The Plan:
Day 1: BLT chopped salad, Lemon blueberry muffins
Day 2: Savory corn pudding with Anaheim pepper, Watermelon slices
Day 3: Homemade pizza, Easy cucumber and tomato salad
Day 4: Baked salmon, Lemony couscous, Fruit salad (peaches, muskmelon, grapes)
Day 5: Beef and broccoli over rice
Day 6: Caprese salad (tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil, olive oil, balsamic vinegar) , Peaches with fresh whipped cream
Day 7: Ratatouille, Corn muffins
This meal plan was curated using local foods that are in season now or preserved during the peak growing season in the U.S. Midwest. The plan is an exact replica of what our family is eating this week unless we are out of town. Meal plans are developed using whole foods and my meal planning system (click here!) and are meant to be healthy and easy to prepare. Most recipes will take no more than 30 minutes of active cooking time. Occasionally meals may require all day slow cooking, advanced prep, or some oven time. Recipes are provided when available. I sincerely hope this will help with your own meal planning!
Pantry Shuffle:
Out of Storage: (preserved when in season and coming out of my root cellar, freezer, canned, or dehydrated stash)
Into Storage:
- Peaches (sliced and frozen)
- Ratatouille (make a large batch and freeze half)
- Muskmelon (cut into chunks and freeze – great to add to your water or put in a smoothie)
- Diced tomatoes (freeze – I might try canning)
- Sweet corn (cut from the cob and freeze)
- Anaheim pepper (diced and freeze)
Notes: Observations from a traveling locavore
I absolutely love summer vacation. I love road trips with my family, exploring nature, and absorbing different cultures. As a person who has committed to eating local foods (a.k.a. I’m a locavore), I try to stick to this on my travels as well and embrace the different offerings that are produced where ever I happen to be. We recently traveled through Michigan, into Canada, to Niagara Falls, down to New York City, and back through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and again Michigan, before returning home to Wisconsin via Chicago. We were in remote locations, tourist traps, and epic cities. I have been reflecting on this trip and made several observations when it comes to food:
- There are minimal to no options for local food along major roadways. You are at the mercy of the nearest gas station and chain fast food restaurants.
- If you travel off the beaten path into rural areas, you might expect to find a plethora of locally produced food, but the opposite is true. You may be traveling into a food dessert with no restaurant offerings at all and no grocery store for many miles.
- When you are in a major metropolitan area, there are usually plenty of restaurants that source food locally… for a price.
- Even in the large cities, when you reach the tourist areas (think Times Square, Niagara Falls), there is no local food to be found.
- I eat far less vegetables while traveling, which results in an upset belly by the time I get back. Sadly, even if you order a meal with vegetables, the bulk of your plate tends to be the meat, grain, potato, bread, pasta, etc.
Over the years I have become accustomed to the realities listed above, so I have had to find ways to adapt if I want to continue to eat a lot of fresh, local food, particularly produce. Here is what I try to do when traveling:
- This time, I did a little bit of prep ahead of our trip and packed a cooler with cherry tomatoes, cucumber slices, and other snacks from home. This lasted us the first couple of days of the car ride with storage in the hotel mini fridge overnight.
- Between the corn and soybean fields you may run across a roadside produce stand. This is going to be your best bet for getting fresh, local, and even organic food. Of course if you don’t have a kitchen where you are staying you will have to stick to munching on raw food like green beans, cherry tomatoes, apples, peaches, apricots, plums, carrots etc. Or plan ahead and bring a knife for quick slicing of cucumbers, zucchinis, and more.
- Seek out farmer’s markets in each city you visit. This is a great way to discover what can grow in a different region. Lots of markets also have food trucks that utilize local food in their offerings. A simple google search can help you find markets around the area you are visiting. When we were in New York, we found several markets just by simply walking around Chinatown. In other areas of NYC, I saw signs for markets in certain parks, but unfortunately the timing did not work out with our plans.
- Hang out where the locals hang out. This is usually where you can find non-chain restaurants and grocery stores, which tend to source foods from the region. While you are hanging with the locals, ask them for restaurant recommendations.
- Locavore restaurants tend to come with a higher priced menu. To me it is worth it while on vacation to splurge a couple of times on a nice, fresh dinner.
- When we are on the road and I have no other fresh, local options, I at least try to stick to nourishing my body with fruits and vegetables instead of eating ultra processed packaged food, or fast food from a deep fryer. I feel better too, I think because of all the fiber and nutrients, plus the lack of artificial ingredients. Sometimes my body even starts craving vegetables! Subway and Jimmy John’s are good options because they do have a lot of vegetables that you can load on your sandwich. I’ve noticed that Subway tends to be in a lot of rural gas stations.
- If you are on a road trip, try taking something local home with you. On our most recent trip, we stopped at a roadside stand in the heart of Michigan’s orchards along Lake Michigan and picked up a half bushel of peaches and 10 pounds of blueberries to bring home with us! This was amazing because I wasn’t able to go blueberry picking this year and peaches are not readily available in the area where I live. Of course this isn’t a great option if you are traveling by plane or won’t be able to make it home before the food spoils. I wanted to grab some maple syrup from Canada, but sadly it was too much to lug on a train with us into NYC and I didn’t want to keep it in our hot car for several days.
No matter where I travel too, I am always grateful to come home to my CSA farm share. You just can’t beat your own home cooking with local food!!
CSA Breakdown:
For those of you also using Crossroads Community Farm, here is a breakdown of how I will use each piece of produce this week. See the first CSA post from this season for details of how I structure the plans.
1 Tomatoes (1.0 increment): cucumber tomato salad, caprese salad, all that are left will be used in the ratatouille
1 Broccoli (1.0 head): Beef and broccoli
2 Pepper, Anaheim (green, hot) (1.0 count): They are big! 1 for corn pudding, 1 diced and frozen for winter use in chili
1 Muskmelon, Sugar Cube (1.0 count): cut into chunks for fruit salad
2 Zucchini, Green and/or Gold (1.0 count): ratatouille
1 Basil (1.0 bunch): caprese salad, ratatouille
1 Onion (Sweet White OR Yellow) (1.0 Unit): use a few thin slices for the cucumber tomato salad, a bit for the corn pudding, and put the rest in the ratatouille
1 Pepper, Red Bell (1.0 count): ratatouille (in place of eggplant)
1 Tomato, Sungold OR Red Cherry (1.0 pint): BLT chopped salad
2 Cucumber (1.0 count): I have extra cucumber so I’m making 3 salads with it this week. If you only have the 2, choose from BLT chopped salad, easy cucumber and tomato salad, and lemony couscous
1 Lettuce, Green Leaf (1.0 head): BLT chopped salad
6 A1 Corn, Sweet (1.0 count): 2 for BLT chopped salad, 3 for corn pudding, 1 for corn muffins
