Blogging! Now with less photos!

I still can't bring myself to buy batteries for the camera...actually, I can't find time to buy batteries for the damn thing, and the moment I do, the photo-type-deal will resume.

So, onto the eat local thing.

There was a thread on the knittyboards that got a little snarky...what with folks saying that they didn't have a farmer's market, ect, ect...

I went sluthing, just for shits and giggles on LocalHarvest http://www.localharvest.org, and wanted to see what I could get if I lived in Arizona.
See, there was a woman who claimed that she could get nothing but peppers and potholders.
Uh, not so much...

I was curious about why so many had so much hate for this book...seems that people felt it was unnecessarily political, and were turned off by the fact that she left the Southwest because she felt like the climate, the car driven lifestyle, and the non-water-havin' of the area were not condusive to leaving a small carbon footprint.

Well...it's not. Seriously. That's like being upset that someone leaves SouthBeach, Miami because they don't feel intellectually stimulated.

Major urban areas in the southwest can't fill their own water needs. They beg, borrow, or steal water from other parts of the country. If the damns broke, and couldn't be repaired, there wouldn't be enough water for the residents. The Colorado River now trickles into nothingness.

If one decides to live there, one should know. No judgments from me, just stop being deluded.

Now, if you live in Tuscon, you can eat local, maybe take a bus, and stop trying to grow roses, maybe plant some native plants in your yard, and you can reduce your footprint. It's not impossible.

It does take a little work to recycle...and in Chicago, it's really questionable to recycle at all. Our system sucks. However, almost everyone can compost their kitchen waste, and reduce the amount of garbage bags that end up in landfills.

It's maybe a little more work to buy veggies and fruits at the Farmer's Market...you might have to shop when you might like to be sleeping...but, here at the little house in the ghetto, we think it's worth it. If you don't...that's okay.

Not everybody can bike or bus to work, but almost everybody could decide to bike or walk to some small errand once in a while...I know people who take their car everywhere, even if it's close enough to walk.

I still buy wine made all over the world, but I'm trying really hard to drink local beer.

I don't know, it just seems like we don't have to make these grand, sweeping plans, or stop living in a way that makes us comfortable...just be mindful, and do what we can, when we can do it.

Is that really so political?

I guess so. I'm not sure why, but in many people's minds ecology=hippy.
I live with an ecologist, so it's just sorta part of our lives, everyday.
I don't want to destroy habitat, or kill things with noxious chemicals because I will enjoy my life a little more without tumors and with animals and plants.

I remember when I found out that most household cleaning can be done without a ton of chemicals, and that vinegar and salt are a kick-ass tool. I still buy windex and bleach, I just use it really sparingly.

Having had a health crisis when I was younger of the vaguely spooky kind, I'm more willing to embrace things that don't have a proven tumor-growing effect.

Is that political? or personal?

Oh, and i'm not going to say I'm sorry for getting all heavy, or possibly offending someone.
I think that we, as women, are taught to 'be nice', which turns into 'be nice in public, but say and do really nasty things behind people's backs". And I hate that.

Oh, and I might start trading yarn for soap at my farmer's market, and I'm jazzed about that, just jazzed.

What's that? No Photos? Shocked, truely shocked

Ahhh, now to continue onward with my photoless blogging. My batteries are dead, and thus, not so much with the camera. Someday.

Yesterday I cooked down 15 lbs of Roma tomatoes with 4 cups of homemade Syrah (no spices, no nothing...this is a basic starter sauce for this winter. I wanted to be able to have options.)
for about 4 hours on simmer, and made approximately 9 cups of tomatoe sauce. I froze it all in freezer bags in 2 cup portions. I may do this again before summer is over.

I also made a huge batch of 'everything' stock. I had 3 chicken carcasses in the freezer, so I tossed in some beef bones, some onions, some shallots, carrots, bay leaf, salt, pepper, and three fire roasted green peppers, and simmered for about 4-5 hours. Strained, and let sit overnight in the fridge so I can pull the fat off the stop, and package, once again, in 2 cup portions, and freeze.

The kitchen was hot last night with all the simmering, so I decided, what the fuck, let's bake.

So, with the leftover red hen chocolate bread, and some frozen overripe bananas, I made some chocolate bread pudding, and with the zuchinni from the garden I made chocolate zuchinni cake.

I will start freezing blueberries from the farmer's market today,and will be making a batch of freezer jam, as well.

Whoa, you say...that's alot of cooking.

Yup, but when I have frozen organic blueberry jam this winter, it's gonna be worth it. Sooooo worth it.

I read Animal, Vegtable, Miracle last week, and it really changed the way I think about food...I was always for eating seasonally...that's the snooty restaurant training, but I never thought about perserving the food for later...that's the Kingsolver message, and I'm totally down with it.

I'm not sure if I'm going to take the canning plunge, but I'm for sure going to stuff my freezer with the goodness of summer, and my wine cellar is going to have to share with potatoes and onions from the farmer's market.


Now to finish up those slippers for Dan, and to make sure the house is okay for business visitors.
I'm starting the tastings for the new Cheeseworld, and I have reps comming over to taste this afternoon.

I know, it's weird that I'm forced to taste beautiful wines for free in my own home. Sometimes, I have the best job ever.