Kate | MWV Local

Fresh Pumpkin Soup

Two notes before I post this recipe: 1. I took a photo of the finished soup, but it was at that very moment that the SD card in my phone decided that it hated me and turned itself into a worthless sliver of plastic. Luckily I had this adorable photo to fall back on. Right? This is better than a bowl of orange soup. 2. I’m really bad with measurements and am always adding a dash of this or that, but I got the basics down for this recipe. If you feel adjustments are necessary, or want to try it with different spices, feel free. Oh, wait, three notes: 3. I used a pie pumpkin, but there are many people who say that field pumpkins are just fine for cooking. You may need to drain off extra moisture. Fresh Pumpkin Soup 1 medium pumpkin (yielding about 3 cups of...

Congratulations, Salem

By Kate

After January 1, 2011, Salem residents will be allowed to keep up to three hens in their yards. IT’S ABOUT TIME! Shame the city had to make it so onerous for everyone though: Because city staff have been directed to start a chicken licensing system that will require IT programming, training of third-party vendors, creation of forms, and altering the city website, implementation of Ordinance Bill 19-10 will take longer than the typical 30 days required for enactment after a bill’s second reading. Vendors, forms, licensing ($50!) (is that annually?), inspections? Sheesh. Sorry, this is a pet peeve of mine. I don’t often see the black helicopters, but I sometimes wonder how much longer we will be allowed to produce our own food in our backyards. Salem residents, congratulations on finally seeing this through a council vote. Those of you who choose to raise hens will find them quite...

Vino Veritas

By Kate

You may have noticed an ad at the top of the blog, which is something I’m trying out for a while. It’s not a paid ad, but rather, I’ve donated the space to Three Crows Media to help them promote their wine movie, Vino Veritas. Clicking on the ad will take you to their Facebook page where they are currently hosting a drawing to win a bottle of wine! If you follow the link below – which goes to a Kickstarter fund raising page – you can see a nice little trailer for the film, plus some footage of the filmmakers talking about the project. If you can’t see the widget above, try this link.

Blackberry Cobbler

By Kate

Made this fantastic cobbler the other day… blackberries came from the back yard, local milk, butter and flour. The only thing not local is the sugar! The recipe is from The Pioneer Woman and is a bit different than what I think of as cobbler (I’m picturing the kind with the crumbly crust/topping), but it really tasted great. Couldn’t be easier to prepare, either. The self-rising flour can be replaced with 1 cup of local all-purpose flour sifted together with 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder, plus 1/8 teaspoons salt. I ignored the bit about whipped topping from a can and went with vanilla ice cream, of course!

Freezer Jams: An Easy Start to Preserving

By Kate

I had grand plans for learning how to preserve food this summer. Had all my equipment ready, the Ball Blue Book to Preserving standing by, websites bookmarked… I was going to DO THIS THING! And then we decided to tear apart our kitchen: Oh. Gamely, I made one batch of cherry jam with some cherries we’d picked from Detering Orchards. I think it came out quite well in the end, but without some handy counter space, it was more of a chore than I wanted to deal with for the rest of the summer however long this renovation takes. Sad, but lazy, I decided to think more in the short-term and turned to freezer jam & refrigerated pickles. Freezer jam is a simple process of washing/peeling/chopping your fruit and combining it with sugar and sometimes lemon juice, boiling the pectin for one minute, mixing it all together and filling...

Hazelnuts

By Kate

We all know how plentiful hazelnuts are here in the beautiful Willamette Valley, lucky for us! According to the Pacific Hazelnut Candy Factory, located in Aurora, the first hazelnut tree was planted in Oregon around 1857. Our climate is just right for these tasty & versatile tree nuts. Sometime next month, you’ll be able to start harvesting your backyard trees, if you’ve got them. If you’d like to check out some bigger operations, visit the Hazelnut Hill shop in Corvallis (at milepost 95 between the towns of Corvallis & Monroe on Hwy 99 West), or observe through the windows at the Pacific Hazelnut Candy Factory (about an hour and 20 minutes northeast of Albany). Want some recipes? The Hazelnut Council has some that… that… um… where was I? Sorry, I got distracted by the cinnamon… rolls…

The Jaunty Gnome on Etsy

By Kate

The other day I was browsing through the local Etsy shops and came across The Jaunty Gnome, based in Corvallis. I knew I had to share it here, because… well, just look: Is this not adorable?! Shop owner, Stephanie, writes a cute little story/description for each listing, such as the two “Nursery Visiting Gnomes” above: This sweet pair had hitched a ride to the nursery in the back of the minivan, and now they have had a whole new world opened up to them. Their garden environment is fairly limited in color and texture, so to see new things growing in pots just waiting to come home for planting…well, they see endless possibilities. They understand now that some humans tend to go to the nursery very often during the warm season to look at possibilities…sometimes every weekend! I have to say… I want one! Etsy is a great way...

Tour de Coops, Portland – July 24, 2010

By Kate

If you are in the Portland area, check out the 2010 Tour de Coops event this Saturday from 11am-3pm. There will be 25 backyard chicken coops all over East Portland open for a self-guided tour.

Buy Local: Honey

By Kate

I bookmarked this post from Fair Food Fight ages ago after following a link from Twitter. I keep meaning to post it, but keep getting a little overwhelmed by the information. “The honey trade is anything but simple, however, namely because the U.S. is so dependent on foreign honey – 60-70% of our honey is imported, much of it from China. Making matters worse, in 2002, 2003, and 2007, U.S. Customs seized multiple Chinese honey shipments that were tainted with antibiotics banned in the U.S., including chloramphenicol, a chemical that has been linked to serious blood disorders.” Both the blog post and the series over at the Seattle P.I. – Honey Laundering – are worth the time to read. The information about labeling (it’s the usual news… labels don’t mean jack) is an especially good reminder that we shouldn’t necessarily be paying more for something labeled “organic” or “pure”....

Recipe: Cherry Clafoutis

By Kate

It’s cherry season in Oregon! We’ve got a couple of dwarf cherry trees in our yard — a Van and a Rainier — and the Van tree produced quite a bit of fruit. While I’m perfectly content to just stand there under the tree and graze, I wanted to find some other ways to use them. Then I happened across this recipe in the Food Network Magazine: Cherry Clafoutis <<link! Lousy photo, I had a little mishap with the powdered sugar! But anyway, I quite like this. My husband won’t care for it, as it is a tad heavy on egg flavor. I’ve noticed this when baking with my chickens’ eggs and am not sure what I could do about it. I don’t mind it, I’m all about the custards and quiches and eggy things. Anyway, be on the lookout for cherries in your local marketplaces through late July,...

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Books

Fresh Pumpkin Soup

Congratulations, Salem

Vino Veritas

Blackberry Cobbler

Freezer Jams: An Easy Start to Preserving

Hazelnuts

The Jaunty Gnome on Etsy

Tour de Coops, Portland – July 24, 2010

Buy Local: Honey

Recipe: Cherry Clafoutis

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