Clavey's Take on the Local Food Experience

By Hannah Curcio, Owen, and Clavey SegerstromOur local food experience starts this week. From a kid’s perspective, although I am not excited about giving up bananas, here are some things that I am looking forward to:

• It is going to be fun apple pressing in the fall, and drying apples and tomatoes.
• I am looking forward to trying out hunting with my dad.
• Monthly gatherings with friends will be awesome. It will be fun sharing tips and advice.
• It will be amazing to live off the land like Surprise Valley Native Americans and settlers did before us.
• When we travel during the local food year, we will try food that is local to that area.

My favorite part preparing so far was planting potatoes, as well as corn, beans and squash, the “three sisters” as many Native American tribes including the Apaches called them. We hope this will yield quite a bit of food in the cellar for the winter. I think the local food year is going to be the coolest thing ever. By Clavey Segerstrom, Age 8Resources we have, and things we will enjoy trying this month:

• making butter from our Jersey cow milk with our new butter churn
• tasting beef jerky and summer sausage from our first butchered steer
• trying our hand at hard cheese making with cow/goat milk
• rendering lard from our pork fat

 Our family’s rules:

• We will source our food within 100 miles of our home.
• Allowable exceptions are salt, vinegar, baking soda, and olive oil, each of which facilitates the preparation of local dishes.
• As mentioned above, the kids are giving up bananas; the parents are giving up coffee!