Strawberries and Peas

Eva with our 47 pounds.

Finally. Strawberry season is in full swing. May was tough, with no fresh fruit in season. Strawberry season was a little late this year, but opening weekend, Eva and I hit the u-pick fields. We got up at about 6:00am to beat the crowds at Plow Creek Farm in Tiswila, IL, a U-pick that raises their strawberries organically. Our goal was to beat our friends, the Freskes, who are usually there right at the 7:00am opening time. Lucky for us, they had picked their 90 pounds the Wednesday before.

As far quantity and quality, it was a great morning to pick. Production was high, and we ended up filling four flats at almost 12 pounds each.  Weather was not as good, and it rained on us quite a bit of the time. I brought raincoats, but it still wasn’t fun.

I was talking to a Mennonite lady next to me (at least I think she was) and she said she and her

daughter were out a few days earlier and picked about 90 pounds. Like us, they clean and freeze them. I asked her how they use them in the winter and she said they just pull them out of the freezer and eat as fruit. She hadn’t discovered smoothies yet...my favorite way to use frozen fruit in the winter.

Cleaning and freezing strawberries can be tedious, especially rinsing them, which you really want to do after seeing them in the fields, in dirt and sometimes with slugs gliding on them. But, once they are rinsed, trimming the tops off, slicing and layering on a pan for a quick freeze can be a social event. A little family bonding. Eva and I watched “Under the Tuscan Sun” together while slicing about half the haul. The next day, my son Ben (visiting from LA) and I sliced up the other half. While I don’t think he was excited about it at first, I think he succumbed to the charms of sitting and chatting while doing mindless work, something that, with so much automation, we don’t do much anymore.

In the garden first snow peas came due, and we’ve gotten a couple good pickings since. We don’t have a real big garden at home, so it’s meant more for daily needs than large production. In my experience, snow peas don’t freeze real well, getting really droopy when cooked later.

First peas

In our CSA delivery this week, we had some sugar snap peas. We tossed them in a stir fry last night with our grass-raised beef and they were amazing! Still crunchy and poppy after being cooked...next year my garden space is going to sugar snaps.

A lot of my local energy these past weeks has been going to the cafe area we are opening at the yoga studio very soon. We have a commercial fridge we want to stock with some locally-produced beverages. Trying to find the right fit of small-batch, local, organic, healthy, and unique from a vendor with the right experience, quality and vision has been a challenge. And, on top if it, we are working hard on the physical space. Trying to do all this without succumbing to convenience food has been tough. However, that’s the point, isn’t it? In so many families, both adults are working full time. Is it possible to manage a busy schedule and still make eating food produced within your local area an option? Or, does it require a colossal amount of pre-planning, organization, and time in the kitchen? With the limitations in produce availability, is it even healthier? These are the things I plan to explore this year, and time will tell.

Eggs

This blog I'm devoting to the subject of eggs.

My friend Toni's eggs

It's usually pretty easy to find local eggs, at least during the summer months. My friend Toni often will bless me with a dozen eggs from her chickens. The beauty of these is not only are they inarguably the healthiest, as her chickens have free range of her yard by day, and a amazingly well-kept coop (compete with electricity) by night, but they have deep, orange yolks, and come in shades of cream, green and blue. Gorgeous.

The Taj Mahal of chicken coops, at Toni's farm

Eggs are easily found in farmer's markets. There is a popular guy, known as Swing Belly, that does the Brookfield Farmer's Market. That's all I'm going to say about his name. He's a local favorite. Lately he's been bringing a box of bananas to the market. When you go to buy your eggs, he holds a banana end to his forehead and asks you to guess what number he is thinking of, between one and ten. Amazingly, Doug and I have both guessed right the past couple of weeks! That scores us a  banana. I don't think Swing Belly knows just what that banana means to us. We haven't purchased any since we started eating local, and we love them. I'm saving our this week for smoothies. Doug says he's going to ask Swing Belly to switch the prize to limes, so we can have some for gin and tonics this summer.

In the winter, local eggs can be more difficult to come by. Regardless of the health benefits of local vs. factory farmed, I do solidly believe that the cramped and wretched living conditions for chickens in factory egg facilities is not what I want to promote with my almighty dollar. So, I try to find better sources.

One local source Doug found is Vesuvio Bakery in North Riverside. This is on 22nd Street, close to Target, Home Depot, etc. The owners have a farm not far away and raise chickens. They usually have a cooler stocked with their eggs.

Sylvia and Giblet

 

My poultry farmer, Joe Reaver, raises ethically treated chicken for meat and eggs. I'll do more on him later, but I'm trying to get regular deliveries of his chickens and eggs going at the studio. I've been to his farm and knows he is the real thing.

Lastly, I do know of some folks who are raising chickens in their backyards. In some towns, this is legit. In others, like mine, these folks are definitely operating under the radar. If I weren't dividing my time between two homes from spring to fall, I would be right there with them. One season I raised chickens at the farm and I can vouch for the fact that they are far less obtrusive, dangerous, noisy, and smelly than dogs, which are perfectly legal. (I have a dog, too.) As long as the chickens are contained and maintained, a responsible chicken owner should have no reason to have to hide the fact that they have feathered pets and are raising their own food. And, I'm not sure if that is all I'll have to say about that.