One local summer

Announcing the 2008 One Local Summer!

2008-05-01T13:35:00.001-07:00

Liz sends her regrets - she will no longer be hosting One Local Summer, and has passed the reins on to me!

One Local Summer will be hosted this year at Farm to Philly, a group blog that not only talks about all things localvore in the Philadelphia region but also shares recipes, gardening tales, and national and international news bits that impact us all. One Local Summer will begin this year on Sunday, June 1 and will run until Sunday, August 31.

The rules will remain the same: create at least one meal each week during the challenge that's made entirely of locally grown ingredients (the acceptable exceptions: salt and pepper, oil, spices). Post your meal(s) to your blog (or for those without blogs, you can email in a report about your challenge meal). Posts broken down by region will be posted at Farm to Philly that detail what everyone's doing!

I hope you'll join us for the 2008 One Local Summer challenge! If you've done it before, you know it's a great deal of fun to live vicariously through the person who has access to local clams, discover new vegetables and new ways to use vegetables, and challenge yourself to support local farmers in more meaningful ways. Please sign up for One Local Summer at Farm to Philly or by emailing me.

The deadline for registration is Sunday, May 25.

At this time we are also accepting volunteers to coordinate regional activity. Those regions are: West, New England, International (all countries outside the U.S.), Midwest, South, and Mid-Atlantic. We may end up breaking these regions down into smaller groups if we have a large number of people signed up. Coordinators will be responsible for collecting and collating updates from the participants in their assigned region and posting updates each week to the Farm to Philly site.

Edited to note: I will also be creating a FAQ about One Local Summer for newcomers to the challenge. If you have suggestions on information to include in the FAQ or questions, please leave a comment or email me.

Eating Locally in Winter

2007-10-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

Laura at Urban Hennery has proposed a challenge for those of you who would like to continue eating one local meal a week throughout the year. It's called the Dark Days of Winter Eat Local Challenge, and the premise is basically the same as OLS, only in a more challenging season. Check out her site for more details.

In other news, if you are interested in being more involved with One Local Summer next year, please email me at pocketfarm {at} gmail {dot} com. Thanks!

Week 10-The latecomers

2007-09-04T03:34:00.000-07:00

Well it's time for the final One Local Summer update from the late comers.

Karl enjoyed a steak dinner with pickled beets among other things.

Kristin had spaghetti bolognese, and she has some thoughts on eating items not from your foodshed, and how intense it can be when it's a special occurrence.

Carmen had pesto pizza! Yum-O!!

Thank you all for participating!

Week 10 ~ International & New England

2007-09-03T11:24:00.001-07:00

Amanda in Scotland showed that you could even be homeless (well, more like in-between flats) and still enjoy local foods. Luckily, she has access to a good farmers market and was able to stock up on provisions.

Karen in Ontario enjoyed some meatloaf this week. About her OLS experience she said, "Overall, it really makes me think about where food comes from and how it's made. I will definitely be continuing with this in many different ways!"

Moonwaves in Ireland enjoyed roast chicken, homegrown peas, and green tomato and lemon chutney before heading off to Germany for an experience she'll never forget with WWOOF.

Wendy in Maine made an eggplant parmigiana type dish that even her non-eggplant loving husband enjoyed. She added, "I think I've gotten closer to finding that balance between eating local and my food budget."

Leslie in Martha's Vineyard enjoyed grass-fed beef from a local farm, along with veggies from her garden.

Frances in Western Massachusetts started the day with a simple omelette and cantelope melon, and ended with grilled veggie and goat cheese sandwiches.

First, Korinthe in Massachusetts stuffed a runaway zuke, then used my favorite tortilla recipe and became her own tortilleria.

Laurie in Massachusetts also went for two meals this week: fried clams (dug by her husband), and that famous New England delicacy: lobster.

And James and I enjoyed a simple garden frittata along with scarlet runner beans and a glass of homemade (and homegrown) strawberry wine.

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in One Local Summer for these past ten weeks. It's always satisfying to see a tiny seed of an idea grow into something mighty. Your efforts are truly inspirational.

Don't forget that the Eat Local Challenge takes place during the entire month of September this year, and the emphasis is on putting up the harvest so you can enjoy those local foods year-round!

OLS West Week 10

2007-09-03T11:24:00.000-07:00

The last week of one local summer. It's been a lot of fun seeing what everyone has been making.

At Chez Gnome, I decided to try something new, Salad Nicoise. The only thing not local was the tuna. Of course, as been the case with most meals, we dug into it before we could get a good photo.

Homesteaders in Training made gnocchi AND red Wagon lettuce, homemade buttermilk dressing with fresh chives that traveled from Maine to Colorado and buttermilk marinated Colorado chicken. Yum!

Sarah at Sarah's homesteading blog made Hearty Summer Vegetable Stew & Drop Biscuits. What a great idea for extra produce when the nights are getting cooler.

Turtle had a yummy salad with tomatoes, red carrots, and baby gem lettuce. Lets hear it for a great salad.

Laura from Urban Hennery had halibut fillet on the grill with steamed green beans and toasted bread. And she says it so well in her post:

"This is it, our last One Local Summer Challenge meal. It’s become such a part of our lives, spreading so that pretty much every meal we cook this summer is 75% or more local. Hard to imagine that we won’t “have” to report on it every week any more. It’s been a wonderful trip, an exploration of our local food shed that I don’t think we would have made so thoroughly so soon without the one local summer challenge."

Thanks everyone!

Midwest, Week Ten

2007-09-03T07:57:00.000-07:00

Sweet potato flower (who knew?)

With this, the last week of August, our One Local Summer experiment has ended!

I hope you all had FUN with this challenge. I certainly learned a lot from all of you. This exercise may have been frustrating at times, and if anything it has proved to us that, like it or not, we have really become separated from the food-growing process. (I mean, my grandparents did not need to go 80 miles from their homes to find dairy and flour, as I have done!) With any hope, you've all done some thinking, and more than likely, you have inspired other people to consider their food miles. And let's not forget the food itself! YUM!

I recycled the meal I made for the last meal for One Local Summer last year. Very univentive, I know, but it was so good, I had looked forward to making it again this year...just needed some beans to ripen.

Matt in Iowa made two local dinners this week. He made his first pesto! And his mom promises to teach him how to make noodles for the next time he makes it. How great is that.

Lucette in Cleveland made a meal with simplicity and ease, she said. Listen to this: "vegetables chopped and sauteed to a sputter...." (I will certainly miss these tomato/cucumber daily salads in three months, won't all of you?)

Farm mom Ang in Michigan posts a lot of firsts in this week's meal. This challenge was really hard for her at first (she is surrounded by farms but nothing to eat), but with some effort, they've done it. And she says if she can, anyone can! Go see her Eggplant Parmigiana.

Emergency surgery and prolonged recovery has taken its toll on Frugalmom in Illinois. She hasn't posted to the challenge as much as she would have liked. That said, she reminds us that eating local need not be a complicated affair: a BLT or some home fries is a simple start.

Evie in South Dakota grabbed her last meal on the run: literally! She did not one but two marathons this week. (Whew.) Speaking of influencing people, she thinks this challenge has helped her daughters the most, and will be something they remember through their lives.

Kelly in Ohio will be continuing the challenge on her blog. She feels that she hasn't made nearly all the recipes she wanted to try, so she needs a few more weeks! Now, that is inspiring. This final meal looked delicious and not too difficult, which is also inspiring.

I will say that Linda in Missouri has had some of the more interesting meals of the challenge: she really goes all-out! She put an Asian spin on this last one, using her own lemongrass and tag-sale dishes. Those cabbage rolls sure looked great!

Ohioans E4 and Lori made a huge haul at the farmer's market this week, but life's complications got in the way of a 100% local meal. (I think 90%, or even 50%, qualifies if your heart is in it!) But both their barbecue and its charcoal were local...

I realize that today is a holiday and that many of us are caught up in the frenetic pace that is Back To School season. If you're still planning on posting a meal, please do so: I will try to catch you all up on the One Local Summer site. I'm missing many of my usual Midwesterners this week, so I hope you can still participate!

Thank you, Liz, for dreaming up this challenge!

The South, week 10

2007-09-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

How can it already be the end of One Local Summer 2007?! Well, I trust we'll be seeing all of you at the Eat Local Challenge, right?

This week Laurie made this summery, sunny plate of open-faced chicken salad sandwiches (note the Pineapple tomatoes) and bright-orange Charentais melon. The melon could have been sweeter, she says, but it was still good.

Jeff and Joyce dined on macaroni and cheese (yes, with homemade noodles, and locally sourced dairy and eggs) with corn on the cob and squash.

Jen incorporated a co-worker’s homegrown banana peppers into a dish of vegetarian enchiladas.

Eating locally sourced food changes your habits fundamentally, Maggie reflects: “Having one local meal a week has not been a challenge, choosing which meal to post about has.” She wrapped up OLS with this stunning mustard- and herb-crusted rack of lamb with Russian Banana fingerling potatoes, Roma beans, and her neighbor’s homemade kamut rolls.

My local meal this week was an ode to the two vegetables that are surviving best in Georgia right now: tomatoes and peppers. I made panzanella (Italian tomato and bread salad) and served it alongside local organic free-range pork chops.

Stew, ever a girl after my own heart, made ratatouille and ate it for dinner one night and breakfast the next morning. I love a meal that multitasks.

Molly calls her last OLS meal “not very exciting and kind of a repeat”--although I beg to differ. I'd have gladly shown up for hamburgers on homemade buns (the ground beef was from her family's own cows), roasted okra, oven french fries, and arugula salad with tomatoes.

Pattie took me at my word when I suggested we go all out this week. She harvested her garden, went to the farmers’ market, collected her CSA box, and put together a Grand Feast. The main dish was an assortment of multicolored heirloom tomatoes with grass-fed lamb on a bed of organic grits. Genovese basil pesto and lamb’s quarters (this year’s MVP!) were the accompaniment, and a muscadine and scuppernong granita made a spectacular dessert. “I wish I could have taken a picture of how my house smelled last night,” she said.

Finally, Paulette decided to give One Local Summer 2007 a grande finale. All but one of her family’s dinners--and all but one of their breakfasts, too--were local this week! Check out the menu she put together, and note especially the homemade beef breakfast sausage.

Thanks so much, everyone! And especially to Liz for making it all possible.

Mid-Atlantic Week #10

2007-09-03T04:39:00.000-07:00

The Mid-Atlantic went out in a flourish this week with great meals and important testimonials to how this wonderful idea of Liz’s has changed their behavior.

Nicole from New Jersey is in Maine this week vacationing with her family. He post this week proves that you CAN dine locally when away from home. Anticipating their family meal of local lobster she reflects …“We are happy locavores this week.”

Naomi from Philadelphia’s made a hearty quiche filled with veggies from her co-op share.

Mac in Philadelphia provided a link to the Farm to Philly website. Please check it out. It is filled with wonderful meals that I may have missed these past weeks.

Mikaela from PA featured a Week #9 Meal brought to us by the letter “S” - scrumptious squashed and stuffed spicy seitan! Then this week she made her own pizza dough and her finale LOOKS scrumptious. She sums it up when she reflects:

“As much as I love to cook, and love local foods, I can truly say that never would've made a pizza from scratch had it not been for the challenge of OLS. Nor would I have considered using corn as a topping. But! These were all good decisions!

Thank you, Liz! You are amazing and inspiring and fun.”

You may recall that Seedling in NJ became a new mom this OLS season. A special congrats to her for posting when she could. Her meal this week was a simple frittata and her reflections on the 10 weeks are worth sharing here.

“More than material for blogging, we've enjoyed getting to know our local foodshed. Though the challenge may end here, we've got the know-how we need to keep eating locally, at least on some level. And the incentive, too, because meals made from mostly local ingredients are by far the tastiest.”

Christy in Delaware made a delicious looking potato-corn chowder and homemade crescent rolls. She reflected on how her habits for buying and for preserving local food have changed as a result of the challenge.

Rabi from NY had a meal of stuffed patty pan squash with roasted tomatoes, okra and potatoes. Hats off to Rabi for some of the finest food photography in the Mid-Atlantic. It has been a real treat!

Steph from PA made another frittata this week only THIS time with sweet peppers. Yum!

Thanks to everyone who participated and shared the bounty of the Mid-Atlantic region. It has been a pleasure to look over your shoulder in your kitchens and in your gardens. Have a great fall. And don't forget that September is this year's Eat Local Challenge month.

September Eat Local Challenge

2007-08-29T04:03:00.000-07:00

If you're interested in continuing your experiments and successes in local eating, you may be interested in taking part in the Locavores' third annual Eat Local Challenge, happening in September this year.

What makes this year's challenge different is, that instead of focusing exclusively on local foods for the entire month, you can select the level of participation that feels most comfortable for you.

Check here for a great list of ways to be involved!

Week 9-The Latecomers

2007-08-28T01:06:00.000-07:00

This week Carmen enjoyed a simple dinner that allowed her to taste the flavor of each item and enjoy the freshness of eating locally.

Faith's group had to throw something together quickly, and they recycled the picture from an earlier meal. I've had week's like that.

Karl's group enjoyed some spaghetti sauce this week.

West Week 9

2007-08-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

This week at Chez Gnome it was fair week. We were quite busy but able to make home made pizza again. It had zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, bell peppers, and onions. Very yummy and hit the spot so quickly there are no photos. We did actually try to make the ravioli from Cheryl posted on her blog Free Range Living. It was my first time making pasta ever. It all stuck together in one huge clump and I had to throw it all away. Next time.

Homesteaders in Training made vegetable pie. It included locally milled whole wheat flour, and the guts were all local: potatoes, leeks, pattypan squash, zucchini and cheese. She had something very nice to say about OLS.

"This morning I was struck by how much has changed in our lives over the past nine weeks. The Local Summer project seems to be about the only constant, quite frankly."

Isn't that the truth.

Sarah at Sarah's Homestead Blog made a tasty dish of potato pancakes made from mashed potato, sauteed garlic, onion and kale, eggs, and a bit of shredded Red Dragon cheese. And on the side was a mix of Summer squash, fresh beans and shelled beans sauteed up with fresh rosemary and oregano from her herb plot.

Over at Taste the Seasons, they made ratatouille.

"Our saving grace was a French dish called ratatouille, originally a poor farmer’s solution to excess summer produce. Ironically, the original recipedidn’t include eggplant, but today, ratatouille is almost unrecognizable without it ."

You have to go check it out. It looks amazing!

Laura of Urban Hennery made corn chowder from a recipe of OLS member Jamie from 10 Signs Like This. She says it's definitely as good as it claims to be. How cool is that.

Lauren at Shooting Stars of Thought made pan-seared pork chops with red wine fig reduction, corn, shoulder bacon, and tomato stuffed zucchini, pork and maple baked beans. Complete with recipes!

Turtle blog made quiche with chard. What a great idea to use up some eggs.

Great job everyone. One week left.

