Total Local ~ Localvore Week, Day 5

This picture is of John Charlton and his son, who sell baked goods at both markets that I attend as a vendor. I've gotta tell you, their bread is the BEST EVER. No preservatives means it has to be kept in the refrigerator, but it is well worth the real estate  because it lasts and lasts.

 

Tuesday I was hoping to get a loaf of their maple oatmeal bread because it is the best sandwich bread I have ever tasted. But, alas, they were sold out by the time I was able to break free from my apple stand to shop. I ended up with an Italian herb loaf and all I can say is....

 

 

 

 

 

!!!!!MY WORD!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

!!!!!!MY TASTEBUDS!!!!!!!

 

 

It was definitely a case of Love at First Bite :)

 

 

Now, along with the Charlton's cinnamon swirl bread (great for French Toast), maple oatmeal (for sandwiches) I now have to have their Italian herb on a regular basis. Half my grocery budget is going to be spent on bread...LOL

 

If you have a chance to shop at NorthSide Farmers Market (901 P.W.N. in front of Galion K.F.C./ Tuesdays 4 - 6) or Lil' Farmers Market (1695 E. Mansfield St., Bucyrus, across from Auto Zone, Saturday mornings 8:30 -noon), I highly recommend that you talk with John and try his family's bread. Mendy and I set up at both of those markets, too...so stop by and say "hey" to us!!

 

 

 

**********Localvore Update**********



 

Before supper yesterday, I make a quick trip to Mendy's store, The Farmers Wife. Lucky for me, she had 2 packages of home-made buns left. I nabbed one for tonight's meal, making it  TOTAL LOCAL.

 

 

 

*Y*A*Y*

 

So, what's on the menu for today? Well...we now have nectarines and plums, along with Ida Red apples, plus we still have Red Bartlett pears. Looks like a fruit compote to me!

 

Lunch will be simple, I just need to reheat the roast beef and cauliflower, add fresh fruit, and maybe fry up a few potatoes. Jim won't be around for dinner, which means I'll have something even more simple, like an egg sandwich. Again, it looks like a TOTAL LOCAL day!

 

Marcheta *keeping on keeping on! 

 

 

Harvest at the Woodward ~ Localvore Week, Day 4

I first heard about a store named  Harvest at the Woodward in Mt.Vernon, Ohio, from my friends, Corinne and Matt Gompf of Heritage Harvest Farm. The Gompf's have a market stall at Mt. Vernon's farmers market, and the store carries the dip mixes, herbs, spice , and teas that Corinne custom blends.

Jim and I were in Mt. Vernon on Sunday for the Dan Emmett Festival. We saw this lovely display. I realized that it was made by the store that Corinne has talked about. The store was open, so we went inside to check it out. Man, oh, man, am I ever glad that we did!

I soon realized that the store only carries Ohio produced foods, most from Knox and surrounding counties. I think that the Harvest at the Woodward is a localvore's dream store!

Not only does the store carry produce, it also has milk, cheese, eggs, and meats. Here one can find goat's milk, sheep cheese, and yogurt made from local dairies. Isn't that wonderful?

The day was hot and I did not have an insulated bag with ice packs in the car, so I did not do any shopping that day. But I can hardly wait to go baaa-ack (hopefully next week) because I am more curious than the Cheshire Cat about how sheep cheese tastes like!

Marcheta *sheepish

Day 4 Localvore meals

 Lunch

Jim stayed in town where his job site is at, so for myself I heated up the leftover pork with peach/pear salsa and finished off the apple/pear cobbler.

Planned for Dinner

Roast beef sandwiches (the beef was slow cooked with yesterday's stuffed peppers)

mashed or fried potatoes

marinated cucumber/onion/grape tomato salad

fried apples

fresh homemade tomato juice

Not sourced locally:* 

sandwich buns

Everything else is local and from the same sources as listed yesterday.



Localvore Week, Day 1

Today is the first day of my experiment of having as much locally produced foods as possible for our meals. So far I'm calling it 99% successful. The glitch came about because Jim had bought green beans at Ashland's farmers market on Saturday when he was in that town on business. I was working at Bucyrus' Lil' Farmers Market, if I had known that he was coming home with fresh green beans, I could have bought ham, bacon, or ham-hock from Mendy and Russ, who also set up at the market with their naturally raised meats. 

Those beans needed to be cooked today, and Mendy's store is not open on Monday, so I thought the next best choice would be at Discount Drug Mart. Yes, it is a chain store, but it does a pretty good job of supplying local when available. DDM carries meat from  New Washington, a village in the northern part of the county. 

No luck, DDM was out of what I was searching for, (being Monday morning I am guessing that the delivery hadn't arrived). My only option that was left was to go to our main grocery store. I bought a nice ham hock, that I believe came from an Ohio farm. 

Back home, I cleaned the green beans and put them in a slow cooker with potatoes and onion from our garden. The ham hock went in for flavor.

Then it was time to fix lunch. The only thing on our lunch menu that was not local was lettuce.

I made hamburgers from ground beef bought at Mendy's store on Saturday. The bread was a hearty maple/oat loaf that I got at NorthSide Farmers Market last week. It is wonderful bread made by the Charlton's. The bread has no preservatives and has to be stored in the refrigerator, but believe me, I've never had any kind of bread keep as long as the Charlton's. :)

The tomatoes and red peppers were from our garden, the cauliflower from Witter's Produce (again bought at NSFM).

A peach smoothie, made with our peaches and fresh milk from Hartzler's Dairy in Wooster (again, purchased at Mendy's) served as beverage and dessert :)

Tonight's dinner is the green bean dish (it smells SO good!) and apple/pear cobbler, made with our apples and pears, honey from Dave Duncan (Crestline) and Hartzler's milk. 

All in all, I think that I've got a good start to a localvore week of eating. What do you think?

Marcheta *keepin' it real