"Farm to Philly" news and stories

Home canning is experiencing a resurgence like never before. The rising cost of food, coupled with a growing desire to eat more locally/sustainably (as well as fears over the BPA lining in many commercially canned foods) has driving lots of folks towards bushels of tomatoes, pressure canners and Ball jars by the gross.

However, canning can be a tricky thing if you didn't grow up processing pounds of peaches at your grandmother's elbow. Happily, for those of you who want to learn how to can enough dilly beans to get your family through the winter, you're in luck. The National Center for Home Food Preservation has a free, self-study course in home canning that will give you the full scoop on general canning, as well as more nuanced skills that will allow you to can everything from homemade soup to your sugar-free applesauce that your kids love.

[via Farm to Philly]

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If you saw my post on Tuesday about One Local Summer, but were disappointed that you didn't live in the Mid-Atlantic region (the only area of the country that Farm to Philly had committed to handling), I have good news for you! Nicole at Farm to Philly has decided to open up One Local Summer to everyone (national and international). That's right, regardless of whether you live in Pennsylvania, Montana or Ontario, you can sign up to cook one locally sourced meal a week this summer and write about it.

The project starts on Sunday, June 1st and runs through August 31st. You can find all the details and sign up information here.

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Some of you may have participated in the One Local Summer program in past years. It's a project in which you sign up to cook at least one meal a week that uses only local foods (typically defined as those foods grown/raised/produced within 100 miles of your home) and then blog about it. In the past it was organized by Liz at Pocket Farm, but she's since gotten out of the blogging business.

However, Nicole at Farm to Philly has picked up the One Local Summer mantle, at least for the Mid-Atlantic states (Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia), and is going to be signing people up and writing the weekly round-up of participating blogs. The challenge starts June 1st and runs until August 31st, so sign up and start planning your meals.

At this time, I don't know if anyone else is going to be running the One Local Summer for the rest of the country. If you know, please leave a comment so that we can get the word out.

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I haven't made deviled eggs since I was 9 years old. My best friend Marla and I were helping her grandma make dinner and were given the task of making deviled eggs. We didn't really know what we were doing and went through three eggs just trying to figure out whether they were finished cooking or not. When they finally were done, we felt such a sense of accomplishment. As an added bonus, they were also quite tasty (oddly, that was also the first time I ever used paprika. I was very impressed by the color).

These days deviled eggs seem a little bit kitschy, but every time someone brings them to a party, they are invariably one of the first things to go. Over on Farm to Philly, Nicole has posted a recipe for deviled eggs that uses a cooked, mashed potato to enrich the yolk filling (because it does seem like there's never quite enough yolk mixture to fill all the egg halves). Her deviled eggs also have the added benefit of being made with local, free range eggs. However, you don't have to use such lofty eggs in order to make this yummy-sounding recipe.

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If yesterday's post on canning piqued your interest in food preservation, then you might want to check out this post over at Farm to Philly. Nicole took some of the Daikon radish that came in her CSA box, mixed it with ginger, garlic, Korean ground chile paste, salt, sugar and Swiss Chard and turned it into Kimchi. She skips out on the step in which you bury the jars underground for the Winter and instead just tucks them into a cool, dark place until the fermentation process is complete.

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