The South, week 9

2007-08-27T07:33:00.000-07:00

Whew. The dog days of summer are upon us. The garden is sun-scalded and plagued by pesky blister beetles. But there's good stuff to be had!

Lastewie made a diner-style dinner of local burgers, fries, and TWO kinds of tomatoes: sliced red, and fried green (now that, my friends, is a victory for southern cooking). For dessert, she had frozen strawberries and lemon ice cream.

Similarly, Molly made hamburgers on homemade bread with a side of tomato and cucumber salad. Oh, and some edamame from a local farm. (I wish ours was still in season--it seems to have disappeared!)

Jeff and Joyce never planned a local meal this week, but they did accidentally have two of them. (Isn’t it great how that happens after you’ve been doing this a while?) One was crustless quiche, and the other was--yes, once again--tacos.

As for us at 10 Signs, we had tacos twice this week: once with White Oak Pastures beef and once with our own chicken. But I submitted spaghetti with meat sauce as our OLS meal, due to degree of difficulty. I had to make the Italian sausage on the spot because I hadn’t gotten around to it when we got our half-pig in January. Freezer raid! Where’s that bag labeled “future sausage”?

Jasmine has noticed that she tends to eat her meals in an unassembled state. Recall that last week she had enchilada filling. This week it was eggplant ravioli filling! I say bravo--assembled or not, the food chez Jasmine always looks phenomenal.

This week Laurie made a crock pot stew of chicken, carrots, onions, and cutting celery with herbs. She served it with field peas, butterbeans, and okra. Dessert was cantaloupe, which is at its best right now!

Week after week, Paulette has wowed us with beautiful beef dinners from her family’s ranch. But in the third straight week of 100-plus-degree temperatures, all she wanted was a vegetarian meal. Check out the dessert wine!

Pattie made a cheese-, egg-, and vegetable-filled “quichey/tart thing” and spent much of her week foraging for figs, muscadine grapes, and greens.

Amy gave new life to leftover North Carolina-caught grouper by making it into beer-battered fish fritters. The little fried nuggets accompanied bowls of chilly gazpacho, and the meal was topped off with a dessert of apple crumble and locally made ice cream.

Maggie had a mightily hectic week, but still managed to squeeze in two almost-local meals: one of spaghetti with marinara sauce, and one of shiitake mushroom and wild rice soup.

That’s it for this week...one more to go! I’m going to try to go out in style. How ‘bout you?

Midwest, Week Nine

2007-08-27T06:06:00.000-07:00

Shameless stealing of Becke's meal posting

"Eating in season" also means "eating what's available now." I mixed up a lot of what I had a lot of for this week's meal. (It tasted better than it looked, I swear.)

Matt did a Comfort Food meal for his family this week. And what is more comforting than Cottage (Shepherd's) Pie? (Even the name gives you a warm, toasty feeling, right?)

Lucette found the last of the last, she thinks, of her venison. Her photo of the burgers she made of them scared her, though, so she substituted instead pics of the corn and salad she made.

Ang has been busy using her stove for things other than meals. How can this be, you ask? Well, her kitchen is like a lot of ours lately: we're all putting away that harvest, one boiling pot of water at a time. She wanted to keep things simple, yet tasty, this week: sure looks like she succeeded!

Evie has had lots to contend with this summer. Hail, then a flood, has done away with much in her garden. She's a stalwart Scandinavian, though, so she's carrying on with a Swedish meal her grandmother made quite often.

Ever-diligent Kelly has discovered the secret of perfectly-grilled chicken breasts: it's diligence! She praises the flood of wonderful veggies that now show up on their plates, knowing well this late-summer eating is but a small slice in time.

Joanna missed this week. She knows why, and how. But here's the best thing: she knows that next year, they'll have a house, and a garden of their own, so this eating-local thing will be REALLY local.

Linda made a spookily autumnal meal this week. It looked GREAT! She confesses, though, that it tasted awful. (I blame it on rushing the seasons: fall will be here soon enough, girl!)

Lori and E4 posted last week's meal this week. Hey: at least they posted it! They both brought up how kooky this Midwestern world is, though, in terms of getting local goodies. You'd think in a breadbasket like Ohio you could get local wheat. I think the same of dairy in Michigan. Farmers out there, listen up! Sell local! We're HERE, and we want to buy!

Becke was chilling with some local soup this week, too. Dang, that looks good. And she, like me, can't believe One Local Summer is almost over!

Manerva missed the floods that hit her state. She got some much-needed rain, though. She happily shared some great grub with visiting relatives this week, though. That's the best kind of meal, I think.

Week 9 ~ New England and International

2007-08-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Korinthe unintentionally went for a two-fer this week. She started with a Deborah Madison-inspired potato soup, and came back later with a whole day's worth of local eats.

Laurie put together a lovely pizza featuring her backyard tomatoes.

Wendy treated her husband's business associates to a typical Maine feast: lobster, corn on the cob, coleslaw, rolls and a blackberry and peach cobbler. Mmmm.... I would have loved to sit in on that business lunch!

Leslie's simple meal shows how truly easy local eating can be.

One Local Summer is inspiring Heather to try new things: last week she made her first pizza, and this week she feasted on grilled veggies, trying grilled zucchini for the first time.

My sister-in-law was visiting for a few days, and we treated her to chicken enchiladas verde, made with our own chicken and tomatillos. Who knew Maine could be tomatillo country?

Karen in Ontario made a fabulous meatloaf.

Mary in Ontario found a new toy in the local thrift shop, and made a batch of Kettle Corn from local popcorn, and called it dinner. It's maybe a wee stretch, but she was excited, so go look!

Moonwaves in Ireland is having a busy time of it, but managed to squeeze in a plate of veggies and some nice Cheddar cheese.

Amanda in Scotland managed to squeeze in a meal of baked potatoes topped with summer veggies and cheese. She finished her dissertation, so wander over there and congratulate her, 'kay?

Cheryl in Vancouver made a gorgeous summer veggie quiche.

Sadly (or not), next week is the final week of One Local Summer. Will the intrepid local eaters stick it out? Will there be a surge in participation? Will everyone be on vacation instead?
You'll only find out if you tune in next Monday for the final installment.

Mid Atlantic Week #9

2007-08-26T18:47:00.000-07:00

I want to thank the four stalwarts who posted this week in One Local Summer. This week before school starts is about as busy as the winter holidays, so I understand that people are being pulled in other directions.

Nicole in New Jersey used local sausage and peppers for her main meal and then made a berry tart for dessert

Bezzie from New Jersey drew on local potatoes and Philly knockwurst for her local meal this week.

Over at Farm Dreams Christy in Delaware made pasta with her Mom and since Mom had never tasted pesto before, she made a pesto sauce for the homemade pasta.

Rabi from New York came through with two offerings. The first was a roasted eggplant pesto with green beans and squash sauce. And the second was a dinner of corn beet greens and mashed potatoes.

You guys rock. Stay with it for one more week.

Week 8-The Latecomers

2007-08-20T20:08:00.000-07:00

This week Kristin rejoins the group after a few hectic weeks. Including dessert!

Carmen enjoyed fresh bread in a sandwich with some goat cheese she made herself! Jealous!

Faith and her clan had some hamburgers with fresh buns. Fresh buns are the best!

If you've been reading Karl's blog you know his family have been enjoying a lot of tomatoes. In fact, I'm wondering when they will just turn into tomatoes. :-)

Karl's enjoying OLS that he keeps doing extra credit. You're an overachiever Karl!

Keep it up ya'll!

Could I have any more exclamation points?!!

OLS West Week 8

2007-08-20T09:52:00.000-07:00

I'm super sad to report that Chez Gnome didn't have a complete local meal at all this week. We've been getting ready for fair this next week and I couldn't pull it off. Please accept my lame excuse and check out what wonderful things everyone else created.

Homesteaders In Training made a wonderful meal of an iced melon concoction(think melon sherbet), cucumber salad, and rhubarb crunch.

Cookiecrumb made a lot of wonderful meals this week. I'm going to pick her last as the OLS. It's a beautiful pasta and tomato dish from Nora Ephron's 1983 "novel" Heartburn. It looks amazingly delicious.

Sarah at Sarah's Homestead Blog made Vegetarian Shepherd Pie. Doesn't that sound yummy!

Krystle and Hans-Peter at Taste the Seasons had a busy week making Rolled Eggplant Tapas, Corn Chowder w/ Chilis, and Chiles Rellenos. And recipes are included!

Turtle made a delicious soup and salad. She even made her own soup noodles!

Lauren at Urban Hennery made two meals this week. 8.1 was Ling Cod, broccoli and tomato and 8.2 was London Broil, green beans and tomato.

"We’ve really been enjoying the fresh tomatoes now that we can get them in quantity - and to me nothing is better than a fresh warm tomato drizzled with vinegar topped with salt and pepper."

For sure!

Great job everyone! If everyone else's farmers markets are like ours, next week's meals should be spectacular!

The South, week 8

2007-08-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

This is the time of year when my garden turns into a Little Shop of Horrors and I just stop giving a darn. But I have to admit the food is good. We are taking special note of the vegetables that are surviving the drought and heat wave. (For those keeping score at home: Green Zebra and Sungold tomatoes; Fairytale eggplants; and all the hot peppers.)

E-mailer Molly and I are in the same boat: Both cooking a lot of local food, but too frazzled to keep track. “I don't even know what week it is now!” she laments. But she managed to make a delectable tomato pie, with sides of edamame (ooh, my favorite!), mashed potatoes (my other favorite!), and vegetable sauté.

Meanwhile, I copped out big time and only made peel-and-eat shrimp, which I ate messily while watching an episode of CSI. But you should go read about the shrimp; they’re pretty special.

Gazpacho, grouper fritters, and apple crisp with local ice cream? I don’t know about you, but I’m going to Amy’s house.

Jasmine used an astonishing array of local produce in “a meal that is in [her] regular rotation”: the filling for roasted vegetable enchiladas. What would we do without local feta cheese, eh, Jasmine?

Joyce, not wanting to continue her summer Tacopalooza, went rummaging in the freezer and found a forgotten package of stew beef. With summer vegetables and Southern Biscuit flour, it became a beef pie that fed her and Jeff for two whole meals.

The Purloined Letter is back from North Carolina, and has made two OLS meals. I love the idea of cooking banana peppers into hamburgers. I’m going to have to try that as soon as humanly possible.

Maggie’s ducks are laying! She used one of the eggs to bind the meatballs in this week’s spaghetti dinner.

Laurie continues to cook with the most intriguing heirloom tomatoes. This time it’s Pineapple toms, which accompanied pan-fried pork chops and her own homegrown butterbeans and field peas.

Lucky Lastewie happened upon an untended fig tree--which, to me, ranks as one of the all-time great local eating pleasures. The figs were dessert after a meal of pork chops, stuffing, long beans, and summer squash.

Paulette notes, “I know it seems that our One Local Summer meals always center around some form of our beef.” Well, when you have your own herd, that’s fair enough! This time it was T-bone steaks with peppers and onions, cucumber salad, and vegetable fritters.

And last, but perhaps most beautiful and haunting, Pattie’s eggplant parmigiana with orange cherry tomatoes evoked memories from her childhood.

Week 8 ~ New England & International

2007-08-20T05:31:00.000-07:00

Frances showed her visiting friends how they roll in Western Mass. (it sounded cooler when she said it), first by hiking on the Appalachian Trail, then grilling up a plethora of local veggies. And what would a visit with good friends be without dessert of peach & strawberry sorbet?

Korinthe made a big dish of Macaroni & Cheese with veggies and sausage.

Lisa enjoyed her own home-raised, home-butchered, beer-marinated chicken for dinner, along with corn on the cob, roasted red potatoes, refrigerator pickles, and red cabbage slaw. If that wasn't enough, they had blueberry ice cream for dessert.

Us New Englanders must have had the chicken harvest on the brain, because James and I also spent part of our weekend dispatching our meat chickens. Along with baked chicken, this week's dinner consisted of new potatoes, coleslaw and a baked tomato, all from the garden.

Leslie is a lucky one with a friend who is a fisherman. Gordon supplied the Bonita, and Leslie's garden supplied the rest.

Between her farm share and her Boston Organics box, Magid had a ton of veggies to get through. In order to make room for all of it in the fridge, she roasted some, made a couple of salads, and enjoyed it all with scrambled eggs with greens. She says she couldn't get herself interested in "figuring out a dessert", but I don't see how she had the room!

Wendy's having a tough week on her homestead, and a simple pizza was an easy thing to make for her girls. I don't think they thought it was boring!

Laurie enjoyed a swiss chard & potato torta, summer squash, and a cuke and tomato salad.

Cheryl in Vancouver got the kids involved in a very involved dinner: baby portobello mushroom ravioli. No one cared that they didn't eat until 9pm, because they were having SO MUCH FUN!!

Moonwaves in Ireland had a very special omelette with her very own peas and tomatoes in it. Three cheers for home gardens!

Mary in Ontario finally got her hands on some local peppers, and made some lovely vegetable fajitas.

Only two more weeks of One Local Summer to go. I know some of you are dealing with record heat, but we're starting to wake up to some CHILLY mornings! It's hard to believe summer is ending already.

Midwest, Week Eight

2007-08-20T04:58:00.000-07:00

Just hand me the salt: Hillbilly potato leaf or Flame heirloom tomato, 2.5 pounds of goodness

TWO MORE WEEKS OF ONE LOCAL SUMMER!

I made a lot of meals. It's easy with so much available, but I also wished to show that even busy people can make good food.

Matt agrees that it is easy cooking at this time of year; he's a cyclist so he calls it a "no chain day" to demonstrate how untaxing things can be. He didn't even need to cajole his kids to eat, they readily did!

Lucette thought ahead and froze the dough for this week's pizza. What she really delighted in, besides the good food? The way the house smelled! "Like someone Italian who was a brilliant cook." Brava!

Ang is also thinking Italian with her meal. She made an eggplant bolognese. I keep forgetting that Eden Organics is a Michigan company, so thanks, Farm Mom! I can now slurp pasta local-style too!

Stacie ate a meal that tasted just like chicken...because it was! The veggies were hers, the meat was local...and THEN just take a look at what she had for dessert. YUM.

Kelly sometimes wishes she had some help in the kitchen, and as the solo chef in my house, I hear her on that. But there's so much going on in the background of her meal preparation! Luckily, things are just jumping out in the garden to help her.

Linda, bless her, went foraging for her meal. Lamb's quarters are a...weed in most people's parlance, but in actuality they're a vitamin-rich spinach substitute; I've certainly served my share, especially since it's hot and lettuce isn't available. But she even went out and caught herself some bluegill! LOVE those pan fish!

Debbie made a really yummy-looking stew, complete with local quinoa. It looks both delicious AND healthy.

Poor Becke's air conditioning has been on the fritz! Considering she loves to heat up her kitchen, this is quite a predicament. She made a lovely cold dish this week, though; go wish her a happy birthday.

