Monday, March 1, 2021

Monday Pot Luck: On the Farm with Vicki Delany

The first Monday of the month is the day one of us gets to talk about anything food-related she likes.  And, as I like talking about food, it’s a great day for me.

We all know the importance of trying to eat locally. The closer to home our food is grown and produced the less it has to travel, resulting in less fossil fuel expenditure, more jobs for people who live near us, and the food is likely to be fresher as well.

It’s not always easy, and particularly not for us Canadians in the depths of winter, when the farmers’ fields look like this (The tracks are mine, returning from a walk): 

 


The rest of the year, I’m lucky enough to live in a farming district.  Many of the farms around here are small-scale, not industrial. My little house is surrounded by farms.  I get produce from my immediate neighbours when they’re feeling generous, and I have no more than a couple of kilometers to travel to buy directly from the people who grew it. I try to stock up in the fall, with lots of root vegetables that will store over the winter, and to freeze sauces and soups for those cold winter nights.  

This picture shows a basket my local farmer gave me:  


This winter my immediate neighbours have gone away for several months and I’m helping to feed the pigs.
  Talk about composting! Here they are enjoying the fruits of my kitchen.

 










All of which has me dreaming of my favourite time of the year. Tomato season. How’s this for tomatoes, locally grown and delicious.(Although not grown by me!) 




In the fourth Sherlock Holmes bookshop mystery, A SCANDAL IN SCARLET, Gemma and Jayne venture far outside of their comfort zone to a recreation-17th century farm.

“Baby pigs remain with their mother until they’re... uh, one year old,” said Jayne, who knew as much about farming as I did. For all I knew baby pigs stayed with their mothers until they graduated from high school.

                                                                                  A Scandal in Scarlet by Vicki Delany

I’d love to hear your stories of local eating (or maybe not!).  I’ll give a copy of A Scandal in Scarlet to one reader. Please leave a comment here, with your email address so I can contact the winner  

 




35 comments:

  1. I love this topic, Vicki. I'm a big fan of local eating, and like you I live close to two very fine small farms. I also always have a garden out back. It was fun to write my Local Foods Mysteries from the point of view of the farmer!

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    Replies
    1. I once pitched a small scale tomato farm idea. It went nowhere, but it would have been fun to do. I would have enjoyed tasting the research!

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  2. Living on a farm, we love it when people purchase locally produced products.

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  3. We live on a farm and this year will be my first year to grow my own vegetables. There are several small truck farms around us so veggies are plentiful. sueboyd15@gmail.com

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  4. We will be living in a condo next month, but will grow out own herbs on the deck. When we eat out, we try to stick to places that locally source their food. Fortunately, there are quite a few places in VA Beach that do this. Kkcochran (at) hotmail (dot) com

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  5. I just wreathe first book in this series recently and I'm looking forward to reading more of them! I grew up in the country surrounded by farms and I love the piggies! I'm hoping to start a garden back up this year (fingers crossed)! (donnaep7@yahoo.com)

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  6. Each Spring I start a veggie garden which gives me great enjoyment. Tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. This lasts until the colder weather and we always look forward to enjoying the bounty. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

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  7. My son has a small garden in
    our back yard. It's mostly
    tomatoes, but he did put in
    a few eggplant for me. When
    my husband was alive we had
    a big garden will a full
    range of salad fixings.
    Glad the tradition is continuing.
    txmlhl(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  8. I'm going to try growing tomatoes, cucumbers, and a few other things from seed for the first time. Hopefully (cross your fingers) eating locally will be going out the back door. sue.stoner72@yahoo.com

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  9. I live in Minnesota, so it's very similar to Canada as far as weather goes. But there are a lot of farms here,mostly corn and soybeans.
    I love summer and have a vegetable garden, I grow tomatoes, snap peas,beans,zucchini, cucumbers, etc. There is nothing better than a tomato freshly picked from the garden.

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  10. Having my own garden allows me to appreciate home grown and tasty vegetables. Cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, spinach and basil are my favorites. elliotbencan(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  11. In south Florida we are on a reversed planting schedule from most of you. This is local food time. U Pick It options are around right now for tomatoes and strawberries.
    Then when you are gearing up for your bounties, we are too hot to grow much.
    libbydodd at comcast dot net

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  12. I agree that there's nothing as tasty as a home-grown tomato! I do a summer garden every year with zucchini, tomatoes, beets, kale, peppers, green beans, and lots of herbs, and come September I feel as if I live on a full-scale farm!

    The restaurant in my Sally Solari books, Gauguin, sources local and seasonal food, so it's been loads of fun researching (and cooking with!) all the various foods as they come into season each year.

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  13. I garden every year in my yard. I grow zucchini, tomatoes, corn, carrots, green beans, cucumbers, even grew lettuce one year with success. I also like to grow herbs on my patio.

