Joy from Joy’s Misadventures!

Please e-mail me at meganmyers at gmail dot com to coordinate your prize!

CSA stands for Community Sponsored Agriculture, and this weekend Slow Food Austin just happened to [...]]]> Every other week I receive a box of fresh-picked, delicious vegetables. I love seeing what we get, even if it is something I don’t like as much or have no idea how to cook. That’s the beauty of a CSA share.

CSA stands for Community Sponsored Agriculture, and this weekend Slow Food Austin just happened to pick my CSA farm, Johnson’s Backyard Garden, for a local farm tour.

While the farm is now 20 acres (and growing), Brenton Johnson’s farm really did start in his backyard. An interest in agriculture led him to rip up the lawn at his East Austin home and plant rows and rows of vegetables. Soon he began selling at the Austin Farmer’s Market, and things took off. Brenton and his family moved out near the airport and increased their farming venture. Continued growth has made Johnson’s Backyard Garden the largest CSA in Texas in only three years.

Despite that accomplishment, it’s still just the tip of the population of Austin. Brenton figures that in order to feed all of Austin, we’d need about 12,000 acres of farmland, with 213 farms at 70 acres each. No wonder so many people are getting their veggies trucked in from all over the world.

Brenton has plans in the works to buy an additional 150 acres. His goal is to continue the vegetable farm on 40 acres, and devote the rest of the land to creating a nonprofit that would provide education on farming and food accessibility.

“I’m not trying to get rich,” says Brenton. “I just want to grow good, healthy food.”

The next Slow Food Austin farm tour will be at Stryk Dairy in Schulenberg on March 27. You can find more information here.

One thing I do wish I could figure out is where to draw the line on restaurants. For example, I know Arby’s (where my husband lunched on Friday - tsk!) is out, but what about the place I got [...]]]> We haven’t entirely stuck to our menu plan, but our Eat Local challenge is still chugging along.

One thing I do wish I could figure out is where to draw the line on restaurants. For example, I know Arby’s (where my husband lunched on Friday - tsk!) is out, but what about the place I got my bahn mi on Wednesday or my breakfast taco on Friday? Does “eat local” extend to local restaurants, regardless of where their ingredients might be coming from? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

I’m keeping track of all the local products I’m eating this month. It’s cool to see where my money is actually going. I haven’t figured out what my “range” is, as you might notice when looking at the list of companies.

Week 1 Companies
Brianna’s Salad Dressing
Johnson’s Backyard Garden
Simmons Farm
Yonder Way Farm
Way Back When Dairy
Full Quiver Farms
El Milagro
Austin Spice Company
Lucky Layla
Sweetish Hill
Retro Bizzaro
Texas Olive Ranch
G & S Groves
Kocurek Charcuterie
Gelato’s
Kohana Coffee
Katz Coffee
Richardson Farms
Hillside Farms
White Mountain
Jake’s Granola
Elevation Artisanal
Vital Farms

Restaurants
Baguette House
Taco Shack
Promise Pizza
Peche
Frank

To put all of this in perspective, check out Month Without Monsanto. My challenge is a piece of cake compared to April’s.

Hope I can stick with this week’s meal plan, but the schedule is already busy due to SXSW events. I don’t have a pass but I’m attending some other things planned along with it!

Monday
Breakfast: Leftovers from Frank brunch
Lunch: Chicken, brussels sprouts
Dinner: Daring Cook’s challenge

Tuesday
Breakfast: Jake’s granola
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Venison sausage & kale

Wednesday
Breakfast: Eggs
Lunch: Chicken salad
Dinner: Vegetable stirfry

Thursday
Breakfast: Jake’s granola
Lunch: Leftover stirfry
Dinner: Quiche (prepped the night before as I might be attending the Big Ass Twitter Happy Hour)

Friday:
Breakfast: Breakfast tacos
Lunch: Leftovers
Dinner: Pizza

Saturday
Breakfast: Austin Farmer’s market
The rest of the day I’ll be at TECHmunch Austin, a one-day food blogging conference being led by Babette of Bakespace and Jaden of Steamy Kitchen. I’m looking forward to meeting a lot of great people and learning a lot. I hope I can keep up with my note taking!

