While it’s dragging on there is no hope yet of new produce.  There is no asparagus or rhubarb.  The trees are still lacking buds and the garden is a dead wasteland.

So what do we eat during this strange in-between time?  The question is less about what and more about from where.

We eat from the pantry.  Now is the time of year when we look most to our shelves of preserved tomatoes and fruits.  We look at the last remaining winter squashes that have managed to last incredibly long.  We open up the chest freezer and pull out bags of strawberries and peaches to make smoothies.

Yes, we still shop at the market for the cellar vegetables that the farmers have preserved nicely, like beets, carrots, potatoes, onions, cabbage, etc.  And we are also quite happy to buy the greenhouse greens that make nice salads and remind us of the warmer days ahead.

But it’s the pantry that brings us joy.  All the hard work done in the fall makes for easy dinners now as we cook with the canned tomatoes and handfuls of frozen peppers.

Recently we tried a new recipe for Winter Squash and Apple soup and shared the recipe on Bailey’s blog.  It’s a great recipe, both sweet and savory.  It also makes great use of less-than-perfect apples, and would likely work with applesauce to.

There will be more winter squash this week as the plan is to use an acorn squash or butternut for two meals, which you can see below:

• Red Bean and Barley Soup
• Asparagus Quiche (using up the frozen asparagus), Salad
• OSG Quinoa Broccoli Wraps (from The Oh She Glows Cookbook)
• Winter Squash Soup, Fresh Sourdough, Salad
• White Bean Chili with Winter Squash (from Easy Everyday Slow Cooker Recipes), Sourdough or tortilla chips
• Mezze Night – something along the lines of fresh pitas, hummus, tzatziki, falafel, and possibly some shawarma…. We like getting carried away with some meals.

Linking up at Menu Plan Monday.  Check out more of our Locavore Menu Plans:

Fresh salsa is always the preferred option, assuming it’s made with delicious local ingredients.  Based on that restriction fresh salsa is generally limited to a span of about 3-4 months, with true pico de gallo salsa only happening for a couple of months.

So I’m okay with eating my canned salsa.  My whole family enjoys it and when we open a jar it typically gets eaten in one sitting.

Recently we found a game changer.

Apples.

Ontario’s apple growers are very adept at preserving their apples into the winter months allowing us consumers the opportunity to eat a delicious local fruit throughout these lean months.

Ontario farmers are always quite good at coaxing plants to grow in greenhouses and hothouses throughout these cold and sun-starved months.  The most recent discovery of ours was cilantro.

One day for lunch a couple weeks ago I decided to make a salsa with the apples and cilantro we had got at the Kitchener Market a few days before.  I through in a couple frozen jalapeños that we grew, some local red onion, a dash of lime juice (not local…) and dash of apple cider vinegar.  I think I could have left out the lime juice to stay pure to my local ideals but I wanted to have at least one classic flavor on board.

The result is an amazing, crunchy, flavorful salsa that really makes it easy to imagine the summer that is still a long ways off.  And thanks to the lime juice and vinegar the apples stay nice a fresh so this salsa can be saved in the fridge for several days without losing quality.

Now, I have to admit this is not the first time I put apples in a salsa – see The Pleaple have Spoken.  But it is the first time I’ve realized we could eat a fresh Pico de Gallo style salsa in the cruel cold heart of winter.  So, our lives have been changed, and for the better.

This post was originally written for Bailey’s Local Foods, which is where you can find the recipe.  However, a recipe is not super necessary for this salsa as you can simply experiment and find a ratio of ingredients that works for you!

The press is in the silver building on the left.
 The apples are rinsed first.

Up the shoot to the sprayer.

Getting sprayed off.

 Up a conveyor to be macerated (chopped)

Down from the chopper to the press.

The pressed cider is sent to a barrel to be measured to determine cost.

Finally it is bagged if you wish, or sent to your bucket.

