Saturday, September 11, 2010

Bailey's Buying Club - Ordering is now open for Friday, September 17th 2010

Click http://baileyslocalfoods.ca/ordering to log-in and order. Ordering closes at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, September 14th.
Please be sure to read the wavier on our website when you log in. It reminds you that items placed your shopping cart are automatically saved (there is no 'checkout' button).

Items you order this week are to be picked up at First United Church on Friday, September 10th between 3:30 PM and 7:00 PM. Ordering will end on Tuesday, September 14th, 2010 at 8:00 PM

***Please note - We will be holding weekly pickups on FRIDAYS until October 22nd this year. After that we will be changing the pickup day to MONDAYS until May. Ordering will be every two weeks or so until the end of December and every few weeks after that. *** Schedule to follow!
We will have a pickup on Friday October 8th (before Thanksgiving weekend), but will not hold a pickup on Friday, October 15th
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Today we'll start with a message from Paul Bowman who is one of our organic farmers.

He hand wrote this note and sent it yesterday with his produce:
To our valued customers -
It is our continued pleasure to provide you and your families with quality organic foods. We welcome your opinions and feedback on any of the products that you receive.

As the summer heat had come in August, the corn earworm moth visits the silk of growing corn, which now results in some worms (actually larva) in the tips of some ears of corn. We have made considerable effort to remove most of these, but may have missed some. If you take a knife and remove these before boiling your corn, you can enjoy wholesome organic sweet corn with no concerns about chemical residues. We have taken care to send only the best of what we have. To find enough corn for the order today we have picked several bags of very tender ears and several ears of mature ripe corn. This gives you the choice to choose which you like best. We will include a recipe which we like with ripe corn Enjoy!

It has been a challenging tomato growing season. Late blight has decimated many of our plants. The remaining ones are now ripening slowly in the cooler weather. We didn't have enough Black Krim heirloom tomatoes this past week, but we are sent the best of other varieties we have. We hope you enjoy the tomatoes we sent!

Yours Truly,
The Bowman Family

If corn is well matured we enjoy using this recipe:
Corn Custard
3 well beaten eggs
2 cups grated corn*
1 cup sweet milk
1 cup sweet cream (or 1/2 milk + cream)
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp sugar
salt to taste
 
Bake at 300-350 F until set

*cut kernels on the cob open with a knife. Scrape out the pulp into a bowl. This works if you have no corn creamer 

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Message from Rachael:

Speaking of corn, I used a tip from Rachel the other week, one of our members, and froze 35 cups of corn raw this year! It worked much better than the time I microwaved it and then forgot it there for a couple days! If you want to put away bulk corn, this would be a good week to order some. I've asked Paul to give us a deal on bulk organic corn, so look for a bulk deal!

Did you see the bottles of local ketchup from Country Flavour on the spontaneous table this week? Such lovely bottles and tasty ketchup inside too.

With this cooler weather, it feels like time to dress the outside of the house for fall. Looking at our order form, you have every opportunity to get all that you need with your weekly order! We have mini hay bales (that can go on the garden as mulch at the end of the season), Indian corn to hang on your door, and mums or purple fountain grass to plant in the yard or put in a pot on your porch. Add a few winter squash and a pumpkin and they can look good out there too until you want to eat them!

And with this cooler weather, it's the perfect time for making and eating soups and stews. All this week I've wanted to use some of the Vibrant Farms organic beef braising ribs in the crock pot with carrots and whatever else I find in the fridge. Maybe today or tomorrow! Nina has some excellent suggestions below also!

Enjoy the lovely weekend,
Rachael

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Message from Nina:

Three years ago when I started this buying club (and was running it out of my carport) if I wanted to eat local peaches in January I had to can or freeze my own. Nobody offered local canned peaches, pears, ketchup, soup, apricots, plums, asparagus, salsa, etc... I could find local pickles and jam but that was about it.  Most locally made jams weren't even made with local fruit!  Now if I'm too busy to can my own peaches, I can buy them! We will be offering canned peaches from Country Flavour again this year. If you want to stock up, let us know soon so that we can reserve a case or three for you - they sell out fast!

The selection of local fruits and vegetables that are preserved and available year-round are proof that our food system IS changing - it is relocalizing.  This is a good thing. This means that more farmers have more markets for their produce (they can sell strawberries to the jam-makers), more jobs are created (the jam-maker now has a job), more farmland is preserved, and farm diversity is encouraged (giving farmers more choices than just raising pork or beef).  Did you see the Saturday articles the last couple weeks on local food in Waterloo Region?  That series was a good "big picture" look at what is happening here and how we are seen as a role model for other communities.  There were even a couple paragraphs on our buying club! See this link to read the articles: http://news.therecord.com/article/773207

Local Food Preserved and Available for Year-Round Eating
If you're wondering what preserved foods Bailey's Local Foods offers you can go to the pantry section of the order form and click on preserves.  There you will see a long list of choices.  There are so many jams, you need to click on the sub category of jam to see the jams.  So don't worry if you don't know how to can foods or you did not have time to make salsa this year.  Others are taking local produce and preserving it for you so that you can enjoy local food all year.

Last of the Fresh Local Produce?
After being so reassuring about having enough preserved local foods all year, I don't mean to be an alarmist but do need to tell you that these are the last few weeks to savour many fresh local fruits and vegetables.  We can't even predict when the last week is for melons or grapes because it all depends on the weather and the timing of the harvests.  I guess what I'm trying to say is "get it while you can!"  I ordered a ridiculous amount of melons last week and told my family that this week is "Melon Fest" at the Bailey-Dick house.  We've already eaten three and pick up was less than 24 hours ago!  I also got bacon and tomatoes for our last BLTs of the year.

Grape Juice and Sweet Corn
Today we are making grape juice and freezing sweet corn.  These two items are still not available from local processors so we gotta make our own.  I think the kids are old enough this year to shuck a few dozen cobs of corn but not ready to cut it off the cob.  I bet our eight year old could use that corn cutter we got from Pampered Chef... hmmm.  Perhaps he'd like to earn a few loonies today.

I've got turkey bones that were boiling in the crock pot all night making us a lovely broth for a couple soups.  The turkey bones are soooo long I have to boil them first in our biggest pot for about eight hours and then when they soften enough to squish I transfer them to the smaller crock pot (still the biggest crock pot at Home Hardware).  Those turkey bones are a great bang for your buck.  They are very meaty.  A vegetable/turkey/mushroom soup and a pureed squash soup are coming soon!

This week look for:

  • Beautiful winter squash to put in a bowl on the side table - and then use in recipes
  • Bistro salad mix for easy lunches (just add nuts, cheese and a vinaigrette)
  • Roses for your soul (did you see them last week? They're exquisite.) Under "plants"
  • Bacon for BLTs
  • Turkey bones for broth
  • Grapes for grape juice. Easy canning instructions here where you leave the grapes in the jar and filter it before drinking: http://www.ehow.com/how_5850549_can-grape-juice.html
  • Cheese curds for lunches and salads
  • Raw peanuts from Vipul
  • Erma Martin's BBQ Relish and pickles. She is not making preserves anymore so stock on these while you can.
  • Local ketchup and peaches (not to be eaten together)
In gratitude for the canners and preservers of local food who are taking the risk of starting businesses offering local preserved foods.  (Now we just need someone to start a business drying peaches and tomatoes for us - and freezing local fruits. And sweet corn.  And grape juice.)

Nina 
Bailey's Local Foods
www.baileyslocalfoods.ca

P.S. We can use your fruit boxes, baskets and jars from preserves again if you return them.

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