You will find some notes below from our suppliers:
-an apology from Meals that Heal regarding expiry dates
-an excerpt from Debbie's email to Rachael about her love of Salad greens and asking what you want them to plant for next year (tell us!)
-a note from Lindsay regarding sulphites in some of his items
I'm working on the order form so that it will be ready for Saturday. Time flies!
Rachael
Hi Folks,
I wish all the people who say that it is hard to eat local in Ontario in the off-season would have seen the piles of amazing food at the gym last Monday. WOW!
We are sorry for the chaos on Monday. We realized too late that we did not have enough people power to get all of that food ready. It was more food than we've ever moved in one day. We had over 30 pre-pack orders which need a lot of people power to get ready. We're still trying to figure out if we can make this pre-order idea a sustainable reality. I think we need to ask the suppliers to drop off their food earlier in the day to give us more time to organize it before you come. So, we're still learning. Thank you for your understanding and good humour on Monday.
You hear how local eating is going at my house a lot and sometimes from Rachael. I thought it'd be great to hear from some of you about how the local eating is going. Send us a few paragraphs about what's happening in your kitchen and head as you are working to eat more local foods. Here are a few thoughts Ann Liebau wrote down last week.
So, what have we been eating lately? Whatever it is, it's been coming from our fridge or basement, freezer or pantry. I've rarely been to the grocery store, except for a quick run for milk or bread.
Tonight we had borscht (saleable to the kids only by the dollop of sour cream on top). For additional buy-in, and as a help, I also asked my boys to go out to the herb garden and see if they could find any parsley and chives to snip. They did. Who would have thought we'd still be picking fresh herbs in mid-November?
We also had grilled cheese with the last of our TREMENDOUS slab of organic cheddar (more of it is still grated and frozen) on City Café seven-grain bread. I really must try making ketchup next year, we go through so much of it. "Company muffins" (Simply in Season) for dessert, made with almost everything local: grated apple, carrot, flour, eggs, flax, oatmeal.
I was wishing I'd left some rosemary in the ground last week when I was roasting one of those lovely whole chickens with potatoes, carrots and onions.
We made a great meal of quesadillas using some of the leftover chicken, a bag of kidney beans I'd pulled out of the freezer (I've started freezing small bags of cooked beans, to approximate the convenience of cans), leftover squash mixed with grated cheddar, sour cream, home canned salsa, and those wonderful tortillas. The inspiration came from Deceptively Delicious.
My husband thought I was off my rocker buying 30 lb of peas last summer. He now thinks I'm smart like a fox (his words). We make wonderful pea soup with both split and frozen peas (I add the frozen peas at the last minute, just before blending, to give it a sweetness and beautiful green colour). We also throw in carrots and potatoes, plus swiss chard, asparagus, or any other veggie I'd have trouble passing off otherwise.
Speaking of greens, I'm happy to have bags of pureed blobs of various greens in my freezer. I'll admit I'm not above sneaking extra veggies into my kids. Green blobs go into any soup. Sometimes I'll thaw a green blob and mix it with pesto for my kids. They don't bat an eye.
My husband is desperate for me to mention how disappointed we are (he is) in the large batch of tomato sauce we made following Barbara Kingsolver's recipe from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It had cinnamon and ... maybe cloves? I don't dislike it, but it's definitely different. Luckily we made several other types of tomato sauce as well.
Just finished canning applesauce, my son's favourite school lunch dessert. We also use it with yogurt and a drizzle of maple syrup to top oatmeal pancakes, our breakfast of choice. We make a big batch and always have some on hand in the freezer for weekday mornings.
I've been keeping better notes each year about my local food initiatives. It's hard to remember otherwise, how much we ordered, what we made, when we ran out of something crucial like blueberries.
Suffice it to say, our pantry and freezer are getting fuller every year. I feel slightly guilty about having kept our old fridge that was destined for the landfill, but it's just so handy during the growing season to throw flats of strawberries into. I swore I'd unplug it after we emptied out all the extra root vegetables last fall, but it never quite happened. We're still finishing our Palatine pears, they've kept beautifully.
Man, this eating is fun. My kids are loving the granola bars from Lindsay's. I about swooned over his brownies. The lemon lentil soup from Meals that Heals was so nice. Just a touch of tangy and so satisfying. It inspired me to find a favourite lentil soup recipe.
Talk to you next week when the order form opens again,
Nina
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From Caroline (Meals that Heal)
Dear Bailey's Local Foods Members,
It was great to meet many of you this Monday. We are thrilled to be part of this ordering program and are grateful for your patronage. The feedback we received was so kind and positive! We thank you for your kind words.
It seems that although Caroline is the only one who has recently given birth to a baby, she is not the only one suffering from baby brain, that is, making clumsy mistakes. Namely, it has come to our attention that some of you ordered shepherd's pies and the labels list expiry dates such as April 2009 and August 2009. This is a printing error. The dates should read 2010. We assure you that these pies were freshly made for your order using high quality local ingredients and are more than safe for consumption! (To be sure, we make mistakes but would never sell old products). We sincerely apologize for this oversight. It will not happen again folks!
That being said, should there ever be any concerns regarding any of our products, please contact us right away at the number listed on the label. We are always trying to improve upon our products and services, and therefore welcome any of your comments. During business hours, there is always someone available to respond to our customers.
Again, sincerest apologies for the oversight.
Best Regards,
Caroline
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From Debbie (Kingwood):
I have to get back into the feel of knowing how much spinach to harvest to get the qtys, but that will come quickly!
I try to harvest it as close to the time of delivery to have a "fresh" out of the garden salad! so that's why I am struggling giving you an exact amount at the start of this growing season.
MMM talking about the spinach it's making me want to have a salad, oh I can't wait for the greens, my favourite is the arugula. Last winter there was many times after harvesting and packaging the spinach and greens I would sit down late at night just to have a salad before going to bed.
Anyways sorry enough side tracking.
Yes I look forward to harvesting the spinach for you.
One last thing, I/we want to thank both you and Nina for your support this past year in bringing local organic food to our community. We look forward to continuing to work with you next year, and would like to connect with you for planning crops and things the customers are looking for that may not have been available this year.
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From Lindsay (Lindsay's Bakery):
We found that the Coconut Macaroons and the Granola Bars and Granola contain sulphites. The sulphites are components of the coconut, ginger and golden raisins. They will be labelled in the future.
Nina and Rachael
Bailey's Local Foods
baileyslocalfoods.ca
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