Brazos Locavores- December Field Trip Announcement

The Brazos Locavores have linked up with the Brazos Valley Farmers' Market's newest vendor - Wild Type Ranch - who made their debut at the market during our October 31 Halloween Celebration.

Wild Type Ranch produces sustainably-raised beef and veal in Cameron, TX, about an hour north of Bryan and distributes throughout Central Texas through a variety of farmers' markets and subscriptions to various drop-off locations.

Founded in 2005, Wild Type Ranch is composed of an amazing 333 acres, but what they pride themselves on is quality. "The founding principle of Wild Type Ranch is respect for all life. We believe in responsible stewardship of the animals, the land, and the world which sustains us."

The grand tour will include a wagon ride through the pasture, views of newborn calves (due in the weeks before our trip), the opportunity to hand feed "cow candy" to some of the pasture residents, a presentation on breeding and maintaining healthy cows, then back to the workshop for questions and refreshments (including sample of their beef products, hot off the fire).

NOTE to VEG*Ns: Even if you're not a meat eater (I'm not either), this is a great opportunity to enjoy fresh air, a wagon ride through the country, and the magic of newborns (again, some of the momma cows are due to give birth in the weeks before our arrival...)

Excited? Here's the scoop:

Who: Everyone! The trip (as always) is free and don't forget to bring the kids!

What: December Field trip to Wild Type Ranch

When: Sunday, December 13 (1PM - 5PM)

Where: Meet-up at Brazos Natural Foods and carpool out to the farm

RSVP: to Heather at brazoslocavores@gmail.com by Wednesday, December 9th so that I can print enough driving directions and alert the farm to the number of visitors.

For more information on the farm, visit their website. See you there!

Culinary Indecision

Time for lunch... if the photo here looks a little odd, it's because I couldn't quite figure out what I wanted for lunch. In the end, a little bit of everything got tossed in...

• sweet potato (backyard garden)
• green onions (backyard garden)
• green peppers (backyard garden)
• mushrooms (grown 40 miles away)
• leftover corn in the fridge (farmers' market, then I canned it over the summer)
• leftover brown rice in the fridge (grown 100 miles away)
• leftover steamed green beans (backyard garden)
• peanut (not local, but I don't know - it sounded good)

The fresh veggies were sauteed in a little olive oil (farmers' market) and salt before I tossed in the already cooked leftovers to heat through. I obviously didn't have a theme (for goodness sake, I couldn't even decide on a starch so I did BOTH rice and potatoes), but I have to say, it totally worked.

Excuse me while I finish gobbling it up...

Resale Heaven - Shopping SGF Style

Fellow SGF-ers I have shopped. It has been 16 months since my last clothing purchase...

Until I actually looked at the blog archives, I had no idea it had been that long. But I'm not one for clothes shopping as

1. I don't like spending money,
2. Buying food is WAY more fun than buying clothes
3. I have a tendency to get frustrated when nothing fits quite right - of course, part of this may be that I shop second hand so it's a bit of an treasure hunt to find what you're looking for ...

But as I've been biking more and more, including to places where at the end of the bike ride I need to look decent enough to do a presentation on local food, I've been in need of finding some clothes (particularly pants) that look good and are bike worthy.

Jackpot (you may need to click on the photo to get a better view)!

My first stop was the Hospice Thrift Shop where I found

1. That gorgeous red sweater ($6), and
2. The 3/4 sleeve blouse ($3)

They don't just have great clothes, though, they have a little bit of everything. It was a great store, so if you're local be sure to check it out, not to mention it's in support of a great charity!

My next stop was to Resale Trends, another used clothing store not far from the Hospice Thrift Shop. The owner is a really nice lady from Denmark. She noticed I was wearing a bike helmet and she was telling me all about biking in Denmark. Soon we were talking about recycling, enjoying good food, and I (of course) invited her to the farmers' market on Saturday (always the local food salesman...)

Anyway, back to clothes. I really hit the jackpot here! I found

1. A pair of long kaki pants that roll up and button into capris ($5.50) and PERFECT for biking
2. A pair of tan capris ($4) - also PERFECT for biking
3. A denim sleeveless blouse ($5) - looked good with the pants....?

Both pants fit like they were made for me and because they're capri style, they won't get tied up or greased up in my bike chain, AND I'll still look good (ok, decent - there's not much I can do about helmet head) when I get where I'm going.

What an awesome and hugely successful trip and all for about $25. Cha-ching!

Enjoying the Harvest

I'm feeling a little under the weather this morning, so other than a quick bike ride to the library downtown, I'm sticking close to home for some much needed rest.

I did manage to harvest an amazing amount of produce from the backyard over the last few days (most of it this morning). I brought in 7 cups of basil (which was quickly turned into pesto and is now tucked into the freezer) over the weekend. And this morning? Check this out...

