Locavore, Locavore, all the Way!

Today at Culina, we had our first (?) Market to Table Class and I think it went pretty well.  The concept is to take what you can pick up at the market, as in farmer's market and use it at home.  Pretty simple, although eating seasonally can be challenging and sometimes you can't get everything you need locally.  For instance, the garlic I picked up at the market was actually from California, but you do what you can. 

I picked up a chicken, eggs, squash, eggplant, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, blackberries, bread and cheese all from the market.  The only thing I had to supplement from the supermarket was my chicken broth, the lemons, butter, whipping cream and phyllo cups.  I had a few condiments, like sweet chili sauce, but larger markets might have Asian ingredients and I could have always made my own, but I digress.  

So, I prepared a minted cucumber salad (mint from my garden); goat cheese, leek and bacon tartlets (ok, so there's another thing, but I could have gotten local bacon had the street not been closed in front of the local meat guy); roast young chicken with rosemary and lemon (rosemary from my garden), ratatouille and a buttermilk biscuit blackberry shortcake type of thing with a cabernet chocolate sauce from the store where I was teaching the class. (supporting a local business woman).  I even picked up some local wine from the market.  So seasonal eating and local eating kind of overlap, and I felt pretty good about the choices I made today.  

As a special treat, I sauteed up some of my own green beans for them to try and also taught them how to roast beets.  That's right, beets!  From the market, since mine were so grotesquely huge and misshapen.  Most people dislike beets, but they've never had them like this!  Roasted beets are sweet like candy and everyone seemed to enjoy them greatly.  

I'm off to bed because I have to get up early to beat the heat so I can pick yet more beans. It looks like I haven't even been out there to pick beans (only YESTERDAY!!!!!!!)  It's pure bean madness is what it is!  Pretty soon I'm going to feel like the guy on Forrest Gump with the shrimp dishes, only mine will be beans! 

Bean salad, grilled beans, bean casserole, fried beans, bean pizza, pickled beans, beans and rice, bean soup, bean... Oh you get the idea!!

Happy gardening and happy cooking! Recipes to follow very soon!