Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
Happy Saturday, everyone! Ready for today’s challenge?
If you missed the previous challenges, you can catch up here:
Today’s Challenge
This one may require a visit to the farmer’s market if you don’t have a garden this year.
Today, I want you to make an entire meal from local food. You can get ingredients from your backyard garden or homestead, or stuff from the farmer’s market.
But here’s the kicker: if rice, wheat, and other grains aren’t something you are growing or grabbing at the farmer’s market, your meal may be bereft of grains. Because that means no bread, no pasta, and no pilaf.
The reason for this challenge is to get you thinking about what does grow locally. No matter how well-prepped you are, at some point, you’re going to run out of food and you’ll be relying on the things you can access where you live.
What are you going to eat?
So, tell me, what kind of delicious and filling meal can you make from food right there in your own hometown? And report on the forum to qualify for prizes!
Cheated a bit with the marmite (but I have several jars in my pantry so not really) and would need to leave out the oats if it’s going to be completely local and instead of a pastry I’d just use mashed potato and I’ll have grown all of the ingredients myself
https://the1940sexperiment.com/2016/03/13/the-original-lord-woolton-pie-recipe-no-151/
Lord Woolton Pie
1lb cauliflower
1lb parsnips
1lb carrots
1lb potatoes
Bunch of spring onions chopped
2 teaspoons of Marmite (yeast extract – or you can use a stock cube)
Tablespoon of rolled oats
Salt and pepper to taste once cooked.
Parsley (fresh or dried)
For the pastry
8oz wholemeal/wholewheat flour
4oz mashed potato
3oz margarine or lard
2 tsp of baking powder
couple large pinches of salt
Dash of water if needed.
Method
Chop up the vegetables into chunks with those that take longest to cook into smaller pieces.
Place in pot and bring to simmer with just enough water to reach 3/4 of the way up the veg in the pot.
Add in Marmite and rolled oats, salt and pepper and cook until tender and most of the water has been absorbed.
Place mixture in deep pie dish and sprinkle with fresh parsley (or add dry parsley to mixture and mix in)
Make the pastry by mixing the flour with the baking powder and salt and then rubbing in the margarine.
Mix the mashed potato in to form a dough and knead (add a little water to the mixture if too dry)
Roll out to form pie crust and place on top and decorate then brush with milk.
Place in oven at 200C for 30 minutes or so until top is form and browned.
Ratatouille everything but the olive oil and bay leaf are from my garden or the local organic farm that I have a CSA share at, The eggplant, onions, bell peppers, Basil from the farm and the squash and tomatoes from my small garden. I will have a small side salad as well with the greens, cucumbers, radishes, tomatoes, squash, scallions, carrots, cabbage all from local farm or my garden.
I made a taco salad from lettuce grown in my greenhouse ( its hot here), ground beef that came from local livestock, cheese and sour cream made from milk of local dairy cows and salsa made from my garden tomatoes, chilis, and onions. I had to skip the black olives, avocados and taco seasoning.
Sounds delicious!
Scots Broth…local lamb, onions, carrots. Barley is grown in-state, or use potatoes. Massive stockpile of salt and pepper, so seasoning, also can grow bay in house in container. Tasty water from well. Dessert is yogurt, homemade from local raw milk, with dehydrated strawberries from local grower and hazelnuts from my own bushes
As I live in an apartment and there isn’t a farmer’s market in my town, I’m basically screwed on this challenge.
As far as my growing food, I’m pretty restricted, but next year I have plans to do a (smallish) potato tower on my deck next year. This year it just didn’t work out for me.
Locally sourced food in my area would be challenging for anyone – Cape Cod has some farms, but it likely wouldn’t be able to support the number of year round residents, nevermind accommodating visitors. Since the only connections to the “mainland” are the bridges and ferries, this is something that should be addressed by local government, but probably won’t.
My preps focus on LTS of most food items for this reason.
One thing to consider to get some veggie production year round is sprouting. Check out the website SproutPeople.org for tons of free information on this.
Wild rye and wheat grow in small amounts in this country. I’m working in enlarging the patches I find here. Bread in the future.
I do have wild rye I often add to soups or stews to add some body to it.
Today’s we had soup with chicken ( we raise our own), carrots, red new potatoes, corn on the cob broken in 2″ pieces, green onions and garlic green tops, a handful of green beans and Cherokee wax beans, 4 tomatoes peeled and cut in chunks, parsley leaves, a bit of Mexican oregano, and two medium sized but still tender zuchinni and three young yellow squash. A handful of amaranth leaves coarsely chopped and Salt and pepper to taste.
Veggies and fresh herbs from my garden.
I have good amounts of seasonings stored in a dark cooler area. Salt is both stored commercial salts and gathered salt from a small salt lake about 70 miles south of here. I actually like that one best. Grind the large chunks about 1/4 cup at a time and keep in a a covers bowl on the table. It’s simply stored in cloth bags in a dry place. I trade with native friends for it. It keeps well for years. Better in bags than glass jars.
Paper Bread
A bit of the wild grain well cleaned or (finely ground corn with enough warm water to mix-don’t precook the corn), simmered in water a few minutes to just soften a bit, (add that water to the soup) then mash almost smooth. Spread on a hot griddle very thin and let it cook dry enough to release from a well seasoned pan or flat rock if camping, quickly sprinkle lighty with course salt. Roll up and repeat till it’s all done. Traditional paper bread doesn’t have salt or herbs on it on it. That’s my addition. Corn paper bread is the traditional one. I add a sprinkle of sage.
Its a good side with a bowl of soup. Not as filling as a heavier bread but good. You could get inventive and sprinkle on a spice like Annise or cinnamon and sugar and make a light desert. Getting it thin is the main thing and rolling it up in a loose roll while warm is important. Once its cooling it won’t roll.
Living in a large city means no grains are grown nearby, only on farms about 1,000 km away. I am now buying and stocking up on flours and trying to make my own bread. Still battling, but I will get there! I have spinach and spring onions growing, and will soon be planting tomatoes again.