Sunday, September 30, 2007

Local Foods Update for September


This month has been the busiest season for our local farmers' markets. I have enjoyed having so many fruits and vegetables to choose from at their peak of freshness and flavour. Eating all the food has sometimes been a challenge. I ate fresh vegetable soup every day last week and still had some left over. I just don't have much extra time for freezing or canning food when it is in season.

Today I was cleaning out the fridge and found a pound of spinach that needed to be used right away. I Googled "recipe with one pound of spinach" and came up a great new site called Seasonal Chef. I found links to farmers' markets across Canada and United States as well a number of interesting recipes. My spinach search ended at at page on this site called Nine Spinach Recipes from Around the World.

I made the Cottage Cheese and Spinach Gratin pictured above and will put the recipe on my recipe blog. (with a little reduction in salt)

I read with interest the link to a blog called Truly Local. Many markets, including our largest local one, have an abundance of peddlers who resell wholesale produce that may have been shipped across the continent. The quality of this produce is often substandard and it is definitely not locally grown food. It is important to ask vendors if they are local farmers selling food they have grown themselves.

Next weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving, the celebration of our local harvests. I have started preparing food for a family dinner that will feature the best of our farm foods. We have ordered a turkey from a farmer in the region.

...so much to be thankful for!

13 comments:

  1. Happy Thanksgiving.
    Our daughter, now in the UK, had the sudden realization that she won't have U.S. Thanksgiving day off!
    I love the photo with the pumpkins. I think this must be a bumper year for pumpkins as we have many lovely ones around here.

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  2. Happy Thanksgiving-Hope you have a delicious feast!Pumpkins really give you that wonderful Fall feeling.

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  3. Ruth, your feast sounds wonderful. I know you are a great cook! The Cottage Cheese and Spinach Gratin makes me salivate.

    Pumpkins are scarce here...the crops are suffering but we have three. High prices.

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  4. I stopped and picked up a few squash at a roadside stand this afternoon and cooked one for supper--Yummy!
    Your cottage cheese and spinach gratin looks delicious. Isn't it fun to find a great new recipe?

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  5. The spinach recipe looks wonderful. I am going to try that this week. ~nita~

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  6. Oh YUMMMMM! I love spinach and can't wait for you to post this recipe Ruth. :c)

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  7. Well, DUH.. it helps to try the clickie link... :c) I'll be trying this soon.

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  8. Anonymous3:34 pm GMT-4

    hmmm, that looks good and happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

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  9. Oh, that gratin looks great. The tractor and pumpkins brought back memories - thanks.

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  10. KGMom- I don't know if there is a Thanksgiving Day in the UK. There must be some holiday to compensate. This farm had a number of pumpkins. I prefer the small pumpkins for pies.

    Larry- One thing is sure. We will have too much food.

    Mary- I am not sure if our farms had good pumpkin crops or if the ones in the stores are imported. My pie pumpkins were $1 each.

    Ruthie- I love winter squash, especially butternut and acorn. Looking for recipes on line is cheaper than a new cookbook.

    RT Heart- Nice to meet you. Thanks for commenting. I posted the recipe and have added the link now.

    Jayne- I liked the dish cold. The flavours were very nice today for lunch.

    Monarch- Thanks. This is one of my favourite times of year.

    Jean- That was a nice John Deere green tractor. Very picturesque!

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  11. Mmm...that looks delicious!

    We have been trying to buy more locally recently. Especially when we are able to get what we want from farmers' markets.

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  12. Ah yes, autumn food!
    Here in Brittany I have learned to eat and appreciate seasonal foods. Even the supermarkets seem to stock seaasonally. And the markets provide a weekly lesson in the art of eating seasonally.
    right now we're enjoying ceps and morels and catching sight of the first fabulous pumpkins...
    For some reason autumn always makes me think of Massachusetts...

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  13. Hi Dana, nice to meet you and your blog. I home-schooled for a while too and our favourite weekly outing was to the farmer's market. Our children all loved their vegetables, especially when they picked them out.

    Mouse- The French do seasonal food well! I love looking at your dinner posts.

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