regional food exchange idea

[LEFSElover]

I don't know if this has been suggested ever or not. Probably not. But, I just read where someone had for breakfast, toast with home made blackberry jam on it. I can't grow blackberries or any berry of any kind.
And am envious of anyone who can. I'd love to receive a lug of blueberrys in the mail. Anyone ever consider sending off (what is local to them) in the mail, to someone across the country and vice versa? Just curious.
I know there are things here in the desert that others around the country couldn't possibly get. Ostrich, buffalo, things like that.
Well, the more I write the dumber it sounds.
Rubarb isn't something that is easily found around here, not even in the markets, and berry's are so expensive because they're not from here so you get gouged when buying them. Huckleberry's, forget about it! I wish I had a mountain to hang from and get some of those treasures.
I met a lady on the old eGG site/board, that kept talking about her day lillies. Would you believe, she sent me some of hers and they're growing in my yard. I sent her some orange and myer lemon preserves I'd made from my mothers fruit. Fair exchange I'd say. We were both thrilled. I've still not met her but we email quite a bit and catch each other up.
Just a way of being neighborly from afar.

 

[buckytom]

great idea, lefselover. i wonder about shipping foods across state lines, tho. you know, the whole pest and disease control problem. i grow so many tomatoes and beets every year my wife keeps tellin me to open a stand in our front yard. i'd love to trade some... oh, and raspberries too. i forgot raspberries.

 

[Juliev]

Yeah, I met a lady online.. geeez, when I first started coming online.. that was over 6 years ago..she sent me some of her preserves.. I have never met her, but her jam was great!.. we still keep in touch via mail.

 

[jkath]

I think that sounds like a possibility!

 

[Bangbang]

This is one of my favorite Michigan Foods other than Blueberry Pancakes,Apple,and Cherry Pie. Pasties Rule :!:

http://accad.osu.edu/~dkrug/367/online/ethnicarts4/r_resources/reading/Lockwood.asp

 

[LEFSElover]

I stumbled across a jam years ago here in my area. It sounded like something I wanted to try so I bought 2 jars. I used it mostly to rub on meats before cooking them, grilling or baking. It's also a great ingredient for many sauces and I've done that too. I have sent probably 20 jars acorss the country to various people that have asked for it. I even took two jars to meet the Red Hot Tamales when they did a show a couple of months ago in NYC. Don't know what they thought of it but I couldn't resist giving something that had aided me so many times.

And if you have 'still' too many of those New Jersey tomatoes, well, how good is your throwing arm? I'd love about 100 of those beauties.
They are even grown, and no, I'm not kidding about this, on top of AC units at the airport in Newark, in big terra cotta pots that you can see from the planes. I don't think I've ever had one, as far as I know, but I hear they are simply the best tomatoes anywhere.

I'm just getting ready to make the worlds largest batch of pesto as my basil plants are coming to an end. I thought I'd make it, freeze it in sections of ice cube trays, put in freezer bags. I'll have it whenever I am in the mood for pesto. Sounds like a plan.

 

[norgeskog]

Rubarb isn't something that is easily found around here, not even in the markets, and berry's are so expensive because they're not from here so you get gouged when buying them. Huckleberry's, forget about it! I wish I had a mountain to hang from and get some of those treasures.
I met a lady on the old eGG site/board, that kept talking about her day lillies. Would you believe, she sent me some of hers and they're growing in my yard. I sent her some orange and myer lemon preserves I'd made from my mothers fruit. Fair exchange I'd say. We were both thrilled. I've still not met her but we email quite a bit and catch each other up.
Just a way of being neighborly from afar.

Best blueberries I ever had I picked in the hills overlooking Oslo, best batch of wild mushrooms as well. DO you make lefse??? I do and also love it, guess you are a Norwegian as well, lefselover???

 

[LEFSElover]

norgeskog.........
you betcha. norwegian girl here.
and yes, I love lefse, and make it too.
wish my grandmother was still around so I could better hone my skills.
my whole family has resided in Minnesota for all their lives. I was born and raised outside of Los Angeles.
Does your lefse contain potatoes or are you a flour lefse maker?

 

[buckytom]

i think i have met maybe 2 people of norwegian descent in my entire life, now i have doubled that. norskies rule!!!!!!!!

 

[Lifter]

Okay you "blood" Norge types, what do you serve up the Leftze with? (Note my "step-relatives" came from around Narvik area, and while the Leftze was pretty neat today, yesterday or tomorrow, the "lutefisk" was near poisonous...)

There was another sort of deep fried breaded twist that was flour based, used to be served up with jam, if I recall correctly (its been a LOT of years!), but I forget its name and, of course, I'm not strong on the spelling...

For "LEFSE lover" I believe my "relatives" made it with potato, which was why it tasted so good, yet added a challenge to the cook...if you made it from flour, we'd have had it a lot more often...



Move your Basil plants indoors and re-pot them in at least 1.5 x the size of outdoor pot, and you will enjoy th herb (cheaply, too!) throughout the winter...

For the best blueberries, try Northwest Ontario when its a "good" year, with neither to much rain or too dry, the berries are all of 5 mm diameter when fully ripe, intensely swett, and the skin of course is the source of the flavour...put that in your morning pancakes! let alone pies! The southrn variant grows like a grape and is almost as big, and is a huge disappointment to those of us so blessed...

If any of you get up here to SW Ontario, ask for "bumbleberry pie", a mix of rhubarb, peach, blackberry, apple, etc (?) that is the most tyasty mix you could ever eat...

Aside from this, could "LEFTSElover" kindly post her recipes? A lot of us would like to pick uo those skills, let alone run them by surviving aunts for tweaks and polishes...

Lifter

 

[LEFSElover]

lifter.....
you got me there. my grandma never used a recipe. I used to watch her make a batch of boiled potatoes, then mash them with cream, butter, flour and a smidge of salt. it was all in the 'feel of the dough' she was looking for. me too. after I have the basic ingreds in there, and I put them in slowly as to make sure they're not too wet with the cream or not to dry due to the flour. I grab a chunk the size of a golf ball, pat on floured surface, and then with a lefse rolling pin, roll a round thin circle out about the size of a salad plate. tap off excess flour and place on a hot nongreased griddle. flip after about 40 seconds when you start to see the bubbling affect on the lefse. take off when other side is done too, about 30 more seconds. try to keep them covered and warm with a damp flour sack to prevent them from getting hard and setting up with dryness around the edges. also, if dough is overworked, they'll be tough. my grandma's were ever so tender and mine aren't bad. my mom and her mother always put butter and white sugar in theirs and then rolled them up and ate. I only like real butter, no sweet in there.

as for the blueberries, or other berries, send me extra ones you see on the ground please and that yummy pie you told me about, oh my, sounds like heaven on earth.

 

[norgeskog]

norgeskog.........
you betcha. norwegian girl here.
and yes, I love lefse, and make it too.
wish my grandmother was still around so I could better hone my skills.
my whole family has resided in Minnesota for all their lives. I was born and raised outside of Los Angeles.
Does your lefse contain potatoes or are you a flour lefse maker?

LEFSElover, potatoes of course. Where outside LA? I lived in Newport Beach and Long Beach, and Westwood before moving to Eugene. I was born in Hennepin Co, MInneapolis as was my mother. My father was born in Rødenæs, Østfold, my maternal grandmother in Hadeland, Oppland; and my maternal grandfather in Ullensaker, Akershus. Where are yours from??? maybe we should PM any more info. Now there are three of us here and as buckytom said, Norskies rule and what I always say, you do not want to anger a descendent of a Viking, you know how utterly nasty they can get.