Sunday, June 29, 2008

"One Local Summer" challenge - week four

Our local only meal included mashed potatoes with Yukon Golds from our farm and local milk and butter. There was salad and sliced onion from the farm - the onion was so sweet we could eat it raw. The best part of the dinner were the grilled pork spare ribs from Riverview Farms in north Georgia. The Terrapin Golden Ale was from an Athens brewery, an hour away.
We have eaten lots of zero-miles food this week, as more of our summer vegetables ripen. We snacked on heirloom tomatoes and cucumbers, eaten fresh off the farm with a bit of salt. The Crimson Sweet Watermelon was not ready yet, but that didn't stop Gillen from eating one - it was juicy but almost completely white! He thought it tasted great. The rest of us are going to wait a few more weeks.

We also had some of the last lettuce that we'll have until the fall. There will be a bit of salad mix still for customers at the market but no more salads at home for a while.

Using local Riverview Farms grown and milled corn meal (we also ate their grits this week) we had corn bread and fried okra, cooked the way Alton Brown and the NY Times taught me - in a cast iron skillet. Here is the recipe for the okra from a few years ago. I just skipped the flour part and I used coconut oil. The picture I took of it this year doesn't do it justice. But here is one of the corn bread and tomatoes:Last night we ate four to five inch ears of corn from Gillen's section of the backyard farm. It didn't get enough sun to grow to full size so Nicolas also brought some corn home from another farmer at the market. Honestly, Gillen's really were sweeter. Mmmmm. Tonight, we are using Gillen's basil to make pesto and his first eggplant in a medley of roasted vegetables.

3 comments:

Red said...

ACK! you have a cast iron skillet. I am so jealous. It will be on my Christmas list this year.

Angie said...

Don't you love cast iron? It is the one thing I look for at all the thrift stores - you can find great ones there.

You meals always look so delicious - I can't wait to try the cornbread & okra - which I don't think my 'yankee' kids have ever had!

Thanks for the recipe.

Sara said...

Oh, had the Terrapin in Athens. Yum. And I'd love to try more of that okra! :)