Friday, May 23, 2008

Local: it's what's for lunch

(yummy)
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Here's the anatomy and provenance, more or less, of what I've been eating for lunch over the past several weeks:

From my favorite farmer at our Farmer's Market--
White beans, in soup
Sourdough spelt bread- he grows the grain and his family bakes the bread- it is incredible!

From other sellers at the Farmer's Market--
Michigan potatoes, in soup
Michigan carrots, in soup
Michigan onions, in soup

From my garden- mixed chopped greens, early thinnings--
Mizuna mustard
Komatsuna mustard
Spinach
Red Russian kale
Curly kale
Happy rich
Vitamin green
Various leaf lettuces
Parsley
Marjoram
Skyrocket Arugula

(I just clip off enough for lunch and chop it stems and all. Sadly, there are no leftovers for the buns at this early stage.)

From far away--
Apple cider vinegar
Lebanese olive oil (from the farmer's market, grown on seller's family farm in Lebanon)
Celtic sea salt
Pepper
garlic, in soup

It's so simple, but so delicious. I must say, the greens done this way are even better with a Greek-style lentil soup. Olive oil and vinegar are lightly drizzled over the greens after they are on the soup.

Someone pointed out to me something vaguely disturbing about that amazing olive oil- how do I know that it's not blood olive oil? How do I know that profits are not being used to fund terrorism? Well, I don't of course. But it does weigh on my conscious just a little bit.

4 comments:

Robbyn said...

I'm so happy to see you posting pics and descriptions of your food! Since your diet consists of so many veggies, I'd love to see you blog more about some of the meals you prepare...you know...just for ME? lol Wait..I mean, your adoring public :) Seriously, I could use inspiration from someone who obviously knows her way around the greens and beans. After seeing this meal, I'm hunnnnnngry :)

ilex said...

Hah! You got it, ma'am. I tend to repeat myself a lot within each plant's limited season, but then make gradual adjustments with whatever is coming up.

Tonight I made roasted beans, homemade salsa, rice, and I topped off with a fried egg. I didn't want to blog about it, though- not enough garden in it...

RG said...

Yummm .. looks good too! We know from first-hand experience that most of the mid-east olive oil operations are just folks like you and me managing to make a living. You just mainly probably got way over charged for it because that is how they manage!

If you ever get to read the New Yorker, last week was a great piece of "poetry" about how you never forget how to "Be from Michigan"! .. things like .. its got a spare state in case one goes flat!

Scout said...

I've never heard of olive oil being used to fund terrorism. If anything, aiding a country's economic stability is likely to undermine terrorist recruiters, who prey on poverty. The only way you can make a claim like that is if you think that being Lebanese makes you a terrorist, in which case, helping people to eat every day is funding terrorism.