DC Locavore

Beer!

2009-09-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

So I finally took the plunge today an ordered a beer making kit from Northern Brewer. The delux kit with two carboys and some toys. I also ordered a really nice stainless pot and burner ... after looking at it for months I finally took the plunge. So my first brew should be on the burner next weekend with my dad. The beer of choice was the Irish Draught Ale, which was described as:

"Like Irish stouts, Irish ales are sociable session beers with a low alcohol content but substantial body. This beer pours with a deep red color and tan head over a caramel-like malt character with roasty and fruity notes. As a bow to Ireland's meadmaking past, clover honey lightens the body and boosts the gravity of this recipe, while a small dose of oats adds creaminess to the mouthfeel and a hint of grain to the flavor." - Northern Brewer

I'm excited, should be ready in about 6weeks from next Saturday. The general plan is to boil and put it in primary next Saturday, put it into secondary ~ 1o Oct, bottle 17 Oct and be ready to drink about 7 Nov. with the guys when we get together for our guys weekend. My beer guru buddy assures me it'll be ready a week before that so I may try one and I'll be sure to post how it goes!

Hops

2009-09-24T21:36:00.000-07:00

One of the many new things to try in the garden this year, and the only one the deer didn't find to their liking were hops. Yes, hops, those things you brew beer with. I've got a beer making buddy who talked me into planting a few hops in my garden and one of them actually grew. I planted three and of the first two one basically drowned in a mud puddle and the other was killed off by being too close to a pathway I belive. The other one never made much of a show... maybe two feet (of a nominal 15-20') but looks really good. I think it put down some good roots and that next year it'll be a contender!

My Fall Garden

2009-09-24T21:34:00.001-07:00

The deer and an impromptu two week TDY cut into my summer garden at a fierce rate but now fall is upon us and the winter garden is in. I finally got the summer garden clipped and tilled an laid in a few raised rows for fall crops. Mainly greens... I did get in a bed of lettuce and some carrots and a few flowers for spring but the greens were the thing. Hopefully a pic soon but it looks like a bumper crop so far!

CSA - Year 1

2009-09-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

This was the first year we've tried a CSA and I must say I'm disappointed. Now some of this is my fault and I fully take the blame for that. I fell victim to a well done website and an farmer who was active in some of the same groups I am and signed up before I figured out a few things... like pick up locations. After having done the CSA for the summer and seeing what some of the neighbors get delivered within blocks of their house I won't be signing up for the same CSA next year.

That said, I'm also let down by the communication, quality, quantity and diversity that the CSA provided. The start of year hype was a grocery bag a week filled with seasonal produce that is a mix of old standards and new variety's that you've never seen before an an email every time you get a delivery with a recipe and/or information about what was in the share. So we're wrapping up the summer and maybe 3 recipes? Emails 1 of 3 weeks? And while I understand it's been a hard year and that is one of the risk/reward trade off with the CSA I was seeing what my neighbors got and their hard year was a lot more productive than mine. The only thing my CSA really excelled at was lettuce. Almost every week we've gotten something green and leafy to put in a bowl. Not a tomato in the bunch, but lots of green.

Overall next year is gonna be more research, more patience and alot less driving...

Fall is here!

2009-09-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

So it's been a while, but with the start of fall I'm gonna try this again and see how the posts come. I've got a bit of free time these days and with any luck I can keep a steady flow of blogs going!

Slowly but surely

2008-12-01T17:17:00.001-08:00

Sorry... I've been watching over a sick kid in the hospital... food blog to come soon!

Washington Post's Kim O'Donnel on eating local

2008-11-18T08:45:00.001-08:00

Kim's got a good post on eating local for Thanksgiving and some of the other eat local challenges going on right now. It's worth a look (login maybe required...)

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/mighty-appetite/2008/11/making_room_for_local_on_the_t.html

Chipotle & Slow Food DC

2008-11-16T20:40:00.000-08:00

So it's not my local meal meal for the week, but it ain't bad for "fast food" The local DC chapter of Slow Food met up today at a local Chipotle regional director for a lunch and learn. I'm pretty wowed. I've been to several places around DC that have really amazing grow/eat local programs, right down to herb gardens in the front of the restaurant. Local is easy, but I'm really impressed by Chipotle's program. For having over 800 restaurants in the US and Canada they are totally committed to 100% natural chicken and pork and making real headway with natural beef. 100% rBGH free milk products and committed to buying local whenever they can, even though it costs more because it tastes better.

