Soaps for LOFT Market

We had a very special custom order for more than 100 guest soaps this week! It was for LOFT Market - which stands for "local organics fairly traded". LOFT Market, (not to be confused with LOFT, which is a producer co-operative of local farmers who supply LOFT Market), offers a large-scale local organic food box program here in the area, with 10 depot/pick up locations (Cambridge, Guelph, New Hamburg, Waterloo and Kitchener). We were so pleased to be asked to contribute soaps for their last winter box! They were interested in our soaps because we are a small local business that uses local organic ingredients - like herbs from our gardens, local oats & honey, local goatmilk, and even local beer & egg for our shampoo bar. We provided bars made with medicinal herbs, including chamomile, rosemary, lavender, calendula, and sage. We wish LOFT Market, and their farmers, well for the new 2010 season ahead!

Check out LOFT Market - to become a member or find out more go to:
http://loftmarket.ca/

100-Mile Desserts: Mulberry-Cherry Scones

Not only is mid July mulberry season, but also cherry season...

Cherries are such an adaptable fruit - excellent chopped into muffins, cakes, crisps, fresh on cereal or oatmeal, made into smoothies, added to icecream, yogurt or sorbets, or dried and used in cookies or eaten as a dried fruit snack. They also freeze well - last year we bought a cherry pitter, which made the pitting process so much quicker than cutting the flesh off the pit by hand. The pitter is handcrank, with a large funnel ontop where you drop the cherries, and then by cranking the pit is extracted and the freshly hulled cherry falls into a bowl below. Very simple. The pitter is available at Lee Valley, Berry Hill Farm, or from the local Home Hardware store. Worth the investment if you are making cherry jam, or dealing with cherries in large quantities for winter storage.

Here's a cherry-mulberry scone recipe we made for breakfast this morning. The scones only use a few ingredients and take less than 15 minutes to bake, so they are the perfect quick recipe for unexpected visitors, a simple breakfast, or even to make while camping (they could be baked over a fire in a frying pan with lid on). They are adapted from a recipe called "world's best whole-wheat biscuits". They are nice eaten plain, or served with butter (or even jam).

Mulberry-Cherry Scones

1 1/4 cups flour, plus a little more for rolling out dough
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 Tbsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk or cream
fruit of choice (we used a small handful each of cherries and mulberries)

1) Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2) In large bowl sift together dry ingredients.
3) Using a fork, gradually stir in syrup and milk until soft dough forms.
4) Add fruit pieces and then knead dough on floured surface about 10 times.
5) Pat into a circle or rectangle about 1/2 inch thick, and using a knife cut into rounds, squares or triangles. Make sure fruit is distributed fairly evenly between scones, or press a few extra fruit pieces into the scones. Dust with additional flour.
6) Bake about 15 minutes, until golden brown. Do not overbake.

Makes 12-14 scones.

Hardy Chicago Fig Tree arrives!

We received a long-awaited parcel in the mail today...plants from Richters Herbs. It's planting day tomorrow!

Various plants we had ordered from Richters Herbs (www.richters.com - near Goodwood, Ontario), included a wide selection of mints for my new mint tasting garden (apple mint, chocolate mint, ginger mint, and more), alpine strawberries (a ground cover that's going in our front yard and is said to bear the sweetest tiny berries, and be cold weather hardy), intensely fragrant creeping thyme for the front yard, and the most dearly awaited, our new Hardy Chicago Fig tree! We continue to expand our fruit & nut tree selection for this urban homestead, in the hopes that one day we, or future owners, will have an abundant harvest enough to last through the winter months. We have several apples, pears, an Italian blue plum, three cherries, a hazelnut, of course the black walnuts, and now this fig.

When we read about the Hardy Chicago Fig (ficus carica) we knew we needed to plant at least one. The fruits are described as a gorgeous brown-purple with a luscious strawberry-sweet flesh. The thought of eating local figs, let alone growing them in our own yard, was so tantalizing. Eating our own organically grown sun-ripened figs straight off the tree in late summer or savouring carefully dried figs with wine, honey and cheese in the winter, while we cozy up next to the woodstove. Mmmm, what a treat!

The Hardy Chicago Fig is one of the best for flavour and hardiness. It was said to have been brought to Chicago by Sicilians from Mount Etna many years ago, and has been grown in Chicago and elsewhere by dedicated fig fans ever since. Many people assume it can't be grown in North America, but with protection it can grow well as low as Zone 4. It is a perennial in Zones 8-11. It is hardly a tree, and can also be grown easily indoors, in an apartment or house, or in a container outdoors (and either protected for the winter, or taken indoors). We plan to grow ours in a container outside and then take it into the greenhouse over the winter months where it will be more sheltered, but hopefully not die back as much as it would if left outdoors. We have read accounts of fig harvests in the second year, and massive harvests by the fifth or sixth season. These trees can bear abundant fruit for upto 30 years if taken care of properly, so definitely worth the investment. This small 1-year old seedling cost us about $7.