Apples.  This has been an incredible apple season, so good that many are free (if you know where to look!).  My friend Jake and I got a ton of apples from his friend’s tree and I took several bushels of them out to a Mennonite farm called Rolling Acres that presses apples into juice.  You can have it bagged in 1 liter “milk bags” or just put it in a bucket, so we got a bit of both.   We actually ended up going twice, using pears that another friend had bought as seconds from a farm for really cheap to make one of the batches half pears.

On the left are canned jars of cider, the right is 23 liters of cider fermenting contentedly…

All in all we ended up after two trips with close to 150 liters of juice.  Jake and I canned about 40 liters of it, another 46 liters are fermenting in two large 23 liter carboys, another 30 or so are frozen, and the rest was consumed fresh.  Yes, it’s a lot of juice.  It’s also going to be a lot of hard cider for enjoying in the winter months.  And yet there are more apples.  So we’ve made applesauce.  In our basement there are now about 30 liters of applesauce.  It’s been fun, but it definitely gets exhausting.

Making applesauce.  Top the apples cook until softened, below my young assistant strains out the skins and cores using a food mill.

I’ve also done a lot of canning of tomatoes and salsa and think I’m done with that now, with around 30 liters of salsa, and about 40 half-liters of salsa.  You never know how long supplies will last but just see how far it goes and then plan accordingly the next year.  Jake has been even more prolific than I have, putting up probably about 200 jars (maybe he’ll comment with exact numbers, hopefully I’m not too far off the number…).

We definitely need more shelf space.

Thus, no recipe post this time, just saying I’ve been busy getting ready for winter.  I will return with some recipes in the next few weeks, but in the meantime I’ve still got a bit more preparing to do….

This post is linked at The Homeacre Hop.

After returning to town we didn’t have time to hit up all of our favorite sources for fresh local foods, but we did find Ontario peaches and plums at the grocery store (they seemed to be from the Niagara region) and they were delicious! 

As it were, I was craving salsa (this is pretty much a daily craving) but we were out and the garden has been quite slow to provide any ripe tomatoes.  Undeterred, I set about chopping up plums and peaches and then saw some of the apples our friend had shared with us after a local picking trip.  I figured the more fruit the better so chopped them up and tossed them in as well.  With cilantro, jalapeños, and cubanelle peppers from our garden and garlic and onions from the market garden where I volunteer the salsa came together quite nicely as a pico de gallo of sorts and it was sooooo good.  I’m going to have to make more as soon as I have sufficient peaches.

Here are some good names for this salsa:

• Pleaple de Gallo
• Plumappeach Salsa
• Peacho de Plappo
• Peach-n-Plum-n-Apple Salsa (hmm, too obvious)

I think that the pleaple have spoken, so Pleaple de Gallo it is.  And keep in mind that a fruit salsa really just needs a good sweet fruit and the peppers to become a salsa, so feel free to substitute any fruits you have or leave out any you lack.

“Mise en place”

Pleaple de Gallo (Plum, Peach, and Apple Salsa)

Ingredients:

• 4-6 ripe (but not overripe) peaches, diced
• 3-4 plums (it’s okay if they are less ripe, as they will be less messy), diced
• 3-4 small apples, diced
• 2-5 jalapeños (start with less, reserving the seeds to lower the heat, and add more as you sample the salsa), finely minced
• 1-2 sweet peppers, diced
• 1 small onion, finely minced
• 1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• Cilantro, chopped (if yours is going to seed include the seeds, aka, coriander)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Dash of lime or cider vinegar

Combine the ingredients, sample and adjust the levels of spicy, sweet, and salty until you achieve something that you want to gobble down immediately!  Serve with chips or over rice and beans or inside a taco or burrito or on top of an omelet or in a sandwich or on top of cheesy grits, I could go on….

* This post is linked to Party Wave Wednesday at HolisticSquid.com.