Manerva has had water woes (her well pump went out), but that hasn't stopped the tomatoes. Big fans of the red stuff, her household...but this week was pizza. Delicious. (And M: I'll clean a messy kitchen over folding laundry any day, won't you?)

The Mid-Atlantic OLS Week #8

2007-08-20T03:07:00.000-07:00

With just a bit if a chill in the air this weekend, we offer the meals of the Mid-Atlantic rich in tomatoes and the garden's bounty

Jasmin NY (just outside Manhattan) posted a Week #7 meal that I missed because it was posted after six last week. It was a carrot, ginger and beet soup complete with recipe. Doesn’t it look scrumptious?

Naomi from Philadelphia’s contribution this week was a beef stir fry with tomatillos as the star ingredient.

Nicole channeled Grandma Aurora this week for a squash blossom recipe and added a zucchini basil cream sauce to pasta.

Bezzie from New Jersey made a black bean and corn salsa

Peg from New York posted our first ratatouille of the season. WE ought to have an award for the first person to put together a ratatouille.

Mikaela from PA made this impressive tortilla tower out of veggies from her CSA share and tempeh. A salad side and a slice of watermelon rounded out the plate.

Seedling in NJ’s dinner this week featured her own vine ripened tomatoes over a locally made pasta.

Using Bob’s Red Mill recipe Christy in Delaware made tortillas from scratch and then used them for yummy looking quesadillas

Rabi from NY used her left over veggies, some tofu and local buckwheat to make a tempting summer salad.

Great work everybody. Let's keep the good news coming her ein the last two weeks.

OLS West Week 7

2007-08-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

This week at Chez Gnome, we had pesto chicken on pasta with a kitchen sink salad.(everything we could think of we through into that salad: eggs, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes....) We had fresh nectarines for dessert.

Amy at Amystery is starting to experience the first touches of fall there in Alaska. She made Risi e Bisi which is a type of risotto.

Cookiecrumb at I'm Mad and I Eat had a tart of whole-wheat flour crust (and butter and cream), filled with home-grown tomatoes, some herbs, and a sauteed onion. She goes on to say:

"The veggies went over the partially blind-baked crust, which was first smeared with Bodega Goat Cheese crema (groan!), and then it was topped with grated Spring Hill dry jack. Oh, mommy."

Turtle had modified Spanish Torta. You have to see how beautiful it looks!

Laura at the Urban Hennery made not one, but 3 OLS meals this week. She started with an egg scramble on Thursday, then came beef hash on Friday. Saturday night she finished with grilled chicken, a salad, corn on the cob and garlic mashed potatoes. They washed it all down with fresh peach ice cream.

Melissa at Homesteaders in Training feasted on corn on the cob, one of her absolute favorites, along with leftover noodles. She calls it a "cop out". We call it "good eats".

Sarah at Sarah's Homestead Blog had a big salad. It included greens, cherry tomatoes, lemon cucumber, roasted turnips and beets, and carrots. How refreshing

Wonderful job everyone.

Only a few more weeks to go!

Week 7 ~ New England & International

2007-08-13T06:25:00.000-07:00

I've always thought of pasta "primavera" as a late spring/early summer dish, but here in Maine, we don't really have enough veggies for this classic until sometime in August. It was well worth the wait, though.

Leslie had the meal that seems to make most folks outside of New England the most jealous: lobster.

Wendy's husband often comes home for lunch, but this past week he missed out on a tomato and cheese omelet, homefries and french toast. I bet he's sorry he had that meeting...

Heather gave tortilla-making a try, and filled them with local eggs and pico de gallo.

Frances found herself craving a hearty vegetable soup after waking up to a chilly morning.

Lisa just added a tortilla press to her collection of kitchen tools so she could make corn enchiladas the slow-food way: with homemade corn tortillas, and two kinds of homemade cheese. Yum!

Korinthe enjoyed burgers, salad and some more of her salsa verde.

Laurie dined on foccacia along with veggies two ways: warm and roasted, and cool and marinated.

Moonwaves in Ireland turned to the kind of hearty meal her Mum would make: mince with potatoes. Mmmm.... comfort food.

Rebecca in Scotland has been super busy writing her dissertation, but managed to find time to get to the Edinburgh festival and make some homemade pasta with zucchini sauce. Whew!

Karen in Ontario enjoyed a simple meal of scrambled eggs with veggies.

Cheryl in Vancouver needed a quick meal, and tossed some non-local pasta with garden veggies and pesto (even local Parm!). She made up for the non-local pasta, though, with a local breakfast and lunch.

Yukino in Moldova got back in the game this week with a baked veggie and pasta dish that nearly looks like pizza.

Mary in Ontario went all out with a local Indian feast: pea curry, zesty roasted corn on the cob and even samosas (one of my absolute faves)!

Another great week of summer down, with a lot of great local meal ideas. I'm thinking I need to hit Mary up for that samosa recipe....

The South, week 7

2007-08-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

It has been between 100 and 105 degrees here every day this week except for Saturday. We are all going stir-crazy, and one of my best market-gardener friends lost almost all of his tomatoes to the scalding-hot sun. The fruit literally cooked in its skin. We have fared a little better, but I think only because we grow more tougher-skinned and potato-leafed varieties.

No one really feels like eating too much, but we are doing our best! In fact, some of our southern OLSers really pulled out the stops this time around.

Jasmine says “the heat and drought has had some strange effects on what is available from my CSA and the market.” Still, she’s been making some gorgeous roasted vegetables. She used them on pasta last week and has been contemplating pre-freezing homemade pie crusts for spur-of-the-moment vegetable tarts.

After her heroic turn as my temporary replacement last week (thanks again, sweetie--Cairo is doing quite a bit better, and he sends you a kiss!), Stew put up a batch of pesto and invited a friend over for a ravioli dinner.

Jeff and Joyce are on the all-tacos-and-corn diet lately...which doesn’t sound like a bad way to be. Can I come over for dinner, guys?

The Purloined Letter, on vacation in Asheville, N.C., managed to whip up an entire day’s worth of local menus. And that’s not all: follow her links to see a Shabbat dinner and a tour of local restaurants.

Jen and her hubby are “the Best Blackberry Scavengers Ever in all the world.” They’re going to thank themselves later for making blackberry jam and wild blackberry wheat ale. Oh, and meanwhile, they’ve been canning spaghetti sauce, too.

Laurie had my very favorite type of meat this week. And delectable Green Zebra tomatoes, too! And a homemade baguette. And corn. And cobbler. Sigh.

Busy day? Check. Excruciatingly hot weather? Check. Paulette responded by making a quick, easy, and delicious meal of steak strips and sauteed veggies.

Maggie cleared the tomatoes off the dining room table so she could serve roast chicken, freshly dug fingerling potatoes, Roma and wax beans, and cornbread.

Pattie beat the heat with a cucumber salad “just like Mom used to make.” Sounds good to me--we've been looking for any excuse to use the cool, crisp veggies.

Amy and I both made desserts that mysteriously turned into soup. Hers was a peach pie, and mine was a muscadine grape cobbler. Ah, well--things happen! Better luck to us both next time.

Midwest, Week Seven

2007-08-13T04:45:00.000-07:00

'Tis the season

Summer is slipping away! We're up to Week Seven of OLS.

We had a custard for dinner this week, along with some corn chowder. No, it's not an instance of dessert before dinner, silly, it was a savory custard!

Phelan is having camera woes, but she made game hens and a mighty fine peach cobbler this week.

Matt has been consuming lots of local meals lately, but the one he documented used local pasta. The pasta takes some getting used to, as it tends to cook quickly! I've noticed this with homemade stuff, too: just gotta watch it.

Lucette was feeling under the weather, but some local chicken soup lovingly prepared to help see her through definitely made her believe food = medicine.

Farm Mom Ang didn't especially feel like cooking, but she didn't especially feel like wasting good food, either. Maybe many of us feel this way, in this time of extreme produce glut. Just remember this won't last forever, folks.

FrugalMom has missed a couple of weeks due to a longer than anticipated recovery from surgery. She's on the mend, though, thankfully, so go check out her grub.

Evie has had a rough summer, too. This week, though, she put her daughter to work to go out and scavenge a meal from the garden. The first little eggs from their hens helped things out, how exciting!

Stacey just had a birthday and her loving hubby got her a KitchenAid mixer, so she's stepping up and stepping out...this week with pizza. YUM.

Kelly also went in for pizza this week. Whoa: didn't she do this last week, too? Well why yes. But hey: don't you all remember college? Or the once-a-week that our school cafeterias offered pizza and we all wanted it? Yeah. You'd eat it once a week, too.

Joanna made some lovely pasta and some only so-so corn fritters. She'll be out camping next week: anyone have any help for her for her local meal in NW Pennsylvania?

Linda had a meatball quite literally roll off the top of her spaghetti and onto the floor and the next thing she noticed...it rolled under a cabinet. Okay, it wasn't quite like that old song, but she does have some pointers about making sausage, so go check out her post!

E4 and Lori have been...busy. But! this week's meal was fast and satisfying for all.

Becke is the farmer's market shopper extraordinaire, so finding yummy dishes on her site is nothing new. She's getting help from her own garden with this week's meal.

Manerva says it's never too hot for soup if you're in the mood, and I quite agree with her, don't you? This soup featured some home-grown black beans, too.

And finally Kate agrees with Manerva: soup is just plain good eating, especially when it comes from the back yard! In fact, she calls it backyard soup, so go check it out.

Week #7 Mid-Atlantic

2007-08-13T03:07:00.000-07:00

Naomi from Philadelphia made this lovely seitan and onion and pepper sauté.

Meredith in Pennsylvania made her favorite pasta sauce with loads of sweet peppers from her garden including a “sheepnose pimento.”

Seedling in NJ has reason for celebration! An hour after eating her Week #6 Meal she went into labor and delivered a healthy baby daughter! She has submitted that meal of local pork chop, potatoes and patty pan squash as her this week’s offering. Golly I feel like a grandmother ;-)

Christy in Delaware made a meal of maple glazed pork chops, royal purple beans and corn. Makes your mouth water.

The most colorful meal of Week #7 was had by Linda from New York . She complemented her home grown frozen chicken with beets and peaches and blueberries and corn

Nicole is upping the ante. She posts two meals this week. One a meal inspired by other OLS posters Tortilla Espanola with Swiss chard and the other meal a gazpacho with cornbread.

Rabi from NY used local peaches to make two different all local desserts. Don’t they look great?

While I imagine the drop off in participation is directly related to summer travels, I am sure that all of us are enjoying the rich local bounty that is available in August. Thanks to everyone who made time to post this week. Only three more to go … keep them coming!

The Latecomers-Week 7

2007-08-13T02:06:00.000-07:00

Faith and her family enjoyed Monte Cristo sandwiches this week, and she put up the recipe for cantaloupe juice.

Carman enjoyed some local fried potatoes and a salad.

Karl is enjoying the bounty of fresh, local tomatoes.

The South, Week 6 (Take 2)

2007-08-07T04:28:00.000-07:00

Hey there all...It's Stew.

I'm stepping in here today to post a Week 6 Southern One Local Summer roundup for Jamie, since she's got a doggie crisis going on at home.

First, a little anecdote to get us going. Today I was feeling bad for using wheat flour that's milled in NC, without knowing whether it was sourced locally or not. So I wrote them an email trying to figure it out. Within an HOUR I had an email back from their "Director of Commodity Procurement" with an answer. Call me impressed.

Especially because the answer was what I had wanted, but didn't dare hope for.

Most of this wheat comes from North Carolina and South Carolina. Since there is not enough wheat grown in Catawba County to last us a month we also need to get wheat from eastern North Carolina around Greenville, Wilson, Plymouth and Washington...Sometimes we buy soft red wheat from Ohio and Indiana but because freight costs get so high, that is limited

I didn't really expect it to be that local. And it's not 100% sourced locally, but I'm not perfect either. I was just surprised (and delighted, I think I said) that this is the same place that is supplying Bojangles with their biscuit flour (Huh. And therefore shipping it. Must dig more).

The bad news is that the local corn goes to the pigs and turkeys (and presumably the ones at the factory farms, but maybe I'm just being cynical), and it seems that the corn that I buy for cornbread likely comes from elsewhere. But at least he was upfront about it, you know?

I thought that was a fascinating exchange.

On to the One Local Summer Week Six entries!!!

My neighbors an hour or so to the West, Joyce and Jeff, are taking advantage of corn season with a second meal in a row featuring corn-on-the-cob. They made flour tortillas (from the Southern Biscuit flour I just blathered on about) for their beef enchiladas. The sauce was from Dad's garden. It looks divine!

Also over there in the Piedmont Triad area of North Carolina, we welcome Amy back from a hiatus. She made a quiche from bits and pieces of good stuff leftover from previous meals. Country ham, spinach and red onion. I'm all about dishes that transform leftovers into a wondrously new meal.

Down the road from Amy a piece (I'm getting into this, considering I grew up in Michigan and typically only speak Southern when I've had one too many porters), Laurie whomped up a zucchini frittata, paired with sliced tomatoes and bread. I'm a little jealous that Laurie says she has a secret cow to get raw milk from for butter. (Plausible deniability, y'all. She says she does. Raw milk is illegal to sell for human consumption in NC, so we don't want to out her. I may or may not have a connection myself. I'll never tell.)

Still in North Carolina, but moving up to the mountains, we welcome back Maggie, who had been on the road. She made my absolute favorite summer meal: burgers, corn-on-the-cob, tomatoes and slaw.

I guess I fit into the NC category, too. I, unfortunately, slacked this week. I did have much local foods, but I didn't take pictures or anything. I had canned 60 lbs of tomatoes ($1 lb in bulk, suckers!), and was exhausted. My meal was picked at throughout the day, and I had baba ganoush, tomatoes, and chocolate ice cream.

The coolest meal preparation method award goes to the postest with the mostest at The Purloined Letter. She cooked their veggie stew in a homemade SOLAR cooker! When it had cooked all up, the stew went on top of some blackeyed peas, and next to some garden greens.

Over in Tennessee they had TWO FULL week 6 meals at the M4-D Ranch! Overachievers. Harumph. Both looked gorgeous. Number one was steak on the grill with onions and peppers, sliced tomatoes, butter beans and blueberry buckle. Rowr. The second was no less impressive: steak fajitas with homemade tortillas. Are you using Southern Biscuit flour, too?

Pattie from Food Shed explored agriturism at a Georgia Dairy that had an attached country store. She gussied up a wild-greens infused salad she made for lunch with the dressing she got at the store. She washed down with chocolate milk. Yum. Chocolate milk.

Not least (though apparently last today), our Jamie managed to wade through the tomatoes that are covering every surface of her house to make her week 6 meal. She went straight up deep south: country ham, stewed okra, and biscuits from scratch. I'm not usually big on country ham, myself, and Jamie seems to have found a recipe that made it work.

OK, everyone. Y'all are doing a fabulous job. I'm entirely impressed with the variety of foods you're making.

You'll have Jamie back next week, I promise! I'm a little corny. I blame in on my Dad, who's the corniest guy I know.