Sunday
Breakfast: Baked oatmeal
Lunch: HOPE market, probably
Dinner: Short ribs

Are you eating local? How’s it going?

Ellie and Elle, please send me an e-mail at meganmyers at gmail dot com so I can coordinate your prizes!

Thanks to everyone who entered!

I know it is insane of me to try to do a meal plan considering our Eat Local challenge. But I feel [...]]]> I’m back home in Austin again. I think everything that could have gone wrong at my mom’s new apartment did. Thankfully everything is moved in and fingers crossed there will be no more hassles.

I know it is insane of me to try to do a meal plan considering our Eat Local challenge. But I feel even if I’m really loose with the plan, we do so much better than if we don’t plan at all.

The main issue right now is working through the non-local stuff we have. While I was gone purchases included Doritos, jarred pasta sauce (we still have three jars I canned in the cupboard), apples, milk, Jif, Hamburger Helper, and who-knows-from-where ground beef. At least they ate most of it while I was gone but I’m still perturbed, considering I didn’t leave an empty kitchen. Men. Anyway, we still have many dried goods that aren’t local, but I’m not sure how a few crackers here and there will play into our overall plan. Either way, since I missed the HOPE market today I’ll be heading to the co-op tomorrow to get a few things.

During March I’ll try to list all three meals as well as local sources for things. I’ll be keeping a list of all the local things we use so I can do a comprehensive post at the end of the month.

Monday:
Breakfast: Toast (Texas French Bread) w/homemade apple butter
Lunch: Baby lettuce salad (homegrown) with avocado and citrus (CSA)
Snack: Snickie (Retro Bizzaro)
Dinner: Roast chicken (Yonder Way Farm) and root vegetables (CSA)

Tuesday:
Breakfast: Scrambled egg (Simmons Farm) w/duck bacon (Kocurek Charcuterie)
Lunch: Leftover chicken & veg
Dinner: Homemade tamales

Wednesday:
Breakfast: Toast (Texas French Bread) w/homemade grapefruit marmalade
Lunch: Leftover tamales
Dinner: Chili (meat from Yonder Way Farm)

Thursday:
Breakfast: Scrambled egg (Simmons Farm) w/duck bacon (Kocurek Charcuterie)
Lunch: Leftover chili
Dinner: I will be at Peche for an absinthe tasting (!). Have yet to figure out what the guys will eat.

Friday:
Breakfast: Toast (Texas French Bread) w/homemade apple butter
Lunch: Baby lettuce salad (homegrown)
Dinner: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Breakfast: At the farmer’s market
Lunch: Something from the market
Dinner: Local ingredient Daring Cook’s challenge

Sunday:
Breakfast: Pancakes, bacon (Kocurek Charcuterie)
Lunch: ?
Dinner: Short ribs (Yonder Way Farm)

What are you eating locally this week?

For hundreds of other meal plans visit I’m an Organizing Junkie

P.S. The winner of the giveaway will be announced Monday evening!

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home [...]]]> Making tiramisu from scratch is not something to be taken lightly.

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

When I say from scratch, I mean from scratch. Every single component was created in my kitchen, from the ladyfinger cookies to the mascarpone. The entire process was done over a span of four days, far too long for a dessert, in my opinion.

I had issues with all the cream components, including only having 3/4 cup heavy cream left to do the whipping cream, but the mascarpone and the ladyfingers turned out really well. Due to my issues the cream layers between ladyfingers aren’t as thick as they are supposed to be, but overall the dish was yummy.

Classic tiramisu uses Marsala wine and espresso. I opted for creme de cassis and brewed Choffy (ground cacao). I think the blackberry liqueur went well with the lemony flavor of the pastry cream. I should have dipped my ladyfingers in the Choffy longer but I was concerned about them falling apart as they are rather delicate cookies.