    Thanks for the chance!
    jarjm1980@hotmail.com

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  14. I try to eat locally whenever possible. Fortunately, where I live, there are a lot of restaurants that have committed to locally grown menu items. Thanks for the chance, browntruck8899@yahoo.com

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  15. I am a big fan of shop local, especially for food. We regularly get our meats from a ranch not too far from us as well as veggies and fruits at the farmers market. Unfortunately they aren't up and running right now but our grocery stores make a point of having a "local" produce section on their shelves. Being close to Raleigh, we have a huge State Farmers Market that is just a 20 minute drive that I can't wait to reopen! Thank you for the opportunity to receive a Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery, Gemma is awesome and I aspire to be a baker like Jayne. tracy dot condie at gmail dot com

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  16. I love attending the local farmer'smarkets in the area. You get the best fruit and produce there.

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  17. I live about 20 miles from a number of you pick farms. I love visiting them.
    turtle6422 at gmail dot com

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  18. DH & his dad bought over 100 acres the year before we got married, and f-i-l gave us 8 cows as a wedding present. So we raised beef cattle, a goat named Cookie, and grew our own herbs & veggies (some of which we sold to 2 health food stores) We also have some old black walnut and pecan trees, along with persimmons, wild blackberries and dewberries. Used to have a wild cherry tree and muscadine grapes, but lightning took them down. Since we started staying at my parents' home in the suburbs to be caregivers we only have been growing tomatoes & herbs, and have 1 lemon tree.Love delicious homegrown produce!
    lola777-22 at hotmail dot com

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  19. I love going to the farmers markets in the summer and getting vegetables from them. When I'm in Michigan I like going to the strawberry farms and getting fresh strawberries and making strawberry shortcake.
    diannekc8(at)gmail(dot)com

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  20. I have a black thumb, so no vegetable garden for me. So, I try to frequent the farmers markets.
    wskwared(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  21. We have farmers' markets that bring in produce from a 50 mile radius. I get pecans and dewberries
    from my sister; lemons from my brother. And we have a satsuma tree that produces. I grow a few herbs in pots. I've been unsuccessful with tomatoes since we moved here so gave up trying. Darn it. Love those homegrowns!
    patdupuy@yahoo.com

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  22. I plant a vegetable garden every summer. You can’t get fresher or more local than walking out the door and picking green beans or herbs for dinner
    sgiden at verizon(.)net

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  23. Love eating local!!!
    We grow as much if our own food as we can. Still have tomatoes, peppers, beans and grated zucchini in the freezer and carrots and beets out in the garage stored in sawdust.
    Our winter squash crop didn't amount to anything so we relief on the local farmers market to get us through almost the entire winter in that regard.
    We live nothing more than sharing what we have with our kids and grandkids.
    sandra shenton thirteen at gmail dot com

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    Replies
    1. Sharing home-grown produce is the best!

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    2. Congratulations Sandra. You win! I've sent you an email.

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    3. Thank you so much! I can hardly believe it. I sent a response

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  24. I completely agree regarding shopping and eating local. I grew vegetables for the first time last year since 1994 in the Kincardine area. I’m in Alberta now. Just ordered seeds for this year’s garden. We grow enough to give away some. Small steps.

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  25. When you live in the Ozark Mountains, in the county seat which only has a population of less than 3000 and it's MILES to the next town, you most definitely eat locally. That being said, we don't eat our much at all, but when we do we go to the local Mom and Pop family style restaurant where they buy their ingredients mostly locally.

    I'm fortunate enough to have a husband that LOVES to garden. He's happiest with dirt under his fingernails and lost in time with his plants. Before we moved here and lived in the southwest part of the state, we had a garden big enough to furnish 14 families and one year we produced enough tomatoes to furnish the local Mexican restaurant tomatoes for their salsa for 3 months. With age, our garden is much, much smaller but still has an overflow of veggies to share on occasion with friends. There is nothing like veggies fresh from the garden! Hubby has always said what you do comes back to you. We only hope when the time comes and he's not able to garden that someone whose garden is overflowing may give us some of that bounty of the earth.

    Thank you for the wonderful chance to win a copy of "A Scandal in Scarlet"! It's on my TBR list and can't wait for the opportunity to read it. Shared and hoping to be the very fortunate one selected.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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  26. We're very lucky in SE PA (approx. 1/2 way between Philadelphia and Billy Joel's Allentown) to have many local farmer's and neighborhood gardeners who set up stands w/local produce and vegetables. Many more restaurants are also buying their ingredients locally as well. Home-grown goodness without the organic prices of grocery stores. :)

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  27. I love a veg fresh garden & still grow some & I do go to farmer's markets & roadside farmer's stands in my areas. Yummy on fresh tomatoes! nani_geplcs(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  28. We have several farmer's markets. I'm no good at growing my own. JL_Minter@hotmail.com

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