Cooking is an essential part of eating as a locavore (a person who eats only locally grown foods as much as possible). Fortunately, flavorful local ingredients only require simple cooking methods. Continue Reading
Category : Breads, Breakfast, May, Recipes, Vegetarian
Category : Appetizers, Make It Yourself, May, Sauces and Dips, Snacks, Vegetarian, Whatcom Locavore Basics
If you love cheese, learning to make it at home can open a whole new world of culinary adventure. While some cheese requires special ingredients and tools, many cheeses can be made with equipment you probably already have in your kitchen. Continue Reading
Category : About Food Sources, April, Bellingham, Farmers' Markets, Main Dishes, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
Most of the ingredients in this dish, except the butter, were items purchased at the Bellingham Farmers Market from Whatcom County farm vendors on opening day (April 7, 2012). Even this early in the spring, local farmers have an amazing array of vegetables and other foods from which to choose. Continue Reading
Category : March, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
Whatcom Farm to School’s “Harvest of the Month” for March 2012 is kale, one of my favorite local greens. I’ve been growing, eating, and enjoying kale for years, so I was surprised to find that many people think of kale as an unusual vegetable. If that includes you, let me fill you in on what you’ve been missing. Continue Reading
Category : January, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
Winter meals in the northwest corner of the Pacific Northwest are all about warmth, stick-to-your-ribs heartiness, and flavors with substance. For locavores, winter is also about root vegetables, the kinds of things that are harvested in late fall and can be stored over the winter. Continue Reading
Category : Breakfast, January, Main Dishes, Recipes, Vegetarian
A friend of mine enjoys the taste of squash, but she has a hard time getting past the mushy texture. Since she grows so much squash in her garden, and often shares with me, I’ve been doing some experimenting to see if I could solve her problem and come up with some variation of cooked squash that was crispy.
This recipe was not a success from the texture point of view. However, the flavor was wonderful! Continue Reading
Category : Breakfast, December, Main Dishes, Recipes, Seasonal Menu Ideas, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
Evergreen Station (Ferndale) at the Bellingham Farmers Market often has really beautiful organic vegetables–not just high quality but also visually lovely. Last weekend I was particularly delighted by their large rutabagas. The skins were perfectly smooth, the color varied from pale gold to purple, and the size was enormous. I bought a single 2-pound root, not sure how I would use it. Continue Reading
Category : Holidays, November, Recipes, Soups, Vegetarian
Here’s a simple, yet unique, tomato soup that I guarantee you will enjoy! It has a rich smokey flavor with just a hint of peppery heat. Continue Reading
This omelet recipe is a perfect example of incredible local flavors. Cascadia Farms shiitake mushrooms are the highlight–they make nonlocal shiitakes seem like tasteless paste. I’m certain you’ll savor this dish.
We’re fortunate to have a diverse variety of locally made cheese from which to choose. I use local goudas a lot because they often come flavored with herbs or spices. For this recipe, though, I used a plain gouda made from goat milk. The goat milk flavor was all that was needed to balance the eggs. Continue Reading
Category : Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
Frizzles are a fun way to prepare winter root vegetables. While this recipe uses carrots and beets, just about any root vegetable can be used–potatoes, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, celeriac (celery root), and so on.
I like to include carrots to add a touch of sweetness to any root combination. Some roots have a slightly bitter taste, and carrots will help balance the flavor.
The crispy texture and whimsical appearance are delightful. They also offer a simple way to make any menu seem a little fancier for entertaining. Continue Reading
Category : Recipes, Soups, Vegetarian
Squash can be a little scary to work with in the kitchen. Getting through the tough outer shell can be a formidable challenge, to say the least, and the solutions often veer toward the dramatic. People use heavy meat cleavers, small hatchets, serrated electric knives, or they may drop squash from stairs or ladders onto concrete decks. I finally opted for safety, eating only smaller squash varieties with thinner skins, such as delicata.
This year, though, my friend Nancy Simmerman came up with a less drastic solution for almost any kind of squash. It still requires one cut to divide the squash in half along its “equator”–halfway between the stem end and the end where the blossom used to be, but then it gets easier. Continue Reading
Category : Make It Yourself, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
Potatoes are one of my favorite foods to substitute for commercially prepared convenience versions, especially for health reasons. For example, commercially frozen french fries typically contain all kinds of unhealthy trans-fats and preservatives. By spending just a little time in the fall, I can have delicious–and healthy–frozen french fries throughout the winter. When I take them from the freezer to fix for dinner, I cook them exactly the same way as the commercial variety. In other words, it’s just as convenient. Continue Reading
Category : Condiments, December, Make It Yourself, Recipes, Salads, Side Dishes, Vegetarian, Whatcom Locavore Basics
A couple of months ago when I was harvesting the last produce from my home garden, I brought in a cabbage which weighed ten pounds after I had removed the outer leaves and cleaned it up. Since this was about the third head of cabbage that size I’d had to deal with, not to mention a half dozen heads of more normal size, I decided it was time to learn to make sauerkraut. That way I could spread out eating the cabbage over several months. As it turned out, making sauerkraut is pretty simple. Continue Reading