Mmmmm. Corn. Dinnertime Chez Stew. See ya!

The South, Week 6

2007-08-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

Will be slightly delayed due to veterinary emergency -- stay tuned.

OLS West Week 6

2007-08-06T07:12:00.000-07:00

Summer has created a bit of a schedule crunch here at Chez Gnome. With the garden and a birthday this week, our dinner was meager at best. We had veggie stir fry with egg. Pretty boring but there you go.

Cookie crumb at I'm Mad and I Eat made a wonderfully simple yet tasty dish of homegrown tomatoes stuffed with egg salad, served over homegrown lettuce leaves. (Must try this one)

Lauren at Shooting Stars of Thought has yet another wonderful post with recipes. She had sea bass in paper, homemade orichette with arugula pesto, and eggplant caponata with roasted red peppers. What a feast!

Turtle at My Green Turtle made chicken salad. The salad consisted of red butter lettuce, cucumber, red peppers, chicken, and tomato. There was also squash on the side. Even her butter for the squash was local.

Sarah is being buried alive by summer squash of all sizes and shapes. What do you do with those round ones? Stuff 'em, of course!

Amy enjoyed beet salad, Alaska-style (with smoked salmon).

Melissa had her lovely assistant help out with the pasta making, then topped the noodles with sauteed zucchini and onions. Melissa recently posted her refrigerator pickle recipe, so get your hands on some cukes!

Great job everyone!

Week 6 ~ New England & International

2007-08-06T06:48:00.000-07:00

Fran and her man Dan gobbled up an entire Deborah Madison-inspired tomato gratin made with lovely heirloom tomatoes. Wouldn't you? It looks delicious!

Along with several other local meals, Wendy made ratatouille for the first time, and found that it tasted pretty good, despite looking "a little nasty".

Leslie's zucchini gratin with goat cheese was similar to my own crustless zucchini pie, both good uses for the super-abundant summer vegetable.

Heather borrowed her mom's rolling pin in order to whip her pasta into shape, topping it with homemade tomato sauce with zucchini.

Korinthe had roasted veggie tacos this week, and is finding that eating a more vegetable-based diet is making her feel healthier.

Lisa's meal of noodles, veggies and queso blanco was Asian-inspired, and included a starter featuring her own homemade crackers and cream cheese. (note: I realize the link isn't working, but that's what it says in my feedreader. Lisa, where did your post go?)

Magid made a simple corn & potato chowder, along with a sauté of veggies.

Laurie enjoyed an incredibly fresh roast chicken dinner: just one day from plucked to plate.

In Ontario, peaches for dessert followed Mary's signature pizza and cucumber salad. What's your signature pizza?

And in Ireland, Moonwaves enjoyed hamburgers with her own homemade ketchup. You know, I've never made ketchup because we don't really eat all that much of it, but I may just have to give this recipe a try.

Thanks again for another great week of local food!

Mid-Atlantic Week Six

2007-08-06T04:15:00.000-07:00

This was the “week of the frittata” in the Mid-Atlantic. Lots of local eggs went into this week’s meals.

Nicole reported in with a Chard Tart with a side of huge cherry tomatoes and melon and blueberries for dessert

Naomi from Philadelphia was able to put together a tofu stir fry from local ingredients over a bed of greens.

Bezzie from New Jersey made a chicken quesadilla with salsa. Her salsa photo is fun.

Peg from New York made a mouth watering Potato, Onion and Tomato Frittata with Goat Cheese.

Jasmin adapted a Deborah Madison recipe and made Potato and Pesto Croquettes this week. Doesn’t that look good?

Christy in Delaware made her first ever frittata featuring blue potatoes from he garden.

Rabi from NY missed her Week Five posting due to an emergency room visit … but please check it out here. She also did a bonus meal for Week#5 brought to you by the letter B

Linda from New York has returned from her family travels and welcomed the chance to eat local again. Her meal consisted of barbequed pork chops (from the “eternal pig”) a potato and bean salad and fried green tomatoes.

Mikaela made some whole wheat tortillas and filled them with local veggies and tofu scrambler. The bean salad and corn sides and the strawberry dessert made for a very attractive plate.

Great job everybody!!!! Look forward to next week !

Midwest, Week Six

2007-08-06T04:13:00.000-07:00

Can't you almost taste me?

I'm hoping the dog days of summer, and not the rigors of local eating, have affected people's schedules out there, as I am missing a lot of fine Midwesterners this week. Sigh. I *know* cooking + hot weather are not the funnest combination. But just think of the bounty of produce out there just WAITING for you to eat it!

I found it hot this last week, too, so we made pizzas on the grill. They were so filling that I forgot both the salad in the refrigerator and the peaches ripening on the counter! The family didn't seem to mind.

Phelan has been a busy bee, canning her little heart out. Though if you see this post, you may wonder if she's got a touch of heatstroke, poor thing.

Matt has been busy canning, too. Here is his meal, better late than never.

Lucette shares an omelet and a salad this week for her meal. But it wasn't just a salad; it was a metasalad, an ubersalad: a so-not-to-be-compared to iceberg and carrot shavings salad: check it out.

Ang the Farm Mom sang a little bit of Italian this week for her meal. And don't you agree that eggplant goes with everything??

Evie is putting her tortilla press to good use again, this time for the pita for gyros! Doesn't that look delicious?

Stacey has been busy, too, but you will simply love the photo she took of her late-night scramble of a meal.

Gina and her family are contemplating a move, AND she's doing a lot of food processing now. But she did get a chance to prepare a meal this week on the 100 Foot Diet.

Jennifer made a quick fridge-to-skillet-to-plate meal this week that looks like it tasted quite yummy.

I know Kelly had some company coming, and decided grilled pizza sounded like a perfect crowd-pleaser...but I am not sure if she posted the meal in time. Go see her site anyway!

Joanna had a couple of locally-produced meals this week. She posts her lovely pasta/cherry tomato dish, but she really loved corn in the husk on the grill, the good Hoosier that she is!

Linda made a meal her grandmother served almost every Sunday. How wonderful that she is able to keep these traditions going! The one thing Linda admits, though, is she didn't wring the chicken's neck that morning, as her Grams would've done; she did it earlier this year.

E4 and Lori produced a meal that included one of their extra goats...or chevon, as they say. (Tomayto tomahto?) It certainly looked quite good!

Debbie made a meal that really looked great. She made a slaw and a risotto, and is still eating local cantaloupe, though she's not particularly relishing the latter.

Norma Jean made burgers this week, and she was really excited for the leftovers she'd eat the next day. They also polished it off with some homemade beer. You should check her tip about what she plans on doing with her leftover burger, though!!

Becke made a lovely soup-and-a-sammie that probably made us all wish we lived closer to her! That corn chowder...mmm...

Manerva also made a sandwich for this week's meal, even grinding the buns' grain herself. I personally think arugula belongs with any sandwich in which mayo is used, don't you?

Looking for something to do with all that corn? Kate (no pic this week, her little boy is sick) has given us a link to her CSA's newsletter, where she got the recipe for corn risotto.

Week 6-The Latecomers

2007-08-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

Carmen enjoyed a salad and some corn on the cob.

Karl enjoyed multiple local meals, it seems all at the same time. He definitely has an active household!

At Faith's house they enjoyed some Filipino food. I remember something I had once at someone's house, whose wife was Filipino, that was rice stuffed into banana leaves. Man it was good. Good memories. She promises cantaloupe juice next week.

Week 5-The Latecomers

2007-07-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm late today. Way too much going on this weekend, but here's the run down.

Carmen decided to join the breakfast club by having some whole wheat pancakes. By the way, is it OK to say I like that movie even if I am a guy? Well even if it isn't, I'm going to say I like that movie quite a bit. Same with Can't Buy Me Love and Sixteen Candles...anyway...

Karl was so busy eating local meals I don't know how he found time for anything else. One time he ate a cow named Merlin (now that's knowing your food). They also had some fresh chicken noodle soup to help recover from an illness. (Somehow we got off on our numbering but I think we're back on now) And in this post he talks about local ketchup and links to a recipe. I remember my Dad telling me that my great-grandmother use to make her own ketchup too "back on the farm". He really liked it. Maybe some day I'll get to that level.

Faith enjoyed her new picnic table, some local BBQ chicken and a drink called Cantaloupe Juice. She fails to share detailed instructions, but I am demanding right now that she share a more detailed instructional post, with pictures, with the world.

The South, week 5

2007-07-30T06:45:00.000-07:00

Ever forget to take a picture of your OLS meal until after you’ve eaten a bunch of it? Yeah, I do it all the time. And so did our non-blogger Molly:

But no matter. There's big news at Molly’s place: her young hens are laying their first little pullet eggs! She served the eggs fried alongside a potato, onion, and corn hash; green beans from her garden; and sliced tomatoes. Everything came from a 1.5-mile radius of her house, except for a little bit of cheese her parents brought back from Ontario.

The Purloined Letter had the same fabulous tomato-using idea that I did: gazpacho! But there the similarity ends. Whereas I paired mine with turkey in mole sauce, she served hers with homemade pumpernickel and blueberry-peach crisp.

Pattie’s special superpower is her ability to incorporate lamb’s quarters into anything. Watch: this week it was pizza! The other toppings included local goat cheese and heirloom tomatoes.

Laurie loves Green Zebra tomatoes as much as I do. No surprise there--they are the best-kept secret in tomatodom. But the tomatoes didn’t appear in her dinner--just in her photo. Apparently her OLS meal of baked chicken breasts, wax and green beans, and braised carrots with honey and parsley wasn’t as photogenic as the stripey veg.

Another Green Zebra lover is Lastewie, who had a friend over for dinner this week. She served three varieties of toms, fresh mozzarella, potato salad, mixed greens, cucumber and red pepper salad, caramelized summer squash, and locally baked bread with local butter. She also made a fruit salad, but she and her dinner guest nipped out to Locopops (a nearby Mexican fruit-pop stand that uses lots of local ingredients) after dinner instead of eating it. I can identify--when I visited Stew in April, we went there three times.

Jeff and Joyce had not one, but two local meals this week. The first was an “easy and tasty” pork tenderloin with roasted potatoes and corn, and the second was corn and potato chowder with bread homemade from locally milled flour.

Paulette sourced her Week 5 meal from a 60-mile radius. The steak strips were from her own cattle, while the baked potatoes and speckled butter beans were grown within an hour’s drive.

Amy has been on blogging hiatus because of an especially taxing move. But now she’s back, and she promises to tell us about her recent local cooking efforts: an entirely local peach pie (local flour and honey), a scallop pasta, a blackberry cobbler, and shrimp quesadillas. Stay tuned...

Week 5 ~ International & New England

2007-07-30T05:11:00.000-07:00

Looks like we're halfway through One Local Summer 2007! Of course, that only means the challenge is half-over, not the summer (although I personally wouldn't mind a return to cooler temps). The bifurcated carrot is apropos nothing, I just thought it looked cool.

In reverse this week, I bring you the International and New England participants...

Mary in Ontario was inspired by Cheryl's gnocchi of a few weeks back. They look like they came out perfectly!

Cheryl in Vancouver composed a meal made of side dishes: potatoes, Szechuan green beans and her "favorite salad". Cheryl, do tell what's in that salad... I think I see lentil sprouts.

Karen in Ontario made a fine looking pizza with green peppers, mushrooms and tomatoes. Two kinds of cheese (cheddar and goat mozzarella) topped it off. That definitely rivals the pizzeria!

Amanda in Scotland was missing her man this week while he was off in Israel. So what did she do? She made several days worth of pasta with local veggies, worked on her dissertation, and hogged the bed.

Laurie tucked into a plate of meatloaf, veggies and cornbread (with no wheat flour!). A diligent search paid off, and Laurie found a good recipe in a cookbook from the '20s. Wanna share it with the rest of us?

Lisa kept the house cool by grilling a pizza topped with home-grown sundried tomatoes, Greek basil and homemade mozzarella and ricotta.

Stephani discovered one of the benefits of eating locally: shedding a couple of pounds. No, not because you'll starve if you eat locally, but because eating lots of fresh veggies is so darn good for ya! She made some big pots of veggie and bean soups to take her through this week.

Fiber artist Kim in the mountains of New Hampshire joined us for the first time this week. She's found that sourcing local ingredients is a little bit harder than she thought it was going to be, but recently stumbled across a grist mill while visiting a friend. She pleased the kids enormously with oat and strawberry pancakes. Yum!

Leslie had a hard time resisting striped bass this week, and served it with a simple butter, garlic and basil sauce. She also came up with some creative ways to serve all those extra cukes.

Magid is trying to use up that farm share before the next one comes in, and cooked up tons of veggies.

Wendy's daughter got married this weekend, so Wendy treated her visiting sister to a Maine lobstah dinner. Earlier in the week, her young daughter got creative with her chef salad.

It's been hot in Maine. Whew! I know I don't have much room to complain about the heat, considering what the rest of you are dealing with, but when you get used to negative temps in the winter, anything above 85˚F has me wilting like a head of lettuce in the full sun. So I made some quick, easy, fall-apart noodles with one of our favorites: canned smoked fish.

Thanks for another great week, and keep making those fabulous local meals!

The Mid-Atlantic OLS Week #5

2007-07-30T04:40:00.000-07:00

We had some participants drop out and some drop in this week in the Mid-Atlantic.

After a two week hiatus, Naomi made a saute of local tofu, peppers squash and mushrooms and served it over local greens.

Peg put together a BLT made with homemade bread. And although the bacon was not local, the other items like corn on the cob, summer squash and peaches were. Boy, a BLT … what a great idea.

Nicole now has a blog up and running! Congrats, Nicole. In fact she did TWO meals this week! A Corn, Tomato and Potato Salad followed by a Peach Tart. A Nicoise Salad minus the tuna and a Cantaloupe Granita. Recipes are included!

Mikaela has found a wealth of vegan protein sources in Pennsylvania. This week’s meal was a barbeque of summer squash, onion, and tempeh. A chilled salad of orange and red tomatoes with green beans rounded out the plate and peaches and strawberries were for dessert. Just in case you think tempeh can’t make your mouth water, take a look at THIS.

Though she wasn’t able to snap a picture of it, Meredith grilled a local portabella mushroom and put it on a grass fed burger … had a side of sweet corn and a dessert of fresh white peaches.

Seedling got her husband to make this week’s menu … Eggplant mozzarella, salad, local rolls and corn.

Christy, who btw has done a great job tracking the Farm Bill for us, made her own pasta this week from local ingredients and tossed it with local pesto. Her son loved cutting the noodles.

Steph G made a meal with a southwestern flair this week. Using hot peppers, green peppers, scallions, tomatoes and local free range chicken, she put together a Southwestern Chicken and Veggie Sautee. But the REAL event was the cornbread that she put together with locally ground corn meal.

Midwest, Week Five

2007-07-30T04:32:00.000-07:00

Welcome again to the Midwestern roundup of One Local Summer! We've just made it through Week Five, so we are halfway there. (Please don't tell me summer is half finished though!)