It was a frustrating challenge but as always I’m happy I completed it. And next month’s challenge can’t possibly be more complicated … right? Better go find some wood to knock on…

P.S. There is still time to enter my Local Eating giveaway. Don’t miss out on your chance to score some amazing Austin treats!

That night I found myself at Alamo Square Seafood, and if there was anything to convince me of how my life [...]]]> On my second trip to San Francisco last November I devoured My Life in France. The delayed flight out of LAX and lack of WiFi there made it easy to fall into Julia Child’s memories.

That night I found myself at Alamo Square Seafood, and if there was anything to convince me of how my life keeps crashing into food, it would be the presence of beurre blanc on their menu.

How could I not order it? After reading about Julia’s persistence in learning how to make it, I had to try this magical elixir in the form of creamed butter. Am I waxing a bit too poetic for you? Perhaps, but you have to understand - this sauce transformed my sauteed red snapper from a simple fish to the best poisson I’ve ever tasted.

This recipe would be mine, oh yes. I would perfect it and serve it with a flourish to family and friends, and my head would probably fill with pride as I recounted how wonderfully easy it was, and it would become an often-requested favorite.

Except the next time I put fish on the menu my husband balked.

“I don’t really like fish that much,” he explained.

That much? That much?!? We hardly ever have fish in this house. I ruefully noted (in my head) that I was sure he wouldn’t mind if we had fish sticks every week, but throw a real fish into the mix and he’s turning up his nose like our toddler. Who, incidentally, doesn’t like fish sticks but eats salmon.

I shelved the idea for a while - after all, it was the holidays, and then my cleanse, and time gets away from you - but then all of a sudden it was February, a full three months after I had declared my love, and I hadn’t even sent it a Valentine.

“I’m making beurre blanc this weekend!” I shrieked, brandishing a stick of butter and preventing all access to the kitchen. Of course, the only ones home were the cats, who just blinked at me. Darn cats. Chefs get no respect.

Julia Child’s Beurre Blanc

Note: This process will actually take longer than you think. I had to pop our food in the microwave to keep it warm while I was whipping the butter. If at all possible, have a sidekick in the kitchen who can keep an eye on everything else, getting the meal done as close as possible to the finishing of the sauce.

Extra sauce will congeal and can be used like compound butter. Try it on roasted veggies or on top of a burger. Or, store in the fridge until you remember it’s there, rewarm slowly on the stove, and add in a few pieces of new butter until you reach the

1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 tbsp finely minced shallots or scallions
Salt and ground white pepper
8 to 12 ounces (2 to 3 sticks) chilled best-quality unsalted butter, cut into 16 or 24 pieces

In a small saucepan heat liquids to a boil, adding shallot and white pepper. Boil down to a syrupy glaze.
Remove pan from heat and whip in two lumps of butter, then two more.
Set pan over lowest possible heat and continue to add more butter as soon as the last lump has been absorbed. You might want to take it off the heat completely in order to reach the proper consistency.
It should be smooth like mayonnaise, and the butter should not melt.
Add salt to taste and serve. However, letting it sit a moment before serving will help it thicken further and prevent melting when added to hot food.

How did you get into beekeeping? I had a fascination when I was younger and found the nearest beekeeper and asked if I could help. My mom drove me out and I spent an afternoon with him. I was in love. I [...]]]> For this post, I interviewed Megan Wannarka, a volunteer beekeeper with Ames Farm in Minnesota.

How did you get into beekeeping?
I had a fascination when I was younger and found the nearest beekeeper and asked if I could help. My mom drove me out and I spent an afternoon with him. I was in love. I only helped him one day and was interested in getting into from then but it’s not necessarily a good hobby for a 13 year old.

Most recently after interviewing for the Peace Corps, they asked me if I was interested in working with bees, which lead me to get more experience in the area. I contacted the beekeeper who I work with now. I volunteered with him last summer after being laid off from my job. (The company name is Ames Farms, he has 300 hives and will expand to 500 and is organic as possible and sells his honey throughout the united states)

What is a typical day like?
Depending upon the time of year it differs slightly. We begin in April around 6-7am (depending upon the warmth of the day) checking hives, making sure they have enough honey, checking the queen, giving them pollen.

