One Local Summer: Week One

This is the second year that Liz over at Pocket Farm has hosted the One Local Summer challenge. Participants endeavor to create one meal per week comprised of as many local ingredients as they can get their hands on. I watched from the sidelines last year and am looking forward to joining in this year.

Fortunately, we already had a source for local meat. . .


Simply Grazin' Farm raises organic, grass-fed cattle in addition to pigs and chickens.

Our primary veggie source this summer will be our CSA, Upper Meadows Farm. For our first OLS contribution, our farm share provided the salad in addition to many of the herbs used in the preparation. I also supplemented with herbs grown in our own backyard.

Nearby Pennsylvania is known for its mushrooms which our local grocery store carries. So we sautéed some with a handful of amaranth leaves from the farm. This was our first experience with amaranth leaves, and we were quite pleased with this particular preparation.

We rounded out the meal with gnocchi. The gnocchi was made by an Italian specialty shop from the Bronx. I can't really vouch for where they source their ingredients (still beats imported, I guess). I tossed the pasta with brown butter and home-grown sage.

So, all together it made for one tasty, low-mileage meal...