At our house, it has been a busy week of canning things for the winter, so I made some chili and cornbread from local sources. Oh, and blueberries are almost finished for the season because of our drought, so I panicked and (eeks!) purchased 20 pounds.

Phelan just finished doing a 24 hour blogathon for Farm Aid. Whew! She posted something every half hour for the day, and she made some great stuff during that time. Check it out!

Matt treated his family to blue potatoes, which the kids loved, along with burgers this week.

Lucette is with me on the summer being NOT half over. She had a FEAST! Those mushrooms looked quite yummy.

Farm Mom Ang got to harvest her first and lonely eggplant this week! (Don't worry, it won't be her last.) She made her meal quickly, but it was delicious, so she proves that local doesn't always mean slow.

AnnMarie is pulling in quite the harvest lately (even I haven't tried to grow Yugoslavian finger fruit), thanks to a lot of rain.

Stacie also pulled off an eat-it-when-you're-ready chili this week. Her boys helped shell the beans, too. Yum.

Guess what color the soup is when you make it out of white tomatoes? Jennifer will tell you!

Kelly's meal this week was...interesting. Well, we can't all be Top Chefs all the time! And frankly I think it's great to tell of our successes and our, er, less than successes in this challenge.

Joanna's tomatoes aren't lasting long in her house! Go check out the meal she made this week, which included her first harvest.

Are you ready for this? Linda made...Watermelon gazpacho! I simply HAVE to try it; it looks so yummy.

E4 and Lori made some inspired barbecue this week, including the charcoal. Now, THAT is local eating!

Debbie's local meal this week has been her local meal for days now. It's inspired by an Indonesian dish!

Becke has been cooking lots lately, too. She made a stuffed pepper soup! It sounds very fall-like, actually.

Manerva has been dealing with hot weather lately, but that didn't stop her from turning the oven on to make hamburger buns!

And Kate made some pesto! Please go take a look at her colorful meal here.

OLS West Week 5

2007-07-29T08:55:00.000-07:00

Our OLS meal was grilled veggies (zucchini, peppers, green beans, onions, and eggplant) with a light splash of olive oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar. For dessert, we had rhubarb/strawberry cobblers. Yum!

Jocele over at Knitting On Call made a wonderful tortilla dish using egg, veggies and local tortillas. The potatoes on the side are an added touch of yum!

Sarah at Sarah's Homestead Blog found local salt! How cool is that... For this week's dinner she made a turnip puff, with mystery golden beans, a sliced tomato with shredded basil, and home baked herb bread. A recipe is also included in her post.

Over at My Green Turtle, she made greenbeans and tomatoes tossed with a bit of red wine vinegar and olive oil. On the side, they had a combination of cauliflower and romanesco cauliflower. They have been gone this week and so made two meals last week.

Laura over at Urban Hennery has been on a cross country trip. While vacationing with family, they created a wonderful local meal from that area. They had whole chickens on the grill, fresh green beans, peapod salad with green onion and bread from the bakery in town. I can't think of a better way to holiday than to eat local foods.

Melissa at Homesteaders in Training, a recent Colorado transplant, dined on two tarts: savory and sweet. While getting a hold of raw milk is proving to be a bit of an obstacle, she used local, pasteurized milk for butter for the crusts. Her new job at a CSA supplied the veggies for one tart, and plums and honey filled the other.

Lauren at Shooting Starts of Thought was inspired by okra. She had local gumbo z'herbs. With recipes. She also made a delicious and beautiful pie.
Great job everyone!

OLS West Week 4

2007-07-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

Here at Chez Gnome, there are no photos of our meal this week. It was just too yummy to stop and take the time. We had roasted chicken with vegetables which included carrots and potatoes. For desert we had fresh peaches. Yum!

Laura at the Urban Hennery made a meal on the fly. They are just getting ready to leave on a cross country trip. She prepared spaghetti, salad, and ice cream for dessert.

My Green Turtle made salad with red peppers, carrot, and eggs. She also made beets! She too will be hitting the road this next week. She posted a second meal this week to make up for next week while she'll be gone but I'll save it till next week's post.

Sculpin has hurt herself! She is going to be taking it easy and not doing a lot of standing. Get better!

Cookiecrumb at I'm Mad and I Eat made local corn; potatoes mixed with peas; cucumbers; and tomatoes this week. I love what she said about summer cooking in the heat:

"I agree with my friend Catherine, who said that during the warm season, simple food is best. That doesn't mean you can't get complex flavors. Just layer bite after bite, clockwise or counterclockwise, around your plate."

Great advice!

Amy at Amystery made homemade pesto, cheese and local tomatoes on noodles. They look wonderful.

Sarah at Sarah's Homestead Blog made a yummy pizza of Spinach, basil, tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, and onion. She didn't stop there and made Lightly boiled new potatoes with butter and chives and a wilted spinach and kale salad with lime drizzles turnips and a poached egg. Two meals this week!

Lauren at Shooting Stars of Thought made mushroom and gouda humitas, served alongside Winchester Gouda, bread from Charlie's Best bakery, and a simple arugula and yellow tomato salad. And again, recipes!

YAY!!!!

The West is doing an amazing job!

Week 4 ~ New England & International

2007-07-23T08:28:00.000-07:00

James and I enjoyed the first potatoes of our season this week, and nearly died from delight. The pastured lamb was fabulous, but those potatoes may haunt my dreams.

Carole in Massachusetts joined us this week with her first local meal, and she did a fabulous job: Swiss chard quiche, tossed salad and steamed kohlrabi. The family had never had kohlrabi before, but gave it the seal of approval. I agree!

Wendy in Maine checked in with barbeque spareribs, a salad and corn. Corn! in Maine! There is hope that I'll see some soon, then. She also tried her hand at making crackers.

Leslie brought American Chop Suey to her Slow Food convivium's potluck dinner.

Melissa safely made the big move from Maine to Colorado last week (which means I'll have to send her over to the Western round-up). Not only did she try her hand at high-altitude baking for the first time, but she scored her veggies (for free) as part of her new job at Red Wagon Organic Farm. Beet pizza never looked so good.

Heather fought off an unseasonably chilly, rainy day with a pot of spicy sausage and kale soup.

Laurie filled round zucchinis with homemade chicken and cranberry sausage. More squash (in the form of pattypan) and Johnnycakes rounded out her meal.

Stephani's CSA recently started and she's flush with veggies. Like Heather, she made Sausage & Greens soup, but her sausage ended up being too spicy. Whoops!

Frances laid out a feast for herself and Dan this week: salad, grilled veggies, hard boiled eggs and cheese. And local beer to wash it all down.

Korinthe had a successful go at making mozzarella, which topped her two-faced pizza: one half pesto, the other saucy.

Burgers on the grill appealed to Lisa, and she did hers up deluxe, with onions, mushrooms and queso blanco. Add raspberry ice cream, and you really can't get any better than that.

Amanda in Scotland checked in with a meal made by her man, Aaron, who she keeps barefoot and in the kitchen. ;) Aaron spoiled her with a spinach and mushroom frittata, sauteed zucchini and Hibernian brown bread (one of my absolute faves).

Karen in Ontario dined on steak, spuds and peas, before sharing more of her garden pics with us.

Cheryl in Vancouver made some sweet-looking veggie burgers. Who needs pre-formed patties when you can dine on grilled eggplant, zucchini, and baby 'bellas with Swiss instead?

Mid-Atlantic Week #4

2007-07-23T06:49:00.000-07:00

The dishes this week show some of the variety that is showing up in mid-Atlantic markets this week

Mikaela made a monster salad from her CSA share this week that included shredded beets and turnips, cukes, banana peppers, carrots and radishes topped with a cherry tomato from the garden. On the side she had corn and artichokes (yes local artichokes!) as well as tofu on sautéed Swiss chard.

Mac in Philadelphia had a juicy local Delmonico steak with local mashed potatoes and green beans

Bezzie made a delicious salad of local tomatoes and cucumbers. She says these are baby steps, but it sure looks tasty to me.

Managing the harvest has become a challenge for Peg. But she did manage to put a topping of green bean puree on a locally grown potato this week. I think that counts!

Seedling broke out the pasture fed beef from the freezer and added locally made pasta and a CSA salad to round out her meal this week

Jasmin made a dessert this week from local ingredients and added to my culinary knowledge bank with a “Dutch Baby.” Her Dutch Baby was topped with local apples and peaches. Yum

Because her husband is out of town this week, Christy and her kids decided to have breakfast for dinner with Whimsical Farm scrambled eggs and Rumbleway Farm bacon.

Rabi proved that even when you are on the road you can put together “fruits and leaves.” Check out her apricot and cucumber salad.

While the rest of us are still struggling to meet this challenge, Linda has taken it up a notch. She is building her OLS meal around a different cuisine each week … This week it was Spain where the Torta Espanola was the centerpiece. The slide show she has put together of this meal is not to be missed.

Congratulations to everyone who participated this week.

The South, week 4

2007-07-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

I sense a slight slump in participation, but I can't throw stones, because it's all I can do to keep afloat! July'll get ya. The days might be long, but they can never be long enough.

This week I made a Chinese-themed meal out of locally caught fish and homegrown cucumbers. Dessert is a no-brainer; the figs have started coming in fast and thick. Figs, figs, figs. We LOVE figs.

Jeff and Joyce had fresh sweet corn with breakfast casserole. The casserole included homemade tortillas made with local flour and butter!

The Purloined Letter staged a dinner on the grill: burgers, sweet corn, squash, and cukes, with grilled peaches for dessert and mojitos to drink! She made the burgers with zucchini and chard mixed right in--something I’m going to have to try. Go look at the series of photos, if for no other reason than to look at the mouthwatering way the tomatoes slouch off the burgers. Now those are ripe.

Jen is finding the true spirit of OLS: networking with friends and sharing the spoils of all your gardens. “Home grown and canned green beans from the In-laws. One can down, 23 to go...” she notes. Also, take a look at her photo of the world’s scariest cucumber.

Laurie incorporated leftover carrot soup into a meatloaf (the naturally sweet addition was a real winner, she says!), then served it alongside a simple cucumber salad.

Paulette’s husband was home on a weekend pass, so they celebrated with local lamb chops, veggies, potato pancakes, and Tennessee wine.

Pattie borrowed Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance several times from the library before relenting and purchasing her own copy. Why? Because of easy, appealing recipes like the corn fritters that were part of this week’s OLS meal. She served them with a Georgia peach salsa and a side of lamb’s quarters.

Pressed for time, Maggie made a quick and delicious meal of North Carolina-made linguine with homemade Bolognese sauce. Dessert came from her favorite local ice cream shop, Ultimate Ice Cream (5 miles from her front door).

Lastewie made her very first batch of egg noodles--and I’m proud to say that she used one of my eggs! She served the noodles with pan-fried rainbow trout, hush puppies, green and wax beans, tomatoes, and cantaloupe.

And despite a hectic week, non-blogger Molly managed a lovely local meal. Her parents brought some food from the North Carolina coast, including (ready to be jealous?) local tuna. The meal: beef, veggie and tuna kebabs; fried okra; and corn on the cob.

Midwest, Week Four

2007-07-23T04:44:00.000-07:00

Here is this week's One Local (Midwestern) Summer roundup!

My daughter and I made some egg pasta with broccoli. I'm still getting lots of salad fixings out of the garden, but now other veggies are becoming available, too. And local wine, like any wine, certainly clouds my vision!

Phelan in Kansas missed last week, but this week proves that she is able to fix a mighty fine meal on what is simply available.

Matt in Iowa made quite a lot of things from local goodies this week. Frittatas are easy yet so tasty, so he shows us how.

Lucette in Ohio demonstrates the Exhausted People's Dinner! For many of us, summer is the time of projects, and of course afterward nobody wants to cook.

Farm mom Ang in Michigan relied on Deborah Madison's Local Flavors for her meal this week. (I can't state enough how great Ms. Madison's cookbooks are, but this one is WONDERFUL for farmer's-market fixings.) I wished we lived closer, Ang, because I would've dropped by and asked for a bowl!

Frugalmom in Illinois and her family usually have pork on special occasions only. Well, Week 4 qualifies! It was worth the wait.

This is Mary's first OLS meal. Her CSA has had harvest problems, and she has classes on Saturdays so she misses out on most farmer's markets, poor thing! She has found another CSA to try, but luckily, she's got one beautiful meal posted here. She lives in Ohio.

Evie in South Dakota made (and it was only a matter of time before SOMEONE in the midwest made it)...ratatouille! Her experience with local pasta was not so exciting, though.

Stacie in Illinois keeps finding more local farms! For this week, she's found a source for organic chicken just 12 miles from her door.

Kelly is in Ohio, too. She craved borscht, and she and her daughter had a somewhat frazzled farmer's market trip to get many of its ingredients. What she pulled together sounded really yummy.

Also in Ohio, Jennifer made a wonderful stew, all from her garden!

Pat is in Oklahoma. It's been hot there, and she has had a busy summer. She had a salad, a huge one, out of her garden!

Linda is in Missouri. This week, almost everything came right from her farm, including her own chicken and eggs. She laments she can't grow olive trees there, though! (Oh Linda, I swear olive oil is a food group in this house, I use it that much.)

Miranda in Minnesota made a crowd-pleasing meal with some of the bounteous corn available now.

Norma Jean is in St. Louis. Veggie sandwiches were on the menu this week, paired with some homebrew! (Hmmm. Beeeer....) SO: does anybody out there have any good ranch dressing recipes? Send them her way.

Manerva in Minnesota gets bonus points this week for posting not one meal but two. Two husband-approving meals, natch! She feels really happy about this, but she knows these days are fleeting, harvest-wise.

And finally, Kate in Wisconsin posted a picture on Flick*r of her meal. Calzones, people! And fava beans (my personal favorite). Yum.

Week 4-the latecomers

2007-07-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

Karl and his Pile of O'Melays enjoyed a relative feast with a ton of local ingrediants. And Karl did an extra credit local meal this week.

Katrien is glad potatoes finally came into season at her market, and she has a nice note about how thankful she is to be eating locally!

Faith decided to get into the action with all the other people enjoying breakfast foods for their local meal this week.

Carmen enjoyed a tomato pesto pie, that I'll be labeling for future use in my little kitchen. Looks delicious.

Week 3 ~ New England & International

2007-07-16T04:40:00.000-07:00

It sure has been busy here, and it seems elsewhere as well because entries are down for the week. Go see what others are making and check in next week with your own local meal!

James and I finished a long day of barn-building with barbecue chicken, grilled garlic scapes and green beans. Easy and satisfying!

Leslie had a green theme this week: green beans, sugar snaps, garlic scapes along with local fluke with garden herbs.

Jen & Steve spent week 2 on the Cape, but are back this week with striped bass from their vacation.

Heather is still experimenting in the kitchen and making new foods.... this week she successfully attempted making pasta, although she lacked the equipment for rolling it out.

Lisa also gave pasta-making a try with her new toy, I mean tool. (Don't get jealous, Heather!)

