With all the local goodies in my refrigerator, who could pick just one thing? So this week's One Local Summer Challenge meal was a whole plate worth of local goodies. The green beans were picked up from a road side stand on our way back from Arkansas last weekend. They were steamed with just a touch of salt - DELICIOUS! Next to the beans is the potato salad I made from our local farmers market red potatoes and onions. And the small cup is what was left of that wonderful vegetable bean soup I made this past weekend to try out my pressure canner for the first time. The soup contains onions, green pepper, mushrooms, potatoes, zucchini, navy beans, black beans, purple hull peas, salt, pepper, and copious amounts of olive oil. The soup is super heavy on the beans, but it's fabulous!
Revealing My Sources
The potatoes, onions, zucchini, purple hull peas, and green pepper came from our local farmers market. The mushrooms came from the grocery store, but they are still local (picked about 40 miles from town). The green beans came from a road side stand we passed on our drive home last week. The black and navy beans both came from DiIorio Farm and Market (40 miles south of town). The only non-local items were the salt, pepper, mayo (in the potato salad) and olive oil.
For More Information
For more recipes and ideas on local meals, check out the One Local Summer Challenge website (hosted by Farm to Philly) and see what others are eating (weekly OLS posts are made to theFarm to Philly website on Tuesdays of each week).
If you're in the BCS area and are looking for local suppliers here in town, visit my post here, where I list sources for all kinds of goodies.
Happy (and mindful) eating!
7 comments:
Everything looks yummy!
That whole meal sounds fantastic! Especially that bean and veggie loaded soup, oh my goodness - AND the green beans? Your killin' me here!
Does your soup freeze just as well as it cans? I recall you saying that you would freeze batches of soup, and I was wondering what veggies could be used that don't get a funky texture after being frozen. I would love to put up a few containers of soup for the winter using the local goodies available right now, but honestly, the only soup I've ever made was black bean soup, so I don't really know what to do.
Thanks again for the drool worthy post, now I'm hungry, and darn it, my granola bar does not hold a candle to the meal you just showed us. :-(
Thanks, Bobbi!
jennifer - the soup WAS really good. Gonna do that again for sure! You know, I haven't had any trouble freezing soups at all - rice, beans, potatoes, squash, corn - it all freezes just fine as far as I can tell. I usually let the soup cool completely, then put it in the quart size yogurt containers I collected before I started making my own (they stack well in the freezer). If you let them defrost in the fridge, give it a couple days or if you store them in glass, you can defrost in the microwave. It's super easy.
And the best part is you never worry about food going bad. If you have too many leftovers at the end of the week before your next farmers market run, clear the fridge with a pot of soup and freeze it for those weeks when you're too low on veggies.
As far as what to put in soup. I've never followed a recipe. I usually start out sauteing (I use LOTS of olive oil) a few veggies in the bottom of the soup pot (onion, potatoes, green pepper, and/or mushrooms - anything you would normally saute) then chop up whatever else you have sitting around (squash, zucchini, tomatoes, herbs, corn, beans, etc) then fill the pot up with liquid (straight water or stock from steaming or cooking other veggies). Toss in some salt and pepper and let it simmer for about 1-1/2 to 2 hours on the stove. Add extra salt to taste.
Use lots of different veggies or only a few (in the winter it's just cabbage, potatoes and onions). Just use whatever you have on hand. It's super easy and tastes better than ANYTHING you can buy in the store. Hope you give it a try!
Looks delicious, and happy last day at work!
Thanks, Theresa! I got to talk to almost all the people I wanted to see before I left and ended it with a nice lunch with a good friend of mine. Ahh. Let the healing (and the adventure) begin!!!!
Nice work!
I'm hosting a "Farmer's Market Report" Mr. Linky. Maybe you'd like to submit this post? Come on over and check it out!http://toeverymeal.blogspot.com/2008/08/farmers-market-report-aug-16th.html
Kerry - actually, I report on our farmers market usually on Mondays. I'll check out your site. Thanks for the invite!
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