I've been pretty excited about Winter Harvest. It's a buying club that gives eaters and cookers access to a bunch of local food growers and makers. You order a few weeks in advance, so I had actually forgotten what I'd ordered before I went to pick it up this week. I knew I went light on the veg, since I still have a week of CSA left, but I wasn't sure what else I had ordered.
Long before Saturday's Mouse, I was posting my CSA hauls on Facebook, and I joked with a few friends that when that year's CSA ended I would just start posting my groceries. This is close to that. As I've mentioned before, I'll still need to go to the store for a few things - my list for this week is black pepper, peanut butter, and coffee. Otherwise, this buying club thing should work.
I got dairy... milk, plain yogurt (for cooking with) and blueberry yogurt (for eating with). I'm excited to see the yogurt comes from the same producer that supplied my CSA with yogurt. It's good stuff. I also got some cheddar.
I got a few veg. Leeks, because it's time to make up some potato leek soup, and red onions, because they're always handy, and mushrooms. While I honestly have no understanding of umami - (I'm told it's "meaty" but I think it's just a marketing ploy by the soy sauce industry) - they are the meatiest thing around that isn't meat or seitan, so I've been adding them more and more to vegetarian dishes and Sous Chef Brian has been good about not spitting them into his napkin.
Also ketchup! I've made my own ketchup before, but since I don't can *yet,* it's just not economical. I'm not going to whip up a quarter cup of ketchup and I don't use it in the kind of quantities that justify making it. So, I'm excited to have ketchup. I ordered salsa too, but it didn't make it. I think that's the drag about relying on a bunch of different suppliers.
Also cider, which only stinks (slightly) because two days ago I got surprise cider in my CSA haul. While I'm sure this is delicious cider, I can only drink so much of it, so off to the freezer with it for now.
And cookies! Oatmeal cookies! They were pricey. I'm not the sort of person who understands what 3/4 of a pound of cookies is before she orders. But hey, look what happened last time I tried to DIY-it.
There was also beef. Funny story, maybe, about that beef. It's in a bag on the right, but up against the cookies so you probably can't see it. Anyhow, it has a name on it, a name of someone I know, and I think maybe we swapped meats at the pickup site. Ok, it's not a hilarious story.
