Locavore Season Begins!

When the farms start producing berries, my mood instantly elevates. These next few weeks our CSA (community supported agriculture) Golden Earthworm, is opening the strawberry fields for members to pick their own.  Last summer our family filled our freezer with blueberries, raspberries and blackberries which only supplied us with berries till Christmas, this year I'm dedicated to learning how to extend the freshness of the season by pickling, canning and preserving. Eating locally sourced food is good for you and the planet, it offers fuller flavor, higher nutrition and a smaller carbon footprint.  

Last night our family had a barbecue with our close friends on their Brooklyn rooftop where their little urban container garden is already yielding kale, collards, herbs and copious nasturtium with bright red edible flowers.  Adriana is a food activist and writer, deeply involved with food reform in the city schools and an amazing resource for a locavore like me.  She made corn tortillas on her hand press, refried black beans with coconut oil instead of lard (yumm), amazing salsa and grilled some grass fed beef for her family.  While we don't eat beef, Adriana has done some real thinking, writing, researching and cooking with various small farm grass fed beef and makes a compelling case for the practice.  I made a warm spinach and baby kale salad with pine nuts, figs and garlic from my favorite North fork biodynamic farm, KK's (who is supplying our fledgling Sustainable Sea Cliff Co-op).  

Nassau county only boasts a couple of farms, and none to my knowledge are organic, but we are lucky to be so close to all the artisanal products in NYC and the green pastures of the North Fork.  

Do you have childhood memories of putting food up for the winter?  Did your grandmother make jam, or stewed tomatoes, or Kim Chi?  

Have a great holiday weekend!

-Luisa