Foodie Montage

The days are flying by, and the foodie goodness of summer is already careening towards us.

Our first nasturtiums, plucked from the top of our upside-down tomato baskets, top this salad made largely of local ingredients, right down to the cheese. The only non-local things are the nuts and cranberries. The nuts here are dark-roasted walnuts. You’ll also see some of the first seasonal blueberries topping this, and a lovely local artisinal goat cheese.

Last night’s dinner was all local, and simply amazing. It was UC’s turn to cook, and he chose to do the minimum to the ingredients because they were all so fresh and bursting with flavor. Adding too much would have just covered it up. This is local, organic, completely pastured chicken, fresh asparagus, and new red potatoes. We had to wash them!

The potatoes were the biggest surprise of the meal. One expects local, fresh, pastured chicken to taste different, and fresh-picked anything is always better than store bought. But, potatoes? Surely potatoes are just potatoes? Nope. These were dug fresh several days ago, dirt still clinging as we bagged them at the market. Once boiled and mashed, they were rich and creamy, full of flavor that store potatoes are for some reason usually missing. It was hard to stop eating them, but thankfully we’d only made enough for ourselves and UCs lunch. Otherwise, I’d probably still be not be able to get off the couch.

Eating locally as much as possible is a choice for us. It’s a moral choice, a health choice, and a financial choice. I suppose some people think it makes us hippies, or tree-huggers, or whatever. But, what I think it makes us is wise and really, really well-fed.