Spring?  Maybe it has arrived.  We feel it a little bit more each day.  In terms of planning our menu for the week  Cinco de Mayo should be an obvious meal choice (if it’s not obvious, it’s going to Mexican!).  However, I will still do my best to utilize local ingredients, which actually should be pretty easy, other than avocados, lime, and tequila….    Other than that this week is a little bit difficult to plan for.  One problem is that some of our favorite winter storage vegetables (namely the leeks) have been disappearing from the market the last few weeks.  That would be okay if it were accompanied by the arrival of Spring vegetables… but it hasn’t been!  We’ve been waiting for an abundance of Spring greens but since they haven’t really arrived we have been somewhat unsure what to plan!  So, this week’s plans for now are going to include things that we can plan on—cabbage and root vegetables like potatoes and beets!  Oh, one more thing, the Beet and Red Cabbage Salad from last week’s menu turned out great!

Desserts – I don’t plan desserts, they are just whatever sweet treat we have made recently, but these Chocolate Diablo Cookies from Chatelaine Magazine are amazing!

Taking a break from meal planning…

Also, an apology:  last week we didn’t get to two of our meals… so we are eating them this week (which means that two days in this menu are identical to last week’s)!  On Wednesday we didn’t make the planned meal because I didn’t feel like cooking… that was the day I ended up baking with My Assistant all day (yes, I realize this was ironic).  Thursday I had a disaster (which I will write about in a day or two)….    And I’d love to hear from you if you’re trying any of these dishes, or what local foods you’ve been enjoying lately!   Share a link to a recipe that’s local for you below!  Try to think of what you could do for 100 Mile Monday this week….

Ok, the plan for the week:

100 Mile Monday requirements for the meal or recipe you link:

• All produce, grains, dairy and meat are from < 100 miles away.

My meal posted below meets the requirements.  The one thing that I really couldn’t get locally was a good type of nut.  Ontario seems to have peanuts, but I have not yet found any good tree nuts like walnuts locally.  I hope to eventually find some, but have only lived here for 3 months!  So yes, I used walnuts in my dish, but not very many!   All my produce, grains, dairy, and meat were from <100 miles away.

The Meal:

Our meat for this week was the last piece from our small box that we got from Vibrant Farms through Bailey’s.  On Thursday I cooked it as a pot roast in the crockpot with potatoes, parsnips, onions, carrots, and radishes.  I also made 4 loaves of whole wheat sourdough ciabatta, and my new favorite beet and apple salad! Oh man, I know I’ve been eating beets all winter but they keep getting better.  The beet and apple salad idea came from Food & Wine but I modified the recipe a bit, partly because for starters I didn’t have pistachios and didn’t feel like buying them.  I’ve seen plenty of salad recipes that feature beets and apples (my own included) but many were more complicated or used spinach (which I rarely have on hand at this time of year).

At the very last minute that evening we invited the neighbors over and the meal turned out to be a great one for sharing!  Everyone enjoyed it and even though it was a huge crockpot full of pot roast there wasn’t too much leftover.  We had 3 of the 4 ciabattas too so I’d say they were well-received.  Oh and the beet & apple salad?  There was none left!

Pot Roast

When I make pot roast in the crock pot I just add whatever wintery vegetables I have available, a piece or two of local meat, some garlic, Italian seasonings, salt and pepper, a bit of red wine, and water and let it cook all day.  Things usually turn out quite tasty so I haven’t done much to improve upon this.  However, here is a link to a standard pot roast recipe.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Ciabatta

I’m not ready to do a recipe for this yet because I wasn’t completely satisfied with how it turned out.  Bread is tricky, especially if you have little experience.  Therefore I don’t want to give a half-hearted recipe and tell you to experiment.   Until my recipe seems completely replicable here is a link that looks good and is similar to what I did (I was working with the knowledge of several non-whole wheat recipes and also sort of making things up).  I kept track of what I did so I can improve my own recipe and post it in the future.