Cheryl's meatloaf looks like a quick, easy and comforting meal.

Laurie's husband went clammin' and provided the cherrystones and oysters for their local meal.

Fellow Mainer Wendy had nine (nine!!) local meals this week, and still thinks she's not doing enough. Can someone besides me talk some sense into her? ;)

ETA: Stephani received her first CSA share, and made herself a bowl of Spring Pea Soup. Also in her share was a loaf of olive bread, which although not local was no doubt delicious I can say this with confidence... her CSA farmer is an awesome baker).

Mary in Ontario learned that a little bit of persistence pays off, as she finally found locally grown and milled grains. She used some of her new cornmeal in cornbread that she served alongside curried carrots and oven roasted beets and potatoes.

A trip to the Italian market inspired Cheryl in Vancouver to make a big, bubbling dish of homemade gnocchi. Freshly churned berry ice cream looks like the perfect finish to her meal.

Amanda in Scotland enjoyed a traditional Irish dish called Colcannon.

Karen in Ontario got the morning started off right with a lovely frittata.

And Yukino in Moldova had a stunning array of local food pics this week.

If anyone was missed, just leave a comment in your area's roundup, and next week, please have your meal posted by 6 pm EST. Thanks so much, and keep cooking those great local meals!

Mid-Atlantic Week #3

2007-07-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

As I sit here in New England, keeping vigil over green tomatoes, my mouth is watering as the Mid-Atlantic entries feature the tomato and even PEACHES in their local meals this week.

Nicole from New Jersey, an emailer, got out her pasta machine again only this time made an Herbed Pasta with Tomatoes, Broccoli and Feta

She ended the meal with a bowl of ripe blueberries

In “the city” Elisabeth made a squash frittata with local eggs and squash.

Peg from New York is lucky enough to live near a farm stand that offers local food for lunch. She ate a grilled panini with zucchini cheese and greens made at her local Blooming Hill farm stand. What a convenient way to eat local.

Mikaela from PA made a wonderful veggie sandwich on a baguette, a salad of beets and beans, some local cherries and washed it all down with a Yeungling lager.

A local chicken was on Seedling in NJ’s plate this week. Her CSA share provided abundant greens for the salad.

Using a whole wheat penne pasta from Harrisburg, PA Christy in Delaware shares the secret of a spicy sauce recipe she learned from an Italian chef while on a cruise. Check it out.

Once again Rabi from NY created the most adventurous offering of cherry-rhubarb glazed tofu & peas in a turnip nest.

Linda from New York gives thanks to the pig that keeps on giving. She made ribs from her fall pig and had potatoes and squash on the side. She even made a and made a Cherry Clafouti for dessert. I also encourage you to look at her Week #2 meal that I missed last week … a delicious stew.

Steph from PA joined the ranks this week posting an egg pie, red potatoes and green beans with PEACHES for dessert …. Wow peaches!

ETA: Meredith from PA was planning on including what she thought were local canned mushrooms in her omelet, but a look at the can told her that those Pennsylvania Dutchman 'shrooms had a Chinese accent. It just shows that it does pay to read the labels, folks.

Great job everybody!!!! I am looking forward to next week !

Midwest, Week Three

2007-07-16T03:56:00.000-07:00

HOT, hot and dry: who wants to cook in such weather? My prescription for eating this week was tapas, mostly made ahead of time, for this week's OLS.

Matt mined the depths of Epicurious for inspiration. His kids took seconds, and even thirds, on some greenery! Success!

Lucette hit the farmer's market, but she's also getting lots of goodies out of her garden. Go see her meal here. And she is very close to having tomatoes!

Ang was a little disappointed by her hamburger buns, but her kids didn't seem to agree with her. Practice makes perfect! And her squash is just beautiful.

Frugalmom was delighted by her grass-fed beef. Its leanness required a bit of a different cooking spin, but it was worth it.

Evie had an All-American meal of meat and potatoes this week. You HAVE to see what her husband cooked the meat on, though: he made it! Amazing. (If you're ever in Michigan...)

Burgers seem to be all the rage this week: check out Stacie's beautiful pic. She's been having a hard time sourcing local flour. Isn't that nuts, considering she lives in the Grain Belt?

Jennifer found it too hot to cook, too, so she relied on her microwave and her rice cooker for her meal. Her gardens are beginning to go into high gear, too.

Kelly hosted a potluck dinner this week. Though not 100% local, the spirit was definitely right, and, she notes, the part of the meal that DID fit the "rules" was certainly a meal in itself. She also found a source for local flour.

Joanna admits she dropped the ball this week, as it has been a crazy one. She's packing local fare for her camping trip this weekend, though.

Pat also had burgers this week: made from buffalo! She also has some interesting observations about all this organic food.

Linda points out that there's an unexpected upside to this local eating: no huge grocery bags to lug around! She is getting lots of stuff out of the garden now, and between her chickens and butter made from a neighbor's cow, she's saving lots of money, too.

Kelli tried out some of the Swiss chard she grew. She's so far not convinced of its merits. Send recipes her way, people! Meat came from the back 40, and they made onion rings, too.

Lori and E4 had a quick and yummy meal this week from their farmer's market goodies. Quick was key!

Miranda proves breakfast fare can be dinner fare too for this week's meal. She made frittata and spuds.

Debbie followed Matt's recipe (so, do you see how all this is catching? It's his recipe from this week!) with the kid-friendly greenery. Yum.

Norma Jean hit the farmer's market big time this week. She and her husband are completely enjoying this challenge, and are considering expanding their gardens even further next year to help in their quest for local food.

Becke went all vegetarian on us for this week's meal. It was inspired by a side dish at a barbecue joint and was served up with a bit of POW!

Manerva has been eating local for a while now, as she doesn't get off her farm often! This week's meal was a simple and satisfying one, but she served it with some local wine.

The South, week 3

2007-07-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

I can't remember where this week went; I only know that I've been sweating a lot. The watermelons are in in south Georgia, and we continue to partake of them. Tomatoes are everywhere. Peppers are starting to ripen. Leave a cucumber alone and it turns into a melon overnight.

We don't grow sweet corn ourselves, because to get decent pollination you need to plant a big block of it. We don't want to spare the space. And why should we, when so many other folks around here grow it? It's easy to get, and man, is it good.

Elsewhere in the steamy southland...

Molly made a frittata-like zucchini casserole (photo at left) with eggs from her own hens and zukes from her own garden. The side dish of roasted veg came from her own garden and from a farm 1.5 miles away. She washed it all down with beer from the Duck Rabbit Brewery in Farmville, N.C.

Steph is posting about last week's OLS meal this week, and will be posting about this week's OLS meal next week. Got it? Good, because you'll want to see what she's been doing with all her farmers' market gleanings.

The Purloined Letter has been somewhat wilted by the heat, so she only wants salads most days. But she managed to get close enough to the stove to make homemade Norwegian whey cheese. And then she served clafouti for dessert, which makes me want to ask for a dinner invitation.

Jen sneaked actual fruit and vegetable matter into her meat-and-potatoes-loving husband's meal. Behold the glory that is Squash (incognito) fritters.

Laurie's ratatouille on cheese grit cakes also passed muster with her husband, who normally spurns squash and eggplant.

Jeff and Joyce's cheddar studded meatloaf patties and mashed potatoes were so good, they forgot to take a picture. But here's what they had to say about it.

Like me, Jasmine stopped eating meat at age 16. And like me, she has since added it back into her diet. But beef and its kin are still a little foreign to her. Read her blog to share her first experience with locally raised buffalo.

Summer vegetables + mandoline = Jessica's work lunch!

Paulette served a local meal with local drinks: a perry (hard pear cider) from a local winery for the grownups, and muscadine grape juice for the kids.

The recent heat and humidity reminded Maggie of her childhood on the banks of the Missouri River. The perfect accompaniment to that feeling was oven-fried catfish.

Stew, whose Week 1 microwave soup you may recall, has taken eating locally at work to a whole new level. Her coworkers are even starting to notice!

And in other fish-related news, has anyone heard of Barramundi? Joanne hadn't before this week. But she was delighted to discover that it's a farmed fish that is raised in Florida in an environmentally friendly manner. She baked it in a coconut crust with a side of mango and orange salsa. She also served a salad made with local greens and Georgia melon.

Pattie has just eaten the last of her homegrown Purple Peruvian potatoes. And you should also check her blog to find out about her field trips to a local chocolatier and a cut-your-own sunflower farm.

A beef hash with vegetables was the special chez Bibliotecaria. It fed her for four days (!) and helped her clean out the fridge before a business trip.

Amy has been under the weather lately, so she craved something souplike. She made a hearty beef stew with golden zukes, tomatoes, potatoes, and onion. Dessert was fresh fruit, and plenty of it: blackberries, figs, and the first melons of the Carolina summer.

Week 3-The latecomers

2007-07-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

Karl and I had a miscommunication about signing up for OLS, but he's got one of his local meals up now. Really, it sounds like almost all of his meals qualify as local so it should be easy for him to find one each week. He has an interesting blog about homesteading down in Missouri.

Faith had a local meal featuring ribs and broccoli, and if you look at her most recent post they built a picnic table. I can't imagine a better place to enjoy your next local meal!

Carmen had some fried okra!

Katrien enjoyed what appears to be a well balance meal, and she is excited for her upcoming potato harvest. (Or is it potatoe??)

OLS Week 3 - West

2007-07-14T12:21:00.000-07:00

My meal for this week celebrates the new red tomatoes I've got on my vines. They are the most delicious thing ever. I decided a red onion, bell pepper, and fresh basil pizza with homemade sauce and a ton of fresh tomatoes on top. It was so yummy, absolutely no leftovers to be had.

Laura over at Urban Hennery made a feast! After having a bout of almost local meals, she pulled off the grande finale for the week. They had grilled chicken, salad, roasted veggies, and even an appetizer. To round out the meal they had some local wine and ice cream. YUM!

Cookiecrumb over at I'm Mad and I Eat made Joe's special:

"Joe's Special. It's a historic San Francisco mish-mash dish of ground beef, onions, mushrooms, spinach, eggs, and seasonings. If you follow the recipe on that link, be advised that you will get a wet, gray mess."

She lists her Joe's special method which includes very basic ingredients. It sounds delicious!

Sarah at Sarah's Homestead Blog made Homestead egg frittata filled with yellow squash, onion, garlic, spinach and local sharp cheddar. On the side: green beans sauteed with garlic and fresh out of the oven herb-filled bread. To drink: a freshly pulled pint of Blake’s home brewed Hefeweizen. Her glass of beer is a site to behold.

Amy at Amystery went out and caught her own food. Wild Alaskan salmon never looked so good.

Jocele at Knitting on Call found local tortillas to make a wonderful Mexican inspired egg taco with local veggies.

Lauren has made another masterpiece over at Shooting Stars of Thought. She is so wonderful to take us through her selection through her shopping experience and ultimately gives us her wonderful recipes. This week's menu includes: grilled yellowtail & cipollini onion kebobs with ginger-chili marinade, Nicoise Potato Salad, Grilled Corn and Radish Salad with Spicy Lime Dressing. Check out her haul from the market, beautiful!

Krystle and Hans-Peter at Taste the Seasons are using up the last of the chard.

"After finishing this meal, we knew that we had come up with a dish that could serve as a main course, without leaving any stomachs unsatisfied."

And of course the recipe is included in the post. The colors of chard are amazing.

Update!

Human error has caused me to not catch Turtles week 3 post. (and I thought I was doing so good too...grrr).

Turtle's meal looks wonderful. There was a wonderful salad with baby gems, cucumber, eggs, tomatoes and cheese. They also have corn on the cob! We don't have that here yet~lucky! She also baked some home made bread and there where strawberries in the photo as well. She lists all her mileage there as well. Great job!

I swear, every time I do the weekly roundup I feel like I've gained 10 lbs from just looking at all the delicious food everyone is making.

Great job! See you next week.

Who wants a button?

2007-07-11T11:02:00.000-07:00

Jasmin at the Worsted Witch very kindly made these blog buttons for us.

Feel free to take one and proudly display it on your sidebar, but of course, save it to your own server.

And here's one that I made:

Week 2 OLS West

2007-07-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

Wow! What an amazing week. Everyone from the west is doing a great job!

I was gone most of the week and unable to make our food choices (long story of camping with the parents). When I got home, I was too tired to do anything but make some eggs. I did wake up early and bake some blueberry muffins before a long day of errands and catch up. They are the perfect on the go breakfast.

Jocele made roasted red potatoes and onions, a salad and fixin's. This is even with the disappointment of a freezer going caput and them loosing all their meat. Way to hang in there Jocele!

Cam made homemade fettuccine with homemade butter and basil. Raspberries for dessert rounded out the meal. She also has a bonus post on how she made raspberry butter.

Ms. Peabody over at Urban Hennery made not one but two local meals. They had New York Strip steaks on the grill with fresh green beans and a salad on the side. To top it off they had local vanilla ice cream from the Sno-Isle co-op with fresh raspberries and strawberries on top. Their second meal:

"We did the chicken on the grill with a medley of vegetables in the grill basket. The chicken was seasoned with another spice mix from Grandma Edna’s, the veggies (potatoes, onions, green beans and zucchini) were seasoned with some sea salt, more of the same herb mix, and olive oil. We washed it all down with tap water and beer from the local Red Hook brewery."

MMMMM Red Hook... Don't forget to check out her new baby chicks. They are so cute!

Cookiecrumb made a wonderful soup straight from her own garden. Check out her greens clippings. Beautiful in it's simplicity.

Amy was going to a potluck and brought some amazing looking Gracious Grilled Salsa. The potluck she attended had some other wonderful local foods.

"This salsa was a hit at the potluck which also featured other spectacular regional foods....marinated moose steaks, salmon, halibut, of course many homegrown salads and rhubarb crisp."

Krystle and Hans-Peter made Penne and Swiss Chard with Gorgonzola Sauce. Chard production is going crazy there and this meal uses up what they have straight from the garden. They've also included the recipe. It looks delicious!

Lauren went with a liquid theme this week. She made milk poached halibut and summer squash with cantaloupe & green tomato salsa. She again has documented her meal composition and has recipes. Very cool Lauren.

Kathy made roasted chicken, green beans and strawberry strudel. She had all but given up the hope of finding any local strawberries this season when she stumbled upon some of the last available at the local market. She also made 12 jars of jam. Yay for late season strawberries!

Trina made a camp dinner using a variety of ingredients dried by themselves. She's survived the fire ants and is back home from her weekend of Energy Independence.

Sarah made some homemade herbed egg noodles with sauteed Walla Walla sweet thinnings, garlic, and zucchini. What is with all this homemade noodle goodness?! You guys are so creative.

Great job everyone! You are all doing such a wonderful job.

Week Two in the Mid-Atlantic

2007-07-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

We had a bigger turnout this week in the Mid-Atlantic. Everyone is going at this with gusto and it is fun to read about all your meals.

