On the road

In the last six weeks we have done a lot of traveling, actually visiting 11 states in that time. I knew it would be nearly impossible to eat locally on the road, but we still tried and noticed a few things along the way.

One of my surprises was Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where my husband and I lived when we were first married 25 years ago. While it was a nice town, I didn't remember it as cutting edge. What I found on our visit was that Sioux Falls has grown up quite nicely. There were at least two restaurants I noted that were featuring locally grown and produced food. That may not seem like a big deal since Sioux Falls is in the heartland and has access to some of the best produce and meats available, but not everyone recognizes the importance of supporting local producers.

The other thing that stood out was the ease of recycling. Being on the road means we had a lot of cans and bottles from soda and water. We try to collect them in a bag to recycle when possible along the way. In Sioux Falls there were recycling trash cans throughout the city. That trend continued as we traveled west to Chamberlain, South Dakota, and on to the Black hills. I don't remember seeing that anywhere else in our travels this summer. For example we spent time in Tulsa, OK, a city five to six times larger, and the only evidence of recycling we saw was a recycling center at the edge of town.

In Indiana recycling was spotty, but the Hampton Inn was stayed in used biodegradable utensils and plates (made from potatoes) in the breakfast room. I was hoping to see that at the other Hilton Family properties we stayed at on our travels, but was sadly disappointed.

One of the reasons I try to eat locally is to lesson my footprint on the earth. Recycling is just a part of my daily life and is something hard to give up when on the road.

Turkish Lahmacun

Eating locally doesn't mean you have to limit your menu. Last night Scott made Lahmucan, a southern style pita topped with spicy lamb. He found the recipe in "Sultan's Kitchen." a cookbook featuring Turkish foods by Ozcan Ozan.

It was very easy, basically putting ground lamb, parsley, onion, tomato, and paprika on a crust and bake for 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. You don't have to brown the lamb before putting it on the crust. Everything cooks at about the same rate. We served it with tahini sauce.

Scott and I enjoyed the lahmucan, but I don't think it will be put into our regular rotation. I thought it had too much parsley and the paprika gave it to much of an after burn. The fun thing was using the locally produced lamb and locally grown tomatoes in a Turkish recipe.

Peach and Blueberry Pie

Last night we got back from our fourth trip out of town in the last six weeks. Eating locally has been nearly impossible and our food from Fair Shares has been given to friends, or even wasted at times since we haven't been home much.

I've been trying to make up for lost time in the last 36 hours, though. The highlight was a peach and blueberry pie I made this evening using peaches in last week's share (which my mother picked up for us while we were in Tulsa) and blueberries from the share the week before, which I had frozen for later use.

I had never had a blueberry and peach pie and wasn't sure what to expect. What I found was a perfect blend of flavors. The two fruits enhance each other to create the perfect summer treat.

It was a simple recipe taken from a wonderful pie cookbook my sister in law gave me, "Bubby's Homemade Pies," by Ron Silver and Jen Bervin.

The crust was made using local butter, King Arthur all purpose flour, salt and ice water. The filling was made with a few simple ingredients, too -- locally grown blueberries and Centennial Farms peaches, brown sugar, flour, lemon juice, lemon zest and locally produced butter.

Tomorrow I will post about a turkish meat dish my husband made tonight with the ground lamb we got in last week's share. We have also enjoyed some locally produced bacon, spare ribs and pesto pasta. It is so good to be home eating real food.