Sprouts and Roots

I've been working on some recipes to share here, but in the past week I haven't come up with any that I am totally happy with.  As I made dinner the other night, I thought about the ingredients I was using.  Some of the vegetables were from California or another all-to-distant growing climate.  I was heartened to realize, though, that an equal number of ingredients were grown locally and stored in my pantry or freezer until I used them for dinner.  I am disappointed that I have yet to make a full commitment to eating locally, but I delight in the local ingredients that I use.  So, I played a bit with photographing the ingredients and taking inventory of what went into the meal.

Scallions grown in California; onions from Maine (which makes me wonder, why do I need the scallions if I have locally grown onions? This time of year, fresh green veggies can be too tempting!)

 A pot of enchilada sauce made with tomatoes I picked up from the farmer's market and canned in my kitchen with vegetables from the supermarket.  A bowl of zucchini from a green baseball bat rescued from the garden, shredded and frozen (great for using in bread, cake, lasagna, stuffing my enchiladas).

We are lucky to have Maine grown grains, beans, eggs, milk, cheese and other locally made foods that can be found even when nothing is growing outside.  The weather here has felt on the cusp of spring, but I know it has been a deceptively mild winter.  I'm sure we still have weeks until anything green begins to sprout from the ground.  Still, its the beginning of that time for thinking about when the frozen ground will thaw and the time for planting and harvesting will begin again.

I have received a number of seed catalogs in the mail but this year I am putting them aside.  Its not that I don't want to plant another garden, but instead of starting seeds for planting this spring, we are preparing to pull up our roots.  Not pull up entirely, I think our roots will always be here.  We're just testing other soils for a while though I plan to come back to Maine to plant many more gardens.  We are collecting boxes and will be moving out of our apartment in a little less than a month.  This makes for a crazy time as we pack up and prepare for several weeks of travel.  After traveling we will return to Maine for a couple of months before we move to the Mid-West, where Ray has taken a job.

What are your favorite local foods this time of year?