In “the city” Elisabeth found some Swiss chard from Troy, NY and spiced it up with red pepper flakes and an herbed goat cheese from Coach Farms.

My mouth was watering when I saw pictures of Naomi from Philadelphia’s whole wheat linguine with ground beef, kale, zucchini, yellow squash, garlic scapes, fresh mozzarella, and lemon basil.

Mac in Philadelphia celebrated the Fourth of July by grilling a Natural Acres Farm Porterhouse and dressing it with zucchini ribbons form the garden.

Bezzie from New Jersey found a locally made cheddarwurst that she says rivals Johnsonville Brats in flavor and put it on a Chambersburg, PA bun. And the side was locally grown Jersey corn.

Peg from New York took a recipe from Lauren in CA's Week #1 entry and made up a zucchini, chard and blue potato casserole. And on the side she had some roasted potatoes with her famous garlic scape pesto. It is a reminder to all of us to browse the OLS site for ideas for our own table

Angela in PA proved that the rich offerings of Lancaster County can provide not only local chickena and hamburger, but also local pretzels and potato chips. (I, for one, was amazed in Hanover County, PA to find an entire aisle dedicated to pretzels. It is its own food group I think.)

Mikaela from PA was INSPIRED this week to make pesto from garlic scapes, basil and CHERRIES and lather it on a local Foccacia and top with squash. But that’s not all! Check it out … it’s a great read.

At the center of Seedling in NJ’s plate this week was a local pork chop. It was surrounded by local steamed greens and beets and topped with baby onions from their CSA share.

This week Christy in Delaware made a barbeque chicken and added local broccoli and roasted potatoes. The names of her food sources roll off the tongue like locations in a Beatrix Potter story … Rumbleway and Lockbriar Farms.

What do you get when you put summer squash, kasha and kale togther? Well Rabi from NY likes to call it Squasha Skale. The presentation is top notch, Rabi!

Linda from New York had a hankering for dandelion green, mushroom, garlic linguine and it got her musing about the food pendulum and how it swings.

And last but not least, Meredith in Pennsylvania made a small concession for her picky eater husband, but more than made up for it with homemade black raspberry sorbet.

I heard from two emailers this week: Laura from PA had a hot summer's night veggie meal of corn on the cob with grilled green peppers, sweet onions, zucchini and garlic

Nicole from New Jersey emailed in her report and it was an enthusiastic account of how she has resurrected her old pasta machine and baked her first pie form scratch. Once again she chose a recipe from Epicurious : Pasta with Pesto Broccoli and Potatoes

Here is her ingredients list

-red-skinned potatoes: purchased at Terhune Orchards (appx 30 miles), but of unknown origins
-broccoli: from Honey Brook CSA (appx 30 miles)
-linguine: homemade of long distance King Arthur flour and local eggs
-pesto: homemade of Honey Brook and home garden basil and (really)
-long distance olive oil and Parmesan

She ended the meal with a Berry Tart with Berries that her girls had picked at Terhune Orchards

Great job everybody!!!! Look forward to next week !

Week Two ~ New England & International

2007-07-09T04:30:00.000-07:00

Another fabulous week of summer has come and gone. Here in New England, we're just getting past lettuce season, so the variety of locally available produce is improving a bit. Now comes the hard part of waiting for things like ripe tomatoes!

In Maine:
Wendy prepared an old family favorite, chili, using some home-canned tomatoes from last year's garden.

Melissa is making the most of her remaining time in Maine, and continuing the seafood theme. This week's meal of pouch-cooked haddock, salad and strawberries starred heavy cream from a local farm in the form of butter, buttermilk dressing and whipped cream. Wish Melissa and her man a safe move to Colorado, why don'tcha?

Heather is reading labels, asking questions, and learning more about where her food comes from. This week, during some of our cool Maine weather, she roasted her first chicken.

"Build your own chef salad" was the theme at Cheryl's this week.

Stephani and I both had quiche this week, only hers was crustless.

In Massachusetts:
Leslie's braised lamb shanks look positively mouth watering. Ruth Reichl's Hashed Browned potatoes were a lovely addition.

Laurie had a creative twist on linguine with (freshly dug) clams.

Fran has embraced the bounty of Massachusetts and Vermont with two local meals this week: the first of goat cheese, eight-grain bread, and grilled squash, and pesto pizza with veggies and more goat cheese.

Korinthe hosted a bbq which turned out to be mostly local.

In Vancouver, Cheryl's frittata was a big hit with her son, who has turned to begging for more!

In Ontario, Karen's hearty salad did double duty as lunch and a side dish to grilled burgers.

Also in Ontario, Mary found inspiration from Stacey's post, and made some new local food connections, culminating in fried eggplant and veggies for dinner.

In Scotland, Amanda brought a little bit of America to her 4th of July feast of burgers, potato salad, pickles and strawberry shortcake.

In Ireland, Moonwaves prepared a simple spinach omelet for herself.

Yukino in Moldova checked in with boiled potatoes with sauteed tomatoes and parsley, and pancakes.

And for anyone who thinks it's too late to participate in One Local Summer, I'd love it if you read this post.

Week Two: Midwest

2007-07-09T04:15:00.000-07:00

Week Two of One Local (Midwestern) Summer

It was a busy holiday week for many of us, and unfortunately, I wasn't able to grab everyone in this roundup, but there certainly were lots of delectable dishes shared by all.

I LOVE beets, so my meal used the roots and the leaves. I also made feta for the first time with milk from my goat guy. VERY tasty, and it certainly didn't last long.

Phelan and her family celebrated the Fourth with local fare. Her picture quality is LOTS better, but her post proves that life with three growing boys can keep one on one's toes. (Breathe, Phelan.)

Matt in Iowa is doing his own round-up of OLS folks. This week he stayed away from frying things and instead made lots more than one meal with local food! He is proving that this can become a way of life, with a bit of effort. His one 100% local meal can be found here.

Lucette went to the farmer's market for her fare and found CORN! How exciting: fresh corn is always such a fun find.

Ang's meal was also on Independence Day. She is considering it Food Independence Day! That fried kohlrabi looks great, Ang!

Frugalmom showed us that even major surgery (an appendectomy) can't keep her from cooking local! Now that's devotion.

Evie listed some of her biggest challenges this week with eating locally: her family! I think we all, in some form or another, have to "work around" our loved ones' particularities, certainly, in this and any other food preparation scheme. But this week was Italian Night, so go check it out.

AnnMarie still thinks salads, which she thinks are boring, are still the best local meal going. She did some experimentation with flowers that really added a good dimension to her meal.

Gina is trying to make a bigger effort to source local "minor ingredients" for her meals, too. She cans a lot of things, like barbecue sauce and baked beans, so go check out her meal this week; a barbecue sounds great!

Joanna made up some lovely local pasta. She tells us one juicy tidbit about her Eat Local Challenge: it hasn't been expensive! And she loves these new discoveries.

Stacie is not calling it shopping, this roundup of local food, she's calling it procurement! Go check out her findings. (And Stacie: Michigan cherries DO rule.)

Pat made a leg of lamb for the first time ever! It was moist and yummy so she'll be trying it again.

Linda has had a lot going on this week at her home, so her meal this week was very small but satisfying. Her post was interesting: all this new experimentation she is doing with local food has really opened her eyes and gotten her excited. Trouble is, it's gotten her husband excited too so she has to try to get pictures before he eats everything!

Kelli was so busy she missed the first week. She and her family don't have to go far to get their meat: try the back yard!! She lives in Iowa, and usually has interesting farm-related tales to tell, so check out her blog, and, if you're local, buy some of her goodies.

E4 questioned some of the "local" origins of his dinner, which reminds us that even stuff in the farmer's market can be goodies that were trucked in from very far away.

Miranda's local meal was more kismet than an active plan with a recipe. Her day was set up that way, and her friends brought along a somewhat local and intriguing cake for the meal. Sometimes, the best-laid plans are no plans at all.

Debbie, likewise, set aside earlier plans for her meal. It was simply too hot to cook! She also mentions her new grains and beans shipment from a farmer nearby: there is lots more local eating in her future, and lots more experimentation, too. (Debbie, homemade tempeh is both fun AND relatively easy, and you've reminded me I need to get cracking!)

Norma Jean is on vacation this week, but before she left she was snacking on some homegrown tomatoes. She won't have internet access this week, but she's bringing along a lot of local goodies for her trip.

Becke made a cooling, soothing dish of chicken pot pie??? Boy. This girl has the a/c on for her comfort food!

Manerva made a quick and satisfying meal for herself when her husband was out fishing. (Girl, I so have to work around the obstacle that is my husband for good food, too!) Her farmer's markets are starting up next week so she's expecting a lot more on her plate soon.

And Kate so shamed me: she is blog-FREE thanks! (SO sorry!) She made the following good eats from her farmer's market finds on Saturday: "We had grilled sandwiches with bread baked from 100% local whole wheat flour and Wisconsin onion/mushroom jack cheese. I also made Honey-Spice Roasted Cauliflower (ExpatChef on EatLocalChallenge.com) with local cauliflower, and we had the first ears of sweet corn of the season. For desert we had Door county cherries."

The South, Week 2

2007-07-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

Week 2 of One Local Summer was a holiday week--and a food-centric one, at that. A lot of our participants took advantage of the Independence Day vibe and grilled all-American fare. As for me, I inexplicably made Greek food. I’m just a rebel, I guess. Nevertheless, the 4th is my favorite holiday (I think it's because I was at an impressionable age in 1976), and you can bet I spent it carving out big hunks of Georgia watermelon and watching the neighbors' fireworks mingle with the lightning bugs.

A business note, while I’m thinking about it: If you’re posting OLS photos to Flickr, please let me know in an e-mail. There are so many photos there that your pic may be lost in the shuffle unless you give me a heads-up. Thanks!

Okay, here’s the week that was...

Non-blogging participant Molly celebrated the 4th of July with grilled pork kebabs, sauteéd Swiss chard, green beans, and grilled zucchini. She and her friends drank Gaelic Ale from Asheville’s Highlands Brewing Company. Bonus points: the meat was from less than a mile away.

Another non-blogger, Joanne in Florida, tucked into wild Key West coconut shrimp, an apple and kohlrabi salad, and locally grown watermelon. “Yummers,” she said, and I agree 100 percent.

And Amber in Arkansas enjoyed pinto beans with brown rice; steamed baby squash and white bell pepper; fresh tomatoes; a lettuce, tomato, and cucumber salad; and grilled peaches for dessert. Everything except the peaches came from Arkansas. The peaches were sourced from just across the Louisiana border because--just like in my part of Georgia--local peaches were destroyed by adverse weather this year.

Jeff and Joyce celebrated Week 2 with garlic-butter roasted pork and scalloped potatoes, plus a side salad for Joyce. They wish the cheese they used was from somewhere closer than Ohio, but I say anytime you know the farmer, you’re doing something right.

Jasmine’s computer is in the shop, but she went above and beyond the call of duty and posted about her local meal from a nearby Panera franchise. She made a chard and zucchini frittata with roasted tomatoes, sauteéd okra with tomatoes and onions, and green beans with a sundried tomato pureé. Good, and very vegetable-y!

If I could take photos as beautiful as Jessica’s, I would just about die of happiness. She whipped up a very picturesque plate of sauteéd tofu, potatoes tossed with rosemary and olive oil, fresh green beans, and corn on the cob.

The Purloined Letter focused on the green and herbaceous this week. Check it out: Garden crustless quiche (with local Amish goat’s milk and eggs, plus pickings from the garden), a salad laced with lemon verbena, and a dessert of honey ice cream with spearmint-and-lemon-balm tea.

Laurie eats off of outrageously beautiful pottery. And this week, what she was eating was Farmgirl’s caramelized beets with garlic, squash casserole, and a green salad.

Paulette is starting to make me a little jealous with her ranch’s homegrown grassfed beef! This time it was T-bone steaks, a vegetable medley, and local red wine.

Pattie says ice cream counts as dinner, and I’m not one to argue...especially when it’s homemade from raw milk, duck eggs, and blackberries.

Bibliotecaria was inspired by her CSA stash to create a pasta dish brimming with basil, parsley, tomatillos, and tomatoes.

Maggie had friends over for Independence Day. On the menu? Grilled steak, coleslaw, roasted potatoes, and a carrot salad. Inquiring minds want to know how in the world she found North Carolina vinegar!

Lastewie, needing a local meal, dropped in on some cheffy friends with a huge garden. (I can vouch for them, ‘cause I’ve been there. These are the folks you want to invite you to dinner!) They dined on dauphinoise potatoes, beet and bean salad, tomato and cucumber salad, homemade bread, and leftover pie with ice cream. Being a considerate guest, Stew brough a 6-pack of Carolina Brewing Company IPA.

And finally, Elian got creative, making veggie wraps with collard leaves as the wrapper! Southern sushi, y'all.

Week 2-the Latecomers

2007-07-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

Tracy enjoyed a July 4th local meal, and she has a little something to say about how easy it is to cook for yourself.

Katrien really enjoys here local meal this week.

Carmen enjoyed a very simple local meal.

Faith also enjoyed a July 4th cookout, and she had turkey apple sausage, which sounds very yummy!

Patt chimed in that even while they are crazy busy at their farm picking all the sweet corn that's ready they were able to enjoy a July 4th meal.

Local 4th of July meal: Venison brats (husband hunts), potato salad-potatoes & eggs from O’Rourke Farms-mayo & mustard not local-onion from our farm; cantaloupe-1st of the season from our farm, unfortunately the procuitto isn’t local, but I’m working on that!

It's not too late

2007-07-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

I've seen a lot of comments posted to this blog along the lines of "I'm so glad I found out about this challenge, but I'm really bummed that it's too late for me to participate".

It's not too late.

I've seen other blog posts saying this is a great idea, but it's too bad that it's too late to join in.

It's not too late.

I've talked to people who said to me, "I wish I had known about One Local Summer earlier, since I missed the cutoff and it's too late to do it."

It's never too late.

This project started on my blog as a way to get people interested in the idea of eating locally produced foods. Many times I've heard, "I want to start eating locally but don't know where to begin". Well, One Local Summer is a way to begin, to take those first steps down a road that may potentially change your outlook on food and your life in general. That may sound dramatic, but I've talked to enough people who are thrilled about how eating locally produced foods has changed their lives.

The only reason for the cap on participants is so that we can keep an eye on you. The six of us are all busy people, and following over 100 blogs to catch the posts about OLS and write the round-ups takes an effort on our part. We do it so that you can be inspired by what's going on all over the country (and world!), and you can see how easy it can be to eat local foods. From simple down home cooking to more gourmet fare, there is room in the local food movement for everyone. It just takes a willingness to use what's locally available.

If you missed the cutoff, you can still participate in One Local Summer on your own, just post a comment in the weekly round-up for your geographical area and a link to your blog if you have one.

Don't let the lack of a formal "participant" label hold you back. Eating locally is for everyone, and it's never too late to start.

