandmother and mother made them years ago, but my grandmother passed when I was young and my mother had fallen out of her canning routines. I ended up buying a giant basket of peaches, drove home, and promptly called my mother to learn how to make peach preserves.

Since then, I've started canning much more than just peaches. Apple butter has become a fall favorite and it's not uncommon to see pepper jelly in my holiday gift baskets. When my garden is full of tomatoes, I fill tons of quart jars with them, in addition to what I dehydrate for tomato paste and other uses.

Last night, I finally started browsing through some cooking e-books that I'd downloaded well over two years ago. In that directory was this canning guide, written in 1920 by a woman who really knew her stuff. A number of the methods are quite outdated (preserving foods in tin cans is no longer advisable, for example), but it remains a fantastic general guide and a wonderful read. As I started in on the first chapter, I realized that so much of what she spoke to applies to society today. For example:

Before the World War, housewives had lost the good habit of canning, preserving and pickling. It was easier to buy California fruits by the case and canned vegetables by the dozen or half dozen cans, according to the size of the family. There is no doubt it was cheaper and decidedly easier to purchase canned fruits, vegetables, greens, soups and meats than to take time and strength in the very hottest season of the year to do our own canning.

But what was true then is not true now. The war taught us thrift. The crime of wasting even a few tomatoes or berries has sunk into our minds to stay forever; scientific canning methods have been adopted by the modern woman. Women who had never canned in days before the war had to can during war days. Food was so scarce and so high in price that to buy fancy or even plain canned products was a severe strain on the average housewife's purse. The American woman, as was to be expected, came quickly and eagerly to the front with the solution and the slogan: "More gardens and more canning and preserving at home."

Replace "World War" with "recession" and how true this sounds! We Americans have become very lazy with regard to our food sourcing. The modern reaction is hardly as severe, but there has most assuredly been an increase in home gardening and food preservation.

For me, the attraction of canning is not simply a matter of economics - I learned the techniques in order to pay homage to my roots. So few of us understand what it is like to taste homemade preserves and know that there is absolutely no store-bought, mass-produced substitute acceptable.

I had a mess of strawberries and plenty of cucumbers, so this morning I brought all of my produce along with me to my parents' house. My mother and I spent a couple of hours making strawberry preserves and bread and butter pickles. I'm waiting very impatiently for the next few days to pass so that I can taste the pickles, but my dad had a taste of the spoonful of preserves that didn't make it into the jar and gave his resounding approval.

If you have never canned before, this spring is a great time to start! All you need are some jars, lids, and rings, and a pot large enough to hold the jars and cover them with water. A jar funnel and canning tongs help as well, but I had neither for my first attempt at jelly-making and turned out just fine.

Below are some starter instructions on processing jars in a hot water bath, as well as the recipe I used today for my strawberry preserves. Once the pickles have a few days to cure and I can taste them, I'll share the results here.

How to Can Preserves in a Hot Water Bath

Hot water baths are the easiest way of canning jams and jellies. The only special equipment recommended is a jar lifter (also called canning tongs), which is inexpensive helps move the hot jars during processing.

First, wash your jars using very hot water. If the jars are new, you can run them through a dishwasher cycle without any other dishes or detergent in the machine. You can also hand wash the jars. The lids should be kept in a small pot of simmering water until the jars are ready to seal. Once you are ready for the lids, pat them dry with a clean towel. Place the lids on the jars and close tightly with rings.

Using the jar lifter, place the jelly jars in a large pot filled about 1/3 high with hot water. Once all of the jars are in place, the water should cover the tops of the jars by no more than 1/2". Close the lid on the pot and heat over medium-high to high heat for 7-10 minutes, or according to recipe directions.

Carefully remove the hot jars from the bath and place on a towel on the counter for about 2 hours, or until jars are cool. You will hear popping sounds while the jars cool as the lids create seals.

Homemade jellies are best eaten within 2 years, but have been known to last 5 years or longer when stored in a cool, dry cellar.

Homemade Strawberry Preserves

2 pounds strawberries, hulled and mashed

4 cups sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice (or 1-2 tbsp Fruit Fresh)

In a large pot, stir together the strawberries, sugar, and lemon juice over low heat, continuing to stir until the sugar is dissolved. Increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a full boil, stirring often until the mixture reaches a temperature of about 220F.

Pour into hot, sterilized jars, leaving about 1/2" room at the top of the jar. Add lids and rings to jars and process in a hot water bath for 7-10 minutes.

Teaching our Children (and balsamic green beans!)

I feel the need to justify the lack of a post for nearly a week's time. In addition to plotting out the various efforts that the Grow Alabama Foundation will be undertaking, I've been laying the groundwork of an educational program for school age children. Food habits at young ages tend to persist later in life, and the only way we can ensure a continued focus on sustainable food consumption for future generations is to reach out to children.

I received an invitation to speak with the students at Girls, Inc. tomorrow afternoon about organic gardening, local foods, and healthy eating tomorrow as part of their Health and Nutrition Week, and I'm really looking forward to it. Not only will this allow us to kick off our K-12 programs in a hands-on manner, but it'll also give me the opportunity to interact with local girls and understand what they're facing today. The last time I had such an opportunity was a few years ago when I worked with after school programs in Georgia, and being able to talk with kids of all ages was an invaluable experience.

We'll be doing a little cooking and a little planting tomorrow evening, and I can't wait to share some pictures.

In the meantime, here's a meal I made recently, using some of the fantastic green beans that Grow Alabama's had in lately.

