Domestic

Sauvie Island Bounty

We spent Saturday morning on Sauvie Island. Here, picking raspberries at Sauvie Island Farms. It was the end of the season, but we found plenty of ripe and juicy ones on the undersides of branches.

We brought home 26 pounds of fruit.

10 pounds of that, though, was the peaches alone. I now want to plant a peach tree.

These raspberries are slated for our Muffin of the Week, Raspberry-Cream Cheese Muffins. Yum. (Or, we might use the last of the marionberries. The rest have already been turned into a pie for a birthday potluck picnic Saturday night, and ice cream that was supposed to accompany said pie, but wasn't behaving like ice cream until today. Long story.)

Happy Hour @ Home

A few years ago, we found an amazing retro metal cabinet on the sidewalk next to a dumpster. This sucker is taller than either one of us, but we managed to drag it home to our first apartment—where it was spray painted shiny white (out in the parking lot), outfitted with new door pulls, and quickly filled with all the crap that's hard to fit into a tiny apartment.

In the house, we don't need to put overstock pantry items in this cupboard—they go in the real pantry. Now, the cupboard can be a standalone bar!

The few bar glasses we have are up top. The wine rests in the middle. And the liquor goes down below. Our goal is to collect as many local spirits as possible. So far, we've got one bottle, and we made delicious cocktails the other night.

Aviation Gin and tonics. Yum. 

-amy

There's Plenty to See in Beaverton

We're driving out to Beaverton tonight, which I’m excited about for two reasons. For starters, I don’t think I’ve been to Beaverton yet. At least not on purpose—it’s possible I’ve accidentally driven through.

But more importantly, we'll be headed to Powell’s to hear Alisa Smith and James B. Mackinnon talk about their year eating only food from within 100 miles of their Vancouver, BC home. I’m reading their book, Plenty, right now. They kicked off their project in March a few years ago, and I’m in the October chapter (so I have no idea what the hell they ate in January). It’s a great read—I expected an emphasis on their adventures in finding local food, but the book is heavier on the larger issues: Both Smith and Mackinnon are journalists, and dug into topics like the lack of biodiversity in our food system, how ancient people (especially in the Northwest) thrived off the land, and the impact what we eat has on the world (and vice versa). They’re also quite frank about the strain the ambitious project put on their 14-year relationship.

As you might recall, we tried the “100 mile diet” a few weeks ago, during the annual “Eat Local Challenge.” Despite pillaging the Portland Farmer’s Market, and living 6 blocks from New Seasons Market, it actually was quite a challenge to eat purely within a 100 mile radius—I'd say we had about 90 percent success, which isn't too shabby.

Eat Local Challenge—Prep!

We hit the Portland Farmers Market this morning, canvas tote bags in hand, Posey on her leash, cash in our pockets, and a loose list of needed items for our local menu next week. After fueling up on coffee and baked good from Blue Gardenia's booth (their blueberry lemon muffins are amazing, and thankfully not the size of my head), we made the rounds to grab as many fruits and veggies as we could (I'll finish our list during the regular grocery trip tomorrow).

Sonia's already unloaded the bags, but here's the haul:
• four baby zucchini, for a spicy pork dish, and basil for pizza, from Groundwork Organics, just north of Eugene (102 miles!).
• made-in-Portland angel hair pasta, by Nonna's Noodles (2 miles)
• pea shoots and fiddle head ferns (from Springwater Farm, in St. Helens, Oregon, about 30 miles away), to saute and toss with that pasta
• on-the-vine tomatoes (from Battleground, Washington, about 25 miles north), also for the pizza
• salad greens (don't recall which vendor)
• chuck beef, from the Mt. Angel Meat Co. (40 miles), for hamburgers
• pears, but I don't recall the vendor
• strawberries and potatoes from Rick Steffen Farm in Salem (50 miles)

I was impressed with the variety of veggies for mid-April, but pears and strawberries were the only fruits we found. Hopefully New Seasons will have local apples, or other fruit options tomorrow.

Eat Local Challenge—Kickoff

The Eat Local Challenge starts next week, but we got a jump on it today—Portland Farmer's Market day!

What's the Eat Local Challenge? One week each year, people challenge themselves to eat only things that come from a 100 or 250 mile radius of home; for us, 100 miles reaches to Eugene and Bend in Oregon, and up to Olympia in Washington. This year's challenge is a little different: Participants are supposed to stick to a budget, to see if eating locally is affordable.

From the Eat Local Challenge site:

This challenge is not going to be about winning. It won't be about who can starve themselves and spend the least amount of money. It's about a very real cataloging of the expense of eating local so that we can begin to have a conversation about whether eating locally really requires a re-prioritization of family budgets.

The guideline is to stick with the Department of Labor stats for the average family food budget. For us, that's a generous $144 per week for a two person, two wage earner family. It's a rare week we go over $100 at the grocery store, and we eat all but maybe one meal a week at home (and pack lunches for work). And we already eat a ton of organic and local food.

So here goes—here are our personal goals for the week (which officially starts Monday, but our menu planning and grocery shopping week starts on Sunday, so we're starting then).

1. What's your definition of local for this challenge?

We're going to go for the 100 mile radius, as Oregon and the Willamette Valley has such a wealth of food. And the Portland Farmer's Market is tomorrow, where we plan to stock up on lots of super local fruits and veggies.

2. What exemptions will you claim?

If it's already in our pantry, it's fair game (I'm not going to replace staples we already have, but will take a peek at the grocery store to see if there are local alternatives for things I plan to use). Coffee is an exception (but we do get ours from a local roaster). If an item is made locally—like the organic bread baked in house at New Seasons Market—we'll count it. If I can't find an item from our 100 mile radius, but there's something in a 250 mile radius, I'll consider it.

3. Will you be making any changes to our budget goals?

Nope—I actually expect we'll come in under budget.

4. Do you have any additional personal goals for the week?

My biggest personal goal is to learn more about where my food comes from.