Later in May-June, checking for eggs, brood pattern, for queens and disease. At this point of the year you can re-queen a hive and still have a good amount of honey in the fall. Honey will start to “run” or “flow” around late May. If you talk to a beekeeper at this point of the year, they are very happy and busy.

Late in July-Aug you are pulling the capped honey off the hives (most labor intensive part of the year) and taking it to the honey house to be uncapped and spun out to be strained and bottled. Most days we work until we can’t (12-14 hour days were typical last year) because or daylight or where we can get to with so many bee yards, but we have a large operation compared to most hobby beekeepers, checking a yard on a weekly basis rather than daily.

How long does it take to create honey (pollen to honey)?
Bees collect nectar from flowering trees, shrubs and plants over the course of spring and summer. Nectar is the raw product of honey, while pollen is stirred up while gathering the nectar from plants and helping in pollination. Bees will also collect pollen on their hind legs and is a foodstuff that they eat along with honey. The bees will hold the nectar in their stomach, much like a cow and their cud, and then will deposit in into a cell in the comb once they get back to the hive. A single bee will make only an 1/8 of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime.

Once the cell is full and the moisture content has fallen below 18% (depending upon weather) the bees will cap the cell. This is the sign the honey is ready. It can take a few months to have a box of frames be completely capped once the honey starts. Last year the honey flow started in June and we started to take honey off in August. But with the correct conditions you might this process can really start to fly in the middle of the summer and beekeepers need to keep on top of it.

Can you talk about the differences in honey (grades, different pollen sources, etc)?
Grades of honey are based on percent of soluble solids, absence of defects, flavor and aroma and clarity. (further detail can be found here) Most honey you find in the grocery store and farmer’s market is grade A.

Pollen sources will determine color, flavor and aroma of the honey. Most commercial honey is blended from many sources so it’s harder to tell the difference between a dandelion and clover honey. The beekeeper I work with makes a point of NOT blending his honey except by single super (box of honey with 9 frames it) which captures a very small area of pollen and from a specific area, which is pretty cool. His honey ranges from dandelion (strange enough tastes like lemon), to melon (he’s got hives on an organic melon farm) to basswood and of course clover.

What should people who are interested do to get involved with beekeeping?
Buy local honey from either the beekeeper at the farmers market, direct, find a local hobby beekeeper association chapter and join (they have a ton of information if you’d like to get into it) It is a dying art and shouldn’t be rushed into if your thinking of trying it. My beekeeper has many stories of people trying it, not finding the time for it and then end up abandoning the whole idea

Sources and further reading:
United States Standards for Grades of Extracted Honey
The Backyard Beekeeper’s Honey Handbook by Kim Flottum
Plan Bee: Everything you ever wanted to know about the hardest working creature on the planet by Susan Brackney
And anything by Eva Crane (the foremost researcher on the subject)

Find a local honey producer by searching Local Harvest

Megan Wannarka works with Ames Farm and is originally from small town in southern Minnesota. When she’s not playing with bees she’s found with her nose in a book, causing trouble, breaking hearts and freelancing.

I’m leaving the boys a premade lasagna and $20 (plus the rest of the food in the house, of course) so we’ll see what happens.

I do have [...]]]> Fooled you! Technically I don’t have a meal plan this week, as I’m heading to Minnesota to help my mom move to Nebraska, and I’ll be gone all week.

I’m leaving the boys a premade lasagna and $20 (plus the rest of the food in the house, of course) so we’ll see what happens.

I do have some posts scheduled to go up this week so be sure to pop by!

And have you entered my giveaway yet? I am stocked with Retro Bizzaro goodies right now and all I can say is YUM.

See?

Hope you decide to enter, and have a great week!

(if you’re missing the meal plans, be sure to visit I’m an Organizing Junkie!)