Information and resources for eating only food locally produced in Whatcom County
Category : August, Recipes, Seasonal Menu Ideas, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
Last year we tried growing the Col White variety of potatoes in our garden, an early producing variety. They were creamy and delicious, and we really enjoyed experimenting with them in some of our favorite potato recipes.
Here’s a recipe my daughter created that is soul satisfying after being outdoors on a chilly fall day. Continue Reading
My daughter Joan created this delectable recipe, inspired by ingredients harvested from our home garden. Our garden is small, but we grow an amazing amount of food in it.
A caramelized onion topping is what really sets this recipe apart in terms of flavor. The sweetness of the caramelization and the slight bite of the garlic make a perfect taste combination with the creaminess of the Col White potato texture. Continue Reading
Category : About Food Sources, August, Grow Your Own
By Southern Foodways Alliance
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 : 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
There’s nothing like the taste of the first fresh apples of the season! We have an opportunity to taste a remarkable array of literally hundreds of apple varieties every year at the Cloud Mountain Farm Center’s Fall Fruit Festival.
Apples can be eaten and enjoyed in dozens of ways ranging from raw as a snack to cooked into delicious apples pies or tarts. A quick and easy way to add intense apple flavor to cooked dishes is to use fresh apple cider. Continue Reading
Sauerkraut and sausage are a long-time favorite flavor combination. Apples and sauerkraut* are an equally familiar and frequent combination. What if they were all combined, I wondered. Continue Reading
(See to the right and behind the bowl in the photo.) She said she had seen it used in Asian dishes.
At first I was baffled. The roots were so woody that I couldn’t imagine how to prepare them in a way that would make them easy to chew. Finally I found a suggestion online to pan fry the chopped roots to make them a little crispy, and then grind them up with a mortar and pestle. Continue Reading
Category : Main Dishes, Recipes, Side Dishes, Vegetarian
One of my favorite things to do when I’m cooking is to take a traditional food combination and change it up a little. In this dish, I used beets instead of beef to make a sturdy fall vegetable hash. Continue Reading
Category : Recipes, Salads, Vegetarian
Classic potato salad is one of the joys of hot weather meals, especially picnics. The creamy version has become as American as apple pie.
Early potatoes recently came into season, so I went to a nearby u-pick farm and dug up some perfect beauties. Potato Salad was the first thing I wanted to make with them. Continue Reading
People often think eating locally grown organic food is expensive. That can be true of some products, but there are nearly always ways to keep costs in line. For example, you can pick produce yourself and pay less. Many small farms in Whatcom County have u-pick operations. Continue Reading
Category : May, Seasonal Menu Ideas
As the weather warms (at least when we stand in direct sunlight out of the wind), fantasies of grilled food begins to appear in my mind. Fortunately we just purchased a new countertop grill, so there’s no need to wait until July. Now we can have grilled food at any time, so I decided to try a locavore hamburger.
Hamburger buns present a challenge to Whatcom locavores, though. The nearest commercially produced grain is grown in Skagit County, and they don’t produce very much. So what can we do? See my article on Food Purchasing Priorities. Continue Reading
Category : Recipes, Soups, Vegetarian
When you have a busy week ahead of you, it’s nice to cook something in enough quantity to use for a few days as leftovers. Soup is a perfect make-ahead dish, since the flavors of soup continue to blend once the dish is complete. As a result, the leftovers may be even more flavorful than the original servings.
This soup is fairly quick and easy to make, with a stick-to-your-ribs heartiness that is as welcome in a thermos on a chilly spring day as it is on the table. It’s an easy recipe to customize, too, by adding chopped greens, carrots, fresh herbs, or whatever local veggies you have in the fridge. Continue Reading
