Today was a day of making local connections. Big and small and in-between. It was a day of connecting with new people and finding new ways to plug-in to local food.
Eco Geek talks back
Last night I sent an email to Sarah Jackson over at Eco Geek to see if she had any recommendations for restaurants in Snohomish county that are focused on local foods. She didn’t have any better leads than I have, but we’re going to compare notes and see if we come up with anything new. And then! she gave me a mention on her blog today. So nice of her, and definitely not the reason that I emailed her.
In addition, she turned me onto Green October, a collaboration of groups around the Puget Sound producing community events focused on sustainability. They’ve got a complete calendar of sustainability focued events happening around Puget Sound for the next month.
Stokesberry Sustainable Farm comes through
I mentioned a few weeks back that we’d found some pastured chicken for our freezer. Except the chickens never came through. So I was still looking around for some in hopes that we might score 10 or so for the winter. The other day I was on Craigslist and found a listing for pastured organic poultry in Olympia (94 miles) for a reasonable price. And today, we are the proud owners of 15 fat whole broilers in our freezer.
Jerry is a very nice guy, and we’ve even got a turkey coming for Thanksgiving – not a heritage as he’s sold out of those, but at least it’s a pastured organic broadbreasted white. Oh, and they got a very nice write-up in the Olympian yesterday. Good thing I arranged for my chickens before that happened!
Fourteen nights of green beans in the freezer
I finally got to my green beans. And once again it was so easy that I have no excuse for not doing this every year. In about an hour, a huge number of green beans became 14 vacuum packed bags ready to store for eating this winter. If you too want to freeze some green beans, it’s very simple. Just top them, steam blanch them for 3 minutes and then plunge them into ice water. Finally either vacuum pack them and freeze, or put them in freezer bags with all the air squished out.
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Interesting post! What type of vacuum are you using?
We’ve just got your standard Food Saver vacuum packer from Costco. I don’t even think it’s the high end version. I find it to be a royal pain in the you know what to use, but it does a pretty good job…
I didn’t know that they were that expensive. Guess I don’t watch all that much late-night TV. Anyways, thanks for the info. The beans in the picture look great.
Hello Laura,
I discovered your wonderful blog a few days ago. I’m in S. Seattle, and we’ve been considering keeping chickens for a few months now, guess we’re just…ah well, chicken. Plus we’d have to find some time to build a coop. Your blog has inspired me, maybe we can get in done in the spring.
Thanks for the all of the great links on your sidebar!
I am so happy I found your blog! I have been reading through lots of your past posts and can’t wait to check in with you and see what is new in Northern WA.
You have inspired me to do some perserving this weekend. I’m taking a day trip to one of my favorite local farms and making a day of it!
Thanks for the fabulous compliment Renee. Enjoy your preserving!
Laura, I love the way that you put that… “in hopes that we might score 10 or so..” sounds so covert!
I am putting a vacume packer on my wish list for Chistmas I think. this year we pickled about 6 pint and 6 quarts of beans in a dill pickle solution. Mmmmm so good!
P~
P~, it seems almost like an undercover operation. First I find a dealer, inspect the goods and make a deal, then the product never dies (I think those broilers are going to die of old age before being butchered). So I go in search of a new source. Who I find on the internet, connect with via email to make a deal. Drive into the city to meet a strange man. Money changes hands. Load my “goods” into brown cardboard boxes and into the back of my car. Come home and hide the evidence in my freezer.
Makes me feel very James Bond… Or maybe like a serial killer?
Thank you for such good stuff and will be back!