Week One - West

2007-07-02T10:57:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry I'm late. I've had a food poisoning for the last 3 days. (Not from local food(: ) Word of warning, don't eat seafood that's been sitting out for a while no matter if the shrimp cakes are calling your name.
I'm still recovering so please excuse the lateness.

My first week's OLS meal was fried green tomatoes, grilled zucchini, strawberry rhubarb cobbler and blueberry slab pie. I'm still unable to find really local flour. What I've been buying is 120 miles away and milled onsite so I'm going to call is close. I didn't take photos of the tomatoes and zucchini because we devoured them before I remembered to take a photo. DOH! But I did hold back the natives so I could take a photo of the desserts.

We've got some amazing posts from the west.

Laura at Urban Hennery made a wonderful Joe's Scramble with eggs from her own backyard! I thought the potatoes on the side were grapes at first glance. What delicious little things those little potatoes are. She even has her distances per item listed. Wonderful job Laura!

Cookie Crumb's photos are amazing! Her stuffed cabbage rolls are definately an inspiration. I love her posting of the thought process on making the meal. And she gives a shout out to Mommy Mosh Pit for her entertaining will all local food.

Amy's Yard Frittata looks amazing. And it includes reindeer sausage. That sounds very interesting. What does reindeer taste like Amy?

Krystle and Hans-Peter made a wonderful Pasta Primavera using bow-tie pasta. Bow-tie is definatly a favorite at our house.

"Although “primavera” means “spring” we decided to bend the rules by using summer squash!"

Way to work with seasonal ingredients! Delizioso!

Lauren attempted gnocci but settled on zucchini, chard, blue potato and roasted red pepper casserole, Roasted smashed potatoes with garlic & parsley, mixed string bean and mint salad. She includes recipes as well. She even improvised and used beer instead of wine in a recipe. She also included a google map of where her ingredients came from.

Kathy made a wonderful meal but was a bit pre-occupied:

"I prepared a delicious meal of local hanger steaks, fresh greens from my garden and sugar peas from my garden. Unfortunately, we ate it all before I remembered to take a picture. My excuse is somewhat exceptable….I was busy all day helping my daughter get ready for her trip to Europe. She left early this morning. The picture really isn’t the significance of the challenge, its’ the mindset."

Ms. D had one heck of an adventure for her first OLS post. Lets just say she survived OLS week one.(:

Trina had one amazing salad from her CSA produce. They're going camping this week plan on eating their OLS meal on the road. Can't wait to see how that goes. It should be pretty cool.

Sarah made a wonderful meal of egg and zucchini scramble and sauteed baby beets and greens. Crusty home baked herb bread and a glass of home brewed lavender mead. Home brewed lavender mead people! How cool is that. It sounds amazing.

The South, week 1

2007-07-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

Our southern OLSers have stepped up to the plate. (So to speak.)

Maggie grilled filet mignon and served it alongside her own fire-roasted potatoes, multicolored carrots, onions, and Chiogga beets. She and her husband quenched their thirst with Shiva I.P.A. from the Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company.

Lastewie proved that local food can be portable! She took veggies from her garden and made them into a delicious soup in her workplace microwave oven. She noshed homegrown fresh cucumbers, too.

Joanne lives in the tropics, so it’s the off season for her. So she whipped up a vegetable soup from local storage veggies: kohlrabi, radishes, carrots, parsnips, and onions. She topped it off with leftover free-range chicken. The best part? The kids ate it, too.

Molly (left) made a southern specialty: pork BBQ with a side of coleslaw (thank goodness Duke’s mayo is local!), smashed potatoes, and sauteed zucchini.

Jeff and Joyce kicked off OLS with the taste of summer: a chef salad with local country ham and eggs, and baked potatoes with cream.

Jasmine made pasta out of fresh local zucchini, then paired it with roasted sweet potatoes that she stored from the winter.

Steph rustled up hamburgers on Mennonite-baked bread (not forgetting, of course, a slab of local tomato on top), with a crisp side salad.

The Purloined Letter made gorgeous pizza adapted from Barbara Kingsolver’s recipe in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

Jen marinated a tangy cucumber salad and served it with Caribbean-rubbed pork chops.

Laurie’s first OLS meal was barbecue chicken with a side of potatoes and green beans--the same ingredients as my meal, but with a different spin!

Paulette served up her homestead’s very own steak, plus local baked potatoes and the essence of midsummer--blackberries.

Pattie made a local meal of turkey casserole (with eggplant and tomatoes) with a side of beets, radishes, beet greens, and Purple Peruvian potatoes. But she’s also been eating local full-time, sampling lamb’s quarters, amaranth, Persimmon Creek Seyval blanc wine, Magnolia bread, and Jittery Joe’s coffee.

Bibliotecaria kicked off the week with a summery vegetable salad, including red pepper, cukes, red onions, corn, parsley, basil, and cilantro. Then she made buffalo steak with roasted caramelized cauliflower.

Late-breaking news!
Jessica has put locally-produced tofu to excellent use on the grill. Just thinking about it--with its side dishes of sweet corn, potatoes, and zucchini--makes my mouth water.

Midwest, Week One

2007-07-02T04:20:00.000-07:00

Go meet some hot Midwestern cooks! These happy folks have completed Week One of One Local Summer.

ME, for one. I completely cheated this week as today is my birthday (yes you can send gifts if you like, or at least sing) and we actually splurged last night for a yum-licious meal at a local restaurant that features local artisanal food AND wine. In one simple meal I supported something like seven farmers, which is something I doubt I will be able to claim the rest of the summer.

Don't ask Phelan about the poor quality of her photo, but her meal sounds great. She is homesteading with her three boys, husband, scores of critters and one mean donkey in Kansas.

Matt in Iowa is generously acting as a subset to the Midwest (I know Iowa is big, Matt, but really) and the OLS challenge in general by being the catch-all to folks who didn't make our sign-up deadline in time. His site has loads of local food he likes, so if you're ever in I-o-way...

Lucette and her husband are in Cleveland. Check out her cookbook-crazed blog and her local meal; there's lots to see. Venison burgers and homemade strawberry ice cream...that sounds good to me!

Fellow Michigander Ang (Farm Mom) made up some wonderful grub this week. She had BOTH asparagus and morels so it was quite the ode to spring! Sigh; asparagus, sigh. Morels. SIGH!

FrugalMom lives in Illinois and is on the path to simple living. One of the fun things about this challenge is finding out how to cook previously unknown items like kohlrabi. She whipped up something good with it!

Evie in South Dakota made her family taco salad for her first meal. Before you say "Hmm, tacos" I'll mention here that she made the tortillas herself AND served them with buffalo meat! She's been known to see bison out home on the range when she's running down her country roads.

AnnMarie has been practicing her local meals for a while now with lots of raids from her garden. She and her husband are following a path of simple living. She did the challenge last summer, too! She's a Cheesehead, er, Wisconsinite. I envy her access to dairy. She envies my access to peaches. The grass is always greener...

Stacie is a laugh riot, IMHO; she and her husband and two young boys are in rural Illinois. This is her second summer of doing the OLS challenge; she's a great cheerleader of the idea because, well, after doing the legwork, local eating is simply now what they do! There's no turning back...

Gina and her husband homestead in Indiana with their two young boys. They have tomatoes already, so I am exceedingly jealous!

Jennifer calls her blog DisOrganization but dang, she even published the recipe for HER first meal. She's in southern Ohio.

Kelly and her family are also in Ohio. She grilled up some pizzas for their first meal. What's telling about her post is how hard she tried to source out local stuff, even going so far as to hopefully reduce her food miles for next time. (Hey, that's the fun part of the game!)

Joanna is a newlywed and newbie cook in Indiana. She fixed up brats in beer for her first meal! Yowza.

Pat is in Oklahoma and for her challenge, she decided OK was OK for her definition of "local." She's a mostly sci-fi writer who lives with her three kids and hubby.

Linda in Missouri is homesteading and grandkid-adoring with her husband, with whom she built their home. She made a lick-your-plate-clean meal this week!

Eric and Lori are doing the homestead thing in Ohio with their twins. Their meal sounds quite yummy!

Miranda is in Minnesota. She's looking to lighten her footprint on this earth with her husband and five kids. Check out her site; you'll learn a lot! The first week of the challenge was Italian Night and she made some ravioli.

Debbie is in Iowa, trying hard to simplify her life through cooking. There is truth to that, really there is. She got goodies from both her CSA and her farmer's market for her meal.

Jennifer is in Madtown. (That's the capitol of Wisconsin for you non-Wisco-savvy types.) You will have to go to Flick*r to see a pic of her meal, but it sounded pretty good to me.

NormaJean is in St. Louis with her husband, and she secretly hopes to one day be a farm girl. (Be careful what you wish for, NJ, is all I can say.) Her weeks have been crazy lately but she's still taking stabs at the challenge.

Becke is happily devouring her way through Ohio via Columbus. That sounds like a laudable goal, right? Come on go check out this foodie's yummy site. She made a favorite of hers for the challenge with all local ingredients, and it came out great!

Manerva is in Minnesota and much of what she eats she grows herself. She and her husband have a huge pack of animals on their acreage. Here's her first meal (and no it was NOT chicken, so they're all still happy).

We have a blog-less participant. Kate's also in Madtown, and she, her hubby and baby boy are also backyard chicken wranglers! She "had a homemade pizza with crust made from half locally grown wheat flour, canned tomato sauce from a local farm (Tomato Mountain), Wisconsin mozzarella, and oregano/basil from our backyard garden. Also a side of broccoli from a local farm." Sounds great!

I hope you all enjoyed Week One! There are some great ideas out there...

The Mid-Atlantic (NY, NJ, PA, DE)

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The first week in the Mid-Atlantic region was rich in variety and innovation. I was impressed with the number of entries that are exploring new sources for things like flour and dairy for NEXT week.

Naomi from Philadelphia was able to fit a local meal into her busy week that even turned into lunch the next day. She made an Indian stir-fry of local seitan and local eggplant.

Mac in Philadelphia put together a meal of local organic chicken,Yukon gold mashed potatoes and sautéed garlic scapes.

Peg from New York learned how to make whole wheat noodles with a garlic scape pesto. She’s still “noodling” a local source for Parmesean cheese.

Mikaela from PA used veggies from her local CSA and a local source of tofu and blueberry wine to make a yummy local meal.

Meredith in PA used her own raspberries and radishes in a meal of squash, local burgers, salad and raspberry dessert

Seedling in NJ grilled up some local chicken, gnocchi made in the Bronx, veggies from her CSA, and some PA mushrooms.

Christy in Delaware made a sweet potato bread, sautéed up some asparagus and purple green beans and put a local grass fed steak on the grill.

Rabi in NYC pulled together a colorful meal of roasted beets, black eyed peas and a turnip scallion mash with a jerk seitan.

Linda from New York had a grilled round steak with mashed potatoes and a salad with local greens and eggs from her hens.

And now for the emailers. Several in the region have chosen to participate by email, but this week I heard only from Nicole from New Jersey. She made a meal of Summer Squash Fritters with Feta accompanied by Greek yogurt and a red leaf salad. Here's a link to the original recipe: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/238266

Summer Squash Fritters with Feta and Yogurt

Zucchini and summer squash from Honeybrook Organic farm (my CSA - 30 miles away)

Italian parsley & scallions from Honeybrook

2 eggs from from Running Free Organic Farm

Dried dill - not local but purchased in bulk from Basil Bandwagon, the local health food store

Salt, olive oil & corn oil from far, far away

All purpose flour from far far away (though I'll be ordering some

(almost) locally milled organic flour in the next few weeks)

Feta cheese - bit of a mystery - the package says Delaware, but I can't find any info about the company online.

Plain Greek yogurt - homemade with non-local milk (though I've since found one source of local(ish) milk)

Red leaf salad from Honeybrook with homemade dressing (made of non-local stuff).

Cherry Pie (recipe courtesy of Baking Illustrated).

Cherries from Terhune Orchards

Ok, so the pie crust isn't exactly local - but it was such fun picking the cherries and making a real homemade pie :)

Congratulations to everyone! And if I missed you, please leave a comment so I can be sure to include you next week.

Week One-The Latecomers

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Faith accomplished an impressive feat this week. She had an all local all-American cookout meal!

Carman enjoyed a salad and some baby red potatoes.

Katrien enjoyed a nice supper with some fresh local strawberries!

At my house we decided to give our hearts a test by frying our dinner. And no, we didn't fry the raspberries!!

Tracy enjoyed an elk steak, which isn't something I've had an opportunity to try before!

Patt (who runs a farm in Illinois, with a CSA for those of you looking) had a breakfast of local eggs, pork patties and canteloupe. No blog entry, but her website is here.

It was a great first week!

Week One -- New England & International

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Well, we've made it through the first week of OLS! I can hardly believe the excitement for the project and the gorgeous meals I've seen throughout the week. I only wish I could see more of them. My time has definitely been centered around the northern parts, but once in a while, I hope to see what everyone is contributing.

New England:

I had a hard time knowing which of Wendy's local meals was her "official" entry. She started off the week with a local family breakfast, followed up with a dinner of spareribs and sides, and finished off with a chicken dinner. She's come a long way since last year.

Leslie may have had one of the most local meals I've seen... everything in her meal came from five miles away or less! And before you start thinking that she lives on a self-sufficient farm, just know that she lives on an island. Pretty cool.

Jen & Steve topped sauteed kale and garlic scapes with some locally made spinach ravioli.

Melissa got a head-start and had her local meal last week because she's leaving Maine soon for Colorado. But what better way to say goodbye to Maine's cuisine than with a boiled lobstah dinnah?

Heather had grilled pork chops and salad along with her (first ever) biscuits.

Magid's leftovers were a smart way to finish up a local meal.

Korinthe pulled together a lovely summer meal despite being in the middle of a heat wave (100˚ in the kitchen drawer!).

Laurie enjoyed crockpot shortribs with herbal iced tea sweetened with her own backyard honey. Hooray for bees!

Stephani tried goat meat for the first time. Guess what? She liked it!

Cheryl shared a homegrown chicken dinner with her family.

International:
Karen in Ontario dined on grilled bison.

Cheryl in Vancouver brought the Mediterranean to her with some veggie sandwiches.

Mary in Ontario had a wonderful time exploring her local farmstand (and got caught up on the local gossip) before creating a lovely local potato salad.

Moonwaves in Ireland (I knew that, really I did) learned that a little bit of enthusiasm can help create a fabulous beef stew even at the end of a long day.

Amanda in Scotland made veggie tacos, gazpacho, and a strawberry pie.

Yukino in Moldova enjoyed some simple foods on her own, and an assortment of locally produced meals with her family at "Villa".
And finally, I know she's not in my area, but for anyone who felt that this first week was an exercise in frustration, please read what Stacey has to say. Last year, she was new to the local food scene, and had to spend a bit of time sourcing out local suppliers. This year, she's a pro. Use Stacey as your role model, and know that it's possible to change the way you buy your food. It just takes some extra effort, and some time to make it work, but it's totally worth it.