Eating Local

DEBORAH CROMBIE: You all know that I am a self-confessed food nerd, but will you just look at this gorgeousness?

This was the peach orchard stall at our farmer's market on the last Saturday of our peach season. This orchard has peaches from the first week in June through the first week in August so it's a long season. They plant several different varieties that ripen progressively, and they are all equally good.

Here are my last five peaches! (Now in the fridge. I have discovered that peaches keep really well in the refrigerator just in an uncovered bowl.)

I'm always sad to see the local peaches end. We can still get them from places like Kerrville further south in Texas but, honestly, having eaten peaches pretty much every single day for two months, I'm okay with stopping. I'll be thrilled when next June rolls around and the peaches are back.

We still have blackberries, though.

And local cantelope and watermelon and corn and tomatoes. 

(Our blueberry season is short, boo, and finished by the first of July.)

But if I mourn the end of peaches just a bit, the figs have come in at Trader Joe's!!! This is one of the highlights of my year, as figs are one of the few things that are ONLY available in season. I suppose this is because they are too fragile to ship from other countries? Seriously, I am mad for figs, and I got ONE from my own fig tree this year. (That is a story for another post...)

Oh, and it's also Hatch chili season! We get them shipped in from the Hatch Valley in New Mexico (I consider this local enough!) and they are so fabulous. Some of our supermarkets have big roasters set up in front of the stores and the smell of the chilis roasting is just amazing. Do you get Hatch chilis in other parts of the country?

At least in the summer, I try to stick to local and in season produce as much as possible, although I do have to admit that the figs are cheating, too, because commercial fresh figs are only grown in southern California. 

I don't buy apples at all in the summer, but will look forward to apples coming in from more northern states in the fall. We don't grow them this far south ( a fair trade-off for things like Hatch chilis and Texas peaches and grapefruit,) but we may get some Arkansas apples (delish!) in the farmer's market.

Where I fall down is on citrus. I can't do without citrus in the summer, even if it's not very good. And in the winter I'll cheat and buy blueberries if they come from Mexico, but not if they come from Peru, because I think those taste dreadful. Too long in storage, maybe?

I love reading historical fiction to see what people ate when they could only get what was in season. And of course so much of the history of world trade and development is based on people trying to get what they couldn't grow. (Think sugar cane, coffee, tea, etc., etc.)

What about you, darling REDs and readers? Do you try to eat local?  If so, do you have out-of-season weaknesses, like me?

And for those of you who, like Rhys, write historical fiction, do you research what would have been available and when?

IT'S HATCH CHILI TIME!!!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: It's August in the Southwest, which means

it's Hatch chili season. This is the southwest equivalent of, say, Maine lobsters. You eat them like crazy when they are in season, and only when they are in season.

Hatch chilis are grown primarily in the little town of Hatch, New Mexico, north of Las Cruces and the Rio Grande Valley. The official Hatch Chili Festival is held Labor Day weekend, but the chilis have been in supermarkets here in Texas for the last couple of weeks.

If you're lucky, you'll see them arriving in mesh-backed trucks, a bounty of gorgeous bright green. And if you're really lucky, you'll have a local supermarket that sets up huge cast iron roasters outside on the weekends. They roast the chilis and sell them right off the grill, by the pound.  And the smell of roasting Hatch chilis is like

nothing else.  Heady. Tantalizing. Definitely, dizzyingly mouth-watering.

So what to do with the five pounds of roasted Hatch chilis you've just been seduced into buying??

That's what I wondered last weekend, when I stopped at the supermarket for something mundane and then couldn't resist the chilis.  My husband doesn't like anything with peppers, even mild peppers like the Hatch.  So while I was contemplating recipes, I just... ate the chilis.  Not the entire five pounds, but the first couple of days I was sneaking into the fridge every couple of hours for just one more chili. (And congratulating myself on the huge amount of Vitamin C I was consuming!)

This weekend, I'm going prepared with recipes.  Here's my first choice:

Hatch White Chicken Chili

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 medium onions 
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 5 Hatch chiles, roasted, skinned, seeded, and chopped
• 4 cups cooked and shredded chicken 
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano
• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 3 (15-ounce) can Great Northern white beans, drained and rinsed 
• 2 tablespoons flour
• Salt and pepper
• 4 ears of corn, kernels stripped off 
• Garnishes: Sour cream, grated cheddar or Jack cheese, tortilla chip, chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté about 10 minutes, until translucent; add the garlic during the last minute with the onions.
2. Add the chiles, chicken, cumin, oregano and cayenne pepper. Sauté for 2 more minutes. Add vegetable broth, beans and flour. Cover, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 2 hours or longer, stirring occasionally. 
3. Ladle into bowls and garnish with cilantro and some grated Mexican-blend cheese.
4. Serves 6-8.

And for the truly adventurous among us, there is even a recipe for a Hatch Chili Margarita!

Be brave!!!