Very Local Super Food

We have been eating very well these past few weeks. Mostly, we are eating from our garden, with a few other ingredients from our nearby small grocers, Farmer Joe's. We are enjoying this project of eating right from our own backyard so much that we are planning to continue this practice into the winter. Our Community Supported Agriculture Farm and Chris assure me that this is completely possible in the Bay Area. So Chris has already started our winter crops on the patio: beets, radishes, chard, kale, red and yellow onions, leeks, turnips, and bok choy.

In a little while, we will finish the summer crops, pull them up, and transplant these little ones into the garden. We plan on rearranging the paths of the garden before doing so because we were inspired by spiral growing formations we saw at Pumpkin Pond Farm.

Here is an example of a recent meal from the backyard. Basil, tomatoes, peppers, and squash blossoms.

We seared the cherry tomatoes with olive oil and basil until they caramelized. The peppers were filled with parmesan and lightly fried alongside goat cheese-filled squash blossoms. We added some wine to our summery dinner.
The yellow split pea with cilantro sunflower seed pesto added our plant-based protein.

This pea and pesto recipe came from our new favorite cookbook by San Franciscan Heidi Swanson called Super Natural Everyday. Dear friends, Katie and Tim, recently gave us this book. We have made several delicious grain salads, millet muffins, yogurt scones, and a lime, ginger & cardamom fizzy drink called 'panakam' from this awesome book. (Our foodie, discriminating friend, Joanie, tried some of the treats and eagerly bought the book two days ago). This book has opened our minds to new grains, sugar-free desserts, and beautifully simple sauces.

So Chris is always having me pose with the vegetables. It must be a domestic romance thing I just didn't know about before getting married. Here I am trying to say with my expression, 'What a bounty!' But what I am really thinking is, 'What are we going to do with all this squash?'

Idea numero uno: slice to 1/8 inch thick and dehydrate.

Sprinkle with paprika... and pop into the machine.

Our space-age dehydrator took up so much counter space that we only did two rounds of squash before moving on to other methods of 'using up.'

Like these! Squash pancakes. Delish with mustard.

We have also baked the squash stuffed with basil, oregano, swiss chard meatloaf. And we have pickled the squash using a dilly bean recipe. We have to wait 6 weeks for the beans and squash to take on the flavor of the brine, so we will come back to the outcome of this recipe in a future post.

Chapter II: (You didn't know there was a chapter I, did you?) Baby Food for Local Babies.

Kristen (a.k.a. Sabine's mom) introduced us to this fantastic baby recipe and health book, Super Baby Food. We have been amazed by the amount of knowledge it takes to get your baby some complete protein while checking for allergic reactions along the way.

One of the keys to this healthful baby diet is porridge made from a variety of grains: rye, oats, rice, barley, kamut, quinoa, etc. We buy the grains in bulk and then grind them in our cuisinart. We store them in jars in the fridge to preserve the grains and then take out some powdery scoopfuls and cook a new batch every few days.

The fruits and vegetables get steamed and then pureed in this simple but handy-dandy grinding device. Then we pour the gloppy goods into these silicon 'ice trays' to freeze for a while.

We doubt Avery will be able to keep up with our production. It's all kind of addictive. Pureeing is so satisfying.

As is feeding our boy.