Farm-to-Table Challenge: Winter Seasonality

This year, I’m taking on a farm-to-table, #localmonthly challenge where I eat local, home-cooked meals for one day every month. All ingredients from these meals are from Texas.

I knocked out January’s challenge on the first weekend of the month. My brain sparked with ideas for the year as I walked through the farmers market. I also learned about winter seasonality and new local companies. Keep reading for more! (Here’s the challenge intro post if you missed it.)

Winter Seasonality

A big focus of eating farm-to-table is seasonality. As the seasons change, only certain ingredients will grow in the climate. Eating seasonally ensures you are eating food grown locally and not food that has traveled a long way. It’s also an encouragement to eat different types of vegetables.

Here are some vegetables in season in Texas from the winter months of December to February:

Beets
Turnips
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Spinach
Asparagus
Napa Cabbage
Bok Choy
Sweet Potatoes
Radishes
Leeks
Fennel
Cilantro
Parsley

Is eating out of season bad? For the produce that can’t be grown locally, it is flown in from the places where they can be grown. For example, if you see strawberries in Texas grocery stores in winter, they’re not from Texas. This is not particularly bad but remember it takes fuel for that produce to get from the farm it was grown on to your grocery store. So, there’s a question of the environmental impact of transport.

Purple Daikon, White Turnip, Red Radish, Orange Carrot – straight from Johnson’s Backyard Garden in Austin, TX

January’s Farm-to-Table Meals

I went to the Texas Farmers Market early on a Saturday to shop for the day of eating. I had a slight idea of what I wanted to eat but I knew it depended on what was available. I ended up buying a bunch of items and hoping I could make some meals out of them. Here’s what I ended up buying:

Two Chicken Leg Quarters (one lb) from Humble Rooster Farm of Bertram, TX ($7.16)
One Dozen Eggs from Ringger Family Farm of Smithville, TX ($6.00)
Mushrooms (one lb of baby bellas and two big portobellos) from Kitchen Pride Mushrooms of Gonzales, TX ($9.50)
Vegetables (broccoli, root vegetable bag, bunch of kale) from Johnson’s Backyard Garden of Austin, TX ($11.50)
250ml olive oil from Texas Hill Country Olive Co. of Dripping Springs, TX ($16.00)

And here are the resulting meals:

Breakfast: Mushroom and Kale Egg Scramble

Lunch: Kale Salad, Boiled Eggs, Grilled Portobello

Dinner: Grilled Chicken Leg Quarters, Root Vegetable Soup, Steamed Broccoli

Johnson’s Backyard Garden was selling root vegetable soup bags, and I thought it would be easy to make. I cooked with purple daikon, white turnip, and red radish, some vegetables I’ve never made before. The soup turned out delicious.

We did have two cheats – the marinade for the chicken legs and I picked up a bottle of Texas Keeper Cider. The cidery is in Manchaca, Texas but the apples are from New York. It is delicious!

Conclusion

This challenge is off to a good start, and I enjoyed the meals in the day. I spent $50.16 and had plenty of leftover ingredients from my farmers market haul to use in other meals throughout the week. The cost was more than what I would usually spend at the grocery store, but the flavor was worth it and the bottle of olive oil will last me for a while. Next month, I’m looking forward to cooking with more new ingredients!

Are you trying local eats? Tell me all about it below!

P.S. See all the posts from this challenge here.

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