Buying Local and Loving It

One of the benefits of buying local produce is that you're never quite sure beforehand about what might happen in your kitchen that week. It keeps things from being routine and boring and surely that's a good thing!

Yesterday morning, my darling man and I went to the local Farmer's Markets, which set off a chain of culinary events ....

Finding some beautiful strawberries at good prices not only meant fresh strawbs to eat (yum!), but four pots of strawberry jam, which should last us several months.

Purchasing fresh, sweet, juicy oranges gave rise to me juicing the old ones and cooking up six pots of passionfruit butter, something nearly-teen-boy loves on hot oat cakes. The recipe also used a dozen fresh local hens' eggs.

Duck eggs reminded me of the moist coconut cake that a neighbour used to make from my brother's spare duck eggs when we were teenagers, so of course, that had to be made as well.



Fresh fennel, artichokes and sweet potatoes were roasted and added to fresh fish to produce a lovely meal.

And another meal of a thick vegetable soup was graced by the addition of locally produced chorizo sausages sliced on top (which, incidentally, gave off no fat while cooking and tasted amazing) and slices of toasted gluten free Crunch bread (a seedy concoction held together with a bit of gluten free flour).

OK, some of the supplemental ingredients were not local, but the majority of ingredients were. My point is that by shopping this way, you eat with the seasons, stock the cupboard with the seasons, and generally eat much tastier and healthier food (well, except maybe for the added sugar.... ;)).

I hadn't planned on making jam or a cake this weekend, but it sure was fun. And the fresh produce - simply delicious!

love and light

naturewitch