Welcome

Welcome to the Happy Valley Locavore!

At our house, locally grown and produced foods have been making up more and more of what we eat, and I have been having fun dreaming up recipes to use what's local and in season. My plan with this blog is to share those recipes and ideas.

Of course, it's August now, which makes it easy--the garden is overflowing with heirloom tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, greens, and herbs, and the farmers market has all that and more. But I am also looking forward to the challenge of trying to eat locally during the winter, too. We'll be storing winter squash and freezing whatever we can out of the garden and from the farmers market. We'll stretch the season on the greens in our garden by using cold frames. Our local coop (Green Fields Market) and independent grocery store (Fosters) are good about stocking local food, so we'll also buy storage crops during the winter--apples, potatoes, onions, etc. I'm not planning on going totally purist on this, but on doing my best to focus on food from this area, especially produce, meat, eggs, and dairy.

Feel free to share these recipes with whomever you like, but please do credit me for them--they will all be originals.