After ordering we all sat down together and ate (slowly) and talked amongst the group. Then we headed upstairs in the building to a meeting room and had a really great talk from the regional director Phil Petrilli. Phil talked about alot of great stuff the company is doing, and trying to do. It was great to hear things from the "big corporate" perspective. He mentioned how solar power wasn't working for them, but they were experimenting with solar water heating. How they recycle whatever they can but that stores in buildings had issues relating to the building lease. He also talked about how they wanted to "recycle" other pieces of the business and they were working on small scale composting operations. Local farmers bring in food and take out food waste to compost. Selling the soy oil they use for the chips and tacos for bio-diesel... I was really impressed with how honest he was on what they could and couldn't do and what they had tried and what worked and didn't work. He mentioned that they would love to donate the food at the end of the day to homeless shelters but the legal red tape was so immense, the infrastructure to move and use the food so underdeveloped and the risk of lawsuits so real that very few stores could do it.

It was a fascinating two hours and at the end I've got to say they aren't perfect, but they've got to be as close to perfect as any nationwide chain I've seen. Local, natural and they take care of their workers. So there's my vote, if you are out and you are going fast, go Chipotle and feel good about it.

Stealing "Local"

2008-11-09T11:44:00.000-08:00

In the first post I promised an example of something that I've found when I've been away from home and brought back enough of to hold me over for the winter. The first one is tea. True tea is camellia sinensis and as it turns out its another thing that we don't grow here (USA) any more... or almost. Bigelow bought the Charleston Tea Plantation’s – America’s Only Tea Garden and is making tea in the US! To be completely honest, I didn't make it to the plantation and haven't been on the tour. My parents did and loved it. Mom literally bough the T-Shirt.

So I'm claiming tea as a "local". I've got a good friend of mine who lives in Charleston and on a recent visit to see him we ended up with some of the tea. It's good, it was bought within 50ft of the field it grew in and neither it nor I made a trip over 150miles for the sole purpose of purchase for consumption. Beyond that I'm making a point to support a group that isn't exactly commonplace in the hopes that they stick around.

Dark Days Eat Local Challenge!

2008-11-09T11:14:00.000-08:00

It's time! This is the blog where I'll be tracking my journey through the 2008-2009 Dark Days Eat Local Challenge. Here's the deal, from November 15th to March 15th I'm gonna cook at least one meal a week from locally sourced (aka grown) everything. Ok, almost everything. Urban Hennery has the signup list and the rules, but I'll post them here too:

The “Rules”:

Cook one meal a week featuring at least 90% local ingredients
You define local - the standard definitions range from 100, to 150 to 200 miles
Ingredients can be things you grew and preserved yourself, sourced from local farms and markets, or purchased at the store
Write about the meals you cook, your challenges finding ingredients, why you’re eating local or whatever else strikes your fancy for each recap. Photos are optional.
Include friends and family in your sourcing and eating as possible

To clarify my options I'm defining local as 150miles. This isn't a stab in the dark, this one was a bit of research and knowing my local farmers markets. 150miles covers pretty much all of the normal vendors that show up at the markets I frequent. That said, I do travel some and have friends that do the same, so if I have a trip for business or to see family/friends and in the course of my travels (or theirs) can find a good local source there for something I don't have local I'm taking credit for it. I've got some examples of this already for future posts.

I'm not signing up for too much blogging. Right now I'm aiming for one or two a week. I'm half of a working married couple with a 6month old...

Rule 5: Including friends and family is a big part of this challenge for me. It will be as much of a family and friends affair as I can make it. My family eats local and eco-friendly as much as we can so but we don't share that enough. I'm hoping that by the end of the challenge I'll have gotten at least some of my family and friends off their butts and out to a farmers market, or passing up chineese grown garlic in the grocery store and thinking like a locavore.