Meranguies

We started to make our own ice cream (post to come) and have found a perfect use for the leftover egg whites...Meringues! They are the perfect summer cookie because you only turn the oven up to 225 degrees and they are lite and sugary to eat.

Chew Chew Chew Chew Chew Slow Food....A Video Post

This is rad and nostalgic all at once.

Local FAIL!

Lettuce FAIL!

This subway in Tokyo has "local" lettuce. As you can see Subway is intensively hydroponically growing 5% of the stores lettuce in this kooky terrarium of marketing. I can't imagine how much electricity, both lighting and cooling, plus fertilizer this magic box consumes. So silly!

This came via Mark Bittmans blog. You can see the whole post here.

The Cukes Came in with Vengeance

The results of our canning spree!

We learned our lesson last year, when the garden says produce is ready it needs to be dealt with in a timely manner or it spoils. We were committed to putting up much more of our food from this year's bounty.

The cukes came all in with vengeance. We harvested nearly 10 pounds and refused to let any go to waste. So we, made a batch of refrigerator dill pickles, canned up six pints of bread and butter pickles and 12, yes, 12 half pints of relish. I hope everyone likes relish for holiday presents.

Summer Meals

Summer is finally here in Los Angeles and the summer squash has come in. We made a great meal and have been enjoying eating outside again.


Summer squash from the garden


Sauteed squash. We are getting good at finding new ways to enjoy all our squash.


Homemade bread, fried green tomatoes and grilled halibut. Hooray for summer!

Charley

While Squint may be the star of this blog and the face of OEA Enterprises, Charley is always our number one girl.

Sunday's Summer Garden Bounty

Summer Squash, Sungold Cherry Tomatoes, Green Zebra Tomatoes,
Cukes and Brandywine Tomatoes

Super Terrific Bento Boxes

Left over potatoes and grilled salmon with parsley in one box.
Tomatoes from the garden and raspberries from the market in the other.

Jen and I are usually pretty good about bringing in lunch to work a few days per week. It saves so much money and what we make at home is usually better than what we can find near work. Jen has gotten into packing lunches in bento boxes lately. They are terrific! She always has a surprise for me.

We spent a Saturday afternoon exploring near Sawtelle here in Los Angeles to track some boxes down.

For some other really amazing bento boxes check out these links:

http://www.mybentolicious.com/

http://susanyuen.wordpress.com/

The Big Guys Are Playing Dirty

At OEA we are strong believers in local food, knowing your farmer and supporting local business. Over the past few years it has been exciting to see the growth of local CSAs that provide products beyond what can be found in a supermarket. These products include raw milk, raw milk cheeses and raw honey.

Unfortunately big agri-business is not happy about this. Recently there have been a rash of raids on small CSA's and local farms both here in California and in the Mid-West.

In fact our own CSA, Healthy Family Farms was raided just a few weeks ago. Their computers and file cabinets were taken.

This is crazy, raiding local farmers over selling raw products does not make sense to me. The officals should be raiding the HUGE CAFOs and poultry farms, if they want to see some atrocities and crimes they can see those any day of the week. What about the slaughter houses that abuse the workers and run them down to with in an inch of their life. Why do we have poo in our food supply. Shouldn't some if this energy put put to fixing our current food supply rather than harass a few local farmers trying to make a living selling nice products to a market that clearly asks for it.

Grist just wrote an article on this subject. You can read the full article here. Below is a short paragraph from the article.

What's behind all these raids? They seem to stem from increasing concern at both the state and federal level about the spread of private food groups that have sprung up around the country in recent years -- food clubs and buying groups to provide specialized local products that are generally unavailable in groceries, like grass-fed meats, pastured eggs, fermented foods, and, in some cases, raw dairy products. Because they are private and limited to consumers who sign up for membership, these groups generally avoid obtaining retail and public health licenses required of retailers that sell to the general public.

Whip It Good

Whipped in under one minute! DANG!


Assembling the dessert. We forgot to take pix of the final,
we just dove right in.

Jen and I acquired a stand mixer for our birthdays. Since they are so close together we combined both days into one sweet present: A KitchenAid stand mixer! I had been eyeing one for some time and the time has come.

For our first run we whipped up a quick dessert. Oh and it whipped quick! We made Pavlova with fresh Strawberries, Peaches and Nectarines. It has gotten warmer here in LA, but it was worth turning on the oven.

Herb Garden Update

The herb garden is coming along nicely this year. We have a good diversity of plants in containers. Someday I will have land and soil from the ground, but for now this is working well.


Marjoram and Mint


Basil and Oregano


Chocolate Mint


Parsley


Dill


Rosemary

BIG Veggie Garden Update

The summer garden is in full swing at the urban OEA.


Our tiny growing area is filled to capacity


Pickling cucumbers coming in nicely


Brandywine tomatoes


Sungold cherry tomatoes


Orange Paste Tomato


sunburst and crookneck squash


The squash leaves are as big as Squint


Our biggest tomato plants ever

Herb garden update to follow....