This first photo (though it's hard to gage depth) is a total of 47 green peppers. Yikes! Even I can't eat 47 green peppers before more are ready to be harvested (I probably have another 50-75 that aren't quite large enough to harvest), plus, I already had about a dozen in the fridge that I harvested over the weekend. Needless to say, I had to do something.

About 30 of them were sliced in half, cored, and tucked into ziplock bags to freeze until I need them for soups or stir-fries long after the plants have been composted. The rest are tucked in the fridge for meals this week and for anyone who happens to stop by for some (I've already called my Dad and let him know there are plenty peppers for the taking).

Then there are the green beans. I don't know if you can tell how many are in the photo. It's about a pound (maybe a little more), and I'm harvesting that many every 2 days. That's not true. I'm harvesting slightly more than what's in the photo. Some of them don't quite make it to the house. What can I say? I LOVE fresh green beans!

Last, but certainly not least, I harvested several handfuls of sage. Now that the weather is cooling down, I'm drinking multiple cups of hot sage tea every day and this will keep me in hot tea for the better part of two weeks (maybe...).

Mmmm. There's nothing like hot tea and a good book, especially when you're not feeling so well. Guess what I'll be doing today...

Have a great week everyone!

Local Diet Update - November 8, 2009

I totally skipped the farmers' market yesterday morning, but I had a good excuse... the Brazos Locavores November field trip to the TAMU Pecan Orchard (more about that here). That doesn't mean we're low on local foods this week, though. Far from it!

I'm harvesting about 1-1/2 pounds of green beans a week, about 2 dozen green and red bell peppers, green onions, sage, basil, lettuce, and then of course I have a hall closet full of sweet potatoes that were harvested in October.

As if that wasn't enough... I have brown rice, soup, pasta sauce, corn, honey, and wheat flour in the pantry (all of it local); local eggs, carrots, red potatoes, mushrooms, pears, and grapefruit in the fridge; and now, thanks to the trip to the pecan orchard yesterday, 9 pounds of fresh (harvested last week) pecans in the freezer.

Yeah, I'm thinking one week away from the market won't starve us, but I did miss visiting with all the market vendors...

So, what's on the menu this week? I'm thinking lots of fruit and nuts for breakfast, sweet potato stir fry for lunch, and rice and veggies for dinner. It's November, but eating local here in Central Texas is still easy-cheesy! Gotta love it!

Brazos Locavores - Visit to the TAMU Pecan Orchard

Since the moment I took over coordinating events for the Brazos Locavores last December, I've had my little heart set on visiting the Texas A&M University Pecan Orchard during harvest (Nov-Dec here in Central Texas).

Today, after 2 years of buying my local pecans through the Horticulture Department, my pecan dreams came true. The Locavores visited the orchard itself and it was an absolutely incredible trip. Leo Lombardini, Assistant Professor of Horticulture Sciences at TAMU, pecan physiologist, and overseer of the orchard gave us a 1-1/2 hour tour and presentation on the ins and out of pecans - from planting to harvest. And it couldn't have been more fascinating.

The amazing thing is that the orchard receives no monetary support from the University. All the work is done from money earned from sales of pecans, and most recently, from a generous Houstonian who has donated 50,000 a year for 3 years to help fund the expansion and research for the orchard. Funds that have helped them plant 400 new trees!

The orchard hosts more than 30 different varieties of pecans, but they harvest for sale mostly Pawnee, Desirables, and Stuarts. Research continues, however, into new varieties, searching for perfect nut size and disease resistance. Lombardini shared with us one of the orchard's ongoing research projects into root growth, as they take underground photos of root development to determine when roots become active and what is the best time to fertilize. Just across the street is the USDA hosting one of only two pecan breeding programs in the world and some of the varieties come from this very orchard!

Of course, at the end of the field trip, we had an opportunity to sample fresh pecans. In fact, they were some of the more than 5,000 pounds harvested just last week. Now THAT's fresh! Harvesting isn't over, however. The Pawnees and Desirables have been harvested, but the Stuarts will be ready in December.

I picked up 9 pounds all by myself (much to the amazement of pretty much everyone else), stocking up so that I'd have a great source of locally grown protein for months to come. But it's certainly not too late to get your share of the local pecans. The TAMU Horticulture club sells them in the Horticulture Building (west campus) every Friday afternoon until they run out (mid December?).

Thanks to everyone who came today and a special thanks to Claire, Britteny, Kelsey, Courtney, and Tyra (TAMU Commun-ications Students) who volunteered to coordinate the November event.

For more information on the Brazos Locavores, visit our website or for field trip announcement right in your inbox, subscribe to our Google Group.

Hope to see you at the next field trip!