With apologies to Titian.
Last night, I dreamed about apples — tart, juicy Granny Smiths; shiny Macintoshes; Golden Delicious with the mellow taste of autumn beneath their skins. I dreamed of glistening chunks of apple piled on a plate, just waiting to be speared with my fork. They looked delicious. And then…and then…
I woke up. It was Day 6 of the 2008 Eat Local Challenge, and if there are apples grown within my 200-mile range northward from the Gulf coastline, I haven’t found them. Nor bananas. Nor rice. What I HAVE found in generous abundance are sweet potatoes. I got out of bed and had a plump, baked sweet potato for breakfast.
As a longtime vegetarian with a big organic garden, I didn’t realize how dramatically my diet would change with the onset of the October challenge month. Before last week, the major part of my daily food intake consisted of fresh fruits and vegetables, grains and soy. I occasionally ate bread, and my moderate dairy consumption came mostly in the form of homemade yogurt and cheese. I drank lots of juices.
Now, under the 200-mile rule, most of those fruits and vegetables are off limits. It’s planting time in our subtropical gardening zone, so all our winter greens and cole crops are mere seedlings this month. Kale, bless its fast-growing heart, will be ready to start eating next week. But the rest — four types of lettuces, three types of cabbage, the broccoli, cauliflower, collards, field peas and butternut squash — are weeks and weeks away from harvest. So, I’m eating LOTS of whole-grain bread and LOTS of our homemade dairy, which has been an unpleasant surprise to my fruit-and-veggie-based digestive tract.
Suddenly, shopping for vegetables has taken on a treasure hunt aspect. My Saturday trek to the weekly grower’s market was disappointing (plenty of candles, flowers, handmade soaps and honey, few edibles) until we spotted a table selling eggpant. Yay! And a pint jar of blueberry preserves from a neighboring county. Yesssss! I found some leathery-looking Alabama green beans in a neighborhood market this weekend, and — hallelujah! — some fresh squash from a grower in Lucedale, Mississippi (50 miles from home). I discovered on Saturday night that tiny red potatoes, roasted in the oven, taste even better when they’re seasoned with thankfulness that the soil they were pulled from lies only a little way down US Highway 98. Like pieces in a culinary jigsaw puzzle, we fit together a half-dozen zucchini here and a handful of green tomatoes there, as we find them. I’m learning that practically every item in the average grocery store — roughly 50,000 different items — has been hauled here from somewhere far away. I’m learning to be flexible. I’m learning a deep appreciation for simple meals.
But man, oh, man. An apple sure would taste good.
no apples!!!!! i’m truly sorry. we picked apples this weekend. our thoughts are with you.
That’s what I call a callenge! The bright side is that maybe after this, local farmers will start growing a larger range of vegetables and other edibles? Have you tried searching at Internet about where to find what you want? Stupid question, right? :P
Kisses and keep it up!
Nydi.
Oh my, I’m afraid we’d starve to death here in Colorado if I tried to do this! But I will investigate out of pure curiosity just to see what can be found. Unlike you, I’m in a cold zone and my morning temp was in the 20’s!
Haha! I love the picture you put in this post!
We have soooo many apples growing around here. I wish I could share with you, but unless I walk the apples to you… :)
Val, this is Mary from the soap booth at Cathedral Square. We tried selling at the Pecan Festival in Richton the week before market started. The folks in the booth next to us were from Chatom and had home-canned stuff. Through a combination of buying & bartering we ended up bringing many of their wares home – home-canned peaches, salsa, muscadine preserves, blueberry preserves. This is all “extra” (we won’t eat all of it) and I would love to share some of our bounty to help you in your quest. Drop me an email if you would like any/all and I can bring it Saturday. BTW, we also have (canned here from local produce) pickled beets and brandied figs if either strikes your fancy. Let me know!
If someone mails you apples as a present, do you have to refuse them (or store them for later use)? You are amazing, I could never do this.
Hi everybody!
Thanks, Trish and Nydia, for all your encouragement!
Jeannie, I have no earthly idea what people in cold climates do for local produce when the growing season is over — despite the abundance of garden pests, I’m glad we can grow things year-round. Temperatures in the 20s in October …. brrrrr!
Emma and Karen, you are both very sweet to be concerned with my current state of apple deficiency. I’ll survive, I’m sure. But I know what I’m going to eat first thing on Nov. 1.
Mary, thanks very much! I will take you up on a jar of that salsa… see you at the market on Saturday!
People in cold climates overwinter their seasonal produce. Root celllars, clamps (basically a pit with a cover, covered with bales of straw), even leaving root vegetables unharvested until needed (cover the rows with mulch so the veggies don’t freeze)
Val, I’ll see you Saturday and I’ll bring the salsa!
I found out there are a few things available through the middle of October–which means the end is in sight for our Farmers Markets for the year. But in season we have FANTASTIC peach crops in Palisades, and Rocky Ford Cantaloupes and other pick your own farms so I would like to get out there next year and get some of that Colorado harvest. I should add that I live up in the mountains at 8100′ so what Mary J suggested doesn’t work real well up here. What the elk don’t eat up before snow falls will be covered in feet of snow…not inches! You either have to grow things indoors, can them or buy what the grocery store has. We’re not allowed to do any outside watering in our area for any purpose whatsoever–even rain barrels are illegal! To say it’s a challenge is an understatement–ha ha.
I hope this doesn’t come across as gloating, but we are knee-deep in apples this year in South Dakota. I went picking with a friend today–even shinnied up the tree a-ways, to get some of the nicest fruits. I can’t remember the last time I climbed a tree!
Now they’re in the stockpot with some miscellaneous dried fruits, brandy, red wine, and honey, soaking up the juices and awaiting the canner in the morning.
Next up–pears. H. (my Perfect Man) has a friend whose trees are bearing plentifully.
Hope you get something besides sweet potatoes soon!