"Pig in a Pig" with Balsamic Green Beans

For the Meat:

4 pork chops

8 slices bacon

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

2 sprigs rosemary, stripped

2 cloves garlic, minced

Season the pork chops with salt and pepper, then place in a plastic bag. Add garlic, rosemary, about 1-2 tbsp of olive oil, and enough balsamic vinegar to just coat the pork chops, then allow to marinate for about 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 350F. Transfer the chops to a skillet and fry over medium-high heat until almost done (an internal temperature of around 150F).

Transfer pork into a baking dish and add bacon to the skillet. Fry bacon in the juices from the pork chops, coating thoroughly, until the bacon draws up and just begins to brown (it should still be soft).

Wrap two pieces of bacon around each pork chop, and pour any remaining drippings onto the meat. Place the baking dish in the oven and cook for about 5-10 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches around 165-167F. Remove from the oven and allow to rest at least 10 minutes before serving.

For the Beans:

1 pound fresh green beans, whole or cut, washed

2 cloves garlic, minced

Olive oil

Balsamic vinegar

Steam or boil the green beans until they begin to soften, about 5-10 minutes depending on method. Drain if necessary, and transfer into a skillet. Lightly toss beans in olive oil and add garlic, then add about 3-4 tbsp balsamic vinegar according to taste. Cover and steam for 5 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste, then continue to cook until beans reach the desired level of doneness.

Green Onion Soup (with a vegetarian option)

First of all, I'd like to congratulate Tiffany and Phyllis for winning yesterday's contests. Tiffany gave me an interesting suggestion to try some green onion salsa, and Phyllis' name was drawn out of a hat from all of the comments on my Saturday post. They've both been presented with boxes of produce and I'm sure that they'll enjoy them.

In the next few days I'll be shifting gears a bit and posting more than just recipes, but for now, I wanted to share one of the meals I made over the weekend. After the contests on Saturday I still had a ton more green onions of my own, and while pondering the various options I had for preparing them, my mind kept going back to French Onion Soup. But that would be too heavy for such a nice spring weekend, so I started with slow-cooked onions as my base and went from there. I made a version with chicken pieces and broth on Saturday evening, only to hear multiple requests from friends to create a vegetarian version.

Green Onion Soup

1 stick butter

1 bundle (3-4 large, 5-6 medium) green onions, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

3-4 medium potatoes, quartered and sliced

6-7 soup ladles of vegetable or chicken broth, about 1.5 quarts

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook for 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally. When onions begin to brown slightly, add garlic, stir, and cook another 5 minutes. Add the potatoes to the mixture and stir to coat. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes and then add broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.

This recipe will make about 3 meal-sized bowls of soup and 4-5 appetizer-sized cups.

A Rainy Saturday Giveaway

As the incoming storms have cancelled the festival we'd planned to attend today, I have two Grow Alabama produce boxes to give away. I'm running today's contest for the first box over Twitter, soliciting some green onion recipes between now and noon. The contest for the second box will be here, on this blog. The deadline is 5PM today.

This is a very simple contest. All you have to do is post a comment giving a suggestion as to what you'd like to see in this blog. The winner will be chosen at random, but keep in mind that you MUST leave an email address or some way for me to contact you.

Sorry, but for now the contest is only open to Birmingham area residents as I can't ship these boxes out. I want the winner to receive their box fresh!

EDIT: Although I mention it in my next post, Phyllis did indeed win the contest, and has hopefully enjoyed her box of vegetables thoroughly. -VE

Parsnip Puree - Sweet Mashed Potatoes?

Parsnips have been a pretty standard item in Grow Alabama's boxes for the past few months, and lately I've been experimenting with them. I only had my first parsnip last year, when I ventured out to Whole Foods to find some that my father and I could cook with a corned beef brisket. Since I have a tiny little crush on Gordon Ramsay, I kept thinking of how he's served parsnip puree instead of mashed potatoes on a few occasions on Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen.

Parsnips are nowhere near as starchy as potatoes, but when they've been cooked, the puree does have the same look and feel. The flavor, however, is divine.

On Wednesday, I cored some parsnips (the centers are much more stiff and have a stringy texture, so I removed them). I tossed them in some melted butter and olive oil, and baked them at 350 for about 45 minutes. In retrospect, it would've been better if I'd roasted them at 300 for a full hour, and I intend to do that next time.

After roasting them, I put them into my food processor with a coffee cup's worth of water, salt, pepper, and nutmeg, and pureed them. I then transferred them into a small baking dish and topped it off with a sprinkle of brown sugar, and warmed it in the oven for a bit longer since I found the texture was still slightly grainy.

The results? Very tasty. However, in the future I will probably put them into a pot and puree them with cream instead of water, or I might even cook them down on the stovetop instead of roasting. Either way, parsnip puree has definitely found its way into my springtime repertoire.

Welcome!

As the newly minted (and founding) Executive Director of the Grow Alabama Foundation, I'm pleased to have the opportunity to start up this blog. I look forward to sharing not only news about our non-profit organization and the educational programs and events that will be occurring throughout the year, but also my own recipes and experiences with local food.

I first became involved with Grow Alabama through a friend who rarely cooks. Since I'm the type of person who will joyfully spend hours on end in the kitchen preparing a single meal, one day she brought me a giant box full of fresh vegetables. Everything looked amazing - carrots, parsnips, spinach, mushrooms, broccoli - and I was in love.

As a graduate student in the field of public administration, I've long focused my research and applied efforts on topics like community leadership and rural economic development. I've always been a tremendous supporter of local business as well. Combine this with my complete love of food, becoming involved with Grow Alabama in a non-profit role was a natural next step.

In the coming weeks and months, I'll be sharing a lot of things: our plans for the Grow Alabama Foundation's educational and farmer assistance programs, our efforts to connect local businesses to work toward a healthier Alabama, and perhaps more importantly, why supporting local farmers helps our local and regional economy, the environment, and your health.

Oh yeah, and there will be plenty of recipes, too.