Holy Cow Vegan’s recipe looks straight-forward and successful, with very nice bubbles!

http://www.holycowvegan.net/2012/03/whole-wheat-sourdough-ciabatta.html

My Favorite Beet and Apple Salad

This is adapted from Food and Wine’s recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4-6 medium beets, cooked/roasted
• 1-2 apples, sliced into wedges
• ½ cup walnuts or pecans
• ¼ – ½ cup goat cheese, crumbled
• 3 Tbs. oil
• 2 Tbs. apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbs. lemon juice
• 1 Tbs. horseradish or horseradish sauce
• Salt and pepper

Put a tablespoon of oil in a baking dish (I used Corningware because it has a lid), roll the beets around to coat with the oil, cover and bake at 375 for 1 hour.  Remove the dish and leave the lid on allowing the beets to slowly cool*.  Peel the beets, and then slice them into pieces about 1cm thick and wide.

Careful, after 1 hour in the oven these are a little hot!

If you like your walnuts sweet and crunchy you can add a small amount of butter (1 Tbs.), honey (1 Tbs.), and salt (dash) to the walnuts and lightly candy them, by cooking over medium heat until they are just starting to turn black.  Remove the pan from heat and allow to cool.  They should be crunchy!

Make the dressing by thoroughly mixing the oil (your choice, preferably local), lemon juice (this will never be local here) horseradish, and a dash of salt and pepper.

Toss the beets and apples with the dressing and top with the walnuts and crumbled goat cheese.  To crumble goat cheese from a “log” just unwrap one end and twist a fork into the cheese allowing the cheese to crumble onto the top of the salad.  Drizzle any extra dressing on top and serve or refrigerate until dinner.

The second part of the the meal, Rösti, I have cooked once before and it was pretty simple, although a bit stressful to do the flip.  Since there is little holding together the entire “pancake” it is important to be cautious when flipping it.  One possibility would be to make several smaller pancakes but then would they really still be Rösti?

Finally I added a salad to the meal because I forgot to make it on Monday!  Well, I didn’t forget entirely, I realized right before we were about to eat that I had forgot so I just figured I’d tack it on to today’s meal.  (Monday got a bit disorganized because my Young Assistant had his first swim lesson ever at 6:30 and we debated about whether or not to eat before or after and things got forgotten in all the newness of the situation).

Memories of Winter Cabbage & Apple

Ingredients:

• 2 Tb. oil
• 1 Tb. fennel seeds
• 1 Italian sausage
• 1 medium onion, sliced into thin wedges
• 1 apple, sliced in thin wedges
• ½ large cabbage or 1 whole small cabbage, outer leaves and core removed, sliced into thin pieces (red cabbage will be prettier but is not essential)
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar (you can use more if you want it more tangy)
• Salt and pepper (you decide the quantities!)

Heat the oil in a large pan or pot over medium-high heat and add the fennel seeds and sausage.  When the sausage has begun browning remove it and cut it into small thin pieces.  Return the sausage to the pot and add the onion.  Let onion soften and then add the rest of the ingredients, stirring to mix all the ingredients together.  Lower the heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes.  Now make your Rösti!

(I felt disappointed with the appearance of the cabbage dish, but not with it’s taste–it was really tasty!  I just think that next time I’ll follow Jamie Oliver’s advice and only use a red cabbage, as opposed to my mixture of a savoy and red).

So… the colors  and texture of the savoy cabbage aren’t quite right, I should have only used the red cabbage. Regardless of the appearance everything tasted awesome! (I just won’t be getting any lucrative cookbook deals with this one…)

Rösti

The best recipe I’ve found for Rösti is from Fine Cooking.  It’s a very thorough explanation of how to make it.  My super-short version of the recipe is:

1)   Get several potatoes and grate them (I used a food processor).

2)   Heat several tablespoons of butter in a pan and fry the potatoes, stirring a few times for a the first few minutes.

3)   Press the potatoes into a large pancake with a spatula and cook for 10-15 minutes.  Then flip it!  Cook the Rösti another 5-10 minutes and it’s ready to go.  (I topped mine with shredded cheddar and broiled it until the cheese was starting to bubble).

4)   Top with sour cream, or ketchup (that’s why our boys like), or salsa, or anything else that sounds good!

My goal for next time I make Rösti is to get a more golden color, but the flavor was great!