By the way, there is a lot of information on the internet regarding care of the Hardy Chicago Fig (people LOVE this fig tree!). Garden Web also has useful posts on their "Fig Forum" discussion forum (www.gardenweb.com).

Farmhouse Meal

Speaking of delectable, even gourmet local foods prepared in simple ways in the home kitchen (see previous post on fermented foods), we felt so lucky to consider our meals of the day. We eat many local grown or prepared foods including many from our own garden, and try hard to eat in season as much as we can. Often we can start to take this for granted, but the day's meals seemed especially wonderful in the context of the earlier fermentation workshop. Here is what we had - no photos were taken as we were simply enjoying the foods as a family.

Brunch with our friend who dropped in from out of town:
- buckwheat flapjacks made with local organic flour (buckwheat and whole wheat) and local free range eggs from our backyard hens
- served with local maple syrup, homemade organic yogurt and strawberry/peach sauce made from organic fruit we harvested and preserved this past summer
- maple glazed tempeh made with locally produced tempeh (produced in a small-scale production facility on the next street over from our house), made with local maple syrup, and cayenne, garlic and herbs from our garden
- herbal tea from our own herb garden
- our baby Maya, who's just started solid foods, ate local pure applesauce we'd canned in the fall for her (made from wild harvested apples, and apples from our own property)

Dinner as a family consisted of this:
- creamy roasted carrot soup with local organic carrots, herbs from our garden
- served with a small dollop of organic yogurt and fresh rosemary (from our greenhouse)
- herbed biscuits made with local organic flour, served with organic goat chevre
- assortment of ferments - stuffed local wild grape leaves and dilly beans made by one friend; the best sauerkraut I've ever had, prepared by another friend; sour cherry wine made by another friend who led a winemaking workshop here last year
- as we were finishing up dinner, the same winemaking friend made a surprise visit with another large carboy of freshly racked local homemade rhubarb wine he wanted to share with us!
- fresh greens are sprouting in the greenhouse and soon we'll harvest our first salad of 2009

We felt well nourished, and so blessed by our incredible array of talented friends who are making such bold and wonderful forrays into local foods!

100-Mile Valentines!

I know it's mid-February, and the sourcing for interesting fresh local produce is starting to feel like a stretch. We've made our way through bushels of squash, carrots, onions, beets and potatoes, and surprisingly only one cabbage (so far). A few weeks ago we were absolutely delighted to find local brussels sprouts and kale at the market, both being favourites of ours that we had not seen in a good long while (they sell out quickly these days!). However, we still have at least 3 months to go before fresh greens and produce like asparagus, spinach or peas show up at the local farmer's market and begin to sprout in our garden.

I thought, why not put together a tasty 100-mile Valentine's dinner for my sweetheart - and test my creativity and winter food flair. I've started my indoor sprout garden again, growing spicy lentil crunch, sandwich booster (which has radish and red clover), wheatgrass, and of course alfalfa. We are also very fortunate to have our greenhouse, which still contains a small patch of arugula & chard, that we sparingly harvest for salads a few times per week until our newly planted lettuces grow. So what can I make for a romantic Valentines feast?

On the menu so far:

Appetizer:
* Handmade mini samosas filled with local organic peas, potatoes, carrots, garlic & onions from our garden (from our cellar & freezer)
* Served with pear-plum chutney - made with local organic pears & plums (from the Wellesley area), and onions, garlic & hot pepper from our garden (canned back in September)

Salad:
* Small side salad of fresh arugula & chard (picked fresh from our greenhouse), spicy sprout mix (grown in our kitchen), local apples (farmer's market), and local hemp seeds (Millbank Foods), and locally made goat feta (Woolwich)
* With a dressing of local organic raspberries (in our freezer), & local hemp/flax oils (Millbank Foods)

Main:
* Handmade spelt pasta (made with local spelt flour, by our friend here in town)
* Zesty tomato sauce (canned from organic tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and herbs, back in August) and with a dollop of basil pesto cream (made with organic basil from our garden)
* Steamed local kale (farmers market) tossed with locally pressed hemp oil (Millbank) and maple-tempeh croutons (locally pressed tempeh, and local maple syrup)

Dessert:
* Local organic icecream from Mapleton's (farm just past Elora, purchased at our local health food store), served with a warm decadent peach-mulberry sauce (peaches we canned this summer, and mulberries that we picked in our neighbourhood)
* Warm local cider (Wellesley) and/or homemade wine (we now have blueberry, sour cherry, apple, pear, and grape waiting in our cellar!)

Who needs chocolates & roses!!!?? It's easy to say "I love you" through local food! For more examples of food love check out "I heart farms"...