First blog entry. 8:17 p.m. 03/11/2010

Yesterday Tom and I decided to go to the local Amish market to get some groceries. We'd heard from friends and family that it was worth checking out. It was about three miles from our house, way closer than the Big M in Ovid (about 10 miles away) and the Sure Save in Trumansburg (about 7 miles). We walked in and were instantly amazed by the variety. It was large and spacious and clean. Dorothy had a ball running all over the store, picking out apples and pointing at the squash. We were the only people there, and we were there close to an hour. We didn't bring cash with us, and realized we had to go to an ATM as they didn't have a debit card machine. We didn't care. Dorothy and I stayed to pick out groceries while Tom ran the 3 miles back to town to get cash.

The little Amish store is called Countryside Produce. It's just north of Interlaken, NY, right off 96. They have chickens, whole pigs, all cuts of pork, bacon, eggs, milk, steaks, roasts, potatoes, squash, garlic, onions, salad greens, frozen and canned vegetables, syrup, flour, olive oil, sugar, spices, granola, cheese, butter, rabbit, spinach, seeds of all varieties, gardening supplies, and even more still! We were amazed that something like this had been a mere 3 miles from our front door all this time!

For $80, we were able to purchase 1 whole chicken, 1 pound of bacon, 1 dozen eggs, 2 gallons of whole milk, 1 pound of granola, 1 pound of grapenuts cereal, 2 quarts of yogurt, 3 giant onions, 5 pounds of potatoes, 1 bag of spinach and 1 bag of salad greens, 1 bag frozen peas, 1 bag frozen zucciinni, 1 bag frozen string beans, pickled beets, a pack of 6 beef short ribs, 2 pounds of ground beef, 5 heads of garlic, a bag of red apples, 1 jar of strawberry-rhubarb jelly, 1 jar apple butter, 1 jar grape jam, and 1 honey bear. I think that's it. It was way more food than I have ever gotten for $80 at the grocery store! And all of it is grown by the Amish, just about the most sustainable group of folks around! The meat, dairy, and eggs are all hormone-free, grass-fed or free-range, and fresh as can be. The produce is beautiful, all locally grown as well. I think some of the exotic stuff must be imported from other Amish communities elsewhere. Like the Olive Oil, sugar, oranges, grapefruits, etc... I want to learn more about that next time I go.

So this morning was my first day of transitioning to a more local diet. My goal is to be completely local by the end of the year. I have to eat everything I already have in my cupboards, and I may struggle figuring out how to replace pizza and sauce... We'll see.

Breakfast:

I tried to give Dorothy Meadowcreek Farms vanilla yogurt with granola and grape nuts in it. She spit it out immediately. I had a few bites. It was really yummy, but I wasn't awake yet. I then drank a pot of Folgers coffee. I'm still uncertain what I plan to do about my coffee addiction. There are no coffee farms around here. Hmm....

Later I made 4 Meadowcreek Farm free-range eggs over easy, with 2 pieces of whole wheat toast (Arnold's brand - cheap bread from Sure Save) with butter (Sure Save brand), and 1 Sure Save brand English muffin with apple butter on it from the Amish market. Dorothy and I split that. The dogs got a little, too. I must say the eggs tasted way better than the cheap white eggs I usually buy. And the apple butter is absolutely ridiculous! Dorothy loved the apple butter on her french toast yesterday, but not on the English muffin. She ate some of the eggs and a half of a piece of wheat toast.

For dinner I made chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and sauteed spinach with garlic. Everything except the olive oil I used in the spinach and the flour and spices were local and purchased at the Amish market. The total cost of making this meal was about $12, and it fed all three of us with food to spare!

Chicken Preparation: 5-10 minutes prep time, 1.5-2.5 hours oven time, depending on your oven and size of bird, Easy to make!

Rinse the whole bird in the sink. Place in a baking dish, stomach down. Season chicken to your own liking. Tonight I used salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, granulated garlic, cayenne pepper, garlic pepper, and oregano. I like my chicken skin to be very salty and flavorful, and crunchy and delicious. Other people just like salt and pepper on their bird. At this point I stuck the bird in the oven. However, sometimes (when I'm feeling extra motivated) I stuff the bird with a whole chopped up onion and several cloves of garlic. After the bird is cooked, you can scoop that onion garlic yumminess into a food processor, mush it all up, and put it right into your gravy! That's awesome, but I didn't do that tonight. So I like my chicken overcooked so there are no signs of life, the bones are totally gray, and the meat just falls off. So I cook it a long time. Usually at least 2 hours, but for a larger bird, 3 sometimes! As the bird cooks, it pours out yummy juices. I continuously pour that juice into my gravy base so the chicken gets crispy underneath, too, and not soggy.

Potato Preparation: 5 minutes prep time, 1 hour stove top. Easy to make!

I use white potatoes for mashing. I used 4 giant white potatoes from the Amish Market. I skinned and rinsed them, and then placed them in salted water to boil on the stove. They need to be fork-tender all the way through. I always use the potato water, which gets all starchy, in my gravy, too. After the potatoes are fork-tender, drain off the water (used in gravy!), add a few tablespoons of butter and a few splashes of milk. Mash it up, add more milk of you need to, add salt and pepper if you like. Sometimes I put mayonnaise in  my mashed potatoes, but not tonight. It's not particularly healthy, it's not local, and it really doesn't make a giant difference in flavor.

Spinach Preparation: 5 minutes prep time, 10 minutes stovetop. Easy to make!

I chop up a whole head of garlic and saute that in a cast iron skillet. Then I scoop some of that into my gravy base, and the rest I reserve to cook my fresh spinach in. Just sautee the chopped garlic over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until soft and golden. Then add the spinach and wilt it on medium heat. Use olive oil galore while sauteeing this so it doesn't stick and for flavor! (I'm gonna buy the Amish Olive Oil when my imported stuff runs out).

Gravy Preparation: 2 minutes prep time, 30 minutes stove top. Medium difficulty. Gravy gets people for some reason.

So to start with, I put about 3 tablespoons of flour in a cup and whisk that with 2 cups of water. Then I pour it into a pot on the stove over medium-low heat and thicken it, letting it boil so the flour taste goes away. You have to whisk or beat the flour into the water while its cold or you'll end up with lumps. I pour the chicken juice into this bubbling base the whole while I'm cooking. I put the sauteed garlic in from the spinach recipe above. I often use white wine instead of water for my chicken gravy, but I didn't have any tonight and lots of people don't like wine in their food, so it's optional. As the gravy thickens and bubbles, add soy sauce, a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar to taste, salt, pepper, granulated garlic, and some potato water to get the right thickness to your gravy. When the bird is done, take it out of the baking pan and pour your gravy base right into the baking dish. Heat it on the stove top, get the crusties into it. Then it's done!

This meal was quite yummy. Tom rates it a 10 out of 10, I rate it an 8 out of 10 (the gravy could have been even better, I was a bit lazy), and Doots ranked it a 10 out of 10. She chowed down like a champ and had so much energy afterwards! I've never seen her eat so much!

The meal was easy to prepare. I only had to add rinsing the spinach to my "extra step" list. (I usually buy the pre-cleaned bagged spinach). It tasted better to all of us, especially the potatoes. They were so much whiter and fluffier than usual! And the meal was cheaper than usual (potatoes and spinach were way cheaper at the Amish market, but the bird was a little bit more expensive than the cheap bird I get at the grocery store), as well as purchased closer to home!

So far, the transition is going well. Feeling good about it! I'm excited to go grocery shopping at new places soon! Signing off.

9:07 pm *Nikki*